The year has come and gone, and like every year it went by very fast. For me anyway it went by really fast because I got to bring in a new person to the world. I wanted to share the best and the worst of the year mostly in a sports perspective.

I just got SI the magazine today in the mail and they had the moments of the year in sports. A lot of the year in sports had something to do with the Olympics. I don't understand why I have never really gotten into the Olympics, but I see why it is such a phenomenon. The Olympics can relate to the entire world. People can also relate to having a favorite story, or you can root for your favorite country. The sports are easy to understand, they are fast moving, they hold your attention level. I honestly probably watched 20 minutes of the Olympics this year. The one Olympic sports I enjoy watching is Hockey, but hey I am from Minnesota and hockey is something that is really enjoyable, and I was born in 1980, and every since I have been accustomed to hearing about the miracle on ice. Hell, I went to Babbitt-Embarrass High School and Buzz Schneider was from there, so I heard about it my entire life. Anyway, the Olympics didn't make my list. Here are the things that did.

1. AP coming back from injury and having a chance to break Dickersons record is a pretty amazing feat, let alone anybody trying to beat that record in a pass happy league. He is very exciting to watch every single time he touches the ball. The only person I can compare that too is Barry Sanders.

2. Minnesota Twins opening day, yeah that is pretty lame, but it will be on my list every year I am sure. I get excited to watch baseball. I, as well as the rest of us got frustrated after the first series.

3. Adam Greenburg gets an at bat after being away from the major leagues since 2005 after getting hit in his first AB ever. I still find this story touching, thinking about how exciting it would be to finally get your chance. You get your chance and you don't even get an official at bat, let alone wreck your MLB career. I was happy for him to get at least a chance, I found that as a very good story.

4. Minnesota Wild signing Parise and Suter. I remember checking twitter constantly on July 3rd and 4th, and finally not only did one sign, but both signed, too bad they haven't played a lick of hockey in MN yet.

5. MLB playoffs, I love the addition of the other wild card team, I may not love the 1 game playoff, but it is what it is. The last 2 years have been very exciting watching the teams go down, or win enough games against important opponents to get in. I couldnt help but root for the A's and Orioles.

I want to get my last opinions in about the Twins offseason so far. After writing about what I would want Terry Ryan's priorities to be, I can now look at what happened, as nothing that I wanted has happened. Doesn't mean they were good or bad, but here is what I think.

We didn't get a high profile guy this off season, but nobody really thought we would. In my opinion we have stregthened the ability to get our starting pitching more innings. #1 priority this off season would be keeping our starters in the game longer. We now have Diamond, Pelfrey, Gibson, Worley, Harden, Correia, Hendriks, May, Blackburn. OK, so Harden, Hendriks, May, and Blackburn aren't the ideal choices, but we have opportunity that could lend itself our way on the cheap. Looking at the last 2 seasons, we don't have to worry about the Liriano rollercoaster, Baker on the DL, Pavano on the DL, and painstakingly watching the combo of Duensing, DeVries, Walters, Blackburn go out there and not give ourselves a chance to win.

The Twins didn't spend any money this year and we only lost a CFer. We have a 5 tool guy coming up and should be fun to watch. Did we really think we could go from worst to first in a year? Do you think at this point we can be competitive? The answers are no and yes. Why do I consistantly have optimism for the Minnesota Twins? I think it is because I have faith in Terry Ryan. Look we have pieces to a puzzle that could set us up to compete in the near future. Here is the deal for 2013. The Twins opening payroll is going to be about $85 million. Everybody wanted the Twins to spend money this year, but on what? Did we really need to spend money on way overpriced free agents? No, We have a big chunk of money going to my favorite Twins Justin Morneau this year, who will probably get traded in July, which we will get younger and have more money for 2014. Would it make more sense to spend that money then, of course it would. I don't want to box myself up and say I didn't want to contend in 2013, but I wanted to unload Mauer to the Red Sox and then spend. We didn't do that, so now I could be looking at the big picture to 2014, and 2015 and it could look really promising if the right things fall into place. There is not one thing that I am disappointed with this off season except not unloading Mauer. This season is coming up quickly, and I hope we play meaningful games at least til mid July. I don't have much optimism of us making the playoffs, but I do think the Twins are heading in the right direction. I don't think Terry Ryan is done this off season, I think we can still improve. All I can say is THIS IS MY TOAST TO THE NEW YEAR, I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT 2013 AND GO TWINS!!!!!