Jeremy: So much to say...

Commenting on a few of the hot sports topics of the day:

*The Patriots/Cameragate
Here is a quote from The Sports Guy's article about the topic:
"Teams in every sport often cheat in little ways to try to get a small advantage. When cheating is exposed, teams are punished. You take your punishment like a man, and you move on -- and the fans of the other teams ALSO move on. The Patriots did something wrong, but the level of the response is just ludicrous because so many fans just hate the Patriots -- not because of anything the Patriots have done, but because of the constant praise they've received from the media over the past few years."
I don't buy it.
First of all, I don't buy that "so many fans just hate the Patriots," and second, I don't believe that "the level of the response is just ludicrous."
In my opinion, Belichick has a bit of Barry Bonds to him, in the sense that, he's just not that likable of a guy. I'm not saying he isn't a great coach, clearly he is, but he's not that likable. I think people have wondered for a long time what is behind his genius. He always seems to have some angle that nobody else has. I don't think fans "just hate the Patriots," but I do think that fans dislike Belichick.
Let me be clear, I'm not implying that Belichick is the coach that he is because of taping, I'm simply offering an opinion why, although I do not think the response is "ludicrous," the there might be some backlash against Belichick and the Patriots.

*Terry Ryan leaves the Twins
As Jeff mentioned, just a huge blow for the Twins organization. Jeff and I had a nice talk about this over instant messenger last night. Jeff made the point that perhaps Ryan got tired of having his hands tied by the Pohlad family, that maybe Carl and his boys said "no dice" on breaking the bank to sign Torii and Santana. And I think Jeff is absolutely right.
Hot Carl is of the old school thought that player salaries should not exceed 50% of your team's expenses, which is such outdated thinking that it's staggering. Jeff has pointed out a few times here that Pohlad is the second richest owner in baseball, but Carl's personal wealth has never entered into the equation when it comes to the Twins. Carl Pohlad is a banker. Banker's like low risk transactions, and Hot Carl is no different.
Terry Ryan has done more with less than any other GM could have hoped to accomplish, and as Souhan points out today, we have been spoiled by the crafty moves that Ryan has made.

*Greg Oden out for rookie season.
The NE Revival took a major hit yesterday when it was announced that Oden went under the knife for knee surgery and will miss the entire season. Don Stern has built a league that centers around player personalities, and that is why this is such a devastating blow to the league... not to mention the Portland TrailBlazers.

*Notre Dame vs. Michigan
As Jeff pointed out earlier this week, either Notre Dame or Michigan is going to be 0-3 after this week's game. Unreal. Earlier in the week I was trying to decide, who would I most like to see lose this game? Which team do I most want to see fall so far from grace that climbing back is nearly impossible? But then I realized... this one is easy.
NOTRE DAME!!!
I work with a couple of hard-core Notre Dame fans (who also happen to be Bears fans) and seeing them on Mondays the past two weeks has been more tolerable than it was last fall. It was hard to fault their enthusiasm after some tough years under the Golden Dome, but my question to them last year was "who have you beat?" ND only played 4 ranked opponents last year, and Penn State (#19 at the time) was their only win in those games. They got beat by AT LEAST 20 points in the other three games, and were absolutely EMBARRASSED by LSU in the Sugarbowl.
Good thing they gave Weis that huge extension.

Jeff: Terry Ryan Resigns

Don't have much time to go into it, but in case you haven't heard, Twins GM Terry Ryan is stepping down after this season. There'll be an official press conference this afternoon to announce it, and as of yet, no word is given on why the 52 year old Ryan is stepping down after 12 seasons on the job. Long time assistant GM Bill Smith, who I've never heard of, takes over.

Obviously, if you're a Twins fan, you owe any and all success the Twinkies have had in the last dozen years to Ryan. This could easily have been the Pirates, Royals, or Devil Rays, but Ryan has kept them competitive on the tightest of budgets. His legacy will always be the AJ for Liriano, Boof and Joe Nathan trade, as well as drafting Joe Mauer when most everyone, including geniuses like me, thought he was crazy for not taking USC ace Mark Prior #1. I didn't agree with all his moves, or maybe the lack-there-of, since I thought he overvalued his prospects at times and wouldn't trade them for ready-now pieces, but how much of that has to do with owner Carl Pohlad not wanting to take on more salary we'll never know.

Regardless, this is a huge loss for a Twins team that is facing a major crossroads this winter with pending free agency and/or extensions needed for Johan Santana, Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter, Joe Nathan, and Mike Cuddyer. Ryan is/was one of baseball's best executives, and this is a huge loss for Minnesota.

Jeff: The Monday Musings...on Tuesday

So it looks like Mondays will officially be insane with an 8:30-5:30 school day, so even though you won't read this until Tuesday, I'm at least writing this on a Monday. Does that count? I think it does. Wow so much happened this weekend, and I had pretty good seats for it on my whirlwind tour of Minnesota. Congrats to Josh and Natalie and enjoy Nova Scotia. I mean it's Canada- how can you NOT enjoy it? Exactly. Thanks to Jer and Mrs Jer for hosting me this weekend. I miss you guys. And to Luke for hosting us for a glorious Sunday afternoon of watching football with men. Just the way God intended it.

As always, please read Peter King's MMQB column first. Ok this should probably be a 2 parter- a college and pro football edition- so we'll see how it goes:

THE NFC:
* Your Minnesota Vikings won 24-3. The answer to the question of was Atlanta that bad or the Purple that good lies somewhere in between, and will reveal itself as the season progresses. I'm having a hard time being rationale about this because I have drunk from the Pool of Adrian Peterson Mania and it is delicious. Good lord as much as the win was great to see, I think it feels even better to have a potential super star back in the fold. It just gives you hope no matter what's happening. Thank you AP, and thank you Vikings for having the guts to draft him when you already had Chester Taylor. And yes it's week 1. I'm already dilusional.

* As King points out early in his column, the NFC is, um...well it sucks. It's wide open. Chicago has no offense whatsoever, and yet basically shut down the Charge, who WILL be a top 5 offense again this year. LaDanian Tomlinson is the best back in the league, and maybe the history of the league, and yet they generally contained him. Yes he threw a pass and ran for another, but when you hold the Bolts to 2 TD's and lose, that's not the fault of the D. Still, if that's the best team in the NFC? Did you see Rex Grossman? What about the non-existent Cedric Benson? That's the class of the conference? As King also points out, NOBODY in the NFC looked good. I mean who else can you like? New Orleans? Philly? Seattle? St Louis? They all were varying degrees of suck.

* The sleeping giant in the conference is definitely the Cowboys. Sure the D got torched yesterday, but they've got the pieces to be good again. All the offense is missing is a confident Tony Romo and a Terrell Owens that catches the ball, and we saw both last night. They're the one team and only NFC team with Juggernaut potential. Everybody else has too many holes.

* I really want to like this Vikes team, but I'm not sold yet. My old roomy Kris (who's coaching corners at Bethel and should be a game analyst) pointed out how suspect the Vikes linebackers, and specifically Chad Greenway, looked, but I still see some potential there. Greenway's essentially a rookie, and he made some poor reads dropping in coverage, but he's so athletic, I think he can learn. The line was their usual run-stuffing selves, and this Edwards kid off the end? So that's what a pass rush looks like. I hadn't seen one from an end since Chris Doleman so I had forgotten what it looked like. ANYWAY, if the D is sound, and keep forcing turnovers, well that makes life easier on the offense, but they HAVE to throw for more than 95 freaking yards. Be prepared for seeing all 11 guys in the box from now on though when AP's on the field. These first 4 games are nice, but the middle part of that schedule is brutal.

* Holy Christmas, did you SEE Calvin Johnson in Detroit? I mean seriously? He's a dump truck that moves like a Ferrari. Even Chuck Norris is afraid of him. How on God's green earth do you cover a man that big and fast? We'll see what the Vikes can come up with this week.

* I hate Jake Delhomme. He absolutely KILLED me the last 2 years in fantasy, and so I avoid him like sanity evading Brittney Spears, and what does he do? Of course he tears up the Rams. Of course he did. I can't decide if I hate him more for doing that, or for the almost certainty that I'll be desperate enough to pick him up by week 4...only to have him go back to sucking. I hate Jake Delhomme.

* The Rams are in big trouble. Orlando Pace being done for the year is a gigantic loss (both figuratively and literally).

* Mike & Mike have my favorite radio show, but they should not be doing play-by-play. It just shouldn't happen. Although I'm not sure anybody could make this Arizona/San Francisco game better, but still.

COLLEGE
The definition of sweet justice: while Charlie Weis is getting blown out by 30+ for the second week in a row at Notre Dame, former Irish coach Ty Willingham and his UDub Huskies knock off #24 Boise State to move to 2-0, with a H-YOOOGE matchup with Ohio State upcoming. As a Husky fan and Notre Dame hater, I couldn't be happier. Neither could Willingham, but he's way too classy to say it.

* Um why is Lloyd Carr still coaching at Michigan? Forget for a moment the bowl game losing streak and his inability to beat Ohio State. With a team that returns a ton of offensive starters, including a senior QB, RB, and monster LT, he gets beat by a 1-AA team AND gets spanked by Oregon at the Big House in successive weeks? Really? I'm sorry what am I missing here? What could they be hoping for by keeping him? Losing by 40 to Indiana? Schedule a D-III team? Seriously 2 games in and their season is over, and Carr's should be too. I don't get it.

* After this Saturday, either Notre Dame or Michigan will be 0-3. Think about that.

MWSR Podcasting is here...

We've been teasing you with a snazzy podcast player, and a fun poll for far too long. Jeff flew in all the way from Vancouver to record the inaugural podcast. Our first attempt at this is a quickie, less than 10 minutes. You can check it out by clicking the play button on the podcast player on the right side of your screen.

We would love to hear comments from all 6 of our readers/listeners. Did you listen? What did you think? (We already know that the sound is a bit uneven... we're working on that.) What would you like to hear us talk about? Any questions?

