IdahoPilgrim

Note: This is the last in a series of blog entries detailing my game experiences on a road trip to see all the Twins minor league affiliates in their home parks. For those interested, links to previous entries are listed at the end in chronological order. After a quiet day visiting one of the local state parks and catching a matinee I head out to Frontier Field again. This time it is a beautiful night for baseball and while I am sad that this is the last game of the trip I can’t think of a better way to go out. The parking lot is actually fairly full tonight, and walking up to the ticket windows I see six are in operation, with a line at each (yesterday there was one, with no waiting). Looking around the stadium during the game, it is a nice contrast with yesterday, and when they announce the attendance of 6,700 it seems about right. I get my promised “double pig” macaroni & cheese (with bacon and ham mixed in) and head to my seat. Today I’m back behind home plate (slightly to the third base side), three rows up. From here I can see the rest of the Rochester skyline that eluded me yesterday. This is obviously season-ticket territory; most of the patrons sitting around me are on a first-name basis with their neighbors. I am next to a family with two small kids, and I make a mental bet with myself that they won’t last through five innings. I am proven right when, in the middle of the fourth, the mother takes the two kids to a grass berm area to play while the father stays behind to watch the game. As I get settled, the club president is presenting awards on the field for the largest groups of the year. After he is done and a couple of ceremonial pitches are thrown a local boy scout troop presents the colors and a trumpet duet does a nicely arranged version of the national anthem. It is probably the best anthem I’ve heard on this trip. The starting lineups are announced, and leading off the order for Rochester will be two players just optioned from the parent club, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Brian Dozier, playing second and short respectively. You can tell that Dozier has just gotten in, as they haven’t even had time to put his name on his uniform yet – he is wearing an unadorned #11. The preliminaries are finally done and it is time for the final game on this trip to start. Rochester gets on the board first in the bottom half of the opening frame, with Nishioka hitting a solid single to right center and Parmelee walking. Then, with two out, Clete Thomas hits a double down the left field line into the corner and the Red Wings stake themselves to a 2-0 lead. After that, the game settles into a groove, with each side getting the occasional baserunner but not being able to seal the deal. It almost feels like two fighters probing, gradually feeling each other out looking for a weakness. On the Rochester side there is none, as Esmerling Vazquez pitches a beautiful seven innings and never lets Indianapolis string anything together. They manage four hits and two walks, but that is more than outweighed by Vazquez’s ten strikeouts (the last of which, to end the seventh, sends the crowd into a frenzy as it is the game’s “K-Man,” meaning everybody gets a free taco at Taco Bell). Even though the game is tight, I never get the sense that the crowd is worried. The game notes in my program say that the Red Wings have the best record in the league since July 1st (26-16), and I get the impression that they are confident that a two-run lead can hold. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to, as Rochester breaks the game open in the bottom of the seventh. With a new Indianapolis pitcher, Wilkin Ramirez takes first after being hit by a pitch. Then Escobar, of Liriano trade fame, hits a beautiful sacrifice bunt down the third base line; the fielder has to hustle to make the play and ends up bouncing the ball to first and everybody is safe on the error. The stage is set for Evan Bigley, who wallops one over the left field fence, scoring three more and giving everybody the sense that the game is effectively over. The Red Wings add one more in the eighth as Ramirez doubles home Thomas. Deolis Guerra takes over from Vazquez to start the eighth and he promptly strikes out the side on nine pitches. In the ninth he starts to get hit hard, including giving up two on a long homer, but he has just enough to cross the finish line, and Rochester wins 6-2. It is the perfect end to a perfect night of baseball. And so the road trip ends on a satisfying note, with a final record of 7-2-1. Tomorrow I head my car west for Minneapolis and home. *** AWARDS Best Stadium Setting: Elizabethton, TN, for the scenic beauty (Honorable Mention for Rochester, NY, for its urban setting and skyline) Best Game Day Experience: New Britain Rock Cats Most Exciting Home Runs: All of them, but special mentions to Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia, & Evan Bigley. Best Performance by a Starting Pitcher: Esmerling Vazquez, Rochester Red Wings (Runner-up: Trevor May, Reading Phillies) Best Hot Dog: Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers, FL Links to previous entries http://www.twinsdail...-Day-One-Beloit http://www.twinsdail...-Day-Two-Beloit http://www.twinsdail...e)-Elizabethton http://www.twinsdail...r)-Elizabethton http://www.twinsdail...age-–-GCL-Twins http://www.twinsdail...ve-(Fort-Myers) http://www.twinsdail...ix-(Fort-Myers) http://www.twinsdail...ven-–-Interlude http://www.twinsdail...in-(Game-Seven) http://www.twinsdail...in-(Game-Eight) http://www.twinsdail...ter-(Game-Nine) Download attachment: Baseball Road Trip.jpg Click here to view the article

