Twins Fans Confident That 'This Is The Year'

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- There has been quite a buzz all afternoon in downtown Minneapolis.

It seems like everywhere you go you see people wearing Twins T-shirts and hats.

Fans are feeling confident, but then again, so are Yankees fans.

"We are huge Twins fans," said one fan. "We couldn't miss the opportunity to come down early and see the game."

There's nothing like skipping out of work early on a beautiful fall day to go watch your favorite team play the hated Yankees.

"I don't hate the Yankees," Kennedy said. "I just want to beat the Yankees. They just need to go away. They just need to be done early."

Early Wednesday afternoon, the fans started to show. And with them came predictions for Game 1 and beyond.

Is this the year they finally get over the hump with the Yankees? One fan thinks so.

"It has to be, it has to be," said Johnny Brown. "Yes, this is their year."

Jane Butler said not only should this be the year for the Twins to beat the Yankees, but it should be the year the Twins go all the way.

"I went to the parade in '87, the parade in '91, I'm ready for it to happen again," she said. "I'm ready for a parade."

But before there is any World Series parade talk, it's time to fix a hex. The Yankees have had the Twins' number in the playoffs -- and their fans don't expect that to end.

"Greatness has an inevitability about it," said Mark Sargent, a Yankees fan.

Mark and Alex Sargent flew in from New York to watch, as they put it, the Yankees beat the Twins. But they have respect for the hometown team, especially for the Twins catcher.

"I don't know what a walleye is," Mark Sargent said, holding a Joe Mauer T-shirt, which proudly mentions the Midwestern fish, "but it's a great shirt and we have a lot of respect for the Twins."'

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