Joe Mauer has the Twins over a barrel

There may be two feet of snow on the ground all over Twins Territory, but down in Florida, the Minnesota Twins have tied on the spikes and trotted out onto the field for spring training. They made the playoffs last fall. They've got a shiny new stadium this spring. And they've got fans like Peter Smith asking: just what lies ahead for this team?

Smith: Our boys finished first in the Central Division last year, then buckled like a discount store jack stand, and lost to the Yankees in the play-offs. Three games and out-boom-boom-boom.

It hurt to watch them affirm their Yankees inferiority complex, but the Vikings had Brett Favre. In minutes we found ourselves chasing a big purple butterfly down a sidewalk to nowhere. Baseball season was over.

Now here comes spring training-the boys of summer taking their bats to the blahs of winter. And it looks like it could be a really great year.

But this year, the real game won't be out there on the diamond. It'll be played on spreadsheets in lawyers offices. Because the big game is whether or not the Twins can re-sign Saint Paul's own-catcher Joe Mauer.

He's a free agent after 2010, and he was the league's most valuable player last year. As such, he can go to any team and name his price. Meanwhile, the Twins have a tradition of tight-fistedness that runs back through the Pohlad family, through Calvin Griffith, all the way to Calvin's uncle Clark Griffith.

With one or two exceptions (they did make Kirby Puckett the highest paid ballplayer of all time for a short while) when it comes to paying on-field talent, this franchise has always been cheap. And, until the scrappy, overachieving teams of these past few years, the fans have rewarded them with sub-par attendance.

Traditionally, the Twins counter with special days and promotions. With bobble heads. Posters. Miniature bats. For a while there. Calvin even stooped to having "Nuns' Day."

Now, with the new Target Field sure to deliver attendance, Joe Mauer has the team over a barrel-a barrel that ought to hold a contract worth eight years and at least two hundred million dollars.

Will the Twins keep faith with their fans and sign him to play in the $450 million stadium the taxpayers of Hennepin County underwrote?

Or will they honor a hundred years of Griffith-Pohlad tradition and lowball him like they have so many others?

Will our hometown boy make good? Or real good?

Here we go, Twins fans. Take me out to the ball game. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.

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