A Trip to Twins Camp
Posted by John on March 31, 2009 under John | 
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Although it’s a bit after the fact, I wanted to write a post with a few reflections from my trip to Ft. Myers last week. I’m sure you may have already seen some of the Tweets or watched my little video of Kevin Slowey, but here is a little bit more to get you pumped for opening day.
Going to Spring Training is one of the most rejuvenating experiences ever! Not just as a baseball fan, but there is something about the fresh grass, the red sunburn, and the players with numbers higher than 60 on their jerseys. It’s quite the transformation coming from 10 degrees in Minneapolis.
To describe Spring Training in one word: hope. There is hope in the young players that they can make the big league club; there is hope in old veterans who are trying to rebound from injuries; there is hope from the fans that this is the year their club can go to the World Series. If you’re looking for a true break from the chaos of everyday life, I’d recommend any baseball fan to head to Florida someday for Spring Training.
We caught two ballgames during our time at Hammond Stadium. We saw a tough 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees followed by a nice 11-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Glen Perkins pitched very well against the Yankees, but saw his victory disappear at the hands of the bullpen. In the game against the Jays, Scott Baker struggled to find his rhythm but the big bats came out including a monster homerun from Justin Morneau.
A few highlights was capturing my first glimpse of Joe Crede manning the Twins’ hot corner. I also got to talk to Twins prospect Aaron Hicks for a few minutes and get his autograph. It’s hard to believe this kid is only 19 years old. Hicks looks like an incredible athlete with tons of tools and seems like a good kid with his head screwed on right. Other sighting on the training fields included Anthony Swarzak, Deolis Guerra, and Loek Van Mil. You may not have heard of Van Mil, but he is the 7′1” pitcher from the Netherlands. The kid is huge!
I also took a pic with old skipper, Tom Kelly, as well as caught some glimpses of legends Harmon Killebrew and Tony Olivia. It’s so cool how in one complex you get to see the Twins’ past, present, and future.
The best part of the week was speaking to Kevin Slowey, who kindly introduced my blog on camera, and taking a little souvenir home from the bat of Jason Kubel. My brother and I were watching Joe Vavra throw pitches to Kubel in the batting cages and he was just crushing the ball one after another. Then Vavra started throwing in on Kubel and trying to jam him a bit. That’s when Kubel proceeded to saw his bat in half, look at the two pieces on the ground, and then give a way two new souvenirs he had just created. One to a little four year old kid who thought it was Christmas morning; the other to a 23 year old kid who also thought it was Christmas morning.
Going to Ft. Myers was a great time and more than anything else it just got me even more excited for the 2009 season to start. Go Twins!