Download attachment: baseballislife.jpg Back when I was growing up I had a poster that proudly proclaimed “All I really need to know in life I learned from watching Star Trek.” Teachings such as “Remember the Prime Directive” and “Set phasers on stun” resonated with me then and still do today. As I start getting myself psyched up for the coming baseball season, though, I have found myself thinking that in many ways baseball, in addition to entertaining, can also teach us about life. Hence my thoughts on what I can learn about life from baseball. 1) Individualism vs teamwork – Yes, following individual statistics is fascinating, but at the end of the day how well an individual pitcher or hitter does is less important than whether the team wins. It is a reminder that success is defined more by what we can do together than by what we can do separately. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] It is also a reminder that sometimes the “glory” positions aren’t the ones that make the final difference. Home runs and strikeouts are fun to watch, but sometimes it’s the outfielder throwing to the proper base that decides the game. Everyone has a contribution to make, and everyone’s contribution matters. 2) Errors happen – Even the best fielder is going to make a few mistakes over the course of a season. Nobody is perfect. And, yes, sometimes those errors will cost runs or even the game. The question is, will the players let those errors get to them and affect their performance, or are they able to shake them off? That’s what the best players do – they refuse to allow them to fester inside their heads. We are going to make mistakes in life. That’s human nature. We can choose to fixate on our mistakes, or we can learn from them and “play better” in the future. 3) Umpires too make mistakes – All of us remember the playoff game a few years ago when the outfield umpire completely blew it, calling a ball hit to left foul when it was easily fair. Almost invariably in a game one manager (or both) will rush to the field to protest a call. Just as a matter of practicality, though, how often does the umpire actually change the call? At the end of the day, you have to continue playing the rest of the game – you can’t just take your ball and go home. There will be times when life isn’t fair. That’s just the way it is. The best thing we can do is not let ourselves fixate on that unfairness and allow it to keep us from continue trying and working for what is right. Life isn’t fair – get over it. 4) You have to play all nine innings – Unlike other sports, there is no clock in baseball (part of why I like it). At the end of the day, you have to get 27 outs from the other side if you want to win. 26 won’t cut it. In the same way, until you give up that 27th out, you still have a chance (think St. Louis in 2011 world series). Sometimes we do get to those places in life where it seems like things are hopeless. That’s the time for us to remember that there is still more “game” to go, and as long as we’re alive we have a chance to do it better, to make a difference, to turn things around. 5) It’s just a game – I am as passionate (or more so) than most about baseball, yet I always remember that, at the end of the day, this isn’t life. It’s entertainment. The point is to HAVE FUN! In the same way, life, while it is more than just a game, is meant to be enjoyed. Will there be times of pain and sorrow, times of frustration and anger? Absolutely. But I hope I never lose sight of the fact that life is ultimately a gift and a blessing, one that we are meant to treasure and in which we rejoice always. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: 31053.jpg One of the topics being ardently discussed by the Twins fan base these days is the status of Kyle Gibson and his recovery from Tommy John surgery. As a part of that discussion much has been made of the 130-inning limit to which Gibson is being held – indeed, it has become for some the focus of the discussion. If Gibson has only so many innings before he is shut down this year, then doesn’t it make sense to have him “spend” those innings with the parent club, getting MLB experience in preparation for next year? Indeed, there are few topics which evoke as much passion now than how the front office is handling Gibson’s recovery.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The problem is, I’m not sure that that limit exists. I’m going to buck the trend here and challenge the conventional wisdom and say that it probably does not, at least not in the way most are using the term. Oh, I have no doubt that there is an internal target number that the organization is looking at, beyond which they will treat Gibson with kid gloves, shutting him down at the first sign of arm weakness or fatigue. Indeed, I would be disappointed if they did not. But I believe he will be allowed to pitch until that moment comes, regardless of his inning total. I choose to take Terry Ryan at his word when he said in March that such a hard inning limit does not exist. Minnesota Twins send Kyle Gibson down, can't wait to bring him back - TwinCities.com So where did this idea of the 130-inning limit come from? I think it starts last year and the Stephen Strasburg situation in Washington. In his case there was a firm limit, which was announced very publicly early in the season, preparing the fan base for why Strasburg, their ace, might not be available to pitch in the playoffs. That put the whole question of inning limits after TJ surgery center stage in the eyes of the public. Add to that Kyle Gibson’s recovery from TJ surgery and it was natural for Twins fans to raise the same question regarding our young pitcher. The next piece is from an article on 1500espn.com that Phil Mackey published last November. In that article Mackey indicated that Ryan had told him earlier in the off-season that Gibson would be on a 130-140 inning limit, similar to Atlanta’s Kris Medlin who pitched 138 innings in his first full season back. Mackey: How does a 'healthy' Kyle Gibson fit into Twins' 2013 plans? | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins From that point, the 130-140 inning limit became standard fodder, being picked up by bloggers and others and passed on regularly. Preseason analysis from the likes of Rhett Bollinger also perpetuated the idea, although they did call it an expectation rather than hard information from management. Soon it was the standard on which all forum threads on Gibson were based. And so here we are today. I of course could be wrong – there may indeed be an arbitrary number beyond which Gibson will not be allowed to go, one that has not been made public because that is just not the Twins way. But what if I’m not? What if my supposition is correct, and Ryan wasn’t just trying to fool us all in March? What if Gibson pitches for the rest of the season, although probably with extra days of rest? What does that say about how we handle information in the internet age? One thing it would remind us of is how easy supposition can become “fact” through the process of repetition. That’s something that is not limited to this case, of course. It’s become common in life in general, particularly in politics. The hard-cores on both the left and the right have become adept at repeating the same item of misinformation so often that it becomes factual in the minds of many who listen to them. Think Barack Obama and the furor over his birth certificate. The challenge, then, is to always make sure of our sources before we take as definitive something we’ve read in a blog or forum (or a newspaper or magazine article too, for that matter). It should also remind us that wisdom comes not necessarily from following the crowd, but from recognizing that wisdom is often something that has to be pieced together from multiple sources, never clearly revealed in any one source but only truly seen in composite. