2009 Christmas Letter (Part 3 — finale)

Since moving back home it has been nice seeing more of Mom, Dad and Grandma, but I plan to move out and move on this summer. I am applying to grad schools (right now my favorites are Northwestern, Columbia and Maryland) and weighing some other options. If conditions ever improve in the newspaper biz there may be full-time work at the Times and there's also the possibility I could have a book published.

Oh, I didn't mention that? That's right, the book, the infamous "Meningitis Memoir" (not the working title) is in its last throes. It is now about 128 pages in single-spaced, 10-point font and I'm thinking that is about enough. Only two more challenges lie ahead: finding someone who will publish it, and then, if I should be so lucky, finding the emotional strength to release this intensely personal work into the hands of the public.

So, if all goes well, perhaps at this point next year there will be a book out with my name on it, just in time for the holidays ("Makes a great gift!"). If I sell any, another international trip may be in my future. After all, that Swiss girl is still out there somewhere.

God bless us, everyone,
Andy

2009 Christmas Letter (Part 2)

After returning from Europe I sent out applications for the three or four newspaper jobs that were open across the country (OK, that's an exaggeration. But only a slight one). Finding no takers, I decided to take the opportunity to give back to my hometown. I left Kansas and signed up for the Minnesota Reading Corps, an AmeriCorps program that places reading tutors in schools across the state. Since August I have been at Madison Elementary in St. Cloud, tutoring 17 kids in grades K-3, 20 minutes per kid, five days a week. It has been tiring, but rewarding. Seems like every day the kids say things that are alternately touching, hilarious and heartbreaking. I have bonded with many of them and it will be tough to leave when my year of service is up.

Upon returning home I also received a call from the the St. Cloud Times, which was looking for some part-time staff. Since September I have been working three nights a week there. I mostly take calls from high school coaches and write briefs, but I've been able to do a few full sports stories and have also found myself becoming the receptacle for all the news stories no one else wants ("Find a local angle on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down? Sure, I'll take a stab at it"). In short order I went from working 0 hours a week to about 60. I'm still making less money than I was in Olathe, but I feel very productive.

Because of my limited income, I felt it prudent to move back in with Mom and Dad when I returned to St. Cloud. So far the move has been pretty seamless for all the humans involved. Baxter, however, does not get along with their dog, George. George likes to romp and play, which tends to interfere with Baxter's extensive sleep schedule. He is becoming a grumpy old man.

(To be continued... again)

2009 Christmas Letter (Part 1)

Dear friends and family,

This second annual Andy Marso Christmas letter finds your protagonist at the end of a year full of changes. As you can see from one of the enclosed photos, I now have a second adorable niece (although the chilly Milwaukee weather ensured that you can't see too much of her). Elizabeth was born in September and she and her older sister Ellie get along wonderfully so far. Ellie is three years old now and is a little chatterbox. Elizabeth is a quiet, serene baby. It's a nice mix.

The other big changes started in March when I was laid off along with most of the rest of the staff of The Olathe News. Not sure exactly what the impetus was. Something about the "worst economic collapse since the Great Depression" coupled with the "demise of the newspaper industry as we know it," or some such thing. Losing my job was not a surprise (it was the third round of lay-offs in a year), but it was disappointing. It was a job that never felt like work and I had grown close to many of my co-workers.

But one thing my battle with meningitis has taught me is that you have to be willing to embrace life's detours and see where they lead. This particular detour took me first to Europe, which was easy to embrace. I used a portion of my severance pay and my suddenly-ample free time to visit friends in Germany, Italy and France, with a solo trip to Switzerland in between. For those of you wondering about my health, I took about a 10K hike through the Alps (see other enclosed photo), so I guess I'm doing alright.

It was my first trip to the Old Country since college and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had just one regret, and it brings me to a bit of advice for any single, male readers: If while on a train you strike up a conversation with an attractive Swiss girl who says she is on her way home to Zurich, do NOT be honest with her and say you're headed to Lucerne. Instead say, "What a coincidence, I'm going to Zurich too! And I could sure use a tour guide." (These great ideas always come to me well after the fact).

(To be continued)

Questions entertainment news should be answering

The Tiger Woods Saga has proved once again that TMZ and E! have so much more reporting resources at their disposal than their topics of coverage merit. My take on Tiger? Yes, what he did was despicable, but it was not shocking. Rather than telling me who the latest floozy who says she slept with him is, I'd like to have TMZ or E! answer these questions:

1. What ever happened to Lark Voorhies (Lisa Turtle) from Saved by the Bell? Everyone else from the show, even Dustin Diamond, has at least gotten a little TV time since it ended. She just seemed to disappear.

2. Why did they wait until Ralph Macchio was like 35 to make Karate "Kid" III? And, given all that time between sequels, how could they not have come up with a better script?

3. How in the world is there enough material to have an entire TV series called "I didn't know I was pregnant?" Ladies, how has the "I thought I was just constipated until a baby fell in the toilet" scenario played out more than once or twice in human history?

4. On average, how many times a day does Hugh Hefner have a "senior moment" and call one blond house-bimbo by another blond house-bimbo's name?

5. If Steven Seagal makes an arrest on his new reality show, "Lawman," is it actually legally binding?

6. Does Chris Tucker just jet around the globe until he runs out of money and then make another "Rush Hour" movie? And if so, how can I get that gig?

7. Has anyone ever gotten more mileage out of knocking up a high school girl than Levi Johnston?

8. How's Phil Mickelson's wife doing in her cancer fight?

The Thankful blog (a few days late)

In honor of Thanksgiving, a few things I'm thankful for (while trying not to duplicate too many of the things I was thankful in this summer's blog):

1. Adorable nieces: Ellie is about 3 and a half now and she knows all her alphabet, can count to 10 and loves to sing and dance. Elizabeth is only 3 months, but she is an incredibly smiley, happy baby, which is about the most you can ask for at that age.





2. College campuses on Lake Michigan: Northwestern University has a pretty good recruiting tool. I don't know if I can see myself going there for grad school yet, but I sure enjoy imagining this beach full of college girls on a summer day.



3. Minnesota friends: The last five months since I moved have been better than I thought they'd be in terms of social life. It's pretty nice to just fall back in with a group of friends as if you'd never left.

4. Kansas City: Winter break can't come fast enough. I miss so many people down there and can't wait to go to Oklahoma Joe's, watch college basketball (KU and MidAmerica) and enjoy the relatively warm (as in, not below zero) climate. New Year's will be a blast.

5. Walking around a big city: It was amazing just to be able to walk around Chicago, get on and off the El, look at all the different shops and restaurants and just basically enjoy being mobile and independent. Appreciate your health every day. It's such a gift.

Addendum (one more thing I'm thankful for):
The approaching end of the college football season. Gophers + Jayhawks = Yikes. C'mon guys, give me something worth watching next year, please.

My experience with Mark Mangino

All of a sudden the media consensus seems to be that KU football coach Mark Mangino is a jerk and an asshole. With Mangino allegedly under investigation for poking a player in the chest recently, the Lawrence Journal-World has run what seems like an article a day dredging up all of Mangino's less-than-friendly-deeds. There was the time five years ago when he cussed out a referee at his son's high school football game, the time two years ago when he cussed out a parking attendant who gave him a ticket on campus and the time four years ago when he accused the officials of favoring Texas after a game. And interviews with several former players who say Mangino was too hard on them.

The timing just seems a bit odd. For several years, as Mangino led KU to one bowl game after another, the local media basically did nothing but sing his praises, even as many of these incidents occurred. Now, with KU on a five-game losing streak, the local paper is busy letting everyone know that this finger poke was just the latest in a series of events that suggests Mangino was a jerk all along.

Taken on a case-by-case basis, the evidence is somewhat flimsy:

1. Yes, he was wrong to scream at the officials at his son's game. He's supposed to set a better example and be a better ambassador for KU. But if yelling at the refs at your kid's HS game is the standard for jerkhood, then I have encountered a few thousand jerks in my five years of covering high school sports. It's unfortunate, but it happens all the time. At least Mangino apologized later. Most parents don't.

2. As far as the parking attendant incident, again, he was out of line, but again, he wasn't out of the ordinary. Many students don't make it through four years at KU without getting into at least one yelling match with the parking department. They're commonly called the "parking Nazis," for Pete's sake. Again, the situation was "resolved internally," which to me suggests that Mangino apologized, and possibly gave the attendant some free football gear. Again, if this is the standard for jerkhood, then there are hundreds of jerks walking free on the KU campus right now.

3. Mangino criticized the Big 12 officials for a terrible call after the Texas game, and he actually was relatively calm about it. There was no screaming, there was no swearing. He just said, "You know what that call was about: BCS. That's right, dollar signs." I don't agree with him. I don't think the refs were really trying to make sure that Texas got into a BCS bowl to make more money for the conference. But I do think they were a bit blinded by the burnt orange of the Texas jersey and the tradition that comes with it and gave the Longhorns an incredibly generous call that cost KU the game. And when Mangino said what he did at the post-game press conference I -- and I would guess a lot of other KU fans -- yelled, "Right on!"

