Twins Blog: Anticipating Spring Training
By Tracy Perlman
Most girls can't wait for Valentine's Day. They anxiously await the gifts and time spent with their loved ones. I'm not most girls. As I write this, on Feb. 14, I'm thinking of my loved ones: the Minnesota Twins.
Thursday is the pitchers and catchers start practicing at Spring Training.
I think it's only appropriate the team gets its start just after Valentine's Day this year -- the day dedicated to love. Baseball is the all-American relationship. Like a real relationship, it consumes you day and night for months at a time. It's timeless. It's complicated. The Twins will build you up with wins, only to break your heart on a road trip to New York They then return home and make you fall in love with them all over again the next day.
Baseball teams flirt with you. Think about the Twins' last season. They started off their season with a bang and everyone was rooting for them. They cooled off and struggled. And just when fans were starting to turn away and look for another love, the Twins turned up the heat and clinched the division title. Everyone who had jumped was back on the bandwagon.
That's why America has been in love with baseball for so long.
Like love, baseball is about science and a little magic. There's a chemical process in our brains that signals to us that we're in love. Our hearts race, our palms get sweaty, we feel bliss. You can't explain it -- you can't predict it. It sometimes just happens. Baseball is the same way. It's a sport that relies on both cerebral and physical reactions. You can have all the mental and physical skills needed to hit a baseball or run fast, but without a little magic you can't knock the ball out of Target Field like Jim Thome does time and time again.
So this Valentine's Day as many girls are anticipating the gift from their sweetie, I'll be here with the same anticipation. What will the Twins unwrap in terms of the season this year? Maybe a World Series ring? If that's the case, I'm hoping for big shiny ring this Valentine's Day!
