Big Ten Football Week 1

BG thanks for getting me all fired up with your last post. It really is my favorite time of the year. Time to look at the Big Ten week 1. The Big Ten gained some credibility last bowl season by posting a winning record, 2 BCS bowl wins, the top 4 teams all won and a tough OT loss by Northwestern. Week 1 is filled with anything but gimmies for the Big Ten. There are 5 games in which the Big Ten is a dog or favored by 3 or less when the lines opened (NW has moved up).

Illinois + 11 vs Missouri in the Arch Rivalry- Illinois will probably get smoked again. Let's face it this would be like Wisconsin and Baylor playing a rivalry game, they aren't really of equal caliber. Still it would be nice if Illinois could hang in there.

Minnesota -3 vs MTSU- The line on this game moved from MTSU -4.5 to plus 3 when their QB Dwight Dasher was suspended for taking $1500 from an 80 year old guy to play in a poker tournament (idiot). No excuses if the Gophers do not win this one now. Brewster has lost to a Sun Belt team before, Florida Atlantic.

Northwestern-5.5 vs Vanderbilt in The battle of Nerd Us- This is the most important game of the weekend. If NW loses this game the Big Ten loses all credibilty south of the Mason Dixon line.

Ohio St -28.5 vs Marshall- While OSU has had success inside the Big Ten, I believe it is their flops outside the Big Ten as much as anything that has led to Big Ten bashing. Let's all hope this is not a repeat of Navy last year. Does anyone have a better name than the Thundering Herd?

Michigan -3 vs Conn- HUGE game. No one needs a win more than Rich Rod. UConn, as the predicted #2 team in the Big East, needs the win to represent it's conference well against a projected second tier Big Ten team. Gamblor is all over UConn.

Purdue +11 vs Notre Dame- I give purdue a better shot in this game, than I do Illinois in theirs. I hate that Notre Dame plays an abbreviated Big Ten schedule and that it always seems to contain teams from the lower tier (with the exception of Michigan back when they were good).

Wisco -21 vs UNLV- If you were in Las Vegas would you go to this game or just sit in a sports book? The sports book, I thought so.

Mich St -23 vs W. Mich- I have said it before Mich St is the most frustrating team in the country. I would not put it past them to tank this one.

Unlined: PSU vs Youngstown State, Iowa vs E. Illinois and Indian vs Towson. I am just hoping there are no NIU almost upsets this year.

PS- the spell check does not seem to be working so if my spelling is more egregious than normal I apologize.

Best month of the year approaching

Odds and ends as we build up to the start of college football, the start of the NFL, fantasy football, baseball pennant races, and universally tremendous weather from coast to coast.

1) White Sox get Manny. Thoughts? I tend to agree with the SI writer in the attached article. This is a "Hail Manny" that, had it been completed at the trade deadline, may have paid huge dividends. This late in the season, however, there is only so much he can do. I hope I don't eat those words. At the least, it will likely put a little more pressure on the Twins. I have to confess that I am anxious to see Ozzie interact with him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tim_marchman/08/29/ramirez.white.sox/index.html?xid=siextra_083010

2) Two of three from the Mariners. I'll take it. We've struggled recently in Seattle, and if not for some stellar pitching, we could have LOST 2 of 3. Also, Joe Mauer had a "scheduled" day off yesterday, which obviously adversely affected the offense.

3) Statistically, the Twins have the easiest remaining schedule among teams in the AL pennant race. 19 at home and 12 on the road, with the 12 road games being one series against each division opponent, I believe.

3) Vikings looked respectable (from what I hear/read) on Saturday night. Offense still needs to iron out some kinks, but Percy Harvin actually played, and looked good.

Texas Steamer

This series is brutal. Wrong everywhere.

Saw this (click here) to paraphrase former Celtics coach and complete D-Bag Rick Pitino: "Jeff Reardon (Larry Bird) isn't walking through that door."

I hold by this:
Cuddy needs a day off and then needs to be traded. 478 ABs (2nd most on team after Span). 63 RBI's, gentlemen, 63 as of August 26, 2010, in a lineup that featured Mauer and Morneau hitting ahead of him for the better part of the year.

House of Cards?

Well - the preseason went from bad to worse with the news that Sidney Rice is out until mid-season due to hip surgery. What's most frustrating about this situation is that he injured the hip against the Saints last January, so this injury has been around for 7 months...ugh.

Am I the only one that feels a bad vibe around this team right now?

How about Rich Harden pulling a Slowey last night? Wow...

Twins Trip Down Memory Lane: 1987 AL West Champs

My lovely wife Mrs. Jan was cleaning out some boxes of hers in our basement and stumbled across this gem. At the time she was living in DC as her pops was working for a Minnesota senator. She and her brother got some pretty great access to the Twins that year (my bro-in-law went to the White House lunch after the Twins won the World Series.)

Not sure where this hat popped up but the names autographed on it are (left to right): Blyleven, Tom Kelly, Kirby (up by the patch), Sweet Music, and Steve Carlton.

Your Favre-led Minnesota Vikings

Can we just say something about this? I know most are tired of it but c'mon, admit it you went from "Crap, Favre isn't coming back, we're not going very far this year" to "So, you're saying we've got a chance" in a split second, right? I did.

WHAT A GAME!!!

