The Minnesota Twins have been very successful in capturing the Central Division flag this past decade. However, they have performed poorly this year, and one has to go back to the late ‘90s to find an apt comparison.

It is tempting to write this year off as an anomaly and return pretty much the same year’s team for 2012. That won’t do. Changes must be made. Last week’s column gave us the 2012 catcher, first and third baseman. We mentioned Nishioka at shortstop and hoped the Twins would look toward a trade or free agency to get a competent major league shortstop. While watching the Twins recently, an alternative to that expensive solution may have popped up. Luke Hughes has looked good at the bat and in the field these past few days at second base. Suppose the Twins put Alexi Casilla back at shortstop, where he did well defensively. Also, his .250 batting average is acceptable at that position. Not only that, he wouldn’t be playing second base just because Nishioka can’t.

With luck, that pretty much takes care of the infield. Cross our fingers.

Now to the outfield. What do the Twins need to do to provide outfielders that are an asset to the team? Let’s start with Michael Cuddyer. Cuddyer has been a big plus this year and one of the few players that have performed better than expected. Let’s assume the Twins make every effort to bring Cuddyer back next year. He is a fan favorite and if Cuddy is reasonable in his salary demands, the team is under a lot of pressure to have him in the lineup next year.

The Twins, no matter how Delmon Young performs for the Detroit Tigers these next two months, made a good move in shucking him. Delmon’s history is that he will revert to his usual inadequate performance next year.

The Young trade and the release of Jim Thome opens up the outfield logjam. If the Twins keep Jason Kubel, what a good designated hitter and fourth outfielder he would make. The candidates for the remaining two outfield positions are Denard Span and Ben Revere. Perhaps the speedy Revere in center field, but maybe left field is better suited for his weak arm.

O.K., now we have a lineup consisting of Revere, Span, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, Kubel, Valencia, Hughes and Casilla. As we Minnesotans might say, "It could be worse."

Now we turn to the Twins’ biggest Achilles heel, the pitching staff. The only bright spot is Scott Baker. Could any other Twins’ pitcher make the starting staff of a contending team? I don’t think so, with the possible exception of Carl Pavano. Pavno is signed for next year. So we have two starters of the needed five. Let’s say the Twins can cull a third from Blackburn, Duensing, Slowey and Swarzak. That leaves two starters the team must acquire. That wouldn‚t be too bad except the two starters need to be No. 1 and No. 2. The team has a lot of starters to trade, but what can you get for poor to fair pitchers? Not much! It may come down to sacrificing Cuddyer or Kubel or both for starting pitching. Trade, free agency, or whatever. Get it done.

The relief pitching is in similar shape. The Twins do have a very good reliever in Glen Perkins. The rest of the middle relievers are merely adequate at best. Matt Capps has pitched well recently and Joe Nathan has come back. But the two salaries total $ 20 million and that may have to be used otherwise. $20 million will buy a lot of relief pitching.

All in all, a formidable task awaits General Manager Bill Smith this off season.

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

“You order pancakes every morning but you never eat them.”

“My saintly mother made me pancakes for breakfast every day.”

“And our pancakes aren’t as good as your mother’s?”

“I don’t know. I never ate hers either.”

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: whenever a person dies, it’s as if a library burned down.

I’ve learned

1. Ignorance is bliss unless you are aware of it.

2. The sun wins every staring contest.

3. I like finding things that I’m not looking for.

My neighbor

Bushelhead put in his 40th crop this year. He has learned that the secret to success in farming is to get a lot done between equipment breakdowns. The best crop he raises is rocks. The glaciers left a lot of them in his fields and a new crop emerges each year. New rocks are only a stone’s throw away. Where did the glaciers go? They went to get more rocks.

There are three kinds of rocks — pickers, sliders, and painters. Pickers are the ones you pick up and toss into the loader. Sliders are bigger and need to be slid to a point where the loader could lift them. A painter is one that is too big to move. You paint it brightly so you will be able to see it while combining. Remember, families that pick together, stick together.

The café chronicles

It was the kind of place where the waitress referred to a breakfast order as “scrambled cackles and oinks in strips.” It was the kind of place where when you ordered meatloaf and a kind word, the waitress brought the meatloaf and offered kind words, “Don’t eat the meatloaf.”

