New stadium gives Hrbek ‘chills on my spine’

to say nothing of the icicles dangling off his coccyx bone!

But Hrbek won’t be sad to see the Twins say goodbye to the dome after this season. He didn’t attempt to contain his enthusiasm on Sunday when asked about Target Field, the cozy new outdoor park in downtown Minneapolis that the Twins will settle into next spring.

“I went to see it about a month ago,” Hrbek said. “When I stepped on the field I got chills on my spine. It almost made me want to get the (uniform) off the wall and play again.”

..."It will be fun to have outdoor baseball here again,” said Hrbek, who played for the Twins in their final months at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington in 1981. “(Target Field) is more than a baseball stadium. It’s a great venue. There is so much to see, it’s a place where people might not even realize there’s a baseball game going on.

“It’s great for a generation of kids who have never seen an outdoor baseball game.”

Baseball Musings: Pinto: Streaking Suzuki

Ichrio more than made up for it with his bat, however. He doubled and scored a run to extend his hit streak to 10 games. Impressively, his last seven games have all produced multiple hits, bring his batting average up to .375. The AL batting race is setting up to be a classic, with both Joe Mauer and Ichiro producing very high averages.

Since Ichrio came into the season with a higher career batting average than Mauer, .331 to .317, we should start watching Ichrio’s chance of hitting .400 as well. Like Joe, Ichiro missed some time at the start of the season, so we’ll also chart two probabilities, one for 162 games, one for 154 games.

Miklasz: Another special day for Pujols

After Albert Pujols deposited two bombs into the Minnesota Twins’ bullpen Saturday, there was lot of media chatter about how he came through on Christian Family Day at Busch Stadium.

True, of course. And yes, the two-homer game was undoubtedly satisfying for Albert, who is a devout Christian.

“I praise God that I did it on a special day, to honor Him and glorify Him, like I try to do every day,” Pujols said.

And yes, oddly enough, Pujols seems to do OK on other days, too.

My extensive research indicates that he hits on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

...I’ll check with the Elias Sports Bureau to verify, but I am pretty certain that Pujols has freaked pitchers out on Earth Day, Arbor Day, Independence Day, Flag Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Cinco de Mayo and the Autumnal Equinox.

Thanks to Father Barnald.

Catalano: Mets: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Trade

And Cud Cuddyer is the answer?

The Mets should try to trade for Michael Cuddyer by offering the Twins SS prospect Wilmer Flores.

Michael Cuddyer, when healthy, is a solid RF, with a good arm and, more importantly from the Mets prospective, power. While he can play a number of positions, RF is where he is best suited—he has had season of 18 and 19 assists from RF, and can handle the new CitiField well. As of this writing, Cuddyer is slugging .514, or what would be 2nd on the Mets squad behind the injured Beltran. Also, he has an OPS of .878, which would place him 4rd behind Wright and Beltran and the soon to be injured Sheffield.

The Twins have a glut of outfielders—and trading Cuddyer could clear space for other able players. Right now, the Twins are breaking in young outfielders Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez (of the Mets farm system), both young and talented and who need time to grow. The Twins also have Jason Kubel and Denard Span—productive players both as Kubel is slugging .558 and Span is batting .287 with 12 stolen bases.

Pioneer Press/Powers: Sorry, Joe, no one will hit .400 again

The Splendid Splinter is splendidly splintered.

There were reports several years ago of Ted Williams’ frozen head rolling off a table, or something, at a cryonics lab in Arizona. So the chances of Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived, someday being reanimated shattered when his head hit the floor and cracked like a cheap Christmas tree ornament.

Furthermore, now that his creepy son, John Henry, also is dead, Ted’s DNA no longer is for sale. That DNA would have been an infinitely better investment for the small-market Twins than, say, Tony Batista. But now it’s a moot point.

No matter, even if Williams were brought back by scientists and infused with youth, he could not hit .400 in this day and age. The last man to reach that mark — .406 in 1941 — he simply couldn’t do it in today’s game.

Guaranteed he’d hit 1,000 home runs in the smaller ballparks and without the interruptions of military service. Plus, he wouldn’t have to worry about the knockdown pitch or playing in the outfield. Williams was born to be a designated hitter.

But .400? No, because no one will ever hit .400 again. Not Joe Mauer. Not Albert Pujols. Nobody.

Star-Tribune: Gardy not mimicking La Russa

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa likes to bat his pitcher eighth in the order.

