Attention Twins fans, baseball fans. You have a game on Aug 29th,
the last game before the strike. All fans nationwide should walk out
during the middle of the 3rd inning to show solidarity

Against the strike
Against the players/owners/lawyers messing with us

All are part of our game, and all are screwing it up. It won't stop
anything, but we need at some point to come together and make a
statement that we are tired of being messed with.

All we are asking our boys is to go out there and play baseball for
several million dollars pay. Is that such a bad thing?

* From JustForTwins -- Mission: Become the largest, most active Twins list on
the 'net. (http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/JustForTwins)



On May 21, 1999, the Twins traded closer Rick Aguilera to the Cubs for two minor
league pitchers, including Kyle Lohse.  Cubs President Andy MacPhail praised
Lohse's ability to Twins officials. "I remember Andy saying to us, 'You are
going to like this Lohse kid. He's going to be a good one,' " said Twins manager
Ron Gardenhire. Lohse was 3-18 for Class AA New Britain the next season, making
MacPhail seem like a smooth-talking car salesman who had just sent the Twins a
lemon.
He didn't.

Lohse, 23, pitched his first major-league complete game and shutout, a
four-hitter, as the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 5-0 at Comiskey Park on
Tuesday night. Lohse struck out eight and walked two, improving to 11-7 this
season and 15-14 for his major-league career, which started in June, 2001. "It
feels good," Lohse said of his shutout. "If you put some runs up there, I'll do
my best to get the win."

Lohse needed a terrific leaping catch by Torii Hunter in the fifth to get out of
a jam. But Lohse threw plenty of strikes, his fastball stayed around 90 miles
per hour, and he used all his pitches effectively.

"I mixed in some good curveballs, but my really good pitch was my changeup,"
Lohse said. "I got a lot of ground balls and was able to throw it for strikes.
It's something I've been working on." Lohse leads the team in innings pitched
and is two victories behind Eric Milton for the team lead in that category.

Who thought at the start of the season that the No. 5 starter would lead the
team innings pitched and have a shot to lead the team in victories? And who
believed the Twins would be 16 1/2 games up in the American League Central in
that scenario?

"He's been very good all year," Gardenhire said. "He's been consistent. He's had
his moments when he's thrown the ball and not pitched. But he has taken the ball
every five days and has been the guy in the rotation who has been out there."

Lohse had an early 1-0 lead off Jim Parque thanks to Jacque Jones' second
leadoff homer in as many nights. Jones is one shy of the team record of 14
leadoff home runs, held by Chuck Knoblauch. The Twins added three runs in the
third to take a 4-0 lead. One came on a RBI single by Cristian Guzman and two
came on Hunter's opposite field single. Guzman's single gave him a career-high
18-game hitting streak. A two-out single by Dustan Mohr in the sixth drove in
Hunter to make it 5-0.

The fifth was Lohse's toughest inning. Mark Johnson bunted his way to first and
moved to second on a sacrifice. Jose Valentin reached on an error to put two on
with two out. Carlos Lee followed with a rocket toward the center field wall.
Hunter raced back and jumped up to grab the ball before tumbling on the warning
track. "He hit it over my head," Hunter said. "The only way to catch it was over
my head."

Lohse pitched no-hit ball the rest of the way. He entered the dugout after the
eighth inning and told Gardenhire, "I've got it," then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. He
threw a season-high 124 pitches.

The Lohse deal has worked out for the Twins. Aguilera closed for the Cubs for 1
1/2 seasons before retiring. Jason Ryan, the other minor league pitcher the
Twins got, didn't pan out. MacPhail has been criticized for not building a
winner on the north side of Chicago, but it looks as if he didn't sell the Twins
short on Lohse.

"I know Andy," Gardenhire said. "He's not been wrong too many times. The kid is
going to get better and better."



Next Up
Twins v. White Sox -- Game Three of Three
Wednesday, August 21 @ 7:05pm CT
TV: FSN  |   Radio: WCCO


Starting Pitchers
J. Mays (2-4) 5.92 ERA   ||  51.2 IP ||   7 HR,  2 HBP,  14 BB   ||  21 SO
Buehrle (15-9) 3.55 ERA  || 180 IP   || 18 HR,  3 HBP,  47 BB   || 103 SO



* For more pictures, check out all of the updates I've done @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustForTwins/files/


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Twins list on the 'net.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

* From JustForTwins -- Mission: Become the largest, most active Twins list on
the 'net. (http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/JustForTwins)


Representatives for Major League Baseball owners and players got back to the
business of negotiating Saturday, a day after the union set a strike date of
Aug. 30.
The sides focused primarily on peripheral issues in which common ground exists,
leaving the more complex subject of a competitive balance tax for the work week
ahead. Formal discussions are expected to resume Monday.

