Fire Gardy

Wrigley has the ivy covered brick walls, Fenway has the green monster, and the Metrodome has the unsightly baggy. Well, the new Twins stadium will have a distinctive feature on the outfield wall as well — the Limestone Monster.

The wall will apparently be in right field, and will jut out over the field. Get ready for some amusing bounces, and some significant home field advantage as our left handed (non-Mauer) players bang balls off that thing and opposing right fielders chase the ball around the field.

Personally, I think the best thing about this idea is its distinctiveness. A lot of new stadiums are either too bland or try too hard to be distinctive … US Cellular Field, for example, is an atrocious blend of a baseball stadium and a county fair. The limestone wall in right, mined from within Minnesota, is the right kind of distinctive.

And it’ll be fun to hear Gardy talk about it, after both wins and losses. “Cuddy is used to the baggy, so he’s been able to adapt to the rock pretty well.” “That was an unusual bounce, and it didn’t go well for our boys tonight.” “There are some angles out there that are tough if you haven’t seen ‘em before.” Et cetera. Should be a good source of boilerplate dopiness.

Speaking of which … you didn’t think I’d make a post without passing along a bit of Gardy’s dopiness, did you? Randy Ruiz has done an admirable job of filling Monroe’s (admittedly small) shoes, despite a lack of extra base hits or walks in the majors yet. He’s batting .333/.333/.333, in a very small sample size. What does Gardy think?

“We needed someone to hit a lefty, he’s done that. … I like having him around, because he will swing. He’s not afraid to swing,” Gardenhire said.

Oh yes. The one thing this team has been lacking is another free swinger. Too much Mauer, not enough Delmon and Gomez, that’s what I always say! He’s not afraid to swing? Since when did the Twins have a problem with swing-fear? Gomez and Young have topped the list of “swinging at the first pitch” and “swinging at pitches out of the zone” all season … if anything, the Twins need another hitter who’s willing to take pitches, work the count, draw walks, and make the pitcher actually put a ball over the plate. More Mauers and Spans.

Oh well. I’m still rooting for Ruiz (and I wish he’d smack a homer sooner or later). And I really appreciate the dopiness. Keep it coming Gardy!

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