June 26, 1977: this was the exact date that my love affair with Rod Carew, the Minnesota Twins, and baseball in general officially began.  Our family was at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota for a Twins and Chicago White Sox game.  The Twins won 19-12. Glenn Adams drove in eight runs and Rod Carew’s batting average was above .400 later in the season than anyone since Ted Williams.  It is now considered a historically-significant game.  As a barely-nine-year-old kid, it was also incredibly entertaining to see the guy climbing the left field foul pole and promptly getting handcuffed when he came down.

That guy is sort of like the Twins over the years: a brief high, followed by a fall and an embarrassing time in baseball jail. Over the years as a Twins fan, I have understood that the system does not favor small markets like the Twin Cities. But then 2023 happened.  The Twins actually won a whole postseason series after having won not so much as a single playoff game for 21 years.  Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray gave them the pitching they needed. Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa provided the offense.

Sure, the Houston Astros won the next series in four games, but the Twins franchise seemed to finally have some momentum.  I had been one of the few to not blame the Pohlad family for the team’s less-than-stellar record of success. Now was the time for them to go for it: to add a few pieces to the roster in the off-season. It was a no-brainer to improve the budding team’s chances, to keep the fans hopeful, and to keep the faithful spending money.

Right?

Nope. Last season started with the news that there would be a salary reduction and the newest, youngest Pohlad to emerge, Joe, publicly scoffed at signing a high-priced free agent.  Apparently the TV contract mess and other factors had made money tight.

The announcement taught us -the team’s fans- a lesson…which we are now relaying to others. We have a seven-year-old daughter to whom we’re trying to teach the value of a dollar.  She loves going to Twins games.  Joe Pohlad has helped us teach her that we don’t spend our money in foolish places -like Target Field.  If Joe and family don’t have enough money to field a team we can be proud of, certainly our family doesn’t have enough money to aid this sinking ship.

But then, it seemed like there might be hope for the ship. In 2024, its captains announced their intent to sell.  Change is probably good…and it proved what we all suspected -that they just no longer had an interest in running a baseball team.

With hope for new ownership on the horizon, I wasn’t bothered at all by the trade-deadline-salary dump. Carlos Correa went back to the Astros. The bullpen was blown up with Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe all going different directions. Every part of the team was altered: outfielder Harrison Bader, utility man Willi Castro and first baseman Ty France all were sent packing. Teammates suddenly found themselves playing against each other just 24 hours after squaring off against the Red Sox.

If the current owners weren’t going to add to the Opening Day roster enough to give them a chance, then why not?  Maybe it would even give the new ownership a fresh start with all the new prospects?

It was a great thought. But, now the ship is taking on water again. Now, our favorite ship wreckers have decided that they really do want to continue to be the principal owners after all.  According to ESPN, “two ‘significant’ limited partnership groups are joining the Pohlads. This news has gone over with fans like flatulence in church.  No one thinks these “new investors” will be the answer to the franchise’s embarrassing recent history.  And by recent, I mean since 1991.  Don’t forget, the late patriarch of the Pohlad family, Carl, offered up the team for contraction 25 years ago.  

In their defense, the family had a significant success ten years after that. A beautiful new stadium that has seen some good baseball makes for a pretty decent comeback story. It’s going to take another huge comeback to get any support from this now angry fan base.  In the meantime, our family’s boycott will continue, and I hope I don’t permanently change our daughter’s loyalty to the dark side. 

Of course, the Yankees aren’t really all that evil. In baseball, yes. but in life… there are things that are much worse. Like, when you learn that one of your longtime friends is fighting Stage Four cancer. This is the friend whose love for baseball binds the two of you together, even though that friend is from the Bronx…actually, because he’s from the Bronx. Part of the bond is how he realizes how much passion I have in my hatred of the New York Yankees.

But, that changes now. Now that he’s sick, baseball needs to bring us together and the rivalry of our teams has to be set aside. So, the best tribute to him is the NY cap I currently have on my head. I don’t plan to wear it forever. I plan to burn it once he’s better. But for now, with the Pohlads doing Pohlad things and my friend fighting a hell of a lot harder than they are, it’s, “Go Yankees!!”

As for the Pohlads? 

Just go.

Now.

Please.