4. As for the criticism of former players, I don't think you could find a Div. I coach who was loved by all the players he ever coached. There's over 100 players every year that's he's responsible for on and off the field -- over 100 testosterone-soaked young men who have been taught that hitting people is a virtue. I don't condone verbal or physical abuse, but you have to have a bit of a heavy hand to keep order in that situation. Not everybody is going to appreciate that.

Again, taken one-by-one, these incidents don't seem like much. But lumped together, as they have been in the Journal-World, they paint a picture of an overbearing asshole with a hair-trigger temper and no consideration for other people. My one experience with Mangino was quite different.

Much of the media attention about my battle with meningitis focused on my four-month stay in the hospital. But the months afterward were difficult too. I was confined to a wheelchair, still depending on my parents and brothers to help me with everyday tasks like showering and using the bathroom. I was still coming to terms with being a quadruple amputee and, with my mobility severely limited, fighting extreme boredom.

During this difficult time in my life, Mangino called my parents and invited me to come by his office and chat for awhile. He didn't know me, but he'd read the newspaper reports and knew that I was a sports fan/low-level sports writer. So my younger brother drove me to Lawrence one day and then pushed my chair into the elevator and up to Mangino's office. Once there the coach gave me that year's media guide and a nice polo shirt, just like the ones the coaches wear (actually I think it might have been out of Mangino's personal closet -- it was way too big for me). Those things were nice, but as far as I was concerned, the best thing he gave me was time. Mangino spent nearly an hour talking to me and Dan, chatting about the upcoming season, how the team was still struggling, but he saw signs of things turning around, what he thought of some of the other teams in the Big 12, etc. We also talked some about his family, including his daughter, who was a fellow KU journalism grad.

Mangino was friendly, forthcoming and jovial. I don't remember him using a single curse word. Maybe it was just cause he was talking to a kid in a wheelchair who had just lost most of his fingers and toes. Even so, he wasn't getting anything out of it. There was no press release about our visit and the Journal-World didn't report on it. It was just me, him and my brother, talking football. It was a welcome distraction from the difficulties I was going through in my daily life.

Mangino is a complicated human being, like most human beings are. Does that one hour I spent with him paint a complete picture of the type of person he truly is? Probably not. But neither does putting together every nasty thing he's done in the past five years in one newspaper article.

Sports vs. News writing

My latest newspaper job, working part-time at the St. Cloud Times, has given me the opportunity to write articles for both the news page and the sports page. It's usually the assignments nobody else wants (like high school swimming for the sports page and finding a local angle on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on the news page), but these days if you want to make some money writing, you kind of need to take what you can get.

Anyway, this dual role has brought up an interesting question for me: should I keep trying to find a sportswriting job after I'm done with AmeriCorps, or move over to the news page permanently? Of course, this all depends on the newspaper industry getting its act together and figuring out how to survive in the Internet age, which is not a given. But I've decided that I still want to chase that dream of writing for a living — at least for a few more years — no matter how hair-tuggingly frustrating it can be.

So, the question is, sports or news. Each has it's own appeal.

Sports
1. I am intrinsically drawn to it — Simply put, I just love the heck out of sports. Not really sure why, but I just do. This time of year I really miss my old gig at The Olathe News. The high school football playoffs are in full swing and the college basketball season has just started at MidAmerica Nazarene University. Those were the kind of days when I couldn't wait to go to "work."

2. It's not hard to find story ideas — There is always material and it's always easy to find. There are athletic directors, sports information directors and plenty of average Joe mom and dads in the stands eager to tell you what's going on in the local sports scene.

3. You get to sleep in — Sporting events don't start 'til at least 3:30 p.m. That means you can comfortably sleep until 10 every morning. And, at the risk of exposing the lazy nature I'm constantly fighting, there's nothing I like more than sleep.

4. I have experience — I've written a few hundred sports articles over the past five years. There's rarely a sports assignment that I don't feel entirely confident about executing.

5. People admire you — Tell any guy you're a sportswriter and there's about an 80 percent chance he'll say "Whoa, that sounds awesome," even after you explain that you cover preps and small college and not the pros. Most women are, at the very least, neutral about it. Tell people you're a news reporter and a lot of them think of either the paparazzi or that guy on TV who is interviewing a mother whose son was shot to death and asks, "So, how do you feel right now?"

News
1. It's usually more meaningful – As much as I love sports, I recognize that they're generally pretty insignificant and I often wonder if devoting my life to writing about games would ultimately be fulfilling. Sure, news writing can also be plenty trite, but the issues on the news page are generally more life-altering. If you can craft a story about that son who was shot to death that humanizes what could be seen as just another homicide statistic, that's meaningful.

2. It's not as competitive — It's hard to get sportswriting jobs cause a whole lot of people want them. When I applied for a sports job at the Ames Tribune this summer they said they had 150 applicants in the first 10 days they advertised the position. And that's a mid-level newspaper. It's simply easier to get work on the news side.

3. You work more regular hours — It can be a drag to sit in the newsroom writing up a high school football game every Friday night while your friends are out on the town. That's when you miss the more regular hours of the news desk. Also, if at some point I have a wife and children that I want to see once in a while, this would become an even bigger priority.

4. There's more variety – There's variety in sports, but only to a point. I'd say that about 95 percent of the articles I wrote in Olathe fell into three categories: game stories, player profiles and opinion columns. Even if every game and every player is slightly different, it does get repetitive after awhile. On the other hand, even if you're pigeon-holed in a very narrow beat on the news side, there's usually more ways you can dig into it.

5. You reach more people — Some people don't care about sports, period. But a well-crafted, interesting news story about a significant event (like say 9/11, or even something more local like the gas explosion in downtown St. Cloud 10 years ago) should draw in just about everybody in your area who knows how to read.

So there it is, pros and cons for both sides. Of course, it begs the question, why not look for a full-time position that is some sports, and some news? Those are pretty tough to find except at very small papers that barely pay enough to eke out a living. I'm probably better off focusing on one or the other. That is, if newspapers still exist after my AmeriCorps year is over, of course.

World (blah) Series

So I'm sitting here watching the World Series at work, waiting for high school football coaches to call in their scores (yes, in Minnesota they play some HS football games on Saturday once playoff time runs around). Actually I'm more listening than watching -- my desk is up against the wall and I can only see about half the TV screen. And the TV here is only about 24 inches (rough estimate), so I've only got about a foot of viewable baseball. Why have all the newspapers I've worked at (Kansan, Olathe News, St. Cloud Times) had such tiny TVs? After watching on the widescreen, 60-inch "Unger special" this seems pretty pathetic.

Thing is, it doesn't even bother me a whole lot. This is possibly the least interesting World Series in my lifetime. Yankees/Phillies? Who cares. One is possibly the most overexposed team in American professional sports and the other had no tradition outside of Mike Schmidt before last year. Blah.

The most recent Sports Illustrated tried to trump up the Series by casting it as an epic battle between two of the game's top sluggers -- Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez. Through the first two games I believe the two of them were a combined 0-for-25 with 24 strikeouts. OK, so that's an exaggeration, but they've both been gawd-awful. At least that's what I've read. I hadn't been able to bring myself to watch a single inning of this snooze-fest until tonight, and I'm only pseudo-watching it now because I'm being held against my will. Just have to keep reminding myself that I'm gettig paid to be here.

Of course, some of my apathy might just be baseball fatigue (though I adamantly reiterate that I care not one bit about the Yankees and Phillies). It is almost November, after all. How in the heck did this season manage to drag out so long? At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man whining about the "good ol' days," I remember when the World Series used to be played in October. Exclusively in October. Now we've got two teams in the frigid Northeast desperately trying to get a series in before the snow starts to fly.

I believe what happened was some TV exec decided that they needed to add a bunch of off-days to the playoff schedule so that no two games were played simultaneously. It's hard to televise two games simultaneously on the same station, after all. And then the baseball commissioner and owners all bowed down to that exec and said, "So let it be written, so let it be done, Oh Mighty Bringer of Television Revenues."

Be interesting to see how this whole "November baseball" thing works out if the Twins ever make it to the Series in their new outdoor park. I don't know precisely what the temp was here today, but it cold enough that several of the trick-or-treaters were in their "witch-wearing-parka" costumes.

I would certainly be a lot more interested in a "Twins vs. Anybody" Series in November than I am with the current Series. But I don't think I would try and get tickets. I'm not sure how much I would pay to watch 4 hours of baseball outdoors in sub-freezing temps. Hopefully I'll at least be near a bigger TV if said hypothetical Series ever comes to pass.

Yeah, NBA! (Seriously)

I'm probably one of the few people excited to see the Timberwolves open the regular season this week. It's not that I'm a huge fan of the NBA. I much prefer college basketball — the games are shorter, often less sloppy, and always more intense. I'd take a ticket to a Kansas-Missouri regular season game over an NBA Finals ticket any day.

That being said, I guess I've just been living away from an NBA team long enough to work up a bit of nostalgia for it. Of course, it would be nice to be back to have a team better than the T-Wolves, who finished 24-58 last year. But there's some things I'll enjoy seeing with my hometown squad.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Al Jefferson manages to amass the 20 points and 10 rebounds I see by his name in nearly every box score. I always liked Karl Malone in part because he put up 20 and 10 almost every game without fail. That kind of consistency over an 82-game schedule is pretty remarkable, and Jefferson seems to have it. Just hope his nagging injury isn't too serious.

