With Jacque Jones gone, we can bid an official good-bye to the era of the Get-To-Know-'Em Twins. Only Torii Hunter remains of the group of position players that came up through the system together and broke into the majors together. First Ortiz left, then A.J., then Doug, then Corey, Guzie, Rivas, and now Jacque. None of these players was a superstar, each one could break your heart several times a week, and, other than AJ, none really reached his full potential with the Twins. Yet together, they pulled off something beautiful.

When they came to the majors, they continued the Twins' grand tradition of losing, floundering around like the Bad News Bears they were. But then something strange happened—in 2001, they began to win. Doug Mientkiewicz hit .400 in April, Cristian Guzman seemed poised to become a superstar, and for a time these ragtag band of misfits and losers sat atop the American League Central.

It didn't last—Guzie got hurt and the team fell back to earth, but as the season drew to a close, the team whispered a promise: wait 'til next year.

No one expected the team to win the next year, or the year after that, or the year after that, but win they did—for three years in a row, together so much more than the sum of their parts. They played the game beautifully, with a perfect combination of reverence and irreverence, they were a joy to watch, and they helped the state of Minnesota love baseball again.

They're gone now, and with the dawn of 2006 we have a new team of misfits to follow. We'll win with them, too, and it will be beautiful, too—but to look forward to the future does not mean we shouldn't take a few moments to honor the past, for there was just something about that team. So, to the Get-To-Know-'Em Twins, scattered across the four winds (or at least four divisions) thank you for everything.