Transcripts

DAN OLSON: You may recall, baseball fans, that the Twins opened the season with a whimper, losing the home opener at Mets Stadium in Bloomington. Since then, they've led the division for a time until a fateful trip to Chicago, where the White Sox bumped them from first place. Nonetheless, the Twins arrive at the all-star break with 50 wins and 42 losses, in third place, but definitely in the running.

The attendance of their fans at home games is also encouraging. More than 600,000 spectators have entered the turnstiles and braved the bratwurst to cheer their heroes and boo the villains. Who would think that a game played with a wooden bat and hard ball by two opposing teams of nine players, each team ultimately in the field and at bat. The players at bat having to run a course of four bases laid out in a diamond pattern in order to score. Who would think that people would pay to see that?

DICK CULLUM: A person can enjoy the first game he sees, and then he can study baseball an entire life and not learn all there is to know about it. It's just a great game.

DAN OLSON: That is Dick Cullum, baseball fan, who at 81 years of age, has watched a lot of games with more than passing interest, perhaps because he is also a sportswriter for the Minneapolis Tribune. He is talking about the subtleties of the game. There was a time when Twins fans could only hope for subtlety or artful playing. Fans who can't have subtleties can opt for personalities.

DICK CULLUM: Fans are hero worshippers. And when Killebrew was here hitting home runs, he was a great home run hitter. And the fans used to say, well, let's go out and watch Harm hit one. And he was a great, great attraction, great, great attraction. And now Carew is coming along, and he's becoming popular. He's always been a good ballplayer, but the fans are beginning to-- they're becoming attached to him. And now they're going out to see Carew. And I think that'll help the Twins the rest of the year.

DAN OLSON: You might ask, since the Twins have been losing since the late '60s, why haven't the fans disappeared altogether? The answer, Cullum thinks, has to do with human nature.

DICK CULLUM: Fans can sit in the stands and talk to their neighbors and discuss plays, and I usually do and foresee future plays. There's a conversational aspect to baseball that you don't have in these other sports. Fans get acquainted quite quickly. The two people sitting side by side as strangers will be well-acquainted and have a good conversation during the game. It's a conversational game.

DAN OLSON: Who knows why people watch baseball? But for the Twins this season, Cullum believes one factor is most important.

DICK CULLUM: Well, they play exciting baseball. They don't have excellent pitching by any means, but they have an excellent attack. So the result is that the attack gets a lot of runs, and the pitching gives up a lot of runs. And so that makes it an exciting game. And they've had many, many very exciting games this year. And quite often, the Twins have been behind early in the game. And have come on with a late finish and pulled victories out in the last two or three innings. And, of course, that makes exciting baseball.

DAN OLSON: Baseball fans revere the game for many reasons. Its subtleties, heroes, and conversation are perhaps the most important. But don't discount two others. The color and the memories. Students of the game are ultimately offended and entertained by the soap opera-like quality of player-owner negotiations, the personal oddities of particular players, such as those who wrap their chewing tobacco in bubble gum, or the infinite number of ways a pitcher can think of to disguise his throwing the old wet one, the spitball.

For Cullum and other longtime observers of the game, there are the memories of great moments. Cullum remembers the Twins at the all-star break of 1965.

DICK CULLUM: The Twins were ahead of the Yankees by about three games. And it was pretty close. And the last game before the all-star break, the Yankees were playing here, and Killebrew hit a home run, which won that game and sent the Twins into the all-star break with a good lead. And so, when they came back from the all-star break, they were full of confidence and had the advantage of a good lead. And they went on and won the pennant.

DAN OLSON: Minneapolis sportswriter Dick Cullum. If you're not a baseball fan, don't despair. You're in good company. But don't rule it out. Along with global war and television soap operas, it offers a glimpse into the human condition. So we'll see you at the ballpark. I'm Dan Olson.