Spring Training Update

So, I'm sure you are reading the Strib to keep abreast of the goings on in Fort Myers. Just in case you're not, there's a decent article from Souhan about the battle for centerfield that is going on right now. Here is the break down that compares Gomez, Span, & Pridie ; gotta say Pridie sounds more ready than anyone else but like that there is fire in all their bellies.

In Souhan's article he references Alex Cole who I had to go look up. Didn't really understand why Souhan was bringing him up other than he may have been in a battle for CF with Hunter but when I did google him I found out he was convicted in 2002 of peddling heroin. Apparently he was hopped up on goof-balls in 1994 when he started in centerfield for the Twins in the strike-shortened season, batting .296 with 68 runs scored and 29 stolen bases. Anyone remember this mook?

One other tidbit I loved about Liriano: "He sported a new glove -- a blue TPX model that matches the Twins' spring training jerseys. On the glove, the words "El Zurdo" are stitched in red. Spanish for "The Lefty."

Purdue's buzzer-beater proves costly to Gophers

So as I was checking in on the results from the Gopher/Purdue game last night, I saw this headline and thought, "You know, that's really been the M.O. of this team all year, they play teams tough but just come up a little short- probably just a result of not quite having enough talent. But to lose to Purdue, who is playing very well this year, at Purdueville by a last second shot-- that's pretty impressive."

... then I read further and realized that the aforementioned buzzer that was beaten was indeed the buzzer for the end of the first half, and the aforementioned shot that beat that aforementioned buzzer was apparently the shot that sealed the fate of the Gophers, even though there was 20 minutes more to play.... Is the an example of MN nice sportswriting?

Final:
Purduers 65
Gophers 53

Oven Mits we hardly knew you

Vikings: Jaguars to acquire Williamson
The NewsUpdating a previous report, it seems almost certain that Troy Williamson will be traded to the Jaguars, this according to a report on the Pioneer Press. The trade cannot be announced until Thursday, at which time they Vikings will announce that they have shipped out Williamson for a pick on the second day of the NFL Draft, according to the report.
Our ViewPlayers with the physical gifts that Williamson possesses often find themselves given many chances in the NFL, though this might be Troy's last chance if he can't turn things around in 2008.

Hi, my name is Bryant McKinnie and I'm a total loser

Love boat, getting into a fight at a local gas station, now this. I guess his night at Club Space (sounds like a place LH would hang out at in LA) was cut short. Love the publicity!

The BS Bulletin

We all know what high school Jan and I went to, I don't want to mention it by name so I will just call it the TBS from here on. Anyway, I received the new TBS Bulletin in the mail yesterday. It is the size of a magazine and fills in alumni on the current state of TBS as well as stories regarding alumni. In the back is a section that is devoted to updates on alumni, sent in by the alumni and organized by year. There were 6 for the class of '92. As I read them, I felt the same loathing that so many people have felt towards TBS. A quick recap and my thoughts on those 6 individuals:

Sam S writes that he is living in London with his new wife working for some big firm. If in the Nottinghill area please look him up.
Dear Sam S, You were one of the biggest dicks in high school. I am guessing not much has changed. I will pass on visiting you on my vacation, but thanks for the offer.

Lindsay M writes that she is a living in France and enjoys skiing and that she regrets she could not make the reunion.
Dear Lindsay, my ass you regret making the reunion as it did not include the year above us that you worshiped so much.

Mayank K writes that he is going to school at USC and that a play he wrote is currently being preformed in LA. If in the area, he advises that we see it.
Dear Mayank K, the last time you wrote in you were in DC helping underprivileged kids and that it was more rewarding than anything else. I am glad you sold out those kids dreams for you own. Also, could not help but notice you would rather have people see your play rather than actually see you.

Toru T writes that he is working for a Japanese publication and is currently doing work in Iraq.
Dear Toru, congratulations but I thought you were a junior when we were seniors.

Tim E writes that he is studying Portuguese and will soon be doing something or other in Rio de Janeiro.
Dear Tim E, as someone native to Russia (or one of the countries that used to be in Russia) I always thought you had a pretty rough time in high school. Good for you and good luck.

