A couple of interesting tidbits on two of the more maligned Twins players over the past couple of years, the lovable Lew Ford and the scrappy Jason Tyner. It seems as if Lew’s career in Japan hasn’t taken off like his first season in Minnesota. He was demoted to the Japanese minor leagues on May 2nd. The Ford signing kind of struck me as odd for a Japanese club anyway. I had the perception that when Japanese clubs signed American players they looked for guys that could swing the bat and preferably hit home runs. Since Lew isn’t much of a power hitter his signing did seem a bit unusual. According to the Joe Christensen article Lew was “dropped for readjustment”. There’s humor in that statement somewhere.

I know the Ford demotion has nothing to do with the below quote, but thinking of Lew Ford playing in Japan reminds me of the Tom Selleck movie Mr. Baseball and my favorite quote from the movie.

Jack Eliot: I’m a World Series MVP!
Skip: That was four years ago, Jack. Last season, you hit .235.
Jack Eliot: LAST SEASON, I led this team in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!

In other former Twins banjo-type hitter news the Indians have called up Jason Tyner. Tyner has been on a tear of late, hitting .370 in May. He’s also continued his slugging ways hitting his first career minor league home run this year, to go along with his first big league HR last year. His one home run would be kind of funny if its wasn’t more home runs than Joe Mauer, Mike Lamb and Delmon Young have hit this year in well over 300 at bats– combined.

Tyner hit his only MLB homer against the Tribe last year, so they’ve seen how he can utterly destroy a baseball. If you’re interested in walking down memory lane, here’s a link to his home run.