Both feel honored to play, even against a tough pitcher

BY TOM POWERS
Pioneer Press

TORONTO — By 1:30 in the afternoon, Jason Kubel was rattling around Rogers
Centre, trying to keep busy. He put on his baseball pants. He watched some
of the endless hockey highlights shown on the Canadian sports networks.

"Mostly I've been sitting around doing nothing," he said a couple of hours
before the Twins-Blue Jays season opener. "I'm nervous. I'm getting
anxious."

A couple of weeks ago, Kubel, 23, seemed convinced he was headed to the
minors. He was coming off a devastating knee injury that caused him to
miss the 2005 season. Twins management didn't appear convinced he was 100
percent healthy this spring. So Kubel figured he was a goner.

"I don't think it's looking good," he said at the time. "I've got a gut
feeling."

As it turns out, that gut feeling might have been the result of a bad
burrito. Not only did Kubel wind up going north with the team, but he also
was in the Opening Day lineup, batting eighth and playing right field.

"I just feel honored to be here," he said.

A few locker stalls down sat another unlikely Opening Day starter, Juan
Castro. Unlike Kubel, Castro, 33, always was assured of making the team.
But the talk over the winter was that he would be filling in all over the
infield.

Then Castro injured his wrist in the World Baseball Classic and couldn't
play until the last week of camp. The more he sat, the more Jason Bartlett
played. And the more Bartlett handled the baseball as if it were a live
hand grenade.

When Castro returned to the field, the double plays started to flow. It
was as if everyone had forgotten just how smooth he was at the position.
So there he was in the lineup against the Blue Jays. With Bartlett in the
minors, the position is his to lose.

Like Kubel, Castro experienced one overriding feeling: "It is an honor to
be a starter on Opening Day," he said.

And although you couldn't tell by looking at him, Castro also was
experiencing some nerves.

"I get nervous before every game," he said. "It's normal for me. But maybe
a little more on Opening Day because there is more adrenaline."

All they were asked to do, incidentally, was to go out and try to hit
against Toronto ace Roy Halladay. Castro managed one of the Minnesota's
five hits off him. Kubel was 0 for 3. Still, hitting against anyone, no
matter how tough, beats sitting on the bench or playing in the minors.

Kubel found out he was starting when manager Ron Gardenhire posted his
lineup about 3 p.m. Asked what he thought about it, Kubel replied with a
chuckle: "A little scared. No, no, not scared. Nervous."

He earned his spot on the team. He got more of a chance to play when Mike
Cuddyer, considered the regular right fielder, suffered a strained oblique
muscle with a couple of weeks left in camp. But Cuddyer was pronounced
healthy several days ago.

Castro also wasn't sure what was in store for him in 2006. He came to camp
with the idea of doing his best at whatever they asked him to do.

"I wanted to start," he said. "This year I am getting the chance. I always
go out to do good things. Any time I'm at shortstop and a man is on base,
I want that double play. That's my goal. I want the ball hit to me."

It's no fun trying to hit against Halladay. But it easily beats not
playing at all.

Posted on Wed, Apr. 05, 2006