ScottyBroco

This article can also be found here http://sabrmedia.org/ Tyler's LinkedIn page Use the #hiretyler too. Tyler Mason is a free agent sports writer who previously covered the Minnesota Twins Beat for Fox Sports North. Unfortunately, Mason’s narrative is far too common in sports journalism. Mason uses the hashtag #hiretyler to help him network for his next opportunity. He was nice enough to take some time to answer questions about his experiences working at FSN, his take on current trends in the media, and his next steps. 1. Could you talk a little bit about your background and how you became a sportswriter? Was there a certain moment or mentor who helped? It wasn’t until the end of my freshman year that I got into sportswriting. I went to college thinking I might want to be a psychology major, but I took the intro psychology class and didn’t do so well in it. After taking the intro journalism class during the second semester of my freshman year, I went to one of our school newspapers in Madison and wrote a story (a men’s track preview) near the end of the year. I stuck with the paper after that and was there through my senior year, and fell in love with sports writing at that point. 2. I know that you already wrote a nice blog post about why working the All-Star Game was a career highlight for you. Is there something that you would like to add about it? I’m not sure there’s much to add. Covering the All-Star Game was such a unique experience. There were so many great players in town, and so many media. I didn’t realize how much else went into that whole weekend – the Fan Fest, press conferences, concerts, etc. Just to be around all of that was something I’ll never forget. 3. I recently interviewed Steve Rushin for Twins Daily and he said “There is more good baseball writing than there has ever been, and I won’t list all the current people I read for space considerations and fear of leaving someone out.” Do you have favorite writers today that you admire locally, as well as nationally? I agree with Steve that there is a ton of good writing nowadays. I don’t necessarily have a favorite writer, and I’ll admit that I don’t read as many baseball writers as I should. That’s something I would definitely like to do more of. I will say, speaking of Steve Rushin, that I’ve always enjoyed his work – perhaps because he’s a Minnesota native. I recently read a book by Dirk Hayhurst, the former big league pitcher. It was interesting to read a player’s perspective for once compared to a journalist’s. I’d say in general, it’s wise to try to read a wide range of stuff when it comes to sports writing, and baseball writing in particular. 4. Besides the obvious rule, “There is no cheering in the press box”, what is it like working the baseball press box? How is it different from other sports? I enjoy the baseball press box. There’s usually plenty of discussion regarding the game, and decisions made within it. As far as how it relates to other sports, I’d say there’s more interaction between, the writers in a baseball press box compared to basketball, football or hockey. Perhaps that’s because of how much down time there is in a baseball game. The rest of the Twins media are generally pretty easy to get along with, and we all enjoy each other’s company. It’s not as cutthroat as other media markets like New York, Boston, or Los Angeles. 5. My roommate is a sophomore journalism major at the University of Minnesota Duluth. What advice do you have for him and other recent graduates wanting to follow your career path? Try to find an internship or two that will include some valuable experience. I interned with MLB.com in 2009 and am so glad I did, as I learned a lot about the business during that time. I’d also advise to be active on social media, perhaps even starting a personal blog. Also, network as much as possible. Send e-mails to other writers or try to get to know people in the industry if at all possible. Sometimes, it’s not what you know, but who you know. 6. There is a tweet that caught my attention. Why do you think there are so many free agent sports writers? Does it happen more in baseball? Or is common in sports overall? I don’t think it’s specific to any sport. Unfortunately, the nature of the journalism business is that turnover/layoffs are bound to happen. You see it in newspapers far too often, but it doesn’t necessarily happen in just one sport. 7. How have companies like Inside Edge, The SportsXchange, Sportradar and the Associated Press impacted the baseball media industry? I think it’s great that there are more outlets covering baseball today that in the past. The SportsXchange and the Associated Press are pretty similar in their coverage (more game stories and news, not as much analysis), while other sites offer different perspectives. With analytics and sabermetrics becoming such a big part of baseball, it’s great to see other sites embracing that aspect of the game. Baseball fans have more options than ever for gathering their information, and that can only help grow the game. 8. If you cannot get another baseball media job, where do you think your skills would translate well into another non-sports or media field? I see you wrote about becoming a travel writer for example? I did indeed blog about travel writing, although that was more of a pipe dream than anything. I’d love to find something in the writing field, but those options are limited. I also have a strong social media background, so I feel those skills could translate as well – not just within the sports realm. I am open to branching out beyond the sports scene. 9. Do you have anything new in the works? Perhaps a book? Nothing new in the works right now, unfortunately. I did write a few books for Red Line Editorial, but they are both geared towards elementary aged children. One is on the history of the Rose Bowl, while the other is a football trivia book. I hope to continue writing/blogging in some respect, although I’m not sure how often at this point

. The Best Team Money Can Buy covers baseball’s most polarizing and entertaining team in recent years without newspaper reporting deadlines. “How does the [The Best Team Money Can Buy] compare to Moneyball?” The Duluth Public Librarian asked me after I checked out the new book by former ESPN reporter Molly Knight. I explained my excitement. “Basical, this book is about baseball, but you do not have to be a fan to understand it. From what I have read in some of the reviews, it's extremely behind the scenes of the Los Angeles Dodgers as they transition from a bankrupt owner in the midst of a divorce to a team with a 200 million dollar payroll and 2 billion dollar cable TV contract” http://sabrmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/imgres-1.jpg Knight covered, then Dodger owner Frank McCourt divorce for ESPN and in the first chapter uncovers the nooks and crannies of the Dodger auction. For example, Frank McCourt’s chess moves, including filing for bankruptcy, selling the team within the “Country Club MLB owners” and to the current owners. The Guggenheim Group owns the team today and is faced by Los Angeles Laker Legend Magic Johnson and run by experienced Major League Baseball Executive Stan Kasten. Also, later in the book, Knight uses her sources on the transition from long-time General Manager Ned Colletti to Sabermetric friendly and long-time Tampa Ray’s General Manager Andrew Friedman. In the Best Team Money Can Buy, Molly Knight was not present for such closed door meetings, but she had the sources , as many writers today do, to get into them. She was also allowed extensive one-on-one interviews with Dodgers players. In Moneyball, Author Michael Lewis was present or recorded every meeting in and outside of the Oakland A’s front Office. In fact, this book reminds me of Moneyball in several Ways. Both Writers had experience from other industries that translated well into their current books. Prospective. Molly Knight’s main career objective was not to write this book. She was on the premed track at Stanford University before she realized it was not for her. She moved to the other side of the country to New York, where she bartended in the night and wrote during the day. Michael Lewis earned a degree in Art History from Princeton and worked with a New York Art dealer before completing his MA from the London School of Economics. With Lewis, I was able to visualize Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane pumping his fist in the air while another MLB team drafts an overvalued high school Pitcher. With Knight, I can see Zach Grienke standing up in a players only meeting and declaring “all players are not flushing after taking a 'number two' in the Men’s Locker Room”. Both Lewis and Knight explain how and why each person into each organization arrived and how they fit in the strategically into the marathon regular season and crapshoot postseason. Due to the smaller sample size of games, the baseball playoff's explains the regular season triumphs of the Oakland A's and LA Dodgers without a world series title. Lewis profiles Scott Hateberg as he transitions from washed up back up catcher with the Boston Red Sox to starting first basemen for the Oakland while batting .280/.374/.433. Knight shows how a struggling player, Zach Grienke, overcomes his social anxiety, finds his personality, and overcomes his whispers to win the American League Cy Young Award. While Reading this book, readers should feel the excitement as the Dodgers or Athletics win. I would put The Best Team Money Can Buy up there with other baseball literature classics Moneyball, Luckiest Man: the Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, Lords of the Realm by Jon Helyar and Babe by Robert Creamer. All of these classics are available at your public library. But what most taxpayers are unaware is the public library can order new books for patrons. This helps with updating the collection and of course with circulation. The Duluth Library ordered the book for me and I will proudly return it for the next patron.

