Adopting a team
Hi, my name is Pam and I'm a Red Sox fan. So it has been for the last 10 years of my life. But over the past few years, I have branched out and explored the vast world of Major League Baseball.
For those unaware, there are other teams aside from the one you root for. Really. Pick up a national paper someday or check ESPN.com. Occasionally, you'll see a headline about organizations with such names as "Marlins," "Athletics," and "Diamondbacks." (Wait, who? Never heard of them.) You know those "guys" Your Team plays all season? They are what you call "opponents" and they do not exist for the sole purpose of playing Your Team. It's true. Bud Selig does not throw together random players so that Your Team has the pleasure of performing on a regular basis. Hard to imagine, I know.
So anyway.
The Red Sox season is over. It's painful, I don't like to talk about it, but I'm not ready to let go of the 2006 season just yet. And as a baseball fanatic first and a Red Sox fan second, I have decided to adopt another team, a team I can really get behind and root for in the next month or so. Why not? I love this game and we have a five-to-six-month baseball draught fastly approaching. It is a time of the year I never look forward to, and that's why (in an effort to make things more bearable), I shall attempt to follow the NHL this season. That's how desperate I've become.
So I've picked the Twins. It was hard choosing between them and the A's (an organization I have greatly respected and sympathized with for several years now), but I was somehow drawn to the Twins. Even in August when they were in third place in the AL Central and the Red Sox season was going to crap, I was pulling for Minnesota. Why? Let me try to explain.
The Twins have won the World Series just three times, the last being in 1991. They have only gone to the the World Series six times and they've made it into the post-season a total of 11 times, three of which have come in the past five years. They've had the unenviable task of competing with teams whose payrolls double and even triple theirs. Yes, I said TRIPLE. Observe, if you will.
Twins 2006 payroll: $69.8 million
Yankees 2006 payroll: $198.6 million
They haven't had the pitching depth to make a decent post-season run in years, and now they do, even with Brad Radke and Francisco Liriano out. Pretty impressive. Lots of teams would have freaked out awhile ago, but this one has risen to the occasion.
Then there are the players. Two are legitimate Cy Young Award candidates, one could be Rookie of the Year, at least one will wind up getting some MVP votes, and one will most likely win the AL batting title. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. This is an exciting team.
. . .
. . .
. . . Okay, okay, FINE. Plus, they have Joe Mauer. Yes, that had something to do with my decision. Leave me alone.
So to all those who have toyed with the idea of adopting a post-season team, do it. Forget anyone who questions your allegiance to your favorite team and enjoy October. It should be one of the more exciting playoff series in recent years and everyone should be a part of it.
For those unaware, there are other teams aside from the one you root for. Really. Pick up a national paper someday or check ESPN.com. Occasionally, you'll see a headline about organizations with such names as "Marlins," "Athletics," and "Diamondbacks." (Wait, who? Never heard of them.) You know those "guys" Your Team plays all season? They are what you call "opponents" and they do not exist for the sole purpose of playing Your Team. It's true. Bud Selig does not throw together random players so that Your Team has the pleasure of performing on a regular basis. Hard to imagine, I know.
So anyway.
The Red Sox season is over. It's painful, I don't like to talk about it, but I'm not ready to let go of the 2006 season just yet. And as a baseball fanatic first and a Red Sox fan second, I have decided to adopt another team, a team I can really get behind and root for in the next month or so. Why not? I love this game and we have a five-to-six-month baseball draught fastly approaching. It is a time of the year I never look forward to, and that's why (in an effort to make things more bearable), I shall attempt to follow the NHL this season. That's how desperate I've become.
So I've picked the Twins. It was hard choosing between them and the A's (an organization I have greatly respected and sympathized with for several years now), but I was somehow drawn to the Twins. Even in August when they were in third place in the AL Central and the Red Sox season was going to crap, I was pulling for Minnesota. Why? Let me try to explain.
The Twins have won the World Series just three times, the last being in 1991. They have only gone to the the World Series six times and they've made it into the post-season a total of 11 times, three of which have come in the past five years. They've had the unenviable task of competing with teams whose payrolls double and even triple theirs. Yes, I said TRIPLE. Observe, if you will.
Twins 2006 payroll: $69.8 million
Yankees 2006 payroll: $198.6 million
They haven't had the pitching depth to make a decent post-season run in years, and now they do, even with Brad Radke and Francisco Liriano out. Pretty impressive. Lots of teams would have freaked out awhile ago, but this one has risen to the occasion.
Then there are the players. Two are legitimate Cy Young Award candidates, one could be Rookie of the Year, at least one will wind up getting some MVP votes, and one will most likely win the AL batting title. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. This is an exciting team.
. . .
. . .
. . . Okay, okay, FINE. Plus, they have Joe Mauer. Yes, that had something to do with my decision. Leave me alone.
So to all those who have toyed with the idea of adopting a post-season team, do it. Forget anyone who questions your allegiance to your favorite team and enjoy October. It should be one of the more exciting playoff series in recent years and everyone should be a part of it.
posted by Pam at 4:58 PM
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