April 2007

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Yowch

Filed under: Twins

Or as most of my female friends would cry, "Anything but the face!"

The event of Torii Hunter's second cranial beaning of 2007 seems an appropriate time to reflect on the ridiculous season he's had so far.

Before taking a fastball off the teeth from anxious Royals pitcher Zach Greinke, Hunter was on a 12-game hitting streak, had a .315 average, hit four homers and stole just as many bases, knocked in a MLB-high 13 doubles, and had a .658 slugging percentage, the seventh highest in baseball.

All of which means he was the best centerfielder in baseball this month, so it's no surprise he's been taking some high heat. Here's hoping our favorite contract-year Twin won't be too uncomfortable in the batter's box when he returns this weekend.

Posted by Chuck Terhark at April 27, 2007 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

 

Cold Comfort

Filed under: Twins

I love this summary, from La Velle E. Neal's column at the Star Tribune online (could be in the hard copy; I'll never know):

"After watching Torii Hunter get hit in the face, the Twins snapped their four-game losing streak in the 11th inning."

That's rich. Torii gets hit in the second inning and it only takes us nine more fucking innings to score a measly run against what remains the worst team in the American League? Boy, that must have riled up the troops! (One thing: the above quote wasn't in the article, but was the summary on the 'front page' of the Strib.)

Now, I didn't watch the game. Yesterday afternoon, I thanked the God I don't believe in for that, as another one of these sickly, extra-inning contests would have killed more brain cells than I can spare. However, I can read, both articles and box scores, and this game looked like yet another hideous contest, both from a pitching standpoint and an offensive one. Both sides were utterly ineffective, stranding 25 runners on the bags (11 were Twins) and our big boppers had two hits and two walks in 15 at-bats. Boof walked 7, struck out 8. Final score 1-0. Three hours and forty-seven minutes carved out of a beautiful April afternoon for this?

Up next: the Detroit Tigers. I would say that we're about to embark on a long stretch of meeting tough teams, except that these Twins are making everyone look tough.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 27, 2007 7:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

On the road again: Thunder battles Atlanta on national TV

Filed under: Soccer

The mighty Minnesota Thunder hit the road last weekend to open the season and returned with two points. The squad secured ties against the Charleston Battery (0-0) and the Carolina Railhawks (1-1).

Considering that the squad was seriously undermanned on defense, it was a more than decent start to the season. Two of the team's primary defenders, Kevin Taylor and Alfredo Esteves, were out with injuries. A third, Jonathan Greenfield, was finishing up his indoor season with the Detroit Ignition. (They lost in the championship match 13-8 to the Philadelphia Kixx.)

"We didn't play particularly well in either of the games," says Coach Amos Magee. "I expect that we're going to play better as the season progresses."

But the second year coach was happy to steal a couple of points away from home even though the team wasn't in top form--a rarity last season when the Thunder picked up just seven road points all season long. "I really do think we've got a different mentality this year than we did last year," Magee says. "I feel even though we're younger, we have a better battling, fighting mentality, and I expect that some good things can really happen for us."

Things won't get any easier for the Thunder this weekend. They travel south with the same patchwork corps of defenders to take on a talented Atlanta Silverbacks squad. "They're formidable," says Magee of Atlanta. "I think they're going to be a better team, a more dangerous team, than either Charleston or Carolina. I expect us to be better too."

One bright note for the local squad: 6'4" Japanese forward Keisuke Ota has joined the team and will make the trip to Atlanta. "It's going to take some time to figure out his tendencies and figure out how we can best use him," says Magee. "Guys for the last three years were reluctant to lump balls up the field and have a big guy battle for it. That said, I think they're starting to recognize that we now have a really big legitimate target who will battle and fight and hold the ball for us."

The Thunder's defensive depth will hopefully improve prior to next Sunday's home opener. Magee expects to have Taylor and Greenfield training next week. (A full transcript of my interview with Magee is posted on Blue Sky Soccer.

Tomorrow night's match is being broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel at 7 p.m. (CST). Thunder fans will be gathering in St. Paul at the Sweetwater to watch. It's located at 161 St. Anthony Boulevard (651-224-6373), inside the Kelly Inn.
Here's a map. Join us.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 26, 2007 4:52 PM | Comments (1)

 

Melancholy Musings on Another Awful Evening

Filed under: Twins

This afternoon I took a stroll through The 2006 Baseball Prospectus. Those guys pretty much dismissed last year's Detroit Tigers, stating flatly that, in order to compete, the "pitchers need to become stars." We now know that they did just that. Last season, our very own Morneau and Mauer hit that big-time, too, joining Johan Santana in the spotlight. I get the feeling we're going to need more than a three-star constellation to make a go of it this year.

See, I like the Detroit Tigers. I'm from Michigan, been following them my whole life. Now I know that no one gives a flying handshake where I'm from or who I root for, but we're both here, we're both watching the Twins at least (and I do consider myself a fan of the local nine), and I'm looking for a tonic to the pain I've had to endure at the Metrodome. Already frustrated with the thought of coming to the ballpark to watch Ponson take on his arch-nemesis Kansas City Royals this evening--and, really, I call anyone that faces Ponson an arch nemesis, such is his success with teams that actually come to bat against him--I found myself turning to Prospectus for some insight. For although the Twins batters are doing little to make things easy for their vaunted pitching staff, tonight Ponson kept up appearances as the mediocrity many were making him out to be. No, four earned runs aren't horrible, but, as one frustrated fan shouted tonight, "C'mon, it's the Royals!"

From the top of the Royals order to the bottom, the batters were taking long pitch counts--in fact, both of the Royals' homers came after six pitches each (from Sweeney and Gload, who, admittedly, aren't slouches, and their number nine hitter took ten pitches before walking). A while back, a local scribe, I don't recall who (though he was undoubtedly making a good point) noted that Ponson's bad outing v. the Yankees was superior to Bonser's (though the Aruban Nightmare had more earned runs than Boof), and this was part of his evidence that we need to be patient and wait for things to settle down. After all, the reasoning went, everything was going wrong to start last year, between Santana (always a slow starter), Boof, Garza, Radke, and the offense, things were plain bad. Same thing this year, kind-of: Ponson and Ortiz and Silva aren't the problem, and the youths in Rochester aren't the solution.

The problem with this logic, as I see it, is that Boof is young, and young pitchers go through outings like these and (hopefully) learn from them. A bad outing for Boof is still a beginning, while Ponson's is, at best, the beginning of the end. Granted, Ponson might learn something, build on his rough outings. Old dogs can learn new tricks, I suppose. But I wouldn't stake even part of a season on that.

Thing is, puppies learn tricks better than old dogs and there are pups the Twins could be benefiting from right now, even in a loss. Matt Garza is the obvious pitcher to fill a role. Would he have had a better time of it than Ponson? Or Silva, or Ortiz? Who knows? But the Tigers didn't hesitate to let Jeremy Bonderman or Mike Maroth struggle mightily through that wretched 2003 season, and here we are, one year after Bonderman especially (and Verlander the rookie) hauled the Bengals to the World Series. They're tough cookies today, in part because someone in the Tigers organization had faith in them in the present that was 2003. And 2004, 2005 and finally, triumphantly (almost) 2006.

Personally, I'd rather have one season like the Tigers 2006 than four division titles that went nowhere. I bet they say that in Texas and Seattle, too.

Why I'm grousing like this I'm not entirely sure, because tonight's 4-3 loss was almost entirely due, yet again, to an offense that shut down when it was needed. I'll be brutally honest with you: much of this entry was written in between the seventh and eighth innings, when the Twins were but a run away from tying the game. So what? Had we won, somehow, would that have been cause for celebration? Sweet Mother of Fuck, these are the Kansas City Royals. We stranded guys, hit into double-plays, and the Royals hurler, with his almost nine-run ERA, looked as poised as... well, as all the pitchers who come through the Metrodome and watch the heart of the order go down quietly as kittens. The Twins are supposed to be one of the premiere clubs of both leagues, ready to take the next step. Squeaking out a win against these rubes from Missouri (and the worst team in the league) isn't worth any bragging rights, especially in such a close game. The Royals have a lousy pitching staff, mediocre hitters, and yet still beat us. Again.

Yes, it's early in the season, for sure. We've only hit the 21 game mark and still have a winning record, even if it is by one game. But here's another observation from the folks at Prospectus from 2006: "...if The Twins take credit for building a large base of homegrown talent... they deserve criticism for failing to leverage that talent to into a genuinely great club." This club is far from great, though I do think it's too early to determine exactly who in this league would qualify for that title. You might say the Twins had a pretty good season last year to gripe. But BP also noted, and I agree, that had the Twins brain-trust not given contracts to such powerhouses as Tony Batista and Rondell White, we might not have needed such an amazing comeback to win the division last year.

