The Twins are currently on a 15 day, 14 game road trip.

This is one of the longest road trips I can remember them taking and comes at a crappy time given that they are in the middle of a division race.

The most common reason I hear for this scheduling anomaly is that the Twins had to leave town because the Republican National Convention is being held in St. Paul next week.

My question is why did the Twins have to leave town for the RNC?

Last time I checked the RNC was being held in St. Paul at the Xcel Center and the Twins play in the comfy confines of the Metrodome a few miles away in downtown Minneapolis.

Can any one out there explain why the Twins got banished from Minnesota for 2 weeks.

Is it due to security concerns, traffic issues, lack of hotel rooms or what?

Maybe they are trying to hide the fact that the Metrodome is the crappiest baseball park in the MLB and didn't want any of the convention goers to attend a game.

The Gophers have a home football game Saturday night at the Metrodome.

Shouldn't they have been banished too?

Did I miss a reasonable explanation along the way?

Somebody out there explain this to me.

By the way the Twins broke their 4 game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Mariners today.

 

 

The Twins road woes continued last night with their loss to Seattle.

The Twins are now 28-35 on the road compared to a stellar 46-23 at home.

Why do they struggle on the road?

I think the main reason is their youth.

Their young guys aren't as comfortable on the road and make mistakes that they wouldn't at home.

Some examples from the last couple games include Alexi Casilla throwing a ball away at first base when the runner decided to go back to first on an attempted steal.

The ball goes into the dugout and the runner's awarded 3rd base.

He eventually scores and the Twins end up losing in extra innings.

Other examples include Carlos Gomez misjudging a deep fly to center, jumping too early which allowed the ball to drop at the warning track giving the Angels an extra out in an inning they rallied to beat the Twins.

Early on in the season, the starting pitchers were getting hammered on the road but that hasn't been the case lately.

Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano have pitched well enough to win in Seattle but haven't gotten much help from their position players.

The young guys have to relax and get back to playing "Twins baseball"--playing solid defense, having good at bats, moving runners over etc.

The Twins are now 2-4 on this brutal road trip and 2 games behind the White Sox.

Hopefully, Glen Perkins can pitch us to a win today in the series finale.

Here's my take on the state of the Vikings after 3 preseason games and training camp.

Tarvaris Jackson looks much better than he did at this same time last year.

I'd be more more confident of this statement if he had been able to play against a very tough Steelers defense last night and done well.

He needs to learn how to protect himself better when he runs by sliding or getting out of bounds or he will continue his trend of getting hurt.

Chili is protecting Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor for the regular season as neither as gotten very many carries so far.

The jury is out on our wide receivers as Sidney Rice and Bernard Berrian haven't been able to play much due to injuries and illnesses.

Visanthe Shiancoe looks better this year and may finally give the Vikings a receiving threat at tight end which is important in the West Coast Offense.

Our offensive line is solid but could be in trouble if McKinnie gets suspended.

Things are a little more clear on the defensive side of the ball.

Jared Allen is the real deal.

He's going to create a lot of havoc for other teams both with his ability to rush from the edge and by the fact his presence makes the Williams boys even more dangerous.

Our D-line manhandled Pittsburgh's starting O-line last night.

Leber, Greenway and EJ Henderson are the best set of linebackers we've had in a long time.

They are poised to have a great year and should be able to help in the passing game more now that we have a D-line that's able to pressure the QB on its own without the help of constant blitzing.

Secondary is still somewhat of a question mark in particular at cornerback.

Antoine Winfield and Cedric Griffin should be the starters but after that things get a little suspect with guys like Charles Gordon, Benny Sapp and Marcus McCauley battling it out.

At safety, it looks like Tyrell Johnson will be starting until Madieu Williams' neck injury heals.

Ryan Longwell and Chris Kluwe are entrenched in their positions at kicker and punter respectively and have been solid so far.

2 weeks to go until the Vikes take on the Pack in Lambeau on MNF.

I can't wait.

 

Discussion about a Vikings stadium has begun again, this time centering around Minneapolis.

I believe the Vikings will eventually either end up remodeling the Metrodome or tearing it down and building a new stadium on the same site -- similar to what happened in St. Paul when the Xcel Center was built at the site of the St. Paul Civic Center.

Currently the problem with remodeling the Metrodome or building a new stadium on that site is that the Vikings would not have anywhere to play while construction is underway.

That problem will be solved when the University of Minnesota opens its new stadium in 2009 which is 2 years before the Vikings lease runs out.

The Vikings could play at the Gophers stadium until their new stadium was finished, much like the Bears did when they played at the University of Illinois while Soldier Field was renovated.

The biggest advantage that Minneapolis has over the other sites such as Blaine is that the necessary infrastructure is already in place.

Adequate highway access along with the light rail system, which will most likely expand, are already available.

The other sites would need millions of dollars to improve roads and other infrastructure in addition to the money already needed to build the stadium.

I doubt that the legislature would approve building a new stadium in the suburbs once building in downtown Minneapolis becomes a viable option.

It'll be interesting how this story unfolds over the next year or two.