| Twins Look Forward to 2012 |
| By Sally Haase January 26, 2012 MANKATO, MN – It was another huge crowd for the Minnesota Twins annual Winter Caravan stop at the Kato Ballroom in Mankato, Minnesota. The one thousand plus in attendance came out to support their team in what will hopefully be a rebound season after a 99 loss 2011 season. But, really, let’s face it; the team can’t do much worse than 99 losses. This year, Twins fans were treated to visits from newest Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, Twins President Dave St. Peter, players Danny Valencia and Drew Butera. The theme of the program was moving forward, the highlight video, traditionally shown at caravan stops was replaced with a 2012 look ahead video that highlighted the new players joining the team and clips of returning favorites. St. Peter made a point to say that 2011 is in the past and the team cannot worry about last season and that the team will get back to the Twins fundamentals that led them to dominate the American League Central in the 2000’s. St. Peter also said that Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer are healthy and part of the team’s success will depend on the regular players staying healthy. Injuries were a big problem for the Twins last season, so a healthy team will be a big step in the right direction. St. Peter also announced that the Twins are working on securing the All-Star game at Target Field for 2014; he said he just needs to hear from commissioner Selig for the official word. During the question and answer portion of the program, the Butera and Valencia were hit with a hard question right away with a fan asking about their favorite memory from last season. Considering the few highlights from the 2011 Twins season it took the players a few moments to think of an answer. Butera said that Francisco Liriano’s no-hitter was his favorite memory because he was the one who caught the game and that is very rare to catch a no-hitter. Valencia said his was seeing former teammate Jim Thome’s 600th home run; Valencia said he was in the on deck circle when Thome hit the ball, and Valencia said he was thinking it would be such a great photo of him hugging Thome, but then Michael Cuddyer, who was not playing in the game ran up and boxed Valencia out for the first hug with Thome. Without fail, the Mankato crowd is always one of the biggest crowds to show up for a Twins caravan stop, it does not matter who is there to represent the team, or the weather; the fans in southern Minnesota will come out and support their team and interact with the players. |
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