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces have to be properly placed before the true picture emerges. Thus the challenge is to have the patience to truly investigate a question from all sides, and only when we have all the pieces can we truly put the puzzle together. And yes, that means listening to people with whom we disagree, recognizing that even from their words we can learn and grow even if we do not adopt their views and positions wholeheartedly. Finally, it reminds us nothing is carved in stone and the ability to adapt is a hallmark of the human condition. The two articles I linked above seem to be contradictory, until you remember that one was published in November and the other in March. I have no difficulty believing both are accurate. Any change in stance comes from being willing to reassess the situation as more data comes available, in this case as the Twins' staff watched Gibson during spring training. That’s something every organization and every individual needs to be able to do, to always be willing to be flexible and change ones views when new information merits it. It is only when we become so hard and fast in our positions that we stop looking for new information, that we stop being willing to test our beliefs, that we come close to the danger of ossifying and becoming irrelevant, and of having a fast-changing world pass us by. Click here to view the article

As the title of this blog entry indicates, I intend this to be the last entry. For reasons I won’t go into now I have basically curtailed my participation in this site and on this blog. That’s OK. My life is moving in new directions and the changes are exciting, and as I move on to new things it is only natural that some of my earlier passions diminish and fall by the side. I have been feeling, though, that one last blog entry was appropriate, even necessary, if only for the sake of giving myself closure. As I indicated in an earlier entry, this blog was started to keep a record of a trip I took in the summer of 2012 to visit each of the Twins minor league affiliates. The trip, which lasted almost three weeks, was not only a time to enjoy baseball. It was also in many ways a journey of discovery, as I used the time to heal both emotionally and spiritually from the accident I was in the previous fall that claimed the life of my mother and left me with a broken ankle. It was also a time to discern where God might be leading me next. In response to that discernment, late in 2012 I accepted the position of pastor at a Presbyterian church in Idaho, and thus last February I relocated to Pocatello, where I have since been serving. I talked about some of the changes I was experiencing in another blog entry last April. Now, about a year later, as I look back, I can reflect further on the journey on which God has taken me, with joy and gratitude, and with trust for what is ahead. One of the changes that is coming is that I am not going to be able to follow the Twins as closely as I have the past few years. I have decided, for a number of reasons, not to purchase a MLB.TV subscription this year. This means I will no longer have access to TV or radio broadcasts of the twins. I can still follow then on Gameday, but that is just not the same as watching or hearing. My baseball fix will be provided mostly by the Colorado Rockies (with former twins Hawkins, Cuddyer and Morneau) as I get their local TV feeds here in Idaho. I will still follow the Twins long-distance, of course, and my passion for them will not wane. But there will be a reduction in the amount of time I devote to them. That’s the only bad change coming. The rest is all good and reflective of the grace that God has shared with me this past year. First, things are going well in my ministry here in Pocatello. I have just passed the one year anniversary here and the congregation and I are on the cusp of an exciting time. We are beginning to talk together about what new things God may be doing among us and calling us to do. It is a discussion that I have been trained for and have experience in facilitating, and I am eager to see what comes out of this process. The biggest change on a personal level is, that for the first time in my life, I will soon be married. Shortly after moving here I began seeing a woman living about twenty-five miles away, in a neighboring town. The relationship has progressed and, particularly since late last fall, has deepened to the point where I have asked her to marry me and she has said yes. It will be a new time, a new beginning, in both of our lives as I learn how to share my life with her and as she learns how to put up with me. We are well-suited to each other, and she has even begun to appreciate baseball, to the point where she is willing to include a short stop in Seattle on our honeymoon to watch the Twins play the Mariners in July. (I will admit, though, I do tire somewhat of having to continually explain the dropped 3rd strike rule to her). I look forward to the life that we will build together, and the home that we will create (yes, I’m buying a house too.) So now is a natural time to look back, at where I have come from and the journey I have taken the past three years. I have walked through the valleys, and I have climbed to new heights that I never anticipated. And I know the future will continue to contain both, that life will continue to unfold. But I do feel as if a chapter in my life is closing, that a new one is beginning. I can now view the accident as part of my past and not part of my present. And I can look forward eagerly to where God will lead me and Brenda next. For those who have walked with me in this journey, I give my thanks. From those I have offended I ask pardon, and I give it freely to all who have challenged me. I appreciate how this site helped me through a difficult time in my life, and I wish you all well going forward. And I commend you all into God’s care. Oh, and one last thought – for those who question whether God has a sense of humor, consider this: The name of the street on which I have just purchased a house is … Homerun Street. Go figure.

