Monday December 29, 2003
 

VIKINGS THOUGHTS

NFL THOUGHTS

NFL “EXPERT” PICKS

TIMBERWOLVES THOUGHTS

TWINS THOUGHTS (TwinsFest)

BERT BLYLEVEN HALL OF FAME CASE

OTHER BASEBALL NEWS

MOVIE THOUGHTS

                CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN

                FREAKY FRIDAY

MUSIC THOUGHTS (RUBEN STUDDARD)

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

VIKINGS SEASON ENDS

VIKINGS THOUGHTS

"If you're going to be a champion, you've got to close it out," Minnesota coach Mike Tice said, "and we didn't close it out."

What an ending to a game! And, as it proved to be, what an ending to a season for the Vikings! Arizona rookie QB Josh McCown hitting WR Nathan Poole, a former teammate of Randy Moss’s at Marshall, in the corner of the end zone as the clock hit 0.0. Who could have predicted that? Aside from the Saints loss in Week 16 to Jacksonville, this has to be the craziest ending to a game, and just as unlikely.

It’s over now, so it’s not worth mentioning that there is no way that Poole would have been able to touch his second foot in bounds. It’s not worth mentioning how quickly the Vikings will be releasing Denard Walker when they can.

I’m sure that the job security of Mike Tice will be discussed a lot in the coming days and weeks. It seems like when a team has a bad year, the coach gets all the blame. We already know that Dave McGinnis, Bill Callahan, Greg Williams and Dick Jauron will be fired in the next few days. Other coaches will be fired in the next couple of weeks. Mike Tice should not be fired. (In the dumbest move, the Lions announced that Matt Millen will be back next year!!)

Am I saying Mike Tice is a great coach? Not at all. However, I do think that the players like him and more importantly, respect him. He backs his players, yet we also see him doing a lot of disciplining. Bill Romanowski (who, by the way, is a terrible color analyst!) said that Tice made a mistake by going for it on 4^th down on their first drive of the game, instead of taking the field goal. If I was coaching, I would go for it in that situation every single time. I question the play calling during those 4 plays, however, going for it was the right decision. Worst case, you give the other team the ball inside their own 1 yard line. I think Tice was trying to set the tone for the game.

The team had plenty of chances to win that game. Like the Bears game a couple weeks ago, we never saw the Vikings throw the ball deep. I thought the offensive play calling was terrible again. Even with all that, they had a lead late in the game then gave up another bad drive when the Cardinals scored. Then they were successful in their on-side kick attempt, which is really just a luck-thing. All I could think of was “They’re leaving the season up to the defense… this can’t be good!” Then came ‘the Denard Walker Drive’. Walker gave the Cardinals 30 yards on an obvious pass interference call. But Kevin Williams made some big plays, bringing up the final, 4^th down play. I was very impressed with the poise that the rookie, McCown showed. He took his time and found Poole in the back of the end zone for the win.

"I really can't put into words how I feel right now," Daunte Culpepper said. "It's just terrible that you fight that hard all year just trying to stay alive, and lose it like that."

I feel bad for some of the players. They did play hard. The team got off to that 6-0 start, which I think we all know was a complete aberration. But they certainly didn’t “lose it like that”. They lost it because of bad losses throughout the season, especially losses to the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders and the New York Giants, in addition to yesterday’s loss to the Cardinals. Those are four of the worst teams in the NFL this season. Each finished the season with just four wins, but each played a huge part in keeping the Vikings out of the playoffs.

And finally, here is what I wrote last Monday regarding yesterday’s game:

But now, the big question, Can the Vikings come back next Sunday and beat the Arizona Cardinals to claim the NFC North title? I want to say yes. I want to think that they will go into Arizona and dominate the Cardinals. Clearly, the Vikings have the better talent, and on paper, they have the better team. (Of course, games aren’t played on paper, they’re played on TV.) The same things could have been said when they played the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. They have won just one outdoor football game in their last 16 tries.

Well, make that one win in their last 17 outdoor games, and hence, no playoff appearance for this year for the Vikings. Here is my Vikings Preview for you to review and see how well I did (or how poorly!).

Any thoughts on the Vikings? Please e-mail me.
 

NFL THOUGHTS

With the Vikings loss, the Green Bay Packers went from out of the playoffs to the #4 seed in the NFC and a home-field game in the first round. They will be hosting the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at noon. In the other first round game, the Carolina Panthers will host the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night.

In the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts can not be happy. By winning their division, they will now be hosting the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon, who are expected to have Clinton Portis back. In the other first-round game, the Tennessee Titans will travel to Baltimore to take on Jamal Lewis and the Ravens on Saturday afternoon.

Jamal Lewis went over the 2,000 yards rushing mark last night against the Steelers. The game meant very little to either team. The Steelers are not in the playoffs. The Ravens were already in the playoffs and their rank and opponent were already determined. I don’t know why the Ravens passed as much as they did. Anthony Wright threw deep many times. I don’t know why they didn’t give the ball to Lewis more. Also, at the end of the first half, they knelt on the ball twice. Now, normally that is the thing to do, but with Lewis going for the record, give him a couple of runs there to get a few additional, cheap yards. That said, he still ran for over 100 yards in the game (116 yards) to end the season with 2,066 yards, but that fell just 39 yards shy of Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards rushing in 1984.
 