Kelley R writes that she has been living in Thailand for the last 2 years.
Dear Kelley, I know and so does everybody else because an email with 300 names on it is sent weekly updating your status.

Here is my submission, RTS writes that he is living in the south and is amazed at all the things that we took for granted in MPLS. He is currently working for an Equity Capital Markets group. The "excitement" of the market has started to take affect in his appearance as he is starting to gray rapidly and has a habit of flying off the handle. He would like everyone to know that the stress you read about in starting your own business is very real and helps contribute to gray hair and mood swings as well. RTS spends most of his free time doing puzzles, reading books, doing art projects and going places with his daughter.

Or even better my uncle's, class of 72 or something like that.
Don writes I have been living off the grid since I dropped out of Berkley and Cornell in the 70s. I sold my computer company circa 1980 and have been living off that since. My goal has been to make less than $12k a year so I don't have to pay taxes. I am most likely living in a house (shack) much like Ted kaczynski. I am totally self sufficient and my place runs on solar power. Please do not come looking for me.

Now I may be being petty and childish but this thing definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe this wasn't the forum to post it and it should have just been an email to Jan.

The sad state of the Georgia school system

Schools in Clayton County Georgia are in danger of losing their accreditaion. This would affect 52,000 students. This county's schools are doing poorly compared to other countys in a state that is consistantly ranked somewhere in the range of 45-50. Teacher Melody Israel apparently does not think there is a probelm. She says "We have great kids, we have great teachers, we have great administrators. If you come into our schools, you would see that, and a lot of times, people just hear things, and they make all of these judgments without the big picture."

Obviously not Melody! The admisitrators clearly blow goats and if teachers like you view everything as OK, then you are as bad as they are. If attendance records are being altered to make it seem like your students are attending, then they are not exactly top notch either. Seriously, how do these people have jobs? Where is the accountablity? If this were my county I can gaurantee you that I would be working to remove these administrators. Even if my kids went to private school, which they will, because I would not want people like this being paid my tax dollars.

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=111388

Ironically, I can't get the spell check to work nor can I seem to copy the post to word so I can check spelling and grammar. Have a good laugh at my expense. I guess Georgia is rubbing off on me.

Santana by the numbers

Here is a Spring Training update I came across today.

I never saw the below broken out before:

Twins Starters (without Santana)
Year W-L ERA
2007 44-52 4.62
2006 51-50 5.07
2005 38-48 4.24
2004 39-40 4.52
Total: 172-190 4.60

Santana: 70-32 2.89

And we got 4 prospects for him? The argument of "he only plays every 5th day" no longer means anything.

Put this in the "Spring Training Gut Punch" File

How weird is Torii in that uni?

Ptichers and Catchers Report

This article sums up the Twins' 2008 question marks nicely StarTribune.com

I had no idea that Mike Lamb with be the 12th player at 3rd base since Koskie left. Yuck. Punto is our new Al Newman, just not as fat and won't be the third base coach recklessly waving players home/holding players up at horribly inopportune times.

Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people

Just want to quickly touch on yesterday's shooting at NIU (yes, she's a slow one here today.)

CNN had reader's responses to the shooting, basically arguing about gun control. I would like to log the following response from Wayne Ellis of Allen, Texas in the "I can't believe I live in the same country with these morons" file:

"This is a perfect example to support allowing licensed people to carry guns on college campuses and even into classrooms as well as everywhere else. This shooter would have been killed before he could have gotten off more than two shots if other people there had been allowed to legally carry weapons. As the old cliché goes: "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." The restrictions on law-abiding citizens made them all easy prey for this or any other crazed shooter."

So basically, the shooter would have only been able to kill at the most two people before everyone else opened fire on him. Well, that's a pretty solid argument, can't really poke any holes in that one there Wayne. By the way, I'm not familiar with the 'old cliche' he mentioned but if you overlook it's inherent stupidity, that's a great point too. In defense of Wayne, he may have benefited from graduating from the 8th grade instead of following his dream of devoting his life to following NASCAR.

