Ok, enough about food, photos, and all that other jazz. Apparently, Joe Mauer just agreed to a 10 year contract extension with the Minnesota Twins. I’m currently doing a pretty ridiculous dance in my cube.
I love that team.
Yes, I know it’s just sports, but I really don’t care right now.
Edit: Getting conflicting reports about the signing now, which bites, but hopefully the first report is true.
This past weekend was what me friend’s and I call cabin weekend. We generally get together the beginning of October and catch up, have a few drinks, and cause a ruckus at a friend’s cabin. This year was no exception and we had a blast even though it rained the majority of the time. 
I took the day off on Friday and went to Duluth. I had planned on this a few weeks ago, hoping that I could get some photos of fall leaves and the lake. Instead it was rainy with 40+ mph gusts. At first I was disappointed, but it didn’t take long after hitting up Fitgers before I had struck up a few conversations with other bar goers. During one conversation a couple who was also on vacation told me three fun Twins related stories.
This couple was from Woodbury and had lived in the Twin Cities for most of their lives. The husband, said that back in ‘91 his friends went to Vegas and asked if he wanted to place any bets. He asked his friend to bet on the Twins to win the ALCS, but apparently this wasn’t possible so his friend placed the bet on the Twins winning the World Series. The story gets even better, because not only did the Twins win the World Series that season, but he managed to get tickets to see the 7th game of that series and sat in center field.
The wife told me a story about the time when she was very young and her and her family went to the game at the Metropolitan stadium. She somehow got separated from her family and some strangers took her to a local hotel and dropped her off with the management. Apparently this was the hotel that the Twins players stayed at and she ended up hanging out in a room with the team. Her parents managed to find her but she said she wasn’t really that excited to leave with all the attention they team was giving her.
Finally the husband told me about attending a game at the ‘65 World Series. His father’s friend had an auto parts store who got a bunch of tickets to one of the games. He took the bus to the stadium and when he arrived he discovered he had left his ticket in a book at his school. Instead of turning around and heading back, and missing a good chunk of the game, he went to the gate and somehow was let in because he knew the name of the auto parts store that had purchased the tickets. Somehow I don’t think this would be possible in today’s world.
Of course I didn’t do any of these stories justice, but they are still fun.
Welcome to Friday everyone, another week is 8 hours from completion and the weekend is just around the corner. Here are five things I read or watched this week that made me smile, laugh, or just nod my head and say “yep, this is awesome”.
Finally, I give you the bonus item of the week, which is probably the cutest video you will see this week.
Today includes five things you should check out over the weekend.
Finally I leave you a bonus self promotional link to my first YouTube video. I caught a baby orangutan showing off for the crowd at Como Zoo.
I’m back with two posts in a row. Today I present to you five things you should read before you head off to whatever you’re doing this weekend.
And today’s bonus item is a photo(Warning: Photo is quite large) that will leave you pining for the 2010 MLB season. Outdoor baseball in Minneapolis can’t come soon enough.
I have a pretty big post I was working on this week but I just can’t get it finished. I’m hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but it’s something I’m pretty excited to publish so I may take a little longer than normal to write it. So today you get some thoughts and some links. Photos are minimal but that’s okay.
Have a fabulous Friday and enjoy the heck out of your weekend.
On Sunday, I tweeted about an article on ESPN about a high school basketball game in which a student missed two free throws intentionally so a player from the other team could check into the game without penalizing his team. The player that wanted to check in had just lost his mother and hadn’t planned on playing. After he changed his mind the referees had to give out a technical foul to his team.
I noted in my tweet that I considered this an example of the reasons we need to keep sports in school. I did make sure I made it clear I didn’t think it had to be the school system that had the sports team. But I do think sports are very important for many reasons. Later that night @brojohost commented that he disagreed with my position. He gave an example where his school cut his Russian language program while funding the sports program. While I respected his opinion, I had to respond and Twitter was not the medium to do that.
Before I get into my reasons for saving sports, I want to make a few things clear. First, I understand many of the arguments for eliminating school sports. It creates superstars who everyone loves and leaves those not athletically inclined outside this group. Parents take it way to seriously, injuries occur, and yes it’s expensive. I know many people can give a thousand different reasons sports should go. But here are my arguments for keeping sports.
First, sports teach life lessons. When properly coached, players on sports team learn a ton of lessons. Team work is just the beginning. Players learn to respect their opponent while trying to defeat them. They learn competition occurs not just against other teams but also within their team. They also learn the unfortunate fact that no matter how hard you work, sometimes you just don’t have enough natural ability to be the best. Anyone who hasn’t participated in sports who says that’s a problem with sports forgets that this fact occurs in every walk in life. Great cooks generally have unbelievable taste sensitivity, being able to pick out individual flavors where the rest of us just taste the dish. Great musicians usually have a innate since for tone. The list continues, but sports also show that with hard work, you can overcome your natural deficiencies and though you may not be able to be the best, you can compete at their level.