...

So while Cardinals rigthander Adam Wainwright was penciled in as the No. 8 hitter on Friday, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was asked if he would ever do that.

“I don’t want to take the time and go, ‘Tony, why are we doing this?’” Gardenhire said with a chuckle. “I don’t want to hurt my brain any more.

“He understands this league. He has been in it forever and he likes it. I don’t want to kill my brain any more that. All I know is that I have a guy who doesn’t hit all year long and he’s going to hit tonight. So I’m going to bat him ninth, and if there’s anybody out there with less than two outs, he’s going to bunt.”

plus, Nathan relishes challenge long after Pujols’ at-bat

StarTribune/Souhan: (Carlos) Gomez executes starts, stops with unharnessed flair

Tuesday, he gave us drama, farce, thrills, melodrama and slapstick, all before the end of the third.

Gomez, notorious for his lack of patience and savvy in the batter’s box, started the game with a five-pitch at-bat, flipping the fifth pitch into center for a single. That started a three-run rally.

In the second, Gomez saw six pitches, again blooping the last one into shallow right-center. Brewers center fielder Mike Cameron watched Gomez steam around first and stop.

As Cameron began to lob the ball to the second baseman, Gomez sprinted toward second. Cameron added some urgency to his throw, but second baseman Casey McGehee dropped it. Gomez had effectively stolen second base without waiting for the pitcher to get the ball. (...) This being Gomez, there had to be melodrama, so after the inning ended, Gomez acted like a spent marathoner as he walked to his position in center, bending at the waist and gasping for air.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Kovacevic: Parallels with Mauer, Sanchez?

John Russell was manager for Minnesota’s Class AAA affiliate in 2001, the year the Twins drew voluminous criticism for drafting a hometown catcher with the No. 1 overall pick in the first-year-player draft.

Kid named Joe Mauer.

Same kid batting .429 after an eye-popping 4-for-4 display against the Pirates last night, raising a .326 career mark that trails only Rod Carew’s .344 in Minnesota’s franchise history among players with 2,000 plate appearances. Kirby Puckett’s .318 is third.

“Not a bad pick, huh?” Russell said with a laugh.

Sure seemed that way to many at the time. Pitcher Mark Prior was the consensus top talent, but he and agent Scott Boras had set a new bar for his bonus—he wound up with a record $10.5 million—and the Twins signed Mauer for $5.15 million, less than half.

MLB: Span leaves team to investigate dizziness

Minny McGrumbler..."Tommy Roe, ABC-Paramount 45-11164. There...now get back on the field!”

The Twins lost a pair of starters in Tuesday night’s 10-5 victory over the Oakland A’s, with a mixed prognosis following the game.

Twins center fielder Denard Span was removed after the top of the second inning because of another bout of dizziness and will leave the team to reevaluate the problem.

...Team doctors have said that Span’s problem could be thyroid-related, but they have yet to find a definitive reason for his recurring dizziness. Span’s anxious to solve this mystery.

“It’s just scary,” Span said. “It just aggravates. I know something’s wrong. I know I how feel. Just not knowing what it is or why. I think when I find out why, I’ll feel a little bit better.”

Span said his energy level is fine.

“I’m just feeling the same as far as [being] dizzy,” Span said. “I just feel like I can’t focus and concentrate when I’m hitting. I can kind of get away with it when I’m playing defense because things aren’t happening as fast in the outfield.

“Last couple days I’ve been feeling it, feeling the same way a little bit, but as the game would go on, things would get a little better. Today, I felt it in BP, but kept thinking once I start playing, once the game comes, I’ll be all right. Just didn’t feel right. I think my last at-bat, I just didn’t even see the ball. I fouled off a pitch. I just feel like I didn’t see the ball clearly out of his hand.”

MLB: Nats hope Strasburg isn’t this year’s Bane

This might be worthy of a roundtable discussion.

Introducing Eddie Bane, walking cautionary tale.

“I never thought about it much like that,” said Bane, taking a break from preparing for his sixth Draft as scouting director for the Los Angeles Angels. “I don’t mind at all if that’s what it is.”

Bane was as dominant a college hurler as there was. His name dots the NCAA record books. He had a 0.99 ERA as a sophomore and went 15-1 as a junior. He was 1973’s version of Mark Prior, Jered Weaver or, dare it be said, Stephen Strasburg. He went straight from the College World Series and into the Twins rotation.

