Twins Winter Caravan: A Sure Sign of Spring!

It sure has been a long, trying winter for most of us. Sure, in Minnesota we haven't had as much snow as the East Coast, but with a few sub-zero spells and only a few days above freezing, it's been enough to make some of us yearn for spring. One sure sign for me that spring isn't too far away was the Twins Winter Caravan's stop at the Paramount Theatre in downtown St. Cloud last Wednesday.

I hadn't been to the caravan before, but when I heard that former pitching ace Jack Morris was attending, I found my old scorecard/program from a game I attended at the Metrodome in April 1991 that turned out to be Morris' 200th career major-league victory before going. After a brief ballgame-style meal of hot-dogs, chips and water, the 400 or so in attendance were ushered into the theater as a rebroadcast of Game 6 of the 1991 World Series played on the big screen.

Midway through the game on the screen, Twins broadcaster Kris Atteberry began the show. After a highlight film narrated by Twins TV broadcaster Dick Bremer, Attebery began announcing the evening's guests, which included front-office staff Dave St. Peter (who I'd also seen at the Phillips Eye Institute benefit in the Legends Club at Target Field that my cousin Libby sang at back in November) and Dave Anthony, as well as the Twins' minor league player of the year, OF Joe Benson, and their minor-league pitcher of the year Kyle Gibson, and of course current Twins broadcaster Jack Morris.

I enjoyed the Q&A session, as some of the younger members of the audience asked some good questions, like asking Morris how hard he can run and who was his best teammate. The evening finished with an autograph session, and after I finally got Morris to sign my program from his 200th win, I realized that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in about 3 weeks, so the caravan was a sure sign that spring's not so far away after all!