I got a text from a fellow Society for American Baseball Research, SABR, member Anthony Bush. He said that there was a little known museum in downtown Duluth, Minnesota that had a baseball exhibit. I was surprised that an old church of Christian Science is now a little museum and located about a 5 min walk from my rental house. The Karpeles Manuscript Museum is named after a Denfeld High School Graduate who made his fortune in real estate. The Karpeles is a too well kept of secret in Duluth, where approximately 3.5 million people visit a year. There is a special place for local history, here in the Zenith City. In fact, Duluth once had the highest millionaires per capita in the United States thanks to the iron ore, shipping and logging industries in the Northland and around the shores of Lake Superior. The museum director was a woman named Doris and extremely warm and inviting. She was impressed with our baseball knowledge and asked if we were interested in a baseball talk about some the manuscripts at the museum. She said that we could do whatever we wanted. Soon, I found myself in her office scheduling a time for the gallery talk. The next step was researching some of the items at the museum. This gave me an excuse to watch Ken Burns’ Baseball. About 10 years ago, I had rented and watched every episode from the local library. Baseball, is a 20-hour baseball history documentary, has 9 episodes that are called innings, a must for any baseball fan and a great way to pass the time in the winter and non-baseball months. I bought it for 120 dollars as a special Christmas gift to myself. But now, it’s on Netflix or pirated for free on youtube.com, that is if it’s not taken down. In addition to the documentary, I read the 34-ton Bat by Steve Rushin and interviewed him for Twins Daily. Lastly, I researched almost all the 30 plus items in the museum and I met with my partner twice at a local coffee shop. The event even got a little press at the local paper. When the night arrived after a long, high volume day at work, I was little nervous. But I remembered that this was supposed to be a fun experience. In the Museum church it was a little musty and warm in contrast from the cool, dry air off Lake Superior. I met my colleague in Doris’s office while 30 people gathered and waited for the talk to begin around 7pm. Once 7pm rolled around, we walked to the center of the old building that has the acoustics of old an old European church from the 15th century. I was introduced as a graduate student from the University of Michigan, although correctly, I am enrolled at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. After Doris completed the introductions, Anthony read his one thousand-word essay and the history of baseball in Duluth. The locals love their local history and this was no exception. The next 80 minutes went by in a blur as we covered a wide arrange of topics and some of the exhibits manuscripts. We started with the History of Duluth, The birth of Baseball, spread of it in the Civil War, Babe Ruth’s Career, the short rundown of the Black Sox’s scandal, baseball’s worst teams and all the while Anthony made local connections to each national topic. The next thing I knew, the talk was over. The audience thanked me for telling stories that brought some of the old documents to life. Doris couldn't thank us enough. At a local watering hole afterward we meet up with some friends. The beer tasted great and brought out some mellowness from the thrill of public speaking on your passion.

Ever wondered how the jockstrap was invented? Or how about the evolution from catching balls with bare hands to the gloves of today? It was said that shaking hands with a catcher without any protection was like “shaking hands with walnuts.” Sports Illustrated writer and Bloomington, Minnesota native Steve Rushin wrote about the jock strap, how Americans were more skilled throwing grenades compared to their European allies because of baseball and more historical oddities.The book is called 34-Ton Bat, The Story of Baseball as told through Bobbleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black and 375 Strange and Unusual Objects. Here are 10 questions about his life growing up in Bloomington, The Met, how he landed his Sports Illustrated writing gig and about his recent visits to Target Field with his young children. Q: In 1979 on your 13th birthday you became an employee of the Minnesota Twins and as you say in your book “it unlocked a hidden world”. Tell me about your memories of the Met in your hometown of Bloomington, Minnesota. What was the highlight? A: Before I worked at the Met, I went as a fan. I’m one of five kids and my Dad would stop at Cal’s Market on Old Shakopee Road after Mass on a Sunday and buy a one-pound bag of peanuts to last the day. Late in the game, we might get a Frosty Malt, but we weren’t allowed to sail the lids onto the warning track, like so many of our lucky peers were doing. When I started working at the Met, in the commissary, making the food that the vendors sold, it was a revelation. I was backstage, in the ballpark before it opened to the public, and saw people like Reggie Jackson from ten feet away. When you’re 13, and have only ever seen someone like Reggie on TV, it’s a shock to see him up close, unfiltered by a screen, as if you never realized he existed in the flesh. The highlight of working those games—and there were so many—was getting to pull the tarp when it rained. To be 13 and running across a big-league field, in front of about 8,000 fans with garbage bags on their heads? I knew even then that life was unlikely to get better. Q: Did you know Twins Daily Writer and Founder John Bonnes, @TwinsGeek on twitter, growing up in Bloomington? A: I didn’t. If I had, I’d know much more about the Twins now. And then. But growing up in Bloomington you were never more than one degree of separation from the Twins. My brother was a lefthanded pitcher at Bloomington Lincoln and claims to have owned Hrbek whenever he pitched against Kennedy. I mentioned this to Hrbek once and he just laughed. I think he’s heard that from a lot of guys he faced in high school. Q: Was there a certain moment that inspired to you be a writer? Did you have a mentor? A: I learned to read watching Sesame Street and cereal boxes were my earliest literary influence. Another early influence was Oscar Madison, the sportswriter on “The Odd Couple.” He was a slob, ate hot dogs at ballgames and spent a lot of time loafing around his gigantic apartment in New York. That seemed like a good life. I once spent an evening with Jack Klugman for a Sports Illustrated column and thanked him for the inspiration. He said I wasn’t the first sportswriter to tell him that. My Mom, more than any one person, made me a writer. She got me a library card and encouraged me to read and would leave me at the B. Dalton bookstore for an hour when she shopped at Southdale. I would completely lose track of time, or even my surroundings, and get absorbed in a book. I didn’t know it then, but reading is the best preparation for writing. Q: Is there an unusual story about landing your job at Sports Illustrated? A: A junior college basketball coach had a three-on-three basketball tournament in his backyard in Bloomington. A