Friday, June 24, 2011

Is It Happening?

As a guy who spent four years studying journalism in college, I appreciate good reporting. I think we Twins fans are pretty lucky to have a wide range of talented reporters covering our favorite team. I may have my quibbles with the lack of scrutiny applied at times, but in general I do believe that the local media do a great job of cultivating this region's interest in major-league baseball, for which the Twins should be grateful.

Of all the folks covering this team, there might not be anyone who does it better than Phil Mackey. Despite being a full-time radio host for ESPN-1500 who's not yet 30 years old, Mackey dominates the Twins beat, feeding hungry fans a wealth of inside information and flavoring his analysis with equal parts stat-savvy and digestibility.

He's gained a lot of credibility within the fan base – a fan base that has been starved for positives after an absolutely miserable first third of the season. So when Mackey boldly predicted a division title 10 days ago with two words, "It's happening," a meme was born.

Fans readily clung to the hopeful message. As the team kept winning – six straight after his initial tweet – P-Mac cultivated his catchphrase, dropping the #ItsHappening hash tag after nearly every break that went the Twins' way and maintaining his shtick with Patrick Reusse on their mid-day talk show.

Now, I'm hearing from fans everywhere that "It's Happening." The radio station has created a website dedicated to the phrase, where they've already got t-shirts printed up for sale. Fellow media types and even players on the team have latched onto the newly hatched slogan.



I suspect Mackey, a whiz with numbers, is fully cognizant that after a catastrophic first two months the Twins' odds of making the playoffs remain jarringly slim; that they'd have to overcome significant flaws and win at a higher rate than any club in baseball has up to this point in order to take the division (barring complete meltdowns from every other AL Central contender).

But he saw an opportunity to create a storyline that fans could embrace, and they have done just that. Mackey's lifelong affinity for pro wrestling sometimes shows through; I suspect that's why he makes for such a compelling radio host.

Even if it's often put forth with a twinge of sarcasm by P-Mac and others, the catchphrase – or, more accurately, the attitude behind it – is taking over Twins Territory, despite losses the past two days. We've seen this club erase some pretty major deficits over the years, and they gradually seem to be moving back toward full health. After moving eight games closer to first place in just a few weeks, anything seems possible. People are ready to believe.

Myself? I certainly want to believe. I've enjoyed the heck out of this month's run, but I'm also not blinded by it. The rotation won't keep chugging along like this forever, and while Michael Cuddyer is on a ridiculous tear there are a lot of problems with this offense.

Having said that, there's no denying that the Twins have put themselves back in the picture and retaken control of their fate. They trail three teams in the division, but they've got a lot of games left against those teams. If they're up to the challenge, the path is laid out for one of the most dramatic comebacks in baseball history. Several things need to happen in order for that challenge to be met, and next week I'll write about some of those things.

All in all, I'm digging the optimism and hope that have reinvigorated the fan base. Twins baseball is fun again. Nevertheless, I could do without the hackneyed "It's Happening" slogan for a while -- at least until Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau shows a pulse.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's nuts - to think this team will win the division. With all of the injuries and the issues with their middle infield, their bullpen is still a mess. And as you point out Nick, ots unrealistic to think their starting staff can stay on this hot streak. Now I just read in Lavelle E. Neal's column that the Twins will be looking for BP help. Think about that for a minute. We all knew their BP would be a mess when you let 4 proven vets walk in the same year and Nathan is fresh off Tommy John surgery, but now after a nice hot streak you're going to finally address it? This makes no sense to me! Why not address this in January??

jake said...

Its happening alright! don't you just love how these phrases spread and soon it will be such a part of the team and no one will remember where it came from.

Anonymous said...

Tell Bill Smith to go get Hanley Ramirez (I hear he's available) and then I'll believe "It's happening". Start with a pkg of D. Young and K. Slowey. We'll trade you 2-3 of our young malcontents for one of yours ...
Also, I'll believe when Mauer catches more than 4 games a week without needing a day off because he has a booboo. Seriously, how delusional are they to think he can still be an everyday catcher???

Ed Bast said...