Second, sports get our children active. We consistently decry the obesity epidemic in this country, and if we expanded our sports programs this would help solve the crisis. Kids used to go sit in a classroom and then go home and help dad and mom run the farm, clean the house, or other tasks. As we automated our lives kids stopped working at home. Getting kids out on the playing surface whether it is ice, grass, or hardwood is an important first step in keeping them fit.
Third, sports bring people together. If you don’t believe me, go to a small town when the high school hockey/basketball/football team is playing. If it’s anything like my hometown, the majority of the town will be at the sporting venue, regardless of whether or not their children are playing.
Finally I am going to make an argument that I know will get some of you riled up. Sports are more important to a students development than many progressive education programs. Human civilization has always had competition between individuals. Throughout history this has occurred not through the burning of energy during a basketball game but in training for war. Sports teach many of the same lessons learned in military training and these lessons are useful in all walks of life. Of course the lessons sports teach can be learned elsewhere. In fact I think one of the most under appreciated disciplines we teach in school is music. Learning to play an instrument or sing with a group of your peers teach many of the lessons I feel sports teach.
Now I’m not saying that learning Russian or other training isn’t important. But many of the progressive programs that people think we should fund instead of sports are just that disciplines. Learning Russian will help you appreciate other cultures, probably help you if you want to learn another language, and may even help you in other ways. But you aren’t going to learn teamwork, sportsmanship, or competition.
In my opinion this boils down the argument that should be taking place about our education system. We should stop focusing so much on teaching facts and more on teaching life lessons and how to learn. Instead of telling our students to memorize formulas, facts, and figures, we should be teaching them problem solving skills so they can solve problems they haven’t encountered before. Sports do this, a coach can’t teach a player how to handle every situation that will occur in a game, so players have to learn how to think on their feet. If they don’t solve the problem they don’t just get a lesser score on a test, they disappoint their teammates which is going to make them try that much harder. By trying harder they are more likely to succeed and the more often they succeed in unexpected situations the better they will perform in these situations overall. This includes things like math, English, and even learning Russian.
Of course I could write a whole post about the problems sports have. Competition is great, but unfortunately we see too many instances where parents, coaches, and schools take things way to seriously. Yes, players should try to win, but we need to quit putting pressure on the players. Only the coach and teammates should be doing that. On the other hand we also need to stop worrying so much about making the losers feel good. It’s okay for players to be disappointed when they lose, this will only make them try harder next time and they learn from defeat.
So there is my argument for keeping sports in school. I understand there is a funding issue and if we can’t educate our students with the funds we have then sports should be considered as a possible candidate for reduced funding. Shouldn’t be building palaces for high school sports when we can’t purchase new books for the classrooms. Maybe we shouldn’t allow sponsors and donors to specify that their funds can go toward sporting events so we can use some of the money for other things. But getting rid of sports in their entirety isn’t the answer either. Education shouldn’t be only about math, science, and English. We need to make sure our kids are ready to succeed in a world where knowing how to calculate the area of a square or write a novel just isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. We need to focus on the basics and sports are a great way to get there.
What is the deal Minnesota, our sports teams have been taken over by aliens. At least that’s the only explanation I can come up with for the moves that have happened in 3 of the big 4 sports franchises. I’ve lived here for 2 years and nothing close to this has happened in that time. Maybe the front offices forgot to pay their heating bills, froze, and are just now thawing out.
The Timberwolves
The Wolves might not have made big headlines, but they made a move I wanted them to make before the season began. They traded away Rashad McCants and another dead weight contract. They didn’t get much back, though I think Sheldon Williams could turn into a solid contributer. McCants will always put up numbers if he gets minutes, but his teams will never be winners. I liked this move and consider it addition by subtraction.
The Vikings
Ok, this deal hasn’t officially been completed yet, but it looks like the Vikings are going to get Sage Rosenfels for a 4th round pick. This is a move that I really like. Not that the team is perfect, but a big part of the issues last year was because of inferior QB play. Gus Ferotte won some games, but he lost just as many. Tarvaris has occasional shown flashes of brilliance, but he definitely isn’t the answer for the leader of the football team. Getting a solid young quarterback who can grow alongside A.P. is huge. They don’t need to pay him top money for his position, which means they may be able to upgrade one of the offensive line positions.
The Twins
This is the move that I liked the most. Signing a player like Crede to a good contract is exciting. I was ok with them giving him a guaranteed 7 million for the year, but the Twins stuck to their guns and came back with a much better deal that won’t hurt them nearly as much if his isn’t healthy. Having a solid power hitter in both corners of the infield will be great, and his defense fits right in with the Twins program. Really the best thing about this deal is seeing the Twins front office defrost itself and actually make a move that might pay off. It’s been too many years since they did anything more than sign aging stars and trade away our best talent. Hopefully this move works and they continue to try and improve my favorite team.