Speaking of injuries, it will be awhile before anyone gets to watch Kevin Love, but I'm also looking forward to seeing more of him. There's something poetic about big men who can pass. Adds some much-needed tempo to the NBA game.

Overall, I've always been more interested in guards, though, so the addition of Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions to the Minnesota roster are quite welcome. I enjoyed watching Sessions play against KU when he was at Nevada and watching Flynn lead Syracuse past UConn in that six-overtime game last year.

That's really one of the most fun parts of the NBA for me — watching the guys I used to watch in college. Nostalgia again, I guess. It's a powerful feeling.

My prediction for the T-Wolves: 35-47. Unless Jefferson misses significant time. Then they'll be lucky to win 25.

Twins 2010 hopes rest on Liriano

Like most everyone else in MN I was excited about the way the Twins ended the regular season — winning 17 of their last 21 including a pressure-packed victory against Zack Greinke (who ought to be the AL Cy Young, team record be damned) on the final weekend and an extra-inning thriller against the Tigers in Game 163. It was a great run and provided some nice "in-your-face" redemption for much-maligned guys like Nick Punto and Delmon Young, who played big roles. But my main thought was to savor it while it lasted, because I figured it wouldn't continue in the playoffs.

The playoffs are generally won by teams with power pitching, and the Twins just didn't have that. They didn't have a legitimate ace, so they figured to be battling uphill against whoever they faced. Throw in the fact that it was the Yankees, who went out and bought two legitimate aces in the offseason, and the Twinks were the longest of long shots. So how can they change that next year? There's no simple answer.

Some in the media have suggested a new manager, citing Ron Gardenhire's dismal career playoff record. But the manager can't come in for a key strikeout with the bases loaded and one out. Just getting the Twins to the playoffs this year was a monumental task for Gardy. He had to deal with a starting rotation ravaged by injuries and inconsistency, a bullpen that occasionally couldn't find the strike zone with a Garmin (Jessie Crain/Jose Mijares ring a bell?) and a line-up with too many outfielders and not enough infielders (how long can a manager be expected to mask significant holes at second, short AND third?). Down the stretch Gardy showed that if you get him the players (Pavano, Cabrera, and a couple mediocre bullpen arms), he'll make it work. They don't even have to be great players, just a slight step up from Alexi Casilla and Armando Gabino. Gardenhire's not the problem.

Joe Nathan's not the problem, either. I've also seen it suggested that the Twins should jettison him and his big contract after his horrendous letdown in Game 2 against the Yanks. But it's hard to argue that the guy's washed up after he had 47 saves and a 2.10 ERA this season. The Twins problem has generally been that they don't get to Nathan with a lead often enough in the playoffs. He has two years left under contract and while the Twins probably shouldn't be thinking extension (he'll be 36 at the end of it), they shouldn't be thinking "dead weight," either.

There's some issues with the line-up for next year. The Twins either need to re-sign Cabrera or find somebody else to play shortstop (one of the Toronto guys, Scutaro or McDonald, could be an option). Unlike many people, I think Punto is fine at second. Yes, he is often a black hole in the batting order, but most teams can afford one of those, especially if he is a dynamic defensive player who can bunt runners over reliably (he needs to stop sliding into first, though, that is getting beyond annoying). Third base either needs to go to Danny Valencia if he's ready or maybe think about moving Cuddyer over there to ease the outfield jam. He's obviously got the arm for it. Or there's always Brendan Harris in a pinch, though he seems better suited for spot duty at second.

With a few tweaks, the Twins should be fine offensively and defensively. But their playoff hopes still rest with the front of their rotation and there's no easy answer for that. Even if they do get Pavano back, he's more like a No. 2 or 3 playoff starter, not an ace. Ditto for Scott Baker. The Twins need another guy up front. But where do they get him? There's not a lot of great starting pitchers on the free agent market and even if there were, we all know the Twins wouldn't come close to winning the bidding wars for them. There's probably not enough top-flight prospects left in the system to swing a trade for a guy like Roy Halladay for one year, either.

As far as I can tell, the Twins hopes rest on the surgically-repaired left elbow of Francisco Liriano. Yes, Liriano was pretty bad this season (5-13 with a 5.80 ERA), but it often takes more than one season to recover from Tommy John surgery. There's still a chance that, with an entire off-season of conditioning, Liriano will regain his muscle, those crucial four or five MPH on his fastball and some of the movement on his once-devastating slider.

If he can get back to 2006 form (and remember he's only 25), then the Twins suddenly have that intimidating ace who strikes fear in the opposition and puts a swagger in his teammates. They have that strikeout pitcher who can rise up and shut down a two-on, one-out rally. And they have a suddenly-formidable playoff rotation of Liriano, Baker, Pavano, Blackburn. As No. 1-2-3 starters, Baker, Pavano and Blackburn are less than average. As No. 2-3-4, they stack up with almost anybody.

Liriano's resurgence. It's a slim hope, but without it the Twins are probably destined for yet another "struggle mightily to make the playoffs only to be eliminated immediately" season.

Things I think I think

Apologies to Peter King for stealing his column headline, but it seemed like the best label for a blog that is all about catching up on the sports happenings I've been neglecting lately.

1. Brett Favre's last-second heroics vs. San Francisco: Enjoy them while they last

OK, so that was a lot of fun. It seems like it's been a long time since any magic happened in the Vikings' favor in the last few seconds of a game. We all remember times when it's gone the other way (Gary Anderson's missed field goal, the Cardinals' last-ditch, playing-for-nothing, Viking-playoff-eliminating touchdown pass).

Watching Favre complete that pass (with a serious assist from Greg Lewis, who hasn't gotten enough credit for making a tough catch and getting his feet down) and improbably snatch victory from the jaws of defeat was pure purple euphoria. But, at the risk of raining on the parade, I have to wonder how much more he can do that. He's about to turn 40 and the Vikings have protected him about as well as David Letterman has protected his reputation this year. Favre is a tough guy, so no doubt he'll keep trotting out there unless he's got a bone sticking through the skin. But those hits will add up, and it seems likely he'll wear down in the second half of the season like he did last year.

2. 2016 Summer Olympics going to Rio: It's about time, but I wish they'd waited 4 more years.

Mixed feelings on this one. First off, I think it's great that South America is hosting for the first time. Millions of people who have never had a chance to see the Games up close and personal may now get to. Rio will be a great backdrop too — it's by far the most beautiful city I've been to. And I have several Brazilian friends who I know are justifiably excited about it (though not as excited as they are about hosting the World Cup in 2014). I'm happy for them.

But Chicago probably would have been my best shot to see an Olympics in person — it's only about 8 hours from St. Cloud by car with plenty of train and plane options from Minneapolis, as well. And I have friends who live there and a brother who lives an hour away, so lodging would have been no problem. So I guess I'll just to have to console myself with the thought that international superstars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Shawn Johnson probably won't be competing any more in 2016. Maybe it will be a boring Olympics with no historic performances, right?

In any case, I appreciate the President trying to bring the Olympics to the U.S. like Tony Blair did for London (2012). Chicago had the infrastructure to make money off it and it would have been fun for us Midwestern sports fans.

3. Jayhawks behaving badly: Get it together, guys

A group of basketball players from my alma mater, KU, got into a brawl recently with a group of football players on campus in front of a few hundred of their fellow students. Campus police are investigating. On the one hand, not that big a deal — in four years of college I saw plenty of fights fueled by ego and testosterone. Typical male macho idiocy, for the most part.

On the other hand, I think these guys need to punished more than your average Joe College (Idiot). They're receiving scholarship money not only to play sports, but also to be visible, high-profile ambassadors for the university. They need to understand that, as important as they think they are, representing KU athletically is a privilege, not a right. Along with that privilege comes responsibility, meaning they should be held to a higher standard of conduct than the average student. Bottom line: every player in the upcoming police report, football and basketball, should be suspended at least one game.

Oh, and special message for Tyshawn Taylor, the point guard who dislocated his thumb punching somebody: maintaining your street cred is not as important to your financial future as maintaining your limbs. Think about it.

4. Eric Decker: the most underrated player in college football

OK, so I know the Gophers lost to the Badgers... again. But I always love watching Eric Decker play wide receiver. Everybody and their sister knows that when the Gophers throw it's probably going to him, but he still finds a way to get open and anything that hits his hands seems to stay there.

He had 8 catches 140 yards 1 touchdown today. He's had at least eight catches in all five games this season and at least 110 receiving yards in four out of five. If he doesn't get some Heisman buzz soon, I might start writing letters to Lee Corso.

5. St. Cloud Diocese puts moratorium on communal cup: Uhhh, duh.

This has nothing to do with sports, but I feel the need to comment on it. Why did the Catholic Church have to wait for swine flu to start re-thinking the wisdom of having hundreds of people drink out of the same cup? Bacterial meningitis can spread that way too, and, in case you hadn't heard, that can be pretty nasty too.

Kids say the darndest (and coolest) things

School starts late in Minnesota - by law the kids can't go back until after Labor Day. I have heard this is because the resort owners have a powerful lobby and want Minnesota families to go on one last revenue-producing summer vacation. I don't know if that's true or not. Seems a little far-fetched.