Jeremy: This feels familiar

The only difference between the Gophers loss to Bowling Green last night and some of the losses that we were used to seeing under Glen Mason is the fact that last night felt like getting punched in the stomach over and over again for the entire first half... and then again at the end of the game.
I'll give Mason this: he saved the stomach punch for the end.
Utter disbelief. That's how it felt sitting in the Metrodome watching Brew's new crew get absolutely rolled in the first half. I couldn't believe what was happening.
I made the mistake earlier in the day, after finding out that Michigan had lost to Appalachian State, of calling my uncle and saying "MICHIGAN LOST!!! THE DOOR IS OPEN!!!"
Forget walking through that door. Last night the Gophers couldn't even find the door. In fact, during the first half, it was apparent that Brew's Crew didn't even know the damn door existed.
As the guy who lead the charge to Fire Mason, I felt the stomach punch as bad as anyone.
But I got a good night's sleep last night, and I've had some time to think this over. I've calmed down now.
I will admit, Brewster's moxie and rhetoric had me fired up. The salesman sold me. I bought. I bought into what Brewster was selling, he offered me all of the up-charges and extra options, and I bought every last one of them. Hook, line, sinker.
So now I have to take a step back. I can't blame Brew for what he did, trying to convince the state that this team was worth believing in. Really, he had no other options. He inherited a team full of players that were used to being punched in the stomach. A team which lost it's starting quarterback, leading receiver, and an All-Conference tight end... it's fair to say that this offense may have struggled even without the new regime. He is a first year head coach who has allowed new schemes to be implemented on offense and defense. After taking a step back, it's clear I should have realized sooner, Brewster is building for the long haul. The deck has been stacked against him since day one. As they say, he's making lemonade.
And I don't agree with Pat Reusse's take on Brewster today. I don't want Brewster to settle down, and stop chirping. Keep talking coach! We're not used to positivity around here. It makes the punch in the stomach a little easier to recover from.

Jeff: Bill Walton Knows A Lot of Things You Don't

So during a fantasy football draft last weekend, Luke made a couple of comments about how entertaining Bill Walton was during these Team USA blowouts in the tournament of Americas or "Team USA vs A Bunch Of Guys You Wouldn't Choose in a Pickup Game." Whatever it's called, after watching the Americans slaughter Argentina's practice squad, I'm now upset with him that he didn't let me know about these games sooner. Before tonight, I hadn't paid much attention at all because the USA wins every game by 50, so really, I'm not missing anything, right? Bill Walton would say I'm an idiot for thinking that, because he knows that's not true. I think you'd be surprised to know what else Bill Walton knows that you don't, because while the Americans are dominating on the court, Bill is dominating the mic with information you never thought you'd get from a basketball announcer.

Did you know Argentina is one of the few countries in the world that's bi-continental? Did you know it has almost 3000 miles of coastline? Did you know that's nothing compared to Canada, which has like 128,000 miles of coastline? Of course not. But Bill Walton does. Sure you knew that Steve Nash's wife is from Paraguay? But did you know that Paraguay is one of only two landlocked South American countries? Of course not. But Bill Walton does. Did you know Macaw, China is like Las Vegas- but 10 times bigger? Wait, do you even know what bi-continental means? Well you're an idiot, because Bill Walton does. And if you were watching the Team USA blowouts, you would know these things too because Bill Walton is telling you. Idiot.

So anyway, the basketball hasn't been even remotely competitive, and besides Bill Walton, that's been the most intriguing thing to me. Since the original and ONLY Dream Team of 1992, I've been wondering why the USA couldn't dominate anymore. And I don't think I've been the only one to wonder this. All the excuses we've been hearing is how the world has caught up, how international basketball is different from the NBA, and that these guys play way too many games during the season to have anything left for the summer. While all of this may be true, Team USA still had by far the best talent in the world- they just didn't seem to care. To me that was the biggest reason the Americans weren't winning and dominating- because they just seemed to cruise through, and didn't seem to care if they lost or not. They acted like they SHOULD win, but if they didn't, well we've got all these excuses to fall back on.

This team, however, looks like the first since the Dream Teamers that's hungry. They're not going out there like they SHOULD win, they're playing like they WILL win. The team is playing like a pack of wolves or pride of lions or pod of killer whales or- ok you probably get the idea. But they look like predators out there. They're not out there to showboat and "get theirs" and try and get on Sportscenter. The goal seems to be to beat everybody by as much as possible, and to challenge each other to be their best since the competition can't. I know, I know what a novel concept eh? Playing with fire and hunger in the spirit of competition? Let's just say it's refreshing.

There are two reasons for this change in attitude: Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd. Those two guys, healthy and on the court together for the first time, are the engine that's driving this team. The Sports Guy has been saying for years that a basketball game and team is only as good as its point guard(s), and for this team, that rings especially true. With a bunch of guys who are used to being the star of their team, Kidd is doing what he always does- makes everybody better. He's showing that when healthy, he's one of the two best pure points on planet earth (the other has a wife who's from one of only two landlocked South American countries!). Before there was nobody to guide this group of young prima donnas- whoops I mean NBA Super Stars!- like a Ferrari being driven by a middle-aged woman on a cell phone. Now they have a professional race car driver, like Ricky Bobby or Jean Girard, and not surprisingly it's making all the difference.

And Kobe? Without question the best player in the world right now. He's on another level entirely, playing like it's the NBA Finals, not a summer hoops tourney. That drive, fire, and maniacal competitiveness is what's been missing from so many previous USA Teams. Lebron and Melo are being forced to step up their games to keep up with Kobe and Kidd, and when those 4 are playing that well, it only makes sense that everyone else is falling in line behind them. It's the best international basketball Team USA has played since 1992, and as long as Kidd and Kobe are healthy for Beijing next summer (want a fun fact about Beijing? You should have been listening to Bill Walton!), they're going to run away with Olympic gold. And personally, I couldn't be more excited to watch it.

A couple of other random things I've noticed while watching the game tonight:
* Does Dwight Howard have the world's smallest head, or the world's broadest shoulders? It has to be one or the other, right?
* There's a guy for Argentina, I think it's this guy, who has a Borat-esque mustache. To call it glorious would be like saying Kate Beckinsale is mildly attractive. Somewhere, Adam Morrison is hanging his head in shame- well for that and because he sucked this year.
* Argentina's jerseys are...gawd-awful? Atrocious? I would almost rather watch the WNBA than look at these jerseys anymore.
* Speaking of Jer's favorite league, that's been one of the few good things about Canadian TV: no WNBA. It's like it doesn't even exist up here. Please don't tell David Stern.

Finally I just saw two commercials: the first was one of those Holiday Inn ones. Not the Holiday Inn Express ads, which are good, but the regular HOliday Inn ones where the guy doesn't recognize Cal Ripken and it's supposed to be funny? They've also done stuff with Joe Buck, which was also not funny. I thought maybe when it was converted to metric for Canadian TV it would be funny, but not true. I think they're the worst commercials on TV.

The other one was for the movie 3:10 to Yuma. I don't know what that means, but I DO know it's a western, and it has Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. Um is it too early to start camping out at the theater waiting for this one to open? Sign me up!

Jeremy: Things I learned this week.

*I learned this week LaDainian Tomlinson was the first consensus first overall fantasy football pick, according to Fanball, since they had Marshall Faulk pegged as the first pick overall in 2002. Every year since then they had at least 2 players that they figured to be solid #1 picks. I would also like to point out that I have LT in both of my leagues (a keeper in one league, and a $4500 first pick in an auction league).

*The New Shawn Kemp? I learned this week that Broncos running back Travis Henry has nine children by nine different women. According to the information that I can find, Henry's 9 actually beats Kemp's 7. The best part about the Shawn Kemp thing, for me, has always been that Paul Allen, on KFAN's PA & Dubay show, always plays the song "Don't pull your love out on me baby" by Glen Campbell.

*We all learned this week that the new starting QB of your Minnesota Golden Gophers Football team is Adam Webber. It's the feel good story of the year, really. Webber, a home town kid from Mounds View, grew up as a Gopher fan, a four year starter for his high school football team, a three-sport letter winner in high school, father played football for the Gophers... now, as a red-shirt freshman he will be leading his hometown Gophers. Personally, because of the type of offense that Brewster and Dunbar want to run, I was a fan of Webber since the spring game. He's more mobile, has a stronger arm and is more athletic than Tony Mortenson.

*I learned this week that the crazy world of podcasting is available to pretty much everyone. You will soon see a Midwest Sports Rubes podcast. If all 4 of you who read this blog also listen to our podcast, we'll consider it a success.

*I learned this week that Johan Santana has given up 29 home runs this season. That number happens to be the most in Major League Baseball. I was completely shocked to have heard this, but it's correct. Johan has given up more home runs than any other single pitcher in the game this season. This can partially be explained by the fact that he also ranks fourth in baseball in terms of number of innings pitched. For the record, he has the third lowest ERA in baseball.

Jeremy: Johan Santana

I've been mulling over this Johan Santana issue for the last week or so, and it's clear that the Twins need to sign him. It's clear that the Twins can't be successful right now, or in the very near future, without Johan. But I can't help but wonder, can they be successful right now, or in the near future, WITH Johan?
The question, as always in baseball, comes down to how much the owner is willing to spend. And really, until this issue becomes clearer for the Twins, I can't form an opinion.
Look, if the Twins are going to maintain the current company line on the payroll and only increase the payroll by 10% or so each year, and if Jeff is right that $20 million is the floor for Johan, then you are talking about a pitcher taking up AT LEAST 25% of your payroll. If that is the case, I personally believe that signing Johan is short-term franchise suicide.
I mean, look at the Wolves with Garnett. Obviously a different situation because of the actual salary cap, but the Wolves were strapped with Garnett and had very little options as far as signing talent. And while I think that signing Johan is more important than signing Torii Hunter, I do NOT believe that signing Johan is more important than signing Morneau, Mauer, Cuddy, etc, etc, etc. My point is, if Johan's contract is going to cripple you at 25% of your total payroll, and it causes you to lose most of your quality everyday talent, I just don't think it's worth it.
Now, having said that, if the Twins are only going to increase the payroll a small amount each year as they look forward to a new stadium, they aren't going to be able to compete at this level much longer anyway, in which case, Johan probably won't want to play here.
Unlike Jeff, I am personally of the opinion that Twins fans should absolutely EXPECT a payroll of $100 million when the new stadium opens, and personally if they are committed to winning, they should probably be pushing $110 million.
Here's my thinking: Say they are only increasing the payroll by about 10% each year (and that is a number that I pulled out of the air, so I might be way off), then they are going to be paying out almost $90 million ($89.5 million) in 2009 when the new stadium opens anyway. Pushing that number up another up another 20% would bring them to $108 million and they would easily recover this in increased revenue from stadium suites and concessions, both of which they will now be getting a much larger chunk of. It's a good investment on and off the field to make this commitment to young talent and the fans for the long term.
Carl Pohlad and Sid Hartman would have you believe that the Twins would be nowhere without the Pohlad family. I disagree. I think the Twins would be nowhere without Terry Ryan, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire.