“I went from striking out Dave Winfield at Minnesota at a College World Series game—that played pretty well in Minnesota—threw a few bullpens in Minneapolis and they told me I was starting July 4. Quite honestly, if every team made as much money off their first round pick as the Twins did off me, they’d be doing very well. It was the biggest crowd they ever had at [Metropolitan Stadium].”

TwinCities.com/Walters: Could Minnesota Twins’ Joe Mauer bat .400 this season?

No major leaguer has hit .400 for a season since Ted Williams’ .406 in 1941 for the Boston Red Sox. Another left-handed batter with a beautiful swing, Joe Mauer, had three more hits for the Twins in their 11-3 victory over Cleveland on Thursday and is hitting .436 through his first 31 games.

It’s still early, of course, but it’s becoming somewhat intriguing to wonder whether the St. Paul native could achieve the feat.

...

Rock legend loves Joe Mauer

Plain Dealer: Fausto Carmona pounded in Tribe’s loss to Twins

MINNEAPOLIS—Maybe the best place right now for Fausto Carmona is Columbus. Pitching in the big leagues certainly isn’t doing him or the Indians much good.

The Twins battered Carmona for seven runs on five hits in two innings Thursday afternoon in an 11-3 victory at the Metrodome. In his past three starts, including two in which he didn’t get past the second inning, Carmona has allowed 19 runs on 16 hits in 7-1/3 innings.

Manager Eric Wedge says he’s considering all options regarding Carmona. Yes, that includes sending him to the minors. Carmona has one option left.

Miracle righty tallest in pro baseball

As part of the Fort Myers Miracle’s community outreach program, new relief pitcher Loek Van Mil recently held court at an elementary school. He was sitting in a chair as the students filed into the classroom.

Then, Van Mil stood.

“He can touch the ceiling!” one of the students exclaimed.

Indeed, he can.

Van Mil, at 7-foot-1, is the tallest player in professional baseball.

As a member of the Minnesota Twins’ Class A minor league team, Van Mil stands three promotions from becoming the tallest player in Major League Baseball history, a title that belongs to 6-11 Jon Rauch, who pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks

7 foot 1 inches? That is pretty tall. Why, it’s 1.977 Gaedels!

WaTimes/Heller - A fitting honor arrives for broadcaster Wolff

This was in the long, long ago baseballwise, meaning the early 1950s, and catcher Clint Courtney of the Washington Senators was having trouble throwing the ball back to his pitchers accurately. One day he moaned and groaned about it to Bob Wolff, a young Senators broadcaster who frequently worked out with the team.

“Tell you what, Clint,” said Wolff, who had played baseball at Duke University. “Let’s you and me come out early every day and practice your throws.”

So they did, and pretty soon Courtney, a rock-rumped sort known as “Scrap Iron,” had no more problems returning pitches.

Cybermetrics: Morong: Are Mauer And Morneau The New M & M Boys?

Morong and misnomer...how soon one forgets Metzger and Menke!

Back in the 1960s, slugging Yankee teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were sometimes called the “M & M boys.” I don’t recall if Willie Mays and Willie McCovey got that nickname (although a Topps baseball card called them “fence busters” even though they did not study to be come cops like Shaquille O’Neal). Now, the Twins have Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. They both just had great months in May. Morneau hit .361 with a .459 OBP and a .713 SLG (for an OPS of 1.172). Mauer did even better, with the line of .414-.500-.838, for an OPS of 1.338. So I started to wonder how that stacked up against the best months from the earlier versions of the M & M boys.

I found all the months when the three pairs of teammates both had an OPS of 1.000 or higher (minimum 20 games played). Then I added them and also multiplied them (multiplying might give a better idea of a great 1-2 punch since both players have to do well).

...Mantle and Maris were sensational in July 1961. Mantle’s line was .375-.508-.854. He hit 14 HRs and had 28 RBIs in 29 games. Maris had .330-.403-.755 with 13 HRs and 31 RBIs in 28 games. The Yankees went 20-9 while scoring 162 runs. The Twins this May did not fare so well, going only 14-16, although they did score 168 runs. Morneau had 9 HRs and 29 RBIs while Mauer had 11 & 32.

The performance of Mays and McCovey in September 1968 is amazing because it was the year of the pitcher. But the Giants entered September 12 games behind the Cardinals and still finished 9 back in 2nd place. They were eliminated on September 15 and only went 15-12.

