Cuddyer Wins Batting Title

sigh

Vikings

While enjoying yesterday's Vikings win, I got this incredible idea. As much as we all LOVE Christian Ponder and want him to be our quarterback forever, what if...now follow me on this... what if... as much as we adore the man... what if...as absurd as it might sound... what if HE is the primary problem with the Vikings?

I know right now that you must think I'm insane, how could someone as great as Ponder you ask be the reason we are not winning right now?

I offer you yesterday's game as proof. Actually this game was nearly identical to the last two games in which we lost. We had BIG plays on offense and defense. We even scored a nice amount of points, but at the end, just when you thought Pittsburgh was going to pull it out (or at least tie the game) BOOM, they fumbled and we won.

Now if they hadn't fumbled, we'd probably be talking about another Viking's loss today. So it wasn't like Cassel made that big a difference.

Okay. I kid. Cassel played great. But even though we had big plays, and Cassel had no turnovers, and COMPLETED HIS LAST ELEVEN PASSES IN A ROW, we STILL almost lost.

My other points are valid. We were one Pittsburgh fumble away from losing yet another game.

I'm thinking there must be some fundamental flaw in coaching that allows a team to play this well and still almost lose. We got so conservative in the last quarter on offense that we nearly handed Pittsburgh the win on a silver platter. We never even tried to go for first downs once we had the 17 point lead. We were content to punt even though we had a QB with a rare hot hand.

Coach Frazier looked liked his mentor Brad Childress yesterday. And when our bye week is gone, we'll most likely see Frazier's conservative approach once more. Ponder will be back as our starter and Cassel will be back on the bench and we'll lose no matter how many big plays the team makes on offense, defense, and special teams.

Because Ponder is not the main reason we lose. Frazier is. But Ponder is a close second in the voting.

Random Twins Thoughts

As horrible as the Twins have looked the last three seasons and as bad as they were the last week or so, I'm not sure HOW Gardy can stick around next season.

Most likely the Twins will announce that Gardy is gone sometime today. I cannot blame Gardy completely for the mess that the Twins have become, so much of it has to do with the Twins keeping superstars like Mauer and Morneau and signing them to huge contracts while letting less expensive, talented players leave in free agency. Michael Cuddyer comes first to mind, but we got rid of Carlos Gomez, and J.J. Hardy and Denard Span, too. ALL still have contracts much more appealing that Morneau and WAY, WAY better than Mauer.

And though I hated the idea of bringing back Francisco Liriano this season, knowing that Pittsburgh got him for just a million dollars still irks me a bit. I would not have brought him back, but knowing the drek that the Twins did sign, it kind of bothers me that they didn't try Liriano again. Just look at the TOTAL number of wins the Twins starters produced this year and their average ERA. It's quite possible we had the worst starting staff in baseball history this season.

I can't blame Ryan entirely because he inherited the mess from the last GM. Our young players don't seem to have the fundamentals that you'd expect from well-coached farm club players. They do so many things wrong. They miss the cut-off and they throw to the wrong man. NONE of them can lay down a simple sacrifice bunt, and they haven't for years.

One of the reasons the Twins were competitive even when they didn't have great pitching and great offensive players is that they were sound defensively and could bunt. Yesterday we had THREE errors in the sixth inning alone. And sadly, that has been the norm this season. That goes back to coaching throughout the organization, and not just Gardy's managing.

The Twins are a fundamentally flawed team. And I use that term as more than a pun. Much is wrong. Much needs to be fixed. And none of it is going to get better in the near future with or without Gardy.

Who LOVES the Twins?

Oakland and Detroit love the Twins. They were escorted into the playoffs last week by an incompetent Twins squad. With one game to go in the season, the Cleveland Indians are hoping for one more win today, guaranteeing them a spot in the wild card playoff game too. IF the Indians win today, they will love the Twins as well.

It's not often that I want the Twins to lose a game, but helping THREE teams get into the playoffs in the span of just ONE week is pretty unprecedented. Texas and Tampa Bay hate us for making it so easy for everyone that goes against us. But hey, you can't get everyone to like you.

The Gophers lost their Big Ten opener to Iowa yesterday 23-7. Typical Gopher squad. They beat wimps outside the conference and lose to average teams within the Big Ten. No real hopes this season either.

The Vikings play their "home game" in London today. I'm planning on watching part of it, and will watch more if it's at all close. I know the Steelers are 0-3 as well, but the Vikings are a special kind of losing team. We'll see which team is the bigger loser this afternoon.

I'm looking forward to the Broncos game at 3:15 a lot more!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

The Vikings decided that Christian Ponder's broken rib should stay home in Minnesota this weekend. I thnk that's good news for Viking's fan worldwide.

The problem is that I've been reading comments from readers at ESPN, and the general consensus of Kansas City fans (you know, those who were forced to watch Matt Cassel the last couple of seasons) is that Ponder, even with both a broken rib AND his current horrid play would still be a better choice than Matt Cassel.

So there you have it. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Two choices, neither which is any good. Our one bright hope is that Pittsburgh, even with Roethlisberger healthy, has looked just as pathetic as the Vikings so far this season. With both teams at 0-3, it's hard to imagine either team winning this weekend. My early pick is that Pittsburgh will kill us unless Peterson ends up with over 200 yard rushing. Now please note that I didn't say we'd WIN if Peterson got 200 yards, I merely stated that I don't think we'd get killed if Peterson had a good rushing day. I'm still pretty sure that Pittsburgh will beat us. Remember, that was just a week ago that a really bad Cleveland team beat us AT HOME.

Ponder said he'll be back for NEXT weekend's game. Minnesota fans were hoping that the injury would keep him sidelined until next year or longer. I guess I'll give Cassel a chance. It's not like there are any other real choices. Brett Favre is as healthy as he's been in years, and his agent says he's in playing shape, but if I were Brett, I wouldn't go anywhere near this mess of a team.

Me, I'm still laughing that people thought Tarvaris Jackson was a bad quarterback. Now that we've all seen Ponder, we know what a bad quarterback really looks like. Jackson is still playing backup in Seattle after having a good year there as their starter, while we have Ponder playing for a coach worse than both Tice and Childress. Tarvaris is not a great QB, but I'd take him over Ponder in a second. I'm guessing most Vikings fans would at this point.

I'm not sure how the Vikings would go about finding their next quarterback. The best way would to be to go 0-16 this season and then draft Johnny Football first in the draft next year. The problem with that? Johnny Manziel is known as much for his running game as his unbelievable passing. He wouldn't fit traditional coach Leslie Frazier's idea of what a quarterback should be. He'd have to totally rebuild his offensive game plan to accommodate him. And with Peterson in the backfield, he'd never do that. Tebow is available, but he'd have the same problem with Tim. We'd need a new offense for that to work.

HMMM, it looks like the only REAL solution is to get rid of Frazier and find a coach with a more modern approach. I don't think it's going to take that long for something like that to happen. If the Vikings keep playing like they are, that's a problem that will take care of itself in the very near future.

Niners Win

I hate it that Thursday Night Football requires a special channel from the NFL. The Niners won last night and only a fraction of America got to see the game. At least San Fran won.

Twins Late Rally Falls Short

At this point, I'm kind of waiting to see if Cleveland can get to the playoffs by beating the Twins. It's seem like such an odd accomplishment, but Minnesota could conceivably, in one week's time, send THREE separate teams to the playoffs (by losing to them).  That has to be some kind of record. The A's and Tigers got to celebrate against the Twins, now we'll have to wait and see if the Indians do as well. Dare it say it? Go Cleveland.

Speaking of records...

The Twins have now struck out nearly 1,400 times this year. That's FIFTH best all-time. Usually teams with tons of home run hitters set those kinds of records. And while it's true that the Twins are hitting more homeruns this season (as I predicted they would in preseason) it's not like any of them have been hitting like Babe Ruth. Dozier leads the team with just 18 homeruns, but 7 Twins have 11 or more. Those aren't the kind of numbers that make fans sit up and take notice but at least they are distributed evenly throughout the line-up.