(I might add that the exhaustion of such a comeback might have kept them from advancing in the first round, as happened to the 1987 Tigers, who also staged a mighty comeback of epic proportions and were blown away in a playoff.)

But I digress. This is no longer the AL Central of 2002-2005, as we all know, and the Twins need more ingenuity than simply relying on Sidney Ponson to take up the last spot, and filling holes in their offense with garbage, last year's piranhas, or nothing at all. The Twins, this early in the season, have struggled against some of the worst teams in the league, looking confident only against the Orioles and Mariners. When we hit, we strand those runners by not hitting again. Their pitchers are not dominating us, we're allowing ourselves to be dominated.

I don't claim to know who we'd trade for, or what we'd trade for, what triggers to pull or who to call up from the minors or trade away (though I would claim that sending Ortiz and Silva to the pitching-hungry Yanks might be a start--trade while the trading's good, though it's early). Perhaps The Twins're stuck, that they won't be able to pull any triggers until we get that new stadium. By then we'll be spending money just to keep the guys we've got now.

Ugh. Outside of Baltimore, that first, and now distant series, the vaunted Minnesota Twins, with the MVP, Cy Young winner, and Batting Champ, have done nothing but make the very bad look very, very good. Games like these make an already long season seem like eternity.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 25, 2007 6:41 PM | Comments (2)

 

Holy beef-a-Rooney!

Filed under: Soccer

I tried to cheer for Milan. The thought of an all English final makes me ill. All those insufferable Anglophiles at The Local and Brit's is too much to contemplate. I splurged on a $7 bottle of chianti, heated up some delicious Chef Boyardee Cheesy Nacho Twistaroni, and watched highlight footage of the great Gilardino on the internets.

And thanks to their brilliant, waifish Brazilian Kaka (that second goal!), the diving wankers did me proud in the first half, outplaying Manchester and jumping to a 2-1 lead. But then in typical Italian fashion they proceeded to shit all over the second half of the game. Didn't bother trying to score. Just hunkered down and prayed that the Pope would erase the final 45 minutes from the clock.

Thankfully it didn't work. Despite suffering sufficient injuries to staff the best 7-v-7 side in the world, Manchester kept at it. Darren Fletcher and Patrice Evra were valiant. The Great Wayne Rooney won it in stoppage time. Should be a fantastic return leg in Milan. Highlights in Arabic (maybe? Turkish? Hell if I know) here:

Posted by Paul Demko at April 25, 2007 8:35 AM | Comments (2)

 

The Ace Makers

Filed under: Twins

For the third game in a row, the Twins proceeded to take another very human pitcher and make him appear like future Cy Young winner. I don't know if this is a part of some kind of program to restore the self-esteem of opposing pitchers, but it seems to work wonders on these guys. Tonight the papier mache hero was one Fausto Carmona. Considering his first name, one might assume that he sold his soul for tonight's 5-3 victory, were this not becoming a regular occurrence.

Last year, Fausto was up and down like a yo-yo, being a starter, a closer, and a starter again when he blew three saves. This year, he's lost two and came into the game with a 6.97 ERA. The Cleveland Indians rotation was undoubtedly set awhile ago, but we had to feel confident with Carmona versus Santana, right?

Wrong. Again, the Twins hacked and hacked and hacked away, allowing young Mr. Carmona to throw but 81 pitches through 7 frames, running the count fatter in that last 2/3 inning (when he gave up 15--his second highest total of the night). Young Fausto looked great out there, giving up only two runs, both in the fourth, and having the confident look of a man in complete control. Our ace, Johan Santana, seemed merely human, fraught by a bug, perhaps, or suffering from some acute melancholy. Perhaps he's musing too much about his performance in his advertisement for the team, or wondering if there's more to life than just baseball. Whatever the reason, he seemed merely human this evening, and now has his second home loss in as many games after going almost two seasons without one.

What is going on with these Twins? Hell if I know. They're playing like my old softball club, lunging at bad pitches and then, in Torii's case, stretching hits into easy outs at second. With two outs in the second, Torii laced a single to center, a bit of movement on it, not an easy play to be sure. But Torii, who tried this successfully last night, was out by city mile. "It's not worth it if they catch him half the time," grumbled a colleague. He's right.

As for the rest of the Twins, there were a number of baffling plays: With the Tribe's Victor Martinez on third, Trot Nixon sent a bounding ball to Alexi Casilla. Martinez didn't wait, but bolted for home. The problem was that Casilla waited, slapping the ball in his glove once, then twice, before throwing home and allowing the run to score and every other Indian to stand safely on their bag.

The Twins didn't strand too many runners, but then again they're not getting on base. Only one Twin ran the count full on against Carmona, and the rest saw no more than four per at-bat through the first three innings.

Add to this Torii's mistake, Johan's two hit batsmen, Nick Punto's continued insistence on diving headlong into first (successfully, though I'm still not convinced that that is any faster; I am convinced that it is more conducive to injury), and the Twins look more like a team interested in empty posturing than winning games.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 24, 2007 7:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

Here Comes the Night

Filed under: Twins

God, is there anything more depressing in professional sports than that one lone guy booing in the twelfth inning of a losing game? That one soul who's still trying to rouse the six people left in his section, maybe trying to rally himself for the long drive home, maybe a dedicated follower of primal scream therapy. By the time Joe Nathan walked Cleveland's Jhonny Peralta to load the bases in the twelfth, probably five thousand long-suffering (and now utterly sober) fans were left scratching the scruff on their chins and wondering why they were still glued to their seats. Yeah, the home team gets its at-bat, sure. But then Shin-Soo Choo, who'd gone 0-4 over the last four hours, squeaked a hit past Nathan's outstretched glove and drove in two more. What had been a barely reachable 5-3 contest became a 7-3 blowout. If a miracle was going to occur, it certainly wouldn't have many witnesses.

I don't know what got into both teams tonight. Look at the Indians, for Christ's sake. For the love of God, it seemed like they were primed to feast on Carlos Silva. Check out these pre-game numbers: the top four hitters in the Indians line-up had, in the past, made mincemeat of our pitcher of choice. Grady Sizemore was hitting .500 in 44 at-bats; Casey Blake .368 in 38; Travis Hafner .394 in 33; and Victor Martinez .500 in 26. Those are all numbers against Carlos Silva. It's his turn in the rotation, but I bet there were some butterflies in the stomachs of the local nine. That foursome had 8 homers and 70 hits in all those at-bats, combined. But after eleven innings, the Indians and their vaunted lineup had but three runs to show for these portents. Silva held his own until a pesky fifth inning, when he coughed up three runs when Blake and Hafner reached with a pair of singles and Martinez blasted a home run, which is often his want. But I'll take only three runs from our starter. If we could give him some runs back, that's one in the win column.

As on Sunday, one of our starters gave up just three runs that we couldn't beat. Torii was game, stretching a single into a double in the second inning, and then standing there and watching Cuddyer and Morneau pop up. In the third, poor Jason Bartlett whacked a nice double down the third base line, and then was doubled up on a soft liner to the shortstop--an utterly impossible, hard luck play in which Mr. Peralta stood on second and reached out and caught the liner for an automatic double play. Like life in the hall of mirrors, the fourth opened with two base hits and resulted in no runs. It seemed like we were going around and around, unable to escape this hell.

You could say that the Twins wouldn't give up, that they kept themselves in the game with their pitching, until finally they scratched out three to tie it up in the seventh. Torii lifted a home run after taking the utterly effective Jeremy Sowers (who counts Minneapolis as his favorite town on the road, and no wonder the way we play) to a full count. As if to give the Twins marketing department some highlights, Kubel and Bartlett were on with a pair of hits, and Alexi Casilla doubled to send them home and tie the game.

