As much as this season needs to end, watching the Twins lose to the Royals in September is better than not watching the Twins at all. It's more painful to watch, but less empty.
And right now is kinda fun, because walking into the Dome, I have no idea who's playing, or where they'll be playing. (This is also the reason I haven't been participating in the contest, and thus have lost my lead.)

And did I write here that I'm not convinced that the offense problems are totally Ullger? I think a chunk of the blame needs to go on the fact that we're a team of pitching and defense, and don't scout/sign/draft the good hitters, because our first rounds go to pitchers. But if some of these kids don't pick it up next year, then I'll completely agree that a change is needed (now I just think a change would be good).

Here's to an offseason that reinstills hope. Hope left on a flight out of town a while ago.

Hopefully, Bartlett lifts weights and gets in the cage.

Hopefully, Kubel can come back.

Hopefully, Morneau gets it straightened out.

Hopefully, a few new pieces reinvoigorate this team.

SBG-

Jeez. I didn't mean to get you so riled up that you'd change your masthead. And, if the "dead horse" and "foaming at the mouth" comments were out of line, I apologize. Seriously.

Despite your hunches, I am not some "Batling" who has infiltrated the SBG site to cause trouble. I am a longtime reader (as you correctly guessed), but a first-time commenter. The Ullger bashing (although done in a tasteful and thoughtful way) just pushed me past the boiling point. I honestly thought you'd see it more as some literary sparring, than an attack on the (mostly) excellent content. I know you do this all for the low, low, price of free, and I respect that. And no, I don't want you to start showing us displays of Photoshop prowess, either. One site devoted to that is enough, thank you.

Yes, it was season that transcended frustration. The eternal hope evident in spring training evaporated into thin air as the season progressed. That said, I'll be there Saturday night with my Dad, drinking a $6 beer, rooting the team on but also thinking what might have been. (With or without Ullger.)

Respectfully,

Anonymous

PS - How about sharing your top ten better choices for Twins manager sometime.

No apology needed, anonymous. I was having fun with the masthead! Slide into first! Hee hee!

I have a sense of humor and that includes laughing at myself. I don't take this site very seriously. If I did, I'd be much more judicious in what I said.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment any time. Even if you want to jab me! That's my policy. All non profane comments are welcome and encouraged!

SBG does laugh at himself, it's true, just like everybody else here is laughing at, err I mean, with him.

PS Brewers and Twins are tied with 3 games to go...

My policy has one exception, CC.

Interesting thought about predestination. I've always thought that if you believe in an omnipotent God then you have to believe in predestination. i've never tied it to ID, though. Very thought provoking...

I disagree with you Shane, I'm with the free will camp with the omnipotent God. Our lives are not planned out with us just going through the motions. Just my belief though.

SBG, love you too.

An omnipotent God is literally all-powerful, but it doesn't necessarily follow that such a God has chosen to predetermine or control every aspect of life on Earth.

If intelligent design existed, we wouldn't have Daffy Duck managing the Minnesota Twins, nor Bud Selig running Major League Baseball.

Bud's doing a good job, FW. Interleague play, wild card that makes baseball fans care about September, an actual drug policy (given he has to start one from scratch).

How about God being omniscient? If God is all-knowing, then He knows exactly what will happen, what choices we will make. In other words, He knows what will become of us. Either God is omniscient and our lives are predestined (given He knows everything) or He isn't as powerful or all-knowing as we think He is. I have a hard time reconciling this.

Bud, your doing a HECKUVA job!

-GWB

Bud looked the other way on the steroids issue for over a decade. He only started to do something once the BALCO leaks embarrassed him. He's also the guy who tried to contract our team--which we'll never forget. The way he handled the Expos' slow withdrawal from Montreal was a protracted insult to both the fans and the organization itself. He's discouraged private investment in stadium projects, and actively encouraged clubs to blackmail local communities into coughing up sweetheart deals on new stadiums--or else.

He presided over a canceled World Series, which not even WWII had managed to do before. He was in charge of the 7-7 tie of the All-Star Game, which happened in his own hometown. He helped choose the design for Miller Park, the worst MLB ballpark to open since, well, the Metrodome. He's stripped away some of the special pageantry of Opening Day by opening some seasons overseas when most Americans can't watch, or else putting one game on Sunday night. The wild card has its upside, but it also destroys meaningful division races.

I'm really not a big fan of interleague play as its set up; they should cut back the number of interleague series, and there's no reason why teams need a home/away set against a "regional rival" every season. Bud should also cut back the imbalanced intradivisional schedules. I get tired of seeing the same Central teams all year, while teams from the coasts come through just once or twice. The imbalances also have an unfair effect on the wild card races. But Bud won't do it. Why? Because all those Cards, Cubs, and Reds games in Milwaukee are such juicy plums for the Brewers. New York, Boston, and the TV networks love to have the Yankees-Red Sox 19 times a year. Annual home/away sets for Yankees-Mets and a handful of other intrastate rivalries is too lucrative to cut back by half.

Everything Bud does as Commissioner is to spin a buck, first and foremost. The integrity of the game not only takes a backseat, Bud often stuffs it in the trunk.

Shorter version of FW's excellent post:

Bud, you're doing a HECKUVA job.

-GWB

FW,
Sure, Bud's fault he inherited a league rampant with drug abuse and had to take on the a very powerful players union to do something about it. It wasn't his call to do this, the player's union had to agree to it as well, and they fought tooth and nail against it. BALCO made them buckle and Bud took full advantage of it and institued what no other commissioner has been able to do.

Montreal all but shoved the Expos out, don't blame Bud for years of piss-poor attendance due to their owner's neglect and bad management. He was in a no-win situation and had to make a tough call, and the right one.

Pohlad volunteered to contract the Twins, get it straight. Don't make Selig your scapegoat for a pathetic owner.

Major corporations look for tax breaks and any other deals from states and cities prior to building their businesses there, MLB is doing the same.

Player's union is even more to blame than Selig on the missed World Series. They were the ones who decided to strike in August, causing no time to have a meangingful WS.

Miller Park the worst ballpark in MLB outside of the Metrodome? An attack clearly without merit. Read this article as proof you are totally off your rocker: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/08/31/fvi/ Miller Park is the #1 park in baseball.

All-Star game tie was the managers' fault through completely mismanaged use of players.

Absolutely no coorelation with wild-card races taking away anything from divisional title races. Completely separate issues.

Nice try on the scheduling, don't blame the Brewers for being in a good division unlike the Twins.

Bud has taken on the most powerful labor organization in sports and beaten it. He evoled the game to where it can survive and adapt. If it were up to people who "love the old ways" like you, the game would have no drug policy, a completely irrelevant last month of the season and a declining fan base. Bud has not saved baseball mind you, he has however made it healther and better.

All the little perks Bud tried to throw his team...err...his daughhter's team way, and they still became baseball's biggest laughingstock. It's been so bad that a .500 record is reason to throw a ticker-tape parade. heck, they still could'nt finish with a better record than a Twins team that mailed it in 3 weeks ago. So tommorrow the post-season starts without the Brewers. Then again, what's new. It's been starting without the Brewers for a generation and a half now. Give Bud credit. He suckered the gullible taxpayers of Wisconsin into footing the entire bill for a ballpark for the LA clippers of baseball for some time now.

Anonymous, your post is so silly and baseless it's not even worth my time.