RotoSynthesis: Liss: Sample Size and Statistical Significance

That off across the ocean there’s a million guys named Joe...Mauer?

I’m not going to mention a certain Twins catcher by name, but I do want to make a distinction between the two concepts above because it seems in our discussion of said catcher, they have been confused.

...The question is - at what point do we conclude that the coin is *not* evenly weighted? Well, it’s not simply a matter of how many times you flip the coin, i.e., sample size. It’s *also* a matter of the *magnitude of the deviation*. If you get 16 heads and four tails, I wouldn’t be so sure the coin is unevenly weighted. But if you get 20 heads and no tails, it’s almost certainly so. (Less than 1 in a million odds of that). In both cases, the sample size is quite small, but in the latter, it’s more than sufficient. When the coin lands at a an 80-percent heads clip, you need a larger sample to determine the coin is rigged because the magnitude of the deviation from the baseline (50/50) is less. And if the coin lands heads at a 55-percent clip, you need an even larger number of flips to determine whether it’s rigged.

So understand that the sample size is only one of two factors in determining the significance of the outlier. The other is the magnitude.

That’s why when you see Verlander strike out 60 batters in 44 IP or Joe Mauer - f*** it, I’ll mention him, hit 11 home runs, you cannot simply say, “it’s only one month, I’m not a believer” without also considering the magnitude of the deviation.

Is 60K in 44 IP a big enough magnitude to make one month significant. Is 11 home runs? In my opinion, yes. But whatever your opinion, you must address both factors if you’re going to get a good gauge of whether it’s dumb luck or a new baseline.

MinnPost: What’s behind the sudden Mauer power?

Last Monday, Mauer told MinnPost that no one had yet asked him the toughest but most obvious question — whether the All-American Boy from St. Paul might have used steroids to compensate for his lack of winter work. Mauer seemed more amused than offended by the subject, and before the question could be put to him bluntly, offered this: “That’s something you never have to worry about with me.”
....

Fox Sports Net analyst Ron Coomer, who played nine seasons for the Twins, Yankees, Cubs and Dodgers and studied power hitters throughout his career, offered a more technical answer that makes the most sense.
.....

Now, Coomer said, Mauer “loads up” his weight on his back leg like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Albert Belle used to, and his head remains in the same place throughout the swing, like a golfer’s. That makes Mauer’s swing slightly shorter and more direct to the ball, creating loft and distance without uppercutting.

No steroids, he’s just hitting more like McGwire and Sosa....that should erase any pesky steroid rumors.

But seriously, I haven’t seen anyone else mention a change to Mauers batting stance/routine this month.  If that leads to a continued break out, it would be huge.

Walters: Can the Minnesota Twins afford to keep Joe Mauer?

Theres no stoppin the Cretin-Derham Hall graduate from hoppin!

It could be the $200 million question: Can the Twins afford to keep Joe Mauer?

“That’s like asking how high is up?” said Jerry Bell, who oversees Twins Sports Inc., for the Pohlad family that owns the Twins.

Mauer, the all-star catcher and two-time batting champion, will be 27 and in the prime of his career when he can become eligible for free agency after next season. He is signed through 2010 and is scheduled to make $10.5 million this season and $12.5 million next season.

He’s batting .417 with 11 home runs and 32 RBIs in 27 games since rejoining the Twins on May 1 after recovering from offseason surgery.

“We’re not going to negotiate today,” Bell said.

Bell sounds as if he feels the Cretin-Derham Hall graduate might be willing to take a hometown discount.

“All indications are that he’s more like (Kirby) Puckett and (Kent) Hrbek than some other (former Twins) guys who wanted to play on a bigger stage,” Bell said.

Morneau, Mauer tour new park

Morneau noted and approved of the wind direction: blowing out to right field. The Twins have an American flag displayed beyond the right-field wall, and the occasional gust straightened it out.

“That’s the first thing I noticed,” Morneau said.

Target Field’s right field foul pole will be 328 feet from home plate, up from 327 at the Metrodome. The right-field wall will be 23 feet tall, mimicking the Metrodome’s baggie.

There also will be a slight overhang, with limestone facing, where fans will actually be sitting above the right-field warning track. So a right fielder could be camped under a fly ball and have it land above his head, in the seats.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, 106 of Morneau’s 147 career home runs entering Wednesday, were to right or right-center, compared to 18 of Mauer’s 55 career homers.