I suppose I should start by admitting that I have a split personality – by “day” I am an ardent Twins fan, rooting for my team even when they do something stupid (which is all too often these days, but that’s another topic). At “night,” however, another side of me surfaces and I become one who is passionate about English football – and by football, I mean real football. Not the thing that millions of fans follow in this country that involves a prolate spheroid of artificial animal hide, but a game where it is actually against the rules to use your hands. Yes, I am a devoted fan of the English Premier League and Football League. With a season that runs from August to May, they are just now getting into their “spring training” mode in preparation for the resumption of football next month. I am, of course, gearing up for the season (just as I do I February for the Twins), and it has me thinking about the two sports in comparison – particularly the business aspects of each league. Thus the topic of this blog entry – what if? What if MLB had the same business structure as English football? To think about what that would mean, you have to be familiar with how they do business in their sports leagues across the pond. First, there are no franchises awarded by and ultimately controlled by a central league office as we have here. Each football club is an independent business, and the only way you get to play in the top league is if you have worked your way up the ladder (like players moving through our minors) and have earned a spot by success on the pitch (field). There is also the reality of relegation – at the end of the year, the teams who have fared worst end up getting relegated (demoted) to a lower level league, to make room for those who are moving up. There is also a significant difference in how player contracts are handled. While trades are possible, they are rare. Usually player movement is done through a transfer system, where a purchasing club pays cash for a player on a selling club. Then, the purchasing club has to negotiate contracts terms with the player himself – no play can be forced to move against their wishes. And there is no farm system to demote a player to who is underperforming. If you make a bad call and sign a player who just can’t cut it, you are stuck with that contract until it expires. You can, of course, choose to not play the person, but you do have to pay them. So what if those elements existed in Major League Baseball? Yes, I know, that is not how our system works and never will be, and I am not even arguing that it should. I’m just having fun speculating, what if? First, it would turn the whole selling-club/buying-club thing that happens each July on its head, because no longer could you equate a poor record with being a selling club. In the EPL, even the clubs near the bottom of the table have an incentive to improve. First, there is no draft, so no jockeying for draft position. Second, no club wants to get relegated, so nobody wants to finish near the bottom of the table (standings). Would we actually be talking about trading Perkins, Morneau, etc. and giving valuable playing time to Hicks, Arcia, Parmelee, etc. if the possible consequences of doing that was we’d be in the International League next year? The European system forces every team to take every game seriously, as if their sporting lives depended on it, because in their system it just might. And fans would know that they would be seeing "meaningful" games, even if the meaning is to just stay up and not be relegated. It would also eliminate all the games that teams play with their rosters every year, trying to work within the 25-man and 40-man roster rules. No more worrying about who we have to expose to waivers, or how can we find room for a new and valuable addition. No roster limits in the EPL, only what you can afford to pay in salaries. Agents would actually love the new system – they seem to do quite well for their clients across the pond. There would of course be warts and flaws – I am by no means implying that their system is better than ours. One of the downsides of their business structure is that competitiveness is reduced. Realistically, there are only about 4-5 teams (out of 20) that compete for the title every year, and it is difficult (if not impossible) for smaller market clubs to ever crack into that group. There are many fans who can’t even assuage the pain of 2013 by dreaming about 2015, because they know 2015 will just be the same – a fight not to succeed but just to survive (that should be familiar to people in Houston and Kansas City). But there is also one benefit that might come from this – an outlet for fan frustration when ownership seems unresponsive. Don’t like what the Pohlad’s are doing? Then start a new ballclub, one owned by the fans. Enter into one of the lower leagues, work your way up through the system, and maybe one day you can take out your frustrations on them on the field. That’s something that does happen in England – think FC United of Manchester, AFC Liverpool, and AFC Wimbledon. All clubs started by fans in protest against ownership, and particularly in AFC Wimbledon’s case eventually meeting the other club on the field of play in a competitive match. Yes, this is fantasy – this is “speculative fiction.” But then, what’s so wrong with that? What is wrong with asking, “What if?”