buddy and I played in it. It was called the Saunders Hoop Invitational Tournament, or S.H.I.T. We were in high school. Sports Illustrated ran a long story on a huge 3-on-3 tournament in Michigan, and I wrote a letter to the editor of SI about our 3-on-3 tournament in Bloomington. The trophy was a Cool-Whip tub covered in aluminum foil. The author of the article in SI, Alexander Wolff, wrote to me to ask me more about our tournament, because he was writing a book on pickup basketball in America. So I wrote back to him, we became pen pals, and when I started writing stories in college, I’d send them to Alex, who passed one along to an editor SI, and eventually—just before I graduated from Marquette—the magazine ran my story. That got me a three-month internship as a fact-checker there and I never left. The junior college basketball coach who hosted the S.H.I.T., incidentally, was Flip Saunders. Q:What baseball writers do you most admire? past and present? A: Where to begin? I grew up reading Pat Reusse and Doug Grow in Minneapolis. My Dad traveled a lot, and in the age before the internet he’d bring home three-day-old newspapers from L.A. or New York, so I’d get to read columns by Jim Murray and Red Smith. I read all of Roger Angell’s books. They were some of the books I’d lose myself in at B. Dalton. When I arrived at SI, we had Peter Gammons and Steve Wulf and later Tom Verducci and Tim Kurkjian, all of whom were so good that the main thing I learned from them was not to try to be like them. There is more good baseball writing than there has ever been, and I won’t list all the current people I read for space considerations and fear of leaving someone out. Q: I see that you recently visited Minnesota and took in a game at Target Field with your children. What did that mean to you and was there a certain part of baseball that you felt you needed to teach them? For example, did you explain the meaning of Minnie and Paul to you daughter who thought one of them was Babe Ruth? A: The kids, thank goodness, like baseball. We were in Minneapolis when the Twins were out of town and took a tour of Target Field. The kids have this fantasy of being locked into a stadium overnight, like in “Night at the Museum,” and getting to eat all the popcorn and nachos and batting helmet sundaes they can, while running the bases and attempting to go yard. Sadly, we were not locked in at tour’s end, but we did come back on our last night in town for the Twins’ homestand-opener against the Orioles. They saw Hicks make a catch with his back to the plate and Dozier win it with a walk-off home run, and my 6-year-old son did ask—while pointing at the Twins logo in centerfield—“Who’s Babe Ruth shaking hands with?” We live in New England, and mostly go to Red Sox games, so it was nice to give them the experience I had as a kid: watching the Twins outdoors while learning how to crack open peanut shells. Q: What got you interested in writing your current book, the 34-Ton Bat, The Story of Baseball as told through Boobleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black and 375 Strange and Unusual Objects? A: That book evolved from wanting to know my grandfather. My Mom’s Dad was a member of the 1926 New York Giants but only played in one game, at catcher. I wanted to know what it was like to be at the Polo Grounds that Sunday afternoon in June of 1926, in hot flannel uniforms, without batting helmets, during Prohibition, and so forth. My uncle happened to still have the catcher’s mitt my grandfather wore that day, he mailed it to me, and I put it on and it was like shaking hands with the grandfather I never knew. My grandfather, Jimmy Boyle, died before I was born. I did what anyone would do with a baseball mitt, and placed it over my nose and mouth like an airplane oxygen mask. I could smell this ballpark in Harlem from 85 years ago. That led to me writing about the most compelling objects of the game—hats and mitts, of course, but also bobbleheads and ballpark organs and beer cups—all those things that beguiled me while working at the Met as a teenager. Q: Could you discus the process you went through at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in researching the book? A: The Hall of Fame Library is a wonderful place. You have to put on white gloves to handle the files, so everyone in there looks like Mickey Mouse. I pored over files on ballpark concessions and novelties and souvenirs. I found an old foil hot dog wrapper in one file folder full of old newspaper clippings on hot dogs. Tom Shieber, the curator, was walking past me when it happened and took the wrapper to file elsewhere. I loved that this guy has a job in which he files foil hot dog wrappers from, I don’t know, Shea Stadium in 1978. I’d take those photocopied files home, and if I had any other questions, when I couldn’t be in Cooperstown, a brilliant researcher there named Bill Francis would try to help me answer them. I knew I was on to something when Bill had not been previously aware of some minor fact. He hadn’t realized that Milwaukee had a bring-your-own-beer policy in the ‘50s and ‘60s, or that the urinals at Ebbets Field were a disaster. These discoveries were a small triumph for me, because Bill knows everything. Q: Is there a story that stands out to you in the book that you enjoyed researching and writing about? Anything that surprised you? A: There is an interesting, otherwise-lost-to-history story in the book about an eccentric guy named Foulproof Taylor, who invented a protective cup for boxers and later a batting helmet, neither of which boxing or baseball was yet ready for in the 1920s and ‘30s. Foulproof was once famous in New York boxing circles for wearing his cup to gyms and asking fighters—world-famous fighters like Primo Carnera—to punch him in the groin as hard as they could. Most of them happily obliged. Foulproof was once the world champion of sack racing, but he began a slow fade into obscurity in the 1960s. A relative of his—a writer named Diane Taylor--proved a great source in keeping Foulproof’s story alive, and I was happy to tell that story in the book. Q: What new project is in the works? Any new books? A: I’m writing a memoir of my ‘70s childhood, specifically my growing up in the ‘70s in—of all places—Bloomington, Minnesota. Click here to view the article

