Notes from the Welcome Home Luncheon and a few more ballgames

It's been a busy week. And all about baseball.

Friday me and Curveball attended the Twins Welcome Home luncheon. This event is hosted by the Mpls and St. Paul Chamber of Commerces, along with several corporate sponsors. All the current Twins players (save Friday's pitcher Baker) were in attendance, along with the coaching staff.

Curveball attended these luncheons as a kid (in the 60s!). Lucky kid! This was a first for me.

Now I have to fess up that I was mistaken about one sort of major thing. I thought that a Twins player was seated at each table. Well, there were some 70 tables and only some 30-odd players and coaches. So...you know where the players sat...at the tables with the corporate sponsors. Us lowly fans just had each other to chat with. They did serve a terrific meal however. No griping...it was a great event and the money raised benefits the Twins Community Fund.

Dick Bremer emceed the event. Anthony LaPanta from FSN conducted player interviews. Two of the new players, Bass and Tolbert, were interviewed and shared a story of recent rookie hazing. Bass and Tolbert were forced to sing the "We're Going to Win Twins" song on the airplane ride to MN. Bass declared himself the Twins #1 Idol since he won the competition. (Wait until these rookies see the outfits they'll be forced to wear later in the season--on a road trip!) In other interviews, Cuddy talked about getting to try his magic tricks on the new guys, Neshek jokingly gave Mauer a hard time for stealing his air time, and Morneau actually commented about his hitless streak and said he was searching for his favorite Bertuzzi shirt (not sure on the spelling of that, but Bertuzzi is a hockey player...and Morneau wore that shirt forever in 2006). Gardy spoke for a few minutes and when asked about Gomez he joked that he doesn't understand a word he says, but he sure likes how he's playing.

So that was pretty much it. The players left for the ballpark before the luncheon was over (just a clever ploy to get them out while we were still eating). It was fun to see all the guys together in their street clothes. I don't know if there are any other markets that pull off such an event with ALL their players.


We also attended Thursday and Friday's games.

Thursday we had seats in the upper deck, just behind home plate. I love afternoon games! Our section was filled with well-behaved school groups and young kids on spring break catching a game. I love that atmosphere of folks at a ballgame because they love the game. Although we lost this one as well, it was a good game. I managed to be away from my seat when Hunter hit his homer, but I did catch Kubel's homer--the first for the Twins this season. I do hope to see Kubel play more.

And, for unfortunate reasons, I guess I will. In Friday's game, Cuddy suffered an injury to his right index finger while sliding into third. He was promptly taken out of the game (and has been placed on the DL). Kubel was brought in and had a great game. The bright points of the game: GoGomez had another awesome game complete with hits and steals, Morneau had his 1st hit, Mauer had several hits, Baker pitched well (after settling in), and WE WON THE GAME!

We may have also found out new favorite seats for the season. Nothing fancy, just the cheap seats in the upper deck right behind 2nd base. There's less people there, so you can stretch out more. I can yell and scream without bothering people...in fact, if we pick the right row I can stand all I want without blocking people behind me. And the best part: at $7 a ticket I can go to a lot more ballgames.

And that's a good thing!