mid-spring sports update

Lebron James is still a jerk (see my March 31 post), and now the jerk is in the NBA finals.  Yep, basketball is still going on, and I bet you didn't even know that, did you?  The final two teams are the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat, and, even though I have no love for Dallas, I gotta be rooting against the Heat, Lebron's team.  And I kinda like the Mavs' point guard, Jason Kidd.

... and there, under everybody's radar (unless you live in Boston, Tampa or Vancouver), the hockey playoffs continue also.  We gotta go with Vancouver (if we watch any of the Stanley Cup games at all), or more specifically, against Boston (who knocked the Flyers out of the playoff) and against Tampa (one of those sunbelt cities that shouldn't even have a hockey team).  And with Vancouver in the finals, we get to hear "O Canada!"

You, of course, do know that baseball is going on.  It's spring, after all.  Here locally, Minnesota fans are upset that the Twins, who have won their division most of the past several years, are deep in last place and, in fact, possess the worst won-loss record in major league baseball.  The hometown hero, Joe Mauer, has been injured most of the season, and, well, nothing is going their way.  The new stadium still fills up, though.  My personal favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies, is in first place in their division but maybe not as far in first place as they should be, considering that they have the most awesome pitching team in baseball.  The hitters are asleep, though.

That's it for now, sports fans.

favre to moss

It was a big sports-news day yesterday, so let's recap!

Football: The New England Patriots traded wide-receiver Randy Moss back to the Vikings, and this has caused tremendous excitement here in Minnesota (except, of course, for those few contrarians who can't stand Randy Moss). What quarterback Brett Favre has lacked this season is an excellent pass receiver to throw to, and, in my humble opinion at least, Moss is the best. Let's hope that they have perfect chemistry together and can make the rest of this season entertaining at least and maybe even of champion caliber!

Baseball (2 days in a row!): The excitement from the Moss trade helped to offset the Twins' disappointing loss in the first playoff game with the Yankees. Everybody here is thinking, Oh no, here we go again, probably not getting past the first round of the playoffs.

But, for me, a Phillies fan, it was also a good day because the Phillies not only won their first playoff game, but their pitcher Roy Halladay threw for a no-hitter. There has not been a no-hitter in a post-season game since 1956! An amazing accomplishment.

And I won't blog again about sports tomorrow unless some other spectacular thing happens. :-)

damn yankees

Today a lot of people here in downtown Minneapolis wore Minnesota Twins shirts to work. That's because, after work, a few blocks away, the baseball playoffs start. The Twins won their baseball division in impressive style. Reality, though, might hit them hard in the face now since the first (and maybe only) team they're meeting in the playoffs is their nemesis, the New York Yankees. In their last 18 meetings, Minnesota has won two games and the Yankees have won 16. Of course, everybody in the country other than Yankee fans hate the Yankees, so maybe all that hate flowing from around the U.S. will energize the Twins to victory.

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Then, if somehow they get past the Yankees, the Twins will face either Texas or Tampa, and the winner of that match-up will go to the World Series to face the National League champ, which of course I'm hoping will be the Phillies. Philadelphia starts their playoffs tonight against Cincinnati. It's a lot of good teams to get past, but a Phillies-Twins World Series would be great, wouldn't it?

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The Phillies were in the World Series last year, you know, but ended up losing to -- whoops, the Yankees. Damn!

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Football note: I'm so glad I kept my Randy Moss Vikings jersey!!

summer sports update (mostly)

Even though it's hard to think about football yet, mid-August in Minnesota this year, like last year, means wondering, "Hey, Is Brett Favre going to play for the Vikings this year or is he retired?" I think that most Vikings fans would care a lot less than they do, and in some ways it would be good to be done with these annual guessing games, except that the other Vikings quarterbacks suck. Most everybody is feeling over-Favred by the news media, here and across the world, and I'm thinking that this season won't be as much as fun as last season was, Favre or no Favre, but ya never know. I sorta hope he plays, even if he is a total media hog.

Meanwhile, on the other side of downtown, baseball continues, and the Twins are back in first place. They're three games ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and the White Sox arrive in town tomorrow for three games. The new Twins stadium is an enormous hit, and most games are near-sellouts. The stadium crowds are generating tremendously good energy for the city, at least as long as we have a winning team.

Out there on the East Coast, my other home team, the Philadelphia Phillies, have been doing better, are creeping up in the standings against Atlanta, and might yet make it to the baseball playoffs. Go, Phils!

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33 years ago today, Elvis died. I got a reminder email about that this morning from my cousin Beverly, who has been the ultimate Elvis fan since the very beginning. She's still in mourning.

(Brett and Elvis. Two good guys that came out of Mississippi, of all places.)

dusty, rainy

We're in the new condo finally, even though some of the work by contractors is still being finished. It's hard to keep up with the dust. I'll be so happy when the last one of them is gone and we can give the place a good cleaning.

Meanwhile, around us, it's been raining here for several days. Rainy and chilly. April was way nicer than May has been so far. Earlier this evening, it stopped raining but the skies were still very threatening. I decided to take a chance and walk over to the gym, six blocks away at Target Center. Target Field, the new Twins stadium, is next door to Target Center, and when I came out of the gym, the straggler scalpers were trying to get rid of their last tickets for tonight's Twins game (The game had already started). A scalper talked me into spending eight bucks for a decent ticket, and I thought, what the heck, why not?

So I went to the game, spent nine bucks on a brat and a bottled water, and sat among the huddled masses in their blankets and hooded sweatshirts. The new stadium, everybody agrees, is great. An outdoor baseball game on a beautiful summer will be perfect, but this was not one of those perfect nights. I enjoyed the outdoor-baseball ambience for several innings until my hands got too cold and the White Sox scored five runs in one inning, and I was out of there, walking quickly back to face the dust.

I guess I'm one of those fair-weather Twins fans you hear about. But I do admit, I love having the stadium nearby.

more sports and weather

It looks like Brett Favre isn't coming to the Vikings after all, or, who knows?, maybe he just wants a chance later on to get his name back in the headlines again, Will he un-retire or won't he? I know the guy is a dweeb, but I just want to see some spark in this franchise so that they don't move to Los Angeles in a couple years if they don't get their new stadium, and maybe he could be a one-year spark.

Switching from football to a sport that is actually in season -- baseball. The Minnesota Twins, the team that was almost dissolved several years ago by Major League Baseball because the state wouldn't build them a new stadium, moves into their brand new stadium next spring. The stadium is looking good, everybody is excited about finally having baseball outdoors again after twenty-some years inside the Metrodome, an awful venue for baseball but which somehow helped bring them two World Series Championships. And there is certainly something romantic about picturing those beautiful summer nights watching baseball outdoors. But remember what I was telling you about what a terrible April we had this year -- the wind and the rain and the cold? And do know how many snowstorms Minnesota has had during the month of October while some teams somewhere were off playing in the World Series? Let's hope for lots of rugged season-ticketholders. And players.
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On the home front: we've taken our house off the market for now and are going to try to stick it out. :-)
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My next blog will be sport-less and weather-less. I promise.