It Had To Be Done

Alright, time for a real update.

As we all know the Twins were SWEEP'D. By the team we're trying to catch for the division title. And, we all know that most Twins fans are frustrated by all the errors, offensive difficulties, and just poor play by our hometown Minnesota Twins.

All I can say is I'm absolutely sick of it all. Not the poor baseball - the poor fans. All the number crunchers and people who statistically say we cannot win our division. That Nick Punto sucks and shouldn't be in the line-up all the time. That Jason Bartlett is a bad shortstop because he makes errors; that we have to rely on all the big guys in the middle of the line-up to win us a game because nothing else clicks because our starting pitching started out badly, since we were young and now we suck. So on and so forth.

First off, I'd like to see those number-crunching fans who nitpick about our boys. I'd like to see you on the field. Can you play under the pressure that is "we're 9 games back behind the Tigers, we're at home, we can't let our fans down." Or the pressure that's put on Nick Punto at third? "I can't make an error because my career's in jeopardy. I can't bring my burned-out offense on the field because otherwise I'd be out for good. Traded, sent down for a big third baseman who can hit 50 homers a year. I can't do this. I can't strikeout anymore."

I'm a cross between a regular joe Twins fan and a major fan. I watch all of the games and I have a jersey or two. A couple of bobbleheads, an autograph or so. I get as frustrated as anyone about losing a few games. I don't like it when we make errors or our offensive slumps to the degree it's been at for the last few games. I don't like how our major at-bats crumble when the pressure's on. But it's okay. It's okay because they are the same guys. Playing on this team is a pasttime and a job for them. Do you like being criticized when you're doing a shitty job at work? The pressure's always on you to perform well otherwise you're gone.

It's the exact same for our boys. The exact same, just to a greater potential.

Sure, maybe it hurts a bit when you get cut from your job. Your friends, old employees, and family know. So what? You'll get over it. But imagine all that to such a degree where the whole United States - or, the whole world - would know you got cut, traded, or even worst: sent down to a lesser company just because or your poor performance. That would suck a bit, wouldn't it? Yeah, it would. That's life for the guys. That's every single day of their life. Am I going to get sent down to AAA or am I going to ensure my stay here on the team for a few more months? How about in the case of Kevin Slowey? Have one bad outing with the Yankees in the "House of Pain" (thank you, Fever Pitch) and get sent back down? Sure, I know he'll be up sooner or later if he keeps performing like he was, but look at it. Isn't that just worry enough to quit with your job?

But these guys, they keep going. The criticism either makes you or breaks you, and with all the criticism from 'fans' that our guys have been getting, I'd crumble under the pressure too. Of course we have the ability to whine about losing. Oh, God, we lost. Again. Are we ever going to win? Nope, Morneau's had a horrible series. We aren't going to win because Joe Mauer's struck out three times in these past games.

There are more guys than Morneau, Mauer, Hunter, and Santana on this team. As much as I like the main guys, the MVPs and the award winners, I love the whole team as a 'whole' more. Sure, they have a reason they're most valuable and they win multiple Golden Gloves and Cy Youngs. Sure, they deserve a bunch of fans. They deserve all the money they're getting paid. They deserve getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. They deserve it all. But there are a bunch of other things this whole team deserves, too. And that's real fans who like them regardless of the game outcome. Who look at the positives instead of bitching and moaning about how we got swept three games and how the assbats are coming back. Sure, I love me some Batgirl and I love complaining about how the guys aren't doing so well and we should have this record instead of the one we have right now. But put yourself in the team's shoes. Those are some really big shoes to fit, and for you, that shoe might be a few sizes too big.

I just had to get this out somewhere because I hate looking at all of my daily-stop blogs to see what I could have come up with myself: People complaining about how we're so bad as a team and our offense is horrible and our line-up sucks and etc.

I don't care if I'm illogical in the baseball world. I don't care one bit. It won't stop me from being a Twins fan. Maybe I don't fully understand the mechanics of pitching and putting all the numbers together and crunching them and calculating how bad or how good our team is. Maybe I don't understand that at all. At least I'm a true blue fan who'll root for the boys through thick and thin. At least I'll keep track of them in the winter time, and at least I'll whine to my dad as much as possible about how we should go to Spring Training, even though I know as a fact flying out to Florida just for baseball is out of the question for us. At least I can give possible praise to the team, and not the "BOO YOU SUCK" attitude that's flying around. If you wanna be like that I'll put you in a box with no holes and send you to White Sox nation, because that's where you belong.