One can only imagine that there was a strong wind heading in the opposite direction. Otherwise, we would have heard the celebrations here in the UK, despite being thousands of miles away.  It was the news that Minnesotans dreamed of and had been praying for throughout the offseason: their home town, All American hero will remain a Twin for years to come.

And it wasn’t just Twins fans who were gladdened by Joe Mauer signing his eight-year/$184m contract extension on Monday.  His future came to represent the latest seemingly hopeless battle against the might of the mighty.  Be it Tesco driving local shops out of business or media conglomerates buying up their competitors, now more than ever there’s a depressing inevitability about the rich getting richer. 

As talks over a possible contract extension fell silent, publicly at least, nervous tension began to build.  Despite the belief that Mauer wanted to stay in Minnesota and the apparent loosening of the purse strings by the Twins this offseason, the thought that it would end with General Manager Bill Smith emotionally stating ‘we did the best we could, but a deal wasn’t possible’ always remained.  The Yankees and Red Sox waited in the wings, vultures with no thought for the romantics, ready to add yet another star to their collection.  The cries of ‘say it aint so, Joe’ would have been more heartfelt than ever before.

But no, not this time.  For once, the romantics won.  Continue reading →