Even an old-time baseball guy could appreciate Twins' 'new era' revival

There are disadvantages in being an advanced septuagenarian, such as requiring a consultation with your knees as to whether they plan to assist when trying to rise after a couple of hours in a favored TV-watching chair.

There are also times when you feel blessed, and Friday was one of those, as a "new era" of Twins baseball was launched before noon on the floor of the Mall of America's rotunda.

Imagine, as a baseball-loving lad just turned 15 on the prairie of southwest Minnesota, to hear the news on Oct. 26, 1960, that Major League Baseball was on the way to Bloomington in the form of Calvin Griffith's Washington Senators.

Precisely one month later, it was announced the team would be named the Minnesota Twins, in an effort to make Minneapolis and St. Paul compatriots rather than the rivals they had been in trying to land a major league team in the second half of the 1950s.

And now here was that baseball lover, thanks to a regimen based on the healing powers of Diet Coke, able to be there 62 years later to watch the Twins start all over again.

That's what the emcee for Friday's proceedings asked us to honor with cheers, the "New Era of Twins baseball," and if you can't take Juice Sutton's word on such a thing, isn't that an indictment of our entire American society, and we weren't going to sit there on our hands and bad-mouth the United States of America.

So we cheered, first those sitting up the middle, then those residing to the left side, then those to right — although the 1,500 or so assembled widely around the stage and on three levels of balconies weren't exactly sure yet as to what it was we were cheering.

It could have been that a fair number of us were enthused that DJ Matty Matt had toned down his warmup music when Juice took over the stage.

"What do they call that music?'' I screamed to a seatmate. "I think it's EDM,'' he said, which I'd claim is something you don't want to listen to and probably not catch.

Twins President Dave St. Peter and Vice President Joe Pohlad were introduced and talked briefly. St. Peter called it a "big day'' for the franchise, as the Twins were celebrating history while looking with great anticipation for what was coming next.

I don't think the "next'' to which he referred was what happened three hours later:

The announcement the Twins had traded Gio Urshela, an excellent third baseman and reliable presence in the lineup, to the Angels for a nondescript pitcher — thus preventing Urshela's chance to go to arbitration here and make $9 million to $10 million in 2023.

Friday's attraction for Twins loyalists and the merely curious was to be the showing off of newly designed uniforms. And that was the immediate "next,'' with Byron Buxton, Luis Arraez, Joe Ryan, Jorge Polanco and Jose Miranda serving as models for the jerseys and hats.

There were four jerseys and two varieties of hats, including red ones with an modern take on an M and a star above it. Looked like a Miami Marlins hat, although without evidence of a palm tree.

"Other people have said that,'' admitted Joe Pohlad, who has been in charge of marketing and communications behind the scenes for a couple of years, and has been the main driver for this attempt to modernize the look and sound of the Twins.

Joe is a third-generation Pohlad with the franchise. If the family continues to own the team, he would rank as a strong favorite to follow Uncle Jim as the CEO.

Joe asked for an opinion on the jerseys and I said: "I don't get worked up over jerseys one way or the other, but I like the one with 'Twin Cities' across the front.''

Buxton was wearing that one, and when asked on stage about that message, he mentioned the opportunity for the Twins to bring two cities and the state of Minnesota together.

Don't worry about it, Buck. The Vikings officially took care of that last Sunday in Buffalo, N.Y.

The whole "new era'' mantra is easy to ridicule, although what occurred at the mall was an overamped yet harmless attempt to get the sporting public to discuss a Twins topic other than the 2022 fadeaway this winter.

I mean, that "Twin Cities'' jersey definitely was neat. Maybe I'll buy a couple as Christmas presents.

UPDATE: Just checked the Twins' website for current new jersey prices. $304. Maybe I won't.