Anyway, my job with the Minnesota Reading Corps has already started, so, until the kids return to school, I am basically doing odd jobs to get my required hours. Today I was out in front of my school, Madison Elementary, repainting the (District) "742 - for you!" sign on the sidewalk. It wasn't a bad odd job to be assigned to. The weather was beautiful, and there's a certain satisfaction I get from jobs like painting, where you can see tangible progress.

As I was sitting on the concrete, painting, a young boy rode up on his bicycle. For confidentiality reasons, I can't give his name, but he said he was a fourth-grader at Madison. I introduced myself and we got to talking for awhile about the painting I was doing and the reading instruction I'll be doing once school starts. It wasn't long before he asked that question I'm always half-expecting when I meet someone new: "What happened to your hands?"

This question, as it pertains to the new job, has me a little anxious. I will soon be meeting hundreds of elementary school kids, about 20 of whom I will work with on a daily basis. I know I look a little different and sometimes I wonder how they will react to me. Will they be scared? Will they not want to be around me? It's a little irrational, I know, but I worry about these things sometimes.

So, having thought about what I would say ahead of time, I told this kid on the bike that a long time ago I got sick and the doctor had to take some of my fingers and toes off so that I would get better. But I was fine now and, even though I looked a little bit different, I could do pretty much everything I used to do.

The boy, of course, had some questions. "What sickness did you get?" (Meningitis, but you don't have to worry about getting it because there's a shot that you can get when you turn 11 that will protect you). "Did it hurt when the doctor took off your fingers and toes?" (Yes, it hurt, but they gave me medicine to take most of the pain away). "Could you still drive a car?" (Yes, I actually drive better now because I can't talk on the phone and drink a 40-ounce pop at the same time. I have to focus more on the road).

I told him again that I could do pretty much everything I used to, it just took me some time to figure out how to do it again. I had to try and try and keep practicing until I got it right. And he said, "Kinda like when I was learning to ride my bike," which I thought was a pretty smart analogy for a fourth-grader.

After that there was a lull in the conversation. I kept painting and he just watched for awhile. Then, out of the blue, the boy broke the silence by saying, "You know, it's kinda cool to see somebody without any fingers working so hard."

Talk about your all-time nicest things to say. As far as I could tell, what he was saying was, "I am inspired by the fact that you don't let your disability keep you from being productive." That is probably one of the best compliments I have ever received, and I'm sure this boy didn't have any idea his words could make that kind of impact. I walked around with a big, goofy grin on my face the rest of the day. I think I'm going to like working with kids.

Who's No. 2?

'Tis the season of fantasy football drafts, and an intriguing question will be answered in the opening minutes of every draft going on in every corner of the country. Not "Who's going to be the first pick?" Barring a preseason injury (GASP, knock on wood repeatedly) Adrian Peterson will be taken first In about 95 percent of drafts — not just in leagues full of unabashed Vikings homers. The really interesting question is "Who should be the No. 2 pick?"

It looks like an agonizing decision, which makes it all the more likely I will be picking second.

Yahoo Sports has Michael Turner ranked No. 2 overall, which is a trendy choice. But I'm not sold. Turner has had just one year as a starter and, though it was a great year, there were some red flags. He was wildly inconsistent, going for 42 yards against the Buccaneers in Week 2 but 152 yards against them in Week 15 and 56 yards against the Panthers in Week 4 but 117 yards and 4 TDs against them in Week 12. Peterson was "Plug-and-play" from Day 1. Turner was "Feast-or-famine."

The conventional wisdom is that you should generally take a RB with the No. 2 pick. But if Tom Brady is healthy and can put up numbers like he did two years ago, he's a very enticing option. Those are big "ifs" though, especially when you're essentially betting your season on them. Yahoo has Brady ranked below guys like Frank Gore, Steven Jackson and Chris Johnson, which I think is a bit of a stretch, but it would also be a stretch to take Brady at No. 2. Peyton Manning or Drew Brees would be safer QB picks but they're both likely be off the board by the end of the second round.

Larry Fitzgerald is coming off the best postseason known to man. It would be easy to pull the trigger on him at No. 2, especially if you like players from Minnesota. But he's no longer working in the offensive schemes of Todd Haley and his quarterback, Kurt Warner, is getting old and has to hit the wall someday.

So No. 2 should probably be a running back. But who? Maurice Jones-Drew (only topped 100 yards twice last year), Matt Forte (still relatively unproven), Brian Westbrook (a walking disabled list) or DeAngelo Williams (can't possibly hog as many Carolina TDs as he did last year)? As far as I can tell there's no sure thing. My advice to whoever gets the No. 2 pick? Trade down.

The death of the Dome

On Saturday I attended what may well be my last Twins game at the Metrodome. For as long as I have been alive the Teflon-covered circle has been the "home of the Twins," but next year they will start playing outdoors at Target Field.

The Dome certainly has its drawbacks. After several decades without a good scrubbing, the ceiling is a dirty gray that is not exactly as romantic as looking at an unobstructed starry night sky. There are a lot of outfield seats that are about as far from home plate as St. Paul (though that doesn't stop inebriated fans from yelling, "C'mon, that was right down the middle," when they disagree with the umpire who looks a little like an amorphous black or light blue blob from that distance). The artificial turf causes almost cartoonish bounces that turn slap-hitters into Tony Gwynn, which was probably not what baseball's founders had in mind.

But there's a lot of things I'll miss about the Dome, too, beyond just the obvious "no rain-outs and always 75 degrees with low humidity" selling points:

1. It's always been affordable — One of the nice things about watching baseball in a football stadium is that there's a lot of seats, even if some don't provide the most desirable view (see paragraph 2). That means high supply and low demand and reasonable prices. When I was a little kid going to my first games, my parents were able to get tickets in the cheap seats for $3, which won't get you into a Little League game now. During high school and college we could get in for a paltry $5 once a week on "Student ID Night." Hmm, buy an extra value meal or go to a Twins game? Not a hard choice. Even this past Saturday, at 28 years old and with no special discounts, Tim and I were able to get in for a very reasonable $10 each. My guess is those prices will no longer be around once Target Field opens.

2. It's a cool place to hang out — The Dome was always a great place to gather with friends, especially before we were 21. The low prices meant we could all afford to hang out, socialize and sometimes even watch a little baseball in a parent-free environment. It was a good place to meet girls, although lately all the girls there are in love with Joe Mauer, which is hard to compete with.

3. It never sold out (figuratively. In terms of selling all the seats, that occasionally happened) — The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is named after a Minnesota luminary. Target Field is named after a Minnesota corporation. But maybe we should just be glad that Target outbid Tampax.

4. It's a great home-field advantage — The Twins were able overcome a lot of bigger market teams with high-priced sluggers over the years by using speed and their wacky turf to turn slap-hitters like Greg Gagne and Nick Punto into serviceable starters. And there was something hilarious and exhilarating about watching grown men on opposing teams throw up their hands in confusion and frustration when they lost fly balls in the dingy roof, only to have them drop a few feet away.

5. It has history — The Twins won two World Series under that filthy old dome. Frank "Sweet Music" Viola mowed down hitters there. Juan Berenguer "boogied" there. Kent Hrbek drilled towering homeruns there. Jeff Reardon and Rick Aguilera pitched electric ninth innings there. Torii Hunter made countless impossible sliding, leaping, sprawling, diving catches there. Kirby Puckett hit a walk-off homerun to force a World Series Game 7 there in 1991 — probably the most famous at-bat in Twins history. That's a hard act for Target Field to follow. Here's hoping it at least comes close.

A second chance

Michael Vick is back in the NFL. Wow, that was fast.

When Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday I have to say I was surprised. He's a dynamic, unique player, so I figured someone would sign him eventually, but I thought it would take a little more time (and perhaps a few more injuries to prominent QBs) for a team to decide he was worth the P.R. headache.

I still stand by my earlier opinion that Vick (and all felons) should spend at least one probationary year on the practice squad to earn their way back onto the field. That won't happen in Vick's case, but I'm begrudgingly accepting the situation as it stands. Vick will start the season as a back-up to Donovan McNabb, so he won't be just handed a starting position and a leadership role straight out of prison, which I think is a good thing. And his contract is one year for $1.6 million, which, while more than I think he deserves, is reasonable by NFL standards. Most of it will go to paying his debts anyway, so he won't be handed his previous life of luxury straight out of prison either, which I think is as it should be.

I would be more angry about it if Vick hadn't done everything right so far to earn a second chance. He's expressed remorse without making excuses. He's sought mentoring from Tony Dungy, who may be just the kind of stand-up father figure he needs. He's worked with the Humane Society to speak out about the consequences of dog fighting.

That last partnership may be the most key aspect of Vick's comeback. It's certainly an odd pairing — the most famous dog abuser in human history volunteering with the Humane Society — but it has tremendous potential to benefit both parties. As the president of the Humane Society recently pointed out, Vick allows the organization to reach audiences they could never hope to get through to in the past. And Vick desperately needs the support of a group like the Humane Society to mitigate the PETA attacks that are almost certain to descend on Philly soon. There are a lot of people who will never forgive Vick, and will never forgive the Eagles for signing him.