Negotiators spent more than three hours Saturday talking about non-economic
matters, mostly at the staff level.

When bargaining resumes after a Sunday of behind-the-scenes discussions within
each camp, it is unclear whether proposals and counter-proposals that have been
characterized as uncompromising on the competitive balance tax will be revisited
right away.

The sides' last face-to-face discussion on that front took place Thursday. The
strike-date vote happened less than 24 hours later.

Currently believed to be on the table from the owners is a 50 percent tax on the
portion of each team's payroll exeeding $102 million beginning in 2003, coupled
with 50 percent equal sharing of locally generated revenue and a minimum payroll
for each team of $45 million. They have proposed a step system on the tax with
the threshold increasing $4.5 million over the following two years.

The players are proposing a repeat-overspending tax that begins at 15 percent
for the first threshold-surpassing payroll by a particular team, 25 percent for
the second and 30 percent for the third. The threshold they're proposing is $130
million for 2003, $140 million for 2004 and $150 million for 2005.

Under the owners' latest proposal, seven teams currently are at the threshold
level, while under the players' , one team would pay the tax.

Other key issues such as a worldwide draft of amateur players and a program to
test Major League players for steroid use have been agreed upon in principle.
Details remain to be negotiated.

The Aug. 30 strike date is the Friday of Labor Day weekend. If the players
choose to walk out and stay out for the remainder of the season, they stand to
lose nearly 17 percent of base salaries.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

twins are goin win it all

IT'S TIME FOR BUD TO GO!!!  Bud Selig's been the owners' commish from Day
One--he's been the biggest obstacle to long-term success for baseball and a
pain for all us fans.  He's misled Congress, the fans, he's getting sued by
cheated investors in montreal, and worst of all, he declared a tie at the
All-Star Game. It's time to tell the owners we won't stand for Bud at the
helm anymore.  Sign the petition at http://www.BudMustGo.com.

I'm with TakeBackBaseball.com, a grassroots group of baseball fans sick of
greed destroying the game they love, http://www.BudMustGo.com gives fans an
opportunity to let owners know that Selig is not the man for the job.  Fans
want someone with the stature, reputation, and common sense to bring the
sides together, one who really is independent and one who understands that
THERE'S NO TYING IN BASEBALL!

So sign the petition at http://www.BudMustGo.com and vote your choice for
who truly deserves the job.

Well, if the Twins do have an abundance of outfielders, it certainly helps now
with Torii likely being suspended. For those of you not watching the Twins game
v. Indians tonight - here is a summary (my own combined with Star Tribune's):

In the second inning, Indian pitcher Danny Baez hit Twins catcher AJ Pierzynski
with a pitch. The right-hander had hit three batters in 103 innings coming in.
Then, in the fifth inning, Torii Hunter was slammed really hard in the ribs by a
pitch and immediately dropped to the ground. After getting up, Hunter pushed
past third-base coach Al Newman and catcher Einar Diaz to get to the ball. The
All-Star center fielder then fired it - as hard as he could - directly at Baez,
who appeared to be hit in the leg but was not hurt. Hunter was immediately
ejected by plate umpire Ted Barrett and will likely face disciplinary action by
the commissioner's office. Both benches and bullpens emptied and the umpiring
crew met with both managers before play resumed.


Now, after homers by Ortiz, Mohr (who is 3 for 4 tonight), and Rivas, the score
is currently 8-5 in the top of the 9th.

I want to say one thing, though, about Hunter being hit:

Torii was just slammed in the ribs by a ball being thrown 90+ mph, and I'm sure
he wasn't thinking very clearly. On the other hand, he was sticking up for
himself and his teammates, proving that they will not just stand by and be hit
by pitches. Hunter usually keeps his emotions in check (or at least grabs hold
of himself pretty quickly), but he's only human.

I will be out of town for the next three weeks, so fortunately, I won't see the
outrage that I'm sure will arise from Indians and Twins fans alike. As a result,
I've set up a poll about whether people think his response was approrpriate.

