My last column complained about the Twins’ pitching. The team immediately won four straight games and I thought I might have invoked the Sports Illustrated jinx, only in reverse. You know, when the magazine put a picture of an athlete on their cover and the athlete pictured subsequently did badly.

In fact a friend e-mailed me saying that if I wanted the Twins to win the pennant, I should write that they don’t have a chance. I’ll try anything, but it looks like that won’t do it. In fact, I can’t think of anything more to add about the Twins except General Manager Bill Smith overvalues his minor leaguers and it’s a good thing the team competes in the Central Division or the division race would be over for them.

The football Gophers and Vikings are preparing for fall and it seems they will be interesting, maybe not winners, especially the Gophers, but certainly interesting.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are interesting if you can keep track of the players. The sales pitch by game venders was “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard” really rings true for the Wolves. One hopes there is a master plan to all this horse trading.

What to write about? It seems too warm to write about football and the Timberwolves are unsettled. Perhaps a note about an ‘87 Twins book.

I’ve mentioned David Halberstam in the past, about how I really admire his writing and thought his “Summer of ‘49” was one of the best books ever written about Baseball. I thought if I could write about baseball half as well as Halberstam I would be very happy and probably sell some books.

My thinking turned toward the ‘87 Twins. They, according to some experts were the worst team to win a World Series. There has not been a definitive book about that “Worst to First” year. Not only that, but I thought it would be a fun book for a Twins fan to write. There would be the opportunity to interview and get to know members of the team; not only the Twins, but other players during that wonderful year. Twins players like Bert Blyleven, Frankie Viola, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Greg Gagne, and Dan Gladden — fascinating people to a baseball fan with many still living in Minnesota.

I put together an outline of what I intended to do, described the chapters in the book, talked about the promotion, the market and even did a study regarding similar books written, the sales they generated and submitted my proposal to the Minnesota Historical Press.

I waited anxiously for a reply. I got it and learned that the book did not meet their criteria. They said they liked the book and writing, but that I should search for the greater truth. I had described how Minnesota was always finishing second in so many things. Presidential candidates, Super Bowls, Stanley Cup, the 1965 World Series. Then the ‘87 Twins won. Hooray! No, that wasn’t enough, “Search for the greater truth,” the publisher said.

What greater truth? I studied and search and finally came up with what I considered a deeper meaning to the Twins’ victory and again submitted it to the publisher. They agreed and thought it might do, but asked, would I have access to the ‘87 players? I said, I would write to the President of the Twins and ask for a letter of introduction. Sent that along with my book and awaited his reply. I got it. He said that the Twins were planning two books of their own and other books were also being written. In other words, no letter.

Oh well, I still have my day job.