The Wild
I’m just appalled by this team. Something has to happen, and hopefully seeing the other three teams make a move will force them to take action. They need a new head coach and probably a new GM. It doesn’t require a high hockey IQ to see something needs to change. For a team that hasn’t had to worry about selling out a game since they came into existence, they haven’t done much to repay the loyalty of their fans.
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.
I wanted to write a post about the season but the more I think about it the more I don’t know what to write. It was a great season, the team exceeded expectation to such a high level it was incredible. Our new guys, Gomez, Span, and Casilla, are so much fun to watch, and our stars are some of the best in the game both on and off the field.
Instead, today I’m left feeling cheated by the organization. We were not expected to do anything this year. Instead we overachieved, played insanly good baseball, and did it in the perfect year. With the Tigers and the Indians down and the Sox injury riddled the majority of the year, this was the perfect opportunity to make the playoffs and make some noise. You saw this coming at the All-Star break and you could also tell that they could really use just one more piece.
Offensively, bringing in a bat at third base would have been nice, but where we really needed help was our bullpen. It wasn’t deep enough to hold up once Neshek went down. It cost us the division. With a solid bullpen we would have most likely won at least 6 more games in the regular season, and Sox wouldn’t have had a chance to win it all in a play in game. Instead the organization sat on their hands, did nothing at the deadline, and brought in aging everyday Eddy Guardaudo 2/3 of the way through. It wasn’t enough and they cheated the fans and their players out of an opportunity to see what this team could do in the playoffs.
I’m not going to rant anymore this post, like I said this was a great season and this team is possibly my favorite team in any sport ever. I hope they re-sign Punto in the offseason, and hope they can bringing in a nice 20-25 homerun guy for third base. Shoring up the bullpen has to be the priority though, as offensivly we did have the 3rd highest scoring team in the league this year. I’ll be cheering for them next year and hope we can have a season as magical as this one.
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.
This time of year also means some other things, hockey season is just around the corner, the NBA season is starting soon, football season is already here, and baseball is entering the final weeks. This year the Minnesota Twins have been a huge surprise. As it’s been dubbed here it is “The Summer of Stun” The Twins had traded off their best pitcher, Johan Santana and lost Torrii Hunter to free agency. No one expected much from them, .500 wouldn’t have caused anyone to stress. Instead the Twins shocked us all. They kept winning, and kept winning. In the division the Indians and Tigers kept losing, none of this was expected. Halfway through the season the fans started to realize that if we could keep pace with the powerhouse White Sox we would have a chance at winning the division and making it to the playoffs.
If you follow the Twins you know that this week they play the White Sox in what is as big a series as any series in the playoffs. If the Twins win all three we will be leading the division heading into the final 3 games of the season, we wouldn’t be in the playoffs yet, but the chances would increase dramaticly. Last nights game was huge, the Twins looked like they had until the last 4-5 weeks of the season. Running the bases correctly, hitting with runners in scoring positions, and completing the perfect suicide squeeze. We won 9-3 and went into tonight feeling good. As I write this post, they are up 3-1 and are making the White Sox’s best pitcher look mediocre. As a fan you have to love this series, it’s a hated rival, it’s a home game, and everyone has to remember 2006 when we beat the Sox and saw the Royals win to clinch the division on the last day of the season. As a player they have to be happy, and even if they were to lose, the fans, though dissapointed in the loss, won’t be upset becuase they overshot their expectations for the season by so much.
The other great this about this season is the trickling into the liquor stores of the brewery’s seasonal beers. Spring sees the release of the summer seasonals but for me fall and winter brews are by far the best of the two. With Octoberfest fast approaching, you can find more and more Octoberfest beers. Currently I’m enjoying Schell’s Octoberfest, an excellent beer that is perfect for the cool evening. It has a great hoppy flavor that isn’t overwelling yet is very complex. Personally I give this beer a 4.5/5. The last beer I purchased was Point Brewery’s Oktoberfest. This was another very good beer, it’s not quite as flavorful as the Schell, but it is a very good beer. Though not quite as good as the Schell, I would rate it a 4/5.
Speaking of beer, I’m dry so I’m going to conclude this post. Remember, cheer for the Twins and go grab a six pack of a fall season, you won’t be dissapointed.
As I was finishing this Cory Koskie was on with Dick and Bert on FSN talking about his injury. His story is gut-wrenching and I want to point you to the event he was promoting which is happing in October 4th.
UPdate 9/24/08 9:55pm: The Twins Won tonight 3-2, pulling to within a 1/2 game of the White Sox. Great game.
