News Cut Category Archive: Sports

A win for the Redskins

Posted at 3:22 PM on November 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Sports

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to get involved with anything having to do with this question: Is this offensive?

The Court today declined to revive a lawsuit on behalf of Native American activists who claimed that because the Washington Redskins' name and logo are offensive, it should not have trademark protections.

The case has a Minnesota connection. William Means, a Minneapolis resident, was one of six Native Americans who filed suit. Local attorney Stephen Baird was the one who originally argued the point before the U. S. Patent and Trademark office, which subsequently ruled against the Redskins. But district courts and the appeals court said Native Americans waited far too long to bring the case, especially since the football team has been around since the 1930s. (Trivia: It may be the only time where a sports' team's decency was judged partly on the basis of a case over Turtle Wax.)

Trademark law prohibits registration of a name that may disparage people or -- as the law says brings them into contempt, or disrepute.

When it was filed, it opened up a new front in the fight against Native American sports logos and team names. Instead of appealing to the teams' sensibilities and sense of decency, it threatened their wallets. Losing the trademark would've cost the Redskins a fortune, and most certainly would've forced them to change both their name and their logo. In fact, predictions at the time suggested that the mere threat of the lawsuit would accomplish that. It didn't.

Three judges with the U. S. Patent and Trademark office initially ruled against the Redskins, but district courts and the appeals court said Native Americans waited far too long to bring the case, especially since the football team has been around since the 1930s.

Recommended Reading: The Native American Mascots Controversy (h/t: Stephanie Weiss)

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Twins go back to the future

Posted at 12:21 PM on November 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

The Minnesota Twins have unveiled their new uniforms. This is the baseball version of software companies releasing new operating systems. Maybe the old one works fine, but the new one is "cooler." So it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the announcement of the new uniforms comes with an appeal to buy new merchandise. Hey, Nick Punto costs money!

"New uniforms and logos are just the beginning of all of the new and exciting things..." according to the press release, which, ironically, also noted the basis for the new uniforms are designs from the past.

The road uniforms are a definite improvement over the block-lettering "Minnesota" of yesteryear (i.e. 2009):

... even though they're a rip-off of the road uniforms of division rival Cleveland.

Still, it's probably a good idea to go with tried-and-true designs, rather than be remembered for this...

... or this.

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Is Joe going to go?

Posted at 12:10 PM on November 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Is Joe Mauer like Kevin Garnett? It's one of the questions that was impossible to ignore while watching Garnett fillet the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. Garnett, the best in the business, was paid a ton of money to stay and play basketball in flyover country. But then he tired of not winning championships because there wasn't much money left for the team to spend on other players that might accomplish that.

Last night, of course, the New York Yankees won the World Series and as Yankee catcher Jorge Posada was interviewed afterwards, it was impossible to ignore the fact that (a) he's old and (b) he's old and (c) Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins isn't.

The Twins will be rolling in cash, thanks to the new stadium that taxpayers paid for with the assurances that it would help the team remain competitive with the likes of the New York Yankees. Why we believed any team can remain competitive with the New York Yankees is a story for another day, but Minnesotans are possibly about to go through what hopeful fans in Cleveland -- the long goodbye.

Mauer's contract with the Twins ends next year. Because he's the best in the business, he'll get -- as Garnett did -- a pile of of cash to stay, unless it becomes obvious that won't leave the Twins with enough money to surround him with good players in which case -- and in consideration of his age -- he may want to go off to New York to win a World Series.

Don't think it's just people in Minnesota thinking about this. But there's hope, according to Evans Clinchy of New England Sports Network:

When dealing with an unprecedented, unparalleled talent like Mauer, the best strategy is to lock him down long-term, as soon as possible, no matter what the price. Mauer might cost the Twins a lot now, but it'll cost them even more to lose him to Boston or New York. The open market is a scary proposition.

Unless the Twins have a death wish, re-signing Mauer should be a top priority for the Twins' front office this offseason. And according to MLB.com's Twins beat writer Kelly Thesier, it is.

