So it's the offseason...where have I been?

Ahhh my baseball blog pet project, how quickly I can come to neglect you, like a child's lost interest in his pet hermit crab. Is it time to break out the defibrillator in an attempt to resurrect you from death's near grasp? I'll give it a shot, which means this is gonna be another catching up to speed on what the hell's been going on with baseball since I last posted.

What's that? Baseball is over? Surely you jest! For any true baseball fan knows, baseball is NEVER over. It is a 12-month season, we just happen to be in the segment referred to as the "off" season, which contains as much, if not more, excitement than certain parts of the "regular" season. But anyways...

Congrats to the Phillies on winning their second World Series title ever. Two titles, 126 seasons. Six pennants, 126 seasons. As has been well reported, now that Philadelphia has ended its 25-year championship drought, the distinction of a four sport city going the longest without a title now belongs to...Minneapolis. Yep, that's me! Our last title came from the Twins in 1991. Asides from the Twins in 1991 and 1987, you gotta go back to the days of the George Mikan and the Lakers to find a title that Minnesota has got to celebrate.

Sure, we've now gone the longest, but we've only got D.C. beat by a few months, as the Redskins won the Super Bowl shortly after the Twins won the World Series. Could be worse though, Cleveland has got a pretty shitty championship history. Indians have gone 60 years without a title and only have two in their 106 seasons. Browns have no Super Bowls, though they were pretty good before the Super Bowl era. The Cavs may have no titles, but having Lebron is pretty awesome. Although the Timberwolves did have Garnett all those years, but no Finals appearances to show for it. Thank you, Kevin McHale.

Ah who am I kidding, I don't genuinely give a shit about the NBA.

There was an interesting (at least to me) article linked off of Deadspin from the New York Daily News. Apparently it's been 50 years since the Yankees won a World Series while a republican was the sitting president. Any other team this may not seem that big a deal, but when you think about how many damn titles those fuckers have (I try not to), it is actually pretty bizarre that they've gone 50 years without one while a republican was president. Of course, now that I'm looking over the Yankees' history on Baseball Reference, that doesn't seem nearly impressive as it first sounded. Over the past 50 years they've had 8 titles, the last four of which were during the Clinton administration (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000).

Which reminds me, Barack Obama won the presidency. I'm sure you've heard and read enough about that so I'm gonna skip that for now. There's talk of him throwing out the first pitch for the White Sox in the 2009 season. Let's hope that doesn't interfere with his duty to throw out the first pitch at the Nationals home opener, as it is his presidential responsibility...i think.

Anyways, it's the start of the offseason. That means months and months of false speculation about who is going where and for how much! Already I've heard numerous theories about what the Twins should/could/are going to do to strengthen their team. Obviously solid starters at 3B and SS are desired, and names abound! Adrian Beltre! Casey Blake! Hank Blalock! Garrett Atkins! Orlando Cabrera! Etc. Etc! With some money to spend and a year away from a new ballpark, I do have high hopes that the Twins will actually make a solid offseason signing for a change. I've had enough of signings like Livan Hernandez, Craig Monroe, Tony Batista, Rondell White, Ramon Ortiz, Ruben Sierra, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett, Jeff Cirillo, Sidney Ponson and Phil Nevin.

My preference would be to swindle the Brewers into trading J.J. Hardy to the Twins, but I have no idea why they would do that.

Ok bye for now.