Tigers Clinch Division Title

For the second time in a week the Twins were involved with a huge celebration game in which a team won a division title. That the Twins LOST both games giving the A's and Tigers what they wanted the most was neither here nor there. The Twins got to see what it LOOKS like to win a division title and they got to see it up-close. Most of the players we currently have on the active roster have never been part of games like this. A couple of bullpen pitchers are all that's left of the Twins glory days from just a few of seasons ago.

Correia pitched great in the loss, but he was going against the Tigers ace, Max Scherzer, who is 21-3 on the season with an ERA of 2.90. That 1-0 loss pretty much summarizes the Twins season. They lost a lot of close games. They got blown out in many more. But they rarely won in either type of those games.

When the season began, I said there would be a good chance that NO Twin would get 10 wins for us this season. There just wasn't anyone good enough to do it. I mentioned that IF Diamond came back healthy that he would be our one best chance. He didn't come back healthy. And Kevin Correia, who has NINE wins lost his last start of the season last night.

I can't think of any team in the modern era that didn't get at least one pitcher with ten wins for an entire season. Usually at least one guy will get there. It's possible it has happened before, but how bad must your whole pitching staff be, how bad must your offense be, that you cannot support at least ONE pitcher with a ten win season? Again, I hate being so right with my predictions of doom for the Twins, but I nailed it. What's even worse is that we only have one other pitcher with more than SIX wins on the season.

Our "best" starting five on the season have win totals of 9, 8, 6, 5, and 3. We had no other starter with more than TWO. Wow. We had a couple of relievers that reached 6 and 5 win totals but they don't really count.

Gardy is still stuck at 998 wins. I have no idea if he'll get those last two wins in a Twins uniform to reach the 1000 win plateau as a manager. I mentioned yesterday that it actually looks like he'll be coming back next season, but that certainly is not a given. I'd like to see him reach 1000 wins with the few games we have left. But part of me thinks that if his total really does end at 998 or 999 that it too will be a good example of how Gardy never quite got the job done as Twins manager. That will always be his legacy.

Hope?

Now I actually have no idea what kind of quarterback Matt Cassel is today. I just know that with a great coach in a great offense he was very good taking Tom Brady's place several years ago in New England.

With the Chiefs, he lost his starting job rather quickly. With the Vikings, they see him as just a back-up in case something happens to Ponder.

Well, from all accounts something has happened to Ponder. Sore ribs from the looks of it.

Because of that, there's at least a pretty good chance that head coach Leslie Frazier MAY use this opportunity to give Cassel a chance to show what he can do with this horrible offense. I really don't think a new QB is the answer at this time, but anything that gets Ponder out of the starting offense for a week or two has got to be a good thing. IF Ponder starts instead of Cassel, it will just show us what Frazier really thinks of Cassel.

I just know that if I were Ponder and I had sore ribs, the last thing I'd want to do is take two long, overseas flights in the next 4 or 5 days. That doesn't sound very helpful for the healing of ribs even if the seats are first class.

Frazier has to see that Ponder is not the Vikings long-term answer at QB. He may as well start Cassel. The season, for all intents and purposes, is already lost. Now is the time to see what else your team can do for you.

His job isn't going to last much longer either way.

More Trouble ahead for Twins?

It's official. Joe Mauer is done for the season. With just a few games left, it really makes no sense for Joe to come back this year. But if you read between the lines of what was announced at Monday's press conference, you'll see that lots of "stuff" is still in play that could easily effect next year's season.

First of all Mauer says he plans to be be back healthy and ready to play, but secondly, and this is the part that disturbs me, he says he plans on spending most of his time behind the plate. He's always asserted that he "is a catcher."

Now anyone paying attention since Joe's concussion KNOWS that one of the very few bright spots for the Twins this last month has been the play of NEW, YOUNG catcher Josmil Pinto. I think the eight fans that are still left following the Twins this late in the season were kind of assuming that Pinto would be our new catcher permanently. We were also assuming that a battered Mauer, who has battled one bad injury after another because of his catching assignment would gracefully and graciously move over to first base next season where Justin Morneau's absence has left a gaping hole in our lineup.

Mauer's comments demonstrate to me that he is NOT the team player people think he is. He must be following Pinto's incredible rise to mini-stardom, but instead of embracing Pinto as someone who can clearly help the club, he took the time to mark his territory at the press event instead.This is going to cause some conflict for next season.

Worse, and I don't want to read too much into this, but Terry Ryan made further comments on a radio pre-game show later, and if you were once more paying attention, you'd have heard something even MORE disturbing. He admitted that Joe's statement about being behind the plate next season is not a given, but that would have to be something worked out between Mauer and Gardy.

Did you catch it? Ryan is alredy assuming that Ron Gardenhire WILL be back next season. AND the only person who would know that within the Twins organization IS Terry Ryan. My guess is that he and Gardy have already talked about it an Gardy will indeed be back next year.

Our starting rotation isn't going to improve greatly next season. Our bats have basically went to sleep. Mauer wants to fight for HIS catching position, and Gardy is going to be back next season managing this entire mess.

And people wonder why I jump OFF the Twins bandwagon so often?

Frazier Disliked

Football

With the Vikings off to such a horrible start and Green Bay and San Francisco not doing much better, I'm not enjoying the season much so far. I found myself rooting for the Chicago Bears on Sunday night just because they were playing so well. I wasn't rooting so much for the team, but how good this team LOOKED when they killed the Steelers.

I also found out last night that the ONLY team I'm really rooting for consistently, at this point in the season, is the Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning IS my favorite quarterback and so far this season the Broncos are undefeated. I'm thinking that Manning throwing 12 TDs through just three games has something to do with that. I can't believe that Ponder and the Vikings are even in the same league with Manning and the Broncos. The difference in the level of play is just jarring.

Getting used to the Vikings being a bad team has been easier than I expected. The Twins being horrible has helped me accept the idea that my enjoyment of life has nothing to do with how bad my favorite teams are playing.

Ignoring them is way better and easier than caring about another loss. Someday, when Gardy and Frazier are memories from a distant past, both the Twins and the Vikings will be better teams again, but until then I'll just watch the better match-ups of the better teams that play the games. I can be content in that for awhile.

The Twins and Vikings losing still hurts, but not like when I expected them to win. Lowered expectations can be a blessing in disguise.

Go Manning! Go Broncos!

Twins WIN!!!!!

It's not often I get excited about the Twins winning. Part of the reason is that, lately, they haven't won at all.

Last night was different. Pelfrey was pitching great through four and I was thinking how rare it was for a Twins to give up NO runs this late in the game. But then the fifth came and the Tigers scored three runs and then they got more on base and I thought this was it, we're going to give up a dozen runs tonight. I turned it off and came back an inning later.

The Tigers had the bases loaded with one out, and even though the score was still miraculously still 3-0, I turned it off thinking, "well this is it" again.

But something unusual happened last night. The Twins gave up no more runs. They came back and tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, and they WON it in the bottom of the 11th.

As my dad used to say, "I didn't look for that."

With a week left in season, any win is a good win. And it was nice for us to beat the division leading Tigers.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

A tweet:

Tis A Ponderous Chain...

One of my favorite scenes in A Christmas Carol (the one starring George C. Scott) has a dead Marley telling Scrooge how heavy it is to carry around ALL the bad things he'd ever done while he was alive.

He told Scrooge in the most pathetic, helpless voice you've ever heard, "tis a ponderous chain."

I can't help think about that line every time Christian Ponder is called on to do something, ANYTHING, to give the Vikings a chance to win a close game.

It doesn't matter how many BIG plays this team manages to pull off (yesterday it was THREE INTs by the defense) you can always depend on Ponder to weigh the team down just enough to cost us the game. He is truly a PONDERous chain.

But let's talk football a little bit more. The Vikings are 0-3 now. You know, that WAS pretty much expected. I thought the Vikings actually had a chance to win yesterday, but we saw something much cooler in the hapless Cleveland Browns. Desperation. They KNEW they had no chance going in so they were forced to try TWO trick plays, one on a punt and one on a field goal try, that gave them an early lead. They knew they HAD to resort to the tricks to win.