I suppose I should start by admitting that I have a split personality – by “day” I am an ardent Twins fan, rooting for my team even when they do something stupid (which is all too often these days, but that’s another topic). At “night,” however, another side of me surfaces and I become one who is passionate about English football – and by football, I mean real football. Not the thing that millions of fans follow in this country that involves a prolate spheroid of artificial animal hide, but a game where it is actually against the rules to use your hands. Yes, I am a devoted fan of the English Premier League and Football League. With a season that runs from August to May, they are just now getting into their “spring training” mode in preparation for the resumption of football next month. I am, of course, gearing up for the season (just as I do I February for the Twins), and it has me thinking about the two sports in comparison – particularly the business aspects of each league. Thus the topic of this blog entry – what if? What if MLB had the same business structure as English football? To think about what that would mean, you have to be familiar with how they do business in their sports leagues across the pond. First, there are no franchises awarded by and ultimately controlled by a central league office as we have here. Each football club is an independent business, and the only way you get to play in the top league is if you have worked your way up the ladder (like players moving through our minors) and have earned a spot by success on the pitch (field). There is also the reality of relegation – at the end of the year, the teams who have fared worst end up getting relegated (demoted) to a lower level league, to make room for those who are moving up. There is also a significant difference in how player contracts are handled. While trades are possible, they are rare. Usually player movement is done through a transfer system, where a purchasing club pays cash for a player on a selling club. Then, the purchasing club has to negotiate contracts terms with the player himself – no play can be forced to move against their wishes. And there is no farm system to demote a player to who is underperforming. If you make a bad call and sign a player who just can’t cut it, you are stuck with that contract until it expires. You can, of course, choose to not play the person, but you do have to pay them. So what if those elements existed in Major League Baseball? Yes, I know, that is not how our system works and never will be, and I am not even arguing that it should. I’m just having fun speculating, what if? First, it would turn the whole selling-club/buying-club thing that happens each July on its head, because no longer could you equate a poor record with being a selling club. In the EPL, even the clubs near the bottom of the table have an incentive to improve. First, there is no draft, so no jockeying for draft position. Second, no club wants to get relegated, so nobody wants to finish near the bottom of the table (standings). Would we actually be talking about trading Perkins, Morneau, etc. and giving valuable playing time to Hicks, Arcia, Parmelee, etc. if the possible consequences of doing that was we’d be in the International League next year? The European system forces every team to take every game seriously, as if their sporting lives depended on it, because in their system it just might. And fans would know that they would be seeing "meaningful" games, even if the meaning is to just stay up and not be relegated. It would also eliminate all the games that teams play with their rosters every year, trying to work within the 25-man and 40-man roster rules. No more worrying about who we have to expose to waivers, or how can we find room for a new and valuable addition. No roster limits in the EPL, only what you can afford to pay in salaries. Agents would actually love the new system – they seem to do quite well for their clients across the pond. There would of course be warts and flaws – I am by no means implying that their system is better than ours. One of the downsides of their business structure is that competitiveness is reduced. Realistically, there are only about 4-5 teams (out of 20) that compete for the title every year, and it is difficult (if not impossible) for smaller market clubs to ever crack into that group. There are many fans who can’t even assuage the pain of 2013 by dreaming about 2015, because they know 2015 will just be the same – a fight not to succeed but just to survive (that should be familiar to people in Houston and Kansas City). But there is also one benefit that might come from this – an outlet for fan frustration when ownership seems unresponsive. Don’t like what the Pohlad’s are doing? Then start a new ballclub, one owned by the fans. Enter into one of the lower leagues, work your way up through the system, and maybe one day you can take out your frustrations on them on the field. That’s something that does happen in England – think FC United of Manchester, AFC Liverpool, and AFC Wimbledon. All clubs started by fans in protest against ownership, and particularly in AFC Wimbledon’s case eventually meeting the other club on the field of play in a competitive match. Yes, this is fantasy – this is “speculative fiction.” But then, what’s so wrong with that? What is wrong with asking, “What if?”

