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The Minnesota Red Wings?
By
Gordy Jones
The Twins have been
playing like a minor-league team because that is what the team mostly consists
of at this time: minor-league players.
Some are not ready
for the majors, and some might never be ready. But manager Ron Gardenhire needs bodies so that he can fill in names on the
lineup card, and really has no choice but to play those who aren’t ready.
With Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, Jim Thome, and Tsuyoshi Nishioka
still on the disabled list, and with the long list of guys who have been sick
or injured since opening day, Gardy’s blood pressure
has got to be on the rise.
With the exception
of Jason Kubel, who has been outstanding, even the
uninjured guys are playing as though they’re lame. How about Alexi Casilla? And Justin Morneau is still not swinging with authority.
Joe Mauer is still out, and his replacement catchers haven’t
even batted their weight. Drew Butera is great
defensively and calls a good game, but has been awfully weak at the plate. I
was rooting for catcher Steve Holm when he was called up, because I watched him
hustle during spring training. But it was the same deal with him. He played
respectably behind the plate, but was batting only .118 when the Twins sent him
back down to
Terry Ryan, former
GM who is now special assistant to general manager Bill Smith, and also a
special scout (a great guy and great baseball man, too), had been watching
minor-league catcher Rene Rivera crack the ball good a couple days in a row,
and suggested the time was right to give him a chance. Even though he may have
been hitting the ball well as of late, he was still only batting .217. The last
time he was in the majors was five years ago in
When I Googled “Rene Rivera,” Rene Rivera, the new executive
director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, had more ink and stories about him
than ballplayer Rene, which shows he’s been pretty removed for the last five
years. At the time of this writing, Rene has collected one hit, and has struck
out six times in 15 at bats. But it’s tough to replace an All-Star, MVP, Gold
Glove, Batting Champ catcher with a minor-leaguer.
When Trevor Plouffe was called up from
One reason I like
this guy, besides the fact that he lives and breathes baseball, is that he’s
very close to his mom. Many great baseball guys have been. Dave Winfield’s mom
attended many of his games, and he’d consult with her about anything that was
on his mind, whether it be baseball, business, or personal. Denard
Span’s mom is at most of his games, even on the road.
Even umpire Tim Tschida flies his mom to
One day in spring, I
was walking to the minor-league field because a rehabbing Justin Morneau was playing his first game there. A nice lady
walked by my side and asked if I could show her which field they were at.
“Is there a charge
to get in?” she asked. I told her minor-league games were free during spring
training. Then she proudly told me that her son was Trevor, and he was playing
in the game. She was worried because she was late, and Trevor would be very
concerned because she was traveling alone.
As we approached the
field, I could see Trevor playing shortstop, and in between pitches, his eyes
nervously scanned the crowd. Then almost immediately, mother and son made eye
contact, and they both had relieved smiles on their faces. The next pitch was a
hard-hit ball to Plouffe; he made a nice play and
threw to Morneau for the out. Then he turned and
looked at her with a smile that said: “That was for you, Mom!” I later found
out that she is a 10-year cancer survivor.
This year, Trevor Plouffe seemed to work his hardest – maybe he assumed this
could be his last chance to make it. Although he made a few screw-ups while
playing in the spring games, he seemed determined not to dwell on them. He hit
well, but was competing with Matt Tolbert. He didn’t make the team for the
opener, as he lost out to Matt Tolbert. However, with all of the Twins’
distress, Trevor was soon called up.
Things were going
well, but as fate would have it, on Mother’s Day while he wore pink shoes for
his mom, he strained a hamstring while scoring. Hopefully, by the time you read
this, he’ll be back and can score more for mom. The saga of Trevor Plouffe will continue.
Fans! If you have any Twins related questions, email Gordy at gejones1@aol.com
Check out Gordy’s book at http://www.baseballguy.org.
Gordy can be reached at gejones1@aol.com.