Coach Frazier still lives in the dream world of thinking we just need to make a "few adjustments" to win this division. Cleveland's coach is scratching and clawing in reality while Frazier sees SIX sacks on his pocket passer and still thinks things are just fine.

More football? While the Vikings at 0-3 was pretty much expected, some really weird things are going on with what was thought to be much better teams. Green Bay is only a game ahead of the Vikings in the standings at 1-2. Their only win? That was against the now 0-3 Redskins, who are featuring a very different looking RGIII. More? Ely Manning and the Giants are also 0-3. Colin Kaepernick and the Niners are 1-2 as well. Pittsburgh is being featured in prime time every week and they can't be happy with their 0-3 start either. The whole world gets to see how bad they've become.

The Vikings have been horrible so far this year. But they are in some very good company. At least there is that.

Jolly old England awaits next us week. We have the rare opportunity to stink it up on TWO continents this season. Tis a rare privilege indeed.

And I can't help but thinking that Scrooge and Marley were from London as well.

Tis a ponderous chain.

I like typing "tis," what can I say?

MInnesota Sports

I've been avoiding the Twins the last couple of days. They've been outscored 20-1 in that time. I'm going to keep on avoiding them for a while longer.

I'm planning on watching the Vikings today, at least for part of the game. Cleveland just lost their big running threat, Trent Richardson, in a trade, and they have a new starting QB who has only thrown 34 passes in his whole NFL career. Since the Vikes are at home, it means they could actually win this game. I'm not convinced, at this point, that they can beat anybody, but IF they are going to win a game this season, this seems like their best opportunity. If they LOSE this game, they will firmly establish themselves as one of the absolute worst teams the league has to offer.

I caught much of the Gophers second half yesterday. Mitch Leidner, their redshirt freshman QB had FOUR rushing TDs. No Gopher QB has done that before. The Gophers head into Big Ten play against Iowa next week undefeated at 4-0. Of course, they did the same thing LAST season before the conference games started and still had a miserable year.

What I like about this Jerry Kill coached team is that they are back to being a RUSHING team. They had well over 300 yards on the ground yesterday. That kind of ball control may actually help them win some games in the conference this year.

A-Rod Hits His 24th Career Grand Slam

IF performance enhancing drugs weren't such an issue in baseball today, this would be a very big deal. The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig had the old record with 23, and this was one of baseball's biggest records.

Now when I read about it, all the fans say is it shouldn't count because he cheated.

I don't honestly disagree with them, but so much of the joy of baseball has left because of these ongoing drug scandals. Instead of celebrating accomplishment, fans are left to deride the players instead.

I know we can never go back to the days when I was 12 and all the cool records like home runs in a season, or home runs in a career, or grand slams in a career will ever really mean something again. But because of the possibility that ANY player MAY be using some PEDs we can't even enjoy the  Chris Davis' 50 plus home run season either.

Never mind that he's always been big and strong and hit 450 foot home runs while in high school. Never mind that he now strikes out a lot less and walks a lot more and seems to have learned how to be more patient as a major league hitter. The only thing we all now ever conclude is,

"He's never hit this many before SO...

...he must be taking some banned substance."

No one will believe him when he says he doesn't. And no one one WANTS to believe that he's drug free either. And that's the saddest part of all. We no longer seem to have the option of giving a player the benefit of a doubt.

If the JOY of baseball is now lost, why do I want to even be a baseball fan? If we're cynical about every major accomplishment or record set, we can no longer enjoy the game.

That's what I hate the most. Football has players suspended all of the time because of PED use and no one really cares because none of the records are really sacred. Eric Dickerson's season rushing record and Jerry Rice's career TD mark are the only two that seem to really matter, and until EITHER is broken, no one is going to care about football players and drug use.

But baseball's history is bigger and more sacred. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are immortals. And A-Rod "has no right pursuing either one of them, let alone breaking their records."

Again, I can't disagree with that ongoing sentiment.

But A-Rod DID hit his 24th carer grand slam last night. And I hate the fact that I can't celebrate that accomplishment any more than the average baseball fan. Innocence has been lost. And that innocence can never be regained.

Becoming an adult in the real world bites.

It really does.

Facts?

I don't think all of these "facts" are true. The letters AFTER the pictures seem to verify that.

Still, it's sports.

Enjoy.

http://uberhumor.com/20-interesting-football-facts-to-kick-off-the-nfl-season-20-pictures

Cable TV

I can't believe I'm thinking about dropping cable after having it for over 25 years.

Nearly everything I watch can easily be accessed through Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime. Even subscribing to ALL of those services would cost me less than $30 a month.

The only thing I would really miss would be live sports. The Twins are not going to be worth watching for at least several seasons. The Vikings are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future either.

Last night I was checking about the possibility of subscribing to the NFL replay Network. For $40 for the entire season, I could watch every NFL game, time delayed by one day. They even let you watch 30 minute versions of the game if you prefer, so that you don't have to watch the entire three hours to see all of the action.

In the past, I would have hated that option. Sports need to be live right? Right?

Well, not so much any more. If I could see 30 minute versions of 6 or 7 games a week, I would be seeing ALL the games I really want to see, but I'd be seeing them in the space of one NORMAL game.

I'd see everything in less time.

Hmmm.

I can still catch many major college games on ESPN 3 (an internet channel).

I'm thinking about dumping my landline phone at the same time.

That's as much as $130 a month I'd be saving depending on how many other things I decide to subscribe to.

I'm pretty sure it's going to happen in the near future.

More and more people are stopping their cable TV service. I guess it's time to jump on that bandwagon, too.

Twins Avoid Sweep

I admit it. I skipped yesterday's game entirely. I knew it was on, but at this point of the season, I just don't care enough to watch right now, especially after getting beat by the cellar-dwelling White Sox the previous two games.

The best news coming from this win? Scott Diamond managed to pitch into the seventh inning and it was his FIRST win in over THREE months.

Still paying attention. Just not closely.

Heat's Chris Anderson Gets "Te'o'd"

Notre Dame's Manti Te'o got caught up with a fake girlfriend from  the internet while playing there his senior year.

Guess what? Another similar case has surfaced. Chris Anderson of the Miami Heat was finally cleared of all charges after it was discovered that his internet "girlfriend" was also pretending to be a threatening Anderson.

Say what?

This woman, Shelly Lynn Charteir from Manitoba , Canada, actually made threatening e-mails to herself pretending she was Anderson so that she could extort money from him. She also set up fake Facebook and Twitter accounts pretending to be a threatening Anderson. Anderson was then reported to the police by Chartier to be investigated for threatening his fake girl friend because of his unwillingness to pay extortion money to her.

For 15 months, Anderson has been living in fear that he'd lose his NBA job and reputation because of this incredibly complicated blackmail scheme.

The Canadian authorities finally put all of the details together and figured out that Anderson was the victim of terrible hoax. The whole scheme unraveled when it was discovered that his computer's I.P address did not match that of the the person who was supposedly threatening her.

He lost his job with the Denver Nuggets last year because of the incident and is relieved that the whole ordeal is finally over.

The real loser in all of this? Manti Te'o.

Every time fake internet girlfriend stories like this come out, people will now always say the guy got Te'o'd.

I said this once before, and it bears repeating.

IF you have a girlfriend, make sure she's real. It will save you a lot of embarrassment in the long run.

LIghter Side

There are many, many women out there who have no more interest in sports than I have in getting a pedicure, BUT they still want to be supportive of their boyfriend or husband. Here is their tank-top.

The One

I had a quick thought on a new pro basketball league yesterday. I said it should consist primarily of recent high school graduates who didn't want to attend college, and that it could eventually be an NBA farm system.

I still like that idea, but I cannot come up with a good name for the league. Hot Shots Basketball was my favorite, and others like Young Guns Basketball, or simply Young Guns were kind of appealing. They just didn't make me go "wow." I'd still watch the league with either name, but there is a better name out there just waiting to be invented.