I'm a dog lover myself. Everyone who knows me knows that my buddy Baxter is close to my heart. But I'm ready to move on, and assume that Vick is truly sorry, he's learned his lesson and he's going to respresent the NFL well and turn his story into a positive. I'm sure there will be plenty of people protesting Vick's reinstatement. I just wonder how many will also protest if and when Donte Stallworth comes back. After all Stallworth killed a person and, whether accidental (DUI in Stallworth's case) or not, we should be able to muster up just as much righteous indignation for his victim as for Vick's.

New gig

So I had my Minnesota Reading Corps orientation today. Nothing too special — a few of those get-to-know-you icebreakers that I don't think I'd done since college, about 4 or 5 hours of PowerPoint presentations going over the handbook we'd just been given (we can probably read that on our own if we're in the Minnesota "Reading" Corps, right?) and a website tutorial that short-circuited rather quickly once we found out that the website wasn't ready to accept our usernames yet.

Here's the particulars of the program:

--It's a division of AmeriCorps, which is like the domestic Peace Corps.

--I will be tutoring kids in grades K-3 at Madison Elementary School (St. Cloud, MN) to help them get up to grade level in reading.

--The program is funded by the federal government and administered by the state. My living allowance (roughly $800 a month after taxes) will not come out of school district funds and I will not be taking anyone's job.

-- I am bound by strict confidentiality rules regarding the kids I'm tutoring, so I won't be blogging about them :)

My initial impressions? Yes, AmeriCorps is a federal program and it does seem to be ruled by a rather complicated, multi-tiered bureaucracy with all kinds of committees, coordinators and administrators, all explained through nearly-indecipherable flow charts. But I think my program, the Minnesota Reading Corps, is an excellent investment.

First of all, it's very targeted and focused. Some of the other AmeriCorps positions I looked at seemed to have vague and ambiguous goals (hey, if it's good enough for our troops in Iraq, I guess it's good enough for AmeriCorps volunteers too, right?). But the MRC has a very simple, straightforward mission: to teach kids to read so they'll be able to handle their textbooks from 4th grade on. It also has very stringent methods for tracking effectiveness. As I understand it, I will be collecting and recording data on the kids' progress daily. Data that will be used to determine how well the program is working and what kind of difference I'm making.

Clearly defined goals, a proven method for meeting them and meticulous data to record how well they're being met. It's no wonder the MRC is one of the rising stars of AmeriCorps. Right now the program is unique to Minnesota but 20 other states have inquired about it and are interested in copying it.

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/36087739.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUss

So, in that sense, I'm a pioneer, and that's exciting. At this point I'm itching to get done with the PowerPoints and get on to the business of teaching kids to read.

The simple joy of soreness

My legs were slightly sore today, but it was a good kind of sore. The kind of sore that you know you've earned and that you know will make you feel better in the long run. In my case I earned it with a two-hour bike ride with my buddy Timmy through most of St. Cloud's north side on Saturday.

It was not the first time I rode a bike since my amputations. Public transportation was somewhat limited in my trip to Brazil last year, so there were a couple of bike rental experiments there. Riding on the paved biking/running path along Copacabana Beach was pretty successful. The cobblestones and steep hills of tiny Parati were less friendly. But I only fell once.

Then I spent about a year without getting back on the bike, before deciding it was time. Last week I bought a bike, a Raleigh Coasting model that looks like a sort of modern version of Pee Wee Herman's bike, except it's all black. It's not really my style, but it's set up well for a person with minimal hand dexterity, which obviously appealed to me. It has coaster brakes on the pedals like the ones we all used to use when we were kids, so I don't need to struggle with hand brakes. It has three speeds but shifts through them automatically (I don't really know how this feature works, but it gives me one less thing to occupy my hands with, so I'm all for it). I can grip the handlebars pretty well with my right hand so, after strapping in my left hand with some Velcro, I'm pretty much good to go.

It's weird, being able move fast under my own power. Not Lance Armstrong fast or anything, but fast enough to cool me off on a hot day. It's also kind of weird to go so hard that my lungs start burning a little and I have to slow down to catch my breath. Never really got to that point on the stationary bike — guess I just wasn't motivated enough cycling in place.

I was never a big fan of it before — exertion, strain, muscle aches. But, believe it or not, after a few years without it you find you miss it. It's nice to be sore when you've done something to earn it.

Media the biggest loser in Favre Saga

So it looks like Brett Favre isn't coming to play for the Vikings. Zippity-gosh-darn-do. I'm just glad the story is over. Although, let's be realistic: it's probably not over. It's never over with Favre. There will be rumors that he just wants to skip training camp and will make a comeback in time for the last two preseason games. There will be rumors that he just wanted to skip the preseason and will sign in time for the regular season opener. There will be rumors that he didn't want to wear down over the course of a 16-game season again and will join a championship contender in Week 8.

If there's one thing we've learned about Favre it's that he doesn't know when to quit and even when he thinks he knows when to quit, he doesn't know when to quit thinking about whether he really wants to quit. And the fact that this is now a non-story won't keep the national sports media from trying to make it a story. Hell, it's been a non-story for months and yet desperate sports reporters from across the country have tried to fill space with breathless "updates" nearly every day. "Oooh, the Vikings' trainer was in Mississippi today talking to Favre. Oooh, two Vikings sent text messages to Favre today. Oooh, Favre looked great throwing a buttonhook to some high school kid today." Honestly guys, I know the summer is slow, but are you that starved for content?

BTW, those were the real winners in the Favre Saga — the players from Oak Grove High in Mississippi who got tons of national TV exposure because Favre was playing catch with them. Except for the one kid who couldn't get his hands up fast enough and ended up taking a Favre missile in the face. Having that clip play over and over again on ESPN is not going to help you get a date for Homecoming.

The biggest loser in the saga? I honestly don't think it was the Vikes. As much as Favre has been romanticized, it seems often forgotten that he is the NFL's all-time interceptions leader. The Vikings have a solid defense and a great running game, what they need is a caretaker quarterback who can keep the defense honest without throwing the ball to the other team. I'm not sure if T-Jack or Sage Rosenfels can be that quarterback, but I'm pretty sure Favre can't be. His "I-can-fire-any-pass-into-triple-coverage" ego won't allow it.

Favre wasn't the biggest loser, either, though. Sure, he missed out on some money, but he already has plenty. He missed out on another championship shot, but he already has a Super Bowl ring and there's no guarantee he would have gotten another. Meanwhile, he avoided playing with a mediocre receiving corps and an offensive line built for run-blocking, not pass-blocking (if you've ever seen Bryant McKinnie trying to back-pedal, you know what I'm talking about).

I'd say that the people with the most egg on their faces are the sports reporters who for months have acted like this was basically a done deal. Since I returned to Minnesota the Star Tribune has been running a daily Favre-Meter and for all of July the meter has been stuck somewhere between "Almost a sure thing," and "Get your purple No. 4 jersey." Now it turns out all the "careful research" and "well-informed" sources behind that reporting were wrong. Dead wrong. 180 degrees wrong. Once again, by rushing to judgement and substituting speculation in the absence of actual story developments, the media looks foolish. As if laying off hundreds of copy editors hadn't already made it look foolish enough (BTW, Star Tribune, Ron Gardenhire is the Twins' "manager" not the Twins' "manger." And spell-check isn't going to catch that, so you might actually have to do a thing called "editing").

Yep, the Favre Saga made the media look pretty stupid. Then again, maybe we're the stupid ones for still believing what we read in the newspaper/see on TV/glance at in the blogosphere. You could make a case that the biggest losers were the Vikes fans who took the Strib's advice, jumped the gun and bought those purple Favre jerseys. They're out $50 or so.

Of games and gaming

My friend Babs has asked me to try and write some about video games (those of you who know Babs will not be surprised by this). I don't really consider myself much of an authority on the subject. Back in junior high/high school/college I used to play a lot of Warcraft (I and II), Starcraft and several EA Sports games (soccer, basketball, football, etc.). When I was killing time by myself in college I'd sometimes play Snood. When a bunch of us were killing time, we'd often play Bomberman. I didn't particularly enjoy Bomberman, but it was a four-player game and kind of a social outlet.

Since college ended I'm not really much into gaming, though. I'll play the occasional round of Guitar Hero (yes, it's possible, even with my finger limitations) or take the mic for a song on Rock Band. But I've avoided the World of Warcraft time vacuum. I'm not about to judge anybody who spends hours a week gaming, though. I typically spend hours a week watching sports on TV, which is similarly unproductive. You can complete a quest on Warcraft, or watch your favorite baseball team win a game, but your life is not going to change substantially in either case.

Babs has said that he doesn't understand why it's generally more socially acceptable to sit in front of a TV screen watching football for nine hours on a Sunday than it is to sit in front of a computer screen playing WoW for nine hours. I have to agree with him. Both are pretty much time wasters. And neither is usually a good way to meet women. When I think back on the amount of time I spent both watching sports and playing video games in college, I can't help but think, "Maybe that's why I didn't get many girls." Of course, there may be several other reasons, but that one's easier on the ego.

