Opening Day link dump http://sportazine.com/baseball/opening-day-links/

Welcome back to baseball, everyone. It’s been a long winter. Real life issues have necessitated my absence from this space for a while, but I’m looking forward to getting back to regularly scheduled programming now that the season’s begun to get underway. But first, here’s a short and kind of random list of items from the offseason that I would have written about had I been writing about them.

• My hometown Minnesota Twins released longtime manager Ron Gardenhire after thirteen years, hired Hall of Famer and Minnesota native Paul Molitor as his replacement, and completely overhauled the on-field coaching staff. I’m cautiously optimistic about the change in direction that I hope this represents for the Twins, who have gone a miserable 265-383 over the last four years. This is one item that I surely will be discussing in the future, so stay tuned.
• Okay, one more thing on that note for now: Molitor has reportedly banned headphones and smart phones from the Twins locker room on game days. I think I’m gonna like this guy.
• Although he was ultimately sent down to AAA late in spring training, the Twins’ Mark Hamburger will likely see at least some time on the big club this year. Hamburger, who went undrafted after high school, was signed by the Twins in 2007 after impressing scouts at an open try-out. He had a cup of coffee with the Rangers in 2011 and bounced around the minors until being suspended for testing positive for a “drug of abuse” (this means pot) in 2012 and released by the Houston Astros organization. After spending 2013 with the independent St. Paul Saints (American Association), the Twins re-signed Hamburger to a minor league deal and invited him to Fort Meyers for spring training. He’ll start the season in AAA Rochester. I’m rooting for him. I’m a sucker for a comeback story.
• Speaking of our own St. Paul Saints, their new park opens this year in downtown St. Paul. It’s about seven blocks from my work. Opening day is May 21. I’m pretty stoked.
• At age 56, the immortal Julio Franco has signed a contract with the semi-pro Ishikawa Million Stars (Challenge League) in Japan. In his 23 years in Major League Baseball, Franco was a three-time All Star and five-time Silver Slugger. He left MLB in 2007 with a .298/.365/.417 batting slash, but not before becoming the oldest player in history to hit a grand slam (47), hit a home run (48), and appear in a game as a non-pitcher (48). After taking a few years off from 2008 to 2013, but returned to baseball last year as a player/manager of the independent Fort Worth Cats (United League). He will fill the same role with Million Stars. He’s been playing baseball for a living since before I was born. As Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra said after the signing, “They’ll take the bat away from Julio Franco when they pry it from his cold, dead hands.”

On top of the "coffee" button, you can also donate through Amazon, Flattr, and Patreon.

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="paypal"><input name="cmd" type="hidden" value="_xclick" /><input name="business" type="hidden" value="douglasawh@gmail.com" /><input name="return" type="hidden" value="This is a test." /><input name="item_name" type="hidden" value="Buy us a coffee for Opening Day link dump" /><input name="currency_code" type="hidden" value="" /><input name="amount" type="hidden" value="" /><input align="left" alt="" hspace="3" src="http://sportazine.com/wp-content/plugins/buy-me-beer/icon_cafe.gif" title="" type="image" /></form><a href="http://redirectingat.com?id=20383X936783&xs=1&url=https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=douglasawh@gmail.com&currency_code=&amount=&return=This+is+a+test.&item_name=Buy+us+a+coffee+for+Opening+Day+link+dump&sref=rss" target="paypal">Buy us a drink!