The Best (and Worst) of 2005

One of the fun things about writing a blog is having the ability to go back and read your posts from a year ago to get a handle on how you were feeling about the team over the course of the previous season. Needless to say, last year's archives are not pretty. Last night, it was pretty rainy and crappy out, so I sat inside and looked through some of our blog archives from last season. Reading them now, some of these are pretty funny. I picked out a few of the favorite entries I wrote last season:

April 19: Cruddy Cuddy.
If you are ever wondering why I'm not a big fan of Michael Cuddyer, go ahead and read this post. Perfect example of what he brings you at the plate. In fact, I skimmed through the month of April looking for mentions of Cuddyer, and came across some of the following quotes:

-"The game-winning run that scored in the eighth should have been out at second earlier in the inning, but Cuddy made a terrible wide throw when attempting to get the force that allowed the runner to move up another base and eventually score. This was Cuddyer's fourth error of the season [this was April 17], and he is hitting .231."
-"Michael Cuddyer continued with his abysmal play, going 0-4 to lower his average to .203 on the year and leaving four men on base in the process."
-"Michael Cuddyer again. He may have walked this game, but otherwise, he went 0 for 3 dropping his average to a paltry .194"
-"Although [Cuddyer] did surprisingly manage to finally collect a hit, breaking an 0-18 streak, he still did not look good."
-"...Cuddyer continued his anemic hitting, going 0 for 4 while leaving two runners on."

Can't wait to watch him play this April.

July 5: Gary Darling makes an enemy for life.
This was Scott Baker's major-league debut. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dedicate much space to writing about it, because I was too busy fuming about the performance of home plate umpire Gary Darling. He killed us in this game.

July 29: J.C. pulls a J.C.
This was the game in which Torii Hunter broke his ankle leaping against the wall at Fenway (an injury which the brilliant Dr. Nick initially diagnosed as an "apparent tendon injury"), but that's not why it is so distinct in my memory. No, I vividly remember writing this post for another reason. It was at a time in the season during which there was a lot of speculation about the Twins possibly trading J.C. Romero to the Red Sox. I was writing the post while watching the game, and Romero came into the game with the bases loaded. I wrote, "now the BoSox will get to see first hand the ability of potential trade acquisition JC Romero to allow inherited runners to score." Just after I finished typing the sentence, John Olerud hit a grand slam off Romero. I was so pissed. Looking back, it was really pretty funny.

August 23: One Hit Wonder
This was the best game of last season by far, and reading the post brought back some good memories. It was a blast watching Johan Santana and Freddy Garcia duel, and it was tremendously invigorating to have Jacque Jones end Garcia's no-hit bid in dramatic fashion with an eighth-inning solo shot. There aren't many things I will miss about Jacque Jones, but his ability to come through with the clutch home runs is one of them.

August 31: Twins held scoreless on 13 hits vs. Royals.
This is a sparking example of the Twins' total offensive ineptitude last season. In this post, I chronicle the Twins' failure to capitalize on a scoring opportunity in literally every inning. Probably the angriest I've ever been when writing a post.