Back To Reality

My family and I have returned from Sasquatch hunting in the woods of Northeastern Wisconsin. We spent the last week at the in-laws cabin north of Green Bay. Amazingly, once again, the Sasquatch eluded us. Several ticks and mosquitos found us, however. Even with the bugs it was a great week. I understand that several things happened on the sports front while I was away. Here are a few:

1. The Wild loses Brian Rolston to New Jersey and resigns Andrew Brunette. Free agency season has begun in the NHL. It's nice to see Bruno back in a Wild jersey, and I also like the addition of winger Antti Meittinen from Dallas. However, I'm not sure these moves will be enough to make up for the loss of Brian Rolston along with half of last year's squad. It looks like the Wild will be a whole new team next year. The problem is that I don't foresee them improving. I give the Wild a B+ for their drafting history, and a D- for their history in free agency. They simply never seem to improve their team through free agency.

2. Marian Hossa signs with Detroit. Speaking of free agency, Marian Hossa has decided to spurn some long-term offers (including one from the Wild) and sign a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Perhaps you have heard of the Red Wings. Geez, should we just skip next season and award the Red Wings the championship trophy? Or play for 2nd place, perhaps? This is a relatively new phenomenon in sports - players signing with an established team for far less money simply to win a championship. It's the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" syndrome. I understand where these players are coming from, but it seems that the "championship" they win with these "stocked teams" is a bit tarnished. But maybe that is just me.

3. Twins win 17 of 20 games. If you would have told me this spring that on July 6th, the Twins would be sitting at 49-38 and 1 game out of first place, I would have told you to put down the crack pipe. Remember, Johan Santana was traded and Torii Hunter left via free agency. Plus, I have socks older than most of the starting pitchers. Add that Francisco Liriano was not fully recovered from his Tommy John surgery and was sent to the minors. All of this had the making of a disastrous 2008 season. But Ron Gardenhire has done arguably his best job managing in 2008 and the Twins have found out that Alexi Casilla, Carlos Gomez, Brian Buscher and some other young players are much better than anticipated. And Nick Blackburn, Scott Baker, Livan Hernandez, Glen Perkins & Kevin Slowey is not a bad 5-man rotation. Pretty amazing. I will have a detailed post on the first half of the Twins season during the All-Star break.

4. Favre gets "The Itch" to return. I learned while at the in-laws cabin that I was in "5 Country." That means Channel 5 out of Green Bay. I watched the 6:00 news one night and the 6:02 story was on Nick Barnett and the 6:03 story was on ESPN.com holding a contest to name "The New Titletown." Now, keep in mind that it is July, and Packer mini-camps don't even start for a month. The Titletown story was quite controversial on "The 5" but they were able to track down some individuals in local watering holes who had opinions on who the Real Titletown is. Problem solved.

The next night, " The 5" lead off their 6:00 news with the BOMBSHELL that Brett Favre is getting "The Itch" and wants to return to football. All I can say is that I was glad to be sitting down when I heard that. Once I put my head between my legs and breathed into a bag for a few minuets, I was able to compose myself. As I have speculated many times, once Favre mows the lawn a few times and takes out the stinky garbage in the ripped sack, he is going to want to return to the good life in the NFL. What remains to be determined is whether or not the Pack wants him back. There are rumors that - get this - Favre has asked for his unconditional release from the Packers. Could you imagine Brett Favre playing for another NFL team? How about the Bears or Vikings? That would be one serious parallel universe we'd be crossing into. And there would also be an ongoing suicide watch in "5 Country."

The person that I feel bad for is Aaron Rodgers. Here is a guy the Packers drafted in the first round quite a few years back. It feels like he was drafted back in the Reagan administration. I think he is already receiving AARP cards although he has never started a game. If I was Rodgers, I'd cringe every time I heard Favre talking about "The Itch." Rodgers has been "itching" to play since college.

This will be interesting. I truly believe in my heart that Favre will play again this fall. Whether the Pack wants him back, we don't know. I simply cannot imagine Favre in another team's uniform. Then again, I said the same thing about Kevin Garnett. And we all know what happened there.

Peace,

Jeff