1. Holy shit!
2. Bring back Thome! That hit alone was worth $1.5M. Can you believe we got this guy for $1.5 million?!?!
3. Cuddy - awesome scoop. That saved the game.
4. How unlucky were we in the 8th? Ground rule double clears the fence by about an inch, Hardy somehow doesn't get hit by Santos, the wild ass pitch bounches directly back into Pierzynski's glove off the backstop, and then Span smokes a rope to center but Rios catches it. Should have won right there.

Again, what a game. Amazing way to start this series, and that has to be seriously demoralizing to the Hoes. I wish you guys could have heard Hawk Harrelson on TV. I think he's going to die by his own hand tonight.

Slowey loses no-hitter...to Gardy. Fair or Foul?

All right gents...where do we land on this? As a baseball fan, it was disappointing to see Slowey get pulled. But as a Twins fan, I have to confess that I think it was the right call. We need Slow-ride to pitch well down the stretch, and he had just missed a start with elbow tendonitis. The crowd booed lustily when Rauch gave up the double to Coco Crisp...but I don't think most folks realized that Slowey had thrown 106 pitches already and was coming off a sore elbow.

I got to see both the Saturday and Sunday games...so nice. A few other thoughts:

1) The A's announcers gushed about the park. Granted, they are looking for a new one out here, so they probably had ulterior motives, but they couldn't get over how many people were out on the streets downtown, and what a great atmosphere it created. I haven't heard much from the "anti-publicly funded stadium" contingent lately...now that all the bars and restaurants downtown are packed a guaranteed 81 nights per year.

2) Cuddy is worthless. I know we've belabored this point on this blog, and he's done an admirable job filling in at 1st base (and 3rd), but his offense is brutal. With men on base I watched him strike out horribly, hit 2 infield dribblers, pop out and "almost" hit a double down the line. I really hope he wakes up again in Sept.

3) This lineup just seems to have more confidence and bounce in its step when O-dog is in there. That said, he made two horrendous baserunning errors yesterday. Hard to figure...

4) Casilla has been playing SS. I had no idea...he actually looks pretty good, despite a throwing error yesterday. He actually saved a run on Saturday with a great diving catch.

5) Thank goodness for Jim Thome. He hasn't been mid-90s era Thome, but he hit another clutch bomb for us yesterday. For some reason, I have confidence when he's at the plate.

6) Our bullpen will be nice and rested, should we need them this week vs. Chicago. Speaking of which, how about the Tigers taking 2-of-3 and helping us build a nice little 3-game cushion?!?

Vietnam draft lottery #s

I was fooling around this morning and stumbled upon the sequence of Vietnam draft lottery #s. Have you ever wondered where you would have fallen? Had I been born between 1944-50, like my dad, I was not getting drafted @ #358. My dad on the other hand was #122. He was called to take the physical. He failed due to an extra half disk in his spine (freakish).

http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm

All tied up...throwdown in Chitown

Jan - you called it, my friend. The Buck Showalter O's took 3-of-4 from Ozzie's crew. And as predicted, it was the offense that failed the Sox. It was only a matter of time until they regressed to their light-hitting mean. The Twins, on the other hand, have won 4 out of 5, and the starters (knock on wood), seem to have rediscovered their mojo. I absolutely never feel good about these series at US Cellular, or whatever their jorts-wearing fans are calling the place these days. We get Freddie Garcia on Tuesday night...and without looking it up, I'm pretty sure he's something like 13-4 against us.

Twins at Rays, Whaddya Say

Game 1 - Crap.

Game 2 - Crappy, crap.

Game 3 - Almost crap then not a crap but crappy for Baker in the ND

Game 4 - In progress. (As I write this, the ump at second needs to be put in an old folks home as he blew a call on Casilla tagging a guy out at second that was ATROCIOUS! No damage but my GOD we need robots umps! ! ! !)

Side note: Highlight of last night's game was a visit to the booth by Bruno (he's working with the Twins organization as a hitting coach in the Gulf Coast League.) Bruno is a great interview, when Cuddy was a hair away of hitting into a triple play (shocker!) Bremer said something to the effect "You know about triple plays, don't you Bruno" Bruno replied "Yeah, great, thanks there Dick" and then referenced this gem of a bit of trivia: "While Brunansky was with the Red Sox, he hit into the first of TWO triple plays turned by the Minnesota Twins on July 17, 1990. This was first time in Major League Baseball history where one team has recorded two triple plays in the same game." Bit of justice, eh? Bruno also talked about Miguel Angel Sano (go to #1 here) Excitement abounds for the kid, Bruno said Sano is (paraphrasing) "a 17 year old kid who has it all and is special, he can play anywhere in the field, SS, 3rd, outfield, great, great arm, hits with power, strong hands, truly limitless potential . . . .but he's also a 17 year old kid."

Favre done (?)

Latest rumors out of Mankato

click here

Say that he is done.









(this post was more in an effort to get that fat guy from BG's post off my screen when I come to FTLOSBW because it's gross.)

It's gut-check time

Well boys, that was fun! The good news is that the Twins FINALLY ripped off that elusive win streak we've talking about. The bad news is that Mauer and Morneau are both banged up and now we head to Tampa Bay for a 4-game set with the Rays.

As Jan and I were fond of saying during the 4th quarter of Vikings games back in the day: It's gut check time!