One of the topics being ardently discussed by the Twins fanbase these days is the status of Kyle Gibson and his recovery from Tommy John surgery. As a part of that discussion much has been made of the 130-inning limit to which Gibson is being held – indeed, it has become for some the focus of the discussion. If Gibson has only so many innings before he is shut down this year, then doesn’t it make sense to have him “spend” those innings with the parent club, getting MLB experience in preparation for next year? Indeed, there are few topics which evoke such passion right now than how the front office is handling Gibson’s recovery. The problem is, I’m not sure that that limit exists. I’m going to buck the trend here and challenge the conventional wisdom and say that it probably does not, at least not in the way most are using the term. Oh, I have no doubt that there is an internal target number that the organization is looking at, beyond which they will treat Gibson with kid gloves, shutting him down at the first sign of arm weakness or fatigue. Indeed, I would be disappointed if they did not. But I believe he will be allowed to pitch until that moment comes, regardless of his inning total. I choose to take Terry Ryan at his word when he said in March that such a hard inning limit does not exist. Minnesota Twins send Kyle Gibson down, can't wait to bring him back - TwinCities.com So where did this idea of the 130-inning limit come from? I think it starts last year and the Stephen Strasburg situation in Washington. In his case there was a firm limit, which was announced very publicly early in the season, preparing the fanbase for why Strasburg, their ace, might not be available to pitch in the playoffs. That put the whole question of inning limits after TJ surgery center stage in the eyes of the public. Add to that Kyle Gibson’s recovery from TJ surgery and it was natural for Twins fans to raise the same question regarding our young pitcher. The next piece is from an article on 1500espn.com that Phil Mackey published last November. In that article Mackey indicated that Ryan had told him earlier in the off-season that Gibson would be on a 130-140 inning limit, similar to Atlanta’s Kris Medlin who pitched 138 innings in his first full season back. Mackey: How does a 'healthy' Kyle Gibson fit into Twins' 2013 plans? | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins From that point, the 130-140 inning limit became standard fodder, being picked up by bloggers and others and passed on regularly. Preseason analysis from the likes of Rhett Bollinger and others also perpetuated the idea, although they did call it an expectation rather than hard information from management. Soon it was the standard on which all forum threads on Gibson were based. And so here we are today. I of course could be wrong – there may indeed be an arbitrary number beyond which Gibson will not be allowed to go, one that has not been made public because that is just not the Twins way. But what if I’m not? What if my supposition is correct, and Ryan wasn’t just trying to fool us all in March? What if Gibson pitches for the rest of the season, although probably with extra days of rest? What does that say about how we handle information in the internet age? One thing it would remind us is how easy supposition can become “fact” just through the process of repetition. That’s something that is not limited to this case, of course. It’s become common in life in general, particularly in politics. The hard-cores on both the left and the right have become adept in repeating the same item of misinformation so often that it has become factual in the minds of many who listen to them. Think Barack Obama and the furor over his birth certificate. The challenge, then, is to always make sure of our sources before we take as definitive something we’ve read in a blog or forum (or a newspaper or magazine article too, for that matter). It also should remind us that wisdom comes not from always following the crowd, but from recognizing that wisdom is often something that has to be pieced together from multiple sources, never clearly revealed in any one source but only truly seen in composite. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces have to be properly placed before the true picture emerges. Thus the challenge is to have the patience to truly investigate a question from all sides, and only when we have all the pieces can we truly put the puzzle together. And yes, that means listening to people with whom we disagree, recognizing that even from their words we can learn and grow even if we can not adopt their views and positions wholeheartedly. Finally, it reminds us nothing is carved in stone and the ability to adapt is a hallmark of the human condition. The two articles I linked above seem to be contradictory. Until you remember that one was published in November and the other in March. I have no difficulty believing both are accurate. Any change in stance comes from being willing to reassess the situation as more data comes in, in this case as they watch Gibson during spring training. That’s something every organization and every individual needs to be able to do, to always be willing to be flexible and change our views when new information merits it. It is only when we become so hard and fast in our positions that we stop looking for new information, that we stop being willing to test our beliefs, that we become in danger of ossifying and becoming irrelevant, and of having a fast-changing world pass us by.

One of the topics being ardently discussed by the Twins fanbase these days is the status of Kyle Gibson and his recovery from Tommy John surgery. As a part of that discussion much has been made of the 130-inning limit to which Gibson is being held – indeed, it has become for some the focus of the discussion. If Gibson has only so many innings before he is shut down this year, then doesn’t it make sense to have him “spend” those innings with the parent club, getting MLB experience in preparation for next year? Indeed, there are few topics which evoke such passion right now than how the front office is handling Gibson’s recovery. The problem is, I’m not sure that that limit exists. I’m going to buck the trend here and challenge the conventional wisdom and say that it probably does not, at least not in the way most are using the term. Oh, I have no doubt that there is an internal target number that the organization is looking at, beyond which they will treat Gibson with kid gloves, shutting him down at the first sign of arm weakness or fatigue. Indeed, I would be disappointed if they did not. But I believe he will be allowed to pitch until that moment comes, regardless of his inning total. I choose to take Terry Ryan at his word when he said in March that such a hard inning limit does not exist. Minnesota Twins send Kyle Gibson down, can't wait to bring him back - TwinCities.com So where did this idea of the 130-inning limit come from? I think it starts last year and the Stephen Strasburg situation in Washington. In his case there was a firm limit, which was announced very publicly early in the season, preparing the fanbase for why Strasburg, their ace, might not be available to pitch in the playoffs. That put the whole question of inning limits after TJ surgery center stage in the eyes of the public. Add to that Kyle Gibson’s recovery from TJ surgery and it was natural for Twins fans to raise the same question regarding our young pitcher. The next piece is from an article on 1500espn.com that Phil Mackey published last November. In that article Mackey indicated that Ryan had told him earlier in the off-season that Gibson would be on a 130-140 inning limit, similar to Atlanta’s Kris Medlin who pitched 138 innings in his first full season back. Mackey: How does a 'healthy' Kyle Gibson fit into Twins' 2013 plans? | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins From that point, the 130-140 inning limit became standard fodder, being picked up by bloggers and others and passed on regularly. Preseason analysis from the likes of Rhett Bollinger and others also perpetuated the idea, although they did call it an expectation rather than hard information from