Loose Ends and Travel

Obviously it’s been quite a busy time for me these past 10 days.  Over that time span, I’ve been traveling to both the White Earth and Leech Lake Indian Reservations for reviews of their long-term care programs, preparing work for two presentations this upcoming week, been fulfilling job interview requests and done some recreational travel.  To say I’ve been moving around would be an understatement.

For recreational travel, I traveled this past Wednesday to Northfield, MN to fulfill my mandatory day off requirement that my boss at the Improve Group mandated.  What I planned to be a relaxing day was anything but a relaxing day.  While I got a great breakfast from a reader of this blog, a nice lunch with one of my economics professors at Carleton, and a nice conversation with another Carleton economics professor (currently Associate Dean), I also had two job interviews that day.  One of the interviews was on the phone and the remaining interview was in St. Paul.   I will say that after those calls, my job search pretty much ended.  I’m in the process of finalizing the details of a big employment decision that I made over the weekend after much study and consultation.  Once I inform all the necessary parties, I will make that announcement public ASAP.

My second recreational trip was to Beloit, WI to watch the Beloit Snappers baseball team.  Beloit is also where Beloit College is located, where another one of my former economics professors, Scott Bierman, is President.  It's too bad the Trustees were in town or I would have made an effort to say hello.

(What’s really strange is that about 11 years ago Prez Bierman and my academic advisor and Carleton economics professor were playing basketball together while participating in the economics history seminar in Cambridge.  My academic advisor recently was named the first non-monk President of St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.  So I guess I played basketball with two future college presidents. Crazy).

The reason I made the nearly five-hour trip to Beloit is to have a first hand look at two of the Minnesota Twins top prospects, Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario.  I have to say it was surprising to see that the stadium they play in, Pohlman Field is a small city park where the players have to go through the fans to reach the dugout.   Therefore, I was able to get within a foot or two of all the players.  I also took a couple photos.

Pohlman Field is a neighborhood ballpark that seats about 3,500 fans.  The locals tell me that the Twins have said the ballpark is not "big league enough" and the City of Beloit should build a new one. 

By the way, here was the starting lineup if you can figure it out:

The great aspect of this ballpark is that the fans are really, really close to the players.  The players locker rooms are in a separate building than the dugout.  So the players have to go through the crowd to come to the field.  Local fans and players know each other on a first name basis.  I also see that this ballpark is really small, it's about 380 feet to center field in a middle of a residential area, so car windows and bodywork are at risk at all times.

There's two high grade prospects on this club, Miguel Sano (third baseman) and Eddie Rosario (second baseman).  Both have power, Sano is a large, but muscular, man as you see here.

His defense was less than desired, as he doesn't range well to his right or his left from what I saw.  But the locals tell me that he is pretty agile for his size, so I guess I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt since it was about 40 degrees outside and Sano is from the Dominican.  But I came to see him as a hitter and got a little excited as you see here.

From what I saw, Rosario has a lot of upside in that he has power, speed, good batter's instincts and excellent strike zone judge men.   He's a bit more slender than Sano as you can see here.

But the man can surely hit, despite my amateur camera skills:

The game was close, as it was tied  2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th.  Then the Snappers scored three runs to take control of the game, eventually winning the game 6-3.

The whole road trip was really worth it, despite the 40 degree temperature.  Being able to talk to the locals about the team and getting a look at these prospects is something I would really like to do again, albeit in a lot warmer weather.