It’s Incredible How Big They Thought It Was

Is this going overboard a little bit?

Sure, the hometown Minnesota Twins beat Atlanta for the World Series title, yes in seven games, yes six of them close. But on Monday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune acted as if ithad just overdosed on its Homer Hanky.

On Page 1, a five-inch deep headline in red type roared the message: “Twincredible!” Under a headline in slightly smaller type--”One for the Storybooks”--the rest of the page was a full-color photo of Dan Gladden mobbed by teammates after scoring the winning run.

Apparently, the Twins were the only story in the world worth mentioning.

More Twins: On Page 3 of the Star Tribune, in the corner of a page dominated by Twins’ stories--such as “Oh, What an Ending!” and another about celebrating fans hanging on light posts (they sure get crazy in Minneapolis and St. Paul)--were the first six paragraphs of the first non-sports story in the newspaper.

It was about the Mideast peace talks aimed at solving a territorial dispute that has lasted for centuries. Apparently it was not as timely as the Twins’ second World Series victory in five years.

Trivia time: Who was the first manager of the Minnesota Twins?

Kirbymania: Joe Reis, 35, of Wayzata, Minn., caught Kirby Puckett’s 11th-inning home run that won Game 6 for the Twins. Reis said he took a baseball glove to the game for the first time since he was 9. When the ball bounced off someone else’s hand, Reis caught it.

“I crawled over my daughters to get to it,” Reis said. “They were a little squished.”

Kirbymania II: Reis gave the ball to Puckett, getting autographs for daughters Jessica, 7, and Michelle, 5, in return. It was Michelle’s first baseball game.

“Now she thinks that’s how all games go,” Reis said. “There’s 55,000 people there and they jump and scream, there’s a home run to end it, you catch the ball and go meet KirbyPuckett.”

Kirbymania III: Kandi Searcy gave birth to a 7-pound 4-ounce boy at Hennepin County Medical Center, not far from the Metrodome, but she and Winston Brown had not decided on a name. Moments later, Puckett hit the home run that won Game 6.

You guessed it. Enter Kirby Brown.

“It’s just like it was meant to be,” Searcy said.

Hanky panky: What’s a Homer Hanky worth? If you have one, better hang on to it, says T.J. Schwartz of Porky’s Sports Emporium in North Hollywood.

Schwartz has a Homer Hanky from the Twins’ World Series triumph in 1987, which he figures to be worth $50. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and Schwartz has no plans either to sell the hanky or use it as a diaper for his 5-week-old daughter, Lauren Samantha. Maybe someone willintroduce her to Kirby Brown.

Good read: Two good World Series headlines:

--Twins Have a Puckett Full of Miracles.

--Twins Are Just a 10th Better.

Both appeared in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Trivia answer: Cookie Lavagetto.

Quotebook: Twins’ fan Joe Reis, on why he returned Puckett’s home run ball: “It’s his, not mine. I only borrowed it for about an hour.”