Game 7: Astros at Twins

Time: 3:10 Central

Weather: Less cold and windy than yesterday, start temp 48°

Opponent’s SB site: The Crawfish Boxes

TV: BSN (for now). Radio: You can’t spell “America” without “AM”

And this is why MLB schedules an off-day during Home Opener series! Anyways, what’s cold in October feels balmy by April. I’ve seen people in St. Paul get out their T-shirts and shorts if a February day hits 35.

Here’s a list of temperatures at outdoor home openers in Twins history. Most miserable has to be the one in 1962, with a high of 34° and a 5-12 loss to the Angels. Minnesota would actually finish second in the AL that year, behind the dreaded Yankees. 2013 saw a high of 36, then it got colder, and that’s why Zach is called “eight-fingers.” In 2021 it was 85, and 1980, 90! But both those teams were lousy. In 1965 there was such severe regional flooding that several Twins took a helicopter to the stadium (somebody in the team office knew a traffic reporter).

Today’s starter for the Can Bangers, José Urquidy, wasn’t specifically named in the cheating thing, so hopefully he’s not hiding a nail file, emory board and sandpaper like one Twins pitcher was known to do.

Incidentally, Urquidy is only the second Mexican-born pitcher to record a "win" in a World Series game (after Valenzuela, of course). And, with three such wins, that’s the most by ANY foreign-born player.

He changed his name from José Hernández in 2019 to honor his mother, who raised him herself. That’s a classy loving son move. Urquidy throws a 93-ish fastball, a slurve, changeup, and rare curve. 2022 digits:

Sonny Gray’s pitches, you know by now. But I didn’t know this story, as mlb.com’s Jane Lee wrote it in 2014:

Jesse Gray was his son’s biggest fan . . . [He] held two jobs to support his family. In between them, he made a habit out of leaving each of his three children notes to read at home. He would then stop by Sonny’s football or baseball practices before getting back in his pickup truck and driving to a nearby bar, where he worked through the night in the kitchen.

On Aug. 25, 2004, Jesse wrote notes to the kids, but he never made it home the next morning. He was killed in a car accident coming back from work, his life ended too soon, at the age of 41. Sonny was just 14.

You should read the whole thing. Nobody's path to the majors is easy; these two starters overcame more than most to be here.

But I'm sure they'll be enjoying the home opener razzle-dazzle, and hopefully you will, too.