Superbowl Friday

Not to turn this into a total love-fest for MLB Network, but did you all know that the Superbowl is on Sunday?  I didn't.  Know why?  Because I haven't watched ESPN in weeks.  Also, there's the Joe Torre thing that's consuming everyone's consciousness, so thank goodness for snarkiness, amirite?

In other news, I feel bad for Torii if this is true, but I have to say I enjoyed the concept.  This is mostly because I really enjoyed watching the Tigers crash and burn and the Twins and White Sox come out of the rubble victorious, and seeing all the analysts on-air personalities suddenly scrambling to explain why the two teams they thought were worthless good-for-nothings were suddenly battling it out for first.  I resent, of course, that most of the focus was on the White Sox, who of course were "better than we expected" rather than "lucky," but you're not a Twins fan if you don't have a mild chip on your shoulder over media coverage.  

Also, Houseboy came up with what I hope is a brilliant parallel for the Twins next year in the 1983 Orioles.  They were beaten by the Brewers in a one game playoff in 1982, but came back the next year to win the division by 6 games.  Not to mention winning the World Series that year, which would be nice.  Not having Cal Ripken might make a difference, but we'll see. 

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Thank you MLB Network

Just a little check-in here to let everyone know that I think the MLB Network might be the awesomest new invention in baseball since they made the bases screw into the ground.  I was skeptical, what with All Other News Media basically sucking at the teat of the Yankees and Red Sox, with the occasional tip of the hat to the Cubs and The Whoever Won the World Series Most Recently.  I figured this would be 24 hours of tributes to Yankee Stadium and in depth coverage of the Red Sox curse*.  

I was wrong, however.  It's only about 12 hours out of the day on MLB's golden teams!  The other 12 hours of the day, we get to hear about the year the METS won it all!  Or that time the BRAVES were good!  Or when the Pirates.... had those uniforms we all like!  I even caught an occasional Twins reference that did NOT have Kirby Puckett in it!**

Plus, Harold Reynolds, we love you.  We missed you.  Baseball Tonight has been a bleeding sore without you.  We're so happy you're back and telling us things we already know!  Yay you!

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* For realz, wasn't that curse broken?  I don't know much about curses, being a fan of a team that has been good when they have good players and bad when they don't, but it seems like two World Series ought to have taken care of them.

** You KNOW I love Kirby.  I just like some of the other guys too.  Remember Kent Hrbek?  What about Shane Mack and Chili Davis?  They were all right too.  I heard that Johann Santana used to be a Twin even.  

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If someone else said it better...

So, I recently went to Twinsfest, where I took lots of pictures of my feet on the field turf and of Walleye with the soon-to-be-painted-over pictures of Torii Hunter on the walls, got my 1991 World Series newspaper signed by Kent Hrbek himself (who joked with Bert Blyleven while I hyperventilated), looked at models of the new stadium and celebrated Morneau's and Cuddyer's new contracts. And then I returned to Chicago and spent several weeks in denial over the loss of Santana to the Mets (don't even ask about Hunter--that's still a cruel joke as far as I'm concerned). I had been trying to figure out what to say about it, and then I saw this article in the Hardball Times, which pretty much says it all. I don't hate Santana for this; I hope he does well (though I personally wish it had been for the Brewers or some other more deserving NL team). I'm just about tired out with the bullshit that Twins fans have to put up with from ownership, and despite all my previous arguments about the small market the team is in, I can not BELIEVE that Hunter and Santana were not worth opening the purse strings for. I'm starting to really question whether this team can return to World Series caliber if the ownership is never going to see another Kirby Puckett that they will invest in.