Guess who's back!

Hey! I know it has been an extremely long time since I wrote anything on Twins Chatter, but I just thought I would let y'all know that I'm still alive and kicking. After a bit of trouble at the airport (let's just say that I spent a night in Atlanta and yada yada yada, I was really tired the next day) I returned from Florida yesterday (Monday) morning. The trip was a great experience and I got to take in an absolute ton of baseball overall. However, most of it was St. Olaf baseball and not Minnesota Twins baseball, so I don't have loads and loads of content to share with you at this time. That being said, I was able to attend last Thursday's spring training game against the Pirates at Hammond Stadium, and I'll have a few things to share with you from that day later this week.

Also, another reason Twins Chatter went un-updated last week was the fact that my $2,000 laptop computer suffered a major mishap during our first day in Florida. As some of you might know, one of the reasons I went along with the team was to webcast a number of their games via our website for the good folks back home. I brought my computer along with me to the field last Monday (to do statistics and play music) and in what was quite possibly the most freakishly amazing event in the history of the world, my computer screen was nailed ON THE FLY by a foul ball from a neighboring field, rendering it completely unusable.

Before you dismiss my previous claim (the one about the freakishness and the history of the world, etc.), take these facts into account:

-I was sitting over a 100 feet away from home plate on the adjacent field (where the rouge foul ball originated from)
-My laptop's screen is a mere 15" wide
-The impact occured during the second batter of our first game, and not a single foul ball landed any where near me for the next 10 games (a span of about 75 innings)
-The ball hit smack dab in the middle of the screen, leaving a large crater in its wake, but then just bounced harmlessly away, leaving the actual inner workings of my computer completely unharmed.

So now I am left with the world's most expensive non-portable laptop computer, as I am relegated to my desk (where I have rigged up an old monitor to use as a working display). My laptop screen actually looks pretty cool, what with the impact crater and the jagged cracks in the LCD display. If you look closely enough, you can even see where the seams of the baseball hit! Perhaps tomorrow I'll put up a picture so you can all see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the entire point of my rambling disertation was to tell those of you loyal readers (the ones who haven't completely given up on me yet) that I'm still alive and kicking and that Twins Chatter is far from dead: I'm back from my trip and rip-roaring ready to go. Spring is a very busy time for me, so I can't make any promises as to how often I'll be able to write, but rest assured I will squeeze in some time before school ends to share my Twins-related thoughts with those of you who care to read them. Thanks for noting my absence in the comments section below; it's good to know that people were still hoping I'd write something!

Until next time,

Ryan Maus
twinsfan21@msn.com