Back in my early days here in the Cities when I went home for the summer, that which transpired here during the summer was about as important as the daily events in Bumfuck, Egypt. The summer of 2001 was my first here in Minnesota, so naturally I needed entertainment, and the Minnesota Twins came to fill that void. Although our original intention was never to actually become Twins fans, that all changed, and now they worked their way up to number 4 on my list.

Before the 2001 season, if I'm not mistaken, the Twins had experienced 8 straight losing seasons. Of course, a combination of this and the fallout of the '94 strike had dropped attendance at the Metrodome to dismal lows. We wanted to go to Twins games to join the 8,000 people in attendance, get drunk, and heckle the players. What we found became quite a pleasant surprise: not only did they not suck, but people were actuallt coming to the games. Hmmm... maybe it'd actually be worth coming to the games for the... uhhh... baseball?

Last summer I went to 1 game per month and listened to the occassional game on the radio. The team did well in the first half, fell apart in the second half, and had to fight off contraction in the offseason. By the 2002 season we were all ready for our Twins to have a great season... and they haven't disappointed. In addition to all the games I've been to this year, I've watched most of the others on tv or listened to them on the radio. I read their news and collect their mini-bobbleheads. Without steady full-time employment, the Twins have been my babysitter this summer.

I never really was a big baseball fan until these Twins came along. I really don't care much for teams who require homeruns to win games (which, unfortunately, is the case with nearly every AL team except Minnesota, Anaheim, and Oakland). I love good pitching and great defense. I find base stealing, the hit-and-run, and doubles in the gap exciting. I find solo homeruns, except in the right situation, extremely boring. Don't get me wrong - a well-timed homerun (such as a lead-off or walk-off homerun) can be very exciting, but winning a game 7-1 by hitting 5 solo homers and a 2-run shot is about as boring as it gets. Blah. Good thing the Twins aren't that way. Good thing I've had them to keep me occupied.