Thesier writes that "the club is committed to getting a deal in place with Mauer," and that "the key will be structuring the deal so that they can continue to add talent around Mauer in the coming seasons to keep the club competitive, as he's made it clear that winning is high on his priority list."

If a deal can't be reached, Joe may never play in the House That Joe Built. Baseball teams are now trading their free agents a full year before their contracts expire.

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Are sportswriters the same as reporters?

Posted at 11:33 AM on November 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Sports

Tomorrow is Election Day in Minnesota. Would you expect a political reporter in the Twin Cities to predict a winner in either of the big-city mayoral races? Obviously, not (even though most newsies do have predictions).

So why is it OK for newspaper sportswriters to predict the outcome of games? If you follow football, for example, you've no doubt seen the Friday comparisons of two teams ending with a prediction of who will win.

Those days are over in Denver, apparently, where the Denver Post has banned the practice.

"We did not get a single complaint from outside," (Editor Greg) Moore continues, "but I did look at the predictions before the San Diego game. Obviously, I had seen these for years. And it occurred to me that it must be making it hard for news reporters, especially when they pick against the team they cover. In an equal vein, these beat reporters don't want to seem like homers, always picking the Broncos. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed an unreasonable position to put these reporters in."

Moore says it's a matter of ethics.

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California luring a football team

Posted at 10:34 AM on October 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Let the panic begin! California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokesman says he'll sign a bill waiving an environmental impact report for a developer's proposal to build a football stadium on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Opponents have criticized the governor's intention to sign the measure, asking why a football stadium gets the waiver when hospitals and other businesses don't? And there's the faint aroma of tainted politics, too. The state senator whose vote moved the bill forward in the Assembly, happens to have a wife who works for the developer.

Now to find a team willing to move. Pro Football Talk says the Bills, Jaguars, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Rams, and 49ers are candidates.

The developer says he expects a team to be playing in the Rose Bowl or LA Coliseum for a year in 2011 and then move into the new stadium. The Vikes are committed to the Metrodome for 2011.

One potential flaw in the "Vikes might move" scenario: The developer might want a piece of the team.

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Baseball's postseason scam

Posted at 9:14 AM on October 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Sports

If you've ever ordered Major League Baseball tickets online, perhaps you've encountered the nickel-and-diming of the baseball fan. You can print your tickets on your computer, using your ink and your paper and pay the team -- the Twins, for example -- an extra fee for the privilege of doing so.

Want the real ticket? There's a scam for that, too.

The Twins and Major League Baseball, a lot of revenue in the early rounds goes to the league) made out like bandits -- because they were -- in confiscating money from fans for a postseason game that never was played.

Here's the details from my colleague, Linda Fantin.

The night the Twins beat the Tigers to advance in the playoffs, we went online and bought 4 tickets to Games 3 and 4 at $30 each. The Twins also charged us $6 a ticket in "handling" fees and $4 in "shipping" fees, even though we picked the tickets up at will call. But when the Twins failed to advance, the team only refunded the $120 for the tickets but kept the handling and shipping fees. When I called to complain, the Twins ticket office clerk defended the policy and declined to refund the fees.

Here's the rub: To get tickets to Game 3 you HAD to buy tickets to Game 4. Well, the Twins drew more than 54,000 to Game 3, so that means they scammed at least $324,000 from fans, not including the bogus shipping charges. For that kind of money, you'd think we could get a decent middle reliever.

Unfortunately, $324,000 will only buy you the kind of middle reliever the Twins already have.

Perhaps if the Twins called these charges the "upgrade from Nick Punto" tax, fans would be a little less upset.

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Diplomacy on the pitch

Posted at 12:11 PM on October 16, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Leave behind your grandiose speeches, your Secretaries of State, ditch your Peace Prizes and your United Nations.

The best way to make friends with another nation is with a header in the fifth minute of stoppage time in a World Cup qualifier.