Ever wondered how the jockstrap was invented? Or how about the evolution of catching balls with bare hands to the gloves of today? In it was said that shaking hands with a catcher without any protection was like “shaking hands with walnuts.” Sports Illustrated writer and Bloomington, Minnesota native Steve Rushin wrote about the jock strap, how Americans were more skilled throwing grenades compared to their European allies because of baseball and more historical oddities. The book is called 34-Ton Bat, The Story of Baseball as told through Bobbleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black and 375 Strange and Unusual Objects. Here are 10 questions about his life growing up in Bloomington, The Met, how he landed his sports illustrated writing gig and about his recent visits to Target Field with his young children. Q: In 1979 on your 13th birthday you became an employee of the Minnesota Twins and as you say in your book “it unlocked a hidden world”. Tell me about your memories of the Met in your hometown of Bloomington, Minnesota. What was the highlight? A: Before I worked at the Met, I went as a fan. I’m one of five kids and my Dad would stop at Cal’s Market on Old Shakopee Road after Mass on a Sunday and buy a one-pound bag of peanuts to last the day. Late in the game, we might get a Frosty Malt, but we weren’t allowed to sail the lids onto the warning track, like so many of our lucky peers were doing. When I started working at the Met, in the commissary, making the food that the vendors sold, it was a revelation. I was backstage, in the ballpark before it opened to the public, and saw people like Reggie Jackson from ten feet away. When you’re 13, and have only ever seen someone like Reggie on TV, it’s a shock to see him up close, unfiltered by a screen, as if you never realized he existed in the flesh. The highlight of working those games—and there were so many—was getting to pull the tarp when it rained. To be 13 and running across a big-league field, in front of about 8,000 fans with garbage bags on their heads? I knew even then that life was unlikely to get better. Q: Did you know Twins Daily Writer and Founder John Bonnes, @TwinsGeek on twitter, growing up in Bloomington? A: I didn’t. If I had, I’d know much more about the Twins now. And then. But growing up in Bloomington you were never more than one degree of separation from the Twins. My brother was a lefthanded pitcher at Bloomington Lincoln and claims to have owned Hrbek whenever he pitched against Kennedy. I mentioned this to Hrbek once and he just laughed. I think he’s heard that from a lot of guys he faced in high school. Q: Was there a certain moment that inspired to you be a writer? Did you have a mentor? A: I learned to read watching Sesame Street and cereal boxes were my earliest literary influence. Another early influence was Oscar Madison, the sportswriter on “The Odd Couple.” He was a slob, ate hot dogs at ballgames and spent a lot of time loafing around his gigantic apartment in New York. That seemed like a good life. I once spent an evening with Jack Klugman for a Sports Illustrated column and thanked him for the inspiration. He said I wasn’t the first sportswriter to tell him that. My Mom, more than any one person, made me a writer. She got me a library card and encouraged me to read and would leave me at the B. Dalton bookstore for an hour when she shopped at Southdale. I would completely lose track of time, or even my surroundings, and get absorbed in a book. I didn’t know it then, but reading is the best preparation for writing. Q: Is there an unusual story about landing your job at Sports Illustrated? A: A junior college basketball coach had a three-on-three basketball tournament in his backyard in Bloomington. A buddy and I played in it. It was called the Saunders Hoop Invitational Tournament, or S.H.I.T. We were in high school. Sports Illustrated ran a long story on a huge 3-on-3 tournament in Michigan, and I wrote a letter to the editor of SI about our 3-on-3 tournament in Bloomington. The trophy was a Cool-Whip tub covered in aluminum foil. The author of the article in SI, Alexander Wolff, wrote to me to ask me more about our tournament, because he was writing a book on pickup basketball in America. So I wrote back to him, we became pen pals, and when I started writing stories in college, I’d send them to Alex, who passed one along to an editor SI, and eventually—just before I graduated from Marquette—the magazine ran my story. That got me a three-month internship as a fact-checker there and I never left. The junior college basketball coach who hosted the S.H.I.T., incidentally, was Flip Saunders. Q:What baseball writers do you most admire? past and present? A: Where to begin? I grew up reading Pat Reusse and Doug Grow in Minneapolis. My Dad traveled a lot, and in the age before the internet he’d bring home three-day-old newspapers from L.A. or New York, so I’d get to read columns by Jim Murray and Red Smith. I read all of Roger Angell’s books. They were some of the books I’d lose myself in at B. Dalton. When I arrived at SI, we had Peter Gammons and Steve Wulf and later Tom Verducci and Tim Kurkjian, all of whom were so good that the main thing I learned from them was not to try to be like them. There is more good baseball writing than there has ever been, and I won’t list all the current people I read for space considerations and fear of leaving someone out. Q: I see that you recently visited Minnesota and took in a game at Target Field with your children. What did that mean to you and was there a certain part of baseball that you felt you needed to teach them? For example, did you explain the meaning of Minnie and Paul to you daughter who thought one of them was Babe Ruth? A: The kids, thank goodness, like baseball. We were in Minneapolis when the Twins were out of town and took a tour of Target Field. The kids have this fantasy of being locked into a stadium overnight, like in “Night at the Museum,” and getting to eat all the popcorn and nachos and batting helmet sundaes they can, while running the bases and attempting to go yard. Sadly, we were not locked in at tour’s end, but we did come back on our last night in town for the Twins’ homestand-opener against the Orioles. They saw Hicks make a catch with his back to the plate and Dozier win it with a walk-off home run, and my 6-year-old son did ask—while pointing at the Twins logo in centerfield—“Who’s Babe Ruth shaking hands with?” We live in New England, and mostly go to Red Sox games, so it was nice to give them the experience I had as a kid: watching the Twins outdoors while learning how to crack open peanut shells. Q: What got you interested in writing your current book, the 34-Ton Bat, The Story of Baseball as told through Boobleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black and 375 Strange and Unusual Objects? A: That book evolved from wanting to know my grandfather. My Mom’s Dad was a member of the 1926 New York Giants but only played in one game, at catcher. I wanted to know what it was like to be at the Polo Grounds that Sunday afternoon in June of 1926, in hot flannel uniforms, without batting helmets, during Prohibition, and so forth. My uncle happened to still have the catcher’s mitt my grandfather wore that day, he mailed it to me, and I put it on and it was like shaking hands with the grandfather I never knew. My grandfather, Jimmy Boyle, died before I was born. I did what anyone would do with a baseball mitt, and placed it over my nose and mouth like an airplane oxygen mask. I could smell this ballpark in Harlem from 85 years ago. That led to me writing about the most compelling objects of the game—hats and mitts, of course, but also bobbleheads and ballpark organs and beer cups—all those things that beguiled me while working at the Met as a teenager. Q: Could you discus the process you went through at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in researching the book? A: The Hall of Fame Library is a wonderful place. You have to put on white gloves to handle the files, so everyone in there looks like Mickey Mouse. I pored over files on ballpark concessions and novelties and souvenirs. I found an old foil hot dog wrapper