No offense

I watched the Twins put together some terrible teams throughout the 1990s.
They lost and lost and lost. I hardly missed a game.
Part of it was that I just loved baseball, and watching the Twins lose to the Mariners 11-5 was, to me, more fun than going jogging, or golfing, or watching Friends, or pretty much anything else.
Then the Twins finally got good in 2001, and it suddenly got even better.
They won three straight AL Central titles from 2002-2004. Those were some fun teams to watch.

Then came 2005.
The Twins weren't a bad team. They were in the pennant race for most of the season. They won 83 games, which, only a few years earlier, would've been considered a wild success.
But even going a respectable 83-79, it felt like they went 50-112.
Not because they didn't make the playoffs, or even because Chicago cruised to the World Series title.
But because they couldn't score any goddamn runs.

I learned somthing that year that I'll never forget.
Bad teams that score runs are more entertaining than decent teams that don't.
I can appreciate a good pitchers dual more than most - that's not it. I'm not one of those dumbass fans that thinks any game that doesn't end 12-11 is boring.

But when you have a favorite team, and that team routinely scores 0,1,2 or 3 runs, you start to get pissed. Doesn't matter if they lose 2-1 or 10-1, or even win 2-1, it sucks. It gets frustrating.
You find yourself saying things like:
"Swing the goddamn bat!"
"What are you swinging at that for!"
"(Sarcastically)Nice fucking cut!"
"I could hit this piece of shit!"

Granted, injuries are playing a big part, but early on the Twins are showing serious signs of becoming one of those teams this year.
Hey Carlos Silva has been one of the best pitchers in the AL through the first month, and he has two whole wins to show for it! Awesome!
No one is hitting. The piranhas thing is a bad joke. There are too many singles, and way too few homeruns.

The good news is that pitching keeps a team in the race, and as long as the Twins keep it up on the mound, they won't fall too far behind.
But the punchless offense is hard to watch.
It won't be long before fans start clamoring for the team to unload some of its pitching for a bat.

Jacque Jones anyone?