MINNEAPOLIS -- Cory Provus can't tell you too much about the specific words he used to describe some of the Minnesota Twins' most memorable moments since he took control of the team's radio booth in 2012.

For all the facts, context and anecdotes from the recent history of the Twins that fill Provus' memory, he doesn't like to dedicate much energy to listening back to too many of his calls -- good or bad. Instead, he likes to leave the ballpark, switch on some Pearl Jam and unwind from baseball until it comes time to prepare for the next day's broadcast.

“I think that's kind of the Uecker in me,” said Provus, who worked alongside the legendary Bob Uecker in Milwaukee. “Bob doesn't [listen back] too often. Bob's never seen ‘Major League’ start to finish, which always surprises people. He thinks he could have been better. He thinks there's a line he could have delivered better or inflected this word.”

Provus does remember well, though, a conversation he had in the booth with Kansas City broadcasters Denny Matthews and Ryan Lefebvre to fill time in a rain delay during a matchup between the Royals and the Twins.

In Provus’ first three seasons with the Twins, the team lost 96, 96 and 92 games, and it took until 2015 for Provus to see the club above .500 for the first time. In the midst of that downswing for the club, the voice of the Twins chatted with his colleagues about what it was like for them to cover some elite Royals teams after so many endless years of bad baseball.

“It's good that you're here for the bad ones, because when things get good, the fans will feel so good for you, that you're their guy and you're here to tell those stories about times of success because of all those years of calling the opposite and calling all those years of losses,” they told him. “Now, you get to share the joy of the team's success, and the fans are grateful and happy for you and that you get to be a part of it.”

All that is why Provus' favorite memories from his time in the booth with the Twins focus more on the stories and feats on the field than on anything he remembers about his role in documenting those plays for the fans listening on the radio at home. After so much time in the booth during the lean years of Minnesota baseball, he's enjoying the chance to call an elite team and share those stories with Twins Territory.

The Joe Mauer game
Provus went into the Twins’ contest against the White Sox on Sept. 30, 2018, with a gut feeling that he was about to witness Joe Mauer's final game in the Major Leagues. At that point, Mauer hadn't made any public declaration about his intent regarding a possible retirement, but it was understood that his time with the Twins was set to come to an end.

The stakes for an already meaningful game were upped when, during the second inning, Provus and analyst Dan Gladden got a heads-up that Mauer would don the catcher's gear at some point in the game.

Following Mauer's seventh-inning double in what was likely to be his final at-bat, Provus might normally have speculated a bit about how manager Paul Molitor could have chosen to remove Mauer from the game. But Provus knew in the back of his mind that Mauer hadn't yet appeared behind the plate -- and even though he was prepared for the emotional moment when it did come, that didn't make it any easier for him to provide the commentary in the top of the ninth.

“Joe comes out, and that moment where everybody's down on the field and the music's playing, and just to see Joe come out and have that moment," Provus said. "[On] TV, they have the visual and they can not talk because people can see what's going on. We didn't have that luxury. Danny [Gladden] and I are breaking. We're crying in the booth. We still have to talk about what we're seeing. It was really hard to get words out. It was really difficult because of the magnitude of the moment. It'll stay with me forever.”

Provus doesn't necessarily regret anything about that moment, but at times, he still looks back on that afternoon with one potential what-if.

“They played the music from ‘The Natural,’” Provus remembered. “He has that embrace with Matt Belisle on the mound. It was in my mind to say it. I didn't say it. I don't kick myself for it because it maybe would have been too cheesy, but what I was going to say was: ‘It's fitting that the music you're hearing in the background is from "The Natural," and while Hollywood had Roy Hobbs, Minnesota, you had Joe Mauer.’”