SI.com rates Twins Offseason a "D"

We all knew it was coming, I thought maybe a C- (as Luke full well knows, "C's still get degrees") and we would get a pass. Guess not.

"Don't blame the front office. This is all on tightwad multibillionaire owner Carl Pohlad who squeezed $400 million out of the taxpayers of Hennepin County then somehow couldn't find anything close to market value for either Santana or Hunter. New GM Bill Smith did his best to replace Hunter by landing Delmon Young for the offense and speedy, strong-armed Carlos Gomez for center. It's hard to blame him for expecting Hank Steinbrenner to give up the store for Santana, but in retrospect, maybe Smith should have jumped on that Phil Hughes/Melky Cabrera/Jeff Marquez offer."

What happens when Carl dies? I'm guessing nothing changes since his son will take over. It will be weird when it does happen, you know the team will have to somehow mark the occasion during a game - moment of silence? Does "Minnesota Nice" mean you can't boo a dead man?

Open Letter to the U.S. Congress

Dear Congresspersons,

Thank you for taking time out of your crazy-hectic days to ask Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite whether or not they took illegal substances to boost their performance playing baseball, or beisbol if you prefer. Also, and I know this is a late in coming, but thank you for previously taking time to ask Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, and what I'm guessing are multiple others, if they too, took performance enhancing drugs to boost their performance and or increase the longevity of their respective careers.

While at first I thought it strange that you septegenrians would take on such a topic, the insight that you have discovered from countless hours of questioning, certainly have put an end to any questions of relevance that I had. To think, all I thought you guys, and one or two gals, did up there was to create legislation in order for our federal government to function. To me, this seems like at least a 40 hour a week job. But you so selflessly have found the time- probably even forced to miss a few Murder She Wrote reruns- to take on this issue which, as you know, is currently one of the most pressing issues facing our nation. In matter of importance, I put this issue, right after the war we're currently waging in Iraq, the war we're currently waging in Afghanistan, the national economy- especially given the current state of affairs in the credit markets, unemployment, global warming, homelessness, illegal immigration, saving social security, access to health insurance, the national infrastructure- including roads and bridges, crime and incarceration, stem-cell research, lowering our consumption and dependence on fossil fuels, developing alternative sources of energy, improving the education system... ...(musical interlude)... .... increasing the speed limit on Sepulveda Ave by my house, and right BEFORE finding out what you get when you put the lime in the coconut.

So with that, once again, I thank you congresspersons...I'll be rewarding you this November.

Innocent until proven guilty? I say we've heard enough - guilty

As the Clemens hearing dominates sports talk, so will it dominate our blog.

This is from Reusse’s article today citing former Boston columnist Mike Barnacle writing when Clemens left Boston for Toronto: “If Clemens had not once been able to consistently throw a baseball 95 miles per hour past men with bats in their hands, he would be wearing bib overalls and sitting on a milk crate at the open end of a trailer somewhere, brushing his tooth, while shooing away flies from his head," Barnacle wrote. "The man is a complete dope." Pretty much sums up my view on Clemens from yesterday's hearing. "Misremembered"? Really?

I was also pretty appalled at some of the congresspeople's comments that bordered on hero worship.

At the end of the day while McNamee is not the best 'star' witness, I thought Clemens looked pretty guilty (the affidavit from Pettitte and Pettitte's wife, 'tampering' with the nanny, inconsistencies from his 60 minutes interview etc.) Amazing how Pettitte will pretty much walk away from this and Clemens' still got so much explaining to do.

Udeze

This is horrible news.

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/39870

This year's Ponson/Ortiz

Twins apparently signed Livan Hernandez to a one year deal. Reportedly $5M-$6M.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

"Last season with Arizona, he gave up 34 home runs, second-highest in the National League. He was 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA. He made two starts in the postseason. He beat the Cubs in the Division Series, then lost to the Rockies in the NLCS. Hernandez is 134-128 lifetime with a 4.25 ERA."

