Heavy curve? Twins tap Olympic curlers for home opener first pitch

The U.S. men's curling team wins gold.
Team Shuster, the gold medalists from the United States, raise their arms during the victory ceremony following the men's curling gold medal game at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Feb. 24, 2018.
Richard Heathcote | Getty Images

They can make a 42-pound curling stone swing and sway in ways that physics says it shouldn't. Can they do the same thing with a baseball? We'll find out April 5.

That's when Chisholm's John Shuster and his Minnesota-led Olympics gold medal curling team will throw out ceremonial pitches at Target Field before the Minnesota Twins home opener against the Seattle Mariners.

The Twins announced Wednesday morning that they'd called up the curlers to throw out the pitches as part of the team's opening day festivities in Minneapolis.

The team includes skip John Shuster from Chishom, vice-skip Tyler George from Duluth, second Matt Hamilton from McFarland, Wis.,, lead John Landsteiner from Mapleton, Minn., and alternate Joe Polo from Bemidji, Minn.

Shuster and his crew officially made curling an American thing in February with an improbable triumph, a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Sitting with a 2-4 record and one loss away from elimination, the U.S. team reeled off five consecutive victories over traditional global curling powers, culminating with a gold-medal defeat of Sweden.

They got a big, warm ice-melting welcome when they returned home to Duluth.

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