The blog formerly about a daily dose of mostly Minnesota sports rants and raves with a sprinkling of general sports commentary and a pinch of jaded-malaise regarding the world around us

August 29, 2008

NFL Odds and Ends

Guys, in an attempt to ease my angst related to the Twins right now, I figured I'd lob in a quick post on the NFL. We're still a week away, but I am definitely excited for the start of the season. I am also (along with RTS, I'd assume) anxiously awaiting the start of the college season tomorrow, although the week one matchups leave a lot to be desired.

Couple items:
1) I need a cold shower and some smelling salts, because the Vikings hype has gotten out of control. In another sign of the apocalypse, Dr. Z from SI (yes, I am a subscriber to the hard copy magazine), picks the Vikes to go 13-3 and lose to Philly in the NFC championship game. Really?

2) As you probably know, former Viking Daunte Culpepper is still looking for a job, which surprises me. Theories vary on this one, but it seems that his unwillingness to take the league minimum to be a backup is the prime reason he's still unemployed. Another theory is that because he doesn't have an agent, teams are hesitant to deal with him directly. In any case, I found his open letter to the fans (via ProFootballTalk) pretty interesting...and surprisingly well-written.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/08/29/an-open-letter-from-daunte-culpepper/

3) Thought everyone might enjoy this oldy, but goodie, again to lighten the mood.

August 27, 2008

Hey, Twins, wake the F up!

From Joe Christensen: After Tuesday’s 3-2 loss, Justin Morneau told reporters, “I don’t think we have enough energy or are playing with enough enthusiasm. We’re not making anything happen right now. We’ve got to make things happen, not sit back.”

File that in the "No shit" folder.

Someone in that goddam clubhouse needs to step up and take control and start holding both himself and others accountable. This team looks like they are all just playing baseball to get done with the season and since they are going to finish over .500 it was a good season.

August 25, 2008

TWiB Notes - Twins v. Angels

Honestly, when you looked at those 4 games in LA against the Angels, you were nervous. You would have taken a split outright from the beginning and liked it. Even after Game 1 that was a barnburner/"must-win-for-a-young-team" game you still thought the Twinkies could lose the next 3 in a row. And even though Game 2 was the blowout that MCA had been asking for you walked away (chuckling a bit) and momentarily entertained the idea of a sweep or maybe getting 3 of 4 but you would still have been happy with a split. Granted, at least one of the final two games got away from the Twins but it was fun to watch us compete with the best team in baseball (regardless of who they are calling up right now.)

Quick Angels thoughts -

1. I texted this but weird to root against Torii. Read that Denard stayed with him at his house in LA while the Twins were out there. The spirit of Kirby lives on.

2. Glad to see Morneau back. He was too quiet before his game yesterday. Hopefully he will continue to pound the ball.

3. In Punto we trust? Honestly, Buscher's glove was a killer. The original pirahna is back in 2006 form. Cross your fingers.

4. People around here get on Mauer for not playing everyday. Those people need to punch themselves in the face.

August 22, 2008

USA Today Love-fest

Onc of the guilty pleasures of traveling for work is waking up to a USA Today outside your door (I mean, who doesn't enjoy seeing high school Top 25 rankings!?). Anyway, at the risk of reversing Alshouse's reverse jinx, I simply had to share this story. It hits on a lot of the now-cliche topics related to the Twins, but there were some awesome bits of information in there (such as: there are 8 front office officials who have been with the team for 20 years or more...20 years!!). Sounds like continuity and loyalty are as much responsible for our success as finding diamonds in the rough when scouting.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/twins/2008-08-20-twins-rolling_N.htm

Great win tonight...Baker is the hard-luck kid again, with a 4-hit no decision. I'll take the W.

August 20, 2008

Twinkies Road Trippin'

First and foremost, day game, fire up Gamecast. We should take this one, right? The 'F-bomb' gets the start (more on that in a minute.)

So the Twins will be gone for a while. Their next stretch is 14 on the road, 6 at home, 10 more on the road. Wow. We start in LA, yikes! I wouldn't be worried as we play a couple stinkers but this is a young squad that can't win on the road. We need to be better than .500 when we come back from the 14 game stretch. As for Liriano, holding him back against good teams to get his confidence up is all well and good (he didn't pitch against the White Sox or Yankees and he isn't going to pitch in Anaheim) but we need wins dammit, wins!

August 15, 2008

My day in prison




Dudes, I've been waiting for a slow day to post this, as I thought you might find it interesting. Two Sundays ago, my softball team ventured up to San Quentin state prison (current home of Scott Peterson, among other thugs, and former home of notorious murderers such as Charles Manson) to play their softball team.