But after that the Indians allowed just one baserunner in the remaining five innings. Our late scoring rally, the one that tied it up in the seventh, gave the illusion that we could possibly win this thing. Up we came, bats ready, and then down we sat, stifled. Eventually, the twelfth inning arrived, the first four Indians scored, and that, as they say, was that. Only the utterly faithful, the cynical, self-hating baseball fan was left, and probably would be wondering the next day why, oh, why they waited until this evening came crashing down on them. Traffic? Sobering up? Probably they were raised that way. My family would just as soon drink lye than leave a game early. Tonight, I'm not sure which is worse.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 23, 2007 6:41 PM | Comments (1)

 

The Monterrey Kid Spoils the Day

Filed under: Twins

Against a backdrop of empty seats, seemingly undistracted by the ignominy of hot dog wrappers tumbling at his feet, the Royals' Jorge De La Rosa shut down the Twins through eight strong innings, giving up but one run against five hits. This young wayfarer is no stranger to baseball, having come up from Monterrey (home of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame) and spending time in the Diamondbacks and Red Sox organizations before trudging through three seasons with two woebegone Midwestern clubs, the Milwaukee Brewers and now the Royals (he came to Kansas City last season). Already this year he's shut down the Tigers once, and might be sitting on a gaudy 4-0 record if the offensive half of his team would get the job done once in awhile (he gave up four runs in a loss and a no-decision to the Blue Jays and Tigers, respectively). Today, the Royals hitters were just good enough, in the Twins 3-1 loss.

As a Royals fan, celebrating a series win against a team predicted to hit the playoffs is probably all you can hope for this year. That your club--the Royals today, the Devil Rays, Mariners, Orioles and whoever else fails to meet expectations--will send a division- or wild card leader tumbling out of contention. The Royals, you might recall, fought valiantly against the Tigers in September of last year, sweeping three games and taking away their division title on the very last day (and after a pair of incredible comebacks). Perhaps this September, when the Twins miss the playoffs by one game, we'll look back on this afternoon's contest with a grimace.

For this was a game that might have been won with some patience. De La Rosa began the thing shaky. The Twins pounced on him right away, when Punto and Mauer both cracked hits and Cuddyer walked, loading the bases with one out and the reigning MVP at the plate. But De La Rosa was nonplussed. He struck Morneau out on four pitches and Torii drove the first pitch deep into center field... but not deep enough. No more jam.

Did I mention that this was the first inning? You should know that De La Rosa retired sixteen straight after that.

How our own Ramon Diogenes Ortiz, The Barber of Cotui, The Cynic, who sat on a 3-0 record and a 2.48 record at the dawn of this Sunday, must have stared in disbelief as he tried--and succeeded, really--to keep the Twins in the game. The wind was on his side, blowing baseballs out toward the fences, which is good for long-ball hitters like Cuddyer and Morneau and Hunter (and groundball pitchers like Ortiz), and doesn't hurt a pitcher who can get them to ground out. Sure, he gave up a two-run home run in the third, to Ross Gload, 'way out to center. And got out of that inning with only a two-run deficit, stranding a pair as well. What more can a journeyman pitcher do? The Twins have some power, can manufacture runs, they say, and all-in-all Ortiz gave up but three runs. And earned a loss.

Watching the game on the telly, I recall hearing Blyleven notice that the Twins were hitting pitches right away--bad news against De La Rosa, who's noted for his wildness. That sounds par for the course in beating the Detroit Tigers I've come to known and love these past two seasons, a free swingin', low-walkin' club if ever there was one. But the Twins play this small-ball, tiny-bitey piranha thing, and when no one, not one single Twin, runs the count full, well, you'll get beat by a guy like De La Rosa. You won't see good pitches to hack. Seven Twins were out on the first pitch, and six of those were fly outs (De La Rosa had but seven ground-outs). Wait for it, boys, make him throw, make him walk some, then make him toss a pitch or two into the heart of the plate and then smack him around. The Twins today appeared utterly flummoxed.

In this division, and during this difficult year, we need to take as many games as we can from the likes of Kansas City. Granted, you can't win them all in this long summer, but taking two of three against the lowly Royals (who won their first series this season) is absolutely essential. For the Royals, they're busy just watching the kids grow and hopefully get better, en route to a .500 season in the year 2010. But the Twins are hoping to raise the pennant now--to do that, they can't waste performances like Ortiz' today, nor refuse to wait for walks.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 22, 2007 3:48 PM | Comments (0)

 

Blue blood in the blue blue grass

The big news out of Kentucky this week is that Queen Elizabeth is coming to the Kentucky Derby in two weeks. People everywhere with no sense of reality are all abuzz because this highly inbred woman with no real appreciable skills at anything has decided to use a portion of her enormous wealth derived from centuries of abuse of normal people like you and me, to come to America for 6 days and waltz around for photographers. I once read a story about her that said as a girl, she was given cookies if she could space out her bowel movements such that she only took one when she awoke, and one before she went to bed. Indeed. Royalty. There's nothing more useless on earth than someone who claims to be or is actually certified as "royalty." When some idiot points out their charitable works, it really chaps my ass, because the money wasn't theirs to begin with, so they should be giving it back. The entire royal family of Great Britain should be thrown out into the streets and required to make down payments and take out mortgages on their castles and servants. What a fucking joke.

Beyond that, there was one last tune-up for the Derby that Demko missed, the Lexington Stakes from the worthless polytrack of Keeneland. At the post of this misbegotten trot, everyone was interviewing D. Wayne Lukas and reliving the good old days when Charismatic won this race, then the Derby two weeks later. They were fellating his horse, Starbase, and asking him whether lightning could strike twice. But lightning is a strange old bird, and leaves split tree trunks and scorched earth everywhere it goes. All the big money was going into Belgravia, Soaring By and Joe Got Even; all 3 horses ate shit and were no factor in the race or the money. Robbie Albarado, who will pilot current favorite Curlin at Churchill Downs in two weeks whipped something called Slew's Tizzy--who went off at 40-1--around both turns in a reasonable 1:43 and change, wire to wire, ahead of Starbase and Forty Grams. It was a normal race, and it really makes me question what happened last week at the Blue Grass, a horrible race from start to finish, and a real thorn in the sides of miserable gamblers, like Demko. So all that wisdom that Beyer spouted about polytrack last week is either bullshit, or is vulnerable to speed freaks, which might make Slew's Tizzy a new favorite to set the pace. If you bet $2 on the Trifecta in this run, you were rewarded with $14,000 on the backside, so the afternoon wasn't a total loss for some.

In the next two weeks, it will be time for some heavy number crunching, followed by a foolish bet made 3 minutes to post, based on nothing in particular. Stay tuned.

Posted by Jack Sparks at April 21, 2007 6:41 PM | Comments (1)

 

Another Vikings stadium design unveiled

Filed under: Vikings

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission (MSFC) reviewed plans for redeveloping the site of the Metrodome as a multi-use, retractable-roof behemoth for the Minnesota Vikings. The ROMA Design Group unveiled a $954 million facility that would supposedly anchor a mixed-use redevelopment of the eastern edge of downtown, and would include a light rail train station, a plaza, and streetscapes connecting downtown to the river. In a story posted at Vikings.com, Roy Terwilliger, Chairman of the MSFC, declared, "Today, we saw a vision for what can be next—a world-class, retractable-roof stadium that can make Minnesota a year-round host to major events—and a driver for development that enhances our quality of life. We have the opportunity to secure the benefits of an NFL franchise and those of a year-round, multi-use facility for the next 30 years."

A graph on the website shows the facility's price tag to be similar to a stadium project in development in Dallas ($932 million for a retractable roof stadium), but significantly lower than a proposal for New York City ($1.7 billion for a new open-air stadium). The cost of acquiring additional land is estimated at $8.89 million and construction of the retractable roof portion of the stadium would cost $200 million. SRF Consulting Group has noted redeveloping the current site would save hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure costs that would incur if a suburban location were chosen. Two designs from ROMA are posted below:

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 20, 2007 1:48 PM | Comments (2)

 

Squeak! Squeak!

Filed under: Twins

According to a variety of sources (I did not travel to Seattle to watch these games, nor watch them on the cable I don't get), the Twins took the third game in a three game set against the Mariners by playing small-ball. Amazingly (to this writer), the Twins haven't swept Seattle since 1996. That's over eleven seasons, for God's sake. Compare that '96 Mariners squad to that year's Twins, and consider some of the lousy teams the M's have fielded in just the last three years, and, wow, that's one bizarre statistic. Then again, with the imbalanced schedule, we don't get an opportunity to play teams outside the division, so maybe that skewers the whole thing.

The Twins edged Seattle 5-4 on Friday. There was a small-ball carnival in the lucky seventh inning, beginning with three bunts in a row by our fishy friends (Bartlett, Casilla and Castillo) followed by a booming Michael Cuddyer double and a single by Mike Redmond. Behold, like candy spilling from a pinata, it's 5-1. With Santana holding his own, and our ace relief staff on the line, the game should have been sewn up, yes? No.

