Team and Franchise Traditions
Fans wave a Homer Hanky to rally the team during play-offs and other crucial games. The Homer Hanky was created by Terrie Robbins of the Star Tribune newspaper in the Twin Cities in 1987. It was her idea to originally give away 60,000 inaugural Homer Hankies. That year, over 2.3 million Homer Hankies were distributed.
The party atmosphere of the Twins clubhouse after a win is well-known, the team's players unwinding with loud rock music (usually the choice of the winning pitcher) and video games.
The club has several hazing rituals, such as requiring the most junior relief pitcher on the team to carry water and snacks to the bullpen in a brightly colored small child's backpack (Barbie in 2005, SpongeBob SquarePants in 2006, Hello Kitty in 2007, Disney Princess and Tinkerbell in 2009, Chewbacca and Darth Vader in 2010), and many of its players, both past and present, are notorious pranksters. For example, Bert Blyleven earned the nickname "The Frying Dutchman" for his ability to pull the "hotfoot" – which entails crawling under the bench in the dugout and lighting a teammate's shoelaces on fire.
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