4.11.2011

Anything you can do, Cuddy can do better

Again, I could do a whole sack cloth and ashes routine over our current 3-6 start, but honestly...why? It's baseball! It's a game, a form of entertainment and it provides countless hours of distraction all summer long. While you might be deeply emotionally invested, you must admit that the sun will rise, the bird will sing and the earth will keep on spinning regardless of the Twins record. Of course I'd like them to play better, but rather than dissect all our little failings--which increases the pressure on the players and only exacerbates the situation--let's try a little positivity and focus on the Twins renaissance man: Michael Cuddyer!

I joked on Twitter yesterday that since Cuddyer is now playing 2nd the only thing he can't do is play the organ between innings. But honestly...I think that might be the only thing I haven't seen him do. In the majors he has played every outfield spot, 1st, 2nd and 3rd base, AND he did a season at short in the minors. That leaves Catcher and Pitcher, and seriously...give him time, he'll get around to it. As if that wasn't enough, he also runs charity dinners, does radio voice overs and is the go-to interview in the clubhouse. And on top of all that he blogs...he blogs with (trust me as an English teacher) superb use of parallelism and well honed rhetoric!

So now that Cuddy has put the average utility player/community leader/humble blogger to shame, what's left? According to my overactive imagination: Cuddyer will also be spending his off days researching the viability of bacteriotherapy in treating glaucoma and turf toe, speaking to graduate students at the University of Minnesota on Abraham Lincoln's direct influence on the origins of baseball and finishing his neo-pontillistic landscape painting of Target Field in the style of Georges Seurat. At some point this year he will also have to fight James Franco in an intellectual decathlon to prove once and for all who is the true Renaissance Man of modern America. (I think Cuddy will win it by baking an apple pie with a gruyere infused crust.)

Maybe he won't do all those things, maybe I'm being a little hyperbolic, but whatever actually does happen I look forward to more Cuddyer-ific discoveries in the season ahead.

3 comments:

  1. Add this to the Renaissance Man's list of endeavors:
    Apparently Cuddyer is into photography. He's been traveling with a tripod and some pretty impressive lenses at the various ballparks this spring. Perhaps a Cuddy Coffee Table Book is in the works ?

    I would love it if someday (after the Twins have clinched the division, of course) Cuddyer would be allowed to play all nine positions in one game, one position per inning, like Cesar Tovar did back in '68. Tovar started the first inning on the mound, and actually struck out Reggie Jackson.

    By the way, why did you have to mention an apple pie with gruyere infused crust? I can't get it out of my mind. Can such a beautiful thing exist in real life?

    margo

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  2. OH yes Margo... yes it can :)

    Also Cuddy's smile can cure most illnesses including the common cold.

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  3. A link to Cuddyer's artistic side:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/fivebball/

    Some fine landscapes, and a flair for the interesting perspective.
    (I skipped over most of the NY stadium photos. I've seen enough of that bombastic monument.)

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