I saw a post on another blog linking to the voting page for the NBA All-Star Game.  I could not tell you the last time I voted for an All-Star game in any of the major sports let alone watched one from start to finish.  Here are a few ideas to get fans engaged.  Hey, this might even get non-fans to watch the game. Read more…

I’m giving up, Randy Wittman is not going to be a successful head coach.  I wanted to give him a chance, he came into an impossible situation, but after a 1-6 start, I am convinced he cannot produce a winning team. Read more…

I’ve seen a lot of people panicking over O.J. Mayo’s game last night.  Suddenly Kevin Love is a nobody and Kevin McHale made another trading mistake.  Can we all please calm down?

First let’s look at the situation.  The Sun’s are not a good defensive team.  In the last few weeks they have given up 23 points to Ramone Sessions.  23 points to Ben Gordon,  and 23 points to both Danny Granger and T.J Ford.   None of these players other than possibly the exception of Ben Gordon are high scoring players.  If Mayo had scored 33 points against the Celtics I could see a legitimate reason for worry, but I think I could score a point or two against the Suns. Read more…

This is supposed to be a post about the Wolves but I have to mention Tony Parkers night.  This man was amazing last night.  I would rank his performance as one of the best I have ever seen, and that includes some of Michael Jordan’s best post-season performances.  He willed the Spurs to victory yesterday and deserves every bit of credit.  But let’s get back to the Wolves. Read more…

If you are a Timberwolves fan, you probably consider them an irrelevant NBA team.  Due to Kevin McHale’s numerous mistakes as GM, the team was forced to trade away our biggest star, Kevin Garnett.  McHale’s trade created a championship team, unfortunately it was for the Boston Celtics and not for our hometown team.

The Wolves won 22 Games last year, 17 of those game in the second half of the season.  If you watched any of the games, you saw a remarkable improvement in play.  This was mostly due to a vastly improved defensive game.  In fact I think the team could have won 30-35 games last year if it wasn’t for poor outside shooting. Read more…

The Twins season ended last night in a 1-0 game against our biggest rival, the Chicago White Sox.  It was a game that the Twins couldn’t win.  Neither team could get a hit, Chicago had 5, Twins 2, as both pitchers were phenomenal last night.  The game came down to two plays, a play at the plate where A.J. tagged out Cuddyer to end the inning, and a one run blast from Jim Thome.  It is games like this that highlight the Twins inability to hit home runs.  We can generate 5-6 runs hitting singles and doubles, but when you can’t get the bat on the ball, you have to be able to bring everyone home on one mistake, even if everyone is just you.  It was a great game though, and I have to give credit to the Sox, they didn’t let the sweep by us ruin their season, instead they went out and won three huge games in a row to make it to the playoffs. Read more…

I’m currently in shock.  Tonight’s game started out innocently enough, the Twins took a 1 run lead, and then things imploded.  Slowey gets knocked around concluding with getting hit by a ball in the forearm, ending his night.  His wild throw with that injured forearm ended up costing two runs.  The White Sox were up 6-1, then suddenly chip, chip, chip, we were down by 1.  Then Gomez and Span do their thing, and it was tied. Read more…

This is my favorite time of the year.  The weather outside is beautiful, cool, and crisp.  You can spend the day outside without a jacket, yet at night it cools down and your bedroom can be almost cold, which is perfect for sleeping.  The trees are turning and if you have a reason to head up to northern Minnesota, photo opportunities are not difficult to find(of course this is always the case).  This all means winter is coming, but by choosing to live in Minnesota it comes with the territory.   Read more…

After watching the game last night, I’ am starting to reconsider my position on the Vikings.  Very little about the game was reassuring.  For a variety of reasons, their defense was not impressive.  They didn’t pressure Rodgers nearly enough, they let Ryan Grant go off for a 50+ yard run, and Rodgers was running all over the place looking like vintage Duante Culpepper.

The offense looked the same as last year.  A.P. was running well, but once the Packers were reassured the pass game was still  atrocious, they started stacking the box.  I will not even discuss the end of the game.  I am not writing them off yet, but if Childress doesn’t figure out a system that allows Jackson to complete more than 50% of his passes, the Vikings will not win eight games this year.

As for my Fantasy results, I won my first week.  I started Willie Parker, Reggie Wayne, Joey Galloway, Marshawn Lynch, Chris Cooley and Hasslebeck.  I also had Shayne Graham and Pit D.  This netted me a total of 67 points, 24 coming from Willie Parker alone.  The only roster change I should have made was starting Dwayne Bowe over Galloway, but I let the experts convince me that Kansas Cities offense was inept.  I picked up Eddie Royal, Matt Cassell, and Jamarcus Russel.  Cassell may not be a great pickup, but I cannot believe he will not perform well with that much talent around him.  Royal will supplement Brandon Marshall well, and Russel was a pickup based on last night’s performance and the fact that Oakland is going up against a poor Kansas City Defense next week.

I Hope everyone enjoyed the first week of the season, looking forward to living and dying by my players for the next 15 Sundays.