Dome Disaster: Sox - Twins Game 1

You might be asking yourself, “Wow! How did you make it through that whole game?” I still can’t tell you. I was being sent a message: WCIU game. You can’t watch it. Griffey in CF. Twins. But, I put my heart on the line and watched anyway. Well… not “watched” as much as was too paralyzed in horror to turn the game off. You might also read forums (I know. Can’t stay away. Like asking me not to watch Boone Logan pitch. I have to see how he does it this time! What else does he have up his sleeve?) and think, “Well, which one turned out to be the bigger problem? The outfield or the pitching?” If you want a clear answer, it’s “I don’t know.” They both did us in.

First of all, there was Javi. Ozzie grabbed him by the balls, announced to the media that he had none, and he couldn’t pitch in a game that counted. And what did Javi do to prove him wrong? Absolutely nothing. He decided to forget about the “one good game, one bad game” deal he had going and instead go “one good inning, one terrible inning,” with the amount of terrible escalating.

And the outfield was spectubular. Wise and Dye’s effectiveness was, as usual, mediocre minus Griffey’s slack. Griffey tried for a diving catch- with no intents of catching the ball, I’m sure. He just wanted to seem as if he was trying. [I’m sure he’ll be feeling some general soreness tomorrow] He had a better chance of catching it standing up. In fact, if he didn’t dive for that ball, and his name was Brian Anderson instead, I’m sure that wouldn’t have happened at all. Instead, our outfielders combined to allow 2 doubles and a lead-off triple. They must have kept Griffert in the game because Kenny’s psychic told him about the 2-run homer he would have in the 9^th. No matter that it still left the Sox 6 runs short, he passed Sammy Sosa! Touche, Kenny Williams. Oh, and there was the RBI GIDP he had in the second inning. Sort of an oxymoron there. Hell, a sacrificed fly would have done. His relentless grounding out to first base and one walk per game do not add value. Put in Jerry Owens if you refuse to let the big-eared one play. But in playing Griffey, you’re really trading strikeout Swisher for groundout Swisher. (Because fly out Swisher doesn’t exist anymore. I’m certain he was told that he wasn’t allowed to hit any more home runs for the rest of the year at the expense of them taking his hair clippers away or something AWESOME like that.) By the 7^th inning, I thought there was a misprint on gameday, because there was no way that Griffert was still in CF.

Okay, that’s enough Griffey complaints. There were 6 hits and 3 walks, so everyone else was just as much to blame. The pitcher and my strike zone didn’t match. That little Baker kid pitching for the Twins had the batters’ numbers. And the Twinkies had Javi’s. And Clayton’s. And certainly Boone Logan’s. Not to mention that I had to listen to the Twins’ announcers, who were not aware of the invention of the word “well.” Everything was, “good.” It was certainly good for the Twins’ morale to win 9-2 and shrink the division lead back to 1.5 games.