Have you ever had one of those weekends that you don’t really want to reminisce over what happened? But then, something from that weekend keeps coming up. Something keeps getting mentioned, ad nauseum, and it, unwittingly, is in reference to a horrible detail from a Friday night you never want to talk about again? Suffice it to say, without going into detail, I have never heard the city of Dallas, Texas mentioned so much in a three day period in my life. Now that I have confronted this on the internets, I think that maybe it will stop. On to the weekly recap.
ITEM ONE: Gophers basketball looks as though it will be exciting this year, huh? They’ve already dropped a game against feared Winona State. Tonight they are playing North Dakota State and it took until almost seven minutes remaining to get the score bumped past 6-5. If I have to go to Dick Vitale to watch good college basketball, I swear to God…. More on Winona state tomorrow.
ITEM TWO: Staying on the topic of colleges, is anyone else anticipating a really ugly, horrible game this saturday between Ohio State and Michigan? They’ve been ramping up for it for a month. These guys were looking ahead to the game two weeks ago and stumbled against Illinois and Northwestern (whose basketball team will give the Gophers a run for their money). I imagine this game will be sloppily played by at least one team (my money is on Michigan, who has been sloppy in almost every game thus far) and will be reminiscent of the Purdue-Minnesota game, or will be reminiscent of the Wisconsin-Minnesota game. There are really no two ways about it.
ITEM THREE: The Wild have been woeful without Marian Gaborik. Without a doubt, this incarnation of Minnesota is build on speed, and without Gaborik, they lose quite a bit. Demitra doesn’t have that chemistry with Mikko Koivu or the Brankster yet. Fingers crossed that Gaborik returns to his old form quickly after he rejoins the team (remember, God hears your hockey related prayers), because there is something seriously lacking without his presence. Also, Pavol Demitra needs to start doing some things on his own. Last I checked, he was better than Todd White. That’s still true, isn’t it?
ITEM FOUR: At work, where I’ve taken to surfing the internet when I have nothing to do (that is to say, all the time) I’ve been reading more newspaper articles. One today from Katherine Kersten, of all people, grabbed my attention because of how well thought out and put together it was. Essentially, it went after the people who have their undies in a bunch over teams with Native American related nicknames, and I can’t help but agree with her. After reading this article, I really do wonder what is so offensive about th nickname. If naming your team aftre a group of people is inappropriate, than wouldn’t it be wrong to have the Fighting Irish, or even the Indiana Hoosiers? Don’t teams generally name themselves after A) something they want to emulate, or B) something that is prolific in their part of the world? Well, when, for example, North Dakota named themselves the Fighting Sioux, they did so, by their own admission, because they respected the bravery and courage of the tribe. As for being prolific, didn’t they, you know, name the STATE after the tribe? Do you want that we should call it North and South Redbirds? North Panthers? Hi, I’m Ryan, and I used to live in Minot, North Warhawks. It seems ridiculous, the more I think about it, that the political correctness police are up in arms over this. Since when has anyone given their team a nickname of something they don’t respect (aside from intramurals)? Seriously, I don’t anticipate seeing the West Point Deserters anytime soon, do you?
ITEM FIVE: A couple thoughts on the major league post season so far. The Red Sox bid 42 million dollars just to negotiate with Daisuke Matsazuka. That’s just silly. The Indians acquired Josh Barfield. That could be bad. Gary Sheffield is a Tiger. Well, hell. So he’s injury prone and might be washed up, but guess what? We said that about Jim Thome, too.
ITEM SIX: In other sports players switching teams, the Anaheim Ducks, shortly after beating the Wild, traded away Stanislav (which in Russian means, Glory of the Government… ah, yes, Communism) Chistov and Todd Fedoruk, who may need plastic surgery after getting pummeled by Derrick Boogaard. Of course, the NHL trade season doesn’t officially begin until a Ference has been dealt. Right now, Andrew Ference plays for Calgary, so stay tuned. Brad Ference lurks in the minors, playing for the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights of Omaha. FERENCE WATCH, 2006 is on.
Until tomorrow – Ryan
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