Jeff: Johan

A little late on the draw here, as you've probably heard by now the less than complimentary things Johan Santana had to say about his current employer, the Minnesota Twins. Of course there's still over a year until the 2008 season draws to a close and Santana can officially become a free agent, the Twins response and actions can change much of the perception that Johan has. Now I'm admittedly not a Twins fan, although I loved watching them play when I lived in MN and couldn't help but cheer for them as long as it didn't effect the Mariners (which, until this year, was never really a problem). Because I'm not a Twins fan, nor a native Minnesotan, I'm wondering if I'm possibly missing something surrounding the Twins reluctance to throw obscene amounts of money at the game's best player.

I'm not about to argue that $20+ million a year isn't a lot of money. It's a ludicrous amount, especially to play a kids game, but like it or not, after last season's free agent spending spree where an average starter like Barry Zito (who was living off of his Cy Young reputation a few years back) got $125 million over 7 years, $20 million annually is probably the floor for Santana's value, not the ceiling. The Twins have taken a hard line on keeping payroll as low as possible ($74 million to start the year but closer to $70 million currently with their latest trade of Ramon Ortiz), with the whining- I mean reasoning- from baseball's 2nd richest owner Carl Pohlad always being that he had a horrible stadium deal. Well with a brand new stadium coming in 2009 (for which he paid barely a 5th yet will get 100% of the profits), you would think those excuses should be gone right? I'm not asking for a Yankee-esque $200 million payroll, or even $100 million (only 8 teams- I'm including the Cubbies at $99.6 million- have at least payrolls in the 9 figure range, and of that group only the Mariners aren't one of the country's largest markets), but I think it's reasonable for a team in a mid market with a huge local following and a brand new stadium to have a payroll in the $85-$90 million range.

Whether it's because of Pohlad's titanium lock on payroll or Ryan's titanium lock on his prospects (news flash he has 9- NINE!!!- starting pitchers 25 or under at the major league level or AAA! NINE! He knows a rotation only has 5 spots right? Right? NINE!)the team refuses to raise the budget, and although I certainly don't have access to the Twins front office, it seems like they're shocked that Santana isn't going to give them a Brad Radke-like hometown discount. Gentlemen, the time to talk hometown discount was this time last summer, before the free agency lunacy began. Now a "bargain" would be that $20 million a year mark.

I know Torii, Mauer, Morneausy, Nathan and Cuddy are coming due for free agency themselves, but Santana should be priority #1 because he could quite possibly be THE BEST FREE AGENT EVER. Ever. Not only that, he could be the lowest risk free agent ever. He's 28 years old, will be 29 when he hits the market, and has been the best player in the league since 2003. You can have A-Rod, Big Papi, Pujols, Vlad the Impaler, Reyes, Cabrerra or anybody else you want to name. Johan has been consistently as good as any, and because he's the rarest of rare breeds, a left-handed power pitcher, in a pitching-starved market, he's easily the most valuable player in baseball. What's more, there's nothing that shows that he shouldn't continue to be dominant well into his mid 30's.

Simply put from an outsider's perspective, if the Twins are serious about being contenders and rewarding their fans for buying them a new stadium out of their own pockets, there is no reasonable argument why they wouldn't lock up the game's best player as soon as possible. Anyone care to disagree?

Jeremy: Back to comment

*First of all, as Jeff mentioned, our thoughts are still with the folks who have been affected by the 35W bridge collapse. My wife and I were on vacation, camping, when the collapse happened, and it was surreal to hear about it from afar, then not see the images until 4 days later.
As someone who has driven over that bridge thousands of times, who used to live a 1/2 mile from that bridge, who regularly tailgates within blocks of that bridge, and whose wife works about a mile from it... it's just unreal to think of all of the implications that come along with this bridge falling.

*On that topic, I know there was some discussion surrounding the Twins game on the night of the collapse and the following night. Personally, I think the team made the right decision to play the game on Wednesday and not play on Thursday. Taking a break on Thursday was a good idea, but sending all of those people away from the Dome and out into traffic less than an hour after, and a mile away from, the collapse would have been irresponsible.

*So Bonds finally broke the record. Thanks goodness! Can we all get on with our lives now?

*I'm to the point where I wish the Twins would either collapse completely, or go on a historic run because this recent up and down streak business is driving me crazy. Honestly, they get within 4 1/2 games, then suddenly they drop a few games and they are right back to being practically out of the race. I can't take it. And seriously, could the trade of Luis Castillo possibly have been any more apathetic? That trade did nothing to say "we're throwing in the towel," and certainly didn't communicate "we're making a run." Terry Ryan is a fantastic GM, but his inability to pull the trigger on a deal still gets under my skin.

*24 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes & 3 seconds to the kick-off of Gopher Football season. I'm just sayin'.

*Look, I know the Wolves aren't going to be any good this year, and we'll probably be lucky to see them win 30 games. But you have to admit that they could be a little bit fun to watch because they are absolutely LOADED with young talent. I know that it isn't going to get them anywhere this year, but can you imagine if these guys start to gel? The average age of this team is under 26 years old. Do you realize that we now have 2 players that were drafted in the top 7 in the last two years, 5 players drafted in the top 15 and 6 in the top 20 in the last 3 years? I don't know about you, but I think that's exciting.

I-35W Bridge Collapses

Well I was signing on to write about Johan Santana's comments today in the Strib, but then heard about the bridge collapse. I hope everybody down there that I know is ok, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, as well as to the rescue crews that are working diligently.

Jeff: Bu-Bye to KG

It's official: Kevin Garnett has been traded. KG goes to the Celtics for Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, the expiring contracts of Theo Ratliff, Ryan Gomes, and Sebastian Telfair, and 2 #1 picks- the Wolves own that they gave up in the Wally Deal, and a 2009 1st rounder that's Top 3 protected. Long story short Jefferson could be a really nice player, Green has shown huge potential (which means he could be the next Tracy McGrady, or more likely, the next Darius Miles), Gomes and Telfair could be contributors before they hit free agency next summer, and I'd be surprised if the oft-injured 34 year old Ratliff ever makes it to Minnesota.

Still not sure what to think of the deal for Minnesota. For Boston? Really had to happen, and I wondered as much to Jer on draft night when they dealt for Ray Allen but didn't have to give up Jefferson or Ratliff's expiring deal, leaving them the two key pieces for Garnett still in play. The Celtics should be able to find some decent bench players to fill in the holes, and with Garnett, Paul Pierce and Allen they have to be the favorites in the East. For the Wolves this was really inevitable, and I would have rather it gone down before the draft than after. There SEEMED to be some better deals out there, especially before the draft, but there's no way of knowing for sure what was available and what wasn't. They did get Jefferson and a couple of picks, but getting that much cap relief is huge for their rebuilding. Within that same Strib story is word that the Wolves have already bought out the last 2 years of Troy Hudson's deal, and you wonder how long Ricky Davis (not exactly a good influence for the kiddies), Trent Hassel, Mark Blount, Marko Jaric, and the newly acquired Juwan Howard will be around. The story also points out that even by letting Hudson go the Pups still have 16 players under contract for next year. 16! So there's more work for McHale, or work for Freddy Hoiberg to undo all of McHale's messes. Actually, read this from former Strib beat writer Steve Aschburner (who it looks like latched on at SI.com), who, being that he's a professional writer and all, sums up the whole situation and McHale's awful tenure much better than I ever could.

As a Wolves fan you can't be happy about this. You lose an amazing player in Garnett and receive nothing that's a sure thing in return. However, they were going to be the worst team in the West with or without Garnett, so at least this will help speed the rebuilding process. A nucleus of Jefferson, Randy Foye, Rashad McCants, Craig Smith, Green, and #1 pick Corey Brewer isn't going to pack Target Center, but it's a start, and when the cap relief comes this summer and continues in the coming seasons as more and more of McHale's awful signings come off the books, there'll be more opportunities.

How many Wolves fans will be left after today will be interesting to see, as they have fallen completely off the sporting map in the Twin Cities. Fans were already staying away from Target Center in droves last year, and whether Garnett got dealt or not, there wasn't a lot of hope coming into this year. With Garnett gone, they're starting over, and in the minds of the vast majority of Upper Midwest sports fans, the Wolves have, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Mike Tyson, fallen into "Bolivian."

In the end, a huge thanks to KG. You gave Timberwolves fans 12 years of hard work and tireless effort every single night. Too bad McHale couldn't do the same, or you might have had more success. Good luck in Boston.

Jeff: New Mask, and New Williamson?

I love perusing the online newspapers every Saturday morning, and as usual this brought me to my old roomy Kris' favorite objective and totally non-liberal biased daily, the Star Tribune. In the sports section I noticed this picture:
Forgetting for a moment that the most amazing thing in this photograph is that Troy Williamson is actually catching a pass, I was in awe of one small detail: GREY FASEMASKS!!

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm a uniform nerd. I LOVE this stuff! I prefer simple and plain jerseys like Penn State's, or Nebraska's. This one shows what the J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS! always wear and what the Bills SHOULD always wear (what would be the reason for NOT switching? The Bills don't like making money after jersey and merchandise sale? They've got enough apparently to say "no thanks, we don't our fans to love and buy our jerseys?"). Instead the Bills wear crap like this.

I've never really loved the Vikes jerseys from any era, probably because there's so much freaking purple involved. However, I have always loved the helmet logo with the Viking horn, and am glad they've never gone away from it. But grey facemasks? Wow! Again, I'm probably the only one who thinks or cares that it looks awesome and gives them more of the old school look, but I love it. Also can everyone agree that under no circumstances is it ok to wear purple pants? Seriously, never. Ever. Ok then.

