Nick Punto Day

Apparently, Twins bloggers are bored with the off-season. Today has been unofficially declared
Nick Punto Day.

There are debates as to why 2/12 was designated as this day, but some are speculating that it has something to do with his batting average. This is nonsense. He’s never batted .212 in his career. In the horrific 2007 season, he batted .210, not .212. I think Wednesday would’ve been a much better choice, but no one asked me. (And they should. Everyone should ask me!)

It’s odd that Punto has inspired such a dichotomy of emotions in Twins Territory. There are those that love him for his scrappy and sometimes inane play, and there are those that hate him passionately. For example, Nick Punto has a tendency to dive into first base, head-first, on close plays. He knows it’s wrong. He tells kids not to imitate him. Yet, he cannot stop himself from doing it. (At best, he claims it can cause chaos to confuse an umpire. At worst, other plays have imitated it.) Those who hate Nick Punto point out the fact that since you can over-run first base, diving/sliding only slows down a player, making it more likely that they’re out. Thus, he may be causing himself to get out more often by diving. Those who love Nick Punto are just amused by the effort and reckless abandonment of his own body that the play causes.

Those that love Nick Punto call out to his great defense. Those that hate him, say that he’s overrated based on his scrappiness. No one really defends his hitting, but those that love him say his glove makes up for it. Those that hate him, say that no amount of defense can make up for his horrendously poor offense.

Those that love Nick Punto, love him with great devotion. Those that hate Nick Punto, hate him with passion. But we can all come together and celebrate Nick Punto Day: by diving head first into things, and making sure we do our work aggressively and get ourselves a little dirty.

Happy Nick Punto Day!