MPR’s Bill Catlin gets fans, ball players, and a sociologist’s reactions on the rare experience of the Minnesota Twins being in American League pennant race.
MPR’s Bill Catlin gets fans, ball players, and a sociologist’s reactions on the rare experience of the Minnesota Twins being in American League pennant race.
[TRAFFIC SOUNDS] BILL CATLIN: Traffic was at a standstill for blocks around the Metrodome at game time. Even business people left work for the game.
Are you guys taking a day off from work to go to the game?
SPEAKER 1: [LAUGHS] No comment.
[INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER 2: We'll never talk.
BILL CATLIN: With weeks still to go in the regular season, the pennant is on virtually every fan's mind. You don't even have to mention it. All you have to ask is--
What do you think?
SPEAKER 3: I don't know. They got a shot, if they can just keep their pitching going.
BILL CATLIN: The Twins even attracted Richard [? Touhey, ?] a familiar sight in the Twin Cities with his yellow "Stop Abortion" sign. [? Touhey ?] says he came to show the sign, but he too is a big Twins fan.
So from your standpoint, what do you think the Twins are going to do?
SPEAKER 4: In the final weeks, it always comes down to pitching, I think. And right now, the pitching is lagging a bit. So I'm a little bit worried. But they've got a good lead, so that's going to help a bit.
BILL CATLIN: Think-- you're willing to make a prediction?
SPEAKER 4: In baseball? Never. [LAUGHS]
BILL CATLIN: Not everyone is so cautious.
SPEAKER 5: [INAUDIBLE] off every year.
BILL CATLIN: You think the same will happen this year?
SPEAKER 5: Sure, bound to.
BILL CATLIN: Bound to?
SPEAKER 5: Yeah.
BILL CATLIN: Then how come you came out?
SPEAKER 5: I always come once a year.
BILL CATLIN: Across the street at Dome Souvenirs Plus, manager Ray Crump says business is way up. The former Twins equipment manager says he even gets calls for his products at midnight.
RAY CRUMP: People are really excited. I was with the Twins for about 35 years, and I was in '65 in the World Series with them, and it's getting that spirit, the same as that.
BILL CATLIN: Bars and restaurants stand to profit from all the interest. Even bars at the other edge of downtown are seeing game business. But the ball club is trying to avoid infection from the pennant fever bug. Outfielder and designated hitter Randy Bush says they're taking it one game at a time.
RANDY BUSH: We play almost every day for six months. And so you can't afford to get too high or get too low. I mean, football players talk about getting it up for a big game, and then they got all week to get it back together.
And then they just get it up once a week. Well, you can't be like that in baseball because you play every day, and every day is a big game. So you just try to maintain that constant level and go out and play hard every day.
BILL CATLIN: The specter of 1984 hangs over the Twins. On August 22 that year, they were 5 and 1/2 games in first place, but they had a letdown and wound up 5 games back at the end of the season. Utility infielder and designated hitter Roy Smalley says this year, the Twins are in the driver's seat in the American League West. But he points out their shrinking lead could disappear quickly. He says the fans at home have been a tremendous help, but that even though the fans expectations are rising, the players have to keep theirs in check.
ROY SMALLEY: I think it's going to take as little emotion as possible, really. I think this team has just got to stay as leveled out emotionally as it can so we play a little closer on the road to how we play at home. So just you can't take defeats too hard and get too high when you win because you can get to be a real roller coaster.
BILL CATLIN: When asked if they feel the pressure rising along with the fans hopes, Twins players say no. Minneapolis Star Tribune sports reporter Dennis Brackin says he believes them. He says the Twins seem to be having fun and are not taking it all more seriously than usual. For fans and players, the time for that, he says, is September 1, when the end of the season is in sight.
DENNIS BRACKIN: I think it's too early. Yeah, I mean, it's not too early to have fun and enjoy it because the Twins fans have been through some long suffering times. I think it's not too early to have a good time out here, but it's a little early to take it real serious.
BILL CATLIN: University of Minnesota sociologist Gary Fine says the novelty of it all is one big reason fans are so excited.
GARY FINE: Minnesota Baseball fans don't have a lot of practice at having pennant fever. And whereas perhaps in other cities, New York, for example, it would be taken as somewhat more for granted that the excitement would happen later in the season, well, here in Minnesota, there may not be later in the season. The Twins could lose the next 20 games, for all we know. And why not enjoy it while it lasts?
BILL CATLIN: With two straight losses, just how long it does last remains to be seen. In Minneapolis, this is Bill Catlin reporting.
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