Fernando Rodney has eaten snowflakes. Joe Mauer praised Target Field’s heated benches in his Opening Day press conference. And the final game against the Seattle Mariners was cancelled at 10:00 a.m. because of an impending snowstorm.
It’s been an odd start to the season.
“There just hasn’t been much rhythm to the year so far,” said manager Paul Molitor. “I don’t know how many days since we left Florida, but not a lot of games, too many off days, not enough work on the field — all those things that you have to try to find a way to overcome.”
The Minnesota Twins aren’t searching for excuses, and it’s not as if they’re off to a bad start by any means. It’s just that half their team is dressed up like Mortal Kombat characters, baseball isn’t supposed to be a winter sport, so it’s been an adjustment for many of the players. Last year’s slogan was “Your Ticket to Summer.”
Now they’re not making such promises.
“I just think that you take what you can,” added Molitor. “The cage work, you don’t get the same feedback you do on the field. You’re not getting ground ball work. Outfielders, it’s just our game is so much routine-oriented, so you wanna get into that type of routine if you can, and so far we haven’t had the chance to do it.”
Baseball players are very routine-oriented by nature. Ask most rookies what they learn from their veteran teammates, and almost immediately they talk about what they do when they get to the ballpark. For many it’s a tight schedule, something they hold onto as they pass through various time zones to play in ballparks with different dimensions.
Some of it is mental: repetition leads to focus and calm. Some of it is physical: getting a workout in or staying loose is vital for peak performance. Some of it is intangible: it’s working, so don’t change it. So forcing batting practice inside, or limiting with fungo bats in the outfield can affect a player’s ability to be at his best once the first pitch is thrown.
“I just think that you take what you can,” said Molitor. “The cage work, you don’t get the same feedback you do on the field. You’re not getting ground ball work. Outfielders (can’t learn the ballpark dimensions). It’s just our game is so much routine-oriented, so you wanna get into that type of routine if you can, and so far we haven’t had the chance to do it.”
Players are also at greater risk for injury, especially pitchers.
“I don’t think we really know exactly where the risk gets high, or too high, to try and play in the cold temperatures,” Molitor said on Opening Day, after Minnesota had played in snow-swept Pittsburgh. “I know that guys that played last night…it’s a different kind of soreness that they feel today, and probably a lot of it had to do with the cold conditions.
“I have seen pitchers get hurt in cold weather. Whether how much it’s been directly related to that, or would it have happened otherwise, it’s a little bit hard to tell. There’s obviously a higher risk when conditions are unfavorable as they are with the cold temperatures.”
It’s not just pitchers, though. Logan Morrison, who joined the Twins in the offseason after playing for the Miami Marlins, Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays, took to Instagram to express his displeasure with playing outside in cold weather.
“They didn’t like that,” Morrison told the St. Paul Pioneer Press when asked about the social media backlash he faced after the post. “I was just more or less saying it would probably be more comfortable for everyone if we had roofs. I don’t think anyone wants to freeze and watch a baseball game either.”
Marlins Park in Miami and Safeco Field in Seattle have retractable roofs, and Tropicana Field in Tampa is a dome, so this is the first time Morrison — who is off to a slow start after hitting 38 home runs last season — has not regularly played in cold weather.
“I’m not a numbers guy,” he told the Pioneer Press, “but I just feel like if you put up the initial cost up front, you’ll get more in return for that. Then you don’t have to worry about (weather), especially in Minnesota. When you have South Dakota, North Dakota, all those people, they don’t want to drive in, right? They don’t want to drive in and then get rained out or snowed out, whatever it might be.”
Not all pitchers hate the cold, either. Kyle Gibson, who grew up in Indiana and played college baseball at Missouri, told the Pioneer Press that he’s fine pitching in the cold.
“I always tell people, I don’t mind it because I’m the warmest guy out there,” Gibson said. “I’m the one who’s moving every single pitch. The trick is just to try to stay in the (strike) zone and keep guys swinging. You want your defenders moving around. You want them staying warm.”
The majority of American players hail from Sun Belt states like California, Florida, Texas and Georgia, however, and many international players come from warm-weather locales like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, so the cold is a contrast to what they’re used to — especially after spending Spring Training in Florida.
And even hearty fans from the upper Midwest have trouble sitting through a three-hour game in the cold.
“I just think, if you ask anyone, you don’t want to coach in it, you don’t want to pitch in it, you don’t want to hit in it, you don’t want to field in it, you don’t want to watch it,” Morrison told the Pioneer Press. He advocates retrofitting stadiums with roofs.
“I’m not a numbers guy,” he added, “but I just feel like if you put up the initial cost up front, you’ll get more in return for that. Then you don’t have to worry about (weather), especially in Minnesota. When you have South Dakota, North Dakota, all those people, they don’t want to drive in, right? They don’t want to drive in and then get rained out or snowed out, whatever it might be.”
Target Field has generally gotten rave reviews. It fits well in the city, has great restaurants and amenities, and is a welcome change from the concrete hallways of the old Metrodome. In time, it should warm up and games will be played more regularly — the Twins did play in three season openers that mandate a day off after they are played, after all.
But until then, they’ll be longing for summer along with the rest of us.
