Good morning
everyone! It's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday, so be sure
to send me your response today for this
week's Discussion Question! Yesterday, I discussed the Twins
big decisions made late the night before. They signed Brad Radke
and offered Corey Koskie arbitration. Today, not as much
going on as far as the Twins go, so I am going to just discuss a
number of random topics today. Some baseball, some basketball, some
movie and TV and much more. So, let's get to it. If you have any
thoughts or opinions on any of it, please
e-mail me. Have a
great day!
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Corey
Koskie commented today about how if he is going to take a
discount to stay with the Twins,
he
wants a no trade clause included. Here is his comment from
the article, "I can't take a hit here, then get traded
somewhere." I happen to believe that this is a more than fair
request. If the Twins are only offering him $8.25 million and
other teams have offered him $16 million, then there has to be
some incentive for him to stay. Yes, he lives here and so does
his family. He likes it here. All that is great. But, $7.75
million!!! That's a lot of money. What Koskie fears is that he
is giving up all this money to be loyal to the Twins yet, if the
team goes bad, they can trade him at any time! The loyalty thing
needs to go both ways, so I don't think Koskie is asking for too
much.
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It was a
hoop-watching night for me last night! I went home from work,
hopped on the treadmill for an hour and the Timberwolves game
came on at 6:00 from Philadelphia. After that became a blow-out,
I started watching the Gophers game at Nebraska on ESPN2.
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The
Wolves got absolutely embarrassed at home by the Mavs the night
before despite a huge game by Kevin Garnett. Last night
was a completely different story. The 76ers are bad! But it was
the coming-out party for Eddie Griffin. I have written
numerous times about how high his ceiling is. Well, last night
in his hometown, Griffin was incredible! He scored 27 points (a
career high) and grabbed 11 rebounds, his third straight
double-double. He hit seven 3-pointers in 15 attempts last
night, including six in the first half (tying James "Hollywood"
Robinson for most 3s in a half... Remember, he hit 6 of them in
about a two minute span!). The 6-11 Griffin knocks down three
pointers at a high percentage, grabs rebounds and blocks shots!
Wouldn't it be great to sign him long-term already?!
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Latrell Sprewell missed Tuesday night's game. He was
suspended for that game because of an unfortunate incident with
a female fan at the Staples Center last weekend. Apparently she
was taunting him and he yelled back at certain request to her! A
request that was heard on the telecast. Sure, it would be funny
to hear if you were watching a movie, but it was certainly not
appropriate. However! Have you ever watched a Timberwolves game
on TV? He is the greatest player in basketball, a great teammate
and a good ambassador for the game, but I wonder if anyone in
the league swears as much as Kevin Garnett. Every time
the other team scores off of him, there is an expletive! And Fox
Sports North has their mics in places so that the whole audience
can hear it! So, the difference must be that it was directed at
a fan, right? And that is going to cost Sprewell a game and
1/82nd of his salary? Last year, Shaquille O'Neal threw a
few expletives out to a live audience and got a small fine. Fact
is, the whole Pacers/Pistons/fans situation has made the NBA's
Offices a lot more strict. Incidentally, Sprewell came back last
night with 24 points on 9-14 shooting (5-8 from 3 point range).
He is missed because of his speed, intensity and defense!
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Halfway
through the first half of the Gophers game at Nebraska, the
Cornhuskers were ahead 19-5. I was thinking about how I wrote
the other day that they would at least be competitive and you
were probably thinking I was an idiot at that point. At
halftime, the Gophers still had just 19 points. It was just a
very sloppy game with bad ball handling, passing, shooting. Just
bad! But in the second half, the Gophers crawled back into the
game and finally overtook Nebraska. Vincent Grier, who
struggled some but played 40 minutes, hit two huge
three-pointers to clinch the win for Minnesota. He led the team
with 17 points, but everyone contributed a little bit down the
stretch, particularly Jeff Hagen and Brett Lawson.
I found it interesting that this was the Gophers first road
non-conference win since 2000. It was also Nebraska's first
non-conference home loss in 17 games. Now the Gophers play six
more non-conference games at home that they should win. That
would mean that they would enter the conference schedule with a
10-3 record!
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Since I
bought my house, I have not spent as much time as I used to
watching TV. I missed the last edition of The Bachelor or
Big Brother. I haven't been watching The Amazing Race,
one of my favorite reality shows. To top it off, I haven't even
watched Survivor. I don't even watch many sitcoms or
dramas anymore like I used to. There are really just two shows
that I absolutely never miss. First, I can't miss
Joey! What a great
show! It is even better than I thought it would be. I try to
watch
Will & Grace, although that show hasn't been great for a
few years. I will watch
The
Apprentice though, and
ER is usually
on in the background. But the other show that I have managed to
get into and watch all the time is
My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss!