Joe Nathan, lately shaky, wasn't going to pitch at all, what with that four-run lead and submarining Pat Neshek on the hill. But Neshek was a bit off on his game, perhaps feeling groggy from West Coast time, from the afternoon game, from staring intently at the totem poles in downtown Seattle. He gave up three runs on a blast by one Mr. Raul Ibanez, and suddenly it was a one-run game. In comes Joe Nathan, who would have been perfectly effective were it not for a long fly ball, a sure out, that was lost in the cruel sun. It dropped in front of Cuddyer and leaving Richie Sexon standing on second (Quote of the day: "These 3:30 games don't make much sense to me," said Mr. Cuddyer. So much for "Let's play two!") Finally, Nathan ended the game on a Jose Guillen strikeout. Whew.

Now I've been known to criticize the use of bunts in the past, especially coming off the bat of Joe Mauer (and in his case, I'll continue to grump despite decent arguments to the contrary by one Twins Geek, whose points I still consider incorrect. But, man, that guy knows how to throw statistics around...) In any case, the Twins blew a couple of scoring opportunities from their big bats. In the third inning, with runners on second and third and one out, Cuddyer popped foul and Morneau couldn't get the ball out of the infield. In the fourth, Redmond opened the frame with a double, made it to third with only one out, then stood that ninety feet away and twiddled his thumbs while the next pair of Twins couldn't even hit a pop fly far enough to score him. Then in the fifth, Luis Castillo doubled to get things started, and after Nicky Punto grounded out to the shortstop (thus failing to get Castillo over--not a small-ball way of moving runners, to be sure) and Joe Mauer was hit by a pitch, now again you have people in scoring position. And Cuddyer and Morneau as the next two batters. And again, for the third straight inning, these guys failed to score.

But Seattle is Seattle, a better team than last year, and in this brutal sport of 162 games, you take any and all victories, no matter how ugly they might be. At this point, the Twins are doing things right--going 4-0 in one-run games is a great start. Small ball is perfect, folks, especially if it's just a matter of being there when the big bats are quieted.

...

A feat that always amazes me is the 35-5 start by the Detroit Tigers in 1984. You can keep your 56 game hitting streak (unbelievable for sure), but will any team ever eclipse, or even tie, that 40 game record? With one fourth of the season down, that year's Tigers were thirty games over .500 and could lose half their games from then on and still win 95 (they ended up winning 104--with the third best record in the American League after that. Toronto and New York fared better in the remaining 120 contests, but, as Sparky said, "you gotta count the whole season.")

Having grown up in Michigan, I'm an old, dyed-in-the-wool Tigers fan, but this is still one hell of a record. For instance, no team has played more than 16 games this year, and only one club has an opportunity to beat the '84 Tigers, and that's the Mets, sitting today at 10-4. Meaning, of course (this is simple, non-SABR math), that the Mets need to go 25-1 in order to tie the Tigers of that incredible year . I'm convinced that no team will ever break this record, but I'd be happy to entertain algorithm and other mathematical feats to prove me wrong. I think it was Stephen J. Gould who proved that DiMaggio's streak is so crazy as to never be beaten; could this one be the same?

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 20, 2007 7:15 AM | Comments (1)

 

Thunder start season with southern swing

Filed under: Soccer

The Minnesota Thunder open their 2007 campaign against the Charleston Battery tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. (CST). The game will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel. The Thunder will then travel north to face the Carolina Railhawks on Saturday.

After a brutal 2006 season, finishing tied for last with a 7-15-6 record, the team's roster has been substantially overhauled. Fewer than half of last year's players will return for coach Amos Magee's second season.

Among the key returnees will be veteran goalkeeper Joe Warren, defensive midfielder Freddy Juarez, and central playmaker Godfrey Tenoff. Ansu Toure, who tallied four goals in just ten matches last season (and nearly secured a roster spot with the New York Red Bulls), will likely be more prominently featured in the attack. Diminutive striker Leo Gibson also looks poised for a breakout season.

Tougher to gage is the impact that the team's newcomers will have on the field. Potentially the most exciting addition is striker Rodrigo Hidalgo. The 19-year-old Colombia native has spent time with various U.S. youth national teams and was a standout at the University of South Florida for three seasons before leaving to try his luck overseas. Unfortunately a tryout with Irish club Bohemians ended prematurely after Hidalgo volunteered to play 'keeper during a match. The end result: a missing tooth, a broken nose, and 22 stitches on the inside of his mouth. For a swell primer on Hidalgo's tumultuous upbringing, see this 2005 St. Pete Times story.

Other intriguing newcomers include 6'4" Japanese target forward Keisuke Ota (who is yet to join the team owing to visa issues), and 19-year-old midfielder Lencho Skibba, a native of Ethiopia who has spent time with German club Alemania Aachen's youth side.

Defense looks to be the team's primary liability heading into the opener. The team's travel roster lists just four primary defenders for the two game road trip. Alfredo Esteves and Kevin Taylor are sidelined with injuries, while Jonathan Greenfield will be playing in Saturday's MISL championship game for Detroit. Newcomer Derek Smith should immediately get to prove his worth (or lack thereof) in central defense.

One other promising change for 2007: Minnesota soccer legend Manny Lagos will be working more closely with Magee on the sidelines.

As always, Blue Sky Soccer is the definitive source for Thunder news.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 19, 2007 1:06 PM | Comments (0)

 

Fine feathered fiends

Filed under: Wild

Exhibit A on why we need players like Derek Boogaard

Our recent cover story on hockey fighting sparked a debate about why the NHL continues to tolerate fisticuffs. Some even went so far as to suggest it was racist, since fighting is heavily penalized in African American-dominated sports such as basketball, but earns just a short stay in the penalty box in the majority-white NHL.

But anybody wondering whether fighting serves a legitimate purpose in hockey need look no further than Game 4 of the Wild's playoff game against the referees the Mighty Ducks.

After the Wild went up 4-1 in the third period, the game began to resemble a streetfight more than an organized sport. Wild defenseman Brent Burns (above) admirably showed up for his second scrap of the series, thoroughly trouncing the overmatched Corey Perry.

Then all hell broke loose.

With less than two minutes to play in the all-but-decided game, the refs lost control and the Ducks decided to take out their frustrations via cheap shots and sucker punches. Ducks left winger Shawn Thorton was the third man in during a fight between teammate Kent Huskins and the Wild's Adam Hall. While the cowardly Ducks were going two-on-one with Hull, Anaheim agitator (read: chickenshit) Brad May cold cocked Wild pacifist Kim Johnsson, who'd done nothing to provoke the blindside attack. Johnsson collapsed to the ice with a head injury in what was a scary moment for the home crowd, which had earlier made its feelings about the piss poor officiating with a rousing chorus of "bullshit."

The jeers turned to cheers when Coach Jacques Lemaire took action where the refs would not, sending Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard onto the ice to restore order. Showing their yellow bellies, the Ducks ducked and covered, refusing to engage the Boogeyman and finishing the game in a defensive crouch. Afterwards, Boogaard made his feelings clear.

"Brad May is supposed to be a tough guy and everybody sits there and says he's one of the toughest guys in the league," Boogaard said. "I don't think tough guys go around suckering guys that don't fight. If he deserves respect and does stuff like that, he's not going to get respect in this series... if he even plays again. He's done for the rest of the playoffs as far as I'm concerned."

Which is to say there's a lot of bad blood that might be spilled on the ice tonight during Game 5, which starts at 9:30 p.m. in Anaheim. The Ducks better come prepared to drop the gloves and fight like men, because the Boogeyman certainly is.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 19, 2007 10:59 AM | Comments (3)

 

Goodbyes

Filed under: Timberwolves

By Stephen Litel

When the season began, I thought there would be no way that the Timberwolves could have a worse season then last year. With the additions of Mike James, and rookies Randy Foye and Craig Smith, they would surely be closer to fighting for a playoff berth.

Yet, with last night's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota ended their 2006-07 season with one less loss then last year... and with more questions then ever before.

Will Randy Wittman, who has acquired a 12-30 record since replacing Dwane Casey, really return next season as head coach? What has he done to deserve to keep his job?

Although Randy Foye showed glimpses of great play throughout the season, can he truly be an NBA point guard?

Will Craig Smith learn from his rookie year and find ways to continue his own growth as a solid role player for this team?

Can Rashad McCants fully heal over the summer and come back next year, ready to live up to expectations?

Will Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marko Jaric, Bracey Wright, and Trenton Hassell even be on this team next year?

How can Glen Taylor afford to keep Kevin McHale employed?

...and, have we already seen Kevin Garnett's last game as a member of the Timberwolves?

Right now, nobody knows the answers to any of these questions. This off-season is obviously the most important in the history of the franchise as they must decide if they will trade their superstar or try to build around him one last time before his patience completely wears off.