Vote here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustForTwins/polls



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On July 11th, our first http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com Fan Walkout Day got
thousands of supporters, and coverage in the news, on radio, and on national
and international TV (including CNN).

On August 1st, we are going to strike again -- even harder  -- and let Bud
Selig, the owners and the players know that we fans are the real backbone of
the national pastime. So take a few seconds, go to
http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com, and sign our Fan Walkout Day pledgefor
August 1st.  And then get as many baseball fans as you can to do the same.

If we can get enough support, if we can get enough media coverage, we might
just shame, embarrass and scare these guys into settling their
differences -- and we might just save this season.  So please go to
http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com now, sign the pledge, and tell your 10,000
closest friends to do the same.

The players are talking ‘walkout,’ the owners are talking ‘lockout,’ and
once again, the fans are just plain ‘shut out'.  Fans Want OUR Seat at the
Table—and we’ll walk out to get it! While crybaby owners and millionaire
players fight among themselves, we’re coming together to demand it’s time
for the Voice of the Fan to be heard. Pledge at
http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com today to stay away!


Thanks,

The TakeBackBaseball.com Team

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The Twins placed left-handed reliever Jose Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list
Sunday with elbow inflammation and recalled right-handed reliever Kevin
Frederick from Triple-A Edmonton. Rodriguez complained of a sore pitching elbow
after having a rough relief outing Saturday in Minnesota's 8-1 loss to the Texas
Rangers. In two-thirds of an inning, he allowed four runs and four hits.
Frederick, 26, will be making his Twins debut. He served as Edmonton's closer
this season, going 3-5 with a 4.73 ERA and 16 saves in 37 appearances. Hoping to
ease the burden on some of his often-used relievers, Twins manager Ron
Gardenhire hopes the rookie can provide some innings.  "He's a sinker-slider guy
that throws hard," Gardenhire said. "He's been pitching very well. They say he's
our best bet."



Injured Starters Updates

Joe Mays (elbow) is scheduled to make his next rehab start Monday with Double-A
New Britain. He is already is one outing away from returning to action; he is
scheduled to start Monday for Class AA New Britain. He could start for the Twins
on Saturday in Detroit.

Bob Wells, who had elbow surgery to remove bone chips June 13, left for Portland
on Saturday to meet the Edmonton club for his rehab assignment.

Jack Cressend left for Class A Fort Myers on Sunday to begin his rehab
assignment. He was placed on the 15-day DL June 10 with a strained rotator cuff.

Brad Radke, on the DL with an injured groin, had another positive throwing
session for 10 minutes Saturday and was able to mix in some changeup pitches for
the first time. He's due to throw in a simulated game Monday. If Radke feels
well enough after two starts, he will rejoin the major league team and play for
the first time since May 30, when he injured the groin for the second time in a
month during a start against Anaheim.

Bob Wells also threw on the side Saturday and is progressing well after having
bone chips removed from his elbow June 13. "He threw real well," Gardenhire
said. The plan is for Wells to leave Monday for Davenport, Iowa, where he will
begin a rehabilitation assignment with Class A Quad City. Wells will start a
game, then work out of the bullpen. He's 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA, but because Wells
tried to pitch while injured, he has encouraged the club to ignore those numbers
and evaluate his future performance.





From JustForTwins -- Game summaries, tons of pictures, injury updates, trades,
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

* Courtesy of JustForTwins http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/JustForTwins

Pierzynski, Winn in; Salmon, Chavez out


Minnesota Twins
Candidates: A.J. Pierzynski, Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter, J.C. Romero, Eddie
Guardado
Hunter has come down after his ridiculous start, so now he's just a legitimate
All-Star-likely to be voted onto the team -- and not the best player in the
league. Jones has comparable numbers, and could benefit from being on a better
team than the other corner outfielders in the mix. Guardado will make the team,
and if Torre can take Mike Stanton in 2001, he should take J.C. Romero, who has
a 0.65 ERA in 41 2/3 innings this season. The numbers don't look good for him,
though.

Pierzynski is an interesting case. A .332-hitting catcher is a pretty good
All-Star candidate in any year. If Jorge Posada wins the voting, it's going to
be difficult for Torre to take Ivan Rodriguez, who hasn't hit a home run yet and
won't have played 40 games by the All-Star-Game.

Prediction: Pierzynski, Hunter, and Guardado.

* If you want to see the predictions for all AL Teams, go to
http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/bp/1397535.html

* Go vote! http://www.mntwins.com or http://www.mlb.com.


