Twins forget their fans with a flimsy excuse for a rainout

The Twins spent the first three months of the season alienating fans in large numbers. They did this with uninspired play featuring bad pitching, failed hitting and erratic fielding. They also did this through a TV partner, Bally Sports North, that has made games unavailable to a large majority of streamers, which means a large majority of potential viewers 40 and under.

Then there's the fact the big-league product has plenty of problems of its own, with games that drag on interminably, filled with strikeouts and long minutes without seeing a ball hit into fair territory.

The Twins were not satisfied with this hat trick of disappointment, disappearance and languor.

They upped the ante on Saturday, spitting in the eye of customers who had commuted to downtown, paid for their parking ($12, in most cases) and were ready to watch a 1:10 p.m. contest with Cleveland.

If that spitting part was more than a symbolic description, it would have been more moisture than the fans encountered before it was announced a half-hour after game time that this contest was being postponed until September.

At that moment, the tarp was not covering the infield. Instead, there was an individual seen watering the dirt.

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The official excuse for the postponement was a forecast for heavy rain through the afternoon. I had a retired U.S. Marine meteorologist who was with me take a look at the radar on his computer around 2 p.m., and he said: "This looks like it is going to stay south.''

The Twins had more thorough information at their disposal. One must think that their weather consultants were not capable of being so far off to say, "For the safety of the men, women and children gathered here, we better drop the idea of playing a game this afternoon,'' and then have it turn out that the official Twin Cities rainfall total over the 24 hours ending at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at MSP airport was 0.12 inches.

That's as much spittle as it takes for one of those COVID tests.

Manager Rocco Baldelli didn't want to play because the Twins had gone with a "bullpen'' game in Friday's victory. In other words, he didn't want to play because neither Danny Coulombe nor Griffin Jax would be available, which might be the worst excuse for blowing off a big-league game since Mike Veeck's Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park.

You couldn't really blame Doc Roc, the manager who was living by "abundance of caution'' with his athletes even before that replaced "E Pluribus Unum'' as our national motto during the pandemic.

I mean, his team hadn't had a day off since way back on Wednesday, so obviously the pitching staff had to be exhausted.

Cleveland manager Terry Francona was easy to convince as a co-conspirator on this ploy, with most of his previously excellent starting rotation on the injured list.

Only one problem here: the customers.

It's a disgrace Twins management went along with Baldelli's desire not to play. You can't rain out a game on manager's whim. Heavy rain has to be definite, not 50-50. Or, in this case, 20-80.

Tim Charbonneau from Savage responded on this subject in my Twitter feed with a photo of his sons, Landon, 3, and Harrison, 5, standing in the sun at the ballpark, trying to figure out why Dad's exciting promise of this trip to Target Field was not going to include a ballgame.

Dad said there were tears at one point from his sons.

Twins attendance has been a flop since pandemic restrictions were softened. Still, there might have been 18,000 on Saturday. Traditionally, summer weekends are when families from around the area plan their one or two trips a season to Target Field.

Come Saturday:

They arrive, pay their $12 to park, let the kids make a first run to a concession stand, and then they look at the field and wonder where are the players, getting loose, ready for a ballgame.

Then comes the delay, followed by the announcement there would be no game, and even the kids squint into the sun and ask, "Why not?''

The pox of this Twins season, of poor play and poor access, was joined on Saturday afternoon with a total disregard for fans willing to make the effort and pay the freight to be at the ballpark.

All because Coulombe and Jax were unavailable, and to not have J.A. Happ start against the White Sox in Chicago on Monday night.

The price paid for that by the Twins was shameful disregard for the Saturday customers that saw this as a special occasion for the summer.

Boo, hiss!