Twins' 1991 celebration to feature old favorites

The Twins will spend the weekend celebrating their 1991 World Series championship team. And festivities got off to a roaring start Friday.

Highlights from that series were played on the video board before the game, with the player involved in the highlight being introduced afterward. That led to a series of standing ovations as Rick Aguilera, Kent Hrbek, Tom Kelly, Gene Larkin, Dan Gladden and others made their way to the field.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, the third base coach in 1991, won't be able to take part in the celebrations as much as he would like to.

"I'll probably be doing a lot more baseball than I will be celebrating," Gardenhire said. "It will be fun to see all the guys."

Fans lined up around the stadium during the afternoon to be among the lucky ones to receive a bobblehead of Hrbek's controversial play at first base with Braves outfielder Ron Gant.

The team will be introduced before Saturday's game, and the first 10,000 fans will receive a DVD of Game 6. Sunday, a ceremony remembering the life of Kirby Puckett will take place before the game.

Span not in lineup Twins outfielder Denard Span has missed 47 games this season and doesn't want to miss any more. But he realized Friday, "you have to be smart about this."

"Try to do the right thing with him," Gardenhire said. "Make sure he's OK. Give him a day and go from there."

Span said he felt a little worn out after the flight but thinks only a small part of that was caused by the concussion. Span has been working with the same concussion specialist in Pittsburgh who helped with Justin Morneau's recovery. Unlike Morneau, Span has been able to avoid going on medication.

Another reason Span's decision was tough: He is batting .364 vs. White Sox lefthander Mark Buehrle, who went eight innings in Chicago's 5-3 victory.

"Me and him have had some pretty good battles," Span said, "but we have 50 games left."

Rooting for Thome The White Sox entered Friday with a six-game losing streak, and their season is slipping away. Although these are critical games, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he wouldn't mind being around for Jim Thome's 600th career home run.

Injury updates • Morneau (neck surgery) went 0-for-4 for Class AAA Rochester on Friday night as he kicked off a minor league rehab assignment. The Twins would like to see him play at least one week there before they will consider activating him from the 15-day disabled list.