I went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City last Saturday with Ms. Baseball and the Baseballettes and I think I was one of six people there not wearing a Twins jersey. (I had on my “Sprewell Racing” hat to represent, albeit in kind of a perverse way.) It’s a total must-visit when you’re in Kansas City. As a friend of mine said when we talked about it, one of the points that gets driven home by those who played during the Negro League era is that, for all the struggles they went through, the African-American players of that time — despite the indignities and hardships of the era — were convinced they were having more fun than the whites-only major leaguers. It’s a generalization, and even if you disagree, you have to at least give the Negro Leaguers credit for handing out better nicknames.

In that spirit, I give you a nickname for the Twins’ left fielder who did his best to establish himself as a Yankee killer this week with a three-run game-tying jack against Mariano Rivera on Tuesday night and another three-run jack Wednesday afternoon that made the difference in the 4-2 victory.

Introducing Three-Run Jack Young.

Three-Run Jack has three homers in the Twins last five games, all of them important. His boomer to left on Saturday put the Twins ahead of Kansas City 2-0 and began the unraveling of Zach Greinke, who decided to serve his five-game suspension for what happened the weekend before against Chicago rather than appeal, have a hearing and also try to explain why he also threw at Three-Run Jack’s head later in the game.

Much was expected of Young in the deal that brought him here, including the silly comparisons to a young Frank Robinson. In reality, Young is playing like a second-year Delmon Young, with an on-base percentage 20 points higher than last season, as many walks already as he drew in all of 2007 and more steals than in ‘07, as well. Obviously, Three-Run Jack needs a better sense of the strike zone and more patience at the plate — and his defense needs to go beyond just having an excellent arm. But I expect him to be nothing but better in the seasons to come and a staple of the Twins outfield.

Keep it up, Three-Run Jack Young.

A few other scattered thoughts:

*People have been discussing and disagreeing about whether the Twins were foolish not to make a claim on reliever Chad Bradford, who was claimed by Tampa Bay recently. I think that, despite his good overall numbers, he may have been frustrating as a ground ball/low strikeout pitcher working out of the Metrodome. I’m assuming that Bill Smith and friends are working on the reliever issue. In the meantime, however, I would swap out Brian Bass for Bobby Korecky, who was OK during his April/May stint with the Twins and showed the stomach for late-game situations.

*Check out this cheery take on Wednesday’s game from the New York Post: “The pinstriped coffins have been delivered and when the final game at Yankee Stadium is played, it likely will be turned into a cemetery. The headstone will read: March 31-Aug. 13. Looking to build on a stirring victory Tuesday night the Yankees ended a 10-game road trip with a sloppy, 4-2 loss to the Twins in front of 35,187 at the Metrodome. The voyage through Texas, California and Minnesota ended 3-7. And the finale was repulsive.”

*Young220 and I took in our final game of the summer together, as he leaves for the University of Tulsa on Saturday. We abandoned Section 220 for seats in Section 119, nine rows above the Yankees dugout. That meant when Justin Morneau’s bat shattered in the eighth inning, most of it flew in front of us and above head height on its way to the aisle between Sections 119 and 120, where it landed next to a young boy, who got a heck of a scare and souvenir at the same time. If the bat hadn’t landed in the aisle, someone would have been hurt. If you’re in that position, folks, duck and cover.

*Props to commenter dnygard for finding the Larry Gura bobblehead atop the pop machine at the Straight River rest area south of Owatonna on I-35. As he/she explained: “You saved our traveling party from having to negotiate joint custody of the one Gura that we were able to scrounge up after Saturday’s game.” Glad to be of service there and, in answer to your question, I have no idea about the pot of honey near Gura’s feet on the bobblehead. Anyone?

*I hope the Metrodome soundmeisters play this song when Carlos Silva takes the mound on Friday at the Dome. After starting the season 3-0, Silva has been on a 1-13 regression beyond his norm — with the victory barely counting because it came against San Diego. On top of that, Silva called out teammates after losing to Tampa Bay last Friday. Among other things, he went into a third-person rant and suggested: “Maybe Chief has to come and grab somebody in his neck and pin them to the wall. I’m very close to doing that, so write that down.” This is the same Mr. Tough Talk who asked out of a game in Houston a couple of years back after running the bases. Enjoy him, Seattle.