Translation: With the goal at the very last moments of the game — the point of excitement at around 0:23 for the Honduran announcer — the USA yanked a win away from Costa Rica. As a result, Honduras takes third place in the qualifying group and earns an automatic bid to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. It will be the country's second appearance.

The ol' U.S. of A. just got a lot more popular in Tegucigalpa.

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It's the end of the Dome as we know it

Posted at 10:26 PM on October 11, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Workers take out home plate after Game 3 of the American League division baseball series between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009, in Minneapolis. The Yankees won 4-1 in the last game at the Metrodome, and swept the series. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

And with a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees, the Minnesota Twins have played their last game in the Metrodome. See you April 12, 2010, at Target Field.

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Twins vs. Yankees: Who'll win the series?

Posted at 2:36 PM on October 7, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (6 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

A gray, rainy day -- at least where I'm siting here in Moorhead -- lends itself to thoughts other than work. Perhaps you're still replaying last night's incredible tiebreaker game between the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers.

Perhaps you're thinking about tonight's game, now a little more than an hour away, wondering if the Twins can overcome their shortfalls against the Yankees this season (0-7) at least once, just to give the Metrodome two more chances to work its magic.

Perhaps you're as much of a pinstripe-pusher as the folks at the NY Times' Bats blog. They say, "Yankees in 3."

Well?

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Should Cabrera play?

Posted at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Sports

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Four year old channels Herb Brooks

Posted at 10:43 AM on October 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I don't really know what to make of this Tennessee 4-year-old's impersonation of St. Paul native Herb Brooks' famous speech to Team USA in the Olympics. I suppose there might be some sporting event or two around here this week that it would fit, however.

It's not exactly Kurt Russell, though:

It's all so silly, of course. Everyone knows that if you need a pep talk, you want the captain of a paintball team:

Or we can do it the hard way, Twins and Vikings. (language warning)

(h/t: Pioneer Press)

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How do you like him now?

Posted at 4:52 PM on September 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

So washed up. So over the hill.

And now we know what it takes to make the normally unflappable Marines flappable.

Where does this one rank on the list of top Vikings' Metrodome memories?

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Friday Nights by the School Bus Lights

Posted at 1:42 PM on September 24, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

As districts struggle with declining enrollment, budget gaps and school closures, it's getting harder for large-class high school football teams to find opponents.

The Duluth News-Tribune reports on the troubles some northern Minnesota teams have had with trying to find not just opponents, but a conference to live in as well. As the North Country Conference is set to be dissolved, teams like Duluth East and Grand Rapids have had to resort to more trips to the Twin Cities to fill out their schedules.

"We're in limbo right now," said Grand Rapids coach Tim Botsford, whose team probably will be an independent in 2010. "We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We've got Waconia, Richfield, Robbinsdale Armstrong and Farmington on our schedule just to fill it out."

Demographic shifts don't count for everything, as other smaller conferences lock the larger schools out.

Detroit Lakes, which remains on the other three North Country teams' 2010 schedules, will play as an independent next season. The Lakers will play four teams from the Eastern Dakota Conference during their bye weeks.

"We're still looking [for a conference], but nobody wants us," Detroit Lakes AD Mitch McLeod said. "We're very similar to Grand Rapids -- we're a big enough school that nobody wants to play us, and it's very tough for us to get football games."

MPR's Tom Weber looked at which high school football programs moved up or down in the Minnesota State High School League's 5-class system, and the numbers tell the tale. Just seven schools moved up a class, while 26 teams moved down a class.

The state's continued population shift away from rural areas only adds to the problems on both ends. Small schools can face the choice of whether to even field a football team, while the consolidation of high school enrollment leaves larger schools fewer and farther between.

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Tennis' troubles

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I stopped following tennis when Chris Evert's career ended and when John McEnroe stopped owning the U.S. Open crowd.

Apparently one of those things didn't end afterall:

The truth is, the high point of tennis in the U.S. wasn't because of the tennis. People just wanted to be there when McEnroe's head exploded.