Now back to Troy Williamson catching footballs, and saying he was diagnosed at the Nike Vision Center as having some eye imbalance. Now I don't pretend to be a football expert (ok yes I do, but this one time I'll admit that I'm not), but in watching Williamson the past few seasons, I didn't think his problem was as much concentration as it was having no idea where the ball was when it was thrown to him. To have a concentration problem you need to actually SEE the ball coming to you. I remember several key drops last year, especially on deep balls, where the pass either hit him in the back of the helmet or he was looking completely the wrong way as a catchable ball sailed by him.

You can teach a receiver to run precise routes and indeed how to concentrate better on catching the ball, but can you teach awareness? Is there a cure for a low football IQ? I'm not so sure, but the Vikings are desperate to try this season. Williamson might be the most important player suiting up with those awesome grey masks this year. With a bevy of underwhelming receiving options to help inexperienced QB Tavaris Jackson (by the way- the new nickname is "T Jack?" No. Come on people. I thought we were over the Stu Scott/Linda Cohen First Initial first name First 3/4 letters last name cheesy easy way of giving people "hip" nicknames. Good lord we can do better. So for the love of Pete stop with T Jack), it would be an immense help to the Vikes QB, offense, and really their 2007 playoff hopes, if Williamson would become the true #1 they hoped he could be when he was taken with the #7 pick 3 years ago. I still think it's more likely that he's cut by year's end than he develops into THE go-to guy, but hey, stranger things have happened. We'll find out soon enough if you can indeed teach a guy to get a clue.

Jeremy: Covered in filth...

As a sports fan, July is easily the worst month of the year. The NBA and NHL seasons are over, and NFL and college football training camps don't start until the end of the month. Of course there's soccer, but unless you care about Posh Spice's husband, you'll probably take a pass on the grass fairies. The Tour de France can be exciting to watch... when there's a crash. So the only sport worth watching is baseball, and although I like watching baseball, I wouldn't exactly call watching a game on TV riveting.
But the sporting world has been kind enough to give us some controversy in July. At least it's something to pay attention to, right?
But if you are like me, this July has made being a sports fan even more unbearable than usual, thanks to all of the controversy. As a hard core sports fan it's hard not to feel like you've been kicked in the stomach lately.
I'll start with my beloved Gopher football team. Tim Brewster comes screaming into town just over 6 months ago proclaiming to be the new sheriff in town. Things are going to be different, the attitude is going to be positive, we are going to win. Now 4 of his players, two being incredibly important to the team, have been kicked out of the program for rape charges. If the Wisconsin and Iowa fans that I work with didn't have enough to dig their claws into about the Minnesota football squad, they do now.
Barry Bonds. What can you really say about this that hasn't already been said? Here's my two cents: Did the guy take 'roids? Probably. Is he twice as big now as he was when he started playing the game? Absolutely. But steroids can't make you hit a home run. They can make you stronger, and they can make you hit the ball harder, but I don't believe that they can make you a good hitter, and in order to hit home runs, you have to have talent. If all you needed to be a good long ball hitter was to be big and strong, don't you think Brock Lesnar would be trying to break into the MLB instead ultimate fighting?
On to the NBA. Holy smokes, what a mess. As if it wasn't bad enough for the NBA that it is year-in and year-out the most lopsided league in sports, and already has the most controversy when it comes to officiating and the potential for rigged games, now David (The Don) Stern has to deal with the fact that there is actual evidence that a referee was tampering with point-spreads? The NBA is in trouble folks. Don Stern's league (DSL) already had a major image problem... I don't think that a link to the mob is going to help matters.
Last but not least, Mike Vick. If ever the words sh#@-storm were applicable, this is it. You know, crime is one thing, but if you haven't noticed, people get pretty emotional when it comes to animals, especially dogs. I also heard the other day that Arthur Blank, owner of the Falcons, has two Labradors that are always with him, even when he travels. Having a man like that as your owner when you're caught up in the storm that Vick is in is not going to help your cause. I think Goodell is doing the right thing by keeping Vick out of camp, and it will be very interesting to see what they do now that the trial isn't going to take place until late November.
Now that I've rehashed all of the crap going on in the sporting world, don't you just feel filthy and dirty? Honestly, all of this drives me strait to apathy. People ask me about Bonds, and I just can't make myself care. They ask me about Vick, and all I can say is "he's an idiot." Ask me about the Gophers... "morons." Ask me about NBA refs being in-cahoots with mobsters... "like we didn't see that coming."
And you know what? I don't want to care. I don't want this garbage to overshadow the fact that Vikings training camp started this morning, and the Gophers first game is just 36 days away. I don't want to watch a Timberwolves game this year and assume the ref is crooked. I don't want to wonder if Bonds' record is legit.
But these are the times we live in, I suppose. As much as I don't want any of those things to happen to me, every single one of them will.

Jeff: Big 10 Adding a 12th School?

Just doing some late night "blousing"- I mean browsing (that's a movie quote from one of my favorites, but as I proved yet again with jer the other day when I misquoted Caddy Shack, I'm not too good at movie quotes- you know what? It's my blog and I'll quote and misquote as much as I damn well please! You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!) and stumbled across this headline on ESPN.com: Big Ten Might Expand to 12 Schools. Now of course you have to take anything you see or read on ESPN with a grain of salt since they've been the E!SPN Sports Gossip Station for quite some time now. Still, intrigued I read on, and indeed Commissioner Jim Delany, while hyping his new Big 10 network that debuts this fall (call your local cable operator now and the Indiana/Northwestern football game and all women's sports are absolutely free!), he said the following;

"I think we need to look at it in the next year," he told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday. He offered no specific candidates.

"The broader [the network] is distributed, the more value [expansion] has. We have eight states. With expansion, you could have nine," he said.

"Any television executive would do whatever they could to be able to air a game like the Big Ten championship," said Mark Silverman, Big Ten Network president. "It would be worth a considerable amount of value."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore. The Big 10 and Pac 10 were the last remaining holdouts for 12 team leagues and conference championships games, and now it looks like the boys out west will be the only ones left standing in the department as the Big 11 is now looking to get it's grubby hands on even more money with the highly lucrative conference game.

Personally I hate 2 division conferences and conference championship games. Seriously I do. I love that the Pac 10 plays everybody in their conference every year, and that the Big 10 plays 8 of 10 opponents. I also like it because the conference games mean more, and really conference title games only hurt your best team's chances of going to the Title Game instead of helping them. And before you say "well look at Florida last year!" remember that if it wasn't for Oregon State's monumental upset of USC, the SEC would have been shut out of the Natty Champ game yet again.

However, it was really only a matter of time before the Big 10 decided it wasn't making enough money off its athletes, so why not say to hell with tradition and add a 12th team. I'm really interested to see how they can sneak the number 12 into the logo like they did with 11. And seriously, maybe you can call yourself the Big 10 with one extra team, but two? Isn't that getting a little ridiculous?

So two "Big" questions arise for me then: 1) who is the 12 team and 2) how do you align the divisions?

First things first: the 12th team IS NOT NOTRE DAME. It's not. I hate Notre Dame and yet would love to see them in the Big 10 and they are the only school that makes sense...but it ain't happening. Not a chance. Now that Notre Dame's "back" why would they give up the obscene amounts of money they're making just because everybody in the Big 10 wants them there? Not only do they have their own TV network, but if they finish in the top 12 in the polls, they get into a BCS game. Think they'd still get that deal if they were part of the Big 10? Think again.

So if not the Irish then who? Delany mentions adding a 9th state, but there's not many that would seem to make much sense. It would have to be a major institution with a good academic rep (a nice way of saying the U of Cincinnati won't be joining anytime soon) in a state that would attract a bigger TV market than they already have. Teams like Pitt, UConn, Rutgers (soley for the hopes of getting into the Big Apple's TV market) and maybe even West Virginia could be possibilities but there seems to be only one logical choice: Syracuse, although with their shoddy record and mediocre hoops performances of late they're not quite the glamorous school they once were. Still, with a whole new market of people in New York State, and considering how willing they were to bolt the Big East for the ACC before Boston College beat them to it, the Orange (why aren't they still the Orangemen? Oh that's right it's degrading to women or something. I hate political correctness sometimes. Well ok most of the time) have to be the front runners.

Then there's the issue of aligning the divisions. The only thing that makes sense is to do it geographically East and West, but of course the conference would want Michigan and Ohio State to meet in the Title game every year, so you can't have them in the same division EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES PERFECT $^%&ING SENSE FOR EVERYBODY ELSE!!! Jackholes.

Anyway, they'll still play every year but put them in different divisions and then it just can't be about geographical anymore because how would divide it? North and South? That makes no sense either. Here's the divisional format that's most plausible:
"Midwest Division": Ohio State, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern

"Great Lakes Division": Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, and Syracuse

The Minnesota/Iowa/Wisconsin, Illinois/Northwestern, Michigan/Michigan State, and Indiana/Purdue matchups would remain intact and Penn State and Syracuse actually have a history that goes back a long ways. The divisions are also pretty well balanced for football and hoops (and hopefully for softball and women's soccer).

I'd rather see them stick with the Big 11, but since money always wins out, then if it's going to happen this is how it should happen.

Jeff: My 20th Year as a Vikes Fan

It's finally arrived: the day the Minnesota Vikings begin reporting to training camp. And so beings my 20th year as a Vikings fan. Yup sometime in the fateful year of 1987 my 9 year old self for some reason decided that I loved Anthony Carter and therefore should start cheering for his team. 20 years later I'm at least glad I didn't decide to cheer for the "home" team Seattle Seahawks. And really, although some other choices would have brought me things like Super Bowl victories, and not having to endure the 1998 NFC Championship game, it really could have been worse. As a Vikes fan, this is the first time in my 20 years cheering for them that I feel like the playoffs are really a long shot. Seriously in the past 2 decades, although our seasons have never ended well and have given fans of the Purple much more pain than any football fan should have to endure, at least we've had hope at the start of every year. From the Denny Green Era to Mike Tice to even Chilly's first go-around last year, at worst we were thinking playoffs. That's a lot better than it would have been to cheer for, say, the Lions, Browns, Cardinals, or Saints (well up until last year).

