Twins can't leave nest
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/sports/article/0,2071,NPDN_15000_2642672,00.html

By ANDY KENT, ankent@...

February 10, 2004

FORT MYERS — Their uniforms might have changed, but
for a handful of former Minnesota Twins the lure of
the practice fields at the Lee County Sports Complex
remains too strong to ignore.

Left-handed pitcher Eric Milton, traded to the
Philadelphia Phillies in December, sat in the dugout
Monday morning next to Twins strength and conditioning
coach Randy Popple and watched ex-Twin Brian Buchanan
throw batting practice.

Milton bought a home in Fort Myers last year and has
no intentions of selling it, or of giving up his
offseason routine.

"We work out at the gym and it's me and Buck
(Buchanan) and (former catcher) A.J. (Pierzynski) and
(former outfielder) Dustan Mohr and none of us play
for the Twins anymore," said Milton, 29, who missed
all but the last week of the 2003 season with a knee
injury. "So it's kind of funny here we are working out
with the Twins' strength coach.

"That's just the way it goes. It's baseball."

Naples High graduate Jeff Smith also is a part of that
group, even though he is more than one year removed
from being part of the Twins organization. Smith, 28,
was one of a long line of catchers behind Pierzynski
until after the 2002 season, when he signed with the
Boston Red Sox.

This past offseason, Smith inked a deal with the Texas
Rangers that will take him to his first spring
training away from Southwest Florida. The Rangers
train in Arizona. Smith leaves one week from today and
is scheduled to report on Feb. 19.

"The group of guys we have out here right now with us,
including current Twins like (Michael) Cuddyer, (Mike)
Restovich, Lew Ford, Joe Mauer, that's what you want
to be around," Smith said. "They're just all great
guys. I've played the game, now this is my ninth year,
and they're all great guys. I don't want to get away
from them."

Pierzynski and Mohr were both traded to the San
Francisco Giants in December, and Buchanan was traded
to the San Diego Padres in the middle of the 2002
season. Everyone in the group except for Milton came
up together through the Twins' minor league system,
but Milton was traded to Minnesota by the New York
Yankees in 1998.

Now that Milton is getting ready to begin his first
season in the National League, the soft-spoken but
hard- throwing pitcher said he can't concern himself
with what might have been had the Twins decided to
hold on to him.

Instead Milton is looking forward to not having to
face the designated hitter anymore and playing on
grass in a new stadium in Philadelphia.

"For five years I put up 200 innings and 30 starts so
I'm looking forward to getting back to that, being out
there every five days," Milton said of starting the
season 100 percent healthy again. "I wish them well
but they're going to have a tough road I think.

That's just my feeling. But I give my best to
everybody that I played with, it was a pleasure."

And for one more week at least, the gang will meet in
the morning on the field adjacent to the stadium where
they shared so many spring training experiences. Then
they will head their separate ways for separate
clubhouses.

"It's all part of the business and we know that,"
Smith said. "But we all laugh about how things work
out somehow and talk about when we might end up back
on the same team."


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