Stay tuned, Wolves fans. This will either be an incredibly busy summer for this team or the silence will be deafening. A summer that brings the same team (along with the player chosen in the draft), will be the Timberwolves officially announcing that they do not care about the product they put out to the public.

We can only hope that the press conference Wednesday will be Kevin McHale finally announcing he is quitting. I'm won't hold my breath, but one can dream.

* * * * * *

It truly was a sad sight in the locker room after the game. Watching players give their final interviews, seeing the lockers being packed up for the summer and, of course, the absence of Kevin Garnett truly gave the finality of the moment. Players exchanged phone numbers, addresses and plans as to when they would hook up over the summer while filing out one by one, some not knowing if they would ever play together as teammates again.

At the very least, as I have stated all year, a vast majority of these players are friends off the court. The problem? Most are not friends with Kevin Garnett. Throughout the season, there was never a sense that Garnett himself was a member of this "team." He did his own thing, separate from the rest, leading by example on the court while allowing the dysfunction to continue off the court.

But, can you really blame him? After all, Kevin Garnett will go down as one of the greatest power forwards in the history of the NBA, his career is beginning to wind down and these are the best teammates that management can give him to work with?

* * * * * *

This is also a goodbye for me as this will be my final post for City Pages. I would like to thank City Pages for the opportunity and Corey Anderson for his faith and guidance. I have been allowed to continue my growth as a writer and am incredibly grateful.

I also would like to thank my readers. It is because of my relationship with you that I truly enjoy this opportunity that I have been given. You keep me on my toes, never letting me slide with half-assed work and let me know when you disagree with my takes. That is what is wonderful about sports. We all can watch the same thing, but depending on where you sit in the arena, how intently you watch on television or how rose-colored your glasses may be, we all have different thoughts and it has been wonderful to share mine with you and to hear yours.

As I now move on to another forum, I hope that you, my readers, will join me. Be assured that I will be around and if you truly want to find me, you know how to get in touch with me.

By Stephen Litel
Stephenwolvesguy22@hotmail.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 19, 2007 7:00 AM | Comments (4)

 

What Demko knows after the Blue Grass Stakes

Filed under: Horse Racing

The Blue Grass Stakes from Keeneland was the kind of race that would make you turn around and start scanning the box seats for a smiling John Gotti, smoking a cigar and shaking hands with his associates. Watching the horses down the backstretch in this garbage race, you couldn't help but think to yourself that the fix was in. Five jockeys had their donkeys out for a casual afternoon stroll and they were all going to wait until the quarter poll to turn it on. At the post, Street Sense was at even money and Great Hunter was 2nd at 9-5. And the horsey wizards were falling all over themselves after the race trying to convince everyone that's exactly how it would have played out, had the race not been "paceless," which is just paddock code for "everyone shook hands and agreed not to actually race their 'racehorses' until the backstretch."

They shouldn't do things like this to Demko, who in addition to being an absolutely unrepentant degenerate gambler, is also an investigative journalist, with a real hard-on for St. Paul City Hall. He would have been pounding on the jockey room door after this race shouting, "Chris Coleman couldn't hide from me, and neither will you bastards!"

My own heart is so full of hate, I want to scratch all of these horses off the list. Just in case you're scoring at home, in a photo finish, Dominican beat Street Sense and Zanjero. But what DID we learn, if anything? One...Dominican out-kicked the others, which might be of note; the Derby is the longest race any of these nags will have run, so late steam is a desirable trait. Two...Zanjero absolutely hogged the rail; he not only kept the rest of the field off the rail, he also took it over and ran it 3 or 4 wide down the stretch, forcing them all way to the outside. If he were to get a good post position, you might look at 2 or 3 horses next to him and wonder whether they're going to get aced out. Three...Polytrack takes the furtive adrenaline of a desperate bet based solely on self-loathing out of horse racing because it slows the race to a crawl. Four...The "pace" horse, Teuflesberg, ended up fourth, but it was a very strong fourth, and he might be a sexy pick for a Superfecta, if you have a gambling problem, like Demko. Five...Don't bet the mortgage on Street Sense or Great Hunter; a loser is a loser.

In other news, Curlin beat absolutely nobody by 10 1/2 lengths in the Arkansas Derby. When I get down to some heavy action on the Derby, I'll examine his times and Beyer numbers, but this horse has run against the equivalent of the race scene in "The Quiet Man:" he's beat all the neighbor horses in a Sunday race over brunch and Irish Whiskey.

Posted by Jack Sparks at April 17, 2007 11:40 AM | Comments (1)

 

There's Joy in The Mudville That is Tampa Bay...

Filed under: Twins

I am at an utter loss as to who would consider themselves a fan of the Tampa Bay Steve Irwin Killers. Granted, I'm not from Florida, but the people I know who make the Sunshine State their home usually follow other teams. Often, people will root for, say, the New York Yankees, catching a few spring training games here and there or heading to the other dome to watch the Rays get smacked. This hapless franchise, "celebrating" their tenth anniversary (and what memories those must be), must have some kid, somewhere in the bay area, cheering for 'em.

I imagine some suburban kid, picked on by Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans in his grade school, pasty-faced from too much time indoors and especially at Tropicana Field (what a cruel joke that is), keeping score and hoping against hope that the Rays will have a good season, someday. I imagine him at home this beautiful Sunday afternoon, ignoring the entreaties of his parents to do something productive for a change, like playing GameBoy or watching Animal Planet. But he refuses. And today, there's a brief burst of joy when his Rays split a four-game series against the heralded Twins, winning game four of the set 6-4. Look, look, he tells his indifferent parents, the Rays beat two of the finest pitchers in baseball! Who woulda thunk they'd hand Johann Santana his first loss at home in twenty four games, and Joe Nathan his first loss since '05 and blown save since sometime last year (and no, I don't know what game he blew--you tell me). Our boy will cling to some futile hope that perhaps these guys can actually compete this year. His innocence is not yet lost.

The Devil Rays are just the kind of club that forces fans to seek the small blessings in life, and today they were there in this close game. The Rays fell behind early, when Cuddyer singled and Morneau cracked a double and then Torii grounded out to send Cuddy home easily. The Rays were trying at least, stealing twice in the first two innings, getting nabbed both times (in part due to heads-up playing by both Mike Redmond and Jason Bartlett, the latter keeping his planted feet in the way of both runners). The Rays wouldn't score until the fifth, when Mr. Dioner Navarro scored on a Jonny Gomes single to tie the game. And so our Florida fan's eyes widen, only to watch the Twins go ahead in the bottom half of the same inning.

Down 2-1, the Rays reward his faith: Boof was hit hard in the sixth inning, that frame opening with a Brendan Harris solo homer in right field. Three batters later comes yet another blast, this time a Delmon Young two-run shot that took the score to 4-2. The Twins were doing their level best to comply, giving our mystery kid a new hero in Jae Seo, the South Korean pitcher who thus far was sitting on a fat 9.64 era but kept the Twins bats cold.

Sure, the Twins came back to tie the game in the seventh. In that inning, Torii Hunter, wearing the sacred number 42, seemingly conjured up the spirit of Jackie Robinson and raced from first on a Jason Kubel double, sliding under the tag of catcher Dioner Navarro. It was spectacular, and later, Jason Bartlett, who went 3 for 3, sent Kubel home with a nice hot single. This kept Boof from taking a loss--he actually looked very good, striking out eight, four on nasty curves that broke perfectly.

But the Rays didn't give up, knowing that somewhere, some kid was watching, and just praying for his team to win just once so he could go to school on Monday without getting tormented by his bandwagon schoolmates in their Mets garb. The Rays were patient today, biding their time until the ninth, when they appeared utterly unimpressed by the normally masterful Joe Nathan (who really hasn't been up to his usual speed thus far). Akinori Iwamura, Dioner Navarro, and Carlos Pena--their sixth, seventh and eighth batters--hit two doubles and a single, respectively, to go ahead 6-4, which would be the final score of the game. Take that, predicted-to-be-first-place Twins!

This was a contest between two teams that play in domes, but two teams of such contrasting fortunes it's depressing. We've got a stadium underway and a number of good years. The Rays have... well, they have virtually nothing to show for ten years of play. But this is baseball, and in baseball a team as perpetually lousy as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays can still beat a team as good as the Twins.