I suppose this year I know a bit of what it feels like to be a fan of one of those clubs. In last week's MMQB column, SI's Peter King had his inaugural "Power Rankings" and had the Vikes as the *AHEM* 31st best team. Or the 2nd worst behind only Cleveland. And as much as I'd like to, I have trouble finding evidence to disagree with him. Are the Vikes clearly the worst team in the NFC? No, but it wouldn't take much to go wrong for them to get there. Not much has changed from 2006 to 2007, other than drafting the Other-Worldly AP and losing outstanding D Coordinator Mike Tomlin to the Steelers. The defense still has the best tackle combo in the league in the Williams boys, and yet no threat of a pass rush from the edge. The linebackers are still a big question mark, and the answer to a secondary that gave up a LOT of catches last year was to sign another player at perhaps the deepest spot on the team- safety, where they grabbed Mike Doss. The new coordinator does know you can only start 2 safeties at a time right? Just checking.

Of course the big concern isn't on D, it's at quarterback and receiver. Like the defense, the front office did absolutely nothing to address these two obvious concerns. I certainly like Tavaris Jackson's potential down the road, but do not think he's a playoff-caliber quarterback right now. Sure I said the same thing about Daunte Culpepper before his first year as a starter, but the difference is, of course, that there's no Randy Moss or Cris Carter around to help out the new guy. If you want to have a passing game, you can get away with an inexperienced quarterback if you have good receivers, or if you have a great quarterback and terrible receivers (see Tom Brady until this year or Brett Favre for most of his career), but you can't have neither. Minnesota is expecting Jackson to become a solid signal caller with no discernable receiving talent on the roster. Bobby Wade (he of 101 catches and 2-count 'em 2!!!- TD's in 5 full seasons)and somebody called Visanthe Shiancoe (4 years with the Giants got him 35 catches and 3 whole TD's!) were the big offseason acquisitions that are supposed to spruce up the passing game? Really? Forgive me if I'm not more excited by that. I loved them drafting Peterson and believe he and Chester Taylor make a helluva running combo, but when the opposition is going to be putting 8 and 9 man fronts to stop them, how successful can we really expect them to be? AT least the Vikes addressed their questions on the right side of the line by...oh no wait sorry they did absolutely nothing other than hope the same guys who had problems last year won't have problems this year. Neato gang!

I guess I'm assuming the worst and hoping for the best, because unless Chilly is truly the offensive genius he claims he is, I'm not sure how the Vikings move the ball and keep themselves out of the divisional cellar. Still, I'm excited to see: the beginning of the AP Era, if last year's #1 pick Chad Greenway can make a full recovery from major knee surgery to make an impact at LB (I'm sure the Vikes will try and get him on special teams ASAP), if rookie receiver Sidney Rice can be anything close to productive, AND last but not least if Troy Williamson can make it the whole year without getting cut (I say no. He's out of here before Thanksgiving). See? Plenty of exciting storylines to follow for your 2007 Purple! But hey it could be worse...Cleveland or Oakland anyone? I didn't think so.

Jeff: Ichiro, Torii and Lots of Dough

Well Jer was sure right: this IS the slowest time of the sports year. Getting rather excited for football season however, which is brewing on the horizon like a thunderstorm. Not long now and it'll be wall-to-wall football!!!

Anyway one baseball-related thought: I know I'm a biased Mariners fan, but I like the Ichiro extension. I know there's been some huffing and puffing outside the Pacific Northwest about paying a leadoff hitter who doesn't hit homeruns or drive in runs that much money. There's been more frustration saying his contract will drive up the market for players like Torii Hunter. First of all, this is neanderthal thinking, because Ichiro is as valuable as any position player in the league since he came over from Japan in 2001. Read this from the boys at USSMariner for more info and lots and lots of math that I don't completely understand but know adds up to Ichiro being awesome! As an M's fan, I like the signing and think it was money well spent. As far as driving up the price for center fielders? Really? What about Vernon Wells 7 yr/$126 million whopper with Toronto, Alfonso Soriano's gargantuan deal with Chicago or Juan Pierre's ridiculous salary with the Dodgers? The Mariners didn't overpay, whereas all of these teams certainly did. And don't even get me started on the Barry Zito contract.

Torii? I can't explain how he's been hitting this well the past 1.5 years. I just can't. A career .268 hitter in his first 10 years, last year he posted a solid .278/.336/.490 stat line with a career high 31 HR's. This year? Off the freaking charts!! So far he's hitting career highs of .300/.343./.549 with 19 HR's in 337 AB's. That's just awesome production from a great defensive player at a premium defensive position. So why wouldn't I sign Torii longterm? Because I can't believe that giving Torii $80-$90 million isn't going to hurt the Little Engine That Could's ability to lock up more important players long term. Johan Santana has been the best player in baseball since 2003, Joe Mauer is the game's best catcher, and Justin Morneau is looking like the real deal over at first. To me, all 3 of those guys should get priority over the 31 year old Hunter. Even though they have ONE OF THE RICHEST OWNER IN ALL OF BASEBALL (according to Forbes he's 2nd only to Fox's Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Dodgers)the Twins don't operate like other "larger market" teams . Pohlad, despite the HUGE cash cow of his new stadium coming soon, won't keep the team's core intact. Therefore, if forced to choose, you have to let Hunter walk unless he gives a serious hometown discount. He's meant a ton to the organization and deserves to have his number as a Twin retired, but if he hits the open market it just doesn't make sense to give him $80 or $90 or possibly $100 million (he's from Texas and you can bet the Rangers, who have been awful, will give him the moon to move down there) to appease the fans. You just can't. As a LETC admirer, I hope they find a way to make it work and keep Torii in Minnesota, but not if it costs them Santana, Mauer or Morneausy. And we haven't even started about Joe Nathan or Mike Cuddyer.

Jeremy: Slow Week

It's a slow week at work, a slow week in sports, and I even heard on the news last night that this is traditionally a slow news time.
Time to do some digging...

*Mateen Cleaves starting point guard for the Michigan State team that won the 2000 college basketball National Title will be suiting up for the Timberwolves summer league team alongside the rest of the youngins from the Wolves. I didn't like Mateen in college, mostly because he annoyed me, but he was a heck of a point guard. Since coming into the league Cleaves has played for 4 different teams, has averaged 3.6 pts/game and just a shade over 11 minutes/game (which is actually misleading considering he averaged 16.3 mins/game and 23 mins/game in two of his 6 seasons). Let's be honest, this guy is going nowhere in the NBA.

*The good news about the summer league is that young Wolves vets like Rashad McCants, Randy Foye and Craig Smith will get an opportunity to run the floor with new Wolves Corey Brewer and Chris Richard. Let's hope they can build some chemistry, since they will definitely be needed, regardless of what happens with KG.

*In case you missed it NFL Europe closed up shop last week, just a week after its championship game, the World Bowl. Apparently the official name of the league was NFL Europa. Where exactly is Europa?
Quoting the Star Tribune: "(Commissioner) Goodell said it was time to develop a new international strategy, terming the move to fold NFL Europa the "best business decision." The league reportedly was losing about $30 million a season."
Perhaps the NBA should take a cue from it's counterpart and fold up the WNBA?

*Big Surprise! Okay, not really. Pat Neshek did not make the MLB American League All-Star Roster. That vote was won by Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox. Word is that the entire country of Japan voted at least once for Okajima.

*If you haven't yet, you should check out SI's article about best athletes by jersey number.
Some highlights:
No. 21: Jeff will be happy to know that Roger Clemens was not voted as the best player to ever wear the no. 21, Roberto Clemente was.
No. 31: We can all breathe a sigh of relief as Greg Maddox beat out Reggie Miller. Rumor has it that Reggie flopped on the ground when he heard the news.
No. 33: The Sports Guy would be pissed... Kareem beat Larry Legend.
No. 42: Clearly nobody IS the #42 like Jackie Robinson, but let's also take a minute to remember the punishing hits of Ronnie Lott.
No. 50: David Robinson beat out Mike Singletary... close call for me, but if it was my vote, it's Singletary, if only for those freaky eyes.
No. 56: Lawrence Taylor... duh!
No. 71: Alex Karras. Best known, of course, as the dad on T.V's "Webster".
No. 75: Deacon Jones was the winner, but (probably because Jones was slightly before my time) Howie Long is the only #75 in my mind.
No. 99: Gretzky of course. Also made famous in the movie "Swingers": "...for super-fan, number 99, over there."

Jeremy: Yes, I'm a homer...

It's true, I'm a complete homer when it comes to sports. So what?!?!?!

Pitch in for Pat. Vote in Neshek. You can vote (as many times as you like)for Twins middle-reliever Pat Neshek (a Minnesota boy from Brooklyn Park) to get the final roster spot on the MLB American League All-Star team. Vote here.

And to answer your question, YES, I have already voted 5 times.

Jeremy: NBA draft thoughts

An email exchange between Jeffrick and myself...
Jeff:
Well? The Wolves took the guy we wanted. I did NOT want them taking Yi or Hawes under any circumstances. No moves, but love them taking Brewer.
Thought the Celtics got a great deal for Ray Allen. How in the heck do they get him without giving up Al Jefferson, Gerald Green or the expiring deals of Ratliff or Telfair? The new Sonics GM has some explaining to do there. This does seem to still leave the door open for a KG-to-Boston deal tho. All the pieces are still in place. KG, Pierce and Ray Allen? Wow. Something to keep an eye on.
Interesting deal too with Portland and the Knicks. Sounds like Portland will buy out Francis' deal and he'll be a free agent right away. Simply clearing cap space. Probably not a bad idea considering they drafted 47 players tonight, but still, I thought they'd get more for Randolph. David Stern has to be happy tho: The Knicks and Celtics just got a helluva lot better tonight.

