Weekend Links with Jon Marthaler: Here's hoping for some Target Field doubleheaders

Jon Marthaler bakes up a delicious batch of links for you every weekend. Other times, you can find him here. Jon?

The Twins have had three games canceled this week, leading to some down-the-road scheduling problems, including a pretty good possibility of a day-night doubleheader with the White Sox. Most people, I think, know the day-night doubleheader drill - the teams play once, clear the stadium, then play again that evening, effectively as if the teams played a day game and a night game on the same day.

Now, players hate doubleheaders -- you would too, if you had to work a double shift. Managers hate them for ruining pitching staffs. Front offices hate them for causing more logistical headaches than they're worth. And so the scheduled doubleheader has disappeared from modern baseball.

Frankly, though, as a fan I can't think of anything better. I'm someone who takes work off each year for the first two days of the NCAA tournament because of its wall-to-wall basketball; if the Twins scheduled a traditional back-to-back doubleheader, I can guarantee I would buy tickets, at almost any price. An entire day of baseball? What could be better than that?

I know that this terrible extended winter is causing problems for the Twins' schedule, and I know that nobody from the team wants two games on the same day. But I can't help hoping that, somehow, this leads to six straight hours of baseball at Target Field later this season.

* On with the links:

* Jesse Lund at Twinkie Town did a long and interesting Q&A with Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony. And if facts aren't your forte, RandBall's own Stu also wrote an Onion-style article about the Twins' new $15 "All You Can Yell" promotion.

* John Gagliardi is in many ways Minnesota's living football saint, but out in Washington, their own passed away - Pacific Lutheran coach Frosty Westering. Chuck Culpepper at Sports on Earth writes about his career and legacy.

* The TVFury blog has an engrossing interview with sportswriter, columnist, and best-selling author Peter Richmond.

* Eight years ago, former NFL defensive tackle Al Lucas died from an on-field hit during an Arena Football game. At Grantland, Robert Weintraub writes about Lucas's life -- and considers how the NFL would deal with this kind of tragedy.

* At The Classical, Colin McGowan listens to a Bill Simmons / Colin Cowherd podcast, and wonders, in his words, "how this could possibly be what so many people want."

* Grantland's Graham Parker reviews the history, and the new incarnation, of the entirely fan-created MLS Supporters' Shield. At the same site, Brian Phillips looks at the career of Matt Le Tissier, who at 44 is temporarily coming out of retirement to play for his obscure local club on the island of Guernsey.