Looking over my tweets and blogs from the first week of the season there's a surprisingly snarky streak to them all. I'd always thought of our little outpost in the Twins blogosphere as a happy place, and yet it seems like the stinktastic 2011 has colored our perspective on the team's early struggles.

For example, on Thursday I turned on the game over lunch, in time to see that the Angels had already run up a 5 run lead. A student came into my room to hear the score and then joined me in a 5 minute commiseration of an already woebegone season. Two hours later, as I took the track team for a work out the Twins had fought back to tie the game. An hour after that, students and teachers and others walking down the street were bouncing along elated at a win, and a win that featured homeruns by Mauer and Morneau no less.

I felt terribly guilty and vowed to be more optimistic for the series against the Rangers (after all, we have some sort of mojo that has bedeviled Texas (and very few others) for two years now) and yet, the more I watched the snarkier I became.

For instance, while I was quite pleased with the Twins' signing of Ryan Doumit over the offseason (he was switching from my 2nd favorite team--Pittsburgh--to my first after all), I was significantly less impressed as he took a flyball off the gut in the field, and grounded into double plays with a consistency not seen since Delmon Young.

I bemoaned another injury to a pitcher, pointed out the awkwardness of Chris Parmelee's "bat-drying" technique, I even picked on hapless middle relievers Jared Burton and Matt Maloney for their doofy hipster beards. Honestly, how could a game that's supposed to be fun turn me into such a crank.

So I'll try to be enjoying the game more freely today as I go to Target Field for the first time. I will not mutter about errant throws, or insinuate that I know more about who to sign than Terry Ryan (the guy has been in baseball longer than I have been alive after all). I won't huff and puff over strike threes or boo one of our own (I doubt that any player hears it and suddenly goes: "OH! They DON'T want me to play like I have been!! Boy do I feel silly!")

I do however reserve the right to tell the Twins to avoid bases loaded situations. In the immortal words of Rebel Leader Admiral Phinneas Q. Ackbar:

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[TD=class: tr-caption]Bases loaded and no outs? Looks like they've got us right where they want us[/TD]

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Snarky is a nice word to use for the comments that I read this morning at the Strib.com site. I actually didn't comment on any of the articles. I really don't know what to say and don't want to be overly negative. I was at the game on Thurs. afternoon with my son. It was such a beautiful day, we had great seats, and Liriano just bombed...we were down, but then Joe hit the three run homer and things just started rolling. It ended up being a very enjoyable game and we certainly had a good time. I get sick of these armchair GM wannabes who KNOW EVERYTHING and want Gardy and his staff fired and assert that Terry Ryan knows nothing about baseball. It just rubs me wrong. Yeah, we get frustrated (okay, we get REALLY TICKED) with our guys when they leave all those men on base, but it's not like they are doing it on purpose. They are doing the best they can in that moment. Sure, we'd like the Twins to win every game, make the playoffs every year, never lose to the Yankees, and win the World Series every five years or so, BUT that is not realistic. I love the Twins and this year I just want them to do better than they did last year. A .500 season would be a victory for me.