Jeremy in reply:
I LOVE the Brewer pick, and depending on what happens with KG, this could be a REALLY fun team to watch in two years. Foye, McCants, Brewer, Smith and…? Wow, that’s a pretty nice young nucleus. Too bad Whitman has to coach them. When I was writing about KG the other day I almost wanted to make the same Adrian Peterson type statement in regards to Brewer, “If Corey Brewer is available when the Wolves pick at #7 and they don’t take him, it will be the biggest mistake of the draft.” Kind of wish I had now.
Yeah, interesting deal with the Sonics. I don’t think it’s a horrible deal, but it feels like the kind of deal McHale would make. A really young guy (Green) and a nothing player who is probably on the downswing (Wally). I mean, where’s the game-plan in that deal? But the Celts are looking better for a run in the short term, and you’ve got to think that getting a guy like Allen was maybe a bargaining chip for getting KG in green? Either way, it probably makes Peirce happy.
And the Blazers, you’re right, but my goodness that could be another team that’s about two years away from being unreal. I’m predicting a Wolves/Blazers Western Conference Finals in 2009.
-----------------------

One more thought: Upon further review I really like the Chris Richard pick in the second round. This guy would have been an impact starter on almost any other team in college basketball. He likes to knock people around in the paint, he has the ability to score, and he seems to be the kind of guy that makes people think twice about going to the basket. Several people thought he'd go undrafted, but I don't mind the pick for the Wolves, since they have always needed a guy like him.

Jeremy: Regarding the KG trade rumors

I've been so torn over the last week or so about the Kevin Garnett trade rumors, that I've almost turned to apathy. My special lady friend and I had a friend over for dinner last night, and he brought the subject up. I found myself saying that I'm still not convinced that KG is going to be traded, that the whole thing just doesn't seem right, and that the fact that Glen Taylor is in China on his honeymoon adds to my feeling.
(Sidenote: If you weren't worried about Glen Taylor as an owner before, please take very serious note of the fact that the man scheduled his honeymoon during the NBA draft. To be fair, my honeymoon was during the NBA draft as well. But last time I checked I don't own an NBA franchise.)
But then the truth came out.
"Then again, that could just be denial."
I can't tell if it's denial or apathy anymore. It's clear that a trade is going to happen, it's clear that McHale is shopping KG, and it's probably also clear that McHale is going to screw this up. It's pretty much a forgone conclusion, right?
And maybe that's why I'm experiencing the apathy. Maybe I'm preparing myself for the worst.
The bottom line is that KG is going to be gone. My favorite athlete of all time is going to be wearing the uniform of a different team.
The worst part of all of the rumors for me have been the Lakers rumors. I've already come to grips with the fact that I'm going to become at least a casual fan of whatever team KG ends up playing for. But I'm not sure I could bring myself to cheer for the Lakers, even with KG. Cheering for the Lakers would be like cheering for the Yankees or Notre Dame: it's too damn easy, and I would be forced to hate myself.
But this whole thing isn't KG's fault. He's never asked to be traded, he's always been the consummate team guy, and he's always played his ass off no matter who was surrounding him, so you can't blame the Wolves situation on him. The Wolves are a complete mess and (unless you want to blame KG for taking the richest contract in NBA history, which is ludicrous) it's Kevin McHale and Glen Taylor's fault.
I'm not sure I could stomach KG in Boston (and apparently neither can he), since I'd have to read The Sports Guy's giddy accounts of a Garnett/Pierce tandem for the next 5 years.
The best case scenario, for me, would be the Phoenix Suns. I know, I know, the rich get richer. But I've been a casual Suns fan since my grandparents spent winters in Arizona and my dad lived in Phoenix, and if you don't enjoy watching that team play, well, you just aren't a basketball fan.

Jeff: Garnett Trade Rumors a Reality

Have you heard the latest trade rumor involving Kevin Garnett? Garnett, Paul Bunyan and 1,000 of the state's 10,000 lakes to Chicago for Lake Michigan, the Sears Tower, a washed-up Scottie Pippen and Bill Wennington's beard. Or wait was it to New York for the Statue of Liberty, Stephon Marbury, and half of Staten Island (apparently Isiah said he'd even throw in the defunct CBA)? Or maybe to Boston for a Hah-vahd Smaht Kid, Curt Schilling's ego, Skyler's phone numbah (how ya like them apples?) and Wally World?

You get the idea. Since reports surfaced last week that the Wolves are indeed listening to offers for KG, it seems just about every team in the league has been rumored to be involved in a KG blockbuster. First it was Boston for Al Jefferson, contract fodder, and the #5. Then it's to Phoenix for Shawn Marion, or wait maybe Amare Stoudamire? My favorite was from the biggest rumor monger out there, the Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith who claims to know about a 3 way trade between the Wolves, Celtics, and Suns in which the Suns get KG, the C's get Marion, and the Wolves get the #5 from Boston and Theo Ratliff's cap fodder, and #24 & 29 this year, Atlanta's unprotected #1 next year AND Kurt Thomas' expiring contract from Phoenix. OOFTAH!

Anyway, back in reality, it's been confirmed that your Minnesota Timberwolves and the LA Lakers are really truly seriously talking about getting Wolves star Kevin Garnett into purple and gold along side Kobe Bryant. Sources say that indeed Wolves owner Glen Taylor and Lakers owner Jerry Buss spoke on the phone about a deal, and that it's still in the preliminary stages. They first talked about a 4 team that had KG to the Lakers (duh), Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Indiana Pacers, C Jermaine O'Neal to the Celtics, and the #5, #19, Gerald Green and salary cap relief coming to Target Center. 3 guesses who pulled out of these talks?

Yup, not Minnesota, who clearly gets hosed here, but Boston. Of course. That trade made sense for everybody- well except MInnesota, which in itself makes sense. Really, if the Wolves do indeed trade KG and don't get completely ripped off it'd be the biggest upset since the Miracle on Ice.

Rumor also has it that earlier this morning McHale tried to give KG, Ricky Davis and 3 #1's to Barney the Baitshop guy in Hibbing for some fishing tackle, some jerky and a case of PBR. That's when Barney mentioned he'd heard on the radio about the trade talks and that maybe McHale should call down to the Cities to see what's going on. Maybe that's true and maybe it's not, but we do know that the Big Ugly Sweater is not satisfied with the Lakers current offer of Odom, Bynum (who, if he'd gone to UConn for 2 years, would be a top 5 pick in this draft), Kwame Brown's expiring contract and the #19. Apparently McHale's not satisfied with that deal from the Lakers, even though it's better than what he would have gotten in the 4 team deal. Is it because he's not the ones giving up picks or expiring contracts? Does he have a phobia about acquiring these things? Or is it because the Lakers won't take Mark Madsen back? Seriously, who's going to be waving a towel on the Lakers bench and giving awkward chest bumps and high fives to KG and Kobe next year? Can't the Maddog have his fun?

This is probably all much ado about nothing but it's the sllooooooowwwwwwweeeeessssttttt time of the year for sports. It also makes me wonder: does this trade make the Lakers title contenders? They'd have KG, Kobe and...Luke Walton? Brian Shaw? Is Rick Fox's jericurl making a comeback? Kurt Rambis goggles? Seriously it's a 2 man team that in my books isn't quite as good as San Antonio, Phoenix or Dallas. But hey it'd be fun.

Jeremy: Hit or Miss

* Indiana head football coach Terry Hoeppner died from complications of the brain tumor he has been battling. Hoeppner was trying, and beginning to succeed, with positivity and a winning attitude, at reviving the Indiana football program.
I don't know much about Hoeppner, but I remember signing day in 2006, when Hoeppner was excited about his incoming recruiting class and was beaming about the prospects, meanwhile, Glen Mason was playing the "we can't get the blue-chippers from the big boys" card. Ever since then I knew Hoeppner had a chance at Indiana. It's too bad to see a positive force like him go.

* Just in case you missed it, Johan Santana was up to his old tricks last night. JoJo threw a complete game, 4-hit shutout against the Mets in Shea Stadium. And, oh by the way, Johan also had a double at the plate. Who says pitchers can't hit?
He was 6-6 going into the game. Here's what's interesting to me: when Santana has an off night, he's still one of the best pitchers in the game, but he never gets ANY run support on those nights. But when he's light's out, like last night, he gets 9 runs. I think Gardie is a damn good manager, but he needs to figure out this batting order and figure it out soon. The team is just not consistent at the plate right now.

* Trade rumors are beginning to swirl again about KG, and this time the league is confirming that talks are taking place. I've gone back and forth on the KG matter, as has been well chronicled on Midwest Sports Rubes. Of course I'm a Minnesota guy, but I've been a Garnett fan pretty much as long as I've been a T'Wolves fan, and clearly KG has taken care of his business as a ball player much better than the Wolves have as a team. I will always be a fan of KG, no matter where he plays, and no matter how hard that will be. And I will certainly be skeptical of ANY moves the Wolves make this off-season, whether they involve KG or not, since history shows that is the appropriate reaction.

Jeremy: So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

Trent Green ended up in Miami. It's safe to say that, outside of Daunte Culpepper, everybody saw it coming. But Daunte is not having it.
"They would like to trade me in order to 'get something for me. However, it is my position that I have already been down that road and I am not interested in being traded."
To Daunte, you get the same response that I gave Jason Giambi when he said that MLB owed the fans an apology for the steroids mess... good luck with that.
Miami is clearly spending it's off-season addressing the offensive side of the ball, and they have been busy at the quarterback position. In addition to signing Green they re-signed their backup quarterback and drafted another. Like I said to Daunte, good luck!
Is it possible that you just can't win with Daunte? Is it possible that he is the Stephon Marbury of the NFL? Puts up massive numbers when he's healthy, but his team just does not benefit from him? Is it possible that the career of the man that was once called the ultimate quarterback will never take off and sustain like it looked like it would? Remember when we talked about Daunte in the same breath with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady? Remember the "if it weren't for Peyton Manning he would have been MVP" talk?
Poor Daunte. Maybe he should look into dog fighting.

Jeff: Hello Summer!