But as I was thinking about that concept, I think I came up with something much, much better.  The idea was staring me right in the face the whole time and I didn't see it.

Over the last couple of summers, at a nearby park, friends of mine would frequently get together to play some half-court basketball. Sometime only three or four of us would show up. Three kind of made playing awkward. We'd play some two-on-one games, but that really wasn't very satisfying or much fun. The TWO nearly always beat the ONE. One-on-One meant somebody always had to sit, and "horse" is for little kids.

A new game idea was eventually hatched. I came up with the idea of playing one-on-one-on-one. Now before I go any farther, I have to tell you that this is MY idea, and I'm patenting and trade-marking it right now, so don't go stealing this on me.

The rules are really simple. Every player is in it for himself. On offense, you are always battling two guys on defense.

And the ball is always live. If you make the shot, the first person to get the ball, after it goes through the net, now possesess the ball. In effect, you play it just like a rebound.

Each shot is worth one point. And if you foul, the play continues with the player fouled retaining the ball, BUT the player who had the foul gets a point taken away for each foul. That rule encourages good defense with clean play. If you MAKE the shot when fouled, you play it like any other shot, but the person who fouls always loses a point. There are no free throws.

And there is no out of bounds.

If the ball goes flying somewhere, anywhere after a play, the person who gets to it first gets to have it. We reward hustle in this game.

That's it. Sometimes we play to 10 points. Sometimes we play to 15. But those 15 point games can get pretty long. Remember, since the ball is always in play and there are no timeouts, you are always moving. A quick game might be over in 15 minutes, but a long game could go over half an hour.

I forgot to mention, if a player with the ball travels or double dribbles, he will be required to shoot the ball immediately wherever he is at while being double-teamed on defense. He can no longer move freely with the ball.

Now here's my "Big Idea."  Get the best players in the world who are not currently in college or under pro contract, and have them play in this league. Sign the 24 best you can find.

Now put them in a season-long tournament with every possible combination of those 24 players. The person who wins each game gets three points in the standings. The person with the second highest total of points in the game is awarded just ONE point in the standings and the third place player gets NONE. If there is a tie for second in the game, they both get one point in the standings.

At the end of the season, the three players with the highest point standings will play a five game tournament against each other. The winner of that tournament will be declared "The One" which will be the name of the show and the league.

The best part? IF these game were televised, they could be run in a half hour time slot, an hour time slot, or even longer, depending on how many games that they wanted to show at one time.

And the games would be non-stop action. Imagine that. In the NBA, the last TWO MINUTES could go half an hour or longer with all the timeouts and fouls called. In this league, you could play a whole game in that time period.

If it were a "real" league, I'd set up a hoop at center court and put a high plexiglass circle around the area. Spectators could then have seats behind the barrier. It would kind of look like hockey.

If players got hurt, subs would take over for them and they would finish the game and it would then be THEIR slot from that game on. Injured players who heal would then be designated subs for future games.

There are some awfully good one-on-one players who play this game who have never played pro or college ball. This league, this game, would give them a chance to excel and get noticed. Stars would be born, and the game of basketball could quickly evolve into something totally different from what we see today.

It's time for "The One."

It's the ultimate reality show.

I should mention that even though I'm short and don't jump all that well, I successfully played this game against much taller players. The best players won't necessarily have to be tall to win.

If you like basketball, call up a couple of your buddies, and play the game. You'll be surprised how much fun it is and how tired you get. It's a great workout even if the T.V. show never gets aired as a real league.

And if YOU win, you can call yourself "The One."

No Thought

I'm trying not to pay attention to the Vikings this season. I knew going in that they'd most likely lose the first two games of the season, and predicted exactly that.

I said the primary reason would be the inability of Ponder to play the QB position. I also said that would be compounded by the coaches forcing Ponder to be a pocket passer way more often than he should be.

I hate being right all the time when it comes to predicting doom for the Vikings. But what caught my attention the last couple of days was the same thing that caught my attention LAST season. Where coaches on average to bad teams constantly struggle with WHO should be their be their starting QB, Leslie Frazier was quoted again this week as saying he is giving NO THOUGHT to benching Christian Ponder. He assured everyone who asked him, that Ponder is his guy. That's not something he frets about. He admits that there are lots of things that he and his coaching staff are going to tweak and look at, but Ponder as starting QB is not one of them.

Even when he was having an absolutely awful first half against the Bears, Frazier said he gave NO THOUGHT to benching Christian Ponder.

NO THOUGHT.

I've got some advice for Mr. Frazier. 

Start thinking about it.

There is going to come a point in the very near future where your job will depend upon it.

Notes and a Long Editorial

Let's be honest, how many Twins fans made it through the entire first inning last night? I turned it off when Hendriks left trailing 5-0 with runners still on base. The 12-1 final was not a shock to anyone who watched that first inning.

I also tried watching some Monday night football last night. Neither the Bengals  nor Steelers were worth watching. I don't see either of them as playoff teams.

The NCAA repeated yesterday that they do not plan on paying college athletes. They want them to remain amateurs. I still think the time for new pro leagues featuring kids right out of high school can't be that far off. Both basketball and football leagues featuring kids who no longer want or need that amateur status, and who wish to earn a living from their skills, will flock to leagues that will pay them way more than minimum wage.

The better players will join the NFL and NBA some day, while others will go on to lead normal lives after a few seasons. IF those leagues required players to take and pass college classes as part of their terms of employment, most would be happy with the arrangement.

The basketball league would be the easiest to start. Just put a team in every current NBA town and play in the NBA's off season. Eventually, they could even become part of the NBA as a type of farm system. I'm guessing they would get way more fans than the current WNBA who currently occupy that time slot of the NBA offseason. A 40 game season with $15- $20 tickets would appeal to an awful lot of basketball fans. AND the teams could play in larger high school gyms or arenas in the state to get more local fan support.

The league would need less than 400 players. Each player would make about $50,000 a year. That's only about half a million dollar roster cost per team. IF they could sell T.V. rights (and if you signed top high school stars that really wouldn't be a problem) they could be quite successful. The better teams would be as good as some of the NCAA tournament teams.

And the players would get paid. Top high school stars would sign two-year contracts and then wait for the NBA draft, getting great playing experience.

And the NCAA might discover they have to compete with that league to get top players. It's win-win for the players. And college sports would be changed forever.

I'd love to see some of these games in person with a quick drive to Mankato.

I'm thinking the league needs JUST the right name. Any suggestions?

I'll share some tomorrow if I can think of any.

Sports Notes

The Vikings did not play well enough to win yesterday. The Vikings LOOKED good at times by making huge play after huge play. From a big fumble recovery for a touchdown, to three interceptions, to that big 105 yard kickoff return by Cordarrelle Patterson, it LOOKED like the Vikes could actually win the game.

But looks can be deceiving. Ponder was at best just average yesterday. He's was barely .500 passing. And the rushing game only averaged just 3.7 yards a a carry. The nuts and bolts of the game, not just the BIG plays determine the winners. And the Vikings play such average football that even that many big plays were not enough to offset the mediocre overall play.

And when the defense HAD to make a stop on that last drive, they didn't. The Vikes played better than I expected, but they still lost to another average (to bad) football team. The 0-2 start is going to be awfully hard to come back from.

The Twins, on the other hand, pulled a rabbit out of a hat yesterday. They got two homers and 4 RBI yesterday in the eighth inning to avoid a sweep by the Rays. Considering they had lost the last 11 straight to Tampa Bay, this was a very good thing. Pinto, the Twins new catcher, had one of those homers. He's still batting over .400 since being called up.

The Seahawks looked as good as experts thought last night. My Niners got stomped. As good as I thought the Niners were going into the game last night, that is how how good I think Seattle looked coming out. They really should be the Super Bowl favorites. I can't believe how easily they shut down Kaepernick last night. And their QB, Russell Wilson, is as good as advertised. I'm going to start enjoying pro games like college games. I'm rooting for Seattle now and I'll see if anyone can knock them off.

