All Star Weekend

Sunday of All-Star week at Target Field yielded less baseball stars than Tuesday’s game, but it didn’t lack fun or star power of a different sort. On a beautiful day, with celebrities of all kinds waiting to play softball and prospects from around the minor leagues, there was no better place to be for a baseball fan. The future of baseball was on full display as the young prospects of baseball took the field in a matchup of the U.S. versus the World. The U.S. earned one run in the first inning, but left the bases loaded when Cubs infield prospect Kris Bryant flew out to end the inning. On the World team, Twins minor league first base prospect Kennys Vargas...

It was grainy and certainly not in HD. A faint black and white figure with the familiar Twins script across his chest was at the plate swinging the bat from the left side -- slowly, a wider shot showed Bloomington’s Metropolitan Stadium with the formidable Bob Gibson on the mound. The hazy screen showed it was the bottom of the 9th inning and the American League was losing the 1965 All-Star Game 6 - 5.

I was disappointed I hadn’t seen the entire game as it was rebroadcast on Fox Sports North, but my focus was now on the 26-year-old Tony Oliva. Suddenly his bat moved with lightning speed through...

If you haven’t heard, the All-Star Game is coming to Target Field and Justin Morneau will be in tow. Morneau has done everything he could to be part of the actual game by posting a .313 batting average, a fine .509 SLG%, and 100 hits this season -- but despite those numbers, it was not to be. Other lesser players were chosen (I see you Charlie Blackmon).

Morneau was involved in a dynamic hashtag battle on Twitter against Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs trying to be the fans choice for the final All-Star slot, but he finishing a disappointing second. But...