*Speaking of clueless guys signing fat contracts (not to be confused with fat guys signing clueless contracts), there was a funny (pathetic) story in the Kansas City paper last weekend about Gil Meche figuring out that he needs to change speeds and pitch inside in order to be effective. Among other things, it was reported that: “Meche is pitching effectively inside for the first time in his eight-year career. It required a new approach that is only now starting to feel comfortable, but the results are undeniable.” Seems like this is something that should have been figured out before Kansas City signed Meche to a five-year, $55 million deal. For the entire bag of nonsense, click here.

*Light blogging for the next week or so as I try not to be too much of a weirdly nervous and overbearing parent. Note to self: Good luck with that.

other people are here too

It was one of those rare nights at the Dome when people were on such seat’s edge, for the most part, that every single attempt at starting the wave failed. Score one for the fans. And there wasn’t a beach ball to be seen. Instead, the 30,000 in the house, a number certainly diminished by the frustration of the just-ended road trip, were in tune with the action on the field from start to finish.

You should have heard the roar when Adam (Crusher) Everett smacked his home run off Ol’ Pontoon.

What you don’t know, until now, is what happened before the game that led up to the excitement.

Adam Everett had something to say late Monday afternoon, and that worried some of his teammates.

They’d heard him take all the blame for Sunday’s loss when he told the reporters who’d watched four-plus hours of mushy baseball in Kansas City and seen his horrific throwing error that let the Royals tie the score: “It cost us the game You can slice it and dice it any way you want it, it cost us the game. … I’ll take that one for the team, for sure.”

Adam cleared his throat; Nick Punto tried to cut him off.

“C’mon Crusher,” Punto said. “You weren’t the only one who messed up Sunday. Look at Kubel and Gomez and Delmon. They went 0-for-11….”

Kubel shot Punto a look. “…and I didn’t do so good myself,” Punto finished softly.

Gardy walked by and looked a bit nervous too, wondering what more Everett might have to say. He wondered if he should be putting in a call to the team therapists, Dr. Gladden and Dr. Morris, for a little group session before sending the guys out to play the Yankees.

But Adam Everett put one finger to his lips, signaling for them to shush, and held two more to an ear, signaling for them to listen.

“Fellas,” Adam Everett said before going out to play the Yankees, “you guys should jump on my back tonight. I’m going to carry us.”

A roar went up in the clubhouse. Boof Bonser and Brian Bass looked up from their fantasy football draft preparation and slapped fives high and low, missing high. Dennys Reyes put down the Team USA Olympics swimsuit catalog he was preparing to order from. Joe Mauer thought back to his childhood and tried to remember where he’d heard those words.

Meanwhile, Adam Everett snt a txt 2 54729 (KIRBY) and nervously tapped: “did it. hope it workz.”

And then the boys took the field. Glen (New Pappy) Perkins made them skittish by giving up two singles in the first and then putting Yankees on first and third with none out in the second. But he escaped both times.

In the bottom of the second, with Crusher’s pre-game words buzzing in his head, Brian Buscher worked a two-out walk.

And then Adam Everett strode to the plate.

There were balls and strikes until the count went full and then, with a mighty whack, the Crusher struck. His fly ball sent the Yankees’ left fielder back to the wall. Not knowing of Everett’s proclamation, Justin Christian was playing Everett like he would a light-hitting shortstop.

Christian kept going back, the ball kept going. Christian reached the wall and reached up, the ball reached the first row of seats.

Twins 2, Yankees 0. There would be no givebacks on this night. Only ground balls, whiffs and the occasional fly ball to Gomez or Span. Perkins went eight scoreless. It would end Twins 4, Yankees 0. Joe Nathan, whom Everett helped to deprive of a save chance on Sunday, finished off the Yankees in the ninth by striking out Abreu, A-Rod and A New Guy Named NagyNady. The Twins would again end the night in first place.

The Crusher who channeled a legend bumped fists and did all the victory rituals that he couldn’t do during his lost months on the disabled list.

If you listened closely, you could hear the late Jack Buck talking to the people who had left 16,000 or so Metrodome seats empty:

“And we’ll see you tomorrow night.”

other people are here too

Needless to say, where you’re talking baseball today at work or with your posse or with the stranger sitting next to you on the light rail or at the bar, you need to refer to the local baseball team as “the first-place Twins.” As in, “Liriano looked pretty good, and I think it was just the right time for the first-place Twins to summon his butt from Rochester.”

Or: “That was a pretty odd looking lineup out there Sunday, but there was enough offense there for the first-place Twins to win.”

Or: “If the first-place Twins remain in first place, you think Morneau has a shot at MVP? And does it really matter?”

