Born and raised just outside of the Twin Cities, left-hander Glen Perkins of the Minnesota Twins also attended college at Minnesota before being taken in the first round of the 2004 draft by his home-town team. Success at the major league level didn't come quickly; Perkins had a 4.81 ERA over his first 303 innings. Only when the Twins converted him to relief, in 2011, did Perkins begin to thrive.

How is he going to maintain success? By staying humble, staying at one with nature as a fisherman and hunter, staying up on the latest advanced statistics and by running as little as possible. Perkins, who engages fans like few other pro athletes on Twitter, delved into his personal philosophies during a recent Answer Man session inside of the visitor's clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

David Brown: You tweeted Monday night you were watching the national (men’s basketball) championship game with Eddie Vedder. What?

Glen Perkins: Haha. Yeah, he was in town (in Kansas City) and we had met him last year in Seattle. He was in town to see a friend and we (some of the Twins players) had rented a room just to watch the game and he came by and hung out.

DB: What did you talk about?

GP: Really, everything but. We drew parallels about traveling, and what we do — being nervous in front of crowds. He’s a huge sports fan and a basketball fan. We ended up talking a lot about the game.

DB: You also appear to have an online relationship with Dwight Yoakam. Confirm or deny:

GP: Oh, yeah. It’s funny that I tweeted when Robinson Cano switched to Jay-Z [as his agent]. Dwight Yoakam, I’ve listened to him my entire life. His image is about a 180 from Jay-Z, so I tweeted that maybe I should switch my agent to Yoakam. And the next day, I check my phone and he had responded. He’s like, if you move to Los Angeles and play for the Dodgers, maybe we can work this out. So we’ve been going back and forth since. He actually played a concert in Minneapolis a week after we left spring training, which was disappointing because I wanted to go. It would have been fun.

DB: Should he act more?

GP: Yes, no question about it. I know he’s done a few things, but him in “Wedding Crashers” is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen.

DB: Let’s say your fondest wish comes true and the Twins buy a bullpen car. What would you want it to look like?

(AP)

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

Z-men: If your name is Zimmerman(n), your name also is mud as far as the Miami Marlins are concerned. Behind the efforts of right-hander Jordan Zimmermann and slugger Ryan Zimmerman, the Washington Nationals straightened themselves out after suffering a humbling sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. Zimmermann (pictured above with catcher Kurt Suzuki) threw a six-hitter and Zimmerman hit his first home run of the season and drove in four in a 10-3 thumping of the Marlins on Monday night. Call them the "Zimmermen" and make the T-shirts forthwith. The Marlins fell to 2-11. No shirts for them.

All quiet at Dodger Stadium: No fights (at least on the field), no brushbacks, not even a lengthy stare. Yahoo! Sports' own Tim Brown said the Dodgers and Padres wisely set aside whatever grievances they had over the Carlos Quentin-Zack Greinke fight and just played ball. And the Padres won 6-3, tanks in part to a three-run home run from pitcher left-handed pitcher Eric Stults, the first of his career (though he did come in with 18 hits in 80 at-bats).

And, to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day, outfielder Carl Crawford wore colorful shoes.

(Getty)

Rookie slugger Nate Freiman grew up near the route of the Boston Marathon, and the deadly bomb blasts that rocked the race's finish line were on his mind Monday. Under nearly any other circumstance, Freiman freely would be celebrating his first career home run, which helped the Oakland Athletics drub the Houston Astros 11-2.

But his celebration definitely was muted, Freiman told the Oakland Tribune:

(AP)

Enough snow fell on Coors Field on Monday to make it ankle-deep in white stuff, so the game between the Colorado Rockies and New York Mets was postponed until Tuesday. A split doubleheader is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. and 6:40 p.m., Mountain Time. It was the second straight day inclement weather spoiled a game for the Mets, who also didn't play Sunday at Minnesota. They made the most of it at Coors by frolicking around the ballpark making snowmen, snow angels, snow whatever. They also cleared some turf and played catch.

Relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins — pictured above — was, like, "What? Why can't we just play baseball in the snow?"

Mets media relations guru Jay Horwitz joked on Twitter that, because of the snow storm and the threat of more, Major League Baseball gave approval for the Mets and Rox to play three games in one day:

(AP)

Mark Buehrle accomplished so much with the Chicago White Sox — a no-hitter, a perfect game, a World Series victory — that watching him pitch against his old team must have been surreal. For slugger and former teammate Paul Konerko, it definitely was.

Behind 6 1/3 effective innings by Buehrle, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the White Sox 4-3 on Monday night. Both of the runs Buehrle allowed came in the first inning. It was Buehrle's first win for the Blue Jays in his first career appearance against the White Sox, for whom he pitched from 2000-2011. For them, he is fourth all-time in starts and strikeouts.

Against them, Buehrle allowed nine hits and wasn't particularly dominant; he was just good enough to win. Konerko had seen that before — just not while standing in the batter's box. Via Ian Harrison of the Associated Press:

The White Sox put runners at the corners with two out in the fifth but Buehrle escaped by fanning Konerko.

''Big situation right there and I just knew I had to make a pitch,'' Buehrle said. ''I know how great a hitter (Konerko) is.''

Konerko said the experience of facing his teammate of 12 years wasn't particularly enjoyable for either one of them.

''I didn't have much fun with it, and I don't think he did, either,'' Konerko said. ''But it was a good game, and he pitched well.''

Reading between the lines, Konerko probably is still a little peeved the White Sox let Buehrle go via free agency, no matter that the Miami Marlins appeared to be the only team offering a four-year deal before the 2012 season. Miami of course traded him to the Jays during the offseason in its most recent purge, but it's not as though Chicago still couldn't use him, too.

In addition to "crazy," Buehrle called facing his old team "different" and "weird":

(Getty)

On a day when every major leaguer wore the same uniform number, Carl Crawford of the Los Angeles Dodgers managed to create a unique look for himself while paying tribute to Jackie Robinson.

Crawford wore special edition Jackie Robinson No. 42 cleats, produced by Nike via its Air Jordan Jumpman line, only he couldn't decide which pair — blue or white — he liked more. So he wore one of each. White on the left, blue on the right:

Roy Campanella (left), Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson at the 1949 All-Star Game. (AP)

In 1997, 50 years after Jackie Robinson erased the modern-day color barrier, Major League Baseball retired his No. 42 across the sport. In 2004, the league named every April 15 to be Jackie Robinson Day. In 2011, every player wore No. 42 to honor Robinson, a tradition that continues.

Now that such observances have become indelible, and the film "42" has brought in $27.3 million to top the movie box office standings, what else is there to do, other than continuing to remember Robinson? One way is to do better at remembering who came after him.

Travis Reitsma, at Runs Batted Out, says MLB and the mainstream media lacks in this respect:

(AP)Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is getting what he wants, pretty much, with a $500 million deal to renovate 99-year-old Wrigley Field. As is Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Now let's see what they do with it.

The city and the Cubs reached a deal over the weekend to improve Wrigley that does not raise taxes but does make changes to the stadium that probably won't please everyone. The additions include more night games; a video scoreboard that could be twice the size of the vintage model in center field and advertising signage in the iconic bleachers that could block rooftop views; reconstructed concourses for fans and expanded clubhouses for the players; a hotel and new team offices across the street and increased parking. The Stew took a recent look at the deal (valued at $300 million in January) that included some keen artist renderings. The agreement comes six days after the original deadline of the Cubs home opener, which was extended when obvious progress was being made.

Via the Chicago Tribune: