Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Make or Break.

Upon wrapping up their nine game homestand today, the Minnesota Twins will embark on 15-day, 14-game road trip. In fact, 24 of their next 30 games will be away from home. Given the fact most American League teams have struggled on the road this year (the LA Angels of Anaheim are the only AL team with a winning road record) this upcoming trip will likely make or break the Twins’ season.

One may ask ”Why such a long road trip?” In case you haven’t heard, there’s a rather large contingent of Republicans coming to town soon. As a result, many fans (and possibly Twins players and coaches) are cursing the GOP National Convention taking place the first week in September. Due to the need for accommodations of the conventioneers, can you imagine the logistical nightmare of visiting baseball teams coming to town? Besides, there have been teams in a similar situation who have had it worse.

Does anyone recall the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston, TX? With the actual gathering taking place in the Astrodome, the Houston Astros were forced to play on the road for 26 consecutive games. Of course, the argument there would be that the ’92 Astros were not a division contender like the ’08 Twins. Fair enough. But the Astros gutted it out and went 12-14 on the trip. That’s darn near a .500 record on a grueling trip that took them through (in order) Atlanta, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and Philadelphia.

If manager Ron Gardenhire could sign a deal to go 8-6 on the upcoming road swing, I think he would take it in a heartbeat. And if he couldn’t find a pen, he would prick his finger and sign it in blood.

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7 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Agreed. On the plus side, however, the ChiSox end the season with a (not quite as) long road trip. If we can keep it close at the start of the month our chances are good at the end of it.

Mr. D said...

The key will be the first four games in Anaheim. Get through those 2-2 and I suspect the Twins will be just fine after that.

Anonymous said...

The administrator of this blog has chosen to delete the vile, disgusting comment left by some maniacal and gutless weasel.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Regarding the deleted comment, was it Stover talking about the Cubs?

Anonymous said...

gutless weasel. That's you ahole. You afraid to admit that because Pawlenty's head is up McCains ass the Twins are going to lose. Go ahead you retard, delete this too. guess what, censorship is alive and well on the right wing and your leading the pack.

Brad Carlson said...

gutless weasel. That's you ahole.

Really? I'm not the putz who's leaving anonymous comments. If you're so courageous, put your name behind your words, jackass.

You afraid to admit that because Pawlenty's head is up McCains ass the Twins are going to lose.

If the Twins lose, so be it. They're professionals so they shouldn't whine about circumstances which are not all that bad.

censorship is alive and well on the right wing and your (sic) leading the pack.

Apparently, poor grammar and bad spelling is alive and well on the loony left and you're leading the pack.

Censorship is one thing. Removing a rhetorical tumor is a service to my loyal readers.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Anon, censorship? Do you even know what that means? On second thought, don't answer that. It's already pretty clear that you don't.