Mauer and Morneau also have power to left-center, so it’s worth noting that Target Field’s left-center alley will be 377 feet, down from 385 feet at the Metrodome. The left-field foul pole will be 339 feet, in from 343, and the right-center field alley will be 367 feet, same as now.

And it comes with intelligent nanotechnological vines that will grab ahold of them and not let them go. In theory.

Souhan: Twins Gomez is a tantalizing baseball enigma

Gomez: Minnesota Swing 66 (OPS+).

Gomez is that tantalizing baseball enigma - the explosive yet unrefined athlete.

He possesses the power to launch the ball 500 feet, but his pitch selection and lack of consistent contact rarely allow him to hit more than a line-drive double. He might be the fastest player in baseball, yet he has succeeded on only four of seven stolen-base attempts this year. Bunt hits alone should buoy his average, yet he is batting just .225 with no homers and two RBI in 89 at-bats.

He could be great ... and so read the postscripts of many failed baseball careers.

“I know I can do it,” Gomez said. “I never change my mind. It’s all about time. I’ll take my time and do whatever I can. I work whenever I have to work, and I worry about the team. I know I’ve got the ability to play here. The only thing is the approach.

“Not many people who are 23 years old would do like I’m doing right now. I’m the youngest guy on the team. I’ve got two or three more years to play here and be that real player when I get to be 25, 26.”

Homers rule the day as three Twins, two Brewers go deep

Justin Morneau hit a grand slam, Scott Baker pitched into the ninth inning, and the Minnesota Twins completed a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a 6-3 victory Sunday night.

Joe Mauer and Joe Crede also homered for Minnesota, which has scored 43 runs in its last four games. Baker (2-5) allowed seven hits and struck out six in 8 1/3 innings for his first win in three starts since May 8.

Mike Cameron hit a solo homer in the fourth, and Prince Fielder added a two-run shot in the ninth for the Brewers.

The HRs were flying out of the Homer-Dome so much, you’d have thought it was Yankee Stadium!

FanGraphs: Cameron: Mauer Power

Somebody call the caterer...the Feast of the Transfiguration has been canceled.

Since returning from the disabled list, Mauer has slugged eight home runs in 86 plate appearances. His next home run will tie his 2008 season total, and he’s 547 plate appearances away from matching his opportunities from last year. When you see a 26-year-old show a huge power spike like this, the natural assumption is that he’s finally learned to turn on the ball, and is starting to tap into his natural pull power.

The problem, however, is that it’s not true.

...Of the seven home runs that Hit Tracker has the data for (they’re still working on last night’s shot, I’m sure), five of them have been to the opposite field and two have been to dead center. The grand slam he hit yesterday against the White Sox was to nearly the same spot where he has hit all his other home runs. He has yet to pull the ball over the wall this season.

I love Joe Mauer as a player, but if you were thinking that he’s showing signs of becoming one of the game’s elite sluggers, I don’t think it’s in the cards. He’s a fantastic hitter, but I wouldn’t count on seeing too many more months like this any time soon.

MLB.com: Cuddyer hits for cycle against Brewers

Michael Cuddyer became the second Twins player to hit for the cycle this season, and the 10th in team history to accomplish the feat, with his performance in Friday night’s game against the Brewers.

The Twins right fielder began his cycle with a three-run homer to left-center field in the first inning off Brewers starter Manny Parra.

Cuddyer led off the third inning with a ground-rule double to left-center field off Parra. He came up to bat again in the fourth inning right after Parra had exited and was replaced by right-hander Mike DiFelice. Cuddyer added an RBI single to center field, capping a four-run inning for Minnesota.

That single left Cuddyer just a triple short of the cycle. And in the sixth inning, in his fourth at-bat of the night, he delivered that triple with a grounder down the left-field line. The right fielder hustled around the bases and beat the throw from Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun, earning him a standing ovation from the crowd at the Metrodome

MLB.com: Six-run first gives Yanks sixth straight win

With Mariano Rivera unavailable, [Phil Coke] secured four outs to close out a 7-6 victory over the Twins on Monday, recording his first big league save and locking down a four-game series sweep for the Yankees.
...
The Yankees—winners of six straight—stayed away from Rivera after he had thrown 44 pitches in the last two games, allowing Coke to become the first left-hander to record a save for the Yankees since Chris Hammond did so on April 13, 2003, against Toronto.
...
New York rocked Minnesota starter Glen Perkins for all six runs, sending him to the clubhouse after two-thirds of an inning. Teixeira blasted a three-run shot to left field, his ninth of the season and second in three games, and Rodriguez followed with a solo shot—his fourth since rejoining the Yankees and third in as many days.

