A little yarn from white-hot Twinsville...

I went to the game this afternoon, tried to get an interview with Joe Mauer, and ended up watching the game in the home plate press box off to the side, alone.

Tony Oliva was standing next to me in the aisle during the first inning.

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I've had some requests for an open thread on the Wolves' draft day speculation. I'll be attending tonight's draft and tomorrow's inevitable showcase press conference of the first-round pick (assuming they don't make a trade), both of which will be a part of a story in next Wednesday's paper. But anyone who wants to comment now on possible scenarios, and to chime in on who the team should or shouldn't take (or, after it happens, whether they made a smart choice or not) is welcome.

What a difference a month makes, or even a couple weeks, for that matter. Not long ago, it seemed that the Twins were destined for not just a total wash of a season, but to be the kind of lackluster team that never gels and offers dull outing after dull outing.

Well, the season is still a wash, but at least the Twins are worth watching again. The reason? Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire finally blinked.

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If Santana's 13K gem, combined with rookie Jason Kubel's walk-off grand slam in the 12th inning against the Bo Sox--and on a night when Twins-trashin' David Ortiz went 0-5 with three strikeouts, no less--wasn't enough to brighten my mood, this news certainly was.

Jason Bartlett, the Twins' prospective shortstop who's spent the last two years creaming pitchers in Triple-A ball, is finally on his way back to the bigs. Not only does this mean that the Twins have decided to quit using one of the league's worst all-around players (Juan Castro) as their everyday shortstop, but also that the great Tony Batista experiment is finally over. Does this give the Twins hope to contend this year? No, of course not. He's a rookie shortstop, after all, and even veterans at that position have a tough time providing offensive punch (although my own mother probably has more pop than Castro). But at least it proves that the Twins management isn't completely hell bent on fielding a losing team. And that's something.

For all the talk about Joe Mauer--well-deserved, mind you--another steady bat in the Twins lineup has been overshadowed in recent weeks.

After being jerked around by Ron Gardenhire the last couple seasons--due to Gardy's onetime infatuation with Matthew LeCroy and ongoing delusions about Lew Ford--Michael Cuddyer has finally been given the chance to be a nearly every day player at a position where he's comfortable. Trouble is, it's about a season too late. Even so, Cuddyer has responded in kind.

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Shaquille O'Neal is one of my favorite players of all time. The guy is incredibly media-savvy--his interviews have made me laugh out loud more than any other athlete. On the court, he is Wilt Chamberlain plus championship hardware, the most unstoppable force in the game for a decade. Plus, I've got a soft spot for him because he made me look smart for loudly defending him back in the day when everyone wanted to rip him for never winning the big one and concentrating more on movies and rap than he did on hoops (absurd of course, but so it goes).

But as much as the heart goes to Shaq, my head says this is the year the Dallas Mavericks grab the trophy, in anywhere from five to seven games--we'll split the difference at six, but it really could go up or down from there, depending on a bevy of factors. Here's my take on the climax to the most consistently exciting NBA playoffs since they expanded the format.

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