Hope Springs Eternal

Most pitchers and catchers are now in camp. I'll be even more excited when the rest of the players show up later this week.

There's something about the beginning of a new baseball season that gives even the most jaded fans hope. At this point, we are just as good as anybody else. It's what the team does from this point on that matters.

Yesterday I started thinking about the lesser remembered Twins that had great rookie seasons or that were on the roster and performed well for a few seasons but will probably never be in any hall of fame. They were the guys that surprised and turned bleak seasons around so that we could compete for full seasons at a time.

Guys like Ceasar Tovar, Brant Alyea, Danny Ford, Larry Hisle, and Gary Ward. Others like Kenny Landraux, Rich Reese, and Glenn Addams who had great bats for a few seasons. How about Hoskins Powell or Bombo Rivera during the lean years?

Or pitchers like Dave Boswell and Dave Goltz.

Growing up, these were the guys that you remember.

The Twins honor their greats with statues and inductions. But most fans forget the "pretty goods."

It's those guys who helped turn pretty good seasons into great seasons, and great seasons into championship ones.

Baseball is lot like fishing. Even a bad day is a pretty good one as long as there's a game on.

Will the Twins have 100 wins this year? Most likely not. But they'll have their share. And each of those wins will be sweet. All 60 of them.

Ask me how I feel about the Twins in late August and you might get a different answer. But right now they're MY TEAM. And they ARE just as good as anybody else.

Except their defense...