Can the Twins finally “slay the dragon?”
While the Twins level of postseason futility is at historic levels, many of the Twins on the current roster have yet to experience the Yankee curse. In fact, in the Twins last postseason appearance in the AL Wild Card game, just seven players who played in that game remain on the Twins’ roster.
The rest of the postseason failures with New York have occurred with teams that are long gone as part of the Joe Mauer era of dominance in the 2000s. This means that this group of Twins has nothing to lose as they head to the Bronx for Game 1 on Friday night. Alas, this didn’t stop Twins president Dave St. Peter from opening the history books.
"“We understand the history,” team president Dave St. Peter told SKOR North radio earlier this week, before the matchup became official Friday with Houston claiming the top seed. “That’s my history — it isn’t [manager] Rocco Baldelli’s history, it certainly isn’t [outfielder] Nelson Cruz’s history. So I think that’ll be overblown. Organizationally, I just say it’s time to slay the dragon, right?"
Who knows if St. Peter’s quotes will be dug up in the event of another Yankees victory, but if this team can pull it off, Twins fans are going to feel a lot better about things as they look for their first postseason victory since 2004 and series victory since 2002.