The other night I was at a book signing in Spring Valley. Not much of a crowd and not many books sold, but I had fun anyway. Cousin Susie and her two children were there. We had a nice talk and I enjoyed renewing our friendship and meeting her two children.

They were leaving when her second-grader stopped and said something to his mother. They came back and the little boy asked if I had listened to the Lone Ranger when I was a little boy. (Mom explained that he had been given a Lone Ranger present.) I said, “I sure did” and repeated a line from the Lone Ranger introduction. “Out of the past came the thundering hoof beats of the great horse Silver. The Lone Ranger Rides Again.” The second-grader was impressed and I think Mom was too. I was very pleased that I was able to represent that long ago hero in a favorable light.

In thinking about that night I wondered, wouldn’t it be great if the Twins could be helped by heroes of the past? When the equivalent of the Lone Ranger and Tonto would ride to the rescue: Perhaps Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva or Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek. Then I realized we don’t need the hitting heroes, we already have Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. What we need is pitching. Say Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven from the ‘87 team or Morris and Erickson from the ’91 team. If we could somehow resurrect those clutch pitchers, what a race to the pennant it would be. After watching the 58-year-old Blyleven give fielding tips, maybe we should put him in a uniform. His arm looked pretty good. He certainly couldn’t do much worse than the present group.

Our Twins, primarily due to lack of effective pitching, are slowly sliding out of the division race. Darn near impossible to do given the teams in front of them, but the Twins are managing it. Their youthful pitching staff has failed with the exception of Scott Baker. General Manager Bill Smith, who refused to trade his promising starters both on the Twins’ roster and in the minors, is now looking at much less valuable players due to their ineffectiveness. What Smith could have gotten a few months ago has sharply diminished. The Twins with the addition of Jeff Manship to the staff, have brought up almost all of the possible major league arms to no avail.

While it may be somewhat acceptable for the front office to blow off this season, what about the future? Baseball tends to run in cycles and our starting pitching will probably improve, but how much will it improve? There doesn’t seem to be a dominant pitcher among the bunch. They traded their best arm away when they sent Matt Garza to Tampa. It does not bode well for the Twins, especially when you look at the pitching staff of the other Central Division foes.

Mauer may look at the Twins’ pitching and wonder whether he should stay. After all, he catches these guys on a daily basis — watching them give up hit after hit. Money won’t affect Mauer’s decision to stay in Minnesota. The Yankees and the Red Sox would be happy to match or exceed whatever the Twins’ offer Mauer. Maybe Grandpa Jake can talk him into staying, but if Grandpa Jake is really looking after Joe and his future, he will advise him to play for a good team. After all, he probably doesn’t want Joe to be the Ernie Banks of catchers, to be a superb player for many, many years and never make it to the World Series. Joe may feel he owes it to his family and himself to become one of the best players of all time. And that would be hard to do without a World Series ring.