Melissa Berman

A wise gal once said “Cold days like these have me dreaming about baseball.” Actually, that was me on Twitter a few days ago. Regardless, here we are on the eve of yet another meeting between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, where on February 12 the MLB and its owners plan to make a new proposal to the MLBPA. As I’m sure we all know, thus far very little progress has been made and both sides remain quite far apart on issues ranging from service time rules to free agency structure. The pace of negotiations has thus far been definitively glacial. Here's a theory that gives me some hope that the CBA negotiation pace is going to pick up big time- hopefully starting with this February 12 meeting. Spring training makes way more money now than it did even 10 years ago; it’s big business. The price of tickets continues to rise and complexes are becoming more built out. It’s a whole experience (and might I mention, a wonderful one for those lucky enough to find themselves at Hammond Stadium- I'll give my Fort Myers sightseeing guide in a future blog post). Therefore, the MLB has a real incentive to not only prevent the disruption of regular season games, but to prevent the loss of spring training games as well and the scores of beer-buying, sunburnt snowbirds they draw. Here’s an interesting graph courtesy of the the online ticket marketplace Tickpick showing the average price of spring training tickets per team on its platform as of 2020- the Twins appear to be on the lower end of prices. As a quick aside, I did not view the MLB's desire to use a mediator as negatively as the players did. I actually thought it was a good idea- we've seen it work recently in other sports like the NHL's 2012-2013 lockout. The players rejected the use of the mediator, saying that they did not need to use one because their proposals have been "fair." I do side with the players, but in my opinion each side believes they are being fair in their proposals- the impasse remains anyway. I thought a mediator might help the parties work through the hyper-toxic environment we have seen during the negotiating process. However, mediation isn't not happening, so hopefully the two sides can work through their differences one-on-one. As mentioned above, spring training profits likely provide an extra incentive for the MLB to move things along on their end. The players, on the other hand, don't get paid until regular season Opening Day (meaning they do not get paid for spring training). So for now I'll keep daydreaming about baseball and remain optimistic that a deal will get done. But really, as I look outside and see steam pouring out of chimneys, how nice does a 73 degree June night at Target Field, Dollar Dog in hand, sound right about now? By the way, any pictures I use on my blog/within its posts are my own! Below: Centurylink Sports Complex in 2019. There are a bunch of walls with really cool artwork and murals that line the complex's buildings and backstops. Feature photo: Spring training game I attended on March 6, 2018 during law school spring break, an 8-9 loss to the Orioles. Wave to TC down the third baseline!

Hello Twins fans and fanatics! My name is Melissa, and I’m romantic about baseball, the Twins, and Dollar Dog Night. I'm so excited to be starting up this blog to share my hot takes, musings, and ramblings about all things Twins baseball. My deep love for the Twins comes from a baseball and softball-centric upbringing. Growing up, softball truly was the love of my life. Like many little girls, my mom first tried putting me in dance. My dear readers, I *hated* dance. One of my most vivid memories entails me angrily crawling around on the floor of my mom’s minivan as she drove me to another dreaded dance rehearsal in a stuffy church basement. It was not a match. So, my parents stuck me in tee ball; my older sister played softball and of course I wanted to be ~just like her.~ I loved softball more than anything- I loved bunting and sliding, I loved practicing and executing rundowns but NOT getting into them, I loved my Jennie Finch glove, I loved tournaments and my jersey tan lines, I loved playing CF and 3B, I loved the number 12, and I loved being part of a team. Before I traded all my fast twitch muscles to the devil for the slow twitch marathon runner muscles I have today, I was an incredibly fast baserunner. Always the fastest on my team and usually the fastest overall at softball tryouts. In softball my favorite thing of all was stealing home- I’d take a larger than usual leadoff off third base aka the hot corner. The catcher would shoot me daggers and think ‘what the heck is this girl doing?’ and then the second her wrist snapped to throw the ball back to the pitcher, I’d be charging full speed towards home. I think I made it in safety every time. Growing up, and thanks to my parents, I went to a myriad of games at my beloved Metrodome. I have fond memories of arriving hours before weekend games to line up for Hormel bobblehead or bat giveaways and staying after the game to run the bases on Sundays. I think it’s an interesting cultural change that even in the past 10 or 15 or so years that people don’t really go crazy over these giveaways of material collectibles anymore and that teams don’t do as many of them. I’m admittedly quite a nostalgic person, so look for a blog post where I wax nostalgic about my favorite parts of the Dome sometime soon. We also went to Twins fest regularly, where I have wonderful memories of meeting players like Harmon Killebrew, who yes, was truly every bit as kind and warm as everyone says, and I attended uncountable free autograph signings at Cub Foods and Twins Pro Shop locations. Again, you don’t really see autograph signings like that anymore, and if you do, you might have to pay for the autograph. These days, I’m an attorney, competitive Nordic (cross country) skier, marathon runner, and ski coach. I love golfing and have to be frequently reminded to not “kill the ball”- a vestige from my softball days and a desire to swing as hard as I possible. I am a fierce advocate for women in sports and am proud to mentor both the boys and girls I coach. I attend around 30+ Twins home games a year, a handful or two of Saints games, and I’m hoping to road trip out to Chicago to catch a White Sox beatdown with some college friends this season as well. I love going to Spring Training and have a goal to visit as many MLB stadiums as possible. Some of my hot takes and views include a moderate aversion to modern analytics and using them to “overmanage” (especially in the playoffs), a disappointment in the disappearance of bunting, an annoyance in the Twins’ aversion to spend money on quality starting pitching, a belief that "The Trop" is a wonderful stadium, and being kind of bummed that the NL added the universal DH. That’s more than enough about me for now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you around the diamond! (Hopefully.. hop to it, Manfred!)

I love this idea. Super creative and well done. Now if you were to add players from the PC game 'Backyard Baseball' it would get controversial!

This is all really interesting. At first I had some mixed feeling about the Saints becoming our AAA affiliate. I've had a lot of fun going to Indyball Saints games over the years and was afraid the dynamic was going to change. The Saints were *very* adamant that they weren't going to give up who they were once they made the move to affiliated ball. I went to a bunch of Saints games last summer and they do still have the spirit of Saints games albeit a bit toned down. I think it will be really fun being able to follow prospects and have some actual experience watching them before they land in the Twins lineup. Rochester might as well be a world away from here. I hope to get to some more minor league stadiums in the future! Thanks for the cool history