The weather was bad and the Twins were competitive, the weather gets nice and the Twins are hideous. Minnesotans can’t win.
Well allow us to rub it in a bit more.
The current Minnesota Twins received two All-Star participants in next week’s summer classic, Joe Mauer and surprise pick Glen Perkins.
Other names you may remember: Joe Nathan, Jesse Crain, David Ortiz, Torii Hunter, JJ Hardy, Carlos Gomez, and Michael Cuddyer. They’ll be there, too.
That’s seven former Twins that will participate in the 2013 All-Star Game. If you combined former and current Twins you’ll see this coming week, you could field an entire nine-man team!
Maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but the facts speak for themselves, with AL and NL rosters littered with ghosts of downtown’s past.
Most notably:
Cuddyer’s 27-game hit streak earlier this season, the longest in baseball so far this year. He has hit safely in all but nine of his 68 appearances this year.
Crain’s numbers are outrageous, especially when you compare them with his numbers in Minnesota, posting a 0.74 ERA as the White Sox setup man, he’s struck out 46 in just 36 2/3 innings.
Gomez leads baseball in wins against replacement (WAR), a stat designed to gauge the most important player in baseball to his team.
Ortiz is making his ninth appearance, all with Boston, and continues to put up blistering stats at age 37.
Lastly, and perhaps most painfully (they all hurt), JJ Hardy has mashed 67 home runs in his two and a half seasons with Baltimore, just six with Minnesota in his only season with the Twins.
