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This October brings the opportunity to watch a handful of former Minnesota Twins on the playoff stage. In fact, the only teams who don’t boast former Twinkies are the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves.
David Ortiz, making his seventh playoff appearance with the Boston Red Sox, is the postseason veteran of the group. While Big Papi’s outstanding performance that helped the Sox to “Reverse the Curse” in 2004 was one of sport’s best feel good moments, it’s time he shared the wealth.
Justin Morneau is the obvious fan favorite. Playing for the underdog Pittsburgh Pirates, I’m sure Twins fans everywhere would love to see Morneau win a title. Morneau left Minnesota with no hard feelings, even addressing a sentimental letter to Twins fans thanking them for their support, and apologizing for never winning them a World Series.
Well Justin, if you couldn’t do it for us, maybe you can do it for Pittsburgh.
Morneau isn’t the only reason to cheer for the Pirates. Former Twins ace Francisco Liriano also dons the black and gold. Liriano played an integral part in advancing Pittsburgh past the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card game, showing he has major postseason chops.
Torii Hunter is another player Minnesota fans shouldn’t mind seeing win it all — oh wait, he plays for the Detroit Tigers. Despite being a member of the Twins’ hated enemies to the east, Hunter has put in the time and maintained a shining image — he deserves to see the view from the top.
As far as the remaining Twins alumni in the postseason are concerned, I could really care less. For the sake of name-dropping, I’ll mention that Grant Balfour (Oakland Athletics), Jesse Crain (Tampa Bay Rays), Garrett Jones (Pittsburgh), Pat Neshek (Oakland), Nick Punto (Los Angeles Dodgers), and Delmon Young (Tampa Bay) are all also in the running.
If you’re not bitter about the success of these former Twinkies, then odds are pretty good that you’ll see one of your former favorites win the 2013 World Series. If you are bitter, have fun cheering for the Cardinals or the Braves.
Caroline Ponessa is a Minnesota Twins writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow her on Twitter @RantCaroline
