A Defeat in Battle; A Win in War

I’m not sure how responsible it is of me to blog before writing my stuff for the website, but I’m told that nothing I write will be up until Monday – so I guess the blog it is.

Today, without intending to spoil the lede (not lead) of my piece on the home opener, was a lot of fun – a really good crowd, great weather, an actual ballpark atmosphere that, quite frankly, didn’t seem like it was going to happen as recently as Wednesday, and an exciting game, albeit one that the Twins wound up on the wrong side of.

They lost 5-3 to the defending champions, and they certainly could have – and probably should have – won. They left the bases loaded twice, once only manufacturing a single run despite loading them with no one out. None of the Brantford runs, to the best of my hazy recollection, were entirely undeserved, although a few of them came from guys that got on base via a walk.

I daresay the crowd was spectacular – at least, that’s what I’m told by ICBL watchers. Different people I asked guesstimated the final attendance as being between 200-1000; I’m thinking I would go with 400-600 if I had to bet. By all standards, though, it was considered a success.

The ballpark atmosphere came together nicely: a kick-ass throwback scoreboard in left-centre that wasn’t there on Wednesday (huge kudos to the scoreboard operators, as the scoreboard, despite being a manual one, was consistently reliable for details as miniscule as the exact count, pitch-by-pitch); a concession stand that covered the basics, even if the hot dogs were a bit small; a – this was the shocker for me – Boston Pizza Beer Garden (actually a fenced off section down the third base side with a beer tent), and a few cute promotions aimed at kids that seemed to keep everyone on their toes and entertained.

It came down to a ballpark that felt like an actual ballpark, despite as recently as Wednesday having been no more exciting any other municipal baseball field. I think there’s a great feature somewhere down the road about the Twins’ game day operation!

I did not get to speak to Rick Johnston – I was surprised to see him in uniform, being the VP of player development, and I’m told he left at 2.30 to attend other commitments, so I couldn’t grab him after the game. I do believe Brantford is back later this summer, but I think it might be one of the games I know I’ll be away for. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to speak to him at some point this season and do that promised one on one interview, though.

I did, however, get to speak to the ICBL commissioner, as well as the owner of the Twins – both of whom made it quite clear that they were always available whenever I needed on the record remarks, which is just great. Although I suppose neither could have expressed pessimism on opening day in Mississauga, the optimism that came through seemed both sincere and profound.

And, I really think I’m sold on the argument that Mississauga is a great city for an ICBL team – no disrespect to any of the other places with teams, but really, between the strong youth baseball community (LOTS of kids out today in Mississauga SouthWest and Mississauga North uniforms) and the whole sixth-largest-population-in-Canada thing, it’s tough to imagine this franchise not excelling, and even tougher to imagine it not doing at least as well as anywhere else (maybe the Maple Leafs are an exception because of the tradition, and the Red Sox because of the whole perennial contender thing, but who really knows?)

Another thing I think I’m sold on is the idea that this Twins team will be competitive – despite a lack of clutch hitting (which some people – myself not included – seem to believe is meaningless criteria, anyways), they did outhit the defending champions, and, as I said earlier, really could have easily beat them. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has expressed an iota of doubt, on or off the record, about the likelihood of them competing wire to wire.

They beat London 12-10 on Friday night as well, in London, so they sit at 2-1 – hardly, I think, a start that anyone would sneeze at for an ‘expansion’ franchise, especially when put into the context of a much shorter season than the MLB.

So, with that, the .666 Twins take their perfect road record (2-0) to Christie Pitts tomorrow afternoon, home of the illustrious Maple Leafs of baseball, and site of the infamous-to-Tragically-Hip-fans-but-unknown-to-everyone-else Christie Pitts race riots during the second world war. Although I’m told the physical park itself isn’t much, I can’t wait to make my first ever visit – it is, by all standards, the quintessential Canadian ballpark and I’m thrilled to get to cover a game there.

With the backlog of articles to be posted on the website, you’ll probably be hit with five or six pieces on Monday – a good 3000 or so words of Twins journalism! I’m going to push hard for a more timely system of article uploading, ideally one where I can just submit articles myself and have them on the site instantaneously.

Check for another blog post after tomorrow’s game – probably a bit earlier than tonight’s – and remember to try to make Wednesday’s 7.00 home game against the Barrie Baycats, from the now beautiful Meadowvale Sports Park!