Putting my money on black...NOT!

Gambling is for suckers but the truly noble die with their boots on. Hey, look! I can write gibberish too!

I'd like to point you to my last post, "Attitude". I've tried every day to keep the story of Michael in mind when I'm about to put one more bet into a pot I know I've lost.

I'm going to draw your attention to something else on that page, it's a comment from Lightning36, my friend from Illinios. In his comment, he suggests that I take his advice and when it comes time to pick the winner of tonights divisional champ playoff game, I should put my money on black...black...black.

I grew up here in Minnesota. My first memories of professional baseball were of watching the master of hitting himself, Rod Carew, baffle pitchers with his mastery of making contact and getting on base. I cried as a small boy when my idol was traded to the Angels. I cheered as Calvin Griffith sold his team to the billionaire Minnesotan Carl Pohlad. My team would be here until he grew tired or died. Well, I don't know if that has happened, but they are still here.

There have been great drought in the win column for the Twins over the years. We sucked for most of the 80's...except in '87 (St. Louis lost...deal with it), my freshman year of college (dude...what a way to start college!), we really sucked in 1990, only to turn it around in 1991 and participate in the greatest World Series in history. (Only #3 here, but if you watched...come on...).

After 92' we sucked, but it didn't matter, in June of 1995, I asked OhCountess to marry me. Huh? You ask...yes, I asked her with a message on the Jumbotron in front of all my friends at the Metrodome. As I told her for months prior, I was going to ask her my way...and that was at the Twins game.

Somewhere in here, the braintrust that is MLB and Carl decided to fold the organization. OK, that crap wasn't funny. That move was decried by more then just Twins fans. This was a team worth saving!

Starting in 2000, the Twins were starting to see the payoff of a radical change that they had implemented as an orginaztion. From the top, Jerry Bell's office, to the rookie stepping on to the field at Elizabethton for his first day of rookie league, on driving force would be use to power this TEAM. TEAMWORK. No one person in the organization is more important then the team.

Even the manager for division rivals Ozzie Guillen admires the Twins system for it's ability to produce year in and year out the players with the heart it takes to win. As taken from the Star Tribune on March 31, 2007, 

"I keep blowing smoke when we face [the Twins]. But I know a little bit about baseball, and that's a baseball team out there. A good one. Know what I mean?"

"People say look in the mirror, play like those guys play. They compete as a team. They get you as a team, and that's why they win, and that's why they have five or six division titles. No one gives it to them. I'm the only one in baseball who ever gives those guys credit. Because they deserve credit. They come here, they show up and kick our butt."

As spoken by the White Sox manager (you think we'd EVER forget this?)

This past weekend, I spent a glorious day with my 9 year old daughter, we witnessed the Twins ensuring that the Sox weren't getting off easy. They would need to prove, on the field, that they deserved to be in the post season.

Tonight, we will be glued to our TV's or in the stands or with our ears to the radio, but tonight, the state of Minnesota stands behind our team, for better or worse, with unwavering passion, behind OUR TEAM.

This is my state, this is my team, and I'll be damned if I EVER put my money on BLACK.