ScrapTheNickname

A well-balanced and thoughtful article, Nick. To remain so interested in this team at this point is a reflection of your dedication to the Twins and this website. I can hardly stand it, myself.

Slander is a heavy word. I'd edit that out if I were you. Simply criticizing a player is not slanderous. Definition of slander: "the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation."

Simmons is a trade piece you overlooked. He's here on a one-year deal, and if the Twins continue to fizzle contending teams will like to add his defensive wizardry. Not much return, but something, and a line to cross later in the summer.

Falvine isn't a person.

I agree. Panic. But what good is panic? I personally plan to take up Tai Chi instead of watching the Twins.

A closer look shows that Baddoo has 4 hits in his last 39 at bats, for an average of .102. No home runs, 2 doubles, and 23 strike outs. To say he's plummeted back to earth is an understatement.

No comment.

Is not having a bench coach a wise decision for a professional baseball manager? No. Will Rocco get on board before it's too late by bringing in a right-hand man? I doubt it.

The Twins have two coaches. Do you mean they need a new hitting coach?

Shame on me? Rosario is hitting .620 OPS. If we're comparing apples to apples having him in LF wouldn't be doing us any good. Kiriloff hit the ball on the nose twice today. It's baseball. They got caught. He's 23. He's our man going forward. Shame on no one! It's a gambler's game, always have to try to stay ahead of the curve and the competition.

The Twins, at least for a day or two, are watchable? I'd rather see Kiriloff at first than Sano. (I'm so done with Sano.) And while I don't expect much from Gordon at least he's new and of interest. This team is in bad shape right now, so anything but the status quo is okay with me.

I hate this as much as anyone. I hate it. I couldn't even watch the second half of the game yesterday. Why go through misery when I could do something else? With that said, look at who is in last place in each division in the American League. Yankees, Astros, and Twins. The three teams predicted by most to finish atop their divisions. So ... it's early. I shall watch them again. If they don't perform better, I shall not watch. At this point they are unwatchable. Things change. Or things can change. Things often change. Even that big ship in the Suez Canal finally got turned around!

Thanks for the interest, Scott! Halberstam is a writer I want to read more of.

I bailed after about the 4th inning. Couldn't t stomach any more. Glad I didn't.

Baseball Books!? During these down days away from Twins baseball -- when I'm not so sure I even want to see the Twins play baseball again -- I accidentally read a book about baseball. How do you accidentally read a book about baseball? Well, I know of this author, John Fante, but I hadn't read 1933 Was a Bad Year, which happens to be about a high school senior (it's not a children's book at all), presumably written in the 1930s. A fun short novel about a left-armed high school boy in Colorado who believes without a doubt that he's destined for the Big Leagues, and the narrator is crafty enough to not let us know if he's honestly good or if he’s deluding himself. The book is set during is a snowy spring and not an actual baseball is thrown. A book I really like, and have read twice, is The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. J. Henry Waugh Proprietor, by Robert Coover. All about the dark obsessive underbelly of a baseball fan. Mr. Waugh lives increasingly in a fantasy world in which he creates entire sports teams, but not only that, he creates their wives, their after-game dinners, their drinking habits, the owners who own and trade and trade them, etc. The whole nine imaginary yards. It's based on a dice game J. Henry plays, which determines the course of action – similar to Strat-o-Matic baseball. But what happens when the outcome that is necessary to keep the illusion alive is not what in the dice roll? When I was in Junior High (full disclosure: I’m 63) I read Going, Going Gone, and then, this winter, I found it on Amazon and I reread it. It’s still pretty good, surprisingly. About a high school boy who’s a confident home run slugger who willfully ignores his defensive weaknesses. He just assumes his hitting will get him to the Bigs. He learns, after being benched by a his tough-minded coach, and support from his teammates, that defense is as important as offense. The Kid Who Batted 1.000, written by Bob Allison, tickled me when I was a kid. (No, not that Bob Allison.) A country boy can’t hit, but he sure can take a walk ... Hey, Astudillo, you ought to read this one! ... He walks and walks and walks. He’s a miracle walker! But when push comes to shove, and a hit is needed and a walk won't do, will the kid come through? It's a children’s book, after all. The Science of Hitting by Ted Williams. Man, I wish I’d known about this book when I was in high school! Ted was knowledgeable about the craft of beyond belief. It’s a must read for any age, 1975 or 2075. Was he not the greatest hitter of all time? Perhaps, knowing that he missed whole seasons flying fighter jets in both WWII and Korea. The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship by David Halberstam. About the enduring friendship between four Red Sox greats, Williams, Pesky, Dom DiMaggio and some other guy. As I recall it tells of their youthful on-the-field exploits as well as it explores their lifelong friendship as they age out of their playing days into old age. I loved this book but don't remember much about it. The Natural by Bernard Malamud. I found the prose dull as dust, didn’t get very far into it before I put it down. Same with The Art of Fielding, published just a couple of years ago, and quite popular; I expected to like it but lost interest and laid it down to rest next to The Natural. Like a chicken, I've just scratched the surface of possible baseball books ... Have you read any of these books? What did you think? What other baseball books have you read that you would recommend or steer us away from?