By planning on missing more Vikings games, I can start enjoying GOOD teams. Seattle and Green Bay are now on my list. I'll probably add the Niners back if they play well again next week. I don't want to rely on my football fix coming from the inept Vikings any more. With yet another painful, pathetic season coming our way, I NEED to try something different.

Favorite game of the day? Denver beating the Giants. The right Manning won.

Second favorite game? My Packers made RGIII look entirely awful yesterday. They took a huge lead and coasted the rest of the way. (If you can call Aaron Rodgers and his 4 TD passes and 480 yards of passing "coasting.")

It's so much more fun watching a good team and a great QB. I feel so sorry for young kids who are Vikings fans who may never know the joy of a good football team.

Packer Fan Uncertain As To How Mirrors Work

Ponder to Syria

So he can overthrow Assad.

NFL

Still hoping for a Viking victory today at Chicago, but making other plans as I expect the Vikings to look worse this week than last.

I'm way more interested in the Sunday night matchup of the Niners and Sea Hawks. Good football is way better than an awful team.

Johnny Football Gets Beat

It must be hard being the best college football player in the country KNOWING going in that you probably are not going to beat the best TEAM in the country.

But you can sure make it an entertaining game.

Number one Alabama, beat Johnny Manziel and his number six-ranked Texas A&M team yesterday. It was good. It was close, but the number one team played just a bit better than the number one player, and they held on to win.

The final was 49-42 and THIS game was a great example of why I love top-ranked NCAA football.

13 TD's total, the action never stops. Manziel had nearly 600 yards of total offense all by himself.

And nothing beats college football fans.

Amazing

You do not have to watch this full video. The first minute or so should do the trick.

This IS NOT a camera trick or SFX. If you have children, they should see this.

The octopus, MASTER of disguise...

http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html#path/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html

Guess What?

The latest findings by the Minnesota Sports Facility show that Ziggy Wilf and his family really ARE rich. Really, Really RICH.

That means that the Vikings stadium plan will go through as originally planned. It's a good thing that Mark Dayton decided to delay the whole project a couple of months to find out what we ALL already knew.

Unbelievable.

In other Vikings news: Kevin Williams should be able to play this Sunday. Don't look for any coverage of that game here. I'll talk about it (maybe) Monday morning, but I'm deliberately scheduling something else so that I miss watching it.

I MAY listen to part of the game in the car.

Baseball

I don't like how the Twins are getting beat the last few nights, but I do realize that they are losing to some very good baseball teams. Last night, Kevin Koreia had one of better starts of the season. He had five strikeouts and gave up just one walk in 6 innings. The bullpen shutdown the Rays completely after that.

But when you go against playoff teams like the Rays, you manage to LOSE more often than you win. Tampa Bay has a very good team this year.

So do the A's. Oakland isn't just beating the Twins this season, they are beating everyone. They've won 7 of their last 10, and they beat their closet division rival, Texas, last night to take a 4 1/2 game lead over them with just a couple of weeks left in the season.

Good teams figure out ways to win. Bad teams lose. The Twins are one of the bad teams.

What bothers me is that Billy Bean manages to have winning teams at Oakland and that he always manages to do it with one of the lowest priced rosters in baseball. I mean I LOVE that he does that, but it bothers me that the Twins can't. There are only THREE teams in all of baseball that pay less money to their players than the Oakland A's and yet here they are AGAIN leading their division against teams spending so much more.

Did I mention that Tampa Bay, also holding the last wild card slot at the present time, is paying their players LESS than Oakland?

For your reference:

Rays: $57 million
A's: $60 million
Twins: $75 million

The Tigers are hovering around $150 million, so there is a reason that they are clubbing every team in the central this year.

But remember, the A's are beating teams like Texas and the Angels who spending way, way more than Oakland. And the Rays are trying to hold off the Yankees and their $200 million roster for that last play-off spot.

You don't need money to win in this league. You need to have GMs and managers who know how to acquire and use talent. I'm thinking the Twins are missing in those two areas more than anywhere else.

That an they have decided to hold onto some high-priced talent. Oakland and Tampa Bay would never be that foolish. That's why they are happily in the play-off hunt, while the Twins rest 20 games below .500.

I'm just glad we're not the Astros. I'm not sure how THAT team has any fans left at all.

My Take

I just read that due to increased pressure from advocacy groups that the Cleveland Indians are going to be forced to change their name to something that's less offensive and demeaning.

My Take: May I suggest the OHIO Indians?

Global Warming

I try not to get caught up in the hysteria that calls itself Global Warming.

I'm the first to admit that the Earth's climate is not stable. In fact, when alarmists changed the term to "Climate Change" I was much more comfortable talking about it. You see, that describes what's happening on Earth, as a matter of course, every day. We don't, and never have lived, in a static, stable environment.

And we never will. And it's MORE than possible that none of us, even acting in concert, have absolutely ANY effect, long-term or otherwise, on that environment.

So why am I talking about this today? A couple of reasons. The first is that the Twins got slaughtered last night and because of that I don't really want to talk about baseball. The second reason is a series of news reports that came out this week is now showing that we may have now entered a trend of global cooling. A trend that nearly ALL climatologists never saw coming.

A few years back (2007) a large group (the ones we hear from regularly on all the major news channels and media sources) of climatologists were convinced that by the end of THIS summer that the arctic ice would be COMPLETELY, TOTALLY melted. The buzz reached a fever pitch last summer when it was discovered that arctic ice was down to 1.3 million square miles. (That's about half of the last 30-year average.) Many thought that this WOULD be the year that the rest of the arctic ice cap would melt and that that the prediction of 6 years ago would come true.

But something weird happened THIS year. Arctic ice GREW. And not just a little bit, but by 60%!!!

In other words, arctic ice is back to within a couple standard deviations of normal 30-year averages.

At the same time, and this is the most puzzling part for all of those "experts" in climatology, it's also been acknowledged that global temperatures have pretty much stabilized worldwide for the last 15 years or so.

Alarmists are still saying that the substantial new ice means nothing, but more conservative and moderate climatologists (the ones that up until now no news services were listening to) are saying that a cooling tend is now developing and that we should expect slightly cooler temperatures over the next decade and a half.

A little MORE research, one that I don't see anyone discussing right now, has shown me that ANTARCTIC ice, you know the ice on the other pole, is at all-time recorded HIGHS. In fact, ice at the Antarctic is much higher than ever recorded for the last several years. Do you know what that means? We may have more total ice at the poles combined than we have had in the past several hundred years!

What does all of this mean? For me it means the same thing as I've always said, climatologists are not "real" scientists. There simply is not enough measurable data, in the few years we have been taking data, to make any kind of reasonable guess as to what's coming next. We may NEVER have enough data because we simply can't witness it or record it long enough.

And we can't point to mankind burning fossil fuels as a primary mover and shaker as the reason temperatures and climates change.

By my reckoning, there have been at least two major volcanic eruptions in the last three years. The ash spewed into the Earth's atmosphere disrupted world travel for weeks on both of those occasions. But let's not forget that there are always several more smaller volcanos going off around the world regularly. These volcanos put more "stuff" in the air every single year than mankind could ever hope to produce from burning carbon fuels. I don't have the numbers right now, but if you're interested, start looking this information up yourself. It's all available on the web. And it's not hard to find.

It reminds me of how we banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) worldwide a few years back because they were causing a gaping hole in our ozone layer at the arctic circle. And then we discovered that volcanos IN ONE YEAR, and oceans IN ONE DAY produced more CFCs than mankind had produced in their entire civilized existence. Think about that. It would be like a single child's allowance being used to pay off our $15 trillion national debt. But we banned them anyway and have not brought them back.

In much the same way that meteorologists can't successfully predict weather more than a day or two out, climatologists can not and never will be able to predict climate a few years or decades out. There are too many variables, and those variables lead to pointless guessing. Guessing used as scare tactics to change behavior.