It isn't as great as My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, but it
is still great! I seriously just sit there and laugh! Oh, and
I'm definitely enjoying
The Biggest
Loser and
Scrubs on
Tuesday nights, but I have unfortunately missed a couple
episodes of each! Oh, and NBC is starting to show previews for
an upcoming sitcom called
Committed, which will premiere on January 4 and looks
absolutely hilarious!!
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What is
up with these pitcher's contracts? Kris Benson signed for
3 years and $22.5 million. Jaret Wright signed a 3 year,
$21 million deal with the Yankees. The Yankees appear close to
signing Eric Milton to a three year deal around $24 million.
Jon Lieber left the Yankees to sign a 3 year, $21 million
deal with the Phillies. All of these pitchers are "good"
pitchers. But they're not Brad Radke. They're not even
Carl Pavano. Is there something going on again that these
contracts are so similar?
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It was
announced yesterday who the
highest paid actresses for 2004 were. Julia Roberts,
Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman
and Drew Barrymore are on top of the list. What I found
interesting was some of the per-movie salaries of some of the
younger actresses. Kirsten Dunst makes about $8 million
per movie. That's fair, she's a great actress. Jessica Alba
makes about $2 million per movie and Sarah Michelle
Gellar gets about $3 million. What I found incredible is
that Lindsey Lohan gets about $7.5 million per movie.
That's sad! I realize she's hot and hot right now, but she has
done very little compared to Alba and Gellar! Just caught my
eye!
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I bash
Kris Humphries a lot on this site for what the Gophers hoops
team was like last year. It was a one man show, that's it. This
year's team is actually a team and more fun to watch. He was
complaining about his playing time earlier in the season before
he was put on the injured list. Well, All-Star, All-Everything
Andrei Kirilenko got hurt and Humphries was back on the
active roster. Since coming back, he has now played in five
games. Here's how he's done.
Date MIN
PTS REB AST
Opponent
11/30 26
13 4 1
Phoenix
12/1
18 6 5
3 @ Seattle
12/4
18 5 4
0 @ Dallas
12/6
25 8 8
2 Miami
12/8
18 7 4
1 Orlando
Now sure,
I could say that he had more assists in those five games than he
did all year with the Gophers last year, but I won't! Basically,
he is doing a good job off the bench, playing along side
Carlos Boozer and Matt Harpring in the Jazz
frontcourt.
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Last
night, the Jazz lost to the Orlando Magic 106-100. It reminds me
that I have meant to write about Grant Hill for awhile
now. I am so happy that he's been able to come back. And, not
just that, but he has played great! Going into last night's
game, he was averaging 20.1 points on 50% shooting, with 7.7
rebounds and 6 assists. He's playing right where he left off!
Just a great story, and I really hope he can stay healthy
because before his ankle injuries, he was a truly great player!
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The Magic
traded Tracy McGrady to the Rockets this off-season for
Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato.
All three of them are starting for the Magic. Francis is
averaging almost 21 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists. Mobley
is averaging 16.6 points a game as well. McGrady and the Rockets
have both struggled so far this season. But just as big a story
for the Magic is the play of #1 pick Dwight Howard. Howard, who
turned 19 yesterday, is starting and averaging 10.5 points, 10.4
rebounds and almost 2 blocked shots a game. That's pretty good!
He had another double-double last night with 17 points and 11
rebounds.
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Remember
when Cuttino Mobley was at Rhode Island? They were one of
my favorite teams back when I actually watched a lot of college
basketball! Mobley was great! Lamar Odom was the troubled
youth who was going to make them great. But, my favorite player
on those teams was their point guard Tyson Wheeler! He
never did make it!
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I was
flipping through channels during commercials last night. Have
you ever watched the show Scare Tactics on the Sci-Fi
Channel? That show is hilarious. They basically just scare
people to death and then tell them they're on a hidden camera
show and someone set them up. Considering that the show is
hosted by Stephen Baldwin (and used to be by Shannon
Doherty), it is really a good show!
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Anyone
surprised that Mike Tyson got arrested yet again last
night. Apparently he was jumping on the roof of someone's car
and damaged it. He is a smart man, isn't he?
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My cable
company has like 40 channels. I'm actually happy with the
selection. If there was one channel I would like to see added,
it would definitely be VH1! When I was home for Thanksgiving, I
watched it a lot! They have great shows on there like the Top
40 Bad Rock Videos of all Time, or the Top 30 One-Hit
Wonders or Two-Hit Wonders. However, there is a show
on there called Motormouth. On it, hidden mini-cameras
are installed into people's cars. These people have XM Satellite
Radio, and the show chronicles them driving around singing and
whatever else they do while driving. Some sing decently. Some
are horrid, but just funny to watch. Some, well, you would not
want to be driving near them because of their 'dancing' and
movements! Then the accomplice gets in the car and pretty much
encourages the driver to make a fool out of themselves. Anyway,
it's a great, fun show to watch!
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I have to
again encourage everyone to check out
BrentNet,
and also take the time to check out his
fun-filled forums
where there are a lot of great topics! One topic that I found
very interesting was a
discussion on Great Sports Names. I mentioned the likes
of Wonderful Terrific Monds and Hiawatha Terrell Wade
and Adewale Ogunleye. You should sign up for his forum
and participate. You'll find me commenting all over the place in
there!