If by "it's happening" you mean the club will beat some bad teams while the bad teams in their bad division falter just enough so that the organization will be able to delude itself into believing the "Twins Way" is foolproof and working and thus not make the whosesale changes (or any changes, for that matter) necessary to fix the major organizational flaws that have reared their ugly head this season, sure, it's happening.

Moe said...

To me, the point of #itshappening is just to bring some fun back into the game. For the first two months of season there was nothing to be excited about. The Twins probably won't win the division, but I'm going to have fun with the ride, and #itshappening is part of that.

IMO, if a person takes it all too seriously either way, they don't understand life or sports.

Matt said...

What I love most about blog-ology are the said blogger's emotional swings. The optimism here is like an oasis in a desert of poor Twins performances and the related negativity surrounding it.

Here's more:
The Twins red hot play lately is unsustainable, it's not worth listing out why, but it clearly can't go on the rest of the season.

Please, Mr. Smith, don't go trading ANY assets of ANY kind for bullpen help. Be sellers this season and build for next year, please.

Anonymous said...

Ed Bast = Chicken Little

T. Boone Pickens said...

A shirt that says "It's Hap" might be more accurate. Especially if they lose 2 of 3 vs. home brew crew.

kirby96 said...

Lets get real here. it MIGHT be happening. ...but it almost certainly isn't. The Twins just went on an incredible tear to... get to seven games under .500? The most likely scenario is they cool off, and are quickly back to 10 games back (whoops! Its already started to happen.). The Twins arent' nearly as bad as their record on May 15, but they arent nearly good enough to dig themselves out of the hole they are in. Especially given their offensive woes and their bullpen. At this point let's just be thankful they are watchable again.

Anonymous said...

Mijares and Burnett need to go.
They have no skills and lose winnable games. Call up James and Gibby

CA said...

That the team went on a run with the players it was running out is pretty amazing. They deserve a lot of credit for pulling the Twins to the point where they can see a bit of daylight, but it's also true that they aren't going to be able to continue succeeding with the current offensive formula. For #itshappening to really kick in, Mauer, Nishioka, and Kubel need to come back and/or start making a serious impact. I foresee fate of this team depending on the bats, not the bullpen.

Anonymous said...

The bullpen sucks. Baker could have done a better job against Prince last night than Miijares .....and Mauer, whats with fastballs all innarow? You off speed a power guy like Prince to upset his timing.

Gardy, leave your starters in. Your pen is losing games

kirby96 said...

I think a better hashtag at this point would be #ohnoitshappeningAGAIN (as reference to the first six weeks of the season.)

Ed Bast said...

Okay let's retire this stupid "It's Happening" thing and get serious. The injures are getting ridiculous, that's for sure. Two other developments:

-Did the Twins even scout Nishi before they signed him? He is a terrible baseball player. There is no way some scout saw him play and said, We gotta get this guy NOW. It's like Matt Capps, who the Twins "scouted" by looking up his number of saves. Nishi had a good batting average in Japan League (and a Japan League Gold Glove!).
-It's pretty clear Mauer has lost a lot of respect in the clubhouse. How the mighty have fallen. Turns out some of his teammates felt the same way as the "not-true fans" who questioned why the face of the franchise spent two months on the beach with sore legs while his team went in the tank, refused to help the team as a DH, refused to go to AAA to work out the rust, and basically transformed himself overnight into a Favre-esque prima donna the day the big contract kicked in. This situation bears attention because it could become a huge problem in the clubhouse (bigger than it already is). Hey, only 8 years of this "leadership" to go!

USAFChief said...

Nice to see iron man Joe in the lineup today... Sunday, no catching duties. Monday off day. Tuesday catch 9 innings, Wed 8. Thursday, no catching duties. Friday and Saturday, 8 innings each. Sunday, off. 4 games in 8 days. He can't even maintain the 60% rate we talked about earlier.

kirby96 said...

I checked out that website. I wonder how many suckers they got to shell out $15 for #ITSHAPPENING t-shirts? I think I could sell twice as many S#ITSHAPPENING t-shirts.