Too good to be true

You gotta love those scrappy Twins, whoever they are

OAKLAND, Calif. -- They're lovable, that's what they are. The Minnesota Twins are just a lovable bunch of guys, all small-revenue and small-ball and small-townish.

How can you not like the Twins? It's anti-American not to like a team that beats the odds. It's simply unpatriotic not to like a team that sticks it to the big guys.

They're scrappy! They're fun! They're underdogs!

Just one question. Who the heck are these guys?

"I get people coming up to me wherever I go saying 'We're pulling for you,'" says the Twins closer, Eddie Guardado, who was tagged with the absolutely loveable moniker of "Everyday Eddie" by a local newspaper scribe. "All I can tell them is ... thanks."

The Twins may not be America's Team, but that's only because America hasn't a clue about who the Twins are.

Really, outside of your basic rotisserie baseball freaks, how many people can name the Twins' manager? (That'd be Ron Gardenhire.) How many know their first baseman? (Doug Mientkiewicz.)

Really, now. Just who the heck is Matt LeCroy?

Is that even how you spell it?

"He's a dirt farmer who probably doesn't even own a glove," said the Twins' Denny Hocking (who?), "but he owns a lot of bats."

A dirt farmer?

"He looks like a beer-bellied, softball-playing first baseman," says Mientkiewicz. "But I'll tell you, the kid can hit."

That, of course, is the beauty of the Twins. They can come up with a guy like LeCroy (I looked up the spelling -- that's right), a guy who has spent more time in the minors in the past two seasons than in Minneapolis, and turn him into a postseason hero.

That's what LeCroy was Sunday in Game 5 of the Twins' American League Division Series win over the favored Oakland A's. A hero. A big 'ol Southern boy hero.

Don't you just love it?

"I'm just glad I had a chance to contribute," LeCroy twanged through his South Carolina accent. "This is a moment I feel pretty proud to get a chance to help out."

LeCroy, put in as designated hitter because of his prowess against lefties, had two hits Sunday, drove in a run and scored one in the Twins' 5-4 win. In the mindlessness of the aftermath of the victory, he was almost forgotten. Of course, you have to know somebody to really forget him.

The same is true for Hocking, who may be better known in the Minnesota area as the team's representative to the players' union. That made him the one who stood front and center when the contraction mess was threatening baseball's very existence in the Twin Cities. He was the one there when the players were threatening to go on strike, too.

He had a couple of hits Sunday, and he was the one who camped under the final out of the game to give the Twins their first series win in the postseason in 11 years.

"That ball," he said of the last out, "you couldn't have pried it out of my hands. It's going no place but my home in California."

The Twins, really, are almost too rich to believe. "The stories go on and on," Mientkiewicz said.

You know what? The Twins love the role, too. They're the loveable little guys that baseball wanted gone, the small-market nobodies that the broadcast networks wanted no part of airing, and they dig the image.

"It's TV's worst nightmare, Twins and Angels [in the American League Championship Series, which starts Tuesday]," Hocking boasted Sunday. "I'm sure the people at Fox are kicking themselves in the ass right now."

The Twins knocked off the A's on Sunday and, if you didn't know them before, you probably ought to take the chance this week to get to know them in the ALCS. They've got some recognizable names -- Torii Hunter was an All-Star, and Rick Reed pitched for the Mets at one time -- but, mostly, they're just a bunch of young guys with a tiny payroll who do what needs to be done to win.

They kid one another other in the clubhouse. "Doug likes to rag me," LeCroy said. "If you can't take that, you're on the wrong team." They play hard for a manager they love. And, now that they've KO'd the A's … well, who's to say we won't see these Twins in the World Series? How could you bet against them?

They're the Twins. They're just way too loveable.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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