I Dislike Your Favorite Team

Not too long ago, I suggested that the main columnists for the Minneapolis Star Tribune have roles to play. I said that Old School Octongenarian Sid Hartman would always back and trust ownership, and that Patrick Reusse and Jimmy Souhan would behave like fans do. Somewhere in there, I may have mentioned St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Tom Powers.

We have one of those weird moments in which two columnists are talking about the same subject, but in completely different ways. Not necessarily disagreeing, mind you. Just two different world views. Souhan, the fan, is enjoying Torii "The Gates of Shinto" Hunter's 20 game hitting streak. We all are. Souhan decided out to find out what is different this year. It's a pretty good column, really, and Souhan even goes the extra mile to point out that hitting streaks don't really mean anything except that baseball decides that they mean something.

He's hitting .340 this season with a team-high 20 RBI and 15 doubles, after launching a double off the baggie in the sixth inning of the Twins' 2-1 victory over Boston on Saturday.
Entering Saturday, Hunter had hit .329 with 16 homers and 48 RBI in his previous 54 games. Because 54 games represents one-third of a season, you could, if you believe in projections, extrapolate those numbers into a full season of hitting .329 with 48 homers and 144 RBI.
Even if those projections turn out to be ridiculous, Hunter looks like a different hitter now than he was last summer, when he entered the All-Star break with nagging injuries, a .264 average, 14 homers and 49 RBI in 314 at-bats.

Tackling the same subject, what does Sid Hartman have to say?

He knows for a fact that despite everything that the Pohald Family has ever done, that Torii will get a big deal to stay in Minnesota for another 3 years. He doesn't mention that would almost certainly close the door on Santana returning.

I quote:

While some in the media are convinced that Torii Hunter, a free agent after this year, will not return to the Twins, you won't get club General Manager Terry Ryan to agree with that theory.
"The Hunter thing is far from over," Ryan said the other day.
While there might not be any specific negotiations with Hunter and his agent during the season, I'm 100 percent convinced that Carl Pohlad, the Twins owner, will make sure that Hunter plays in the new ballpark when it opens in 2010.

In an aside, former ESPN2 hostess Michelle MacCormick is apparently in the middle of s sexual harassment charge. She claims her boobies were fondled in an unfriendly and aggressive way by some dick with a lot of money. I learned about the story from the curiously awful CJ, and she's also a bad journalist. I have no way of finding out whether this is the Michelle MacCormick who got assaulted. But I'm guessing that it is. Bunch of rich dicks got on a boat, and thought that the hot chick with nice cans might be a whore? That's an old, old story. Like "Iliad" old. Paris was a dick, too.