🏷️ Minnesota Twins for sale

Hurricane destroys stadium roof, Yankees to face Guardians in ALCS, Ohtani's stolen base streak, and more!

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Grand Slam Newsletter
October 13, 2024

Today we cover:

  • 🏷️ Minnesota Twins for sale

  • 🌀 Hurricane destroys stadium roof

  • 🏆 Yankees to face Guardians in ALCS

  • And More!

Minnesota Twins for sale

Joe Pohlad rejected the notion last February that his family might consider selling the Twins, saying “it’s not something that interests us.”

It is now.

Pohlad, grandson of the family patriarch who bought the state’s Major League Baseball team four decades ago, announced Thursday that “after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins.”

Pohlad declined through a team spokesman to speak publicly about that choice, but he broke the news to the team’s roughly 400 full-time employees at a Target Field meeting Thursday morning, then issued a news release afterward.

A sale, which could net Carl Pohlad’s three sons and seven grandchildren more than $1.5 billion, typically takes about six months, from identifying potential buyers to negotiating terms to receiving the approval of Major League Baseball’s other 29 owners.

Carl Pohlad paid former owner Calvin Griffith $44 million when he bought the franchise in 1984, and it was inherited by his sons upon his death in 2009.

Adjusted for inflation, $44 million would be equal to $133.3 million in 2024.

Hurricane destroys stadium roof

he lasting image of Hurricane Milton storming through Central and Southwest Florida is the destroyed roof of Tropicana Field. It wasn't the only stadium in the region to sustain damage.

Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 major hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph near Siesta Key south of Sarasota.

Gusts of 106 mph were recorded on Anna Maria Island at 10 p.m., about an hour before the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' stadium in St. Petersburg started coming off.

Across the bay, floodwaters soaked the field at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The college football game between South Florida and Memphis scheduled there for Saturday afternoon was moved to Orlando.

Meanwhile, while Amalie Arena didn't seem to sustain major damage, the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Carolina Hurricanes hockey game scheduled for Saturday night was postponed.

Ohtani stolen base streak ends at 36 in NLCS vs. Mets 1

Shohei Ohtani was caught stealing for the first time in nearly three months, ending a streak of 36 consecutive successful stolen base attempts.

Ohtani was thrown out trying for second base by New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez for the Los Angeles Dodgers' final out of the second inning in Sunday's NL Championship Series opener.

Yankees name Carlos RodĂłn to start Game 1 of ALCS vs. Guardians

Left-hander Carlos RodĂłn will start the American League Championship Series opener for the New York Yankees against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night.

RodĂłn rebounded to a 16-9 record with a 3.96 ERA over 175 innings in 32 starts in his second season with the Yankees after signing a six-year, $162 million contract. He went 3-8 with a career-worst 6.85 ERA over 14 outings in a 2023 season that didn't start for him until July 7 because of a strained left forearm and back stiffness.

Yankees to face Guardians in ALCS

Lane Thomas hit a grand slam off Tarik Skubal and Cleveland beat the Detroit Tigers 7-3 on Saturday in Game 5 of their AL Division Series, moving the Guardians into another postseason matchup against the Yankees.

Cleveland will meet New York in the ALCS, setting up a series between two teams that have crossed paths six previous times in October. They last met in 2022, with the Yankees taking their ALDS in five games.

Game 1 is Monday in the Bronx.

Thomas had five RBIs for the Guardians, who weren't expected to contend this season. But they won the tough AL Central under first-year manager Stephen Vogt, and Cleveland is still alive with a chance to end a World Series title drought stretching to 1948.

The Guardians had to take down Skubal, the front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award, to keep it going. The left-hander had not given up a run in 24 consecutive innings - 17 in this postseason - before the Guardians tagged him in the fifth for five runs, tying the most he allowed in 2024.