management. Soon it was the standard on which all forum threads on Gibson were based. And so here we are today. I of course could be wrong – there may indeed be an arbitrary number beyond which Gibson will not be allowed to go, one that has not been made public because that is just not the Twins way. But what if I’m not? What if my supposition is correct, and Ryan wasn’t just trying to fool us all in March? What if Gibson pitches for the rest of the season, although probably with extra days of rest? What does that say about how we handle information in the internet age? One thing it would remind us is how easy supposition can become “fact” just through the process of repetition. That’s something that is not limited to this case, of course. It’s become common in life in general, particularly in politics. The hard-cores on both the left and the right have become adept in repeating the same item of misinformation so often that it has become factual in the minds of many who listen to them. Think Barack Obama and the furor over his birth certificate. The challenge, then, is to always make sure of our sources before we take as definitive something we’ve read in a blog or forum (or a newspaper or magazine article too, for that matter). It also should remind us that wisdom comes not from always following the crowd, but from recognizing that wisdom is often something that has to be pieced together from multiple sources, never clearly revealed in any one source but only truly seen in composite. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces have to be properly placed before the true picture emerges. Thus the challenge is to have the patience to truly investigate a question from all sides, and only when we have all the pieces can we truly put the puzzle together. And yes, that means listening to people with whom we disagree, recognizing that even from their words we can learn and grow even if we can not adopt their views and positions wholeheartedly. Finally, it reminds us nothing is carved in stone and the ability to adapt is a hallmark of the human condition. The two articles I linked above seem to be contradictory. Until you remember that one was published in November and the other in March. I have no difficulty believing both are accurate. Any change in stance comes from being willing to reassess the situation as more data comes in, in this case as they watch Gibson during spring training. That’s something every organization and every individual needs to be able to do, to always be willing to be flexible and change our views when new information merits it. It is only when we become so hard and fast in our positions that we stop looking for new information, that we stop being willing to test our beliefs, that we become in danger of ossifying and becoming irrelevant, and of having a fast-changing world pass us by.

Per Seth, according to FO it's coming. Soon.

When I toured the farm system last year and saw all the teams I got to compare their game-day experiences. The A affiliate was Beloit, not Cedar Rapids, so I don't know how they compare, but I found the best experience, including promos, in New Britain. Elizabethton was a close second.

I haven't seen it yet but am looking forward to it. Thanks for the review! I agree that, particularly for younger audiences, they need to be reminded/taught that this was the way life really was not too long ago. We need to never forget what it was like, and how distasteful it feels now, or we run the danger of it happening again someday.

A few years ago controversy erupted when Derek Jeter was mistakenly ruled to have been hit by a pitch and took first base at the umpire’s direction. Jeter admitted later that the ball had hit his bat, not his person, but that the umpire had made a ruling and he just abided by it. The subsequent controversy was about the role of ethics in sports. We all know that game officials, like players and everybody else, are human and make mistakes. Blown calls are a part of the game, and while they sometimes affect the outcome there really is no good way to eliminate them completely. Even some of those who admitted that Jeter was technically correct to take the base, though, were troubled by the message this seemingly sent to our youth – if you can cheat and get away with it, it’s not cheating. This is not anything new in sports, of course. Think of the retaliatory bean ball Scott Diamond threw last year – if that ball is not near the head the game goes on with no ejection, even though everybody in the park knew it was coming. In other sports as well, particularly in soccer and basketball, players will go down spectacularly after contact in an attempt to draw a call that may or may not be legitimate. I’ve heard it said that in every play in the NFL offensive holding could be called if the rule was strictly enforced, and defenders also have their bag of dirty tricks (not to mention bounty-gate, bugging locker rooms, and manipulating air flow in a stadium). This has been going on ever since organized sports began. And in some sense we can and should expect that, as this mirrors life itself. Think taxes – how many people won’t indulge the opportunity to reduce their tax bill by playing in the gray areas if possible? How many drive over the speed limit, using as their justification that everybody else does it? Dirty tricks have been a staple of politics for centuries. It certainly seems like, in whatever area of life, we are not inclined to allow ourselves to be guided by the “better angels of our nature.” That’s why I have always enjoyed golf. Golf seemed to be an area where honesty and integrity were something embodied, not just in the rules, but in the very approach to the game. The stewards of the game even sold that as golf’s image, talking about how our youth can learn these values through both the rules and the culture of golf. Yes, I know that in reality people are just as likely to cheat in golf as in any other aspect of life. The foot wedge is still an essential club in many golfers’ bags. The first-tee mulligan has become almost an institution in itself. Yet, in spite of that, the ethos of the sport was still that the spirit of the law had to accompany the letter of the law. Looking for a loophole to squeeze through was the exception rather than the expectation. We still remember Bobby Jones calling a penalty on himself that ended up costing him the U.S. Open title. It was still the hope that, in at least one area of our life, how we played the game was more important than whether or not we won. Now, that is gone too. Yesterday at Augusta Tiger Woods made a mistake and took a bad drop. Whether he intended to do so or not is immaterial. It happened, and it gave him an unfair advantage compared to the field. Today he was assessed a two stroke penalty, in recognition, but because an official at the time ruled the drop proper Mr. Woods was not disqualified as would normally be the result of turning in an incorrect scorecard. On the one hand, the ruling makes sense. If the official had ruled the drop improper at the time the penalty would have been assessed and the scorecard corrected. Yet it doesn’t change the fact that the whole thing feels sour to me. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. He should have known the rules about how and where to drop (and my guess is that he did), regardless of whether the official made a mistake. And I can’t but think that Bobby Jones, if he were here and had made the same mistake, would have voluntarily disqualified himself once it was pointed out to him. That won’t happen here; not at a major tournament in the 21st century, and comparing it to other sports, I can understand that. It fits the pattern that cheating is only cheating if you don’t get away with it. But I do think our commitment to ethics, honesty and fair play have died just a little bit this weekend. Never again will golf be a sport that can be an example for integrity, a sport where the bottom line was not the thing that mattered most. Now it’s just a part of the rest of our world, where results are what really count, and how we get there doesn’t matter if we win. Say farewell to Bobby Jones; from now on there will be only Derek Jeters.

