Sunday, May 8, 2011

Liriano's No-Hitter

I have never seen a no-hitter from start to finish till I saw one last Tuesday (5-3-2011) thrown by Francisco Liriano against the White Sox. Liriano had never thrown a complete game less a shutout in his major and minor league career. Yet there he was pitching the first Twins no-hitter in roughly 13 years. Let’s hope this is the start of revitalization of Liriano the ace pitcher. The Twins certainly need him.

In my previous post I said the Twins have chance to contend because they have a franchise player in Joe Mauer. I also mentioned the only thing could prevent Mauer from keeping the Twins in contention was his health. Well guess who has played only 9 of his team’s first 31 games? Joe Mauer is on the disabled list, and may not be back till the end of May which might be too late to help the Twins this season.

Let hope it is not too late, and Mauer can come back and carry this team. Let’s hope Liriano becomes the staff ace. Let’s hope that several other Twins start playing better, and this team heads to the World Series. There is always hope. As Twins fans saw on that magically night in May, sometimes hope is realized.

On a side note, I will have in-person encounter with Francisco Liriano. He is scheduled to sign autographs at FanHQ which a sports memorabilia and apparel store in the Twin Cities suburb of Minnetonka. For $20 a pop you can get him to sign a card, photo, or ball. $10 for inscriptions including what I think will be the most popular inscription – “No-Hitter 5-3-11”.