“What is the special?” I asked.

“It’s what is left over from last week.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Yes,” said the waitress, “But only the part about it being special.”

The anniversary

I had wanted her to take my name, but she was adamant that she remain a Gail and not become an Al. I’d have been married earlier, but I insisted on wearing sweater vests. A life vest keeps you from drowning. A bulletproof vest keeps you from being shot. A sweater vest keeps you from dating. It didn’t seem that long ago when my wife and I were on our first date. She was as pretty as a picture as she got into my car. The car was so rusty, she needed a tetanus shot after getting into it.

“Can you drive with one hand?” my passenger asked.

“Yes,” I replied, my mind filled with thoughts of snuggling.

“Good,” she said. “Then wipe your nose.”

We married in September and hadn’t been hitched long when we became owners of a nine-passenger sedan. One drove while eight others pushed. One day, my lovely bride asked, “Do you know what the day after tomorrow is?”

It was September. I had forgotten our anniversary. I was thankful that my wife had fired a warning shot. Eight friends pushed my car and me to a jewelry store where I bought more necklace than I could afford. Two days later, I gave the gift to my wife, saying, “I’ll bet you thought I’d forgotten.”

My wife said it was the best Labor Day of her life. 

A boy remembers

The bases were loaded. Two outs in the bottom of the last inning and we trailed by two runs. I was at bat. The count was full. The pitcher was good and fast. He threw with a grunt and a snarl. I swung hard in case I hit it. I hammered the ball harder than I had ever hit one. The crowd went wild. I ran like the wind. I could see my father seated along the first baseline. He looked proud. I’ll never forget what the umpire said as I crossed first base.

“You’re out!”

Sign of the times

Roadwork next 39 years.

Is that fair?

I enjoy watching people at a fair. They are exceedingly more interesting than reality TV. The Iowa State Fair offered deep-fried butter on a stick.

Nature notes

A woolly bear caterpillar is a reliable sign that the seasons are changing. It eats dandelions in the spring and becomes an Isabella moth, a rather nondescript insect. This time of the year, we see woolly worms scurrying across roads. Folklore says that the blacker the woolly bear, the more severe the coming winter will be. The truth is that the woolly bear’s rusty band widens with age.

Meeting adjourned

There is no joy without kindness.

Fishing at Beaver Lake has been very slow. As of Tuesday, August 23, the surface temperature was 77 degrees. A good temperature for being in the water but not fishing.

The park and rec people took in all the beach stuff the week of August 8th. That’s too early in my book. The Tuesday after Labor Day would, to me, be more realistic.

Per a questionably reliable source, a Beaver Lake lady resident is featured on the tape the security staff at the Freeborn County Fair took at the Beach Boys’ performance. It seems this lady was jumping, bouncing and rocking which got their attention, so to play it safe they have her on video. Per Beaver Lake resident Duane, it looks a lot like Genie!

One of the “Just for Kicks” performers at the Steele County Fair gave me a handwritten note reading as follows:

“One night at Beaver Lake Bailey, Logan, Paula, Paul, Brady and Kathy were having a campfire. We cot frogs. Some of us fished. We had lots of fun. P. S. Savana and Devon came. They never been in a pattleboat.”

For your information, Bailey the writer, will be in second grade this September. She is eagerly waiting for school to start in Owatonna.

In moving the car around while mowing the lawn, I somehow left the keys in the ignition in the “on” position. The next morning’s result was a dead battery. An SOS call to Al’s Body Shop in Ellendale was the lifesaver. Within an hour, they had the car started. The fee was reasonable. The conversation was very interesting, some fact, lots of fiction. This “ride along living computer” blew my mind. The computer looked a little worn around the edges, but it had great memory storage. It told me when and why the last time I used their service at Beaver Lake. Yes, you read this right, the old computer talked to me in English!

The City of Albert Lea cleared our house for occupancy as of Friday, July 29th. There are a few things to be done before we move in. Our biggest problem is too may other things take precedence (traveling, Twins’ games, etc.)

Many thanks to Shinefest for all the good things done in the Albert Lea area. They did many good deed projects for a week in August. If you saw a yellow t-shirt, the wearer most likely was a Shinefest volunteer.

The sky is falling here at Beaver Lake, just like Chicken Little cried. For some reason the falling objects are always close to an oak tree!

