The Twins' two World Series titles feel more distant each year.
Even the most recent title, 28 years ago, was back in a much different era of baseball economics. Their payroll in 1991 was $22 million. Atlanta's was around $20 million. The Yankees spent $27 million on payroll that season.
And two of the highest-paid players in the game that year were Twins Game 6 hero Kirby Puckett and Game 7 hero Jack Morris.
The payroll gap has accelerated since then.
The Twins' only playoff series win since 1991 came in 2002 over the low-budget "Moneyball" A's.
Starting in 2003, they've been eliminated by the Yankees six different times. Their only single-game playoff victories since 2003 came in two games against the Yankees started by Johan Santana — an ace the Twins picked up for a bargain and later traded to New York (the Mets in this case) when he was due to get paid.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