This year's Rays are a fascinating bunch, some good hitters and near-awful pitchers, and a bunch of bizarre cases. Aside from their unpleasurable losing ways (they can't even channel the good feeling of the Senators, Mets or Cubs in their inability to win), the Devil Rays carry some baggage. One of the players, Johnny Gomes, has suffered a heart attack and wears the initials of a deceased friend on his skin. The catcher, Dioner Navarro, wears the number 30 to commemorate September 30, the day his wife "was supposed to die" from a brain hemorrhage. She didn't, thank God, but eesh, what a story.

I bring all this up because, frankly, while I can't feel sorry for anyone who plays baseball for this much money (and who will, if they're any good, end up with another club), there are the suffering fans out there who deserve better. Who want a home-town club that wins once in awhile, for Gosh sakes! Now, I didn't want The Rays to beat us, but Jesus, that kid who grows up in the sunshiny wasteland of Tampa Bay and has to sit through season after season looking at the aqua-marine walls and hanging on news like Lou Piniella becoming the manager has to get a bit bent over time, or at least a little cynical. Makes you wonder what would've happened had the Giants left San Francisco for the bay all those years ago. Perhaps Barry Bonds would be chasing his record in Tampa Bay.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 15, 2007 1:46 PM | Comments (1)

 

If You Can Change Baseball, You Can Change America

Filed under: MLB

As you ought to know by now, today, April 15, marks the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the end of the color barrier in Major League Baseball. To mark this stirring occasion, I had the good fortune to speak with Lester Rodney yesterday by phone. Rodney, for the many of you not in the know, is the former sportswriter with New York's Daily Worker. The Daily Worker was the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of America and Rodney is one of the nearly-forgotten principals involved in the integration of baseball. At age 85, Rodney is one of the last living men to have witnessed the debut from the press box (the AP's Jim Becker is the other survivor). In the past few years, he's been in the news quite a bit, finally having his due in the form of a biography (Press Box Red) and being inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals.

CP: Not too many people know about your influence with breaking the color barrier in baseball. But The Daily Worker was actually quite instrumental.

Rodney: Well, from the moment I started, in August of 1936, we immediately went after the problem of segregation in baseball. You have to remember, The Worker didn't have a sports page until I started one. And it was overwhelming to me that no one--no one!--in any paper other than the black newspapers (most of which were weeklies and therefore had limited space and influence) were covering this story. In fact, The New York Times didn't even mention Robinson until the fourth paragraph of their article, and it didn't even merit a mention on the front page.

But I couldn't make segregation the only subject of this section, though I wanted to. No, I had to write about sports in general as well.

CP: Did you have any difficulty in the press booth when you started? It strikes me that those guys were fairly conservative.

Rodney: It took a few months. At first they just let me into the press box, sitting in the back row. I couldn't belong to the BBWAA (The Base Ball Writers Association of America) until they saw I saw I could actually cover baseball. No one spoke to me, but it wasn't really a cold shoulder. After a while I gained credibility. People came to know me first as a sportswriter--and a good one, if I do say so myself--and the abstraction of being a communist fell away. Soon, I was accepted just like any other writer.

CP: What was that opening day like? Jackie Robinson's first day?

Rodney: I remember it as a cloudy April day. Some people assume there was this happy, celebratory mood, but there wasn't. The press didn't treat it in any way historically--we had a headline, as did the black newspapers, of course--but the crowds were very subdued. Of course, Branch Rickey went around to the leaders of the black churches and told their flocks that they had to "act properly"--which may have had an impact on the crowds.

There was certainly a consciousness hovering over the players. There wasn't any normal bantering you find between players in that Dodger dugout and on the field.

One thing I clearly remember was there in the first inning, when Jackie came out to first base and this boy, a teenager, I think, "Let's Go, Jackie!" He had this piping voice, and it echoed across that subdued crowd.

CP: And what do think of all the tributes we're seeing today?

Rodney: Well, I'm surprised. I thought that after the 50th anniversary the interest would die down and possibly even vanish. But this is larger even than ten years ago.

1947 was a remarkable season. He changed people over the course of that season, and of course over his career. I think of Carl Furillo, who didn't like the idea of playing with Jackie at first. Well, over the season, the abstraction of Jackie's being a black man wore off--it's difficult for a man to consider another man inferior when he is, in fact, so superior at the thing that you do best. And that was baseball.

One thing I'd like to leave you with is this, a thing that frankly I'm ashamed about. Why didn't the Dodgers, after Jackie's having been with them for ten years, not hire him as a coach? Can you imagine Jackie as a manager or coach? He was brilliant, he had a brilliant baseball mind. The only reason I can think of for his not being a coach was that he was too militant, he never kept his thoughts to himself when he felt there was injustice. Jackie refused to go to an old timers game between the Dodgers and the Yankees because he was upset about the opportunities for African-Americans in managerial and coaching positions. No one brought this up. Including me, and I feel bad about that.

Jackie Robinson is a true American hero--he ought to have a statue in Washington, D.C. as far as I'm concerned. People can't fathom how it was back then. Look at a guy like Josh Gibson. One of, if not the, greatest ballplayer, a right-handed Babe Ruth. Now, my daughter's a Giants fan, and she loves Barry Bonds. I tell her, imagine if Barry wasn't allowed to play? And that all his achievement were considered rumor or conjecture? It's unbelievable. Jackie proved that if you can change baseball, you can change America. As you ought to know by now, today, April 15, marks the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the end of the color barrier in Major League Baseball. To mark this stirring occassion, I had the good fortune to speak with Lester Rodney yesterday by phone. Rodney, for the many of you not in the know, is the former sportswriter with New York's Daily Worker--the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of America and one of the nearly-forgotten principals involved in the integration of baseball. At age 85, Rodney is one of the last living men to have witnessed the debut from the press box (the AP's Jim Becker is the other survivor). In the past few years, he's been in the news quite a bit, finally having his due in the form of a biography (Press Box Red) and being inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals.

CP: Not too many people know about your influence with breaking the color barrier in baseball. But The Daily Worker was actually quite instrumental.

Rodney: Well, from the moment I started, in August of 1936, we immediately went after the problem of segregation in baseball. You have to remember, The Worker didn't have a sports page until I started one. And it was overwhelming to me that no one--no one!--in any paper other than the black newspapers--most of which were weeklies and therefore had limited space and influence--were covering this story.

But I couldn't make it the only subject of this section, though I wanted to. No, I had to write about sports in general as well.

CP: Did you have any difficulty in the press booth when you started? It strikes me that those guys were fairly conservative.

Rodney: It took a few months. At first they just let me into the press box, sitting in the back row. I couldn't belong to the BBWAA (The Base Ball Writes Association of America) and no one spoke to me, but it wasn't really a cold shoulder. But after a while I gained credibility. People came to know me first as a sportswriter--and a good one, if I do say so myself--and the abstraction of being a communist fell away. Soon, I was accepted just like any other writer.

CP: What was that opening day like? Jackie Robinson's first day?

Rodney: I remember it as a cloudy April day. Some people assume there was thsi happy, celebratory mood, but there wasn't. The press didn't treat it in any way historically--we had a headline, as did the black newspapers, of course--but the crowds were very subdued. Of course, Branch Rickey went around to the leaders of the black churches and told their flocks that they had to "act properly"--which may have had an impact on the crowds.

There was certainly a consciousness hovering over the players. There wasn't any normal bantering you find between players in that Dodger dugout and on the field.

One thing I clearly remember was there in the first inning, when Jackie came out to first base and this boy, a teenager, I think, "Let's Go, Jackie!" He had this piping voice, and it echoed across that subdued crowd.

CP: And what do think of all the tributes we're seeing today.

Rodney: Well, I'm surprised. I thought that after the 50th anniversary the interest would die down and possibly even vanish. But this is larger even than ten years ago.

That was a remarkable season. He changed people over the course of that season, and of course over his career. I think of Carl Furillo, who didn't like the idea of playing with Jackie at first. Well, over the season, the abstraction of Jackie's being a black man wore off--it's difficult for a man to consider another man inferior when he is, in fact, so superior at the thing that you do best. And that was baseball.

One thing I'd like to leave you with is this thing, that frankly I'm ashamed about. Why didn't the Dodgers, after Jackie's having been with them for ten years, not hire him as a coach. Can you imagine Jackie as a manager or coach? He was brilliant, he had a brilliant baseball mind. The only reason I can think of for his not being a coach was that he was too militant, he never kept his thoughts to himself when he felt there was injustice. Jackie refused to go to an old timers game between the Dodgers and the Yankees because he was upset about the opportunities for African-Americans in managerial and coaching positions. No one brought this up. Including me.

