Happy Thanksgiving

Once again, I give you the bird on Thanksgiving.

The Twins certainly had a turkey of a season, but I remain grateful for the escape from reality baseball provides.

Have a good holiday, dear readers. I'm taking the day off.

Happy Thanksgiving

The years pass along, but my turkey photo lives on.

I've been thinking as this Thanksgiving approached of the zero-sum aspects of baseball. Somebody wins, somebody loses. A manager gets fired, another one gets hired. One player gets released, another gets a chance.

Thinking about Neil Allen, the Twins new pitching coach, a recovering alcoholic who had 11 years in the majors and almost 20 years of being a pitching coach in the minors. I saw a quote from him in the days before his selection became known, something along the lines of It's time for me to get off the buses and back on the airplanes.

The comments from others in the game, including other candidates, when Allen got the job almost always included a variation of He's been through a lot. Yes he has, notably the death (from an aneurysm) in September 2012 of his wife Lisa. Besides being a pitching coach, he's a single father to a 15-year-old son, and in terms of the travel involved in Allen's occupation, it may not matter if he''s on a bus or a jet. It can't be easy.

Thinking, too, of Scott Ullger, who has spent almost his entire adult life in the employ of the Minnesota Twins. Signed as a player out of college in 1977, he got 85 big league plate appearances back in 1983 and hit .190. While the Kent Hrbeks and Gary Gaettis and Frank Violas and Tim Laudners were laying the foundation of 1987's World Series team, Ullger was hitting his ceiling as a player.

He went back to the buses, first to continue playing, then as a manager -- seven years managing farm teams in the Twins system, never with a losing record. He worked his way back to the big leagues as a coach. And he stuck for 20 years in a variety of assignments: Hitting coach, first base coach, third base coach, bench coach.

And now he's 59 and looking for another job. I don't quarrel with the decision to replace Ullger; I have been known to question the value he brought the team, although I recognize that I'm too distant to know what he brought to the table. He's been fortunate to have such a long-term job in such a transient occupation. But now that job is gone, and as a fellow 50-something, I can identify with that.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yum yum yum

Another Thanksgiving, another year of the turkey photo. Gotta love tradition.

The 2013 Twins didn't give their fans a lot to be thankful for. We saw another 90-plus loss season that featured the end of Justin Morneau's time with the team and the end of Joe Mauer's time as a catcher.

But there's hope coming. I'm glad —thankful — I took the trip to Cedar Rapids in time to see Byron Buxton play. Buxton — and Miguel Sano and Alex Meyer and Eddie Rosario and others in an increasingly loaded farm system — offer a break from the decline of the past three seasons. Their time is coming.

Hope, as the Casey poem tells us, springs eternal in the human breast. In baseball and in other endeavors, that is always something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm hungry. Let's eat.

This is the fourth Thanksgiving for the Baseball Outsider blog, and the fourth time I've used the same photo. Maybe some year I'll change it up.

2012 was the second straight season of 90-plus losses by the team this blog focuses on, and certainly there is a rising sense of impatience among the fans and team. We'd become used to the idea that the Twins were chronic contenders in the AL Central, and having a different reality does not sit well.

But today is a day for gratitude and thanks, and grousing about bad baseball doesn't fit that attitude.

Bad baseball is better than no baseball, and even a last-place team provides some pleasure during the long summer -- and anticipation for the next season during the long winter.

Thanks, dear readers, for visiting the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving

Let's eat

Time for my annual Thanksgiving post with a photo of a long-since devoured bird.

Last year I expressed thanks ... well, let's just repeat the relevant paragraph:

I am grateful that the team of which I am a fan is a chronic contender with stable, sober, competent management, grateful that the team injects drama into my life through what it does on the playing field rather than the clubhouse, courtroom or Internet scandal sites.

Some of that is still relevant. After a 99-loss season and a change of general managers, some of it isn't.

As difficult as the 2011 season was for Twins fans (not to mention the Twins players and management), I remain thankful for all the pleasure the game of baseball has given me over the years, and for the promise of more to come.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers.

Happy Thanksgiving

Let's eat.

There are many things in this man's life to be grateful for ... many many many things. But this is a blog about baseball, not a blog about the wife and the beagle and the myriad wonders of life in middle America.

So I'll focus on this one:

I am grateful that the team of which I am a fan is a chronic contender with stable, sober, competent management, grateful that the team injects drama into my life through what it does on the playing field rather than the clubhouse, courtroom or Internet scandal sites.

Whatever frustration the Twins' Octobers have caused pales next to the pleasure their summers provide.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers.

A Twins fan's thankful twelve

The Yankees won 103 games last year, which means they LOST 59 times. Joe Mauer hit .365, which means he made outs in 63.5 percent of his at-bats. You can always find something to gripe about, and I do so too often.

But today is Thanksgiving, and a day to be grateful for the good things we have. I could make a list trite and profound of such things in my life, but this is a baseball blog, so I'll stick to the diamond.

Twelve things for which this Twins fan gives thanks:

1. That I get to watch Joe Mauer play on a daily basis.
2. That everybody involved is making reassuring noises about Mauer's future in Minnesota.
3. For 28 years of knowing tonight's game won't be rained out.
4. For a future of fresh air and real grass.
5. For Denard Span's consistently professional at-bats.
6. For Michael Cuddyer's willingness to vacate his preferred position for the sake of the team.
7. For Ozzie Guillen, who drew the venom from the Twins-White Sox rivalry without losing the competitiveness.
8. For the energy and enthusiasm Carlos Gomez brought to the ball park every day the past two seasons.
9. That the Twins were able to exchange Go-Go's unopened tool box for a quality shortstop.
10. That the Twins' best player doesn't get stinkin' drunk during a crucial series.
11. That Justin Morneau and Pat Neshek sound good to go.
12. That spring training is just 87 days away.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thanks for reading.