NFL “EXPERT” PICKS

Coming into Week 17, Aaron Gleeman held a three game lead over Ben Jacobs for the top spot in our overall NFL picks. The Week 17 winner? Ben Jacobs with a 13-3 record. Was it enough to regain the top spot? No. Aaron Gleeman finished 12-4 and became the 2003 SethSpeaks NFL “Expert” Picker of the Year! Congratulations to Aaron!! For your efforts, you will receive, uhh… well, the above congratulations in BOLD! Thanks to all of our panelists who took part in this this season. Hopefully many of them will want to participate again next year. I would like to continue to get our panelists to pick the playoff games, starting with next week’s Wild Card Weekend. Hopefully they will also be willing to make some other picks for us. Here are the final results:

TIMBERWOLVES THOUGHTS

The Wolves split a couple of games out on the west coast this weekend. Friday night, they fell far behind the Portland Trailblazers and despite a 2^nd half comeback, they fell 101-92. Kevin Garnett was awesome! He was an assist shy of another triple-double. 27 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists for The Franchise. Sam Cassell added 23 points and 9 assists. Latrell Sprewell added 21 points.

On Saturday night, the Wolves played a great game and defeated the Seattle Supersonics 104-86. Garnett again led the way with 28 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists. Sam Cassell chipped in 20 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. I think that the difference between Friday and Saturday nights was the contributions of the “other” guys.  Gary Trent, Trenton Hassell and Oliver Miller each scored 8 points and Fred Hoiberg added 14.

Of course, the big news for the Wolves was the $25,000 fine levied against Latrell Sprewell following his on-court shouting match with the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, who was the primary reason that Sprewell was traded from the Knicks to the Wolves this summer. Dolan has made it very clear that he didn’t want Sprewell, even though he was the most popular Knick player as well as one of the most productive.

Now, I’m in no way condoning Sprewell’s expletive-laden tirades toward Dolan. However, if I were Latrell Sprewell, I would say to the NBA that I have no problem paying the fine and apologizing, as long as Dolan would be fined the same amount, if not more. From all accounts, Dolan was just as guilty as Sprewell, and he’s an owner. If it would have been Mark Cuban, the NBA would have fined him!

Of more importance to the Wolves, they won the game 98-92 on Tuesday night in New York City. Sprewell and Sam Cassell each scored 31 points. So much was made of the Sprewell situation that Kevin Garnett and his 22 point/13 rebound game was definitely overlooked.
 

TWINS THOUGHTS

Twins Fest News

When I got home last night from my Christmas holiday, I had some mail from the Minnesota Twins. So, I opened it up and it was a letter from their marketing department regarding Twins Fest. I’m sure many of you also received it, but for those that didn’t, I thought I would write a little bit about it. Here is the first paragraph:

The Minnesota Twins would like to take this opportunity to invite you to attend TwinsFest 2004 on January 23^rd - January 25^th at the Metrodome. Considered the Upper-Midwest’s premier baseball showcase, TwinsFest serves as a fund-raiser for the Twins Community Fund and its youth baseball and softball programs.

There will be several live and silent auctions throughout the weekend. There will be over 100 items auctioned. They sent me a partial list of what would be included. There are autographed bats and baseballs and jerseys and caps and much more from the current Twins players as well as many former Twins. There are packages from the Wolves, Wild and Vikings. There also will be autographed items from some players from other organizations, such as Derek Lowe, Juan Pierre and Moises Alou.

Here is another paragraph describing what else can be expected from TwinsFest:

The event also features a baseball skills area, free youth baseball clinics, the National Baseball Hall of Fame Display, clubhouse tours, and other fun attractions. Over 40 current and former Twins will be on-hand to sign autographs, and the event hosts one of the Upper Midwest’s largest baseball card and collectibles shows.

Sounds like fun to me! I don’t know if I’ll be able to get down there. I wonder if I could be eligible to get in as media? If I could, that would be great. Maybe then I could even get some interviews with some of the players! I may have to look into this!

If you are interested, be sure to check out the Twins web site. You can purchase your tickets for the event there. If you are interested in going, you can purchase tickets in advance for $7 ($3 for kids under 14). If you wait and purchase them at the gate, you will pay $10 ($5 for kids). You can also call the Twins at 612-22-TWINS or 1-800-33-TWINS.

Something that I found quite interesting was that the partial list did not include anything autographed by Jacque Jones. Could the Twins marketing department just be being cautious, or do they know something?
 

BLYLEVEN HALL OF FAME CASE

Ladies and gentlemen of the selection committee, I believe the facts in The Case For Bert Blyleven are indisputable. The evidence presented clearly indicates that Mr. Blyleven has all the qualifications necessary for you to finally reward him with his own plaque in Cooperstown.