Well summer is officially upon us (ok not “officially” but who waits till the 21st of June to declare summer? Exactly). Here in the Great White North the igloos are melting, the sled dogs are shedding their winter coats, the women of the village are weaving that dog hair into toques and moccasins they can sell at the market, and the caribou are migrating south for the summer. All in all a wonderful time of year. What gets me excited about summer in the world of sports? Glad you asked:
PENNANT RACES!
For the first time since 2001 the Mariners haven’t been eliminated from playoff contention by April 1st, May 1st, or even June 1st. Amazing but true! Thanks to a weak division, smoke, mirrors, and a whole lotta horseshoes, somehow a poorly constructed, overpaid team is only 4.5 out in the division race, and just one behind Detwah in the ever popular Loss column in the Wild Card chase. The probabilities of the Mariners to sustain this success isn’t high, but hey, I’ll take it!
As for the Little Engine That Could, they’ve won 4 in a row and 7 of their last 10 to pull within 6 games of The Tribe in the Central, and 3.5 of the aforementioned Tigres (who have conversely lost 7 of their last 10) in the Wild Card. The big lumberjack himself Justin Morneau is leading the charge with a torrid last couple of weeks, and the Twins are doing all of this with Santana’s usual slow start and an unhealthy Mr. Sideburns. Imagine when those 2 get going? Should be a very entertaining summer in the Central.

THE FALL OF GOLIATH
At some point this summer, if I get around to it, I’ll share my belief on why parity is bad for sports. Sports needs Goliaths (yes even the NFL), and nobody does Goliaths better than the New York Yankees. As you’re probably already sick of hearing, it’s June 1st and the Bombers are in last place in the division and an insurmountable 13.5 behind the Red Sox in the East. Sure they’re only 7.5 behind Detwah for the Wild Card, but can the almighty Yanks really turn it around? I, like many others, would LOVE to see them go down in flames, and it just may happen. Not only would it be great to see the Yanks suck, it would lead to 3 more things Yankee Haters should love:
1) the Yankees firing manager Joe Torre. In my opinion he’s still the best manager in baseball. You’re telling me anybody else could have gotten more out of this team than him? Somebody else could handle the media pressure better? Somebody else could manage the egos better? I don’t think so. Anybody else managing in New York makes the Yankees worse, not better.
2) Firing GM Brian Cashman. He’ll be the fall guy for this, when really this is more about owner George Steinbrenner. Since Cashman has been given more control over player personel moves the last couple of years, he's sought to rebuild the farm system which was depleted completely because of George's “Win at all costs!” demands. Sports franchises are starting to figure out you build good teams through the draft, not free agency. When the All-Powerful Yankees go to this strategy, that should be a big wakeup call to everybody else. Yankee fans believe their entitled to having the best team every year, but I just don’t think that’s possible anymore. Cashman is doing what’s best for the Yankees in the long term, but because it’s still always “Win at all Costs” in New York he’s going to get fired for it. That's not good for the Yanks either.

3) ROGER CLEMENS’ FALL FROM GRACE
I’ve found 2 things where the Rocket is underrated: people’s perception of him as a steroid user (again why do we hear little to nothing about Clemens’ curious late-career resurgence?), and people’s perception at the size of his ego. When you hear people discuss egos in sports, they usually talk about Terrell Owens or Barry Bonds. Why not Clemens? He thinks so much of himself that he decides to only play half the season, and then doesn’t spend off days with the team. He shows up for his starts and spends the rest of his time at home. Wouldn’t that be nice? Then to top it off, his signing with the Yankees is announced at Yankee stadium by him stepping out of the Owners Box to wave to the fans, like Caesar of freaking Rome?!?! Wow. How does this not get more play as Roger being an egomaniacal A-hole?

ANYWAY, Clemens signed with the Yankees not just because they gave him ridiculous money, but because it would further enhance his image and ego by saving the Yankee season. Well guess what? Besides the fact that Clemens has been pitching in the inferior NL the last few years, and that he’s at best now a 6 inning pitcher, no one player can save the Yankees. Clemens went to New York to cement his legacy and retire a legend by saving the Yankee season. So what happens if the Yankees continue to flounder and Clemens gets lit up? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate egg-on-your-face exit? As much as I would LOVE to see this happen, there’s just no way Clemens allows himself to be humiliated like that. So I’m excited to see what excuse he comes up with to get out of it. I don’t see anyway he could ask to be traded, so he’s going to have to invent an injury. To me it’s not a question of IF he does this, but when and how it happens. What a snake.

NBA HOT STOVE
Nobody loves NBA rumors more than me (well except maybe for Joel) so if there’s one thing all the Kobe hoopla has guaranteed us this summer, it’s that the Lakers will make a blockbuster trade. YES! They have to! And considering Dallas CANNOT return this fall with the same lineup that got humiliated by Dallas, and that Phoenix’s current cast has gone as far as they can, that should mean more big deals are in order right? RIGHT? Throw in that both Portland and Seattle should make trades to accommodate their new stars, and that Utah needs to deal AK47 for a perimeter scorer (Does a sign-and-trade with Seattle for Rashard Lewis just make too much sense to happen? Probably does), there SHOULD be a flurry of moves this summer.

HOCKEY WILL BE OVER
I’m just not a hockey fan anymore if the Canucks aren’t involved. I really haven’t watched a game since the Nucks got knocked out in round 2. And you know what? I don’t think I’ve missed much. We’re back to pre-lockout hockey with 1-0 games, no speed, no flash, no excitement.(and for anybody reading this who’s not from Canada, you’re probably shocked to know the NHL still exists), The NHL has failed in the US and the sooner they admit that the better. Considering Gary Bettman won’t be retiring anytime soon, the league will fade further and further of the American sports radar as Bettman refuses to admit he’s wrong and make some necessary drastic changes.
Poor Canada. Their passion and their livelihood, the sport that matters above all else sucks right now and they know it: and yet they’re still compelled to follow it. As bad as the sport is, it’s never been more popular here (the Leafs, Canadiens and Canucks are 3 of the most expensive tickets to get in North American sports right now, the CBC paid about $100 million for broadcasting rights, and one of the sports networks up here just paid $250 million just for rights to Leaf games!!! And before you go making the "Canadian money is worthless" jokes, I'd like to point out the Loonie is worth .93 cents US right now), and yet the league has never neglected Canadian fans more. It’s really sad.
Now I’m not necessarily excited, but definitely interested to see if the “sports” radio station here in town is capable of talking about anything other than hockey. It’s all hockey all the time here. Different hosts, same guests, same hockey talk. All the time. Every day. When the season mercifully ends will the 24/7 hockey talk stop? I doubt it but we’ll see.

A HEALTHY ADRIAN PETERSON IN A MINNESOTA VIKINGS JERSEY
I try not to think of this one too much because I don’t want to jinx it. We have Adrian Peterson. The best running back in college last year. The best collegiate back in a long, long time. A potential elite player in the NFL for a long long time. And he’s a Viking. Seriously. I still can’t believe it.

Jeff: What the Deuce?

Jer, who would be writing this post if he had internet at home, started an IM discussion today with this:

"The wolves had two coaches last year, one went 20-20, the other went 12-30... which one do you think got the contract extension?"

The answer, of course, is Randy Whitmann, the one with the 12-30 record. The man who went 20-20 and got as much out of a hapless Wolves team as any other coach possibly could have (or 8 more wins than the man that replaced him), was fired. Before him the blame was laid on current Pistons coach Flip Saunders. The Wolves record the year they fired him and McHale took over? 44-38. Read that again. 44-38. This past season, the 3rd straight they've missed the playoffs, they were 32-50.

Where are we going with this? That's what we'd like to ask Glen Taylor and Kevin McHale. What's the plan here gentlemen?

Jer summed it up in our chat today as such:
"...well, all of these moves just prove that there really is no plan there. they are flying by the seat of their pants, and aren't really building anything...all of these crappy moves that they have made are partially because they are stupid, but if they had a plan in place, to build the franchise as a winner, they would at least have something to shoot at. Instead they do stuff like picking up two aging superstars well past their prime, and they only get one year out of them, then they give up too much to get rid of one of them.

"Seriously, that is THE bottom line: there is no long term plan!"

I had really never thought of it that way. One minute they're in "win now" mode by trading for Spree and Cassell, which worked well for a year. The next they're spending one of the few first rounders they've had the past decade on a project like high schooler Endi Ibi, who even if he hadn't been a total bust would have taken 3-5 years to make a contribution. Or the worst move McHale's made (which is saying something), crippling both their present AND future when he dealt Cassell and a #1 pick to the Clippers for Marko Jaric and then signed him to a horrible long term contract. Then the Celtics trade and the Mike James signing have left them with zero cap flexibility and 2 lost draft picks in the very near future. So you have one superstar taking up a third of their cap, 6 untradeable players, a few good young players, and Ricky Davis. This recipe has brought them 3 straight lottery seasons, and yet McHale, the man who put them in this position somehow thinks he's magically going to get them out.

How? Why? Where is this all going? I've decided that if they will not trade Garnett then they HAVE to trade the #7 pick, Davis, and one of the 6 awful contracts for another star, and even then they're probably not going to be left with enough to win in the West (by the way, because of the stupid 3 division format, I did not even realize that not only are both Portland and Seattle out West, they're both in the Wolves division. Yikes!). What do they do where do they go?

Probably the same place they've been going for the last decade- nowhere. Now who's pumped for the upcoming Wolves season?

Jeff: Wolves, NBA Unlucky in the Lottery

Just thinking out loud here, but perhaps we can't quite put the NBA Conspiracy rumors to bed quite yet. Other than questions about the Amare/Diaw suspensions against the Spurs, nothing this year ticked Stern off more than tanking. You could just see the steam coming out of the man's ears when he asked whether he would try to do something about tanking. Well? The Celtics, Bucks, and T-Wolves were easily the 3 most egregious offenders of Tankapoolza 2007. The Wolves weren't tanking for the #1 pick, but for the SECOND YEAR IN A ROW were just trying to keep their draft pick by having one of the 10 worst records. For the second straight year they didn't improve their position in the lottery. Boston and Milwaukee finished with the 2nd and 3rd worst records but dropped as far as the lottery process allows, down to 5th and 6th respectively. Not that The Don Stern would EVER get revenge, but you could look at it that Boston and Milwaukee were penalized as much as possible for tanking. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Barring what would have to be the biggest trades in league history, the Pacific Northwest will be home to two once-in-a-generation talents. With just 5.3% odds, the Portland Trailblazers won the #1 pick and the rights to take super center Greg Oden with the #1 pick. Just up I-5, the Seattle Soon-To-Be-Oklahoma-or-Las-Vegas Sonics, with just an 8.8% chance, won the 2nd pick and essentially the rights to Texas super freshman Kevin Durant. Your MInnesota Timberwolves will pick right where they were projected to at #7, and since we've more than a month to figure out who they'll take (COREY BREWER COREY BREWER COREY BREWER), we won't bother with projections right now.