IIATMS: I could watch this play a hundred times (Video)

The Mauer Play...so astonishing it made Francespool say his name correctly (his Kooofax still needs work) for the first time.

Sure Gardner was out, but what an amazing play. If you didn’t see it, here’s the video (sorry, the audio is not aligned with the video):

I can’t get over how gorgeous this was, from the aggressiveness of Gardner to the presence and awareness of Mauer, the luck of the pitcher behind-the-backing the ball to Mauer, not to mention the awesome physicality of Mauer’s play and the near swim move by Gardner

TwinCities: New York Yankees’ rally spoils Justin Morneau’s birthday bash

Morneau slugged two home runs and made a diving, potentially game-saving stop of a ground ball in the ninth inning Friday night. “It would have been the perfect ending to a perfect day,” Morneau said on his 28th birthday.

But the cleanup hitter’s celebration was ruined when Melky Cabrera lined a two-out, two-run single to left-center field off Joe Nathan, giving New York a dramatic 5-4 victory that snapped the Twins’ three-game winning streak.

Christensen: New Yankee Stadium features old, deteriorating team

“do without that smelly, old ballpark on their side”? I thought they were allowing Freddie Sez in the new jernt?

The Twins make their first visit to the new Yankee Stadium tonight. It will be interesting to see how the Yankees do without that smelly, old ballpark on their side.

The new $1.5 billion palace might be a spectacular replica of the one across the street, but the home team is crumbling at the foundation.

Stars from that four-title dynasty are breaking down, and the pressure only builds for hired guns Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett—not to mention second-year manager Joe Girardi.

After committing more than $420 million to free agents last offseason, the Yankees are 17-17, a half-game behind the Twins.

The only thing overshadowing the team’s mediocre play has been stadium news, and much of that has been negative, too. Home runs are sailing out at an alarming rate—47 in 13 games, including 37 to right field—and from the television shots, the stadium seems littered with thousands of vacant, overpriced seats.

Those who come aren’t seeing the dominance of Yankees past.

Joe Mauer is Pretty Good

Link goes to B-R, but I just wanted to point out how absurdly good Joe Mauer has been since returning from injury.

Through 10 games, he’s hitting .500/.571/.917.  Oh, and the only time he was retired today was when Clete Thomas robbed him of a homerun (which would, of course, have boost his numbers to .527/.595/1.028!!!).

He needs 60 PAs to qualify for the leaderboard.  If he went 0-for-60, he would still be hitting .187/.235/.344.

Too bad the Twins didn’t draft Mark Prior…

(Thanks to ubelmann over at the World’s Greatest Online Magazine for doing the legwork)

Bert Blyleven eats worms

Bert Blyleven. Pitcher. Announcer. Grumpy Old Man. Pitching Coach of the 09 WBC Honkballers. Add to that list the descriptor: “Eater of Live Worms”.

Link is to the video.

Ron Gardenhire rages after Minnesota Twins end up on short end against Baltimore Orioles

Days of rage? Weatherman? Careful Gardenhire...COINTELPRO may still be watching.

After a 42-minute wait for the rain to subside before the game, after a 40-minute delay in the second inning, an 87-minute suspension in the fourth inning and another 59 minutes of downtime in the sixth, the Baltimore Orioles were awarded a 4-1 victory over the Twins at soggy Camden Yards.

And the Twins’ manager and chief meterologist said it never should have happened.

“The game should have never started in the first place,” Gardenhire fumed after the game was called at 12:19 a.m. “We never had a window, I mean, all night long. All you have to do is look at the radar, and you see it’s supposed to rain all night long. Once we stopped the first time, (we) should have never went back out there. There was never more than a 15-minute window to do anything. So that’s a joke.”

..."Major league baseball is nine innings. And we didn’t get a chance to (play) that because the weather showed that, from the get-go, we shouldn’t have been doing this — from the get-go,” Gardenhire seethed. “Somebody made a mistake here and screwed up. And I don’t know who’s supposed to be accountable for this (stuff), but my team ends up paying the final price — because we lose a baseball game.”