Fanatics Unite!

The term "fan" stems from the word "fanatic", which is defined by www.dictionary.com as "a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal."  It's been hard this season to be uncritical, but that positivity is finally paying off!  Our favorite club has made up something like 8.5 games in the last 19 days to pull within 8 games of the division-leading Cleveland Indians - wait, the Indians still lead the division?  If you saw any highlights from this afternoon, you know why they are still leading the division: Asdrubal Cabrera.  This guy made an unbelievable bare-handed play today that you have to see.

That's enough about the Indians, though.  How the heck did we make up so much ground so fast?  The obvious answer is that we keep winning.  The Twins are 14-3 now in June after sweeping the Padres (on Father's Day, naturally) for their seventh straight win.  My answer is: this team is good enough for this run to be relatively normal.  Starting pitching has been no less than solid 1-5, guys are running the bases and creating runs, and our backup catcher is getting walk-off hits.  I hate to beat a dead horse, but we still have Morneau, Span, Kubel, Nathan, and Thome getting ready to come off the DL, with Nishioka and Mauer just getting back into the full swing of things.  Positivity is at an all time high!

Now, I have to confess that I haven't seen much of the Twins these last 2 weeks due to some weddings/family vacations/chasing after my slow-pitch softball dreams.  Maybe I should continue to rely on my ESPN alerts via text message a little longer and see if we can sustain this run!

Let me offer just a little more positivity moving forward to assure you that this run will be sustained.  The upcoming schedule includes 3 games in San Francisco, who has lost 4 in a row - getting swept by Oakland this weekend.  After that we have 3 in Milwaukee - if you are scared of any team from Wisconsin, there's a problem that we can address later.  Then we're back home with series' against the Dodgers, Brewers again, and the Rays.  Once we get through that little run, the middle of July will be move-making time in the Central Division as we have 4 game series' against the Sox, Royals, Indians, and Detroit.  Only the White Sox series is on the road, and we all know that we own the Sox no matter where the game is played.  There is 9 straight opponents where it is realistic to think we have a very good shot to win nearly all of those series'.

The hardest part about being a Twins fan for the next month will be watching some guys get sent down that have been a big part of the run we are on.  Hopefully Billy Smith can find a way to keep Revere and Hughes up here.  Those two guys have quickly become two of my favorites this year.  No matter what the roster looks like, this is going to be an exciting summer as a "fanatic".  Whatever you do, pay close attention to the little things that happen - I have a good feeling this is going to be one of those seasons that you will want to tell your kids and grandkids about someday.