The Twins have been a bit hard to follow this year as they hover around .500. Especially with a lack of offense, it’s been painful to watch good starting pitching wasted with frequency. I hadn’t been to a game yet, until now.

When a friend offers you a fortunate first-row-behind-the-dugout ticket with him and his family, you take him up in it. So there we were watching the Twins losing to the NL rival Brewers when Carlos Correa decided to choose violence (to the baseball) in the bottom of the ninth, ending the game on a monster home run.

High fives were given throughout the stadium. That sports tradition of breaking our norms. Instead of staying isolated from each other we slap flesh in giddy excitement.

Earlier in the game Correa noticed my friend’s son, Andrew, wearing a shirt with Correa’s likeness on it. He gave Andrew a nod on his way into the dugout.

And so after the team’s home run celebration, on Correa’s walk toward his post-game interview he made sure to point to Andrew, smiling wide. Then just before the interview, Correa decided to take off his batting gloves and pass them up to Andrew.

Andrew was delighted. ❤️