Monday Morning Minnesota: Representation matters edition

Previously on Twinkle Town:

• John Foley played armchair GM, going extremely in depth about what our beloved Twins offseason plan might look like.
• Sandwiches graded the 2020 season of everyone’s second or third favorite member of Minnesota’s “Random Dudes in Glasses Throwin’ Balls Squad.” (The RDiGTBS)
• Feeling productive, he also gave us another Indy Ball Link Dump, which as I am linking it here, those links are now mine via the transitive property. Thanks Sandwiches, when the world is real again, I’ll give YOU a sandwich. (Legit excited for the prospect of the Saints being a AAA team, btw.)
• Brandon rounded up all the AL Central news for y’all, including the continuing misadventures of Tony La Russa, the man who can’t seem to fail any direction but up.
• Hold on now I have to make a pizza before writing this next section.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Some modern Twins greats are going to be on (and probably off) the Hall of Fame Ballot this year! While they aren’t HoFers, it is fun excuse to take a trip down memory lane.

• The Twins are pursuing a reunion with Jake Odorizzi. Is it technically a reunion if he never finishes leaving to another team?

• Phil Miller writes about another casualty of MLB’s gutting of the minors, Ray Smith, the man who piloted the Elizabethton Twins for 33 years.
• Twins Daily examined the never ending chain of transactions that began with the A.J Pierzynski trade. Getting rid of A.J is truly a gift that keeps on giving! Anyway, remember when A.J got punched in the face?

Around the World in Bases and Balls:

• SABR’s Bob Lemoine told the story of the Negro League’s first All-Star Game.
• MLB dot com asks the most important question of modern times: What even IS position players pitching?
• In old (minor) friend news, Fish Stripes reviewed Lewin Diaz’s season. I knew I remembered that name from somewhere!

Monday Morning Miniature Piece: Why Representation Matters

The recent hire of Kim Ng as the new GM of the Marlins is a huge moment in baseball and sports. Similar to last year’s hiring of Alyssa Nakken as the first woman to be a full time on field coach, the news of Kim Ng’s breaking of the front office gender barrier had me emotional.

I immediately wanted to write about, but realized I had nothing grand to say, and dozens of more talented women have already written better pieces than I ever could, but I wanted to also give a few quick thoughts on my representation matters. It might be hard for those of you who are white dudes to understand just how big these things can be.

The highest tier of MLB front offices is so extremely homogenous that when the Twins hired Derek Falvey it almost felt like a diversity hire due to him being a YOUNG white dude rather than another old white dude.

When I was born in ye olde 1990, women already had the right to vote. They already were in the workplace. You could be forgiven for thinking things were already equal, but in many cases what was once overt was simply now covert.

I discovered a love of baseball early through my parents and my brother, and thanks to being a huge loser with zero friends, through video games I came to like in-game and roster decision making.

No one ever told me I shouldn’t pursue making these passions into a career. I wasn’t put into a box by overt discrimination or conservative parenting. Instead the idea simply never even crossed my mind. Sure I would have loved to work in baseball, but the world covertly told me that wasn’t for me. I didn’t see anyone like me in the business. Nothing triggered the idea that Baseball was even an option for me. Hell, It wasn’t until I discovered former blogboss Myjah’s writing that I even realized women could be taken seriously as sports bloggers.

With women like Ng and Nakken front and center, new generations of baseball loving girls will have that representation in a sport that often seems hostile to them. They’ll have the seed planted that baseball is for everyone. That they too can pursue it as a career.

Representation is extremely valuable.

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Today’s soundtrack is ANIME.