Monday May 16, 2011

Breaking down the early season challenges of our Minnesota Twins comes down to the most elementary of baseball concepts; balls and strikes.  Our pitchers are throwing too many balls.  Our hitters are swinging at too many balls.  Twins starter Brian Duensing walked the first two batters to open the game Sunday.  The game ended with Jason Kubel watching strike three cross the plate with the bases loaded.  It was the third backwards K of the game for the Twins.  It's all about strike-zone command and discipline.  And right now our Twins have neither.

I came to that conclusion yesterday from the padded seats of the Champions Club section at Target Field.  The Champions Club is basically a yacht club right behind home plate at the ballpark.  The sun shined.  All elements were in place for this family to have another memorable experience together.  However, Jose Bautista and the Toronto Blue Jays spoiled the competitive aspect of the outing.  Still it's really hard to get too upset about our Twins bad start.

Shannon and Erin really enjoyed just relaxing together for a few hours.  During batting practice we were down goofing around by the dugout and Joe Mauer smiled at the girls as he walked by.  I said; "Hey Joe, what up?"  Shannon elbowed me in the ribs for being a dork.

The combination of warm sunshine and really comfortable seating was just what we needed because Shannon started showing signs of fatigue from three weeks of radiation and chemotherapy.

The girls have to grind out two more solid weeks of school before the end-of-year field trips and really fun stuff kicks in.  Do you remember how great that was?  Remember cleaning out your desk?  Erin is about to do that for the final time at Bamber Valley Elementary.  What a great place that school has been for this family.