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The lure of Friday night

Posted at 10:15 AM on August 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

We're told fairly often that the public radio audience isn't interested in sports, but a National Public Radio project might cut through that.

"Friday Night Life" is going to chronicle the culture of high school football:

NPR correspondents Tom Goldman and Mike Pesca will report from around the country from sweltering practices in August through the state championships in November. They'll report from communities big and small. They'll cover the games -- and also tell stories of the athletes and schools, the families and communities who participate.

What you have to love is the network's intention to use social media to help tell the story:

Share Using Twitter:

Tag your tweets #nprfootball.

Share Using YouTube:

Tag your videos with the keyword nprfootball.

Share Using Flickr:

Step 1: If you're not a member yet, join Flickr. It doesn't cost anything to join, though if you want to use it to share a lot of photos -- i.e., hundreds or thousands -- you may want to purchase a Pro account.

Step 2: Upload pics you'd like to share with the Friday Night Lives group. (If you're having trouble uploading, consult Flickr's help guide.)

Step 3. Go to the Friday Night Lives group and click "join this group." Confirm your membership.

Step 4: Find a photo from your collection that you'd like to add to the group. Between the title of the photo and the photo itself, you'll see a series of tabs. Click "Send to Group," then select "Friday Night Lives."

They might want to start in Hawaii where the high school football season was going to be pushed to afternoons to save money on the cost of lights. Businesses stepped forward with the cash, however.

They might stop in North Carolina where a man who's been coaching for 40 years, makes his post-cancer debut tonight.

No doubt they'll end up in Parkersburg, Iowa, where the high school team will play its first season without coach Ed Thomas, who was shot and killed at the school earlier this summer.

I know what some of you public radio types are thinking. And, no, there are no known plans to chronicle the culture of debating teams or chem classes.

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Tiger

Posted at 12:00 PM on August 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Consider this early-morning shot from the Hazeltine National Golf Club .

How many people in the news are recognizable merely via their silhouette?

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Submitted without comment

Posted at 2:21 PM on July 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Sports

Leave it to the Saint Paul Saints. They're giving away souvenir cups.

"We wanted to do a memorable giveaway that would help people in these tough times," said Saints President Mike Veeck in a press release. "We thought about a batting helmet, but clearly people haven't been using their heads for a while, so we figured this was the next best thing to help people defend their futures. We're going to find out if people see the world with a cup half full, or a cup half empty."

It's not quite as good as the "bobblehead" the Saints gave away after the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. But it's close.

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Pursuing Ricky

Posted at 12:32 PM on July 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

News flash: He loves us. He really loves us!

Or at least he doesn't hate us that much. Just before he was selected in the NBA rookie draft last month, Spanish basketball star Ricky Rubio committed the cardinal Minnesota sin: He pointed out our flaws, saying it's "too cold" here. Never mind that most of us think the same thing. But outsiders aren't allowed the privilege.

But ESPN reported a few weeks ago that Rubio's reluctance to come to Minnesota wasn't about the cold. He just didn't want to be here.

When the Timberwolves presented their first-round draft choices to the media, Rubio didn't show.

Today comes word, however, that Timberwolves GM David Kahn is heading to Spain, to talk about buying out Rubio's contract with his Spanish professional team.

The real story, however, is buried in the story.

Rubio "is OK with playing in Minnesota," a source said. "It's a matter of getting the buyout done."

Just "OK"? That's a start. Players who don't love it here bring out the dark side of the Minnesota sports fan.

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Twitter Love

Posted at 12:59 PM on June 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Kevin Love, last year's lone bright spot in the season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, is making a bigger splash on Twitter than any other pro athlete.

Last week, you may recall, he broke the news that Kevin McHale had been fired as coach of the team.

Today, he offered up another scoop.

Rubio is Ricky Rubio, the hotshot European whom the Wolves plucked with the 5th pick in yesterday's NBA rookie draft, trading two of the team's players to get him.

