Twins' Thomas has fond memories of Little League World Series

CHICAGO – As the Twins slowly went into their pregame routines Saturday, several players stopped to watch a Little League regional qualifying game on the clubhouse TV. For one Twin, the game was more than idle entertainment, a chance to laugh at pre-teens learning the basics of high-stakes competition.

"I always see some of it. I like watching the actual World Series, especially," center fielder Clete Thomas said. "It's gotten so big now, but it was pretty awesome when I was there."

That was in 1996, when Thomas pitched and played second base for R.L. Turner in Panama City, Fla. When Turner won the Southern Regional, the team headed to Williamsport, Pa.

"It's pretty great. You're 12 years old and it's like you're a celebrity," Thomas said. "There's something like 50,000 people watching, and you're on TV."

Off the field wasn't bad, either. "We got to live in dorms with all the other players, no family. Just two or three coaches, and all of the kids in the tournament," Thomas said. One of those kids was future Rochester teammate Jeff Clement, who was there with his Marshalltown, Iowa, team.

Panama City went 3-0 in U.S. pool play, while the other three teams all went 1-2. But the rules mandated a one-game playoff in order to advance to the finals, and Panama City lost 6-3 to a Cranston, R.I., team it already had beaten. The Rhode Island team went on to lose the championship game to a team from Taiwan.

"They changed the rules the next year. We should have been the U.S. team" in the finals, Thomas said. "We would have killed that [Taiwan] team, I think."

"I catch that ball 99 times out of 100 — and I should catch it 100 times," Colabello said after his first career error cost the Twins a second-inning run in their 5-4 loss to the White Sox. "That ball's got to be caught, and that's it."

Conor Gillaspie's two-out routine fly reached Colabello in medium-deep right-center field. Colabello put up his glove to make the easy catch — "and then he alligator-armed it," manager Ron Gardenhire said, drawing his arms in close to demonstrate. "That's exactly what he told me."

Gordon Beckham, who had been on first base, raced around the bases to score Chicago's third run.

Joe Mauer's daughters were released from a hospital Friday, the Twins catcher said, thrilling news for the first-time father. But he was mildly disappointed, too, he said, because he wasn't there to take the 16-day-old twins home.

"Last night was [wife] Maddie's first night at home with them, so I would have liked to been there for that," Mauer said.

• Brian Duensing said he kept the lineup cards from Friday's doubleheader, a souvenir of the day he was credited with two victories. Elias Sports Bureau credits him with being the first Twins pitcher to do it, but there's an asterisk — Jim Perry won twice on July 20, 1969. Perry pitched the final two innings of an 18-inning game against the Seattle Pilots that had been suspended after 16 innings the night before, then pitched a shutout in the regularly scheduled game.