Before you audibly gasp, keep in mind that this is something the SF city league is always promoting, because the prison team is always in need of some outside competition. After some debate, we decided to go for it, since it figured to be a fascinating experience. So we all assumed that there couldn't be much danger involved, as surely the field will be surrounded by guards and security would be air tight. We were right about the lack of danger (more on that later), but dead wrong about the security...you should have seen the looks on our faces as we walked down the driveway into "the yard." Not a security guard in site...there were actually a couple strolling around the grounds and one up in a tower, but this was not exactly the level of protection I was expecting. As it turns out, though, we had nothing to worry about. Even though the field was smack in the middle of the yard, and inmates were walking past me in left field striking up random conversation, everyone was on their best behavior. Best of all the softball team couldn't have been nicer and more grateful for our visit. In fact, the only guy that really scared us was their pitcher, "Dalton", who was in for 1st degree murder (no joke), clearly had a short fuse...and was about 6'4", 260, with tattoos and raider paraphernalia on every inch of his body.




All in all, an awesome experience to see the inside of an infamous prison...oh yeah, our lack of offense hurt as, as a 12-9 game after 7 innings became a 20-9 loss after the Pirates (their team name) put up a huge 8th inning.




August 13, 2008

An exciting game but same old same old

When Delmon Young stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 8th with 2 on and down by 3 facing Mariano, I said out loud to my better half "Please Delmon, hit a home run and change the course of our season and our atrocious past 5 years against these f'ers" - sure enouugh he came through (hitting the Twins first home run ever against Mariano) which was followed by a text to a few of you "Holy Fucking Buckets!" (sorry RTS, I don't think I have your cell, thought you were still boycotting those.) Well, it was a short-lived excitement as the Twins couldn't ride the momentum and end the game in the 9th. As Reusse's article points out, our bullpen is why we have won before and we need some help: "Even though it was the 12th, this was more evidence Guerrier isn't an eighth-inning pitcher. And right now, he's obviously a cooked pitcher, with an ERA of 18.00 and a .485 batting average against in his past eight appearances." This sounds absurd but where is Bobby Korecky?

Today's game is going to test the muster of this squad. I'd be happy with 2 of 3 from the Yankees any day of the week and twice on Sunday but I fear we are once again going to shrink from the big stage.

August 11, 2008

What suprises you more...

1.) Glen Perkins pitching 8 scoreless innings against the mighty Bronx Bombers, or

2.) That Adam Everett can generate enough bat speed to hit the ball out of the park?

August 7, 2008

HAAAAAAAAALELUJAH!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Halllee-eeluuuujjjaaaaaaaah.

Haaaaaalelujah!!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Halllee-eeluuuujjjaaaaaaaah.

Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!! (Deep breath, organ crescendo, chorus tutti forte)

HAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! LUUUUUUUUUUJJJJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

August 6, 2008

Caple on Closers

Not so much MN sports related, but it's baseball season, and Jim Caple is an unabashed Twins fan (I think he's a homey, in fact). Anyway, this article is an excellent takedown of the "closer" phenomenon of the last 20 years. I had never really questioned it until a couple years again when it picked up steam amongst guys like Rob Neyer and other baseball writers with critical thinking skills, but I'm a full-on believer in the theory that accepted standard operating procedure on bullpen deployment/closer use is dead wrong. Caple tackles that, but also mocks the whole larger than life phenomenon of the modern closer marketing role. As usual, Billy Beane comes off sounding like the smartest guy in baseball. I'm surprised he can't get his managers to be the ones to finally break the mold.

I'd love to see Gardy be the one (not likely, I know). In a tight spot late in a ballgame, say, 2 on and nobody out in the 7th inning, game tied, heart of the order coming up for the opposition, wouldn't you rather see Joe Nathan come on than Guerrier or Crain? Let the other guy throw the 9th if Nathan gets you out of the jam in the 7th. I trust Guerrier to go one inning, starting with no runners on base, without giving up a run almost as often as Nathan can "hold" a lead for a save in the 9th. But I trust Nathan a lot more to get you out of that bad situation earlier.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/080805

August 5, 2008

What if Favre becomes a Viking

In my lifetime I have really only followed two sports teams: your Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Football Vikings. Sure, I got swept up in the KG years with the Woofies but I was more like some Hollywood star who shows up at Lakers' games during the playoffs than I am an "triangle offense" guy. And yes, I follow hockey, more at the college level than the pro level but that's more because I live in Minnesota and it's part of our everyday life. But baseball, with it's long march and enough stats to satisfy even the Lambda Lambda Lambda's, and pro football, with the violent hits and sweet finesse plays, have been my sports and the Twins and Vikes have been my teams.

