Thursday, March 3, 2005
QUICK THOUGHTS
Good morning! Hey, after writing up my AL Central pitching preview and more American Idol Thoughts yesterday, I just can't do it again tonight. So today is just going to be a short entry with some American Idol results thoughts, and a few other thoughts. I will start my Former Twins spring training results, and offer some links to other articles of note. For those that are interested, the Twins first official spring training game is tonight at 6:05 central. It is going to air live on MLB.tv for free, so check it out if you can. If you can't, I plan on watching it and updating the site throughout. Hey, I'm excited to watch the team. I know that typically the starters may get a couple of at bats and that's about it, but I enjoy seeing those minor leaguers and the guys fighting for roster spots too, so it will be fun.
AMERICAN IDOL THOUGHTS
But first, I have to write up my thoughts on last night's American Idol results show. The guys sang on Monday. The girls sang on Tuesday night. And the bottom two of each were eliminated last night. Again, they started the 1/2 hour show by immediately telling Celena Rae that was received the fewest votes of the women, so she as eliminated. I had ranked her 6th yesterday. Ryan Seacrest brought down Aloha Mischeaux and Vonzell Solomon, the two who sang Alicia Keys' songs, and Aloha was the eliminated performer. I had her ranked fifth, but I am not completely surprised because she was not good at all. The obvious question for everyone has to be "who is voting for Janay Castine?" Two weeks in a row, she has been, BY FAR, the weakest performer, and yet somehow, she has outlasted four women already. If you're voting for Janay... PLEASE STOP NOW!!!
Next up was the elimination of two of the ten remaining guys. Ryan made six of them safe, leaving Travis Tucker, Joseph Murena, Mario Vazquez and David Brown on stage. Two of them were eliminated, and they were Joseph Murena with the lowest vote total and David Brown. I had Joseph ranked 9th and David ranked 10th, so I was actually correct with that assessment. I can't argue with either choice. As good as David was in the earlier stages, he did not perform well, or with as much energy, as he had earlier. Joseph Murena again blamed a lack of air time from the show for his dismissal, a point that is hard to argue, and yet, he still wasn't going to win.
So now we're down to eight men and eight women. Next week, the men sing again on Monday with the women performing on Tuesday and the results show on Wednesday. That will get the group down to just 12 total contestants and they will all go against each other at that point.
FORMER TWINS
Each day, I will point out how former Twins players do in their spring training games. I find it fun to keep up with these guys on their new teams. I have become fans of theirs over the years, and I still hope they all do well, just not when they play the Twins. It was fun seeing the NY Mets take on the Washington Nationals yesterday. I saw Cristian Guzman knock a single up the middle in his first at bat, hitting second for the Nationals. Doug Mientkiewicz was playing 1B and batting cleanup for the Mets. Here are how they, and other former Twins, did yesterday:
Doug Mientkiewicz - 1B - NY Mets - 0-1, 2 BB
Cristian Guzman - SS - Nationals - 1-2
AJ Pierzynski - C - White Sox - 0-1
Danny Ardoin - C - Rockies - 0-2, RBI
Scott Erickson - SP - Dodgers - 2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 R
BASEBALL NOTES
Tony Oliva, Ron Santo, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat - All these guys are still not Hall of Fame players today. Yesterday, it was announced that the new Veterans Committee did not give enough votes to any of these players. Santo and Hodges both got 65% of the votes. Kaat and Oliva were the only others over 50%. I struggle with this. All four of these guys were great players, but there are reasons that they were not considered Hall of Famers for the 15 years that they were eligible. And now, actual Hall of Famers have voted and they still are not Hall of Famers. It's a tough process, and part of me thinks that keeping the Hall of Fame exclusive is not a bad thing. That said, I'm biased and think that Oliva should be in there! According to this article, he is stunned and does not like the new process.
Speaking of Hall of Fame, the Twins announced that their 2005 inductees will be owner Carl Pohlad and LHP Frank Viola. Pohlad warrants the choice for bringing the team back to respectability in 1984 and bringing the two championship teams together. However, he will (and should be) booed during the ceremony because of his (lack of) spending now and his wanting to have the team contracted. Viola needed to be selected. He won a lot of games, a Cy Young, and did a lot over his Twins career.
We all grew up watching Braves games on TBS. One of those players from the early '80s was pitcher Rick Mahler. Yesterday, Mahler passed away with a heart attack at the age of 51. He was a pitching coach in the Mets minor league system. In his 13 year career, he was 96-111 with a 3.99 ERA.
Mark Sheldon wrote a great article on all the odds that Terry Tiffee has beaten over his years in baseball. It looks like Michael Cuddyer will start the season at 3B with Luis Rivas at 2B. But I have wanted an infield that has Cuddyer at 2B and Tiffee at 3B. So many want to make such a big deal out of how poorly Jason Bartlett performed in his brief 12 at bats last year. Then why don't these same people give more respect to Tiffee's impressive small sample size performance with the Twins?
Mike Bauman wrote a great article on how the Twins have done it the hard way!
The Twins didn't have anyone rank in Baseball America's 26-50 prospects after JD Durbin and Jesse Crain appeared between 51-75. But two Twins appeared in the Top 25. Joe Mauer is again the publication's #1 prospect. Jason Kubel likely would have been a Top 10, but his injury dropped him down to #17.
Oh, another article on the Twins shortstop situation! yay! Gordon Wittenmeyer's column is titled, "Twins have a lot riding on their choice at shortstop." Wow, that's dramatic!
LaVelle E. Neal wrote about Michael Ryan's awful 2004 season. Yeah, the fact that they even kept him around after last year makes us understand why Luis Rivas gets so many chances. Ryan has stuck around because of a 3 week period two years ago!
Jim Souhan wrote a great article on Michael Restovich. He seems to have the right attitude about remaining with the Twins.
OTHER THOUGHTS
The Wolves gave up a big lead, and lost at home to the equally pathetic Golden State Warriors.
Mo Cheeks was fired by the Portland Trailblazers. Remember when he was hired, the Blazers made a strong effort to get Flip Saunders to go there. Don't be surprised if that's where Flip ends up next year.
Jan Gangelhoff, the woman who, along with Russ Archambault, brought down Clem Haskins and the Gophers basketball program passed away from cancer at the age of 56 yesterday.
The Gophers finished off a very successful season last night with a win at Penn State. How surprised would you have been before the season started if someone had told you they would win 20 games overall, win 10 games in the Big 10, and get a 1st round bye in the Big 10 Tournament? I would not have believed it! Vincent Grier led with 27 points! That all should clinch a NCAA tournament spot.
Warroad beat Albert Lea 6-1 in the Minnesota State hockey tournament yesterday to advance to the semi-finals.
Randy Moss is officially a Raider. He will be #18 with them, which is cool. I like odd numbers!
I love 401(K).What a great concept. You put money into a retirement fund, pre-tax. Your company matches up to a certain percent of a certain percent of your contribution. That's free money! Why wouldn't you want to take advantage of that!? But, according to this article, only about 28% of employees have have 401(K) accounts even if their employer offers it.
Should the 10 Commandments be allowed on public property? That really is a great question tugging right at the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights! I am fully supportive of 'separation of church and state!" But, what if a monument of the 10 Commandments is instead considered a 'historical piece?' Would the terminology make a difference? I don't know. I just think it's an interesting question. I'd love to hear your thoughts. E-mail me.
And I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything you've read today, or anything. Maybe you'd like to ask me Twins questions, or get my thoughts on other topics. Feel free to ask me anything. I'd love to hear from you and answer any questions. So please feel free to e-mail me.
Have a great day!