Cheer for the Minnesota Turtles ~ August 8, 1991

David Heiller

It was a weekend to remember, what with the Twins and the Turtle.

FIRST THE TWINS: I’ve got a hunch that any Twins fan who was listening to last Saturday’s game will remember it for years and years. It will be one of those baseball memories that gets etched firmly into a certain time and place, where you’ll remember who you were with, what you were doing.

I can still remember a dramatic Harmon Killebrew home run against the hated Yankees in 1965. A bunch of us kids were playing on the rocks in downtown Brownsville, and someone had a transistor radio going. The Killer was up with two outs, two on, and the Twins down by two. It was almost like Casey at the Bat, only this time it was Killebrew, Mr. Clutch, who clouted a three run homer to win the game. Someone started yelling, “The Twins won, the Twins won!” It seemed like the whole town exploded. We jumped off the rocks and danced and yelled all the way home. I can still remember that.

Saturday was like that too. Noah and I were playing bat and ball, listening to Oakland slowly pull ahead of the Twins, 4-0, all on solo home runs  “The Twins are lucky they are still in this game,” I told Noah. “They could still rally.” (It ain’t over till it’s over, you know.) By the time I started re-siding house, Canseco had hit another one, and it was 5-0.

Connie with Noah and his turtle, Shane Mack,
 and Malika with her Beanie Baby.

Then, in the eighth inning, the Twins rallied, and suddenly it was 5-4, with two men on and Brian Harper at the plate.

I was standing at the top of the stepladder, Noah was standing below me, both of us frozen, listening to the announcer. Then we heard Herb Carneal’s voice rise in a mixture of excitement and disbelief: “There’s a long ball to left field. If it stays fair, it’s gone.” We knew it would stay fair, and it did.

I jumped down from the top of the ladder, and shook Noah’s hand, both of us hopping and cheering. We called into the house to Cindy, and she started cheering, and yelled for Noah to run around the outside of the house. I have no idea why she told him to do that, but he did it, and I raced behind him. He beat me. It was pure exhilaration.

The Twins went on to win, 8-6. All the Baseball Analysts said afterward what a pivotal win it was. Very significant. I don’t know about that, but it sure was unforgettable for Noah and me.

Noah really liked his net.

NOW THE TURTLE: Other than having Twins fever, Noah has had Turtle fever lately. He goes through stages, where he fixes on certain things, like snakes, or antlers, or dinosaurs. Lately it’s all turtles, specifically hard-shell snappers. He has a book showing an alligator snapper that weighs up to 200 pounds. That’s the one he really wants, but he would have settled for one like the soft-shell that his friend, Jake, has in a swimming pool in his backyard.

So on Sunday we headed to a friend’s house to visit their lake and follow up on a report of a snapping turtle sighting. It was a beautiful August day, temperature in the low 70s, sun shining, a little breeze keeping the

mosquitoes away. I sat on the dock and caught a few small sunnies, while Malika swung on a rope swing up on the bank.

Noah had come prepared with a big net, with a walking stick jammed into the handle to give it an extra five feet of reach. He walked the bank, and walked the dock, and puzzled over the bubbles that came from the mud of Elbow Lake. But nary a turtle did we see.

We finally conceded defeat and left after an hour and a half. And wouldn’t you know it; as we neared our house, guess what was crossing the road? Yup, a turtle. It wasn’t a 200-pound alligator snapper (thank goodness). It wasn’t a snapper at all, just a painted turtle the size of a muffin. But it looked pretty darn good to us.

We brought it home, and fixed up a cozy spot in a wash tub with two rocks and some water in it, where it sits right now, eating our fishing worms. Noah has named it Shane, after Shane Mack of the Minnesota Twins, of course.

You knew I’d get back to the Twins, didn’t you? In fact, a Turtle Analyst would say it was ironic that we looked so hard for a turtle at Elbow Lake, then when all hope seemed lost, we found one quite by accident on the way home. A Baseball/Turtle Analyst would even point to the similarities between finding the turtle like that and the Twins winning that game on Saturday in such a dramatic fashion, when all hope had been lost. That’s pretty significant, I guess.

At least it sure was a fun weekend.