Recently, rumors about one of my teams has left me stunned - Brett Favre is coming back to the NFL and is going to be wearing Purple and Gold. You see, for the past 16 years I have watched my Vikings battle the likes of one Brett Lorenzo Favre (yes, that is his middle name, I looked it up, I always hated the name Lorenzo.) For the last 16 years I have had to hear it from every cheesehead motor-mouth drunken Sconny how awesome Favre is. For the past 16 years I have had to hear everyone from John Madden to Chris Mortensen to Peter King talk like 8th girls about their man-crush for Favre. And for the past 16 years I have had to quietly sit waiting for Favre to retire so that the Packers can once again suck. Last March, when Favre finally hung them up, I watched Packer's fans as they cried in the Schlitz (douchebags) and everyone was lauding his career for weeks on end like Ghandi had just been laid to rest. I, on the other hand, did a little jig. While I don't have his career numbers against the Vikings, I would imagine it to be around .500 or a little better (parity does reign in the NFL especially when you play a team twice a year), and it's not so much that he “worked” the Vikings year in and year out or that there is a particular play that stands out in my mind as the ultimate "Vikings-killer" it's just that I was tired of Favre; I was "over him" and ready to move on.

Fast forward to Lorenzo's unretirement/reinstatement/24x7 media coverage and the indications that Favre wants to be a Viking and my utter shock. The thought of having to root for him suiting up in the Purple and Gold absolutely kills me. What I can't wrap my head around is that all of my fellow Vikings supporters think this is a good idea. Forget the fact that he is 39 years old or that Childress has been grooming TJac for the better part of 2 years to take the helm of a 'loaded' Vikings team, this is Brett Favre. Some might cite the old adage "don't cut off your nose to spite your face" well, you know what, fuck the nose, go ahead and cut it off. Watching 16 weeks of football games and "rooting" for Brett Favre? I don't care if I am "shortsighted", I care more about the last 16 years when I hated this guy each and every week and especially twice a season when he lined up across the field. All the wonks around town who say that it would great to have Brett at QB and take a shot at the Superbowl need to move over the border. Yeah, 10 years ago I could see this but now? Did you see him last year in the NFC Championship game? Where was the magic? Imagine him coming back, playing for the Vikes and not making the playoffs or getting booted after the first round or even throwing some interception that cost us everything?

I guess what I am saying is that I would rather lose with TJac than win with Favre. And for all of you who feel otherwise, think about this: Monday night, Pack v. Vikes, Lambeau field, Favre in Purple, do you honestly think he is going to be able to keep his emotions in check? Dollars to doughnuts you will be saying "Fucking Favre" in the same tone you did over the last 16 years just for totally opposite reasons.

August 4, 2008

Twins Happenings

Wow, I took Friday off and was out of media contact unti late last night. Looks like quite the eventful four days in the AL Central.

I was in a car in the middle of nowhere, northern Michigan at 1:00 in the morning when I got reception on ESPN radio for about a 15 minute span. They set up the Twins game and then cut to John Gordon's call of the Kubel 3-run dinger. Sounds like the place went bonkers. LOVED hearing "Touch 'em all!!!" once more. But they said nary a word about the Gardy incident, or about fans throwing hats (love it!) and balls (noooooo!!!!) on the field. Please give me details.

White Sox are in full on implosion mode now. Looks like Ozzie went off the deep end yesterday. All this and they went and got Jr., too. That's not what that lineup needs - another guy who hits the occasional longball but doesn't get on base nearly enough (at this late stage of his career).

We made our big trade deadline move as you all predicted months ago, by going out and getting a staff ace. From Rochester. But based on yesterday's performance, it looks like a nice shot in the arm. I'm almost more interested to hear what the crowd's reaction was to Rincon's Dome return, though, than about how Liriano looked.

Now, someone other than me go Googling and answer me this: We're beating up on the AL Central. We clubbed the National League. And that's enough to put us in first place in the division on August 3 (wish I would have bet on that one). But is it anything to get excited about, other than in terms of exceeding expectations and flipping off the naysayers once again? What's our record against the AL West and East? More specifically, against Tampa, Boston, NY, and Anaheim? If the season ended today we'd host Boston in the ALDS (I think). Is there any reason whatsoever to think that, even with home field, we have a chance in that matchup? I don't think so. I'm trying to remain the skeptic so as not to get disappointed. We have a lot of non-Central games left.

August 1, 2008

Where are they now...Clem Haskins


Saw this on ESPN.com today. Take a look if you have time over lunch.




Couple things strike me:

1) Clem really doesn't feel like he did anything wrong, which is shocking.

2) I believe him, however, when he says he was just trying to help these kids. The problem is that cheating to get someone through school is hardly helpful.

3) In the end, I'm glad he's at peace with himself, but I'm surprised he's been able to disappear so easily.