Jackie Robinson is a true American hero--he ought to have a statue in Washington, D.C. as far as I'm concerned. People can't fathom how it was back then. Look at a guy like Josh Gibson. One of the greatest, if not the greatest ballplayer in history, a right-handed Babe Ruth. Now, my daughter's a Giants fan, and she loves Barry Bonds. I tell her, imagine if Barry wasn't allowed to play? And that all his achievement were considered rumor or conjecture? It's unbelievable. Jackie proved that if you can change baseball, you can change America.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 15, 2007 10:39 AM | Comments (3)

 

The Wild go Duck hunting

Filed under: Wild

NHL teams often bench their tough guys during playoffs, because the game is so much different than the regular season.

There's a sad irony in the fact that the guy who takes the lumps for his team day in and day out often doesn't share the glory of post-season play.

Last month, when I interviewed Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire for my cover story about Derek Boogaard, I asked if there was any chance The Boogeyman would see ice during the playoffs.

"If we play Anaheim, he will probably play," Lemaire said.

Evidently, Lemaire is a man of his word, because Boogaard took his regular shift last night in Game 1 against the Ducks.

The Boogeyman has his work cut out for him. Anaheim led the NHL in fighting majors with 71 this year—20 more than the next closest team—and has enough tough guys to start a street gang, led by 6-foot-5, 230-pound George Parros.

Meanwhile, the Wild has an Army of One.

Last night's game was a mixed bag for Boogaard. He took a penalty for charging early in the first period that swung momentum to the Ducks. But in the second period, the Boogeyman played disciplined hockey and drew a holding penalty that put the Wild on a power play right after they scored to go up 1-0.

Unfortunately, the Wild wasn't able to seize the advantage. That left the door open for the Ducks to eke out a 2-1 heartbreaker, despite the Dyson-like goalkeeping of Niklas Backstrom, who got run by his own teammate in the third to give Anaheim a cheap goal and a victory in Game 1.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played at Anaheim on Friday at 9:30 p.m.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 12, 2007 3:16 PM | Comments (0)

 

Are you ready for some futbol?

Filed under: Soccer

Tonight marks the debut of Thursday night MLS soccer on ESPN. I actually saw a commercial promoting the game during SportsCenter last night. The spot was insipid, but at least it's something. Smartly the first match will feature the best atmosphere in MLS, L.A.'s Home Depot Center. Hopefully the Riot Squad and other like-minded imbeciles will put on a good show for home viewers.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 12, 2007 3:09 PM | Comments (1)

 

Without offensive improvement, the Vikes could face a long, ugly season

Filed under: Vikings

The 2007 Minnesota Vikings schedule has been announced, and, at first glance, it looks like it could be an uphill battle all the way. Chicago looks to chew up the NFC North once again, including a Bears-Vikes match-up on Monday Nght Football in mid-December at the Metrodome. The Vikes will also face quality AFC West teams, including San Diego, Kansas City, and Denver. Add games against Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, and the New York Giants (who may not be great, but always seem to have our number) and it could be a pretty rocky season unless there's notable improvement in the receiver corps and at the quarterback position (Brooks? Tarvaris? Brady Quinn?). Tell me what you think!

2007 Vikings schedule after the jump...

Preseason
Friday, August 10 St. Louis Rams
Friday, August 17 at New York Jets
Saturday, August 25 at Seattle Seahawks
Thursday, August 30 Dallas Cowboys

Regular Season
Sunday, September 9 Atlanta Falcons
Sunday, September 16 at Detroit Lions
Sunday, September 23 at Kansas City Chiefs
Sunday, September 30 Green Bay Packers
Sunday, October 7 BYE
Sunday, October 14 at Chicago Bears
Sunday, October 21 at Dallas Cowboys
Sunday, October 28 Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday, November 4 San Diego Chargers
Sunday, November 11 at Green Bay Packers
Sunday, November 18 Oakland Raiders
Sunday, November 25 at New York Giants
Sunday, December 2 Detroit Lions
Sunday, December 9 at San Francisco 49ers
Monday, December 17 Chicago Bears
Sunday, December 23 Washington Redskins
Sunday, December 30 at Denver Broncos

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 12, 2007 11:48 AM | Comments (2)

 

Did a new fan miss their "KG" moment last night?

Filed under: Timberwolves

By Stephen Litel

As I made my way towards the Timberwolves locker room before the game, I noticed a gathering of people huddled around someone just outside the door. I stood in the back and moved around to see who it was and was rather surprised to see Kevin McHale fielding questions. This certainly grabbed my attention since McHale plays the role of the invisible man quite well.

When I moved closer, the first thing I heard was "... and he is not playing tonight." I whispered to Tom Hanneman, who was standing right next to me, "Who is he talking about?" When he answered with "KG," I just had to laugh. I stood there, listening and watching McHale blatantly lie to the media members' faces, although I know I should not expect anything less.

What is he going to say? "Yeah, we are doing everything in our power to tank the rest of our games. Therefore, we have decided that coming up with a bullshit story about an injury to Kevin Garnett would be our best course of action."

I just chuckled to myself as I walked away. All this comes days after Garnett himself said "I don't prepare every season to play 76, 70 games. If they want me to do that, then they'll have to come and ask me that themselves. But whenever I prepare, it's for 48-plus minutes. Nothing more. Nothing less than that. If they want to play the young guys and sit us down, then so be it, but tell me that ahead of time and be up front about it."

... and the Wolves didn't have the guts to change the scoreboard, revealing that Garnett was not playing, until 15 minutes before tip-off.

I had two friends at last night's game. My friend, Megan, was attending her first game of the season. My other friend in attendance, Jennifer, was at the game with both her husband and son. Jennifer's son could care less about the Timberwolves, but was excited for this game because he is a fan Dirk Nowitzki. He was not a happy little guy when I broke the news to him that Dirk did not even make the trip to the Twin Cities for this game, even though he is not injured.

In either situation, what a sad night that must have been. Megan battles the snowy weather to come to a game basically to support me. Jennifer, on the other hand, has been in attendance for other games, but is also treated with the same disrespect from the organization as Megan.

In either situation, the price of the ticket is largely due to promise of watching Kevin Garnett play the game in which he is a star. After such actions from the team to shut him down, whether they want to admit it or not, aren't my friends, along with any other fans at the Target Center entitled to a refund? Anyone who spent their hard-earned money on a ticket certainly did not expect to hand over their money, only to be followed with bad basketball and lies.

Driving home from the game, I thought back to an interview that I saw with the one and only Michael Jordan when he was still with the Bulls. The interviewer asked MJ why he never shut it down at the end of the season, even though his teams had wrapped up home court advantage throughout the playoffs. His answer was amazing.

"Each and every night, there is probably one person in the stands who is attending their first Bulls game. Who knows? For that one person, this may be the only chance they'll ever have for a 'Michael Jordan moment.' This may be the only time they get to ever see me play... so, I play for that person."

So, that is why I truly hope that Kevin Garnett is injured. I honestly hope that the fans were lied to last night by both McHale and Glen Taylor and they decided to shut Garnett down, not the other way around. Nobody should be surprised by the level of selfishness anymore on their end, but Garnett has always given everything he has to his fans. Don't tell me that if Kevin Garnett was healthy (or reasonably close to it) and wanted to play that McHale or Taylor could really do anything to stop him.

Otherwise, if Garnett has decided to join forces with the front office and be a part of a lie, he let that one person down tonight... and a lot of other people.

By Stephen Litel
Stephenwolvesguy22@hotmail.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 12, 2007 6:52 AM | Comments (3)

 

The Philosopher Takes the Mound

Filed under: Twins

Ramon Ortiz' middle name is Diogenes, and whether or not that was given to him by a great uncle with a love for ancient Greek philosophers, I don't know. But the Diogenes of the ages was famously a cynic, which is apropos for the beleaguered pitcher of record. For tonight this journeyman wasn't wicked with his fastball or suffering the Yankees with a sharp slider, but he was effective enough. Our man whiffed four, his 92 mph fastball hitting the corners the Yankees bats couldn't reach, or making them hit weak flies and grounders. Problem was, after seven and a half innings Ortiz had given up but three hits, and still the game was knotted at a single run.

Ramon Diogenes Ortiz, wandering from the Dominican Republic to Anaheim to Washington, D.C. to Cincinnati to Minnesota, a colder climate with every new stop. Look at him there on the mound, facing the batter, not intimidating but contemplative, as if struggling to figure out a new puzzle. Back home, the man's a barber, for Christ's sake, a profession to rival pitching for its emphasis on profound rumination and precise skill. Inning after inning, against these Yankees who have done nothing but bludgeon our pitching, Ortiz brushed corners and snipped bats and then sat in the dugout and waited, patiently, for the Twins to do their thing... or fail. Certainly, he hoped they would succeed, but Ortiz looks to be a man who does his best and accepts what fate has in store for him.

