Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bienvenidos, Jaime!

I’ve already bestowed a nickname on our new acquisition Jim Thome. Jaime. It’s the Spanish equivalent of James and it’s what my family calls my dad after he has a few too many margaritas. Yes, I’m welcoming Jaime like he’s a part of my own family. Why, you ask? Well, don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate Jason Kubel and his accomplishments this past season. But when I’m given the opportunity to add even more power to a somewhat lacking bench, I’m going to go along with it. Jaime has 57 home runs against the Twins and with the majority of the closers in the American League being right-handers, it can’t hurt to add one more lefty to our roster.

And let’s be honest, watching the Sox fans squirm uncomfortably in their seats as Jaime steps up to bat in a Twins jersey will definitely be a highlight this season. And even though I nearly cried when Thome hit a homer to knock the Twins out of the play-offs in 2008, I think I will be able to forgive-and-forget that little upset if Thome can deliver while on the road in Chicago .

Ironically as I’m writing this FSN is replaying Game 163—it’s as if the baseball gods decided to grant Minnesota a few hours of reprieve from mourning by blessing us with an encore of one of the decades best games. And even though I know what I happens, I can’t help but get excited. It’s a little embarrassing, sitting here in the WCCO newsroom hyped up about a game that already happened. But I feel like I never got a chance to celebrate—the Twins left the next day for New York and well, we all know how that turned out. So this is my celebration. And now I’ve got it DVR’ed in case I need to watch it after the Gophers fail to make NCAA tournament. Here’s hoping I don’t need it.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010.

I know it isn’t healthy to live in the past but 2009 went by way too quickly.  I still haven’t grasped the idea that it is nearly the end of January and since I don’t write checks, I haven’t even written out the new year yet.  Yes, I’m still living like it’s last year.  And why not?  It was a good year.  I celebrated my 23rd birthday on the beach in Mazatlan, ran my first half-marathon, watched the Twins win at Wrigley, and was genuinely pretty happy.  Yup, looking back 2009 was a pretty decent year.

2010 is off to a rocky start, mostly because of the Vikings.  Yes, like the majority of Minnesotans I drank the purple kool-aid this season and was rather devastated yesterday when we lost to the Saints in overtime.  We practically handed them the win—the last minute of the game was the worst.  I have never had more emotions rage through me in such a short period of time.  But I think I’m going to be okay—as long as I can avoid ESPN until after the Super Bowl.  Win or lose, it still was a good season—something the Vikings haven’t had in a while.

Now that the Vikings are done for the year, I’m already looking forward to spring and the start of the Twins’ season.  It’s been a pretty quiet off-season so I’m hoping something comes up here in the next few weeks—an extension on Joe Mauer, perhaps?  I know that would make the mourning Vikings fans a lot happier.  And if things go the way I have them planned out, I’ll get to watch the boys get ready for the new stadium at spring training in Fort Myers.  I haven’t worked out the details yet but my piggy bank has already been designated towards the trip.  I’ll get there, even if its one penny at a time. 



My sister and me up bright and early for our first half-marathon.