An old cliché that has stood the test of time is “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” With this in mind, look at the two best teams in baseball as we have reached the mid-summer classic. The Los Angeles Dodgers are on fire with the best record in the big leagues, 61-29, […]
Twins
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Twins showing good early signs
Major League Baseball, being the original American pastime, is full of clichés like “Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint” — 162 games over six-plus months. Last season locally was a long season indeed. The Twins were 59-103, the worst record in the Major Leagues. Longtime general manager Terry Ryan was fired. So far in 2017, […]
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Teaching the art of hitting baseballs
The hardest skill to master in sport is hitting a baseball. As a result, a batter often can have hot streaks when it looks to him like he’s hitting beach balls, and then suffer hitless streaks where the ball looks like the size of a BB. Such ups and downs are regular occurrences in baseball, […]
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‘A long way to go’ to reach MLB diversity hiring goals
It’s been 70 years since Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s (MLB) color barrier, and it’s been 45 years, since shortly before his death in 1972, that he urged baseball to do better in regards to diversity. “His vision was to see diverse players on the field reflecting diverse coaches and those in the front […]
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Blacks scarce at annual Jackie Robinson Day game
Does anyone really care anymore? This year’s annual Jackie Robinson Day (April 15) held by Major League Baseball (MLB) has come and gone. Unfortunately, as I sat last Saturday in a virtually all-White press box watching a game where players of both teams wore Robinson’s No. 42 on the 70th anniversary of his breaking baseball’s […]
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Black Twins fans give the sport a thumbs-up
This column continues the Only One series in which this reporter shares his experiences as the only African American journalist on the scene. The 2016 Minnesota Twins season concludes this weekend. All season long we searched, and on the last unofficial day of summer, Labor Day, the Only One finally located a Black family at […]
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Trials of an Only One | 2016 Central Regional Tournament
This column continues the Only One series in which this reporter shares his experiences as the only African American journalist on the scene. In August, Cincinnati will host the 2016 Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series. The Minnesota Twins RBI program last weekend hosted this year’s RBI Central Regional tournament in both Minneapolis […]
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Torii Hunter stands tall, stresses unity at Hall of Fame speech
Baseball, unlike football and basketball, doesn’t have a fast track to the majors. Torii Hunter was fresh out of high school when the Minnesota Twins drafted him in 1993. After about three years in the minor league, he remembered hitting the frustration wall. He wanted to give up baseball and perhaps head to college and […]
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Twins visit the hood
Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI) youth baseball and softball program operates in all 30 MLB franchise cities. This season the Minnesota Twins, through its Community Fund, is handing out free baseball gloves to all participants ages eight and under in Minneapolis and St. Paul. An estimated 5,000 youth in the […]