At first this looked to be a duel of two cynics, one without that sweet middle name. Mike Mussina worked two innings and did his level best to fool the Twins with his declining skills. But after surrendering a pair of solid hits from the bottom of the order (tonight Luis Rodriguez went two for four at the DH sport and Alexi Casilla went one for three while filling in at short), Mussina stopped and signaled for a medic, and he was out with a pulled left hamstring.

And so the Twins proceeded to make the Yankees Sean Henn look positively brilliant, just as they had Andy Pettitte and Carl Pavano before him. He kept us off home plate until the sixth inning when Nick Punto doubled and Joe Mauer bunted to sacrifice Nick to third.

I say that it must be frustrating for Ortiz to work in these conditions, without any breathing room whatsoever. I don't know how he feels about the bunt sacrifice, but another great thinker, Earl Weaver, once mused that the easiest way around the bases is with one swing of the bat. Even without referring to the wit and wisdom of that old soul, one has to wonder why you'd take the bat from Joe Mauer's hands. You could argue that the play worked, in that Punto made it to third and scored on Cuddyer's hit. But Punto was at second base, there was no chance for a rally-killing double-play, and Joe did crack thirteen homers last year, and did something like win a batting title.

Weaver also said that "if you play for one run, that's all you get."

In the sixth, despite a lead-off double and a base hit, that's all we got. One run.

So The Cynic took the mound again, allowed but one hit in the seventh and then shut down the Yankees in ten pitches in the eighth. And still the score was tied at one.

The Twins blew the game open in the eighth, Castillo walking on four straight Kyle Farnsworth pitches, stealing, and then watched four Twins hit three singles and double and suddenly it was 5-1. And Ramon Ortiz had his win, is 2-0 in as many starts with and leads all our starters with a 1.80 ERA.

So do we feel pity for a man playing Major League Baseball, earning his three plus million, not having to cut hair but doing it anyway, a man who will never have to struggle to make money ever again, yet someone who will have to struggle in this wicked game? If you're going to follow this sport, you have to accept both the money and the suffering of men like Ortiz. Look that face as it examines batter after batter. Tonight, The Cynic, Ramon Diogenes Ortiz waited and waited and waited. And this time, his patience was rewarded.

This Just Off the Wire:

Pitcher Glen Perkins was recalled from the Rochester Red Wings, where he'd had but one start, a no-decision and but one run in six innings. Catcher Chris Heintz was sent down to make room on the Twins roster. Perkins didn't start in his 5.2 innings last season (he gave up but one run for an almost identical ERA as he had in Rochester this year). Were the Twins hoping he'd add some oomph to an already oomphy relief staff, or is he already taking Ponson's spot (I can't imagine Boof going down). Or are they worried about Carlos Silva?

I suppose we'll know tomorrow. Though I don't know that I'd trust an outing against the Devil Rays to be an adequate reflection of anything...

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 11, 2007 7:01 PM | Comments (3)

 

As if Man U fans weren't already annoying enough

Filed under: Soccer

I had an inkling how the Roma-Manchester match was going to come out when I received the following text message around halftime from my friend Haggerty: "Glory, glory Man United." This was highly annoying for three reasons: 1. I was taping the game. 2. Text messaging is for 12-year-old girls. 3. There's no subset of mankind more insufferable than preening, self satisfied Man U fans.

Roma started well enough. They fired off three long-range shots that didn't particularly trouble Edwin Van der Sar, but at least put the home side on notice that they didn't plan to hunker down and attempt to hold on to their one-goal advantage. They also apparently didn't intend to play any defense.

United proceeded to strike three times in under ten minutes against the comical Roma defenders and the rout was on. In the end they put up a touchdown on the poor Italians. Watch the carnage here.

The only upside for Roma: that awesome mask that Cristian Chivu wears might prevent him from being recognized on the streets of Rome and beaten with a tire iron. Boy was he awful.

And oh yeah: Chelsea snuck past Valencia 2-1 on a 90th minute Michael Essien goal that most definitely should have been saved. Of course I failed to record this game.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 11, 2007 10:41 AM | Comments (6)

 

Yankhilles Heel?

Filed under: Twins

"Show me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man." --old Jesuit saying.

Only seven games, you tell yourself. Only seven games, and they're 4-3, still a winning record, bunched together in the middle of the Central Division, which means nothing so damned early. After all, it's April, and the season's long. You watch as the Yankees, the New York Yankees, who we fought to a draw last year (thus breaking what seemed like a curse) and this year we're already down by two in a year-long six game set. Not only that, we get blasted, 10-1 tonight, a football score of 18-3 over the pair of contests. You look at your scorecard and stare in utter disbelief. We still can't beat the Yankees? Worse, are we seeing portents of trouble? However you want to spin this thing, it still looks bad.

As if prompted by Twingo Night at the Dome, the visiting Yankees seemed to take to heart the idea that they ought to give the fans something to scratch onto their silly cards, more than just the usual defensive plays. As they did last night against Ponson, the Yankees went after Boof right away, and the results were similar. Derek Jeter did his part, sending a hard single into right (1b for you Twingo fans) and, two batters later, Alex Rodriguez, as if to shut up the loudmouths here and at home, blasted a 423 foot home run into left field (that's HR2 for your card).

Andy Pettitte wore his Mr. October crown in April, gazing at the Twins with that classic glare (and his eternal five o'clock shadow which makes him look like The Barber), one of the finest stare-downs in all of baseball history. Pettitte worked the Twins like they were rubes, and scattered four hits and a walk. None of which the Twins could do anything with apart from stand on base once in awhile. After the triumph in Baltimore, the Twins have hit a lousy .158 with runners in scoring position, and tonight went 1-3 (and that one came on Jason Kubel's pinch-hit single to score Justin Morneau to bring the Twins within six--that's cold comfort.) Overall, the team's well below the Mendoza line, .163 in these last four games.

Should I be worried that these four games were against good teams?

Oh, boy. You could sense early that it was going to be a long night, whether or not the Yankees started their usual fireworks, which eventually they unleashed with unrivaled joy. Still, though the Boof gave up another run in the second, when Melky Cabrera singled home Robinson Cano, the pitcher seemed in control enough to make the game close. Theoretically into a groove, Boof sailed through the next two innings without allowing a baserunner.

Since I've already mentioned that the score was a dismal 10-1, you know disaster looms around the next corner. Every Yankee reached base tonight at least once. They scored ten runs for God's sake. But it didn't matter if the Yankees hadn't pulled those seven more runs out of their collective hats, because the Twins, once again, were rotten at the plate. The only ones hitting with any consistency on the Twins are batters three through six, and even that's a stretch. Torii's up to his old tricks, swinging wildly at lousy pitches while staring at good ones, followed by that shocked pirouette when the ump raises his fist. I've only taken in four games at the Dome and I swear I've seen at least five of these goofy lunges.

So do we have half a team? A chunk of decent hitters in Mauer, Morneau and Cuddyer, one great starting pitcher and incredible relievers? Look: Boof was nearly as bad as Sidney Ponson yesterday, going but 4 1/3 innings and giving up six earned runs. The heralded piranhas haven't hit the weight of their batting gloves, and have been fumbling the ball to boot (Bartlett had yet another error this game (his fourth this season!) and Punto made a pair of lousy plays in the ninth, at one point trying to barehand Jeter's high chopper and fumbling it--Jeter would go on to score in the Yankees three run ninth). The relievers once again were amazing, giving up three hits and striking out four.

Of course, I am ignoring the suddenly destructive Dennys Reyes, who came in to the ninth inning and gave up three runs on four hits and a ball. Without Reyes, the bullpen's numbers would be mind boggling, so I choose to pretend he doesn't exist.

The Twins took three from Baltimore and looked just great, like the championship team everyone's thinking they could become. They split a cold-shortened series against Chicago, and still seemed like they were ready for a year-long fight. But the Yankees are hurting, their starting pitching looking miserable and Hideki Matsui on the mend. So we have to make them go and look like champions? Sigh.

If at the end of seventy games we're looking at a 40-30 record, I won't complain. But we won't get a steady diet of Orioles and Devil Rays. Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago will be our meat this year, and Santana's not pitching more than 35 games or so. I hope this team at seven games is not the team of a whole season, but we'll see.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at April 10, 2007 6:12 PM | Comments (0)

 

No TV and empty seats at Target Center... you didn't miss much

Filed under: Timberwolves

By Stephen Lit