Our National Pastime On The Radio: Twins Baseball Is Back

For baseball fans, it has been a much-anticipated wait for the return of the Major League Baseball season. That wait will finally come to an end this week.

The Minnesota Twins will play their last exhibition game of the season (they already played a few in 2020, pre-pandemic, but you may have already forgotten about them) at Wrigley Field against the Cubs at 6 pm on 103.1 KFIL, and then kick-off an unprecedented 60-game regular season on Friday in Chicago against the White Sox with the pregame starting at 6:30 p.m. The Twins home opener will be July 28th against the St. Louis Cardinals, with pregame coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.

The schedule has been set, and the Twins will look to repeat at AL Central Champions in 2020, after going 101-61 in 2019 and falling to the New York Yankees in the ALDS.

While this season will be different, you can still expect to listen to every game on 103.1 KFIL with Cory Provus and Danny Gladden. Provus and Gladden will on the call for all 60 games while being in attendance for home games, then calling road games from the Twin Cities using a monitor in an effort to keep the traveling party as minimal as possible, according to the Star Tribune's Lavelle E. Neal. 

The Twins are favored to win the AL Central, but Cleveland and Chicago will be no push-overs. In fact, in ESPN's latest Expert Predictions released Tuesday, 24 of the 32 experts picked the Twins to win the division. Five picked Cleveland and two picked the White Sox. Three of the experts predicted the Twins to win the American League and none picked them to win the World Series.

In a 60-game season, anything can happen, and the Twins will need to have their offense start fast and continue to barrel the baseball (which they did more than anyone else in 2019) and rely on a bullpen that was among the best in the league in 2019.

It should be a very exciting race for the division crown, and even the Wild Card race will come right down to the end. The best part? It will all be broadcasted on 103.1 KFIL.