The Bad Old Days
Posted by ubelmann on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
So, I'd heard about Tony Pena, Jr.'s inning of pitching a couple of places and didn't think much of it at first. It's always news when a position player pitches, etc., etc. (I'm not even sure that the excitement about TPJ hitting 91 with his fastball is all that warranted--I think there are more position players out there who could do that than people think.)
But, while catching up with my JoeBlog reading, Mr. Posnanski said many kind things about TPJ's pitching abilities, so I figured I should just fire up mlb.tv and take a look for myself. Anything short of Koufax in his prime would have been disappointing at that point, but TPJ looked pretty decent.
What struck me while I was watching wasn't the pitching so much as the crowd reaction. There were barely any fans there, but they were pretty jacked up to see their no-hit SS getting a 1-2-3 inning, complete with an Ivan Rodriguez strikeout looking. It reminded me of the bad old days when the Twins were out of contention early and often, and following the team meant finding a silver lining wherever and whenever possible.
So after three consecutive disappointing losses, I guess I appreciate that--midway through July--those losses actually meant something.
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I like Royals fans. Sure, they do not go out to games in droves (what has it been, 1 winning season in the last 20 or so. Things like that will kill attendence) But the ones that do go out are loud, and are into the game. I watch quite a few Royals games. I dont know why, maybe they are super scrappy, maybe they have a nice stable of young pitchers, maybe I can't get enough Ross Gload in my life. Anyway, the one thing I have noticed is that they get LOUD when things go the Royals way.
When they get a few winning teams, The K will be rocking and rolling
I remember going to Twins games in the late 90's, and the crowd was never psyched unless something truly extraordinary was happening. Even in games we won there'd be like 13,000 fans and nothing more than just customary cheering. No die-hard Stahoviak fans cheering his every at-bat.
Though, I must say it was nice to be able to have a conversation at normal levels with anybody in your row and be able to hear them fine.
The first Twins game I ever went to was in 1999 against the Orioles. I had an entire section by the bullpen to myself to try to snag a ball. And as it happened, I never got one.
I actually miss those days.
These days at the Dome, its so crowded one cant stretch out thier legs. You cant really swear because kids are everywhere.