That is the final plea made to the Hall of Fame voters by Rich Lederer of Rich’s Weekend Baseball Beat in a recent posting.  To make his case, Rich gives the voters 13 exhibits. Each makes it very clear that Bert Blyleven should absolutely be a Hall of Famer. This is very similar to what I wrote about Bert Blyleven’s Hall of Fame candidacy last month (Well, except in far more detail!).
Also, be sure to check out the Twins site for their 2003 TwinsYear in Review.

OTHER BASEBALL NEWS

I love hearing names of ‘80s and ‘90s players. The guys that weren’t stars. The guys that weren’t even necessarily good. Last week, I mentioned Felix Fermin. This is the type of player that I mean. The Twins have had a number of players that would fit into that category. Lenny Faedo. Houston Jiminez. Andre David. Tim Tuefel. Names that when you hear them, you smile because you remember their time with your team. Names like my favorite player when I was young, Claudell Washington.

Well, baseball lost one of those guys this weekend. In his native Puerto Rico, former OF Ivan Calderon was shot and killed by two gunmen in a store. Calderon was just 41 years old.

Ivan Calderon made his major league debut in 1984, at the age of 22, with the Seattle Mariners. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox late in the 1986 season. For the next five or six seasons, Calderon was a better than average major league hitter (his OPS+ was over 100 in 7 of his 10 seasons). In 1987, he hit .293 with 28 homers. After the 1990 season, he was traded to the Montreal Expos for Tim Raines. He had one very good year north of the border. 1991 was his lone All-Star appearance. He finished that season hitting .300 with 19 homers. But then the problem that Calderon had throughout his career derailed his career. Injuries. He missed significant parts of six of his 10 years due to injuries. He spent 1993 between the Red Sox and White Sox. But that was his final season. Retired at the age of 31. So, clearly Ivan Calderon was a better player than the other names I mention above.
 

MOVIE THOUGHTS

Cheaper by the Dozen

I was unaware that this was actually a remake from the movie of the same title from 1950 which starred Clifton Webb and Jeanne Crain. The remake stars Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the parents of 12 children. He is a successful Division III football coach who finally gets an opportunity to coach at his dream Division I job. She is a writer whose book Cheaper by the Dozen gets picked up. After moving to the big city from the comforts of their small town life, she takes off for a couple of weeks to publicize her book. He tried to successfully coach his time and maintain order at home. Let’s just say, the “order at home” thing just doesn’t quite happen. That is the premise of the movie.

Was this a great movie? Not really. Was it a really funny movie? I think so. The situational comedy of the big family and all the hi-jinx that go along with that make it very funny. Let’s be honest though, it is a movie that stars Steve Martin and includes Ashton Kutcher. So, if you’re going to this movie, please don’t expect any more than a funny movie.

The only thing that somewhat disappointed me was that Kutcher wasn’t a bigger part of the movie (he’s not even credited). From the previews, you would assume that his character is important to the movie. In actuality, he has a very small role. But, I think that can be said for each of the bigger named actors in the movie. The eldest three children are not in the movie as frequently as the younger kids. Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) was the oldest child and lived with Kutcher. Tom Welling (Smallville) plays the high school aged son. Hilary Duff (Lizzie Maguire, Music career) plays the other teenaged child.

So, big picture, don’t go to the movie because of the cast members (although the list is impressive). Go to this movie to laugh for 90 minutes. It is good!

Freaky Friday

This is another remake from the 1976 movie starring a 14 year old Jodie Foster. This new version stars Jamie-Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. It’s the story where a mother and her teenage daughter just don’t see eye-to-eye on anything. They argue frequently. And then, a spell is put on them and they switch bodies. In other words, the mother is now in her daughter’s body and the daughter is in her mother’s body. They need to literally ‘walk in each other’s shoes’, and the obvious conclusion has them both understanding each other better than ever.

This is actually a pretty good movie. Pretty tame, but it makes a good family movie.

Interesting note - Jodie Foster was asked if she would consider playing the mother in this version, but she thought that such a stunt would take away from the merits of the movie itself.
 

MUSIC THOUGHTS

Ruben Studdard - Soulful -

As you all know, I’m a big American Idol fan. The new installment will be starting in the next couple of weeks. Back in October, I wrote my thoughts on the Clay Aiken CD, Measure of a Man. Today, you will get my thoughts on Ruben Studdard’s Soulful CD. I don’t think there really is any comparison to the two. I mentioned that I thought that Clay’s CD was pretty much the same sound, song after song. That’s not true with Ruben’s album. He has a number of different sounds that he uses throughout the album.

You remember his single, Flying Without Wings. That was a really good song. He continually tried to sing the song Superstar on the show, and even I can say I wasn’t that impressed. But on this album, his version of that song is slowed down and sounds really great! The song How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is great! There is a song, Take The Shot, where it honestly sounds like he mentions SethSpeaks in the early parts of the song.

Overall, I think that this is a better CD than Clay Aiken’s. That said, I know Clay sold far more copies in his first few weeks than Ruben has, and I’m not sure why.

Well, that is it for today! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I will try to get back into this routine. I know I will post on Tuesday and Wednesday. As for the rest of the week, we shall see. If you have any questions or comments on anything you have read today, or anything in general, please e-mail me and I will be sure to get back to you.. Have a great week!

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