This has been courtesy of JustForTwins
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/JustForTwins.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

good choice for a favorite player!! Torii Hunter is definately the best
outfielder today! It's very unfortunate that JOe Mays is injured. Hopefully
he will be back to health soon, but I fear that he may be out for the season.
~Sara

<< iam 32/m/iowa and minnesota twins fan/ my favorite player on twins is
  tori hunter and joe mays so wt email me or chat with me/ my primary
  email is richardl@... and my yahoo id is loder316 so go twins >>

I sure hope that the Twins can winn it all thias year . They have al
my support here in Colorado

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Send responses to JustForTwins@yahoogroups.com



Doug was fined last week after throwing down his bat after a strikeout. Now
tonight, "Twins first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz struck out on a check swing to
end the game and was livid with home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.
Mientkiewicz had to be restrained by his teammates as the team filed into the
visitor's dugout."


First, I heard a suggestion that was really interesting. Someone commented on
how ironic it is that Selig (who has a reputation for loving the Brewers but
hating the Twins) attended the game. That fan suggested that Selig influenced
(by his presence or with money, who knows) the umpire's decision. Interesting,
eh?

Second, I noticed Doug seems to have had a hotter temper lately. He is much more
physically and vocally animated now when he feels there is a bad call
(particularly on strikeouts). Anyone else noticed this? I was just curious as to
what others thought and if there was a cause behind this new temper.


* * * * *
Courtesy of JustForTwins (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustForTwins)
Send responses to JustForTwins@yahoogroups.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

* I'm looking to create the largest, most active Twins group on the 'net! Who
knows what we can accomplish if we all band together? We can share updates,
opinions, information, and ideas for boosting Twins support!

Subscribe Directly: JustForTwins@yahoogroups.com
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* The Twins have lost tonight against the Brewers (7-5). (Yikes, did you see
Mientkiewicz's anger when we struck out (on a check swing) for the final out?)
However, the Chicago White Sox lost to the Cubs, so the there is still a 4 game
lead.


* Have you voted lately for the All-Star game? Go vote at http://vote.mlb.com/
or through http://www.mntwins.com I'll keep the list updated on MLB's reports
for how the voting is going.







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

For those of you that have been watching and/or listening to the game, you'll
note the irony: As Selig stepped into the booth, AJ Pierzynski (my personal
favorite, along with Dustan Mohr :)) hit a home run to extend his hitting streak
to 16 games. :)

Additionally, I hope you all have been voting for the boys in the All-Star game.
Just a reminder that we have until the end of the month to secure as many places
as possible for the Twins. As of the last update, Torii Hunter is voted in as an
outfielder for the AL.
Go vote at http://vote.mlb.com/ or through http://www.mntwins.com



Selig Attends First Twins Game
Fri Jun 14, 9:21 PM ET
By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Sports Writer

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Bud Selig said he wasn't the least bit hesitant to attend the
Minnesota Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night. It was the
first between the clubs since he tried to eliminate Minnesota from the major
leagues.


"The one thing as the commissioner, you understand you're always the lightning
rod," Selig said. "I remind you again, the vote on contraction has always been
30-0, and the clubs are very strong-willed about it.

"People can direct their energies toward the commissioner. Whether it's right or
wrong is irrelevant. The commissioner has to take the heat."

And he did. Among the thousands of Twins fans who trekked to Milwaukee was John
Kuntz, a retired investor from South St. Paul, Minn., who wore a T-shirt that
said: "Selig isn't my Bud."

"That was a dirty deal," Kuntz said of the unsuccessful effort to eliminate his
beloved team. "We've saved the Twins through 2003, but we want them forever."

Selig spent much of the game in the owner's box with his daughter, Wendy
Selig-Prieb, who took over the Brewers when he became commissioner.

He said baseball fans, particularly those in the Twin Cities, should focus not
on how close the Twins came to extinction but how far the franchise has to go.

"There are lots of hurdles to go yet, so let's concentrate on that," Selig said.
"We have to finish up in Minnesota, we've got referendums to pass, stadium deals
to complete and ownership to find."

Although the Twins won't be on the chopping block next season, Selig repeated
his ominous mantra that contraction is still on the horizon.

"The owners are not going to let that go. They want contraction," Selig said.
"And in fact, most owners today still want four (teams eliminated). It's very
much on the table. We're in the process of a contraction grievance, but it's
very much in our plans, no question."

