Pressing Questions: The Minnesota Twins

John Sorbi, an old buddy of mine, visited a number of baseball stadiums during a cross-country jaunt in the summer of 1995. He was still jaded by the strike in those days, but he didn't let that get in the way of exploring baseball history. When Jonas walked into Tiger Stadium on a summer day in '95, he carried a simple sign to get his point across: Just Here for the Park The context was different for Minnesota baseball fans last summer, but they can identify with Sorbi's Theme all the same. If you attended a Twins ballgame in the middle of 2011, you were doing it for Target Field reasons, not for the product (or the home players) on the sandlot. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker couldn't stay healthy last year, and Kevin Slowey and Tsuyoshi Nishioka were flops as well (partly due to health, partly due to performance). The Twins wound up winning just 63 games, their worst showing since 1999. Other than a few Jim Th...