Howard Sinker Interview, Part 2

Here's the promised second part of my Howard Sinker interview. Part one's available here.

Q: It seems to me that Kent Hrbek is a quintessential Minnesotan. Not just with his outdoors show and his ice fishing, but with his wrestling too—the Ron Gant play in 1991. How do you rate him and Kirby Puckett as Twins icons?

A: I think the franchise icons are the guys from a generation before — Killebrew, Carew, Oliva. That may reflect a bias against people who I saw on a day-to-day basis by comparing them to players that, for me, are more mythical. The Twins of the first decade in Minnesota set a standard by which future teams came to be judged, and it was a high standard because of their success. I mean, look at what Mets and Rays fans watched for the first decade before their teams showed anything. Minnesota fans saw pretty good baseball from the start and excellent baseball as often as not in that first decade.

Q: What’s your opinion of the Metrodome, both in general terms and as a baseball stadium? More specifically, what do you like about your seats in the 220 section?

A: As a baseball stadium, the best things I can say are that it’s right across the street from my office and the game is never going to be rained out. As critical as writers have been of the Dome, the real travesty is that there are so many seats that are so clearly not made for baseball viewing. If you sit down the third base line, you’re watching center field unless you spend the whole game with your head turned. That’s just wrong. My seats in the front row of Section 220, I believe are 2 of the 18 excellent baseball seats in the Dome.

Q: How has your position as a newspaperman rather than simply a fan changed your response to the Twins? Have you become more of an analyst and critic of the team, and not so much of a rooting fan?

A: I never was a Twins fan before I started covering them in 1984. Now, I’m more of a fan, albeit a fan with benefits that many others don’t have. I appreciate the access that I have because I work at the Star Tribune and because of my background covering the team many, many years ago. I try to put that to good use in my blog because I have a pretty good sense of what’s going on, and there are people to whom I can turn to find out stuff when I have questions.

Q: Do you think the Twins would be around now if they hadn’t won one or both of their World Series?

A: Yes.