A few years ago controversy erupted when Derek Jeter was mistakenly ruled to have been hit by a pitch and took first base at the umpire’s direction. Jeter admitted later that the ball had hit his bat, not his person, but that the umpire had made a ruling and he just abided by it. The subsequent controversy was about the role of ethics in sports. We all know that game officials, like players and everybody else, are human and make mistakes. Blown calls are a part of the game, and while they sometimes affect the outcome there really is no good way to eliminate them completely. Even some of those who admitted that Jeter was technically correct to take the base, though, were troubled by the message this seemingly sent to our youth – if you can cheat and get away with it, it’s not cheating. This is not anything new in sports, of course. Think of the retaliatory bean ball Scott Diamond threw last year – if that ball is not near the head the game goes on with no ejection, even though everybody in the park knew it was coming. In other sports as well, particularly in soccer and basketball, players will go down spectacularly after contact in an attempt to draw a call that may or may not be legitimate. I’ve heard it said that in every play in the NFL offensive holding could be called if the rule was strictly enforced, and defenders also have their bag of dirty tricks (not to mention bounty-gate, bugging locker rooms, and manipulating air flow in a stadium). This has been going on ever since organized sports began. And in some sense we can and should expect that, as this mirrors life itself. Think taxes – how many people won’t indulge the opportunity to reduce their tax bill by playing in the gray areas if possible? How many drive over the speed limit, using as their justification that everybody else does it? Dirty tricks have been a staple of politics for centuries. It certainly seems like, in whatever area of life, we are not inclined to allow ourselves to be guided by the “better angels of our nature.” That’s why I have always enjoyed golf. Golf seemed to be an area where honesty and integrity were something embodied, not just in the rules, but in the very approach to the game. The stewards of the game even sold that as golf’s image, talking about how our youth can learn these values through both the rules and the culture of golf. Yes, I know that in reality people are just as likely to cheat in golf as in any other aspect of life. The foot wedge is still an essential club in many golfers’ bags. The first-tee mulligan has become almost an institution in itself. Yet, in spite of that, the ethos of the sport was still that the spirit of the law had to accompany the letter of the law. Looking for a loophole to squeeze through was the exception rather than the expectation. We still remember Bobby Jones calling a penalty on himself that ended up costing him the U.S. Open title. It was still the hope that, in at least one area of our life, how we played the game was more important than whether or not we won. Now, that is gone too. Yesterday at Augusta Tiger Woods made a mistake and took a bad drop. Whether he intended to do so or not is immaterial. It happened, and it gave him an unfair advantage compared to the field. Today he was assessed a two stroke penalty, in recognition, but because an official at the time ruled the drop proper Mr. Woods was not disqualified as would normally be the result of turning in an incorrect scorecard. On the one hand, the ruling makes sense. If the official had ruled the drop improper at the time the penalty would have been assessed and the scorecard corrected. Yet it doesn’t change the fact that the whole thing feels sour to me. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. He should have known the rules about how and where to drop (and my guess is that he did), regardless of whether the official made a mistake. And I can’t but think that Bobby Jones, if he were here and had made the same mistake, would have voluntarily disqualified himself once it was pointed out to him. That won’t happen here; not at a major tournament in the 21st century, and comparing it to other sports, I can understand that. It fits the pattern that cheating is only cheating if you don’t get away with it. But I do think our commitment to ethics, honesty and fair play have died just a little bit this weekend. Never again will golf be a sport that can be an example for integrity, a sport where the bottom line was not the thing that mattered most. Now it’s just a part of the rest of our world, where results are what really count, and how we get there doesn’t matter if we win. Say farewell to Bobby Jones; from now on there will be only Derek Jeters.

I imagine I'll end up following the local Legion teams (I think they sponsor three of them).