AP at the Pro Bowl

Okay...so, I totally forgot that the Pro Bowl was played yesterday (is there a more irrelevant all-star game?). It's a good thing, or I wouldn't have slept on Saturday thinking about AP getting all these carries in a meaningless game. Yikes. Luckily, he escaped without injury, and tore up the defense in the process.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3240240&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

Gopher Hoops pulls to .500 in the Big Ten

Watched the Iowa/Gopher 'game' on Saturday. Surprised that the Hawkeyes hung tough (well, hung around is more like it) it was a pretty ugly game early as the Gopher's should have easily pulled away. I'll say it again, for as bad as Munson was a coach he got Al Nolen who took over the game and crush it down the stretch. Now sitting at 15-7 (5-5 in the Big Ten.) We'll need 5 more wins to have a chance at the Dance. Remaining schedule:

Illinois - Barn
'Sconny - Madtown
Michigan - Barn
Penn St. - Barn
Purdue - Purduetown
Ohio St. - Barn
Indiana - Bloomington
Illinois - Champaign

Considering Purdue beat 'Sconny, there are no real easy games left. Can we win 5 more?

Friday Motivation

It is a verrrrrrrrrrrry slow Friday and I think I have reached the end of the internet (at least with safe search on). I stumbled upon some inspiring words and thought I would pass them on. Here is Bill Murray's speech from the movie Rushmore:

"You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here. Because the fact is, whether you deserve it or not; you go to one of the best schools in this country, Rushmore. You lucked out. Now for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the cross-hairs. And take them down."

KG Returns to Minny (kind of)

The Celtics are in town tonight and while KG won't be in the lineup he will make a cameo appearance. I was kind of bummed that KG wasn't still a Woofie until I read this Souhan article in today's paper. While Souhan is basically doing a 180 on a team he has criticized all season and an ownership and management that he has crushed for years, his article quoted the following exchange between KG and Al Jefferson during the Woofies 1 point loss in Boston a few weeks ago:

Garnett yelled "Eleven years! Eleven years!" at Jefferson, reminding him of his All-Star berths. Jefferson responded with the kind of surgical strike we expect of smart bombs and heckled comedians: "We both have one thing in common -- no championships."

Good for Al.

This is the end, my only friend

Take a look at Johan in his new duds. Makes you sick, doesn't it? Is he worth $153M over 7 years? Is anyone worth that much except for Jonas Salk-type's? Baseball economics aside, I go back and forth, up and down, left and right on this whole thing. Sorry to see him go - knew we couldn't keep him - why didn't we make a better attempt - and on and on. But when I saw the picture of him on the news the other night, it just looks so awkward and wrong - like KG in Celtic green.

Apparently he drove a hard bargain and was ready to walk when the Mets were $5M short from what he wanted. Guess that shows he is a good negotiator. Or greedy. Or I'm just still bitter about this whole thing.

In a world of winners and losers, this kid is a loser

IMO whatever shame and humiliation this kid suffers is deserved. Bascially, he faked being recruited by Cal and Oregon for football. He went so far as to hold a press conference to annouce his decision.

The first link from Feb 4th , it is unknown how he was duped:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/andy_staples/02/04/pryor.watch/index.html

The second link is after it is revealed he made the whole thing up:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7769334/High-school-player-apologizes-after-fake-recruiting-story

Oh, did I mention that I will be running Goldman Sachs' trading desk next Monday?

The ESPN ticker

At the gym the other night, watching the very entertaining Duke-UNC game (congratulations MCA, on a hard fought victory- impressively tough interior defense by the Devils last night by the way, I really like that Henderson kid- he plays hard) and all of a sudden I looked to see the following scrolling at the bottom of the page "braska 23. Minnesota 24. Colorado 2"...what #23, in what? Well, as much improvement as Tubby has made, I knew that it wasn't the national ranking for the basketball team. Maybe it was for one of the gopher women's sports, like hockey or mud wrestling. I had to wait another 3 minites or so until it scrolled back around- but then I saw five beautfiul letters...."NCAAF" Wow! The gopher football recruiting class was ranked 23rd for 2008- that's 23rd nationally, not 23rd in the Big 10. Wow.