Sometimes the simplest gifts are the best gifts a youngster can give a parent. Eliza Griggs was drawn to lead in representing our bus, by singing the National Anthem at Lutheran Night at the Twins, Monday August 22. Eliza gave her right to dad Matt Griggs.

Dad Jeff and mom Shannon Cookle along with daughter Laureen and her friend Mattie were on the bus. Why was this so special to Laureen? Because it was her ninth birthday. All of the bus people sang “Happy Birthday,” and her name was on the Twins’ scoreboard. (Mom and dad took a picture of Laureen’s name on the scoreboard.)

The second Lutheran Night at the Twins, Tuesday, August 23 was a bummer. The Twins played another game of no can pitch, no can hit. Even Ginger Thompson of Ellendale couldn’t get the Twins on the right track. 

Lupee Garcia, age 89, attended his first Twins game.

Dustin Boyer did an excellent job in helping lead the singing for the National Anthem.

Lutheran night at the Twins summary: Two games, two buses, two runs, two losses.

— — —

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. This is the Hanson’s 36th summer at Beaver Lake. They leave the lake in mid-October to go south — to Albert Lea — and return in April. Bob says if you enjoy his article, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of Wisdom: There is always room for God. 

The scurs have made themselves scarce after failing to scrape up much for rainfall this past week. Will they be able to come out of hiding soon? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy becoming mostly sunny. Highs of 80 –  85 and lows of 65 - 70. Thursday, mostly clear with a good chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 90 and lows around 70. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slightly better chance of showers. Highs 80 – 85 and lows 55 – 60. Saturday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of shower. Highs 75 – 80 and lows near 55. Mostly sunny and cooler on Sunday. Highs 70 – 75 and lows of 45 – 50. Monday, partly sunny with highs around 70 and lows of 50 – 55. Mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a good chance of rain showers. Highs near 70 with lows around 50. The normal high for September 5th is 76 and the normal low is 52. As of the 26th, the sun is rising after 6:30 a.m. and is setting before 8 p.m. The scurs will be celebrating Labor Day by napping while dreams of Minnesota State Fair pronto pups dance in their heads.

After being on the road with the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour for a week it’s good to get back home and see what’s transpired with the local crops. Unfortunately, very little of it has been for the better. Our patented August “mini-drought” the past week coupled with a 90-degree day, followed by an 85-degree days with strong southerly winds put major stress on the crop. It hastened maturity as well. When I left, much of the corn was dented but not showing much of a milk line yet. Now in many fields the milk line is already halfway down. Silage harvest is underway and the promise of more heat this week will push corn maturity even more rapidly. A rain at this point will only help maintain the yield that is there; it won’t increase it. The soybeans on the other hand still have some upside potential, if it rains. Without it, the last pods set are likely to abort, leaving the intangibles of bean size and weight to influence final yield.

Yes, another Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour is in the books. This was my eighth tour of duty and all in all it went pretty smoothly. Oh sure there were a few bumps in the road like the thunderstorm that hit about the time we were heading across the IN/IL border near Kankakee. As luck would have it, my rain suit and overshoes were riding around with the people who were hauling our luggage from point A to point B. After waiting out the storm awhile, we quick ducked into Wally World, grabbed some boots and another rain suit then kept on truckin.’ The crop was about as advertised. The late, wet start in states like OH, IN, and IL was evident. Corn in OH was very green yet primarily because it had been put in the ground late. Much of it was still milk to dough stage so it had a long way to go. Luckily the protection afforded them by the Great Lakes helps keep the odds of a frost there to a minimum as we saw in 2009. Wet conditions following planting caused large amounts of nitrogen loss, particularly in IN and IL. Planted in wet conditions, shallow root systems, along with lack of rain then being exposed to extreme heat raised havoc with yield potential. Add in a corn crop in the Western Corn Belt that had been exposed to disease, lack of moisture in addition to excessive heat and a record corn crop it doth not make. 

On the soybean side, a less-than-perfect crop although perhaps not quite as mortally wounded as the corn crop. The soybean pods we saw across most of the eastern Corn Belt were still pretty flat and soil moisture with the exception of parts of OH and parts of IL where the aforementioned thunderstorm travelled was lacking. Insect and disease pressure were at low levels so at least it had that going for it. The area of IA we travelled through had a nice looking bean crop with plenty of pods and were true R6 soybeans.

