The WGOM

THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Minnesota Twins History

September 4th, 2008 by Rhubarb_Runner

[contributed by: Rhubarb_Runner]

THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Minnesota Twins History

by Steve Aschburner

Triumph Books, Copyright © 2008 by Steve Aschburner

hardcover, 221 pages

About the Author: Steve Aschburner is an award-winning sports journalist who has covered Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, and NCAA basketball for numerous publications and websites. He covered three teams -- the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers, and the 1987 and 1991 Minnesota Twins -- that reached Game 7 of the World Series and is a voter for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Aschburner covered the Minnesota Timberwolves for the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune for 13 seasons, served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2005 to 2007, and has worked more recently for SportsIllustrated.com. A graduate of Marquette University and the University of Minnesota, he has written young-reader books on basketball's Kevin Garnett and Senator Edward Kennedy. He and his wife, Wendy, have a daughter, Gretchen, and live in Edina, Minnesota.

- - - - - - - - - -

About the Book: (from the jacket) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Minnesota Twins leaves no stone unturned in chronicling the highs and lows of the Twins. Go inside the boisterous clubhouse of the 1987 and 1991 World Series champions, then cringe as baseball commissioner Bud Selig threatens to contract the franchise in 2001. Follow Kirby Puckett as he becomes one of the game's most popular and unlikely superstars, then mourn as his career and life end prematurely. Get the inside story behind the late-season collapse of the '67 Twins, Rod Carew's quest to hit .400, the off-the-field struggles of Jim Eisenreich and Jeff Reardon, the recent departures of Torii Hunter and Terry Ryan, and everything in between.

One of the most beloved media personalities the Upper Midwest has ever known, Halsey's popularity was so lasting that he was ranked as the top sportscaster in Minnesota in a poll taken two years after his death.

In an entertaining and unsparing fashion, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Minnesota Twins recounts the best and worst Twins teams and players of all time, the clutch performances and biggest choke jobs, and all the fights, rivalries, and clubhouse antics that happened along the way. If you're a through-thick-and-thin Twins fan, this book is your ultimate guide to the ugly truth!

- - - - - - - - - -

Personal notes:

• This book wasn't really groundbreaking in its content, but it is nice to see it all pulled into one place.
• Bert penned the foreward, fwiw.
• There's a whole lot of trivia throughout the book, some of it common knowledge, and some a bit more exotic. For instance:
  1) Tony Oliva was the first DH in MLB history to homer. Which two players are the only Twins to get more than 502 at bats in a season as a DH?
  2) Who are the top three Twins in number of times leading off a game with a HR?
  3) Which former Twin was the oldest player in the national league in 1998?
  4) Who was the last Twin to wear uniform #42 before it was retired by MLB in honor of Jackie Robinson?

Please drop an email to SBGLibrary (at) hotmail (dot) com if you have a suggestion or a submission for the SBG Library.

Tags: Minnesota Twins History, Steve Aschburner

This entry was posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under SBG Library. It is one of 84 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.