Instead of saying the offense is off to a slow start, or breaking down how each hitter is having troubles at the plate, it’s much too easy to forget (or assume other people will forget) what had been said a couple of years ago. And it’s a shame because instead of making a real assessment, people who are supposed to be authorities reach for the answer that can be written in 40 minutes. The research is easier to find when you want to blame the hitting coach, and the opinion has easier defense points because the core of the argument is emotional. People can identify with it, use it as an outlet for their frustrations, then throw the thought away feeling justified.

Part of the problem might be all the praise that was heaped onto Vavra in ‘06, when the authorities should have analyzed why and how the hitters were succeeding, instead of automatically going to the hitting coach well. Now, just two years later, they’re contradicting themselves. It doesn’t just make blaming Vavra sound hollow, it pulls the rug out from under whatever argument they made for him in 2006. Even worse, both of those things should raise serious issues about how much these authorities can actually help you learn about the game.

I’m incredibly proud of this community. Our traffic has grown substantially since we’ve started, but it hasn’t exploded. And that’s okay, because to this point we aren’t attracting that mass audience who shows up and tosses out subjective and spiteful one-liners about Gardenhire’s management style. Truthfully, I think the general intelligence of the community here is a reflection of the fact that we don’t get a whole lot of “lunchpail sports fans”. It’s much easier, and more emotionally and immediately satisfying, to come to a place where people are spouting off about the exact same things you were seething over…but I don’t think that happens a lot here. I like to think, and I could be delusional, that the readers we attract come to catch up on current events and to pick up some opinion and maybe a little analysis. We have a long way to go in that regard, I’m always looking to get better, but I think we do pretty well in a saturated Twins blogosphere. I will always strive to differentiate this site from some of the major outlets you mention, and I hope that this community continues to hold up as it has without looking for that easy answer.

Long way of saying….no, I don’t think you’re in the minority. At least, not on this one. :)

If the Strib blogs represent what lunchpail fans are thinking, I’m embarrassed by my fellow Twins fans. What you see from too many posters in that crowd is a lack of perspective. They focus on what happened in a particular game or even a particular at bat and then they generalize those mistakes as the focus of their criticism.

The most comical surrounded Joe C.’s calling for Gomez to get demoted. Of the 300 or so responses, they were about equally split. Those who called for Gomez to get sent down focussed solely on his previous 10 at bats to make claims such as “I don’t think he’ll ever be a successful major leaguer”. Then he homers on his first at bat after a one-game breather and some of the very same “fans” were piling on the praise.

I think this site works because most of us tend to take the long view, and look at multiple years worth of data rather than the last 10 at bats. We’re not Twins Pollyannas, like the DTFC moderators. And we’re not knee-jerk cynics, like Gleeman. We strive for balance, perhaps with a slant towards giving the team and its management the benefit of the doubt. And those who enjoy a balanced approach frequent this site. Like Jesse, I’m pretty proud of that.

I don’t post here as much as some, but I do read just about every word that goes up on this site in diaries and comments, and I keep coming back because the discussion here is head and shoulders above what you get anywhere else. Actually, most of the other SBN blogs I’ve visited (notably Royals Review and South Side Sox) maintain a good tone. Beats the hell out of the aforementioned blog comments on the Strib blogs (the blogs are great, but dear lord are the comment sections awful).

And c’mon, if nobody piled on Gardy for the unpopular decisions he makes or things he says, Firpo wouldn’t have anyone to troll ;)

Listen to talk radio. Not only is it shocking how little almost everyone on KFAM knows about baseball (most of them usually can’t accurately name all the Twins players and describe them) but talk radio is, of course, the epitmomie of reactionary.

Most of it has to do with the majority of people don’t CARE to follow it closely enough. it takes an awful lot of damn time.

I kinda wrote a couple little rants on this lately, between the Gomez controversy and the Liriano’s work ethic discussions, we have a lot of people coming up with some pretty sweeping generalizations. It actually comes into play in most things in life. Most people tend to only consider the most memorable events. So a typical fan who only attends a couple games a year might like or hate a particular player based on one event a year, ie, if they happen to make an error in that game, they’ll probably think he isn’t a very good fielder.

I think that’s one of the important things ABOUT blogging across all things. Bloggers seek to keep (or should seek to) keep the mainstream media accountable, and part of that is the knee jerk reactions. The irony, is, of course, the internet makes writing about your knee jerk reactions all the easier.

That’s we we here at Twinkie Town get to sit up in our ivory tower and strive for more.

Costas Now is having a town hall meeting on this topic tonight. Costas thinks the tone of sports talk and sports journalism has become toxic. Maybe this is just another attempt by “mainstream” media to lash out at the blogosphere, on the other hand, who can tell the difference between “mainstream” and “outsiders” now that guys like Gleeman are insiders with mainstream outlets paying their salaries and Dead Spin writers are getting book deals.

anyone? i have always wondered…