Yes, in the grand scheme of things, sports are not nearly as important as our society makes them out to be. The money involved in pro and major college sports has gotten absolutely obscene. I understand that and yet, I can't be too cynical about sports because they probably saved my life. If not for my interest in pro sports, I wouldn't have started playing them myself and I wouldn't have been nearly as active. I've never been in great physical condition, but playing sports has helped keep me reasonably healthy, especially in my heart and lungs.

I needed every bit of that cardiovascular health in the weeks following my hospitalization with bacterial meningitis. The toxins that ran through my body while I was unconscious really did a number on my internal organs. My respiration and heart rates were off the charts. It was as if I was jogging for days at a time, non-stop. Some of the nurses actually told my parents they had never seen someone keep up those rates for as long as I did. There's no way I could have done it without all those marathon sessions of pick-up basketball that I played in college. Three hours was about the average, but four or five was not unusual, especially on nights when the competition was good.

Could I have gotten the same cardiovascular benefit from going out and jogging on my own? Yes, and I probably could have gotten it in much less time. But I wouldn't have done it. I've never been much into exercise just for the sake of exercise. But if it's exercise for a competitive purpose, it's much more appealing to me. And it has been for a long time. That's one reason I still watch sports, write about sports and love sports.

I don't get the same thrill from the competitive aspect of video games. I don't know why, but I don't. So don't expect too many gaming blogs from me (sorry Babs).

Twins' latest bargain buy

Some people like their baseball teams to be free-spending, power-hitting, power-pitching juggernauts. Me, I appreciate a good bargain. I'm still wearing clothes I've had since eighth grade and I fully intend to run my economical compact car into the ground before I get a new one. So, I kinda like rooting for a team like the Twins, who watch their dollars and are unwilling to mortgage the future to try and snag a few extra wins this year.

The Twins' big mid-season move last week was to sign veteran free agent second basemen Mark Grudzielanek. Reaction from most of the local sportswriters has been to scoff about the tightwad Twins and how they missed a chance to really help themselves by trading for a young up-and-coming second baseman like Felipe Lopez or Freddy Sanchez. I disagree. After watching Grudzielanek play for the Royals for the last three years, I think he's a better option.

The Twins almost certainly would have had to give up at least two pretty good prospects to get Lopez or Sanchez. They didn't have to give up anybody for Grudzy and, though I haven't seen any specific terms of his contract, it had to have been dirt cheap (at least by pro sports' completely warped standards). He's 39 and missed the last two months of the 2008 season after having ankle surgery. He hasn't played a MLB game in nearly a year, so it will take him some time to get up to speed. He can't command much of a salary because he's not a long-term solution at second base.

But the Twins didn't necessarily need a long-term solution. They're still hoping that will eventually be Alexi Casilla. What they needed was a back-up plan and another option to push Casilla, who's hitting under .200. Grudzielanek is a good buy for that role. He may be getting old, but he's still got it. He hit .299 in 86 games last year and won a Gold Glove as recently as 2006. Much has been made of Sanchez' career .302 batting average but Grudzy's is not far off at .290.

Maybe Grudzielanek will never play a game in a Twins' uni. Maybe his ankle will act up, or maybe he will find that at his age he suddenly just doesn't have it anymore. Or maybe, best case scenario for Twins fans, Casilla will get his stuff together and the Twins won't need Grudzy. If so, it's not a big deal — they didn't give up much to get him anyway. But it's just as likely that Grudzielanek will join the Twins some time in the next few weeks, play reliable defense and hit in the high .200s like he always has. Plus he's always been known as a consummate professional who's great in the community and the locker room. He's not likely to upset a team's chemistry and that's a very important quality for any mid-season pick-up to have.

Basically, I'm glad the Twins didn't rip up their farm system to try and get Sanchez or Lopez. Grudzielanek is a better player than he gets credit for and is a great, cheap stopgap measure.

And here's more good stuff for MN sports fans. Jonny Flynn has looked pretty darn good in the NBA summer league and, if this interview is any indication, he's a smart, articulate kid who already talks like a leader:

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2009/07/18/nba_20090718_flynn.nba/index.html

Gin Blossoms

On Friday I went to Minneapolis and saw the Gin Blossoms live for the third time. It was the second time I'd seen them for free and I must say, "Gin Blossoms" and "free" are three of my favorite words.

Why do I like this band so much? It's hard to put my finger on. Most people only know the Gin Blossoms vaguely, as one of those alt-rock bands that had a couple radio hits in the '90s. Most probably don't know that they're together and touring and recording again (which, come to think of it, may be why they're playing free — though sponsored — shows relatively frequently). I recently met a girl who was going to Arizona State University, which is in Tempe, where the Gin Blossoms originated. So of course, I got all excited and started talking about the band and all I got from her was a blank stare. No idea who they were. I was surprised at the time, but now that I think about it, why would she know the Gin Blossoms? She was probably 9 or 10 years old the last time they had a hit song on the radio.

Back in the mid-90s though, they had a good run with offerings like "Found out about you," "Hey jealousy," "Follow you down," "Until I fall away," and "Til I hear it from you." You'll notice that some of the song titles sound confusingly similar. Well, some of the songs themselves sound confusingly similar as well. My friend Tim said it's kind of like the Gin Blossoms found a certain chord that worked for them and then just kind of stuck with it.

I agree with that, so why is it that I bought three of their albums, still listen to them regularly, and go see them live whenever it's convenient? Maybe I just really like that one chord they play. Maybe it's because their lead singer, Robin Wilson, has a voice that I think most anyone would agree is pleasing to the ear. Maybe it's because their lyrics, while not earth-shattering or profound, are straightforward and easy to relate to ("You can trust me not to think — And not to sleep around — If you don't expect too much from me — You might not be let down").

Those are all valid reasons for my love of GB, but I think there's something more. I think it's partly because their music was the soundtrack of a simpler time in my life — when I was 15 or 16 and just discovering some of the wonderful things in the world, like girls and cars and independence. When I didn't worry about lay-offs and health insurance and gas prices ($0.89 per gallon back then, as I recall. I could put a half-tank in my Geo Prizm using just the spare change in the car). When terrorism was just something going on way over in the Middle East and, as far as I knew, I lived in a country that was the world's leader in economics, entertainment and social justice. When my dreams seemed more like inevitabilities and all the options I needed to shape my adulthood however I pleased seemed to stretch out in front of me. When I had four normal limbs and could run so fast that my hair blew back or catch a baseball with hardly a thought.

It's not that I'm fixated on that time on my life, or wish that I could go back forever. The things I've learned and experienced since then have given me a much richer perspective on life, a much greater appreciation for family and friends and a much stronger spirituality. I wouldn't go back to the mid-'90s for good. But sometimes it's nice to visit and the Gin Blossoms always help me do that.

Greinke did Royals proud

Carl Crawford was named MVP of the MLB All-Star game Tuesday basically for one homerun-robbing catch (I assume it was for that and not for going 1-3 at the plate with a single, no RBI and no runs scored). It was a great catch (though not as good as the catch Torii Hunter made on Barry Bonds in the All-Star game a few years ago), but here's an alternate pick for MVP: Zack Greinke.

Now it's fair to say that Crawford was in the game much longer than Greinke and it's hard to give the MVP to a pitcher who only threw one inning. But I dare you to find a player who was more dominant while he was in that game than Greinke. Of the 16 pitchers who threw, Greinke was the only one to strike out two batters. And despite striking out two batters (which obviously requires a minimum of six pitches), Greinke needed just 10 pitches to complete his 1-2-3 inning. Eight of the 10 pitches he threw were strikes and it seemed like all eight of them hit a different corner of the strike zone (apparently when Zack pitches the strike zone is an octagon. Or I'm not a geometry wiz).

At one point, after Zack struck out David Wright on a bending, mid-80s slider (that he set up gorgeously with several mid-90s fastballs), announcer Joe Buck said "That's just filthy." And that was the only way to describe it: ridiculous, nasty, tie-a-white-flag-to-your-bat-and-surrender-now pitching that left Wright, Raul Ibanez and Shane Victorino helpless. Those are supposedly three of the best hitters the NL has to offer and Greinke made them look like Little Leaguers.

As a Twins fan I'd like to say that Joe Mauer, who was catching for him, had something to do with it. But the way Greinke's stuff looked, I think Mauer could have called just about any pitch and it would have been unhittable.

“It’s better trying to catch him than trying to hit against him,” Mauer told the KC Star. “You know what he has, all four pitches working, and you just have to deal with it.”

This was a performance Royals fans could savor and be proud of. Greinke was not one of KC's token All-Stars like Mark Redman (2006) or Ken Harvey (2004). He earned his spot and once he got in the game he was as good or better than any of the other guys there. That should give the fan base a nice boost going into the second half of the season. At 11 games back, the division race is now a long-shot for the Royals — they'll have to reel off a pretty good winning streak pretty soon to get back in it. But regardless of where the team sits in the standing, the fans can still come out and watch baseball's best pitcher every five games, and that ain't bad.

Anyway, Greinke should have been the MVP, but that honor went to Crawford, who, ironically, took Zack out of the game when he pinch-hit for him. And Zack, in typical Zack fashion, was both gracious and humorous about it.