A recruiting class means nothing of course unless it can translate into wins, but for a team coming off of a 1-11 season, and looking woefully weak in the athleticism category over the past few years it certainly provides a little hope for the future. Tim Brewster might still end up not being able to coach, but I can say this. On a cold February evening, he made this gopher football fan smile.... and you can't put a price on that.

Oh, and this might have had something to do with the strong recruiting class... can't wait for my first November home game in the loge boxes...

http://www.startribune.com/video/15375881.html

A Classic "who needs it more?" night

While MCA applies his blue face paint and dons his Wojo jersey tonight, I'll be skimming through the NU vs. MN baskeball game...because as a proud new DirecTV subscriber, I actually get the Big Ten Network now (who else would actually carry this atrocious game?). Anyway, just wanted to go on record as saying that I'll be 100% in the Gophers' camp tonight, as a road loss at Northwestern would be crippling to their already slim post-season hopes. Also, NU is so awful that I can hardly watch...it's painful.

MCA, what's your prediction for tonight? I say Duke wins handily tonight...and UNC takes the game at Cameron (not having Lawson will be too much to overcome, no?).

Your 2008 Super Tuesday Caucus Memories

So, Sarah and I "attended" our DFL caucus at St. Louis Park High School last night (we went, we voted, we left - there was no caucusing.) We were both impressed with the turnout as the place was a madhouse (apparently the case across the state and nation.) When we finally got to the cafeteria where our district was voting there was a long, confusing line where you were suppose to register. This was made even more confusing as caucus volunteers were roaming around signing people up which, we were told, was the same as "registering." Fine by us, we didn't have to wait in line. Some nice old lady quickly sat us down, had us fill out a form, and then handed us ballots and when I say 'ballots' I mean 4. Yes, Sarah and I were in the midst of what had the potential to become "Votergate," I could just see the CNN, Fox News, WCCO news trucks parked outside our house as we were at the epicenter of the scandal that could bring down democracy as we know it. However, I handed the woman back 2 ballots and said, "uh, I think we only get two of these, correct?" She took them back without a word and was on to the next person to sign up.

The potential voter fraud aside, it was a great night to be an American. Glad that Obama carried my home state convincingly and was surprised Minnesotan's chose Romney won on the Republican side.

Gophers / Sioux Throwdown

Guys, I heard about this, but I obviosly hadn't seen the footage. If it weren't for the Super Bowl, I'm guessing this would have made more of a splash on the national scene (though it was on the top of Deadspin today, which is a generally good site, growing in popularity).

Best line: "You'd think he would have dropped the gloves and done something a little more manly than tug on his jersey" - the MN play-by-play guy after a Sioux player re-started the fisticuffs in the post-game handshake line.

http://thewizardofodds.blogspot.com/2008/02/old-time-hockey.html

In any case, it got me fired up.

Super Bowl - Randy's karma catches up to him

What a great game. Wow. Just fun. Loved it that Randy is still ringless. By the way, what was that lame move he was doing after he scored his touchdown, like he was parting the seas.

Anyway, here is the e-mail I just sent my buddy Bernstein who is living over in Hong Kong and I am sure called in sick today:

Re: 18-1

"That’s still a pretty good season. Did you get to watch the game?"

Mets, Santana reach agreement on extension

Noooooooooo....

The link below is of a NY perspective on the trade and the Twins....ALERT: Do not read the following article if the current state of affairs in MN sports has already left you teetering on the brink of depression- for this will surely push you over.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/sports/baseball/01sandomir.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

If I can't have the Rolls Royce give me the Pinto wagon

Ummm...well....ummm, I will just let the statement speak for itself:


In the meantime, there are signs that the Mets continue to express interest in free-agent pitcher Kyle Lohse. Lohse was viewed, essentially, as the Mets' backup plan in case they weren't able to trade for Santana.

Full article regarding the negotiations between the Mets and Santana:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3224116