AS ESPN reported, it's not exactly love at first site between the kid and the Twin Cities:

Shortly after the pick, Rubio met the media. At a moment like that, tradition, public relations sense, and just about everything else dictate smiling and saying how much you love your new city -- even if you can't wait to demand a trade.

But the 18-year-old Spaniard was not playing that game. "Are you excited to go to Minnesota?" he was asked.

It was a fair question. It's a team with quality big men, and a mandate for change. What more could a young point guard want? "I'm excited," he responded, "to come to the NBA."

It was a critical pick for David Kahn, the new general manager of the team, who needed to show that his regime is the end of years of incompetence for the forlorn franchise at Target Center. But it will apparently cost Rubio too much to buy his way out of his contract with a European team.

Whoops.

Love's "tweet" must've sent more fans than me heading for the exits. A few minutes later, he tried to talk us in from the ledge.

All of that aside, Love is quickly endearing himself to sports fans (at least those on Twitter) in the Twin Cities. Twitter allows an athlete closer contact with fans than ever before. Whether that's a good or bad thing, we'll see. But right now he's the best beat writer in the Twin Cities.

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The nature of sports fandom

Posted at 9:33 AM on May 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Live-blogging today's second hour of Midmorning with a discussion of the nature of the sports fan.

Somewhat off the topical beaten path, perhaps, but I'm going with this as the first example: High-schooler throws no-hitter to honor dad. He was one of the first swine-flu victims in the U.S.

Today's guests:

Chuck Klosterman: Journalist and author. His most recent novel is "Downtown Owl."

Jonah Keri: Sports and business writer. He is co-author of "Baseball Between the Numbers" and is currently working on a book about the Tampa Bay Rays.

Todd Wilkinson: Associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Your comments may end up on the show.

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Why do we love sports?

Posted at 3:40 PM on May 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (36 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Tomorrow morning I'll be live blogging an hour of Midmorning on the nature of being a sports fan.

I know what you're thinking: Stupid fat men sitting on the couch with a remote, distant from their families and obsessed with their favorite team. And I'm here to deny it -- at least the part about being distant from the family.

But what if it's more than that? What if it's us looking for a community of our own? Or what if it's the main tool we have to bridge generations?

Fan free-agent John Moe is hosting and I'll be passing along your analysis and excuses. So post them below.

Guests are:

Chuck Klosterman: Journalist and author. His most recent novel is "Downtown Owl."

Jonah Keri: Sports and business writer. He is co-author of "Baseball Between the Numbers" and is currently working on a book about the Tampa Bay Rays.

Todd Wilkinson: Associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

We tried for Bill Simmons, everyone's favorite sportswriter these days, but had no luck. He didn't return our calls or e-mails. He's a sports fan and, well, you know how they are.

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Live chat: What's right, what's wrong when biking?

Posted at 1:06 PM on May 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Bridges and roads, Health, Life, Sports

Today, of course, is Bike to Work Day. If you have any pictures to share, I'd love to pass them along during the chat. Send them to me at bcollins@mpr.org.

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Blogging the ride

Posted at 3:23 PM on May 13, 2009 by Bob Collins (16 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Armed with the experience of riding the bike to work, I'm fully prepped for Thursday's live chat (at 1 p.m.) about biking in the Twin Cities. I found most drivers to be actively considerate, especially in downtown St. Paul. I also found that you'll never get where you're going if you follow all the rules. It's a metaphor for life, actually. Here's the video.

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Biking with Bob

Posted at 7:33 PM on May 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

On Thursday at 1 p.m. , I'll be hosting a live chat with some bicycling fans and the Minneapolis Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program Coordinator. It's National Bike Month. CNN is hosting videos with lots of bicyclists riding to work this week because it's also National Bike-to-Work week and National Bike-to-Work Day on Friday. A swell idea, I guess.