Some memorable bombas
Provus got a morsel of winning baseball in 2015. Then came a run to the Wild Card Game in ’17, and, finally, the Twins went supernova in ’19, winning 101 games and claiming the American League Central for the first time since 2010. He could go on for hours about those homers, memories and storylines from the record-breaking Bomba Squad. But here are his favorites:

“A swing and a drive! Left-center field and deep! Back it goes! Deep it goes! Twins lead! Miguel Sanó just cleared the bullpen area! Second deck, left-center! Take that, New York! Twins surge back in front, 11-10!” (July 23, 2019, vs. Yankees)

Provus called that 14-12 loss to the Yankees in 10 innings at Target Field the best game he has had the chance to broadcast in his time with the Twins. Specifically, after the Yankees had clawed all the way back from a massive deficit and taken the lead with a five-run eighth inning, Sanó answered with a towering, two-run blast to left-center field off stingy left-hander Zack Britton in the bottom of the frame that put Minnesota right back in front (however short-lived that lead proved to be).

“I just felt in that moment like this was a game, at the time, that the Twins normally lose,” Provus said. “And I just felt like in that moment, the Twins had a second or two to be like, ‘Hey, this is what it feels like to stun the Yankees. This is what it feels like to be on the other side of getting that big at-bat, that big moment where normally you've been on the other side or you've been stunned or you've been sad or mad because, man, it happened again.’ I felt like for that moment, the Twins overcame something.”

“A swing and a drive! Center field and deep! Going back is Acuña! He will turn! Gone! A walk-off for Sanó, and the Twins win it, 5-3! The big man delivers, and the Twins lead the Indians by four as Sanó walks ’em off! Twins win! Twins win! The Minnesota Twins win it!” (Aug. 5, 2019, vs. Braves)

Yes, Provus knows that Ronald Acuña Jr. never went back to the wall on that walk-off blast. After some blowback from listeners, he issued a mea culpa on Twitter acknowledging his mistake, with the knowledge that without the luxury of a “delete” button on live radio, he can only strive to get more calls right than he gets wrong.

“My call wasn't great,” Provus said. “I mentioned Acuña going back, but Acuña, he was just jogging in. If you go back and look at the video, he knew. He was playing in center, and he was already jogging back to the third-base dugout because that ball was so far over his head and so far gone. I got lost in the moment.”

Still, this memory stands out in his mind because, first, the Twins beat a pretty darn good team in the 2019 Braves late in the season, when every win counted. And second, Provus was thrilled about his postgame interview with Sanó, who shared a story on air about how he had practiced with a velocity machine in the clubhouse before the pinch-hit blast due to a conversation he had earlier in his career with Barry Bonds.

With the memory of Sanó's demotion to Class A Advanced in 2018 still fresh and the knowledge of the big man's continued growth throughout his Major League career, that evening lives fondly in Provus' mind.

Other moments
Provus can still tell you that it was a Friday on July 10, 2015, when the Twins roared all the way back from a 6-1 deficit against the Tigers in the ninth inning and Brian Dozier crushed a walk-off, three-run blast to left field that he feels possibly, dealt the final blow to the Tigers' run of dominance in the AL Central.

“I thought that last run in ’15 was maybe going to be it [for Detroit], but then the Dozier home run, I thought, let them know and gave them a little something to think about that they're not going to recover from this and they're going to move to trading some of their guys,” he said. “And they did just that.”

Finally, this won't be a fond memory for Twins fans, but the baseball fan in Provus can't help but be awestruck by the scene at Yankee Stadium in the first inning of the 2017 AL Wild Card Game, when the Twins crushed two homers for an early 3-0 lead, but Didi Gregorius immediately punched back with a three-run homer that nullified the advantage.

From his time as a young baseball fan, Provus remembers seeing moments that he calls “Yankee Stadium shakes” -- moments during which the crowd at Yankee Stadium is so loud and energetic that television cameras can't remain steady because of the vibrations. Scott Brosius' home run in Game 5 of the 2001 World Series qualifies. So does Aaron Boone's walk-off blast in Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series. And, well, that Gregorius homer in the Wild Card Game.

“I got to be there and feel it,” Provus said. “It was that moment where, oh my gosh, I hated it from the Twins' standpoint. From a sports fan's standpoint, though, I got to see and witness something that I'd only seen on television all those years before.”