I think all Twins fans can be pretty happy with how the season has started so far! Yay for baseball!
But after a couple questions and for the sake of all the newbies who haven’t spent a season with the crew here at Knuckleballs, I thought a little review of what you can expect to find on any given day might be helpful!
FIRST:
We have four “blog operators” here at Knuckleballs: CapitalBabs, JimCrikket, KL and Erolfpleiss. The bulk of the material you will find here (photos included) is likely the creation of one of those four people. We occasionally have a guest poster – we like those so if you feel you have something you would like to contribute to our little community, let us know.
We started this blog to provide a place for Twins fans to gather, get to know each other and hang out – much like you would at your local bar. What makes that possible is for EVERY regular season game, we will put up a GameChat.
GameChats start with pregame notes and lineups being posted between an hour to a half hour before the game. We try to be VERY helpful about pointing our participants to additional resources so the players names in the lineups are linked to their individual stat profiles from MLB. That way you can check out the stats of any players you aren’t familiar with.
Also included is a chat window which is completely free and open for fans to participate in live, ongoing conversations during the game! Just as you’d likely expect, the conversation will likely center around the game… unless it’s not especially conversationally worthy and conversation will go wherever – just like at your favorite bar. And also like your bar, folk watching the game have some entertaining superstitions – sometimes we create our own. However, when our boys pull off a win, EVERYONE in the room gets a chance to vote for who they believe got the team that sometimes elusive W. We call that lucky designee our Boyfriend of the Day – BOD. This is a very special title – we will frequently award other worthy players during the game with various prizes assigned by the chatroom for good performances but BOD is pretty much our highest honor.
Once the game is completed, one of the blog operators will remove the chat window and put up the box score linked to the MLB stat log for that game as well as any closing comments or descriptions of the game that seem important. This provides you, as a fan, an opportunity to catch up with any games you may have missed in whole or in part. Especially if you aren’t local to other Twins fans, this is a great way to find some community to enjoy while following your favorite team. (basically, any time you see red text, it’s a link to something – check it out.)
SECOND:
We have a lot of other information that gets posted here in addition to Twins team info. We like to keep an eye on the minor league affiliates as well as the independent team in MN and whatever else strikes the fancy of a group of baseball/sports fans. So keep your eyes open – you never know WHAT we might post that day.
THIRD:
Several of us are photobugs so we like to post a LOT of pictures of various outings – unless otherwise noted, all photographs posted here are the property of Knuckleballs bloggers so please share only with permission.
FOURTH:
We have a LOT of information and resources available to baseball fans on our home page in addition to what is posted. Please see the right-hand column for links to Twins news, other fantastic Twins blogs you might want to read, and links to official MLB and MiLB up-to-date game stat and player information. I highly recommend these links to anyone looking for information on ANY team or play, minor or major.
There is also several different search methods if you are looking for something posted previously at Knuckleballs. You can search by keyword or name, by category, by the tag cloud or even by the calendar. If you are having any issues finding something you saw before, just let us know.
FIFTH:
You can follow Knuckleballs on Twitter (@Knuckleballs) or on Facebook through Networked Blogs. AND if you happen to be in the Twin Cities area, even temporarily, you will find that we frequently post invitations to gather at a REAL bar for a Viewing Party of some game or another at which you can meet and otherwise hobnob with other Twins fans bloggers!
SIXTH:
GameChats are NOT the only special feature posts here either. Erolfpleiss posts a podcast called “Talk to Contact” a couple times a week. They really aren’t to be missed. Most Sunday mornings, you will find a Comic Relief post – usually baseball oriented but not always – just for general entertainment in cartoon or video form. JimCrikket’s “evil twin”, SD Buhr, is also the newest beat writer for MetroSportsReport.com, covering the Cedar Rapids Kernels – the Twins newest minor league affiliate so he regularly will post special Kernels posts following the exploits of our minor leaguers.
LAST:
We have an FAQ available if you have questions that includes more information that I put here (believe it or not), and if you don’t find the answers you want or have a special inquiry, we have Contact info available. Let us know if there is anything you want to see!