in one file folder full of old newspaper clippings on hot dogs. Tom Shieber, the curator, was walking past me when it happened and took the wrapper to file elsewhere. I loved that this guy has a job in which he files foil hot dog wrappers from, I don’t know, Shea Stadium in 1978. I’d take those photocopied files home, and if I had any other questions, when I couldn’t be in Cooperstown, a brilliant researcher there named Bill Francis would try to help me answer them. I knew I was on to something when Bill had not been previously aware of some minor fact. He hadn’t realized that Milwaukee had a bring-your-own-beer policy in the ‘50s and ‘60s, or that the urinals at Ebbets Field were a disaster. These discoveries were a small triumph for me, because Bill knows everything. Q: Is there a story that stands out to you in the book that you enjoyed researching and writing about? Anything that surprised you? A: There is an interesting, otherwise-lost-to-history story in the book about an eccentric guy named Foulproof Taylor, who invented a protective cup for boxers and later a batting helmet, neither of which boxing or baseball was yet ready for in the 1920s and ‘30s. Foulproof was once famous in New York boxing circles for wearing his cup to gyms and asking fighters—world-famous fighters like Primo Carnera—to punch him in the groin as hard as they could. Most of them happily obliged. Foulproof was once the world champion of sack racing, but he began a slow fade into obscurity in the 1960s. A relative of his—a writer named Diane Taylor--proved a great source in keeping Foulproof’s story alive, and I was happy to tell that story in the book. Q: What new project is in the works? Any new books? A: I’m writing a memoir of my ‘70s childhood, specifically my growing up in the ‘70s in—of all places—Bloomington, Minnesota.

One of my favorite people to follow on twitter for baseball news and analysis is Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated. He used to write for Baseball Prospectus and while there he developed the metric Jaffe War Score System. The baseball fan’s favorite website, Baseball Reference, explains Jaffe’s metric. “JAWS measures a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness by comparing him to the players at his position who are already enshrined, using advanced metrics to account for the wide variations in offensive levels that have occurred throughout the game’s history”. For shortstops, the highest WAR (131.0) and a JAWS (98.2) rating goes to Honus Wagner. The second highest WAR is Alex Rodriguez with WAR (117.8) and a JAWS (64.2). Omar Vizquel is ranked 30th with 45.3 WAR and a 36.0 JAWS. Former Twin Christian Guzman is ranked 157th with a WAR of 12.5 and a 16.2 JAWS. For a more advanced breakdown click here. Jaffe's metric is important because it objectively quantifies a flawed Hall of Fame voting and election system. But he understands how JAWS explains a polarizing topic among Twins fans, former catcher and current Twins first basemen, Joseph Patrick Mauer. He absolutely nailed the Hall of Fame analysis this year. I was lucky enough to pick his brain for a couple Questions and Answers. Q. From what you told me previously it was not a straight career path from graphic design work. How did you get your start as a writer? A. Long before I wrote about baseball, I wrote about music - the local scene and cool indie stuff - for good clean fun, the weekly entertainment magazine of the Brown Daily Herald. An internship at a music magazine called Boston Rock led me to the revelation that I could make far more money learning to use the page layout software (Pagemaker) than writing, and that sent me down a decade-and-a-half long road into graphic design. Most of the design work that I did was centered around textbooks and children's books; the pinnacle of my career was as the Creative Director on the World Almanac For Kids from 2002-2004. All of that work was for print, I didn't have any experience doing web design. At some point in early 2001, I decided I wanted to start a baseball blog and learn a bit of design to fancy it up. That experiment became FutilityInfielder.com, which survives in some half-neglected form today, because the paying gigs take up my time and I'm no longer current with my HTML/web design knowledge. Q. Was there a certain moment that you caught the writing bug? A. I can't really pinpoint what started me to writing about music but what got me into writing about baseball was arguments with my friends over the state of the Yankees in the late '90s, and then discussions on Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory) and Baseball Prospectus, as well as the columns of Rob Neyer at ESPN. I was an early convert to Bill James back when his Baseball Abstracts were hits in the early 1980s, and it was very cool to see his concepts being updated and applied - I previously had little idea of where to find other baseball nerds. Q. What is one thing that most do not know about you professionally? A. That I not only had a previous career in graphic design but that I have a biology degree (see http://www.asbmb.org...es/AnalyzeThis/). Also that my wife's yellow laborador, Pearl, writes some of my columns (try to guess which ones!) Q. What advice do you have for aspiring writers? A. Writing is a muscle and needs to be strengthened via regular repetition. Write every day, even if it's not for publication. That's the only way you're ever going to find your voice. Q. How did you become involved with Baseball Prospectus? A. At Futility Infielder I had done two annual reviews of the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot (2002 and 2003) that got a lot of traffic. BP asked me if I'd like to write something for them on the 2004 ballot - what came out of it were my first two contributions and a forerunner to the system that became JAWS. Q.Why do you think writers for Baseball Prospectus and other online websites are hired by Major League front offices? What exactly are they looking for in these writers and or sabermatricians? A. They're not looking for great stylists of prose, they want people with skills in quantitative analysis and the ability to manage large sets of data. They want the ones with the ability to pick out the signal from the noise when it comes to pitching or defensive data or college stats, stuff like that. Q. Currently, Mauer is tied for 3rd with Albert Pujols with a career batting average of .3156, among active players. 