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Brent has
done a lot of
DVD Reviews on his site. I do a few on here too, but not
as well and not as detailed. I just did a recount of how many
DVDs I own. As I am typing this, I am watching one of them. It
made me kind of think about a question. Are there any DVDs, or
movies in general that you tend to watch over and over? I know I
do. I am watching
Joe Dirt
as I'm typing, and I watch that a lot! Over the summer, I bet I
watched Van
Wilder a dozen times. I watch
Jay and Silent
Bob Strike Back about once a month. I bet I have watched
8 Mile
six times in the last month. I have a lot of VHS tapes too and
throw those in from time to time, usually an Adam Sandler
movie like
Billy Madison,
Big Daddy
or Mr. Deeds.
I've got a bunch of baseball movies, at least the top five or
so. I watch
Good Will Hunting a lot.
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Two
'older' movies that I think are classics and completely
underrated are movies that I watch a bunch too!
The Jerk
was one of Steve Martin's first movies, made in the
mid-70s. I can quote most of the movie! The other is
Class Act
which stars Kid and Play, the late-80s and early
90s rap duo that starred in the
House Party
movies too. Oh, and
Cool Runnings
puts a tear in my eye every time!!
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The White
Sox signed Dustin Hermanson to a two year contract. Does
that scare any Twins fans? It doesn't scare me at all. I see him
as having the potential to be another Billy Koch!
Well, that is
a bunch of thoughts on a bunch of random topics. I really hope you
enjoyed it, or at least parts of it! Remember to answer the
Discussion Question of the Week! If you have any questions or
comments on anything, please
e-mail me.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: TWINS ANNOUNCERS
Reprinted from 12/7/04 - I got an interesting e-mail from a guy
named "Mike" this weekend and think it is worth posting. I myself am
quite curious as to what the answer might be. So, I am going to post
it as a new Discussion Question of the Week. We haven't really had
one of them for a long time. But what it is is a way of making this
site a little more interactive. Here is the process:
-
I will post a question or
multiple questions today.
-
On Friday, I will post the
responses that I receive to the question of the week.
-
So, you need to take a
look at the question, and then
send me an e-mail
with your
response to it, by Thursday night.
The
reason I really like doing this is because so many of you come to my
webpage and take the time to read my thoughts on a daily basis. What
this does is allows you to participate a little bit in the site and
to let your thoughts be heard to a bigger audience.
So, let's
get to "Mike's" e-mail and questions:
Since XM radio
is going to broadcast MLB games this year, I was curious
about other team's announcing crew. If you have time, could
you address a few of the topics below regarding the Twins
announcers?
voice
knowledge of the game
insights
keeping track of the game situation
sense of humor
knowledge of sabremetrics
objectivity
ability to criticize home team
frequency of cliches?
homerism
attitude towards umps (is he highly critical?)
Thanks...I
appreciate both your website and any info you can give me,
I
guess what Mike, and now I, would like to know is a couple of
things. First, please tell us who your team is. Second, since XM
radio will likely broadcast the radio broadcasts of the game,
who are your team's radio announcers? Third, just to add a
little bit to this, who are your television play-by-play and
color analysts? And finally, please tell us how they are at
announcing using the above criteria or measures? Mike was
specifically asking about the Twins, but let's get thoughts on
as many teams as we can!
So yes,
there are multiple questions and it might even take a couple of
minutes to compile a message, but please take the time to do so,
especially if you aren't a Twins fan because I am sure that it could
create a fun debate when reading how other other announcers call a
game. The Twins radio crew includes Herb Carneal (who is a
Hall of Famer, a legend, but is getting up there), John Gordon
(who is very annoying to listen to and frequently wrong and wayyyyy
too easily excitable) and Dan Gladden (who I actually think
is the best of the three despite being relatively new to it). On the
TV side, Twins fans listen to Dick (I set up Bert) Bremer
and Bert (I should be a Hall of Famer, and my birthday is
April 6, and you are hereby circled) Blyleven. I am curious
as to how Twins fans feel about listening to these announcers too.
So
please, take a couple of minutes and respond to this week's
Discussion Question of the Week (by Thursday night).
E-mail me.
Thanks!
CHRISTMAS
IDEAS
If you're
looking for a great way
to organize your family's Christmas Wish Lists, be sure to
go to this site, designed by a good friend of mine.
And as I
mentioned yesterday, I got my copy of
2004 Hardball Times Baseball Annual over the weekend! It is
far more impressive than I ever would have thought. Great articles,
get writing, and very interesting and comprehensive statistics. It
is well worth picking up for yourself or as a Christmas gift for
family and friends who are baseball fans! By it
here.
And on
that note, I am going to call it a day! If you have any thoughts,
opinions or questions on any topic, please feel free to
e-mail me. Have a
great Thursday!
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