Speaking of bothered, that cussing you hear coming out of Sacaucus, NJ is from Commish David Stern and the NBA front office, as two franchise changers not only go to small markets, but go to WESTERN small markets. This is bad news because for them because, like most everyone else, you haven't been watching the Eastern Conference playoffs. Why? Because the East sucks. They were in dire need of Oden and or Durant. Out east you have 2 good but boring teams in Detroit and Chicago at the head of the pack, 2 of the games biggest stars (Lebron and Dwade) on bad teams with even worse salary cap situations, and then a bunch of teams we can't even call mediocre. The league would have LOVED to get one or both of these guys to Boston, Chicago or Philly, but instead, the already wild west just got a lot wilder, making things even worse for the Wolves. The Blazers are a playoff team right now with Oden. You may laugh now, but trust me, they're now ahead of the Wolves for the race for the 7th or 8th seed. SEattle? Maybe not a playoff shoo-in, but certainly much better with Durant.

Adding insult to injury for fans who enjoy watching the Phoenix Suns play basketball the way it was intended, you know with passing, the Suns could have had Atlanta's pick if it fell out of the top 3. The Hawks of course went and got #3. Thanks Atlanta- you guys can't even suck right. Jackholes.

Back to the Sonics for a minute, because I care way more than I should. I grew up only 2 hours from the Emerald City and the "Supes" have meant a lot to me. Their teams of the mid 90's with Payton, Kemp, Schrempf, Big Smooth, Nate McMillan and so many more you don't care about, were my 2nd favorite team to cheer for behind the '98 Vikings team that...well you know how that one ended with Atlanta. Just as tragic for Sonics basketball fans is how that Supes team was dismantled by one Wally Walker, who refused to give Kemp a contract extension he had earned (make all the paternity suit and drug jokes you want, he was the NBA's 2nd best power forward at the time, and the 2nd best player in that Bulls series behind Jordan in '96. You know what? Watch this youtube clip and you'll see what I mean. Best in-game dunker of our generation. Yup I said it.). Instead the money went to the biggest white stiff center in the history of big stiff white centers, Jim McIlvaine, who signed for what was huge money at the time and did what all big stiff white centers do...absolutely nothing. Kemp got pissed and got traded, team performance and attendance sunk, a good owner sold to the Coffee Bitch, who didn't like Gary Payton and traded him out of town, pretty much killing the fan base. Shocked that trading away your franchise player wasn;t the best way to drum up interest for a new stadium, he cried in his Latte and sold them for a small $150 MILLION DOLLAR PROFIT to the Oklahoma folks who will now move the team to their free arena in Oklahoma or a shiny new one in Vegas unless the good people of King County build him a stadium. Not a chance. Sianora Supes.

There are some who believe that the arrival of Oden or Durant could have caused enough sway with the public to keep the Sonics in Seattle. I think it was possible with Oden, but unless Durant scores 30 a night and lives up to the lofty Jordan comparisons from day 1, it's not going to be enough. So it was bad enough that a great fan base is getting robbed of its team because the Coffee Bitch was so arrogant to believe tax payers would and should build him a new arena for free. Now the Sonics will leave town with a kid who has the potential to be an all-time great. As the Sports Guy would say, I will now stab a pencil into my eye socket. Or listen to Avril Lavigne...no the pencil in the eye would be less painful.

As for Wolves fans, well you already know how I feel. And David Stern. And Celtics fans.

Jeremy: Quick Notes

*Jason Giambi thinks that Major League Baseball owes the fans an apology for everything that has happened with performance enhancing drugs.
"What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said, 'We made a mistake... We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward."
Four words to Mr Giambi: GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

*Can someone please return the Minnesota Twins back to Minnesota? This bunch of guys that are wearing Twins jersey's right now, and parading around like they are MLB players is clearly not the real guys.
Honestly, what happened here? Look, we didn't expect a ton of runs out of these guys, but you had to expect that they'd be serviceable. The real shocker is the pitching and the defense. Like I said, who are these guys?

*The Vikings are trying to make another push for a stadium at the end of the legislative session in order to drum up support for next year's session. Asking the state to consider a Vikings stadium at this point, for the Vikings, is a little like The Jesus (John Turturo's character in "The Big Lebowski" describing Walter (John Goodman) not being able to bowl on Saturday because it's Shabas: "Laughable man!"

*I'm not 100% of the opinion that the NBA may have taken away the championship from the Suns by suspending Diaw and Stoudamire in game 5, but HOLY CRAP, could that possibly have come at a worse possible time for the NBA?

Jeff: Enough Already!

There's some whining going on in the world of sports right now. Some surprising, some...yeah not so much.

PEOPLE CRYING THAT DIRK DIDN"T DESERVE THE MVP...
Look this is just like the Heisman Trophy: it goes to the best player on the best team. Dallas was the best team, Dirk their best player, and voila! Your MVP! Nash was really the only other player you could make a case for, and we knew the voters were not going to give him 3 straight MVP's because they don't feel he's worthy of the company of other 3 time winners like MJ, Bird, and Russell. Who's fault is that? The voters of course for giving him the first two!!! For the record, I would not have given Stevie Nash the MVP the previous 2 seasons, but his numbers were better across the board this year and he did an excellent job of soothing egos and getting this group to play together. Not giving someone an award even though he's deserving because you feel he's not an all-time great, well, it's like Ricky Williams hitting the hash pipe yet again: it's just plain stupid. Oh, and just to remind folks: IT'S A REGULAR SEASON AWARD!!! Dallas losing in the first round does not mean Nowitzki should have to give back the MVP. By being the best player on the best team in the regular season, he was apparently deserving of the award.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS FOR CRYING, WAILING, AND GNASHING TEETH ANYTIME A FOUL IS CALLED ON THEM...
Who's more annoying: Red Sox fans or Spurs players? Joel, one of our 4 faithful readers, HATED the CWebb/Vlade Divac/"Close Your Mouth" Stojakovic Sacramento Kings from a few years back because of all their whining and flopping (and that Peja would't close his mouth. Nice signing by the Hornets though. $60 million for him to be on IR all year. Well done). I admittedly liked that team, mostly because CWebb was one of my favorite players (Shawn Kemp's my all-time fave. I've learned to live with my poor choices in players), but fully admitted that they were whiny floppers. Well the Spurs have taken this to an entirely new level, to the point that I think we need a new rule for the Spurs, and for any Europeans/Manu Ginobili's: act like a man! You want to play here? Stop flailing like you were hit with a cannon when somebody gets near you and for gawd sakes shut up when a foul/penalty/infraction is called on you. You wonder why football hasn't caught on over there? Good lord what would be their reaction in a game where they're actually allowed to get hit? (Just so we're clear, folks from the UK are not included in this group since they don't play basketball or hockey that I know of. Well except John Amechi, and we're not going there) Anyway I hate the Spurs, and if you live anywhere outside the San Antonio metro area you have to really hate yourself to cheer for that team.

PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT BARRY BONDS TO BE THE HOME RUN KING OR MAKE THE HALL OF FAME:
Am I a Barry Bonds fan? No. Do I think Barry Bonds used steroids after 1998? Yes. However I still have no problem with him hitting 756 and going into Cooperstown someday. 3 reasons:
1) He won 3 MVP's, 8 Gold Gloves, made 8 All Star appearances, and became the only player in baseball history with 400 HR's and 400 stolen bases. And he did all of this BEFORE 1999, when he magically put on 30 pounds of muscle, stopped stealing bases, and his head started to look like an orange on a tooth pick (it had it's own weather system. HEED! PANTS! NOW! He's gonna cry himself to sleep on his huge pilla). Unlike McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, and others he was one of the greatest players ever even before his alleged roid use began.
2) As positive steroid tests from guys like Twins relief pitcher Juan Rincon and journeyman leadoff hitting center fielder Alex Sanchez show, there's really no telling who was/IS using and who's not. So I find it a tad hypocritical that we're going to keep the Bonds and McGwire's of the era out because they LOOK like steroid users, when there's countless other hitters and pitchers using that we'll do nothing about. I could name 10 guys off the top of my head, including a certain pitcher who just signed a ridiculous contract to play half a season with an AL East team, who have had VERY suspicious body changes/late career spikes, but we don;t like to talk about them. Nope, we'll only go after the guys we don't like. Pitchers seem to be like football players: we just don't seem to care if they use roids or not. But hitters? Stone them all!!!!
3) As ESPN.com baseball scribe Buster Olney has said many times on this issue: Baseball knew there were guys juicing in the 80's, 90's, and into this decade. Players knew it, teams knew it, and the media knew something was wrong with all the "new" body types that were coming in. But fans love offense and home runs, and the game needed to bounce back after the strike. We as fans should have seen signs, but we just didn't want to believe until we had to. I know I didn't. I LOVED the '98 season with McGwire and Sosa. I saw one of Sosa's 20 HR's in June in my first ever game at Wrigley (...allow me a moment of silence because I won't get to go to Chicago for the first time in 7 years...Thank you) So don't tell me this is some travesty to the game that Bonds will be it's all-time home run hitter: because baseball let it happen. You reap what you sow.

BRETT FAVRE MAKING A SPECTACLE AGAIN? WHAT A SHOCK!
Finally, Favre isn't happy because his Packers didn't get Randy Moss for a 4th round pick. He's only half right here: the Pack DID have a chance to get Randy back in February or March, so yes they dropped the proverbial ball there. But once New England got involved, it was over. Moss wants to win a Super Bowl, and I think even delusional Packer fans would have to agree his chances are a helluva lot better in New England than they would have been in Green Bay. So Favre's Pack didn't get Moss, didn't help him in the draft, and signed nobody of consequence in free agency so he demands a trade and starts whining about it?...Wait a minute...you know what? Mr Spotlight Brett Favre might actually be right on this one. For once I agree with him. And as a Vikings fan I couldn't be happier. Now back to my prayer vigil for Adrian Peterson's collarbone.