When "Idiots" isn't a compliment.

Posted at 12:39 AM on September 6, 2005 by Josh Lee (1 Comments)

I didn't catch yesterday's game; it was a holiday, there was grilling to be done, and someone -- namely, my friends with big grilling apparatuses -- had to do it (my job was merely to consume the fruits of their labor, or meats of their labor, as the case may be). So I missed the Twins' 7-0 loss to Texas, which was probably a good thing, since it was, by all accounts, the kind of game that just makes you angry. It's one thing to take advantage of other teams' sloppy fielding, as Nick "Leading the League in Walkoff Bunts" Punto can attest to, but to be the slop-fielding team that hands games to opponents on a platter, and then drops the platter -- that's just galling.

Apparently Carlos Silva found the team's performance more than a little galling himself, and wasn't afraid to say so. His ranting sure beats the coaches' usual party line of "the players played their tails off, they just got a few bad breaks." It was clear months ago that the team needed a kick in the pants that it just wasn't getting, and even though it's probably too late to do any real good now, it's kind of nice to see someone taking things seriously. The team's happy-go-lucky, one-big-happy-family attitude was great when they were overachieving their way to division titles, but when they're underperforming, you need someone who's willing to prod the players out of their funks. To put it another way: we probably wouldn't find the Red Sox's cowboy-idiot routine to be so cute if they weren't leading the majors in runs scored.

Silva's calling-out of the lineup may be the leadership the team has been lacking, or it may be a case of kicking the team when it's down. Either way, it's better than complacent mediocrity.

Comments (1)

do you really think the twins are "underacheiving"?? 72-65 with their roster seems about right..........

Posted by daveZ | September 6, 2005 10:00 AM

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories