Jeff: Sid Hartman: Village Idiot or Court Jester?

Before you read any further, click here. That's today's column from good ol' Sid. By now you're well aware of this website's feelings about Sid, which is that he's the biggest corporate kiss-ass in town. Usually I leave Sid alone because, well he's old and he rambles and you generally already know how much ass Sid is going to kiss before you read his column.

Well today is different. Sid did everything short of bow at Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad's feet and proclaim him the Lord of MInnesota! Sid's only point was that if Ol' Carl hadn't bought the Twins in the mid '80's, they would have been moved to Tampa Bay and we wouldn't have Twins baseball. My favorite line in the whole column was this one:

"But the positives of Pohlad's ownership have far outweighed the negatives."

Besides the fact he saved the team in 1984, the only other "positive" Sid mentions is "He has been one great owner, with the Twins Community Fund being one program to help kids who would never get a chance to play baseball."

That's it. I'm serious, those are his only examples for positives for Carl Pohlad owning your Minnesota Twins. Oh he does claim that the Pohlad family has not threatened to move the team-- well at least not since 1997, when he tried to sell it to an ownership group in Charlotte that wanted to move the team there.

He does talk about the contraction issue twice, mentioning that yes Ol' Carl WANTED TO CONTRACT YOUR BASEBALL TEAM AND MAKE A TON OF MONEY FROM DOING IT, "...but believe me, it would have been all over in 1984 had Pohlad come not to the rescue."

So what Sid's saying is that DESPITE Carl Pohlad, you still have a baseball team? That if Carl had his way, he'd have sold the Twins franchise up the river, making gobs of money on the way out of town while Twins fans were left with nothing?

Tell me this, Minnesota: why is Red McCombs a curse word in this state and Carl Pohlad is not? Red bought the Minnesota Vikings with every intention of moving them to San Antonio. When he was denied, he tried to get a new stadium here. When that didn't work either, he stripped it down and sold it for as big a profit as he could. In essence he proved to be exactly what he was: a used car salesman angling for the best deal he could get. But at least when he realized he couldn't get what he wanted, he sold the team to somebody who wanted to keep the team here and wanted the team to succeed! In the end, although he tried and failed to screw over Minnesota Vikings fans, he helped them by selling to Zygi Wilf, who seems to be committed to bringing a Super Bowl to the Land of Lakes.

Now what about Ol' Carl? Yes, he saved baseball in Minnesota in 1984, but really, according to Sid, the only reason he did that was so HE could get richer and then get rid of them himself. Like McCombs he's tried to relocate the team (or sell it to someone who would). Like McCombs he's spent the bare minimum to keep this team alive (Billy Beane is the best GM in baseball but Twins GM Terry Ryan is a close second. Look at what he's done when he's been given nothing!!) Like McCombs he's a BILLIONAIRE who whines about revenues and a new stadium and yet puts forth next to nothing to build a new one.

The only differences I see between Red and Ol' Carl? Red never tried to contract the team, and Red was never a good friend of Sid Hartman. I'm not saying we should suddenly praise Red as a good guy, I'm just wondering why I don't hear more Twins fans, or ANY for that matter, upset at Ol' Carl.

If he REALLY cared about Minnesota and Twins fans, he'd either a) spend some money on this team, or b) sell it to someone who would. I can't believe for a second that's there not someone who could do a better job of keeping this team competitive here than Pohlad's done (Glen Taylor comes to mind- as long as he doesn't fire Terry Ryan and replace him with Kevin McHale. By the way, was that the Wolves or an NBDL team in Memphis last night? Just checking). I understand that whoever owns the Twins will not make as much revenue because of the stadium situation, and that this is not New York or LA as far as marketsize goes. But don't give me this crap about "a small market". It's actually the 15th largest in the country. St Louis, you know, the 2 time defending NL Central champs with a big payroll and a beautiful new ballpark? A smaller market than the Twin Cities. San Diego? Smaller. Cleveland, the team the Twins are looking up at? Smaller. All new parks and bigger payrolls than the Twins. You want support for a new ballpark? Spend some damn money.

If you spend the money for one or two hitters (and the Twins have the prosects to do it without giving up Fransico Liriano) the Twins are a front-runner to go the World Series. If they're winning, there's going to be more Twins fans buying tickets at the Metrodome, buying merchandise, more watching on cable TV which helps ad revenues, and so forth. Would a new stadium help? Absolutely, but call me crazy but if you have a winning team that people are really behind and excited about, they're going to be a lot more willing to help build a new stadium.

The Twins have the best pitching staff in baseball, and some nice pieces in Mauer, Castillo, Stewart, and Morneau, among others. If Ol' Carl would ever give the go-ahead (he won't but allow me to dream) to deal Kyle Loshe and Torii Hunter and some prosects for a Big Stick or two, this is a World Series contender. Instead, you're going to see a Twins team that will remain competitive but never quite competitive enough. And after watching the Detwah Tiggers a bit this first week, I'd be more worried about finishing 4th in this division than finishing first.

If Ol' Carl is such a great a great owner for this state, why won't he be more like one of the state's worst, Mr. Red McCombs: spend money to make the team better, or sell it someone who will.