Revisiting the Twins of '87

I could rattle on enthusiastically about baseball for longer than you would choose to listen. I'm sure it began with stories from my father about the old-time Cubs, Gabby Hartnett, and Wrigley Field. There were the incredible World Series battles of the Yankees and Dodgers in '52, '53, '55, and '56; the years I was in high school and the games were on the radio in study hall. Even before that, like so many boys in Iowa, I idolized "Fireballer" Bob Feller, an Iowa boy who went straight from high school to the Cleveland Indians and was an immediate success. I had a strike zone mapped out on the barn wall, and practiced fielding by throwing a baseball onto the barn hip roof. The stuff a boy's dreams were made of.

I started watching the Twins in the late 60's, and became a fan when there was little public reason to, but I've always been a fan of "the game". I delight in watching all of the little things that great players do, and those things often happen even when a team is not being successful. Wins are great, but it's always been the individual play that thrilled me.

Back in April of 2006, I wrote Twins - you just lost a loyal fan and I haven't watched the Twins since. That was a painful decision, but the Twins had violated all of us with their demands and pressure to get a new stadium using tax money. In doing so, they were abandoning the big ugly Metrodome, certainly not an ideal place for baseball, but that dome was also the place in which the Twins won their two World Series, in '87 and '91. The only way to just toss that now-sentimental location is to be more concerned about money than about baseball. For me, the Twins were no longer worthy of support.

It's been 20 years since that first World Series win, and I've noticed that the Twins are celebrating. In '87, I taped the whole World Series on VHS. It took 13 tapes, which I've kept and never watched... until today. I just watched Game 1 again, and it brought back glorious memories. It was Tom Kelly's rookie year as the Twins manager, but I had already become a fan of his because he emphasized sound basic play. That was a "workman" team, filled with players who could do it all... field, throw, and hit... and they were thinkers. They didn't give anything away, and they just kept on coming. My favorite player to watch was Dan Gladden. I remember thinking that if I were choosing players for "my" team, Gladden would be my first choice. The guy could do it all well. Not a superstar, but a guy who could play well in any position under any circumstances. In that first '87 Series game, he sent the Cards into depression with a grand slam homer, the first WS grand slam in 17 years. After trailing 1-0, the Twins scored the next 10 runs.

Today, in the paper, I read some current quotes from some of those '87 Twins, about their season and Series:

As Lombardozzi said, "What was unique was that all of us got it. We understood that you're playing for the fans and the community, whereas normally time gives you better perspective; I think it was so obvious that you didn't need time to give it perspective.

"The outpouring of affection, adoration - it was the most unbelievable thing you could ever experience."

Hrbek, who grew up in Bloomington and still calls the Twin Cities home, said that came from the experience of suffering through a lot of bad seasons - by both players and fans.

"People don't take pride in who they're playing for anymore, and we did," Hrbek said. "We got beat around so much early that we wanted to make someone else pay, and I think that's what pushed us over the top."

The Twin's owner and organization should try hard to understand those comments. Baseball team success isn't about money, and it sure as hell isn't about stadium. When you force people to pay for a stadium against their will, you change your fan base. You lose fans who love the game, and gain some fans who like winners (and disappear the rest of the time), or just like the spendy spectacle. The taxpayers did not want to pay for the stadium, so they deliberately weren't allowed to vote on it.

The Twins chose stolen money, corporate "fans", upscale and fickle fans, and told the rest of us to like it or lump it. Baseball used to be a special game. My father loved the game too. He never stopped being a Cubs fan (and he was far from alone), even after leaving Chicago, and even after so many decades of disappointing Cubs seasons. We used to say "American as Baseball, Mom, and Apple Pie". Now the Twins are just another branch of professional sports entertainment. Yawn.