Here's the thing: I don't do Spandex. I usually don't even do shorts, and I'm not that much of a bike fan. The most undesirable people I've ever met were the bicyclists -- in Spandex and shorts -- racing down the mountains and across the Golden Gate bridge, shouting "move" to my wife and I who made the apparent mistake of not being them.

I like to think they're not really the biking community, but I have a small frame of reference. A few colleagues I like very much bike to work. They also wear Spandex. Me? I'm one of the few people who still follows the company edict against sandals in the workplace.

I got roasted last year by a biker blog. I can't remember why but I think it was for something I said on the Current about bikers who ride in the road when there's a perfectly empty bike path. The biking community does not have a great sense of humor, though I suspect the same people who got upset then think Wanda Sykes is a stitch now.

I have this mountain bike, which my wife won at a school raffle a few years ago. I inherited it when I bought her a new bike for her birthday. I suspect if it could talk, it would spill its gears about the mean things the cool bikes say about it.

I like riding a bike around the neighborhood just fine. But I'm 55. I'm out of shape, and I abhor the thought of showing up to work sweaty. I don't ride in the road to make a point. I don't think it makes much sense to buy a several-thousand-dollar bike to save a few hundred dollars worth of gasoline. Last year I rode my bike from Woodbury to the South St. Paul airport each weekend. But saving $4 in gasoline cost me $5 in Gatorade.

Where other people look cool riding a bike, I look like a guy whose car is in the shop.

I'm bored by the biker vs. motorist debate, which hasn't moved in any direction in years, and on occasion sounds like a "rights" debate, little different from the gun control debate, which also bores me these days. Bike. Don't bike. Own a gun. Don't own a gun. Choice is good.

But if I'm going to host this chat, I might as well try to figure out why so many bicyclists are so keen on other people riding bikes to work, too. So on Wednesday morning I'll ride in from Woodbury (mostly downhill) and we'll see how it goes.

The first thing I need to figure out is how I'm supposed to lug a laptop and all my other blog-related equipment from home. And what about a change of clothes? I'll have to bring some extra money because there's no way for me to carry the lunch I usually bring from home. This simplicity stuff is complicated and costly.

If you're a regular bicyclist, you probably have some tips and stories about the joy of your ride. Go ahead and share them below.

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The most boring moment

Posted at 10:32 AM on May 10, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Sports

What's the most boring moment in baseball? Tom Scocca of the Boston Globe has spent considerable seconds thinking about this and has determined that's it ball two.

Ball two stands alone, above any of the other dull business on the diamond. The intentional walk at least adds a base runner to the game. The halfhearted throw to first to check the runner is a sign that the pitcher is feeling tension. But ball two signifies almost nothing.

I am now considering other most boring moments in other spectator sports -- the Minnesota Legislature, for example.

But I can't tell whether the most boring moment is on the first day of the session when everybody says they think there'll be cooperation and great progress or near the end of the session when they complain there wasn't.

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Et tu, Manny?

Posted at 3:34 PM on May 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Manny Ramirez today became the latest star baseball player to be caught cheating. It turns out he was on a women's fertility drug that dopers use to cover up their steroid use.

The Red Sox won two championships with Ramirez (disclaimer: I'm the biggest Manny Ramirez fan in America). In 2004, he propelled the team with 43 homers. He was, until today, a sure Hall of Famer. He's #17 on the All-time homerun list. Five of the players ahead of him on that list are also confirmed or suspected users.

ESPN's Bill Simmons, in a biting piece of satire, suggests that it's impossible not to suspect a player who performs well, is cheating:

"And what about Big Papi?" he wonders. "Played for Minnesota, didn't hit for power, came to the Red Sox, turned into the best slugger in the league, and as soon as they cracked down on steroids, he stopped hitting homers again. And he was friends with all the other Dominican players who were linked to performance-enhancing drugs. What about him?"

Silence. Nobody says anything.

Finally, my dad steps in: "He had an inside-outside swing at Minnesota, when he came to Boston, we encouraged him to pull the ball, so ..."

