Great Giveaway For Twins Fans

By The Common Man

How German is New Ulm? There's a
monument to this Germanic dude who
fought the Romans.

Bill’s probably going to be out of the rotation for the rest of this week, since he and his family are moving from bustling Chicago to sleepy hamlet New Ulm, MN today. Bill’s excited for the new start, but will be understandably preoccupied. For a city of just 13,000 people, New Ulm is actually a fairly interesting place. It’s probably the most German city in the world outside of, you know, Germany. And may very well have a higher percentage of Germans living there than even some of Germany’s larger cities at this point. The Bavarian culture is visible everywhere, from the architecture to the menus, which are often written in both English and German. Crazy.


New Ulm is also the birthplace for what seems like a large number of baseball players, given its relative size, although only two have had more than 20 plate appearances. So, to celebrate Bill’s big move, we’re going to run another giveaway here on The Platoon Advantage.

If you’ve been following various Twins blogs over the last week, you may have noticed that A&E Home Video has released the entire 1991 World Series on DVD, complete with both the TV broadcast and the Twins radio broadcast (for those of you, like The Common Man, who could use a good Herb Carneal fix), and a DVD celebrating the Twins' championship season. The Common Man got his own review copy, and the good people at A&E Home Entertainment were kind enough to promise another set to a winner of TCM’s choosing.

The Common Man is making his way through Game 1 as we speak, and it’s still exciting to watch Jack Morris wiggle out of trouble and Greg Gagne hit a big homerun off Charlie Liebrandt. It’s also strange to remember a time when Tim McCarver wasn’t annoying or crazy. And Jack Buck is, of course, the epitome of excellence doing the play-by-play. Relive the thrill of Kirby’s Game 6, Morris’ Game 7, and of Brian Harper’s excellent mustache/mullet combo (available in all 7 games!). It’s well worth your time and your money, and will help get you through the Twins-less postseason this year, since you can just pop in a DVD and pretend.

And wouldn’t you rather watch Greg Gagne and Dan Gladden than Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Delmon Young anyway? Isn’t the baby-faced Chuck Knoblauch better than Matt Tolbert? And isn’t Scott Erickson more fun to watch than Nick Blackburn? You know it’s true. So, please, even if you don’t win these DVDs on TPA, head to A&E home video to purchase them. You can also go to twinsbaseball.com to buy the 1987 World Series on DVD, as well as Twins tickets or other merchandise.

OK, so here’s how the contest is going to work:

Step 1: Answer a trivia question correctly by emailing the answer to The Common Man before the end of the Twins game tomorrow night (Wednesday) at the email address listed on the sidebar to the right.

Step 2: From the correct answers we receive, we will choose a winner at random on Thursday.

Got it? Cool. The question is:

What is the combined ERA of every pitcher who was ever born, died, or buried in New Ulm, Minnesota? Be sure to show your work!

Good luck!