Back from Minnesota

The 2008 Hill family vacation took us to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Beautiful country, plenty of shopping, tons of mosquitoes, and, yes, quite a bit of water.

Oh, by the way, the state’s baseball team isn’t half bad either.

We attended Wednesday’s matinee and I’m here to tell you, the Twins aren’t going anywhere. Bottom line, they bust their hump on every play, do the little things that allow themselves to win, and just about every player is playing for a contract (whether it be in Minnesota or elsewhere). I don’t believe you can underestimate the hunger factor this pesky group of Twins brings to every game. It’s certainly something that’s been noticeably absent from the Tigers much of the season.

One other reason why the Twins aren’t going to disappear is the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I’ve been to plenty of yards in my day, but never anything quite as quirky, goofy, and most-assuredly unbaseballesque as this place. The fact the first three batters in their lineup can lay down a bunt plays with the minds of the infielders. And you can’t play too close because of how quick the turf is. Poor Marcus Thames may never be the same after his two-plus days at first base. Now we know why Miguel Cabrera came up lame Monday.

As for the Tigers on Wednesday, let’s just say I shouldn’t see the Detroiters on the road. I’m now 1-3 away from the CoPa. It was an uninspired effort almost from the beginning. Not that you could blame the Tigers as it dawned on me shortly after the start of the game that their were only two Detroit starters in their positions from opening day (Edgar Renteria and Placido Polanco) — and we’re only at the halfway mark of the season! Aside from the longball this group can’t seem to generate any offense; something the Twins are quite capable of.

There was some good to come of our trip to the Hump, however. It occurred when Jake and I took our first bathroom break in the bottom of the fourth and we discovered … troughs! Yep, I was able to show Jake the trough. Of course he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to relieve himself in it or drop in a toy sailboat and see how long it would take for it to sail dowstream.