1. Miguel Cabrera (13,32) .3213 R 2. Ichiro Suzuki (15,41) .3165 L 3. Joe Mauer (12,32) .3156 L 4. Albert Pujols (15,35) .3156 R After starting off his career with 3 batting titles as a catcher, Joe Mauer’s Hall Fame stock seems to have fallen. Mauer moved to first base because of the concussions he suffered, the need to keep his bat in the lineup daily, and the need to increase his career longevity. How did that position change affect his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame? A. Mauer had already established himself as one of the best-hitting catchers in history, had done so much that his place in Cooperstown is justified. Via my JAWS system, he already surpasses the peak value (best seven seasons) of the average Hall of Fame catcher by a substantial margin. Even if he winds up playing more games at first base than catcher, he's never going to be identified as a first baseman — a similar situation as Ernie Banks. The problem for him is that it appears he's headed towards a long dénouement, 3 1/2 more seasons of being a light-hitting first baseman who's nowhere near worth what he's being paid. Voters tend to hold that stuff against candidates, sometimes to an unreasonable degree. Q. But what does he need to accomplish statistically to increase his chances of getting into Cooperstown? Having already surpassed the 10 years needed for eligibility, the one thing that he really needs to do is get to 2,000 hits. No position player whose MLB career crossed into the post-1960 expansion era has gotten in with fewer than that. Otherwise worthy candidates like Dick Allen and Bobby Grich can't get in despite strong resumes and stellar advanced metrics, and the same will be true for Jim Edmonds when he becomes eligible this winter. Mauer's at 1,622 at this writing, so he should be able to surpass that by the time his contract ends following the 2018 season. He'll be just 35 then; it remains to be seen if he's got anything that keeps him around. Q. Do you have book coming out soon? What is in the works besides Sports Illustrated? A I'm working on a book called The Cooperstown Casebook, to be published by Thomas Dunne, a division of St. Martin's Press. It's about my work with JAWS and the role of sabermetrics in choosing who goes into the Hall of Fame. It's tentatively due for Fall 2016, and when I say tentatively... Other than that, I do the occasional TV appearance on MLB Network's MLB Now and ESPN's The Olbermannn Show, and once in a while I write at Futility Infielder, though it's usually about beer, not baseball. Click here to view the article

One of my favorite people to follow on twitter for baseball news and analysis is Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated. He used to write for Baseball Prospectus and while there he developed a metric Jaffe War Score System. The baseball fan’s favorite website Baseball Reference explains Jaffe’s metric. “JAWS measures a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness by comparing him to the players at his position who are already enshrined, using advanced metrics to account for the wide variations in offensive levels that have occurred throughout the game’s history”. For Shortstops, The highest WAR (131.0) and a JAWS (98.2) rating goes to Honus Wagner. The second highest WAR is Alex Rodriguez with WAR (117.8) and a JAWS (64.2). Omar Vizquel is ranked 30th with 45.3 WAR and a 36.0 JAWS. Former Twin Christian Guzman is ranked 157th with a WAR of 12.5 and a 16.2 JAWS. For a more advanced breakdown click here. Jaffe is important because he objectively quantifies a flawed Hall of Fame voting and election system. But he understands how JAWS explains a polarizing topic among Twins Fans, former catcher and current twins first basemen, Joseph Patrick Mauer. He absolutely nailed the Hall of Fame analysis this year. I was lucky enough to pick his brain for a couple Questions and Answers. Q. From what you told me previously it was not a straight career path from graphic design work, how did you get your start as a writer? A. Long before I wrote about baseball, I wrote about music - the local scene and cool indie stuff - for good clean fun, the weekly entertainment magazine of the Brown Daily Herald. An internship at a music magazine called Boston Rock led me to the revelation that I could make far more money learning to use the page layout software (Pagemaker) than writing, and that sent me down a decade-and-a-half long road into graphic design. Most of the design work that I did was centered around textbooks and children's books; the pinnacle of my career was as the Creative Director on the World Almanac For Kids from 2002-2004. All of that work was for print, I didn't have any experience doing web design. At some point in early 2001, I decided I wanted to start a baseball blog and learn a bit of design to fancy it up. That experiment became FutilityInfielder.com, which survives in some half-neglected form today, because the paying gigs take up my time and I'm no longer current with my HTML/web design knowledge. Q. Was there a certain moment that you caught the writing bug? A. I can't really pinpoint what started me to writing about music but what got me into writing about baseball was arguments with my friends over the state of the Yankees in the late '90s, and then discussions on Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory) and Baseball Prospectus, as well as the columns of Rob Neyer at ESPN. I was an early convert to Bill James back when his Baseball Abstracts were hits in the early 1980s, and it was very cool to see his concepts being updated and applied - I previously had little idea of where to find other baseball nerds. Q. What is one thing that most do not know about you professionally? A. That I not only had a previous career in graphic design but that I have a biology degree (see http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/201505/Features/AnalyzeThis/). Also that my wife's yellow laborador, Pearl, writes some of my columns (try to guess which ones!) Q. What advice do you have for aspiring writers? A. Writing is a muscle and needs to be strengthened via regular repetition. Write every day, even if it's not for publication. That's the only way you're ever going to find your voice. Q. How did you become involved with Baseball Prospectus? A. At Futility Infielder I had done two annual reviews of the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot (2002 and 2003) that got a lot of traffic. BP asked me if I'd like to write something for them on the 2004 ballot - what came out of it were my first two contributions and a forerunner to the system that became JAWS. Q.Why do you think writers for Baseball Prospectus and other online websites are hired by Major League front offices? What exactly are they looking for in these writers and or sabermatricians? A. They're not looking for great stylists of prose, they want people with skills in quantitative analysis and the ability to manage large sets of data. They want the ones with the ability to pick out the signal from the noise when it comes to pitching or defensive data or college stats, stuff like that. Q. Currently, Mauer is tied for 3rd with Albert Pujols with a career batting average of .3156, among active players. 