Li’l Harmon

I was listening to WCCO this morning and I heard that the major league baseball logo was patterned after Harmon Killebrew. Since I've been calling Justin Morneau Li'l Harmon, I thought I'd put a copy of the logo here, a "Little Harmon", if you will.

Through two games of the Kansas City series, Li'l Harmon is hitting like the Harmon of old. In each game, Li'l Harmon was 1 for 4 with a home run. Today he hit a three run bomb and Terry Tiffee hit a walk off home run as the Twins won 4-3. That's five wins in a row. As I said before, it's Terry Tiffee's world and we're just living in it. Today, Mr. Tiffee had three hits, including his game winning home run. In four games since his callup, Tiffee is 6 for 13 with a double, home run and 5 RBI. I don't know if he's going to be a bona fide major leaguer or if he's just hitting out of his mind right now, but I guarantee he'll never forget this week.

I was thinking earlier this week about my Twins' memories. My first memory of the Twins was my dad telling me that Harmon hit his 500th home run. That was August 10, 1971. I remember that my dad was pretty excited about it. I was six years old at the time, so I didn't really understand that it was a pretty big deal. But, Harmon became my favorite player, mainly because my dad thought he was all that. If you have a distinct early memory about the Twins, drop me a comment.

The last time I saw Harmon play was his last season. He was playing for the Kansas City Royals against the Twins at Met Stadium. I remember that he got caught in a rundown between third and home and ended up falling down when he was tagged out. It was kind of sad, my first favorite player got embarrassed out on the field in front of all his old fans (or at least the 8000 that were there that night).

I was on the road today, listening to the game on the radio. After the game, the post game show made quite a bit about the players who scored runs today -- Jason Kubel (first major league hit today), Lew Ford, Li'l Harmon, and Mr. Tiffee. None of these players were on the opening day roster. It lead me to think about the success of the Twins. True, two of these guys are September call-ups, and it is not uncommon for guys to get at bats in September. However, Ford and Morneau, and others, show how deep this organization really is. The Twins have a lot of talent, especially in the outfield. We all know that I guess. It also made me think how important it is for the Twins to spend their money on pitching. The Twins need to sign Radke, they need to lock up Santana, they need to keep their bullpen together. These should be their offseason priorities. Other players, such as Jones, Koskie, and Guzman need to be sacrificed in order to sign pitching. They obviously can be replaced by the rich talent we have in the minors.

So far in September, the Twins have scored 12 runs in 4 games, a nifty 3 runs/game. Obviously, this is a small sample size, so it isn't really all that important, but remember that this team is 4-0 in September. I haven't commented on the pitching performances the Twins received this weekend so far. In this wondrous season that Johan Santana is having, Friday night's performance, (7IP 1H 0R 1BB 11K) seems almost routine. Mr. Santana is now 16-6 with a league leading 2.95 ERA. Ho-hum. Folks, get out to the park and watch him pitch. I've seen him several times this year. It is quite a treat. The numbers are great and we can talk about them all night. Go out and see it. He's fantastic.

Since the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 1918, they have won the American League 4 times, in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986. In each of these years, they lost the World Series in seven games. They have also made the playoffs in 1988, 1990, and 1995 as divisional winners and in 1998, 1999 and 2003 as wild card winners. In most of those seasons, the Yankees were either not in the race, or in the case of the wild card years, had a better record and won the division. Never have the Red Sox really beaten the Yankees in a head-to-head pennant drive. This year could be different.

Right now, the Yanks hold a 2 1/2 game lead in the AL East. The Red Sox have trimmed 8 games off that lead and seem poised to make a run and the defending AL Champs. And boy, are the Yanks reeling. In August, the Yankee pitching staff posted a 5.41 ERA. Now, Kevin Brown is out after breaking his non pitching hand in a bust up of the clubhouse, Mike Mussina, Jon Lieber, and Javier Vazquez have been pitching poorly, although Mussina was okay today. The Yankees right now need to outhit teams to win. And yet, they got shutout by Sidney Ponson. It's always a risky deal to predict success for the Red Sox, but, damnit, this just might be the year.

A beautiful side effect of the Red Sox winning would be the absolute meltdown George Steinbrenner would have. Dare we dream?

Thanks to all who have stopped by. Keep coming back!