I think there's an explanation as to why people get more conservative as they grow older. They SEE and EXPERIENCE these same type of alarmist attitudes by self proclaimed "experts" often enough throughout their lives to recognize it when it happens again.

Don't believe "experts" who are just guessing. Even their best guesses are no better than yours or mine. And always realize their jobs, their very livelihoods, are dependent on government grant money and the continual study of impending disaster. They wouldn't have jobs if everything was going to be all right.

Revisiting An Old Friend

The Twins got blown out horribly last night.

Rather than talk about that, I'd like to focus on a former Twin instead. He was consistently good before he left and he's still consistently good. His power is down a little bit this year, but his average is way up. So far up in fact, that he's leading the National League in hitting.

He's doing all of this for a salary that's less than what we paid Justin Morneau this season and less than HALF of what Joe Mauer is getting. ($10.5 million.) I frequently think that the Twins attach their rather expensive cart to the wrong horse.  He's just the latest example of that.

Wilingham!

The Twins scored all of their runs on homeruns last night. And Josh Willingham had TWO of them.

For a team that hasn't hit many homeruns the last couple of seasons, THIS year has been a pleasant surprise. (Okay, not a surprise, I predicted before the season started that the Twins would hit a lot more homeruns this season and at the same time time may not produce a starter with 10 wins, though I finally said we'd probably have ONE starter with 10 wins.)

Perkins got his 34th save, and the Twins might be playing spoiler in the west. I'm still watching, and that was a great ending last night.

The Lighter Side

Pinto!

Between WWE Raw and Monday Night Football last night I still managed to follow the Twins game as well. They were down 3-1 early, but I kept switching back, hoping to see if the Twins could come back. Through all of that switching, I managed to see the Twins newest catcher, Josmill Pinto, get three more hits. ALL of them were doubles. He is now batting .565, 23 at-bats into his major league career.

Yes, the Twins stink, but there are some good reasons to keep watching. Josmill Pinto is the main reason right now. Joe Mauer can move on over to first any time now. The Twins have found another catcher.

Oh, and they did comeback and win 6-3.

NFL

Yesterday I mentioned that I enjoyed watching great college football games. Well prepared teams with great coaching and incredible execution make for very good viewing.

I also mentioned, late last season, that I was super excited to see The Niners bring back the quarterback option play to professional football. Colin Kaepernick had the ability to throw, but the Niners knew he could run the ball well too, so they went with more college-like sets in their option plays. With them, they came very, very close to winning the Super Bowl.

I said then that that type of offense was the beginning of a whole new era in NFL football. I was just hoping more teams would see why this type of offense works.

I was even MORE excited when I saw that the head coach of the Oregon Ducks, who engineered the most explosive offense in college football history, was hired by the Eagles to be THEIR new head coach this season. I said back then, that the NFL game would change forever because of it.

Chip Kelly introduced his offense to the NFL last night and it was every bit as unreal as I expected. I kept thinking that while I was watching this game that somehow THIS coach, in literally,  just a few weeks, had transformed his entire offense into this smooth, high octane, efficient force while Leslie Frazier, who has now been in charge of the Vikings for part of three seasons, STILL has his guys lining up wrong (and getting penalized for it) on the most basic of pro sets.

College football IS about preparation and execution and the best coaches know that. Last night, the Redskins ran into an unstoppable force of preparation and execution that also performed at unbelievable speed. The Eagles ran FIFTY-THREE plays in the FIRST HALF. Most teams don't run 53 play in an entire game.

And those plays exhausted the Washington defense. Though the final score LOOKED close, the game really wasn't. RGIII was unleashed for the Redskins in the second half, but they really didn't have enough time or gas in the tank to compete with that crushing offense of the newly revamped Eagles.

What's really amazing is that these are basically the SAME Eagle players who were so horrible LAST season. Michael Vick was so bad last season that he was fighting for his job in camp THIS season.

RGIII is a very good player. And he looked good coming back from last season's devastating knee injury. But last night, the star of the game was Chip Kelly's offense.

I sure hope it continues to roll. I want the Vikings to start shopping for a great college coach for NEXT season.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly II

I realized something else yesterday as well. I AM a Minnesota Twins fan. I didn't get to see any of the game yesterday, but I did read about it and look for highlights online.

Albers pitched ANOTHER great game, but the Twins offense couldn't score, so they ended up losing 2-0. And when I see that, it STILL bothers me. The Twins have not fielded a good team since they have moved to Target Field. Most of the problem has been inadequate starting pitching, but there is so much more wrong with this ball club than just starting pitching.

Baseball, for me, is different than football. I don't seek out good teams or great teams and watch them instead. I don't watch college baseball. Other teams and other leagues are not the same as watching MY Twins.

I may HATE my Twins right now, but they are still MY Twins.

I am looking forward to the playoffs this year because I still enjoy watching good baseball, but without the Twins being involved it's really NOT the same thing.

I still turn nearly every Twins game on and watch it at least for a little while. I like watching young players get key hits and I love watching young pitchers make great pitches. If the Twins falter early, it's easy to turn the game off and wait for the NEXT game. But I'm still going to catch that next game. At least PART of it.

Because I enjoy MY Twins. I won't waste my time on a really bad game because the same rule applies as the football game rule I mentioned last blog. I don't want to waste my time watching a bad TV show. But the next game might be a good TV show, so I'll watch that.

And I like watching MY Twins even though I HATE them right now.

That's what lets me know that I'm still a Twins fan.

Another decade of Gardy, and I may change my mind.

Another decade of Gardy, and I'll start looking at the Twins like I currently look at the Vikings.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I realized something yesterday, and most Vikings fans will accuse me of being a fair-weather fan for saying it...

... I really am not a Minnesota Vikings fan.

I USED to be, but somewhere in the last ten years or so, I've stopped living and breathing Viking's purple and gold. Oh, I still ENJOYED the Brett Favre years, especially that first one, but that's way different than being a super fan of the team. Tice, Childress, and Frazier have managed to knock the stuffing out of me.

What I am is a fan of great (or at least very good) football. What I saw on the field at noon yesterday was not great or even good football. What I saw was two very pathetic, poorly coached, poorly prepared teams attempting to play a game that I love, and making a mockery of it.

The Lions are not a good team. They made so many horrible mistakes in the first half that they shouldn't have even BEEN in the game at halftime. Yet they went into the locker room only trailing by a point.

Christian Ponder is NOT an NFL quarterback. He single-handedly kept Detroit in the game until half-time and then handed it to them in the second half. I kept turning the game off, but for a change, it was not in disgust. What I realized is that I just don't want to watch bad football any more than I  want to watch bad movies or bad TV shows. IF I don't find movies or TV shows WORTH watching I always find something else to watch or to do.

Yesterday, I realized that the Vikings are just a very bad TV show. I ended up missing the third quarter because my wife and I decided to take a very long walk at halftime. Upon returning after the walk, I saw that the game was totally out of hand and skipped most of the rest as well.

You see there was a GOOD TV show coming on later (The Niners and Packers) and that was a game that I really wanted to see because it was going to feature two very good to great teams.

In the past, when the Vikings lost, I wouldn't even want to WATCH another game I was so depressed, but now I care so little about watching BAD football, that I turned IT off waiting for the better game.

And that SECOND game did not disappoint. It was GREAT. The officials made a screwy call that gave the NINERS a huge break after a double penalty call. That call could very well have affected the outcome of the game. But the Niners were a fantastic team yesterday, and Colin Kaepernick is proving that with the right receiver (Anquan Boldin) he may become one of the best QBs in football history. The Packers were ALMOST as good, but both teams had a difficult time stopping such finely tuned offenses.

I also realized that over the last decade or so that I like watching great college football for the same reason that I like watching great pro games. Great football is just super enjoyable to watch. Great players, playing great games for great coaches is what MAKES the game enjoyable.

The Vikings are no longer worth my time. The Niners are. The Packers are. The Broncos are.

But the Vikings are not. I am already planning on skipping next Sunday's Vikings game completely. If they have a sudden turn-around and look GREAT in that game, I'll catch some highlights and give them another chance in a couple of weeks.

