ESPN’s announcing crew for Twins Wild Card series is a sign the postseason curse is (hopefully) going to end
Perhaps this is just the stars aligning for the Twins to ceremoniously break their curse.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Minnesota Twins seem to have as good a chance as ever of breaking their postseason curse.
It’s been 18 long, excruciating years that have worn down fans to such a degree that a single playoff win will feel as euphoric as winning a championship. That’s hyperbolic on purpose, because there’s an entire generation of Twins fans who haven’t seen the team win a game in the playoffs let alone reach the World Series.
Not since 2004 have the Twins won a playoff game — something I continually have to clarify when talking about this in group settings. The conversation goes something like this:
Me: I just hope the Twins win a playoff game, that will be incredible to see
Friend: You mean a playoff series?
Me: ….nope, a single game.
Friend: *Stares at me as though I just told them my family has died*
That’s the life Twins fans have been living for almost two decades. Unlike years before where we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking it might finally be the year, something feels different about the team heading into October this time around.
For starters, pitching is a strength which is entirely new. The offense has struggled but a youth movement led by Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien and Matt Wallner has given new life to the team at the plate. The Twins will be hosting every game in the Wild Cars series as AL Central division winners, and the gap between the team that will arrive in Minneapolis on October 4th doesn’t feel wide at all.
Fans aren’t the only ones believing the curse might finally end, the universe seems to be aligning stars for the team as well.
MLB Playoffs: ESPN announcing crew for Twins AL Wild Card series revealed
On a recent episode of the Baseball Tonight podcast, field reporter Alden Gonzalez revealed that his crew will be in calling whatever series the Twins end up in during the Wild Card round. If that’s the case, the announcing pair of Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez will be on the call — which means the Yankees will in some way once again be in Minnesota for the postseason.
"I believe we're going to be in Minneapolis for whoever it is that the Twins play,” Gonzalez said.
Kay is the regular play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees and A-Rod is, well, A-Rod.
This can go one of two ways, but we’ll choose to look at it in a positive light. There’s a very real chance that the Houston Astros are the team that comes to Target Field next week, and beating them would avenge the disaster that occurred back in 2020. To have it happen in front of prominent members of the Yankees teams that always killed the Twins in the 2000s is the sort of thing that gets scripted into a cheesy sports movie — but the kind of sports movie where the good guys win.
Of course the flip side of that coin is the Twins postseason curse extends to another year with both the Astros and Yankees beng involved. That sort of bad juju could mean the curse is locked in for another two decades, especially with how much promise there is around this specific version of the Twins.
Let’s hope the universe is teeing up the former situation, and is merely inviting ghosts of postseasons past to be part of the exorcism.
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