Twins cleanup hitter Torii Hunter said he couldn't help but notice the irony as
he prepared to play at Miller Park: the Twins are leading the AL Central after
coming so close to extinction and appear to have a bright future. The Brewers,
owned by the Selig family, are the NL's worst team at 22-43 before Friday
night's game and are headed for their 10th straight losing season.

"I'm human. It goes through my head," Hunter said. "But we didn't discuss it
last week or today. We're just trying to stay in first place. And if we can win
the division, that will really goof things up. That would be the proof of all
proof that we belong."

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he didn't think the issue made any difference
in the interleague series and that he never discussed it with his players.

"I don't think that has anything to do with that baseball team on the other
side," Gardenhire said. "Those are political things and business things and
we're just the baseball teams that are going to do battle."

Brewers manager Jerry Royster said the Twins could use the contraction issue as
added motivation.

"But nobody can come in here and win a game against Bud Selig, it doesn't work
like that," Royster said. "He will not be in the lineup."

Twins closer Eddie Guardado agreed.

"First thing that pops into my mind when I come here is to go out and play
baseball, not Bud Selig," Guardado said. "Those off-the-field things are out of
our control."



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

iam 32/m/iowa and minnesota twins fan/ my favorite player on twins is
tori hunter and joe mays so wt email me or chat with me/ my primary
email is richardl@... and my yahoo id is loder316 so go twins

TakeBackBaseball.com is a grassroots group of baseball fans who are
sick and
tired of greed destroying the game we love. And on July 31st, we're
going to
strike back -- literally.  Together with other fan groups around the
country, we're staging a fan walkout -- a pledge to not attend any
major-league baseball game on July 31st.  Come to
http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com, sign our pledge, join our team, join
the
walkout, and help us take back the game we love.
Save the date -- July 31st.  Take the pledge at
http://www.TakeBackBaseball.com. And tell your 10,000 closest friends
to do
the same.
- The TakeBackBaseball Team.

I don't know if any of you know this but the twins had a team in my
home town of Wisconsin Rapids but they left it really sucks. now our
town sucks. they left a long time ago like in 1986 or so. i don't
think there would be any chance of them coming back do you? well just
thought i would bring that up

Shawn

twins 7 toronto 5

i like hear from fellow twins fans u can email me richardloder_34@...
we can talk about the  twins  go twins 2002

I guess I was thinking he was going to retire.
Perhaps it is for best, as last year he was kind of under
fire for getting along with the younger players trying
to advance to majors. They probably kept Todd Walker
too long which kind spurred it along. Let's hope they
get some one who can "develop" players!!

What do you all think about TK's retirement?

A new place to get Twins photos is up and taking orders.  Check out <a
href=http://etailads.bizland.com/twinsphotos
target=new>http://etailads.bizland.com/twinsphotos</a>

whats up with the  twins? they are siking out of the playoffs it looks like. but
hopefully that dont happened since they got this far

yea he is pretty cool i think to. iam by mankato southren minnesota 21/m

Come to the Minnesota Twins Pics Page and take a
look around. We have a photo gallery, a guestbook for
you to sign, and baseball newsfeeds that are updated
throughout the day. Also buy merchandise and tickets to show
your support at the Dome or on the road. If you have a
Twins or baseball related website, join the Minnesota
Twins and Metrodome Webring at the site.<br><br>PS Give
Doug the Gold Glove<br><br>Take a
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target=new>http://arrive.to/TwinsBaseball</a>

Hey everyone. I joined this club because I am a HUGE Twins fan. I like them
soooo much. I like Luis Rivas the best. He is a GREAT second baseman, if I do
say so myself.<br><br>Katie :)

i am a huge fan of kirby and the twins, but i live in florida, any other fans
down here? write me at<br><br>  johnstonandrew34@...<br> 
thanks,<br><br>andy.

Please join the newest Twin's Club on Yahoo!:<a
href=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/minnesotatwinsclubhouse
target=new>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/minnesotatwinsclubhouse</a><br>Thank you

We finally have some good pitching. This is the
first time in years that we have had 3 solid starters.
Our team is young and I believe we will be
competitive. If Mienkiewitz, Koskie, and Ortiz can start
putting up some power numbers, we will be in business. I
also believe Rivas will compete for Rookie of the year
this year. Well I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Hope to here your imput soon!

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