Archive for October, 2011

Have you ever read one of my articles on this site and thought, “hey! I could write better than that?” Good news! This is your chance to prove it. Just as the Twins are looking for new talent on the diamond, Puckett’s Pond could use a few new writers to help us churn out interesting articles for our readers. If the following descriptions apply to you, you might be Puckett’s Pond material: You are a dedicated Twins fan (and I’m sure you are if you’re still following the team after that dreadful season). You know a fair amount about baseball [...]

Sometime next spring, Nick Punto and Kyle Lohse will receive World Series rings. If there were any justice in this world, they would each have a double handful of them from when they played on the Twins. Instead, they had to earn theirs with the Cardinals. Punto was a useful utility guy for the Cards when he wasn’t hurt this season, compiling a .388 on-base percentage and playing his usual stellar defense. His performance at the plate wasn’t so solid in the playoffs. In 15 postseason games (six each in the World Series and LCS, and three in the NLDS), [...]

A couple weeks ago I got into a mountain biking accident and fractured my left wrist, a scaphoid non-union for you medically inclined folks out there, here’s an x-ray of my hand. Late last week I had surgery and now I’m a robo-blogger, half cyborg, half human, 100% awesome.  As a result of my injuries I’ve been absent from the blog, typing one handed is terribly annoying, not to mention the medication keeps me half-asleep at all times. For Halloween I was going to be RonSwanson, of Parks and Recreation, but the doctors have ordered me to stay at home and rest [...]

The World Series is over, which means that the 2011 baseball season is officially dead. Good riddance! The Series was surprisingly entertaining this year, but I’m sure it will pale in comparison to the excitement that the offseason brings. Let the speculation begin! As we all know, the Twins have a gaping hole in their rotation, a hole measuring at least 12 feet, 4 inches (the combined height of Nick Blackburn and Brian Duensing). Along with finding a shortstop, picking up a new starting pitcher is job one for the Twins. Which brings us to Wandy Rodriguez. I don’t know [...]

David Freese is obviously a dedicated Puckett’s Pond reader. That’s my only explanation for what he did last night. Leading off the bottom of the 11th inning, Game 6 of the World Series, the solo home run to win the game: Freese must have read my article from earlier this week that proclaimed Kirby Puckett’s Game 6 home run to be the greatest World Series homer of all time. On a game that was originally scheduled exactly twenty years after Puckett’s signature game, Freese extended the 2011 World Series the same way Puckett extended the 1991 Series. There was definitely some [...]

Game 6 of the World Series was delayed by rain yesterday, which means that it will be at least one more day before trade and free agency rumors become a full-time hobby for MLB fans. But there has been plenty of early speculation already. And it’s still the point in the year where even the smallest throwaway comment about a trade is a great source of speculation. With that in mind, I am going to devote these paragraphs to one name that appeared in the latest “Twins Inbox” feature on the team’s website: Ricky Nolasco. Twins writer Rhett Bollinger mentioned [...]

Do I even have to tell you what happened 20 years ago today? 20 years ago today, this game happened. It was awesome. Jack Morris was a grizzled veteran, one of the most succesful pitchers in the game. He faced off against a green youngster named John Smoltz, who would one day have an even better career than Morris. But neither pitcher was ever more brilliant than they were that night. They matched zeroes through seven innings, knowing full well that the World Series would be lost by whichever team blinked first. Of course, the first seven innings were just a [...]

Game 6 of the World Series has been postponed until Thursday because of large weather system bearing down on St. Louis. In other news, perhaps the greatest article in the history of Mustaches has been written over at Reviewing the Brew, chronicling the Greatest Mustache in Brewers History.  And what good luck that this article arrived just in time for Movember. All of this  makes me wonder, who has the greatest mustache in Minnesota Twins history?  I hope to answer that question in the near future, for the mean time, please enjoy these mustachioed Twins images. 

Twenty Years ago today, Kirby Puckett hit a home run. It was the 11th inning of Game 6 of the World Series, with the score tied at 3. Puckett had already hit a triple, a single, and a sac fly, and he made one of the most amazing catches ever in the third inning of that game. But it’s the home run that everyone remembers, and with good reason. I hereby proclaim that Kirby Puckett’s Game 6 home run was the greatest home run in the history of the World Series. Now, since this site is dedicated to the Twins, [...]

For a couple of years now, we’ve been hearing that the Twins have a weak farm system, and that there is a major lack of top talent. It’s true that the Twins lack the plethora of prospects they had back in the early 2000s, but things are getting better. Right now, the lower levels of the Twins system are actually quite full of talented young players. It’s just the higher levels that are weak. And time should fix that. In 2010, the Twins farm teams posted a dismal 298-388 collective record. The worst offenders were AAA Rochester and AA New [...]