Finally, a voice of reason

Had I been thinking, I would have asked for some ID - I just think I was so shocked that I wasn't quite sure how to act. Today, I began to hear serious voices of dissension at the Metrodome and in our own section, to boot.

For all I know, it was out of town fans causing problems in the Dome today. It would certainly explain things.

The "Dump Rondell White" bandwagon has found another gear and I had a new audience to preach to regarding his new depths of disappointing play. The three most telling stats had to be that: he's a.) a designated hitter, who is b.) slotted seventh in the batting order and c.) is hitting .148 in 25 games.

This is not going unnoticed by the Dome faithful. My disappointment with the way the Twins have handled the DH situation has been brought up time and again here, but this was new ground for us. Last year was a different story, with a complete turnaround pulled off in a matter of months, but for as lucky as Minnesota got during last year's playoff push, the Twins seem to be paying the debt on that karma this year.

Justin Morneau isn't hitting, Joe Mauer is hurt again this season and people are starting to warm up to the idea that he should be moved to third base and the team simply isn't winning. Even the gold standard of wins, Johan Santana, has had a hard time through July and August.

This is the exact opposite of the buzz last season, where the team caught up late and backed into the AL Central crown and Mauer's run at the batting title had everyone forgetting exactly how injury-prone he had been.

Is this year's team horrible? Not by a long shot, but it is weak in key positions and the front office dump of Luis Castillo didn't do anything but piss off the team's veterans and kill morale. I grew up with the Cubs - this all makes me homesick some days.

Now the fan base seems to be falling in line with the sour mood the team is in - more than one fan was asking for the team to at least pretend to care as long as they were going to keep collecting ticket revenue for the new stadium - and the overall feeling went downhill at today's game when Alexi Casilla (Castillo's replacement) played two balls off his chest in the opening innings.

Unless the Twins are planning to field a rec league soccer team this fall, those skills aren't really going to be in high demand. Lord knows they'll have the time on their hands in October.

(Image from: SportsLogos.net)