The Minnesota Twins will send second baseman Alexi Casilla on a rehab assignment Monday. And he could be back with the team for the beginning of a 14-game road trip later in the week.
Casilla has been out since he tore a ligament in his right thumb on July 28, and he was initially resigned to having season-ending surgery. He has recovered quickly, however. After playing two games with Class A Beloit, he will rejoin the Twins if all goes well.
“He’s feeling great. He seems to think that this is going to be all he needs,” manager Ron Gardenhire said before Sunday’s game against Seattle.
After starting the season in the minors, Casilla was called up as an injury fill-in in May and within two weeks took over as a fixture in the second spot in the lineup. He was batting .313 with 38 runs, 15 doubles, four homers and 39 RBIs with a .351 on-base percentage in 243 at-bats before he got hurt.
The Twins went 38-25 from the day Casilla become the regular second baseman until the injury. Gardenhire said when Casilla returns Nick Punto will probably play more at shortstop and share time there with Adam Everett.
—-
Seventeen years ago, Oriole Park at Camden Yards was considered to be a risky deviation from a formula that had served major league baseball for decades.
The $106.5 million ballpark was built in downtown Baltimore, a departure from the popular notion of placing stadiums in the suburbs. Instead of being constructed primarily with concrete, it was held together by brick and steel.
“They gave it an old-time feel and experimented by putting it in the middle of a downtown environment,” said Greg Bader, director of communications for the Orioles. “They rolled the dice on a new theory.”
Camden Yards turned out to be a wildly successful venture that would soon be duplicated around the country, in places such as Cleveland, Texas, Houston and Philadelphia. None of those new parks, however, have drawn fans at the same dizzying rate.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards will greet its 50 millionth fan on Monday or Tuesday night. No other stadium in the history of baseball has reached the milestone so quickly.
For nearly a decade after its doors first opened, the stadium repeatedly drew sellout crowds. Fans from around the country came to see Camden Yards, and Orioles backers reveled in watching their team win in a stadium that conjured memories of baseball’s past.
The team has struggled in recent years, and Camden Yards is no longer a novelty. But the Orioles still draw well over 2 million fans every season.
And now, they stand only 43,290 fans shy of totaling 50 million. Baltimore could draw a crowd of that size Monday night against Boston; if not, the mark will certainly be eclipsed Tuesday.
“To me, what’s so amazing about the number is that other ballparks that have been built since are not on pace to reach 50 million in 17 seasons,” Bader said.
The Orioles have no way of determining exactly who the 50 millionth fan will be, but they will monitor the turnstiles to make an educated guess. That designated fan will receive $50,000, two season tickets for five years and a commemorative jersey.
The Red Sox will have plenty of backers in the stadium. Although the Orioles would prefer every sellout crowd to consist of 48,000 fans cheering for the home team, the out-of-towners are simply the byproduct of the original plan.
“It’s not just about the baseball game,” Bader said. “It’s a ballpark that attracts tourists from other parts of the country. And while they’re here, they spend money in Baltimore.”
Since arriving from St. Louis in 1954, the Orioles have played at Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards. Their total attendance in Baltimore is expected to reach 100 million during the upcoming weekend series against the New York Yankees.
