You’ll forgive me that the Thursday Links were not out at the crack of dawn when you learn what I was doing instead of blogging the links.  Late last night I was browsing ebay and I found a pair of game worn Rick Renick pants from the 1990 season.  Renick played exclusively for the Minnesota Twins in his short career (parts of all five seasons from 1968-72).  After retiring Renick bounced around as a coach and spent a couple years coaching under Tom Kelly in Minnesota before leaving to coach in the Chicago White Sox organization after the 1990 season.  Clearly, game used pants from Rick Renick are not going to be the centerpiece of anyone’s Twins collection, but they were listed for just 99 CENTS!  Throw in about $8 shipping, and you’re looking at some pretty strange looking Twins merchandise for under $10 bucks!  Upon closer inspection of the pants, I didn’t see any pinstripes and the pants were just plain white, because the Twins home kit in 1990 used pinstriped pants, and the road kit was grey, these were clearly some sort of practice pant.  Still, for less then $10 George Washingtons they could be mine!  Sadly, the bidding spun wildly out of control during the final minutes, as ebay auctions often do, and the pants were priced out of my comfort zone. They sold for $5.  You win some, you lose some, but when you learn about the history of Rick Renick along the way you have to feel good coming out the other end!  If you have a favorite memory of Rick Renick please share it below.

The biggest signing this week, at least for Twins fans (others may be biased towards the signing of Yu Darvish, and there was that blockbuster deal between the Mariners and the Yankees) was the announcement that the Twins had signed right handed flame thrower Joel Zumaya to a Major League deal.  Zumaya actually passed his physical and the Twins made the move official yesterday afternoon, the Tenth Inning Stretch was kind enough to share some lesser known facts on the fastballer.  In less big news, the Twins also signed 16 year-old Venezuelan, Mauricio Silva as an international free agent with a  $370,000 dollar signing bonus.  Silva is already throwing his fastball in the low 90′s and is at least five years away from putting on a Twins uniform.

On with the links:

Jon Swol is rolling the dice on the Twins 2012 season, and wondering if they can bounce back from 99 losses a year ago.  His analysis bounces around the Central and looks at other teams that had significant drop offs in win totals from one season to the next, like the Twins did a year ago, and then looks at how those teams responded.  History doesn’t bode well for the 2012 Twins, but I’m still holding out hope.

The North Dakota Twins fan has managed to collect a few baseballs during his years as a Twins fan, and shared a couple stories about how he snagged his favorite balls.  I have never been lucky enough to catch a foul ball at any type of professional sporting event, so I am a little jealous, but I still hold out hope.  (more…)