"Come on, Gramps!" my son says. "That's dumb, and you know it."

Based on their performance so far, we can safely speculate the Minnesota Twins are the cleanest team in sports.

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Heads-will-roll season

Posted at 12:21 PM on April 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

After a winter of sports as abysmal as the one Minnesotans have just suffered, it's not surprising that the heads-will-roll season is underway.

Today, the Minnesota Wild announced that the contract of General Manager Doug Risebrough will not be renewed. In other words: He's been fired.

Risebrough follows Jacques Lemaire out the door.

Last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves completed their season, so speculation is mounting that coach Kevin McHale will be the next onetime local hero to depart the scene.

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The lure of long distance

Posted at 1:08 PM on April 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

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Too good?

Posted at 8:04 AM on April 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

For the first time, the coach of a girl's high school basketball team who was fired after his team beat another 100-0 has spoken up.

ESPN's Outside the Lines broadcast the interview with Micah Grimes on Sunday, denying he tried to run up the score, and saying there was no reason to apologize for playing "good basketball."

"I don't want to tell my girls not to play. What I told them is 'don't take their heart,'" he said, rotating in three non-starters. By halftime it was 59-0.

He said if he had to do it again, he would probably "run the clock and turn the score off."

"We're not paying enough attention to what's going on at Dallas Academy (the losing team)," Lz Granderson, an ESPN columnist said. "This isn't the first time that team has ended a game scoring less than 10 points. The school only had 20 female students, 8 on the basketball team. Some of those students had never played basketball before. This is more about Dallas Academy. They cannot field a competitive squad at that school."

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The secret Minnesota success story

Posted at 1:39 PM on April 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

It's an odd fact but a fact nonetheless:

The Bemidji Beavers have gotten more attention from the New York Times than from the Minnesota media.

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Bank pushback and sports stadiums

Posted at 11:59 AM on March 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Sports

This week, TCF Bank announced it's giving back the federal bailout money that it didn't want in the first place.

Theirs is not the only "pushback" to the government money and the accompanying nosing around that politicians are doing.

On the Web site, The Biz of Baseball Pete Toms well captures the sentiment that sports marketing is the new "whipping boy" of the recession. The subject? Naming rights for stadiums.

As far as I know, TCF did not get much political grief for its deal with the new University of Minnesota Football stadium naming rights, for which it paid $35 million. But it appears to be one of the few that have escaped.

Two major banks (other than TCF) with homes in Minnesota are in the naming rights business, including those who have accepted bailout money, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Wells Fargo & Co.
$25.0 billion in bailout funds
Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa ($11.5). Wells Fargo Arena at Arizona State University ($5 million). Also has marketing deals with five MLB clubs; five NBA clubs; San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks; Minnesota Wild; multiple minor league teams; Western Athletic Conference; deals at approximately 15 colleges, including Arizona, Southern California and Texas

U.S. Bancorp
$6.6 billion in bailout money
Naming rights at U.S. Bank Arena in Pittsburgh ($3 million). U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. Also sponsors PGA U.S. Bank Championship Milwaukee; Seattle Mariners; Minnesota Timberwolves; Utah Jazz; Denver Broncos; Minnesota Vikings; Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences; six college athletic programs

The pressure to pull back from sports marketing is affecting the already-questionable math used by proponents of publicly financed sports stadiums.

Less than one year ago, professional sports was anticipating a group of stadium naming rights deals which would command unprecedented dollars. The Mets deal remains in place (at least temporarily) but has generated vast amounts of negative attention for the sponsor. The Yankees deal collapsed. Interest in the naming rights for the Cowboys and Giants/Jets stadiums appears slight. On a smaller scale, the Washington Nationals will soon begin their second season of play in Nationals Park, still with no naming rights sponsor.

BofA sponsorship chief Ray Bednar was quoted in SBJ, "We may have seen a sea change in the acceptable way to develop and nurture and maintain and grow relationships using client B2B entertainment."

Whether or not that change is temporary or permanent will have an enormous impact on professional sports.

