Today I read an interesting article by Chicago Sun Times staff reporter Joe Cowley.  You can read the article here.

The premise of the article is this:  The Twins play dirty and are never called on it because they are the cute, loveable small market team from a fly-over state.  As I read this article I couldn’t help but chuckle.  Do the Chicago WhiteSox with all their arrogance really believe that the Twins play dirty???  Cowley uses the following examples as reasoning for why the Twins are a dirty team.

1.  In the 9th inning, Nick Punto (who Cowley describes as Gizmo from the Gremlins), slides hard into second base.  He suggests that Punto deliberately hits Tadahito Iguchi in the ribs.

2.  Cowley references the hit that Torii Hunter put on WhiteSox catcher Jamie Burke a few years back.

That’s it folks.  He uses those two instances as evidence that the Twins are dirty.  He also goes on to say that because the WhiteSox are the bad “big-market” team that they are always picked on.  When AJ tries to step on Morneau’s foot TWICE, he gets boo’d and made to be evil.  When AJ gets into an altercation with Michael Barrett he is made to be evil by the national press.  Punto gets no attention for what he did to Iguchi.  Hunter gets applauded for making a play. 

My question is this…. Why did Cowley interview two players (incedentially the two who are the biggest idiots on the whole team) to talk about how “dirty” the Twins are.  Where is the quote from Iguchi.  Where is the quote from Ozzie about how the Twins play?  I seem to recall that Ozzie loves how the Twins play and hates how his team is now…

My response to Cowley is ARE YOU FOR REAL?  The Twins are cute, soft and cuddley.  Yes, we are hard-nosed.  No, we don’t rely on the 3-run homerun to win games.  Yes, we do the little things right.  No, we don’t constantly overpay and underperform (a la the WhiteSox).  No, we do not have personalities on our team who are idiots in front of the camera and on print. 

We do our business and we do it right.  This is a great example of a homer staff writer who is looking for a story from a team that is losing games, has the worst batting average in baseball and has a HORRIBLE pitching staff. 

To cap off the whole article, he alludes to the fact that the WhiteSox would somehow retaliate for the dirty Twins play.

I say…. BRING IT ON.  We’ll be waiting in July and we’ll kick the crap out of you then.

Cowley….  Your an idiot!