Thanks, A.J.

Haven't talked about the Twins at all yet, but with my MLB Extra Innings package on the dish keeping me in touch with the boys, I still pay very close attention to the goings-on at 34 Puckett Place. Today's game finally inspired me to write.

In my time covering the Twins for the AP and MLB.com, I had occasion to interview A.J. Pierzynski. Not a bad fellow, as far as athletes go -- willing, and able, to offer more than just cliches to reporters looking for some trenchant postgame analysis.

Since the Twins traded him (in the one-sided deal of the century), A.J. has been greeted with nothing but boos in the Dome. Seems he's the kind of guy you love on your team and hate on any other team, especially when that team is the White Sox. Or, as his own manager, Ozzie Guillen, has said, A.J.'s the kind of guy you hate when he's on the other team, and when he's on your team, you hate him a little less.

So today, A.J. gets the Twins riled up because he decides to get into Justin Morneau's head by stepping on the inside of first base (i.e., right at Morneau's ankle/heel) when running out a ground ball. As a former first baseman, I can totally understand why Morneau might be upset. The only time I really came close to throwing a punch on the baseball field was when some dude did the same thing to me in Owatonna.

Almost on cue, the Twins responded in the next half inning, batting around and scoring five runs to take an 8-4 lead, en route to a 10-4 victory. A.J. tried to apologize to Morneau (see above) but the big Canuck wasn't biting. StarTribune baseball reporter Joe Christensen has a solid wrapup of the events in his blog today, and my favorite baseball writer ever, Patrick Reusse, finds a way to compare A.J. to Bart Simpson (never had Patrick pegged as a fellow Simpsons fan).

Anyway, Pierzynski says he didn't mean to clip Morneau's heel, and he didn't even know he had until the Twins dugout was all over him the next inning. Which is typical A.J. He never intends to do anything controversial, yet trouble always seems to find him.

Regardless, Twins fans owe him a debt of gratitude. That game was slipping out of their fingers before he reminded them why Twins-White Sox has become such a great rivalry.