Saturday Afternoon Thoughts

Here are a few things on my mind this afternoon:

1. Brett Favre News Lull Over. Does everyone remember Vikings Quarterback Brett Favre? He's been out of the news for a few weeks now, but do not fret because he's back. ESPN announced that Favre would require ankle surgery in order to play for the Vikings this fall. If he opts not to have surgery he might be forced to.............retire. Since the ESPN report aired, Favre himself has stated that the ankle surgery would be relatively minor, and should not prevent him from playing. Is this truly news? No. Bondo59, a blogger quoted in the StarTribune summed it up the best when he stated: "So, if he times it out perfect, Brett Favre should be ready about the third pre-season game."

Amen. That is all the people need to know.

2. Cleveland Indians Most Hated MLB Team. Speaking of ESPN, I recently came upon another report from the sports outlet quoting a report from the Nielson Company that "scientifically ranked" the most hated baseball teams. According to the ESPN report, The computer-generated program searched for positive and negative keywords in message boards and blogs to determine sentiment about baseball teams. According to Nielsen's website, "Positive scores indicate positive-leaning discussion and negative results indicate negative-leaning discussion."

Now, who would you guess would be the most-hated MLB baseball team? Ready...............

The Cleveland Indians.

Yes, the Cleveland Indians. Folks, this is simply the dumbest, most ridiculous thing that I have heard in years. How can the Indians be hated when they are virtually irrelevant? They haven't won anything in decades. Now, I do despise that God-forsaken drum that 3 or 4 fans (half the fans in attendance) beat during rallies, but that is not enough to make then #1 most hated team. I actually think that drum-beat thing is kind of funny when the Indians are trying to rally from 10 runs down in the 8th inning. Does this mean that the most hated football team is the Atlanta Falcons? The most hated hockey team the Nashville Predators? This is simply the dumbest thing that I have ever heard. Anyway, we all know who the most hated baseball team is.

3. Ruesse/Brackin Twins Book. Speaking of baseball, I've recently purchased "The Minnesota Twins - A Complete Illustrated History" by Dennis Brackin and Pat Ruesse. This is a fantastic overview of the Twins organization from Day 1 through the building of Target Field. Ruesse and Brackin can really spin a yarn, and there are some very funny stories of the early '60's, Metropolitan Stadium, the crazy (losing) '70's, Ron Davis, the World Series teams, etc. I highly recommend the book for any fan of the Twins.

One of my favorite stories involves the 1987 World Championship team and public address announcer Bob Casey. The point of the story was to illustrate how "loose" the '87 team was and how they liked to pick on Casey. Folks, the following took place during the deciding game 7 of the the 1987 World Series:

"In the interlude between half-innings, Twins players locked public address announcer Bob Casey in the tiny bathroom that was located off the dugout. One of the players ran to Casey's announcing booth and lathered his telephone earpiece and a nearly towel with shaving cream.

In short order the Twins were entertained by Casey's repeated shouts of "Let me out! Let me out!" followed by Casey coating his ear answering a supposed "emergency" phone call. Then Casey soaked his suit with shaving cream trying to wipe off his ear.

"I'm so nervous nervous I can hardly watch the game, much less participate in it, and they're thinking about locking Casey in the bathroom," said GM Andy MacPhail."

Very good stuff!