We should have known.  The catcher who was once loved by Twins fans once again found himself surrounded by controversy during todays game against the Twins.  Should we be surprised?  A.J. is doing the same things that we used to love about him.  Only now the fans generally boo him when he comes to the plate.  I have heard the term, “Barry being Barry” used many times but I think that we should file todays incident in the “AJ being AJ” column.

During the game today, the White Sox briefly took the lead from the Twins and Santana.  AJ hit what would be a inning-ending double play (6-4-3).  One he passed first he turned and ran towards the dugout.  At this point he ran right by AL MVP Justin Morneau.  He appeared to step on Morneau’s foot.  This in turn make Morneau’s usually stoic face….even more stoic.  He glared at AJ all the way to the dugout.

The controversy would somehow get worse though when first base umpire, Greg Gibson, motioned to the Twins dugout a slashing of the throat as to let them know that he would NOT tolerate the Twins dugout to bark at him for something that AJ did to Morneau.  Gardy was not about to have that gesture made towards him or his team so he immediately made his way out of the dugout and was immediately in Greg Gibson’s face.

In the end no one was thrown out of the game.  AJ appologized to Morneau and used the “sorry man but I didn’t mean to” line.  Morneau accepted the appology and the Twins went on to crush Jose Contreras in the bottom half of the inning.

After winning today’s game 10-4, your Minnesota Twins have finally reached the .500 mark.  They haven’t been .500 for almost a month and I can tell you that this Twins fan is happy and relieved.

If the Twins can win 2-3 from the Sox we can move in front of them in the standings.  Let’s hope that AJ’s fuel can be used to propel them to a series victory or possibly a sweep.