HAPPY NICK PUNTO DAY!

Today is the blog world's official Nick Punto Day! (I did not come up with Nick Punto Day, Andrew Kneeland from Twins Target did.) Whether you love Little Nicky Punto, or you don't like him at all, there is a place for all of us on Nick Punto Day! I love Nicky Punto.

How could you not love a man who admits to loving not just Ho-Hos, but also Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and the Hostess Cupcakes?

It's also pretty obvious that I like Nick Punto when I determined that falling (toe-side) while snowboarding head first, was "Nick Punto-ing it". It's amazing how many people know what you're talking about when you phrase it that way.
Nicky does this (top image):
I do this (bottom image/s):

Nick Punto's name is also tons of fun to play Marco Polo with while at Twins games. Katie learned this quickly last season. Now it's much more than just random fun, it's our ritual for when Nicky is up to bat. (One person says "Nicky"...the other follows with "Punto".)

Check out the wonderful story of How Nick Punto Came to Be that THOSE girls wrote.

So in honor of Nick Punto Day, today, I'm going to go to Target Field (for an interview for PT ticket sales) and Monday, I'm going to Nick Punto it while snowboarding. I surely hope he appreciate my efforts.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Nick Punto Day!! Just remember...what would Nick Punto do?

TwinsFest 2010

Well another year of TwinsFest has come and gone. I only went on Saturday, because limited funds made it hard to purchase additional tickets, plus I know how tired I get from going one FULL day that I figured one would be plenty!

I got to meet and run into tons of people from the blog world! (Though one person choose to not introduce themselves to me when they found me, I'll let it slide) Met Howard Sinker from A Fan's View, Seth Stohs from Seth Speaks, and John Bonnes from Twins Geek. Met up with bloggers I've met and hung out with before (Katie from KC's Baseball Blog, Kirsten from K-Bro's Baseball Blog, Topper from Curve for a Strike, Tricia from Twins Sisters, and Erin from TwinsGirls: A Baseball Blog) all in all, it was fun chatting with everyone.

I was insane enough to wait in line for pictures with the players. I was not terribly thrilled to have to pay $2 per player to get pictures with them, when in previous years it was free. It kind of seems lame and like a slight rip-off to charge people for admission and getting nothing for free in the process. Sure, if you wanted to wait for 6 hours in the prospects lines, those were free, but everything else costs money. I know that the proceeds from the picture line were going for a good cause (I have nothing against giving money to Haiti through UNICEF, don't get me wrong), I just think that it should have been more of a "suggested donation," than a requirement to pay. I believe they still would have gotten money donated to the good cause.

There was also disappointment this year in the fact that the autograph lines went up by $5 at every station. I never went through many of these lines to begin with, mainly cause if I really want autographs from players, I know that at some point, I can most likely get them for free...plus I also don't want to wait for so long to get the autographs. Two years ago, I waited for a good amount of time to get Kevin Slowey's autograph (since he's my favorite Twins player). I made the mistake of going through his autograph line that he was in with Francisco Liriano. NOTE TO FRONT OFFICE FOLKS WHO MAKE UP TWINSFEST SCHEDULE: Please, for everyone safety, sanity and crowd control, put Francisco Liriano up in the Cambria booth where the likes of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and others are. It makes things really crowded down on the turf when he's signing at Station #2.

I was only disappointed with one of the players that I met at TwinsFest, and that was Jon Rauch. I was all excited to get a picture with him standing next to me, since I'm 5'3" and he's 6'11". I got up to him, no pleasantries from him and then when I asked him politely if he would stand up (he was sitting on a chair), he said "I'm not standing for anyone." He was very short with me and very rude. I'm not gonna lie, I like him less now than I did before TwinsFest mainly due to the attitude he had. We paid to get pictures with him, yet I got treated poorly.
Quite honestly, I'd nominate him for the Biggest Douchebag at TwinsFest award.

(Here's my picture with the "cardboard cutout" of Jon Rauch.)

Good Sport award would go to Justin Morneau. I asked him if he would puff up his cheeks (like he does when batting) with Katie's 8 year old nephew, and he did it, just before the picture.

Justin and I...can't tell we were both laughing before this picture, huh?
Mr. Morneau and his usual smirk of a smile...

Nicest newcomer goes to JJ Hardy. He was very sociable to everyone one, even gave hugs to several girls. Plus he was very nice eye candy.

Me and JJ Hardy

Quietest player goes to Carl Pavano. He was nice, just very quiet and seemed like he felt a little out of place in the photo line (and a little uncomfortable).

Myself with Carl

Nicest non-new Twins Player: Kevin Slowey. I already knew he was a very nice guy, but he was very tolerable of the crazy girl by me, and then was willing to take pictures with fans after his autograph session was over (Brendan Harris only stuck around for about 2 pictures before bolting out of there)

Kevin posing for pictures.

Myself with Kevin Slowey

Here are a couple other TwinsFest pictures for everyone:

Jason Kubel and Matt Guerrier

The Justin photo line before us...
The line for Justin photos after us...
Joe Mauer is in there somewhere...

The crowd at TwinsFest on Saturday from the stands by the KSTP AM 1500 booth.

Only 70 days until Home Opener now (and counting!)...21 days until Pitchers and Catchers report for Spring Training.

Also, February 12th is going to be Nick Punto Day. For more information about that go here: Nick Punto Day.