“I was like, ‘Crawford? Are you serious?’ ” Greinke told the Star. “But he got a base hit, so it’s acceptable. And he robbed a homer, so I guess that worked out all right. It could’ve been me. That pitch was probably right down the middle. I would’ve crushed it.”

Church and Rock do mix

Going to the Basilica Block Party this weekend reminded me of how much I love Minnesota in the summer. It was pretty idyllic to listen to good music with the Minneapolis skyline providing the backdrop on one side and the historic basilica providing it on the other. The weather was just about perfect both nights, warm and sunny. Every once in awhile we'd get a refreshing touch of cool northern breeze — nature's air conditioner. It was pretty relaxing.

The only part of the block party that usually causes me any anxiety is that there's two stages and it's sometimes hard to choose what band I want to see more. Friday I started out by getting my first taste of Romantica, a local Twin Cities band with an alt rock feel. They were quite entertaining, even if the lead singer seemed to be affecting a Bono-imitation Irish accent when he talked to the crowd between songs. Maybe it wasn't entirely fake — their song "Fiona" suggests at least some Irish roots, and is also a great sample of their sound.

Next up was a trip to the main stage for Mat Kearney, who is one of my favorite up-and-coming singer-songwriters. For my money one of the highlights of the weekend was seeing him perform "Closer to love" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbdxzSHn-QM

Best line: "I guess we're all one phone call from our knees."

After Kearney we got to see the reunion of the Jayhawks, a Minnesota institution (despite their decidedly "Kansas" name). They were good, especially the guy on lead guitar. But after about a half hour all the songs started to sound the same. Basically the Jayhawks are a band that's cool to listen to while you're doing other things (or if you're high, judging by the two squinty-eyed dudes who were jamming out next to us). So, before the Jayhawks were done we hopped over to the other stage and caught the end of the Black Crowes' set. It was kind of disappointing. Seemed like a bunch of long-haired dudes who just got together for an impromptu jam session — long guitar solo, then long drum solo, then long harmonica solo, then long keyboard solo, etc. But we did get to hear "Hard to Handle" when they were finally done with all that, so that was nice.

Day 2 was highlighted by Matt Nathanson, who played a great set of music and was also pretty darn funny. He played his hits, of course, like "C'mon get higher," and "Car crash" and also some ultimate audience-participation cover songs like "Jessie's girl" and Don't stop believing." He also did a rollicking version of the song "Laid" which is technically a cover, I guess, but he recorded a version of it for the American Wedding soundtrack, so it's kind of his, too. In between he ripped on self-absorbed music stars like Miley Cyrus and Eminem, and didn't spare the sarcasm when talking about the cinematic brilliance of American Wedding, which I thought was gutsy, considering he played a part (albeit a small one) in that project.

After Nathanson I stayed near the main stage for the Counting Crows. It was the second time I've seen them and the second time I've left early. I think I like the Counting Crows, but maybe I only like the Counting Crows of the '90s. I stayed there for almost an hour, then went over and caught the last 20 minutes of The Hold Steady's set and found myself wishing I had come over earlier. The Hold Steady is super-fun.

So that was the block party. I got to hang out with old friends and listen to great music outside in great weather at a great venue. Sure there were a lot of 50-year-olds trying to act 25 and a lot of 15-year-olds trying to act 25. Sure it was crowded and all the food and drinks were overpriced. But, all in all, it was a pretty nice way to spend a summer weekend.

Damn Yankees

One of the reasons I was looking forward to moving back to Minnesota was that I would be able to watch the Twins on TV a lot more. So, of course, in the first three games I watch they get swept by the Yankees at home. That runs their season record against the Evil Empire to an awesome 0-7. Of course, this is nothing new. The Twins won their division in 2002 and 2003 despite going a combined 0-13 against the Yanks.

So why is it that a relatively good team has so much trouble taking even one game from the Yankees? Sometimes I think it's because the Twins try too hard against New York. They're a team that's built on pitching to contact, playing loose and smooth in the field and stringing together base-hits. But against the Yankees it seems like the pitchers try too hard to nibble at the edges and end up walking way more batters than they usually do. The fielders are too eager to try and turn the bang-bang double play or make a Herculean throw and end up making more errors than they usually do. The hitters are too eager to hit the game-turning homerun and end up striking out more than they usually do.

Then, of course, the Yankees are the Yankees and their history gives their current players more star power than comparable players on other teams. For some reason Derek Jeter's strike zone is much narrower than Joe Mauer's strike zone and Mariano Rivera's strike zone is much wider than Joe Nathan's strike zone. There's no use whining about it. The MLB umpires grew up on the same legends of Gehrig, Mantle and the Babe as every other baseball fan, and the Yankee uniform has an effect on them, subconscious or not. It is what it is.

What makes the Yankees most infuriating to the rest of the nation, though, is their bottomless pocket book. While the Twins have to spend years drafting and developing a top-flight starting pitcher like CC Sabathia or AJ Burnett, the Yankees can go buy both in the same off-season. It's terribly exciting for their fans, but maddening for everybody else.

At the National Meningitis Association conference this year my friend John, who's from New York and a Yankees fan, made a comment about how good Mauer is going to look in pinstripes. That's what it's like to be a Yankees fan. You can look at other teams' best players and, instead of being envious, just say, "Well, he's going to play for us someday." And often you'll be proven right. Look at A-Rod, Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, etc.

Mauer's contract with the Twins runs out after next season and there's every reason to believe the Yanks will make a serious run at him. He'll only be 27 and he's a catcher who can handle a pitching staff, throw out runners, lead the league in batting average and, recently at least, hit for power. There's only been a handful of those kind of catchers in MLB history (in fact, Johnny Bench is the only one who readily comes to mind). Oh yeah, and Mauer also is humble, good-looking, great in the clubhouse and the community and handles the media with ease. And he's never had even the hint of a performance-enhancing drug scandal. He's a PR guy's dream, a manager's dream and a teenage girl's dream, all in one sideburned package.

The Yankees will probably offer him an obscene contract that the Twins can't even come close to matching, even with the new stadium they're opening in 2010. The Twins will likely (hopefully) try to pre-empt them with a long-term extension this winter, but it will still be up to Mauer and his agent as to whether to sign it. It will be a huge payday either way, but it will likely be more huge (huger?) if he waits for free agency. His buddy, MVP first baseman Justin Morneau, has said he will stop talking to Mauer if Mauer leaves the Twins. The jury is still out on whether Morneau was kidding or not.

It is hard to imagine the state-wide outcry that would ensue if Mauer left. He is the Golden Boy here, a St. Paul native who tore through the football, basketball and baseball ranks in high school and then spurned a full scholarship to play quarterback at Florida State for the chance to sign with the hometown Twins. His high school exploits are spoken of like Paul Bunyan tall tales: "Did you know that Joe Mauer once threw an 80-yard touchdown pass... to himself?" "Did you know that Joe Mauer once dunked from the 3-point line?" "Did you know that Joe Mauer only struck out once in four seasons at Cretin-Derham Hall?"

The last one's actually true, but the line seems to blur sometimes when Minnesotans talk about Mauer. He is a source of great pride and has a chance to be the greatest sports legend in state history. But before he can match Kirby Puckett, he has to do something that Puckett did. Midway through his career Puckett called a teary-eyed press conference to announce that he was spurning other contract offers to re-sign with the Twins, the team that had given him a chance and developed him into the player he had become. In turning down more money to play for his hometown Chicago White Sox, Puckett cemented his place in the hearts of Minnesotans. When the time comes to sign his next contract, Mauer can either do the same, or he can break those hearts.

To the regular person it seems absurd. Mauer's already going to get tens of millions of dollars every year. Why would he leave that kind of love in Minnesota for a few million more each year in New York? Still, it would be just like the Yankees to find yet another way to infuriate and demoralize Twins fans.

Leaving home, coming home

I am now officially back in good ol' St. Cloud, Minnesota, starting a new chapter in my life. It's a bittersweet transition. I'm glad to be home for a year, seeing more of my parents, my grandma and my high school friends. But I already miss my friends down in Kansas. I'm torn, but it's nothing new. It's kind of been that way ever since I left Minnesota to come to KU; it's just that now the roles are reversed.

When left for college I always had it in the back of my mind that I would return to my home state at some point. It wasn't supposed to be a permanent move. But things got very comfortable down in Kansas and I had a lot of fun. A lot of that is due to my roommate Matt, who, until yesterday, I had lived with for eight of the past nine years (we were briefly separated by one life-threatening illness). He definitely kept things interesting — how many guys do you know who would get out of a car and dance to a Neil Diamond song in the middle of a crowded street?

A friend of mine from work once said that Matt and I had an "epic bro-mance." Perhaps that explains why neither of us had much luck with the ladies in recent years (girls, I assure you, my relationship with Matt has always been entirely platonic). Well, our bro-mance will continue, but it will be long-distance for awhile.

Of course Matt's not the only one I left behind in Kansas. There's probably a couple dozen folks that I will miss hanging out with on a regular (or semi-regular) basis, many of whom were at at least one of the three going-away parties that Matt organized for me. But the trade-off is that I get to renew relationships with people up here. On the drive back I stopped and visited Greg Koetter — who has been one of my best friends since about fifth grade — and his wife. When I left their house, instead of saying, "Well, I guess I'll see you in a few months," I was able to say, "Maybe I'll see you this weekend." That was a good feeling.

