Apparently…

Well, the American League voted in the DH in 1973 and I don’t want to hear a whimper about how the biggest difference between the Yankees and Phillies in the World Series was the presence of DH Hideki Matsui. The Japanese slugger was the Series MVP despite starting just three of the six games – and driving in seven runs in Games 2 and 6, both played at Yankee Stadium.

Nope, just zip it up because the Phillies are to blame for the National League voting it down at that same meeting. Bill Giles was the Phillies’ representative. With 12 clubs in each league, it took eight votes to pass a rules change. Phils owner Ruly Carpenter favored the DH. Pirates owner John Galbraith instructed GM Joe Brown to vote with the Phillies. Before the teams were polled, Giles attempted to contact his boss for formal approval.

Ruly was on a fishing trip. He couldn’t be reached. Giles had no choice but to abstain. The Pirates followed suit. The 6-4-2 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority.

Nice. That’s why ya just can’t take a vacation sometimes. You might end up unbalancing some baseball leagues.

I can’t necessarily say that I was completely ecstatic about the Minnesota Twins season debut. I miss Johan Santana throwing out the opening day pitch. I miss Hunter out in center field. But, at the same time, it’s hard not to be excited about this Twins team.

This first game sealed the deal for me.

I admit, if I had been at spring training watching games and watching the Twins do their spring training things, my opinion may be different. This is a pretty exciting team.

These guys are gonna score some runs. There is a certain youthful enthusiasm that breaks through to me. These guys want to play hard and these guys want to win. These types of situations break the expectations mold. The Twins are gonna be good this year. They gotta be.

They are gonna run the bases hard. They are gonna take advantage of second chances when the other team blows an easy out. They are gonna play excited, they are gonna play hard.

They will win games. They will also probably lose some spectacular games. They will grow and they will learn. This Twins team is built to wreak havoc on other un-suspecting teams. And I can’t wait to see them do so. It’s different than I am used to seeing, as far as the Twins are concerned. But they will be fun to watch. This is gonna be one hell of a team in a couple years. It’ll be fun to watch them this year.

It was fun to watch Joe Nathan make very quick work of Toriiiiiiii Hunter. It was fun to watch Gomez put on a show that probably made Toriiiiiiiii Hunter a little bit excited and jealous. Yeah. It’s gonna be a fun Twins baseball season.