joined the U.S. Olympic team at the 2000 games in Sydney. Mientkiewicz hit the game-winning home run against South Korea in the semi-finals to help the U.S. capture its first-ever gold medal in baseball. Following the Olympics, he spent three games with the Twins, collecting six hits in fourteen at-bats. In LVBP he played one season with Navegantes del Magallanes in the 1999-2000 season batting for .268 with 2 homers and 10 RBI. Major league career Minnesota Twins In 2001, Mientkiewicz was awarded the starting first base job for the Twins, and responded by batting .306 with fifteen home runs and 74 runs batted in (all career highs) while earning the American League Gold Glove award for top defensive first baseman. His numbers dipped in 2002; however, he reached the post-season for the first time in his career, and hit two home runs in the 2002 American League Division Series against the Oakland Athletics. The Twins battled the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals for the division crown all season long in 2003. Mientkiewicz drew the ire of the Chicago White Sox and their fans by suggesting that the All-Star Game, scheduled to be played at U.S. Cellular Field on July 15, should be moved to a different venue after a fan attacked umpire Laz Diaz during an April 15 game between the White Sox and Royals. Chicago White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams shot back that Mientkiewicz should not worry about the game's location because he would not be there. The fans booed Mientkiewicz the first time he and the Twins came to U.S. Cellular Field on April 25, and cheered White Sox starter Mark Buehrle for hitting Mientkiewicz with a pitch during his first at-bat. Following a mid-September three-game sweep over the White Sox at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome that gave the Twins a game lead in the American League Central, Mientkiewicz again got himself in the crosshairs by commenting in a postgame television interview, "They're done," about his Central Division rivals. The Twins won the division by four games over the Chicago White Sox, but were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the 2003 American League Division Series. Boston Red Sox As the trade deadline approached, the 2004 Boston Red Sox found themselves games in back of the New York Yankees in the American League East, and one game in back of the Texas