This post is getting a bit rambling, so I guess I'll just try to get to the point (or figure out the point I've been meaning to make): This was not an easy move. I'm not usually one to second-guess myself once I've made a decision, but during the last few days I started to wonder if I shouldn't just stay in Olathe and collect unemployment checks. Ultimately I still think this is the right choice. I think my Americorps job will be very rewarding and being able to reconnect with my family and old friends up here will give me a whole new set of priceless memories. But, in coming home, I was also leaving a home. And that's kind of a sad feeling.

Feeling the draft

OK, so when the T-Wolves drafted point guards with their first three picks (No. 5, 6 and 18) at first I wondered if Kevin McHale had somehow grabbed the reins again and was intent on dragging the team back to NBA Draft hell (see William Avery, Ndudi Ebi, Rashad McCants, trading Brandon Roy for Randy Foye).

But after looking over the full results of the draft, I don't feel quite so infuriated. The thing is, there just wasn't a whole lot of eye-popping talent in this draft. The Wolves passed on a few interesting guys like Jordan Hill and Stephen Curry, and a few raw prospects with star potential like DeMar DeRozan and Austin Daye. But all of them were flawed. No sure things.

Obviously the Wolves were looking for their "point guard of the future" in this draft. But it was a good move to trade the one they got at No. 18, Ty Lawson, for a future first-round pick. More likely than not, it will come in a more talent-laden draft.

That leaves the No. 5 pick, Ricky Rubio, and the No. 6, Jonny Flynn. Both have their flaws. Rubio's biggest flaw is that he may never play for the Wolves. The 18-year-old Spanish heartthrob has expressed some serious reserve about leaving his European team for Minnesota. Not shocking, really, coming from a young guy who has spent his whole life in a country that usually only sees snow high in the Pyrenees.

If Rubio does suit up for the Wolves, he would at least put much-needed butts in the seats. He's been playing pro since he was 14, he got international exposure in the Olympics and he was arguably the most-hyped player in the draft. Whether his presence would result in a lot more wins is debatable. Rubio is flashy — he handles the ball like it's part of his body and has court vision that gives him that rare "oooh, aaaah" passing ability. But he's also skinny, not particularly fast and not a particularly great shooter.

He's certainly got potential. If he hits the weights hard for a couple of years and works on his shot he could be a Jason Kidd-type. Otherwise he'll remain a defensive liability and an offensive novelty.

Rubio is a reach that could be a jackpot. If he works out he could work out huge. If he busts he could really, really bust. That's where the Flynn pick comes in. Flynn doesn't have the upside, the intrigue, the flashy game or the international following. But he's a solid, safe pick. He's shorter than Rubio, but he's strong, fast and proven. He's not a great 3-point shooter, but he's a great defender who can create off the dribble for himself or teammates. Best of all, at Syracuse last year he had a habit of coming up big in big games (25 pts, 5 assists vs. KU; 24 pts, 6 assists at Memphis; 34 pts, 11 assists vs. UConn in the Big East tourney).

If Rubio signs with the Wolves they've got an exciting, talismanic new face with Flynn as a valuable back-up plan. If he doesn't sign they should at least get good value because they own his rights. Then they go all-in with Flynn. Either way they've given themselves a major upgrade at point guard (not a huge accomplishment — Sebastian Telfair is easily upgrade-able). Throw in Wayne Ellington as a spot-up shooter to replace Mike Miller with the 28th pick and the T-Wolves did alright for themselves. It's not the type of draft that will overhaul the squad and put it in the playoffs immediately. But it was a decent "slowly-building-a-winner" type draft, which is what they really needed. And getting that in this year's weak draft was no easy task.

Birthday gifts

It's my birthday today. Now, I'm not usually one of those people who gets all introspective about the state of my life and where it's going on birthdays. But this year those thoughts have been creeping up on me. After all, I've got no job, no house, no wife, no kids, a waning bank account and no Pulitzer Prizes. It's not exactly what I had imagined for myself at age 28.

But whenever I find myself obsessing about the things I don't have, I think it's important to take stock of all that I do have. That being the case, here's a birthday list of some of the things I'm thankful for:

1. My health — This may seem odd coming from a quadruple amputee, but I've got it pretty good right now. I haven't had a surgery or sores on my feet in more than a year and I haven't had a serious infection in more than two years. I'm healthy enough to do about 99 percent of the things I want to do on any given day, and that's a blessing.

2. My family — Moving back in with your parents is not a dream for most 28-year-olds, but having parents like mine actually makes it pretty painless. Taken as a whole, our family certainly has its differences (so much so that I sometimes marvel at the fact that we share genetic material). But we all still support each other, we all still get together most holidays and we all still talk to each other (most of the time).

3. My friends — All across the country (and in a few points overseas) I've got people I care about and love to talk to and hang out with. Some of them I've known since kindergarten. I can comfortably be my smart-ass, slightly obnoxious self around them and they don't even mind. In fact, they kind of seem to like it.

4. My country — I'm certainly not a "My country, right or wrong" type, but I do feel lucky to have been born in America. I love the fact that my country values both personal freedom and communal responsibility.

5. The world's natural beauty — I've seen the Swiss Alps and the Rocky Mountains, the green hills of Tuscany and the impossibly blue seas of the French Riviera. I've camped in the peaceful woods of my home state and I've stood at a high point in Rio de Janeiro and looked out on the Atlantic Ocean, miles of white beaches, a modern city skyline and a rain forest all at the same time. I've got a lot of unforgettable vistas in my memory banks and, best of all, there's still so many more out there for me to see.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but I didn't want to get too specific. I was trying to be somewhat universal. It's easy for all of us to take things for granted at times and focus on the things we don't have and think we deserve. Look at the list above. If you're a healthy American who has a supportive family and a group of fun friends and has gotten to enjoy some of the world's natural wonders, then I'd say you've got a pretty good life. I know I do.

An encouraging disappointment

It was crushingly disappointing when the U.S. soccer team blew a two-goal lead against Brazil in the second half of the Confederations Cup championship Sunday. But after the game my thought process quickly went from "I can't believe the U.S. blew a two-goal lead against Brazil in a FIFA championship" to "I can't believe the U.S. had a two-goal lead against Brazil in a FIFA championship."

It could have been the start of a new era if the Yanks had won, but in the big picture this was still a monumental step. The U.S. men had never before played in a FIFA championship and had never before gone up two goals against mighty Brazil (the two teams have played 15 times in history. The U.S. is 1-14-0 in those games, with a 1-0 win).

In a way, the rollercoaster of emotions in the championship game mirrored the entire tournament. The U.S. players were way, way down after losing to Italy and Brazil by a combined score of 6-1 to start pool play. They were way up after a 3-0 win against African champion Egypt propelled them, improbably, into the next round. Then they reached a new high with a 2-0 win against world No. 1 Spain, a team that hadn't lost in two years and 35 matches.

The Yanks had fire, they had confidence and they had tons of momentum, which may help explain how they went up on the overwhelmingly more talented Brazilians on goals by Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan early in the championship. Give the Brazilians credit; they came out of halftime with new purpose and peppered the U.S. net. The first goal they got could be chalked up to passive defending by the U.S., but the last two were set up by impressive displays of individual skill.

The U.S. still doesn't have the horses to match teams like Spain and Brazil pass-for-pass and challenge-for-challenge for 90 minutes when both teams are going all out. Both opponents had at least a 60-40 edge in possession against the U.S. But the Yanks can still compete thanks to this most-encouraging Confederations Cup development: they have become finishers.

This is the most ethereal, but perhaps the most important quality in soccer — the ability to cash in on scoring chances when they present themselves. And now it seems like the U.S. has a handful of guys who have it. Dempsey is a finisher — his goal against Brazil was not a thing of beauty, but he was close to the net and he was able to get a touch on a tricky pass, which is what finishers do. Donovan is a finisher — his goal against Brazil was a thing of beauty, a symphony of touch and timing that, even though he was defended, was indefensible. Jozy Altidore is a finisher — after he used his considerable strength to score with a Spanish defender hanging on his back he had seven goals in just 16 games with the nationals.

Having finishers changes the game. Even if the U.S. players still can't outplay elite teams for 90 minutes, they don't have to. They will be able to outplay them for 10-15 minute spurts, and if they can cash in on those spurts they have a chance to win because of their goalkeeping. The one position that the U.S. has a history of producing world class players at is keeper and the current crew, fronted by Tim Howard, is no exception.

The finishing is one encouraging thing about the Confed Cup. The other is the players' reaction after the loss to Brazil. They had done amazing things, they had gone farther than anyone expected them to, they had beat the current best team in the world and almost beat the historical best team in the world. But they weren't satisfied. The empty look on Oguchi Onyewu's face as he sat on the pitch watching the Brazilians celebrating was telling. So were the tears that Dempsey couldn't hold back even as he accepted an individual award for his scoring prowess in the tourney.

In the long run the loss may be the best thing fror U.S. soccer. The big prize, after all, isn't until next summer when South Africa (the Confed site) hosts the World Cup. The U.S. players now should go into it both confident they can play with the best and hungry to beat the best. Stay tuned.