Usually it's not until August when I come out with my annual "stick a fork in the Twins" post. And at times my dismissal of the team has proved to be premature. But this year, even at this early date, I feel quite secure in unequivocally stating that the 2006 Twins are done.
Those who doubt me need look back no further than this past weekend's embarrassing series against the Tigers. Not only did the Twins get swept, already the third time this year they've been swept on the road by a Central Division rival, they were outscored 33-1! Thirty-three to one? That should not happen to a major league baseball team. At least not to one with any sense of pride.
The Twins are now 3-12 on the road, with two of those wins coming against one of the few squads that can claim to be more pathetic than the Twins, the abysmal Kansas City Royals. Yes, Twins fans it's that bad.
But I have a great idea how we can make things all better. Let's buy these losers a new stadium!
It's hard to imagine that I could recommend a book penned by a couple of dyed-in-the-wool lefties that has glowing blurbs from Ralph Nader and Molly Ivins. But Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit is well worth a read.
It was originally published in 1998, but much of what they covered is still relevant today. While I don't agree with the author's quasi-Marxist analysis and suggestions for where stadium money could otherwise be spent, it's hard to argue with their main point that publicly financed stadiums are nothing more than corporate welfare whose benefits to the community are dubious at best (believe it or not, Sid Hartman may be overstating the economic impact just a tad).
Thanks to King for letting me read his single malt Scotch-stained copy of the book. And the thanks to the Twins for quitting early this year and saving me the trouble of wasting any more time watching their sorry excuse for baseball.
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