How about a little background for myself...

It really is quite simple, I'm a sports nut. The obsession began from an early age. Watching football every Sunday with my dad is really one of the strongest memories I have during my childhood.

Every Sunday I'd gear up to watch the Vikings play, with pretty much the same routine game in and game out. Wake up nice and early, check out the sweet new ads in the Sunday Paper (unfortunately the only paper during the week my parents got), do my picks for the game (a tradition brought on by my father back in 1998, mind you I was in 7th grade and went 129-98 with the point spreads), watch good ol' Jimmy Kimmel on the FOX morning show do his picks (Quite hilarious if I do say so myself) and then it was game time.

But sports for me goes back to the early 90s, 1991 to be exact. The first memory I have with Major League Baseball dates back to August of 1991, when I was 6 years old and went to my first Minnesota Twins game. It was just me and my pops, sitting row one behind the Twins bullpen, watching the great Scott Erickson warm-up with Brian Harper.

As tens of kids yelled "Scott, Scott, can I have a ball," and pretty much every other thing that a kid yells at a game to a ball player, my pops said to me in quite the loving voice..."Just sit there and just watch, don't yell anything." For starters, I was already tuned into Erickson firing warm-up pitches to a guy (who later that year) may have made one of the greatest plays in World Series history. I followed direction and in return when Erickson was done with warm-ups, Harper gave me my first ball official MLB ball.

Other big memories of baseball as a youngin' that stick out are:

• I distinctly remember watching Pedro Munoz and Chilli Davis hit back to back homers during a game in 1991.
• I remember hassling players like Tim Raines, Lew Ford and Paul Konerko
• My greatest piece of memorabilia I've gotten at a game is an autographed Cal Ripken Jr. baseball, signed the day after his 3,000th hit.
• I remember (while in attendance at the Dome in 06') A.O. and I heckling Rondell White in an indirect fashion. Not only was White horrendous while with the Twins in 06', I believe it was Hubert's across from the Dome that had beers for whatever Rondell's batting average was at the time, WHAT A DEAL! While watching the Twins play host to the Orioles, we started yelling at Baltimore centerfielder Corey Patterson to "take it easy, you can even sit down when Rondell bats." Corey indeed listened to the advice and began to squat during the second pitch of the at bat (I believe a strike swiwing, 0-2). The next line and probably one of my favorite memories of all time, would come when Andy yelled "You don't even need your glove." Patterson then put his hands behind his back, took his glove off and did nothing but turn around and smile at us after watching White strikeout swinging.

Now, when I say youngin', that's because a year removed from booing Brewers fans out of the Dome after Liriano has just struckout a career high 12 in 2006, I landed the break of a lifetime and had not the slighest of clues what I was about to get my hands into.

In January of 2007, one of my life long goals was complete. I officially became an employee of the Minnesota Twins and damn near crapped my pants. You know you've found yourself in the profession you want for the rest of your life, when the task you've completed is no longer work. I worked with the Twins Radio Network as an assistant producer and learned more than I could've ever imagined about the game of baseball.

I had the great fortune of working on an everyday basis with the likes of: John Gordon, Dan Gladden, Dick Bremer, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Tony Oliva and Kris Atteberry. For me, the best part of my job was gathering post-game material. I love interviewing and had the great fortune to interview some hellishly good baseball players (baring any steroid usage): Alex Rodriguez (D'oh), Mike Mussina (D'oh?), Frank Thomas (after hitting his 500th HR, a question I asked was used on Sportscenter that evening), Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Curtis Granderson and Gary Sheffield (D'oh?) just to name a few. As far as managers, I've interviewed: Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Ozzie Gullien, Jim Leyland, Joe Madden and twice daily (and in my eyes, one of the finest coaches in all the majors) Mr. Ron Gardenhire.

The season was a blast and like I said, a lot was learned and fun was certainly had...

As for right now, I'm kind of searching. Where will I end up? Right now, nobody knows. But if the dominoes fall into place, I may just be sticking around in Twins Territory for a long while...One can only hope...

Take it easy ya'll-
-Pops