Twins, British Open: Time passed, so did Spieth

If you like baseball and golf, as I do, you lived a full Sunday.

The British Open was on when we awoke and the Twins tried to play until we were dead asleep.

The results were mixed. Jordan Spieth turned in one of the great turnarounds in golf history and the Twins played sloppy, uninspired baseball. The common denominator: Neither should have taken so long.

I like Spieth and love watching him play. But no golfer should be allowed to take 20 minutes to take a drop. He was lucky he was in the last pairing, or he could have screwed up the entire field. Turns out he only delayed playing partner Matt Kuchar, a friend and a mellow guy. What would have happened if he had made someone like Ian Poulter stand there for 20 minutes?

Spieth's stretch run and the overall brilliance of a major at Royal Birkdale thankfully overshadowed a persistent theme in recent majors: Golf too often finds a way to remind us how arbitrary and silly many of its rules and rulers are.

So you can only look for your ball for five mnutes, but if you find it you can take 20 minutes to take a drop?

So you can choose to play a shot from the practice tee, next to a bunch of tour vans?

I'm glad Spieth won, because I root for the best story, and Spieth putting himself on an impressive major championship pace will create great stories. But he shouldn't have been given so much time and discretion while taking that drop.

Speaking of eternities, the Twins played their longest undelayed nine-inning game in franchise history on Sunday, and for no good reason.

Baseball's timelessness was once one of its charms. No more. Now what we're witnessing is players moving about with no urgency and pitching changes that no one wants to see.

-Here's the Twins' view for the day: Eduardo Escobar should replace Jorge Polanco at shortstop. Polanco can spend the rest of the season as a utility player. Escobar's bat is needed in what has become a shallow lineup. I wouldn't give up on Polanco, but I wouldn't gift him at-bats while the team is in contention.