Confessions of a Desperate Twins Fan: August Edition

By TwinsWin83

As I sit here and glance over at the Twins calendar hanging on the wall next to my trusty desktop computer one thing becomes glaringly clear to me, time is waning in the Major League regular season. This of course means one thing to me; the clock is ticking for the very squad that graces the 12 months on my calendar that looks like it could have been thrown together by a couple students in Mr. Wegner’s graphics class.

The hour glass is about to drain on a season that has been marked by an amazing amount of mediocrity produced and maintained by the Twinkies. Mediocre is something that most Twins fans have not been accustomed to since the turn of the century. Unless something drastic changes, and in a hurry, 2007 will go down as the year the team’s offense kept the wheels spinning in place for what could have been a promising ride. I for one would like to see the Twins settle on one direction or the other, either bail on the pennant race and work some young and promising players into the everyday lineup, or step up and make some changes in the offense and rotation that show they are going to attempt to make a major push the final six weeks of the season.

At this point I feel drained from being given hope by little spurts of good play (after the Tiger series at home two weeks ago when the Twins pulled within 4.5 of first) followed quickly by games that make the team appear as a middle-of-the-road ball club (days later being shut out in Kansas City). We as fans are being jerked around with false glances of optimism every couple weeks only to be let down again a day later when a group better resembling the mid to late 90’s squads than the teams of the past six years shows up. The Twins seem to forever be condemned to a 5-8 game deficit.

What’s worse is that the two teams ahead of the Twins are playing like they are scared of the division crown. All it would have taken for the Twins to pull even would have been a six or seven game winning streak conveniently placed within the last month. That’s it. A couple runs here or there in a couple key games and the Twins are either in first or a game or two back. The team has suffered so many shut out and one-run losses that it has become common place. In what has been a frustrating year, that fact might remain the most exasperating of all, especially if the present course of events continues into late September.

With that being said, a six and half game deficit on August 21st is not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination, particularly when you consider how the two teams ahead of the Twins have played since the All-Star break. Detroit’s 06’ late-season collapse was of historic proportions and Cleveland is playing with a squad full of players who have either never been to the post-season or have never been in the thick of a late season pennant race, or both. If the Twins offense can rekindle some of the magic they conjured up late last year, (getting bunts down, moving runners over, hits with 2 outs and runners in scoring position and even a big home run here and there) they might be able to sneak back into this thing. If they do, I guarantee neither Detroit nor Cleveland will be breathing easily when the Twins creep near the top of the standings.

Either way, time is running out as August grows fainter and the chance for the Twins to make their move is fading along with summer. If the Twins didn’t have the players to compete for a division title I wouldn’t feel half of the angst that I do now, but they do have the talent, which makes this bitter pill all the harder to swallow. I implore them to pick the direction they are going to attempt to head in soon, and save me and the rest of their fans from seeing them drown in their own mediocrity.