Ron Gardenhire

Mike Pelfrey's legendary speech to Wichita State may not give you goosebumps, but it will make you laugh out loud. 

For years under the direction of Tom Kelly, we constantly heard that the baseball season was a marathon and not a sprint.

"Take it one game at a time" was the mantra constantly repeated to the players, media and fans during Kelly's tenure as manager from 1986 to 2001.

It may still be really early in the season, but as the weather heats up, so does the proverbial seat that each manager sits on.

A fast start can do a lot to assuage the demands of the fans, whereas a slow start can make the calls come louder and more bloodthirsty.

Again, I know that it's early. I know that nobody's getting fired anytime soon. However, what we can do right now is figure out who should start feeling uncomfortable if they can't turn things around soon. 

So far for Minnesota Twins fans, the 2011 season seems to be a cross between April Fools Day and Groundhog's Day—I'm referring to the Bill Murray movie where he relives the same day over and over.

For the Minnesota Twins, 2011 is a brand new season. So far it's looking too much like how 2010 finished. 

The Twins finished off the regular season by losing three of four games against the Toronto Blue Jays. In that series, the Blue Jays hit 10 home runs and outscored the Twins 25 to 11.

Fast forward to Opening Day 2011—same two teams, different venue, same result.

This season will mark Ron Gardenhire's 24th with the Twins organization and his 10th as manager.

In the 110 years of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise, Gardenhire ranks third all time with 803 coaching victories with the third longest tenure as manager.

His .550 winning percentage is also third best for the franchise behind Billy Martin (.599), who only coached the 1969 season, and Walter Johnson (.570), who coached from 1929 to 1932.

Jim Thome came to an agreement to return to the Minnesota Twins for another season, Friday. The slugger agreed to a one-year, $3 million contract which is double what he made in his first season with Minnesota.

In sports, when a team looks too far ahead or dwells too much on what has already happened, they often fail in the present.  Sometimes it’s off the field issues, sometimes it's injuries, sometimes it's egos and sometimes it is just plain bad luck.  A trap season is the perfect storm of all these variables and more.  The 2010 Minnesota Vikings defined a trap season better than maybe anybody ever.

Just one week ago, Minnesotans found themselves in the midst of one of the biggest blizzards in the state's history. Twenty inches of snow and one collapsed Metrodome roof later, the impact of the storm left a mark on the Twin Cities. But just as people in the Twin Cities finally moved past the storm, a tsunami that goes by the name of "Yoshi" or "Nishi" rolled into town.

There have been many important days in Twins history. Oct. 25th, 1987 (first World Series victory), Oct. 27th, 1991 (second World Series), and June 5th, 2001 (drafting of Joe Mauer) spring to mind for many fans. But the absolute most important date had nothing to do with winning a world series or drafting a future hall of fame catcher. The day in question is July 3rd, 2000.