Or: “Now that the first-place Twins have taken care of last-place Cleveland, it’s on to Seattle for three games against the last-place Mariners. You think Carlos Silva is gonna be jealous?”

Or: “The middle infield is going to have to work together a bit better if the first-place Twins are gonna remain in first place.”

Or: Well, you get the idea.

And that how I expect you to refer to them in the comments section, OK?

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Oh, we were happy in Section 220 last night! The two older gentlemen in Seats 5 and 6 were talkin’ sweet to our seatmates in 3 and 4. The lady in Seat 4 caught yet another t-shirt from TC Bear and gave it to Ms. Baseball, who bought her a replacement beer (for the one that spilled in the scramble) to show her appreciation.

In the concourse, Ms. Baseball ran into Young220, who cheerfully teased: “Two beers, Ms. Baseball?” Then, having successfully lobbied his father for funding, Young220 (decked out in a purple Pooh Richardson t-shirt) returned to the Section of Love for Nick Punto in right field where he sat with his camp counseling buddies.

The guy right behind us delivered a game-long seminar on baseball for his young daughter, who peppered him with good questions for a girl of her age. There was a woman sitting below us, in the lower deck, who had on a pinstriped AJ Pierzynski Twins jersey with “Pierzynski 26″ crossed out and “Mauer 7″ written in black electrical tape. And when Mike Redmond came to bat, the sound guy went all Jermaine Stewart with the walk-up music. (Here’s the skinny, if you’re not in on the story.) And speaking of Pierzynski, the people booed him from the start with a gusto that I hadn’t heard at the Dome since he tried to slice off Morneau’s foot at first base last May.

And Carlos Gomez got an ovation when he came in to play defense, just three days after Dick’n'Bert were delivering last rites as he lay sprawled on the warning track in Cleveland. And he got another for his hit and yet another when he scored from first on Brendan Harris’ double to left. Redmond, who also scored on the play, had wisely gone from first to third on Gomez’ single — lessening the chance that Gomez would pass him on the Harris hit.

And did I say that Kevin Slowey was flat-out magnificent? If you saw it, you don’t need me to tell you. In fact, if you saw it on TV, you had a better view of him working fast/changing speeds/throwing strikes. Give Gardy and Bill Smith credit for not listening to some of us who suggested that there would be nothing better for the team than throwing Francisco Liriano out there for the series opener.

And Denard Span caught Jason Tyner on the all-time home run list when he banged a Mark Buehrle pitch off the football press box for a 2-0 lead. And then, three batters later with Alexi Casilla at first, I was telling Ms. Baseball how it was a good thing that Buehrle was making those throws to first base “because he’s distracted by Casilla and Morneau can hit a home run,” when Morneau went thwackenheimer to center field to make it 4-0.

And while we’re so giddy, let’s take a look back at Buehrle’s words from Sunday afternoon, as reported by Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, about getting ready to face the Twins: ”Yes, it’s the biggest game of my entire life. ‘I’m nervous, I’m scared. I’ve been [going to the bathroom] all day, and I can’t eat. I hope they scratch me so I won’t have to face them.”

Sometimes, sarcasm can come back and bite you where you sit when [going to the bathroom].

Back at it tonight. Gotta wonder if it’ll be a night for Vol. 2 of the Mike Redmond walk-up music collection. Oh, Nelly! It’s getting hot in the AL Central.

other people are here too

After such an excellent weekend of baseball, I am willing to overlook some things: Delmon’s outfield play on Sunday and the story behind his big-inning double — Conor Jackson losing his fly ball to left field — for example, because the Twins totally throttled the Diamondbacks to run their winning streak to six games.

And after several seasons of feeling like the Twins, even in good times, were sacrificing outs at the bottom of their batting order (and near the top sometimes, too) Section 220 is calling for a celebration of the force that sparked the Arizona sweep.

That would be the Bottom Feeders, the pesky guys at the bottom of the order who sparked and continued the weekend’s big innings. They are the fish-themed successors to the Piranhas, the 2006 posse that has pretty much scattered to the winds.

In the fish universe, bottom feeders are the ones in the bottom of the water, feeding off whatever comes their way and too pesky to go away. If one of them meets misfortune, there’s another to take his place.

In the Twins universe, Bottom Feeders are the ones at the bottom third of the batting order, feeding off whatever pitches come at them and too pesky to go away. If one of them meets misfortune (Punto… Lamb… Tolbert… Everett… Macri), there’s another (and another) to take his place.

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