Welcome to the Knutson Classic
We're bored with the Mayor's Cup, which goes to the winner of the Red Sox-Twins series winner every spring training. The Twins won the series last year and currently have the cup (yes, there is a trophy) stashed away somewhere. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire claims it's being held at Potts, the local watering hole.
The idea behind the cup was to have a fun competition between the city team (Sawx) and county team (Twinks). Now that the Red Sox have moved down the street, the city-county thing doesn't have the same feel.
Enter the Knutson Classic.
It's named after Dukes Knutson, the longtime press box attendant at Tropicana Field. He's an incredibly nice man who always greets us warmly when we roll into town to play the Rays.
It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out that Dukes was from Duluth and attended the U of M.
The big development came this offseason when Dukes was hired by the Twins to join the press box staff at Target Field. Dukes will work Rays spring training games this year before heading north. I just walked into the press box at Charlotte Sports Park and who was there to greet me? Dukes.
