The Spur

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Sports

Denard Span (top) Bert Blyleven (bottom) speak to the audience in the R/A Facility.

With another Minnesota Twins baseball season just around the corner, the Twins Caravan, including Bert Blyleven, Jeff Manship, Denard Span, T.C. and radio play-by-play man John Gordon rolled into Southwest Minnesota State University to share thoughts on the upcoming season, answer questions and have an autograph session. 

Kicking off the night with his thoughts was Blyleven, former pitching great and current television commentator for the Twins. Some of the first words out of Blyleven's mouth to gain the SMSU crowd announced one of his season goals, which is to "beat those Yankees."

Among other opinions, Blyleven predicted starters, shared tactics about the strike zone and his thoughts on individual players.  After hearing an experienced, retired player's opinion, the microphone was turned over to Twins center-fielder Denard Span.

Span batted .311 in his lead-off role last season.  He talked about his position and about his strong teammates in the outfield with him. With 23 stolen bases last year, Span stated that he will "most definitely keep working on this in the off-season to make that number even higher."  After hearing from Span, it was pitcher Jeff Manship who took the stage to talk about the upcoming season.

Manship discussed his first pitch in the major leagues - a strike - and the great feeling that came along with that pitch. He added that he saved a few baseballs from his first major-league win. 

"I was glad I was able to step up into this level, because it has been my dream since I was young, just as it is for a lot of young boys," Manship said. 

After hearing from the whole caravan crew it was off to the autograph tables, where people brought bats, baseballs, jerseys and anything they had to get signed.

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