But I am no longer going to waste my time on a bad TV show. IF they keep losing badly, I'll find other great games to watch because I still love great football.

The Vikings no longer fall into that category.

High Definition

I noticed that our local Fox affiliate (channel 9) is doing some kind of maintenance these last few days as all of their programming is back to standard definition. That means that today's Vikings game (and the later Packer/Niners game) will NOT be in high definition.

Our back-up Fox channel from Mankato (the one with no call letters) is ALWAYS in standard definition so that means I'll have to watch these games like someone stuck in the early 2000's.

Our church will be having a brief business meeting today so I'll probably miss the first part of the game. IF it's any good, I'll be making comments here. You are all free to join me in the conversation.

Vikings and Odd NFL Notes

Kevin Williams hyper-extended knee will not be ready for Sunday's game. Though much better, the Vikes have decided to give the 32-year-old Williams an extra week to recover more fully.

The Vikings have a strong line this year, but missing Williams against the Lions will be a big deal. The Lions have had a fantastic offense the last two years and no one is going to replace Williams and the pressure he brings.

Tim Tebow says he still wants to be an NFL QB and does not want to switch positions. There's a chance that his NFL days may be over. Unless a team or two loses a  starter the first couple of weeks, Tebow might be on to other things. At this point, he has already turned down offers from the Canadian Football League as well. He wants to be a QB. He wants to be in the NFL. And he's going to sit at home a while and wait for "the call."

I was looking at the ESPN Power Rankings this week and was mildly surprised to see that Seattle is number one ranked ahead of such teams as the Falcons, 49ers, Broncos, Packers, and Patriots. I believe Seattle is going to have a very strong year, but that ranking seems kind of high at this point in the season. I wouldn't be surprised if they made the Super Bowl this year, but knowing they'd have to beat both the Packers and San Francisco in the playoffs to get there seems pretty remote.

My own pick? The Niners with Manning and the Broncos as the most serious threat.  Russel Wilson has been very good for Seattle and their offense, but Colin Kaepernick and Peyton Manning are in a whole 'nother category.

I'm looking forward to Sunday, but have already resigned myself to the thought that the Vikings (even with a healthy Adrian Peterson) are probably not even good enough to be a .500 team this season. You don't need a great QB to get to the Super Bowl, but you do need a smart one. Ponder still looks more lost on the field than the greenest of rookies. Knowing when to take the sack is WAY more important than forcing stupid passes. I hope he grows this year, but seeing the coaching staff keep him in the pocket instead of moving on most plays leaves me frustrated. Ponder IS NOT a pocket passer. Until everyone realizes that, we really will have no hope at all.

I'm picking the Lions on Sunday and see the Vikings as a 4-12 or 5-11 team this year at best. Don't forget that were STILL having trouble with the holds on place kicks. Automatics that aren't automatic end up screwing with kickers heads and we are going to see Walsh over-thinking and missing critical kicks this season as a result. Missed critical kicks cost teams wins.

The game I'm really looking forward to on Sunday? The Packers versus the Niners. The team that wins THAT game could easily become the NFC Super Bowl favorite.

Getting back to the Power Rankings: The Vikings are solidly in the middle of the pack at number 17. The Lions are a few steps below them at 21. I don't think the Lions are going anywhere this season either, but I see them improving on their 4-12 record from last year.

An early season win against the Vikings at home will get them started on that goal.

It's weird, home field advantage means SO MUCH in the NFL. If the Vikes were starting the season AT HOME the first two weeks instead of being on the road, my hopes for the season would be much, much brighter. But starting on the road means that they could easily be 0-2 by the time week three rolls around. A team that starts 0-2 instantly becomes a different team than one that starts 2-0, especially when both of those losses are against division opponents.

IF the Vikes win those first two games, and look GOOD doing it, my whole outlook will change just as quickly. I don't see it, though. In the NFL the road is where you lose. The Vikings have been one of the best examples of that for the past ten seasons.

Twins Lose

Pedro Florimon booted a grounder to start the game. That run eventually scored.

Pelfrey had a horrible third inning.

The Twins rally fell short and they lost 6-5.

Josmil Pinto, Mauer's current replacement, is looking real good. He's now batting .643 since being brought up including a homerun in the ninth last night.

"Alvis" Presley is batting .348 since the Morneau trade brought him to Minnesota.

Chris Colabello's batting average has went up 20 points since he started playing first base regularly. He had a homer and three RBI last night.

The Florimon error, and that horrible third were the difference in the game.

Sadly, Floriman had a second error later in the game, but no one scored because of it.

Manning With SEVEN TD Passes

The game got started late last night because of a lightening storm in Denver.

I ended up going to bed early after the first half with Denver trailing 17-14. I guess I missed quite a second half. Peyton Manning, the best QB in the history of the game, ended up having the best game of his life, tying an NFL record that Joe Capp of the Vikings set back in 1969, with seven TD passes.

Football is back. So is Manning. Even if the Vikings are worse than average this season, I can still look forward to teams like Denver, Green Bay, and San Francisco playing great football.

It seemed like a real game last night. And it was fun to sit back and just watch. Now I'm REALLY excited about the coming season.

Football really is the perfect sport. I love baseball when the Twins are playing well. I love football even when the Vikings aren't. That's why I get excited about football.

VIKINGS!

I'm starting to get more excited about this coming season, but Christian Ponder and the coaching staff's plans for him, have still got me baffled. The Vikings say that they have not run their REAL offense in any of the preseason games because they don't want to tip their hands until the season starts. I think it's obvious to anyone who watched those preseason games that at least PART of that statement was true. The featured running back, who had most of the carries this preseason, was one of the first guys cut when the final roster moves were made.

If Adrian Peterson is not in any of the games, you can be pretty sure that the Vikings aren't running their "real" offense...

But I'm not so sure the Vikings are headed for a good season either way. Until Ponder consistently demonstrates the ability to hit receivers from the pocket, (the plan his coaches seem to want the most) I'm going to think Ponder is not qualified to be an NFL QB. Peterson cannot be a one man show. And with Jerome Felton, Peterson's best blocking back ever, suspended the first three games of the season, I think Vikings fans are going to be disappointed in Peterson's efforts those first three games.

Worse? The Vikes play their first two games of the season on the road against division opponents Detroit and Chicago. IF we falter early against those two teams, the entire rest of the season could be rendered meaningless pretty fast.

There are still too many questions about the Vikings offense, and the Vikings defense is going to REALLY miss Kevin Williams if his hyper-extended knee injury doesn't get better real fast.

My biggest fear? We won so many games last season just because Blair Walsh was SO good as the place kicker. Jeff Locke, the team's new punter, is STILL mishandling easy snaps for Walsh. Last Thursday night's game was a good example of that. All it takes is a couple of mishandled snaps during the season to totally wreck our nearly perfect kicking game. AND totally wreck our season.

My only prediction so far? Those bad snaps and holds ARE going to cost us some early wins and they WILL cost us any chance of a good season, even if both Ponder and Peterson have good years. Little things matter. And most fans don't look at the little things when thinking about the season. Sadly, most coaches don't either.

It's Clubberin' Time!

The Twins lost to Houston yesterday. It was a combination of ineffective starting pitching (though an error cost the Twins a couple of runs) and the bullpen being a bit tired and blowing the game late. "Alvis" Presley ( the Morneau swap) continues to impress. He had two more hits and THREE RBI. He's batting nearly .400 since the trade.

More interesting than a Twins loss? Boston clubbed the Detroit Tigers 20-4 last night. In a battle of division leaders, Detroit looked completely defenseless. Boston had EIGHT homeruns including two from Big Papi himself. Now, any team can do something like this once in a while, but it looks like Boston is already in full play-off mode. I'm actually looking forward to the play-offs this year even without the Twins in contention.

