It’s no coincidence “Opening Day” rhymes with “Hope! I mean, yay!?”
First Pitch: 3:10 pm CDT
TV: Bally Sports North / ~ / Radio: TIBN
Minnesota Sports News Continuously Updated
by Twinkie Town
It’s no coincidence “Opening Day” rhymes with “Hope! I mean, yay!?”
TV: Bally Sports North / ~ / Radio: TIBN
Gang – we did it.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that baseball’s offseason passes differently for each fan. Rogers Hornsby famously had a hard time with the ordeal. And while I certainly have other things going on in my life, baseball remains one of my major passions. That being said, the 2023-2024 offseason seemed to go by quicker than any winter I can remember as a fan.
Perhaps that’s in no small part due to the fact that the Minnesota Twins won their first playoff game since 2004, first series since 2002, and played deeper into October than I’ve ever experienced in some 15+ years of fandom. (Others on the site will have been fans for longer, but that means they’d remember playoff wins, damn it! World Series flags, even! Pipe down!)
Royce Lewis’ two-homer afternoon famously exorcised the demons in Game One against the Toronto Blue Jays. Pablo Lopez’s dominant Houston start might be the overall highlight from the 2023 quest. And at long last, the Twins are just Some Team again, not some middling Midwestern franchise doomed to Bill Murray their way through futile postseason after futile postseason. Now, the real games can begin. Now, a deep playoff run with this core is not just a hallucination — it’s an expectation.
Today, behind the arm of the man who helped establish this iteration of the Minnesota Twins on a national stage, that run begins again.
Mr. Lopez will start things off in 2024, having been cheekily announced as the Opening Day starter during Rocco Baldelli’s final press conference of 2023. He brings with him that signature change-up and a dominant sweeper which can’t really be categorized as his “new” pitch anymore.
Lopez’s 2023 saw his first All-Star nod and his first share of Cy Young voting (7th), prompting a decent coalition of pundits to tab him as a potential pick to take home the whole thing in 2024. Yes, it’s just one game, but a great start this afternoon in Kansas City will certainly get that hype train right back on track.
Then, there’s the lineup.
Yes, that’s right — Byron Buxton is trotting out to center for the first time since August 22nd, 2022 (happy birthday to me, and also a “P. Molitor”.) His return to the defensive spectrum sets the tone in its own way, for an offense expected to take a mutual step forward and facilitate some bounce-back campaigns up the middle, and breakout campaigns from the corners.
The combined powers of a healthy Buxton and shortstop Carlos Correa — recovered from a foot injury in his own right (no, not that foot injury) — is about as nasty of a one-two punch as the American League Central division is willing to offer. We’ve been robbed of seeing them take the field together as often as we should have; now, in Correa’s third season with the Twins, we can savor the moment here on Opening Day.
Opening Day! It’s the greatest time of year, as we all strap in for a journey that will take us into November, even as last year’s fall games linger fresh in our minds. It’s Rocco’s sixth season at the helm; it’s the franchise’s second trip in their latest duds. It’s nearly Twinkie Town’s 20th anniversary, for goodness’ sake!
And it all starts this afternoon.
GO TWINS GO!