1. Miguel Cabrera (13,32) .3213 R 2. Ichiro Suzuki (15,41) .3165 L 3. Joe Mauer (12,32) .3156 L 4. Albert Pujols (15,35) .3156 R After starting off his career with 3 batting titles as a catcher, Joe Mauer’s Hall Fame stock seems to have fallen. Mauer moved to first base because of the concussions he suffered, the need to keep his bat in the lineup daily, and the need to increase his career longevity. How did that position change affect his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame? A. Mauer had already established himself as one of the best-hitting catchers in history, had done so much that his place in Cooperstown is justified. Via my JAWS system, he already surpasses the peak value (best seven seasons) of the average Hall of Fame catcher by a substantial margin. Even if he winds up playing more games at first base than catcher, he's never going to be identified as a first baseman — a similar situation as Ernie Banks. The problem for him is that it appears he's headed towards a long dénouement, 3 1/2 more seasons of being a light-hitting first baseman who's nowhere near worth what he's being paid. Voters tend to hold that stuff against candidates, sometimes to an unreasonable degree. Q. But what does he need to accomplish statistically to increase his chances of getting into Cooperstown? Having already surpassed the 10 years needed for eligibility, the one thing that he really needs to do is get to 2,000 hits. No position player whose MLB career crossed into the post-1960 expansion era has gotten in with fewer than that. Otherwise worthy candidates like Dick Allen and Bobby Grich can't get in despite strong resumes and stellar advanced metrics, and the same will be true for Jim Edmonds when he becomes eligible this winter. Mauer's at 1,622 at this writing, so he should be able to surpass that by the time his contract ends following the 2018 season. He'll be just 35 then; it remains to be seen if he's got anything that keeps him around. Q. Do you have book coming out soon? What is in the works besides Sports Illustrated? A I'm working on a book called The Cooperstown Casebook, to be published by Thomas Dunne, a division of St. Martin's Press. It's about my work with JAWS and the role of sabermetrics in choosing who goes into the Hall of Fame. It's tentatively due for Fall 2016, and when I say tentatively... Other than that, I do the occasional TV appearance on MLB Network's MLB Now and ESPN's The Olbermannn Show, and once in a while I write at Futility Infielder, though it's usually about beer, not baseball.

Before there was Jackie Robinson, there was Hank Greenberg. Although Jackie Robinson was African American, Hank Greenberg was Jewish,but still encountered racism during his Detroit Tiger playing days before Robinson debuted in 1947. Many Jews in Detroit and around the country refused to buy Ford Cars because of the founder’s philosophy. They also comforted themselves with humor, telling Henry Ford jokes like the one where a fortune-teller informs Ford that he will die on a Jewish Holiday. “ Which one? Ford asked nervously. “ Their New Year? The day of atonement? Their Passover? Which one?” “Mr. Ford,” the fortune-teller responds, “whatever day you die will be a Jewish holiday.” John Rosengren’s exhaustive research in Hero of Heroes is more accurate and detailed than Greenberg’s autobiography. If you love baseball and biographies then read this book. Plus John Rosengren is a local author that lives in Minneapolis. I happened to meet the author at a Society of American Baseball Research Meeting where he shared the opening joke from this passage. By the way, He told everyone that for the record,he is not Jewish. Greenberg grew up from little Hyman Greenberg in New York, to the “Hammerin’ Hank’ in Detroit. He lead his Detroit Tigers to Four American League Pennants, two World Series Titles, and gave the city something to cheer for and escape during the Great Depression in the United States and while the world started to conflict towards World War Two. He slugged 58 home runs in the 1938 season and nearly broke Babe Ruth’s then record of 60 Home Runs. In 13 big league seasons Greenberg had this slash line .313/.412/.605. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/greenha01.shtml. But what Greenberg believed were the most important statistic and his greatest responsibility in the batters box was Runs Batted in. He won 4 RBI titles. “Given the chance to play the four seasons he missed due to military service, Green berg would have boosted his career statistics by rough 50 percent, according to projections by the Society for American Baseball Research, ranking him 26th all time for home runs (502) 11th for RBI (1,869) and tied for 54th for runs scored (1,554) Baseball Historian Bill James thinks Greenberg could have reached 600 home runs, especially if he had batted against replacement pitchers during the war years.” After his playing days ended Greenberg became a baseball executive and architected Two pennent winning teams in 1948 and 1951, and sponsored a high number of African American players. His 1948 Cleveland Indian team won a World Series. That is Cleveland’s last professional sport championship. After leaving in the Indians, Greenberg Joined his good friend and business partner, Bill Veeck with the Chicago White Sox. There he won another pennant in 1959 with the Go-Go Sox. Working in the front office Greenberg was a deal maker, savvy with the team’s investments and had several innovating ideas. “In retrospect, people like Ralph Kiner, former AL president Bobby Brown and current commissioner Bud Selig think Hank would have been a terrific commissioner. Selig said Greenberg influenced him on interleague play and realignment; changes Hank had suggested and to implemented forty years later. ‘He was right on a lot of issues’ Selig Said “He was very progressive in a sport that was very cautious-I’m trying to be kind in how I say that-He would have been a marvelous commissioner” By reading this book discover the Hank Greenberg on the field of baseball, in the front office of baseball and outside of the ballpark. Greenberg was extremely competitive on the baseball field, off it the field with his children and into his day’s of tennis and retirement. He would never let his children win and he was a demanding doubles partner. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1329573507

Why is there a need for a Metrodome baggie wall in right field? Do we have to remember that the Twins played 27 years in the Teflon Palace? For fans, there is nostalgia and of course two World Series titles, where the Twins won all 8 World Series games at home. Target Field ushered in a new era of outdoor baseball, modern day amenities, the iconic Minnie and Paul Logo in centerfield, a green batter’s eye with 14 spruce trees and slightly similar dimensions of the Metrodome. Those dimension and the so-called worst batters eye in the league, suffocated the offense in the first couple of seasons. The trees were removed after the inaugural 2010 season but the dimensions remain the same. Principal Architect of the firm Populous Earl Santee transformed Target Field from an urban parking lot to one of the best ballparks in America. Remember that Santee designed the ballpark on a small 7.5 acreslot which as he described left Target field like a muffin. The below street level playing field, the small foul territory, and seats next to it in the 100’s section are crammed in that confined 7.5 of urban acreage in what I call the stump of the muffin. The spacious main concourse, press box, corporate suites, Metropolitan Club, Legends Club, the grandstands in left and right field, and the skyline seats under the canopy are the top of the muffin. They are sprawled out and over the field and “does its own thing” (If you are wondering where I came up the idea name of the bottom of the muffin Stump) Along with Santee, former Twins Executive Jerry Bell, has his fingerprints all over the ballpark. Bell wanted the ballpark to be fair to both hitters and pitchers. The small lot only