What's getting baseball comissioner Bud Selig all riled up? New York Yankee fans originally wanted nothing to do with A Rod coming back to the Yankees. The idea of Bud trying to suspend him surprisingly pleased many of them. But something weird has happened since the initial suspension idea. A Rod has rejuvenated the Yankees. Just before Alex came back, the Yankees were having a horrible season. They were more than 10 games back in the wild card race playing .500 ball. Most thought the Yankees had no chance of making the playoffs this season...

...but with A Rod swinging a hot bat, especially late in the games in clutch situations, the Yankees now find themselves just 2 1/2 games back of Tampa Bay in the wild card race with 25 games to play. Yankee fans are on fire and everyone is now cheering the much maligned Rodriguez. Bud's plan to suspend the current active home run leader has backfired. If he manages to still suspend Alex before the season is over, Yankee fans will start screaming for Bud's head on a stick. The Yankees, with A Rod back in the lineup, have managed to become THE Yankees again.

Speaking of the Yankees, Mariano Rivera is having yet another amazing year. He got his 40th save of the season earlier this week. That's now NINE seasons with at least 40 saves. He's looking so good that Yankees management is practically begging him to come back for at least one more season, even though he announced his retirement earlier this season. Rivera still says this is his last year. But after a couple of months off and another big contract offer from the Yankees, I'm not yet convinced we will not see him again next year. He may be old, but he's still got it.

Quick Note

I sometimes feel sorry for myself when I see that the Twins are headed for their third straight losing season. And then I read that Pittsburgh won their 81st game of the season last night. For many that may not be a big deal, but for suffering Pirates fans, it's an absolute MILESTONE. That win guarantees that they will not have a losing season this year. AFTER 20 STRAIGHT LOSING SEASONS, they can finally breathe. That horrible streak is over.

The three years we've had is nothing compared to them. I don't like losing, but it could always be a lot worse. And Astros fans know what bad is as well.

Perspective is everything. That and good starting pitching.

Perkins Blows Save, Twins Beat Hapless Astros Anyway

Pedro Hernandez looked good replacing Samuel Deduno last night. With Deduno on the 15 day disabled list because of that right-shoulder problem, Hernadez gave the Twins their fourth really good start in 5 games giving up just two runs in six plus innings of work.

Perkins screwed up in the ninth by walking a man, giving up a single and then giving up a home run on an 0-2 pitch. I like Perkin's aggressiveness, and I like that he throws strikes, but that pitch was way too sweet for an 0-2 count.

sigh

But this is the Astros we're talking about. Given time, they managed to find a way to lose their 93rd game of the season. The Twins won it with a big 12th.

Highlights? "Bull" Dozier hit ANOTHER homerun. Plouffe did too, ending up with 4 hits. "Alvis" Presley added a couple of more hits as well. Even Mastroianni got three hits and three RBI last night.

The Twins bullpen has seen quite a bit of action the last two nights, and all but Perkins came through brilliantly. Last game of the series is this afternoon. It will get thee "squeeze play" version tonight on FSN.

 

Twins Win

I couldn't make it through two innings yesterday. Albers was AWFUL. I came back to watch it in the ninth and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Twins were up 10-6 at the time and that Colabello had hit two home runs including a grand slam in the ninth.

I keep forgetting just how bad the Astros are. The Twins won there 60th game yesterday, so there's an awfully good chance they will not lose 100 games this season. They only have to win three of their remaining 26 to avoid triple digit losses. I'm not predicting anything at this point, but I do think the Twins have a great chance for at least 63 wins.

"Alvis," my new nickname for recently acquired Alex Presly, walked twice and scored once as the Twins new leadoff man. And Plouffe and Dozier each hit a homerun each as well.

This is still better than the last two seasons, so I am still enjoying some of these games. Hernandez, who is trying to win a roster spot for next year, gets the nod as the Twins starter tonight.

Kluwe Gets The Boot

Former Vikings punter, Chris Kluwe, was released by the Raiders yesterday. They decided to go with a younger punter who costs less.

He's still good, but it looks like punters have a shorter shelf life than most players because of salary cap issues. I find that fascinating.

Too Much Celebrating

Georgia lost their star receiver on Saturday night. He joined their top rusher in the end zone after a 75 yard TD run. and when he leapt up to celebrate, he landed awkwardly and tore the ACL in his right knee. He's done for the season.

The running back pulled his hamstring during the celebration as well.

I still remember what Bud Grant used to say to his players after touchdowns. "Act like you've been there before."

I always chuckle when I think of that, especially after what happened Saturday night.

Corriea Impresses in Presley's Hot Debut

I've been reading comments by Twins fans the last couple of days saying that we shouldn't have bothered getting Alex Presley.

Yesterday, Presley got three hits and scored three runs in his Twins debut. And he looked very good doing it. I know one game does not a career make, but I'm more than willing to see how this kid works out. His defensive skills are above average, as is his speed, and he can comfortably play all three outfield positions. In other words, he could be the outfield guy we're looking for when guys like Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia start to (or continue to) disappoint.

Who knows, in a couple of seasons, those three guys MAY BE our outfield.

Lost in the Twins win yesterday was another player making his Twins debut. Josmill Pinto had two hits including a double and RBI in his first audition at Twins catcher. At 24, he has an awful lot of upside. Did I mention that Correia pitched his BEST game of the season with Pinto handling him?

Mauer should just slide on over to first and let younger guys take the bumps at home plate. He'll have a longer, healthier career. And guys like Pinto can have a chance to make their mark as well.

A good game. A good series, against a very good ball club.

And three really outstanding performances.

I'm still watching.

Twins Lose

Mike Pelfrey pitched another great game. The Twins only score was Brian Dozier's 15th home run of the season.

Oh, and we FINALLY got rid of Justin Morneau. Ever since Curt Flood started free agency in the early 1970's, fans have found out that players care more about their money than their current teams. I personally see nothing wrong with that, though I'm still a bit confused how some fans could be angry that we got rid of him. You either trade him and get something or let him become a free agent at the end of the season and get even less (or potentially nothing.) I'm happy Morneau has joined a contender like the Pirates. Maybe he and Liriano can make a difference in the Pirates title run. Go Pirates!

Did we get anything for him? Not really. But, that's how the game of baseball is played. You have to ask yourself is Alex Presley and his future worth one MONTH of Justin Morneau's service to the Twins? NO TEAM is going to give you their best young players for a month of Justin's services, so getting ANYONE at this point is a good deal for the Twins.

For all I know, the Twins might be one of the few teams to offer Justin a free-agent contract deal before next season that would be good enough to bring him back. Justin had his best month since the concussion in August and yet the Twins went from 10 games below .500 to 18 games below.500 in that time. It's not like his resurgence was truly helping us in any measurable way.

I don't see the Twins getting any better in any kind of reasonable time-frame either. The ONLY free-agent starting pitcher we signed this year that has been good for five innings per start has been Pelfrey. And we only signed him to a one season contract. Corriea has managed one win in two months. And we haven't heard from the Vanimal since he went to AAA ball to find himself.

Add that to Deduno now with a bad arm, Gibson back in the minors, and Albers getting ZERO run support and you start to wonder if this team has any hope for the future at all. Liam Hendriks is in that mix somewhere, but he's not getting people to stand up and take notice despite Friday's performance. Don't forget that he's 2-12 in his Twin's career with an ERA of 5.60. His track record doesn't instill confidence.

I'm hoping that Joe Mauer, at this point, after losing his buddy Justin to the Pirates, will go to Twins management and ask for a trade. Again, we probably won't get much for him, because that is how baseball works. But I'd rather take my chances with a couple of young prospects at catcher and first base next season and spend the money we'll save on Mauer and Morneau's contract to acquire some good starting pitching.

Or become a team of nothing but good relievers.

Either way, getting rid of Joe Mauer at this point makes more sense that having a $25 million MVP on a team that loses 95 games a year.

I'd rather start from scratch, than pay that much scratch to someone who can't help us enough all by himself.

AND while we're at it, let's sign Dozier to a long-term deal before we lose him, too. HE should be the Twins new guy to build around.

Out with the old. In with the new. And let's hope Gardy doesn't let the door hit him on the way out.