Arriving back home and with Mrs. Cheviot at the State Fair, it was time to get back to work on some of the projects that were left dangling. The lawn was a mishmash of weeds, crabgrass, barnyardgrass and dormant bluegrass and the trimming hadn’t been done. The ranch was approaching that abandoned farmstead look. The flowerbeds and garden looked like weed control plots and there were vegetables to be harvested. Along with that, the orioles are still here as are the migrating hummingbirds so their feeders needed filling and cleaning too. It would’ve been nice to sleep after a week of driving, meetings, a time change, getting up early and staying up late as well as having microphones, digital recorders and TV cameras in your face. However it’s just not that easy after being “on” all week to flick a switch and turn it off like that, at least not for me. Must be some of that Border Collie rubbing off on me, so I put my nervous energy to work. Mower blades were sharpened, the weed eater gassed up, and bags and buckets were prepared. Ruby and I were ready to rock. 

 The real Border Collie Ruby was again on sensory overload with all the lawnmower tire biting and hiding from the weed eater to be done. She heads to the barn whenever the chainsaw or weed eater come out of hibernation where she entertains herself by staring down the sheep. No doubt she had even more fun staying with our dog sitting friends at Beaver Lake while we were gone. Ruby made new friends with their neighbor’s golden retriever Josie. Took a little while I was told but before long, there were 2 dogs having a great time running and playing with each other. As it should be.

See you next week…real good then.

Arlen A. “Buster” Sandretzky, age 56 of Waseca, died on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at Mayo Clinic Health System in Waseca.

Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, August 31 at 4 p.m. at the Woodville Cemetery in Waseca, with Rev. Donn Kittle, officiating. McRaith Funeral Home & Crematory of Waseca is handling arrangements. 

Arlen Arthur was born on December 31, 1954 in Waseca, MN to Leonard and Martha (Lechner) Sandretzky. He was a 1974 graduate of New Richland High School. Buster went on to attend vocational school in Albert Lea and Austin.

The funeral service for Anna Gretina Wallace of Geneva, MN will be 1:30 p.m. Thursday, September 1, 2011 at Community Lutheran Church, Geneva, MN. The Reverend Carrie McElfresh will officiate. Interment will be in the Geneva Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at Bonnerup Funeral Service, Albert Lea and one hour before the service at the church. To sign the online guest book, go to www.bonnerupfuneralservice.com

Anna died Sunday August 28, 2011 at the Good Samaritan Center. She was 85 years old.

Nadine E. Steele, 98, of Owatonna, died Saturday, August 27, 2011 at Homestead Hospice House. 

She was born July 29, 1913 in Ellendale, Minnesota, the daughter of George and Ethel (Girvin) Bennett. In 1931, she graduated from Ellendale High School.  On November 28, 1931, she was married to Elmer Steele Jr., at the Ellendale Methodist Church Parsonage. She and Elmer farmed for many years in the Ellendale area, and in 1947, started the Steele Oil Company together.  They lived in Hope until 1976, when the business was sold and they moved to Owatonna.  Active in 4-H, Nadine attended the National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago in 1929, where she  received an award for her cake baking and canning skills.  Her interest in 4-H continued when her daughters were members, serving as a 4-H leader for many years.  

NRHEG school board

By REED WALLER

Staff Writer

NRHEG fall coaches were approved for hire at last Monday’s regular meeting of the NRHEG school board. 

Coaches

Football: Head Coach – Dan Stork, Varsity Asst. – John Schultz, B-Squad – Andrew Peterson, 9th Grade – Taylor Holland, 8th Grade – Seth Tukua, 7th Grade – Tom Peterson.

Cross Country: Head Coach – Mike Weber, Asst. – Lori Tomsche (Tomsche is a volunteer).

Volleyball: Head Coach – Joe Kuchenmiester, B-Squad – Trevor Janich, 9th Grade – Onika Peterson, 8th Grade – Corrine Schuller, 7th Grade – Stacy Ignaszewski.

Cheerleading: Head Coach – Kari Buendorf.

The board accepted the resignation of assistant volleyball coach Jill Schlaak, with gratitude. Schlaak retires from coaching after 17 years.