provided Twins fans with a capacity of 39,020, good enough for 22ndin all of major league baseball. The muffin-like design created an intimidate view of the players and field for the fans. For Santee’s craft, he was awarded the 2010 Star Tribune’s Sportsperson of the Year. All of these characteristics should make Target Field an urban hitters park. But after the first couple of seasons they formed Target Field into a pitchers park. Below, is a graphic taken from BallparkMagic.com. The numbers on the green field are the current Target Field dimensions and the numbers in the black are the old Metrodome Dimensions. The left field foul line is now at 339 feet from 343. The left center gap is now at 377 feet from 385. Dead center is now at 404 feet from 408. The wall from left field foul pole to the right field gap is now at 8 feet from 7.1. The wall from right center to the right field foul pole is at 21 feet from 17. The right field wall sadly reminds fans of the Metrodome infamous right field baggie, has the out of town scoreboard and an awkward Kasota overhang. With the increase of the wall in right field and the so-called left center gap called Death Valley, Target field now slightly favors right-hander hitters instead of left-hander hitters. Left handed hitting first baseman Justin Morneau complained about hitting at Target Field because of the wall in the right field. "Right-center to left-center is ridiculous," Morneau said in an e-mail to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "[it's] almost impossible for a right-handed hitter to [homer to the] opposite field and very difficult for lefties. It affects the hitters a lot, and you start to develop bad habits as a hitter when you feel like you can only pull the ball to hit it over the fence. You take those habits on the road." The inaugural season impersonated Target Field as a pitchers park and probably failed to meet Jerry Bell’s fair ballpark satisfaction. Hitters from the Twins and other teams complained about the14 black spruce trees in center field because it was hard to see the ball and dangerous. In the daytime and in the breeze the ball became hard to pick up from the batters back. Then manager Ron Gardenhire joked he would chainsaw the trees on his own. At the end of the 2015 season, the 14 black spruce trees were removed. Hitters also had a hard time picking up the ball from the green batter's eye. At the start of the 2014 season, the Twins painted the green backdrop black to reduce glare from the sun. Then Detroit Tiger and now current Twin Tori Hunter, was quoted by Pat Borzi in a Sport on Earth Article. "For me, a good park to hit in is a batter's eye that's all black," said Torii Hunter. "Minnesota is all black. Seattle is all black. At our park (Comerica), it's dark green and some black, so you can kind of pick up this little white ball.” At the end of 2014 Season Bryz a fellow writer at Twinkie town said that Target field is getting more hitter’s friendly and the narrative is changing. http://www.twinkietown.com/2014/12/17/7406221/is-target-field-a-pitchers-park-or-hitters-park According to ESPN Stats and Info with the two statistics Park Factors and Average Home runs agree." Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter and below 1.000 favors the pitcher. Teams with home games in multiple stadiums list aggregate Park Factors. " If you really want to get in-depth with park Factors read this http://gosu02.tripod.com/id103.html Basically, this quantifies how much the park factors in producing runs.<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/130618419@N08/18678682113" title="Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.02.44 AM by Scott Cummings, on Flickr">< img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/342/18678682113_300e63ff3a.jpg" width="500" height="208" alt="Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.02.44 AM"></a> Clearly Target Field is playing more fair, but favoring hitters only slightly. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see Target Field fallsin the end of the season for Park Factors and Home Runs Per Game. Will 2014 be a fluke? Or will 2015 show that it really is a fair ballpark that Former Twins executive Jerry Bell wanted?

Also Mat, Do you have a webpage and or Bio?

Only in Baseball would you get a quote like this. "I Probably have more education than anybody in the room, yet here I am sanitizing the shower. If it were anything else but baseball I wouldn’t want to be involved in some of the duties. But since its professional baseball, it’s special.” Nice peice Matt capturing the passion of a man cleaning the toilet.

Which one is closer to a winning season in transition?

I have stopped using a physical calendar for sometime now. Mainly because I have a smartphone and I always want to have the calendar with me. Anyway this past year for the holiday season my own father bought me a Minnesota Twins Calendar. Then on Twitter this week I came upon the Mets Season calendar http://www.amazinavenue.com/2013/9/2/4687388/the-2013-mets-mini-calendar That got me to thinking is my Minnesota Twins Calendar just as worse? I will break it down month by month. January - Brian Dozier - (Active with the Team) He is the silver lining to the 2013 Twins if there was one. Feburuary - Alexi Casilla- (Designated for Assignment) by the Twins in the offseason as I am sure you know. Picked up the Baltimore Orioles and has a Team Option for the next season. If you want to pay 1.9 million a year for a slash line of [TABLE] 217/ .274 /.302 Then go right ahead [/TABLE] March- Justin Morneau (Traded) I feel that enough has been written and talked about him recently. and if you want more information then follow Jim Souhan because he is on the Beat of Morneau and the Pirates. April- Glen Perkins (AllStar) Arguable the active Twins Best Player as Mauer is on the shelf with the Twin's nemeses of an injury. A Concussion. May- Ben Revere (Traded) who has now turned the corner after a unhealthy 2013 season. June- Joe Mauer ( All Star and Team MVP) Outside the concussion is living up to to is 23 million a year salary with the teams that Twins have put him through this past two years July- Danny Valencia ( Designated for Assignment) After a 10 game stint with the Bobby V led Red Sox, Valencia has settled in nicely as a backup to Double Machine Manny Machado. Currently his triple Slash line for this season is .314/.346/.626. August- Scott Diamond ( Optioned to AAA) he has been the biggest disspointment for the twins Starting Rotation this year. And that is saying something. September - Francico Liriano He has almost returned to his old form ...with the Pirates Here is a good reason why http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/50493176 October- Chris Parmelee- (Optioned to AAA twice) He is giving Aaron Hicks a good run for his money on MN twins Biggest Disappointment of 2013. November- Josh Williingham ( Dl and limited to only 97 games) His health has Terry Ryan thinking hindsight about trading him last year. December - Denard Span ( Traded) Even though he is having a somewhat of a down year, I would still take him over Alex Pressley. Next year I dont think I will buy this calendar… But at least the Twins Calendar is better than the mets?