It all adds up to increasingly unlikely sell for a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, whose lease at the Metrodome expires in 2011, thanks to a lousy economy, the disappearance of naming rights money, and a Legislature that has little interest in asking taxpayers to pony up a dime for a new stadium.

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Fluke or future?

Posted at 2:53 PM on March 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Would a guarantee that you could get your money back if you lose your job motivate you to buy a season ticket to the Minnesota Timberwolves? Today, Glen Taylor, the owner of the NBA franchise, unveiled his "No-Risk Pledge," which guarantees a refund for unused tickets should season ticket holders lose their jobs in 2009.

He also announced a $5 reduction in most ticket prices.

The Timberwolves are a tough sell. The front office has been relatively incompetent for most of this decade, penalized five years of draft choices for the illegal signing of a marginal player, and allowing Kevin Garnett to slip away to win an NBA championship, and booting most of the first-round picks they've had in the last few years (Kevin Love appears to be a rare exception).

Beyond that, the Timberwolves appear to be placing all of their hopes in a one-month stretch of otherwise uninspiring -- sometimes insulting -- basketball.

"We are in a rebuilding process with the team, but in January our fans had the opportunity to see firsthand the potential we think this team has. We believe strongly in our core group of players led by Al Jefferson, Randy Foye and Kevin Love, and also believe the future is extremely bright," Taylor said at a news conference today.

He's pointing to the stretch of the season when the Timberwolves won 10 games and lost only 4. It happened immediately after the team fired its head coach. Perhaps it was a sign of the future. Or maybe it was just a fluke. After all, the same players won only 2 of 16 games in December, and were in the process of reverting to form when the team's best player, Al Jefferson, was injured shortly after the January run. The team had lost 5 of its previous 6 games, and although they weren't as lethargic as December, moral victories don't suggest the "bright future" Taylor does.

Meanwhile, Timberwolves fans continue to exercise their own ticket reduction plan. The worst kept secret in town is that you can buy a cheap seat at Target Center, and sneak down to any one of the nice -- and empty -- seats downstairs.

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A-Rod's admission

Posted at 1:59 PM on February 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Let's review the news concerning the person many believe to be the best player in baseball, and one of the best in the sport's long history.

Alex Rodriguez in 2007:

Alex Rodriguez answering the same question on February 9, 2009.

"I did take a banned substance. For that, I am very sorry and deeply regretful."

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Lessons from the coach

Posted at 1:10 PM on January 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Life, Sports

This Saturday, an Aberdeen, South Dakota basketball coach is likely going to pass legendary hoops coach Bobby Knight for most collegiate victories. They have a few things in common besides basketball. Knight is known for throwing chairs. Don Meyer, the coach at Northern State University, has to sit in one; he's been in a wheelchair since last September when he fell asleep while driving to a team retreat and hit a semi-truck head-on.

His leg was amputated and during the operations to put him back together, doctors discovered he has cancer in his liver.

"I have to be strong for our team now," he told a local newspaper. "When alone with my wife, I might not be as strong, and I might break down and cry and wonder how I'm going to deal with (the cancer). When you are with people you work with, it's easier to be strong."

Today he told South Dakota Public Broadcasting "the people of South Dakota would do anything for people who need a hand," and he knows that first-hand. And like Coach Knight, his players insist he teaches more than basketball. Take this description of the accident in a recent Sports Illustrated article:

When his players reached the car, Meyer was still conscious, but his left side was battered. Yet instead of panicking, the players summoned the poise that Meyer had already cultivated in them. One of them called 911. Senior captain Kyle Schwan asked a few veteran players to help the younger players form a prayer circle, then joined graduate assistant Matt Hammer and sophomore guard Brett Newton next to Meyer.

Schwan grabbed Meyer's hand, and the young men fell back on the slogans of the practice court. We've gotta be tough, Coach! It's the fourth quarter! Dead-ball breathing! Narrow focus! NBA! Next Best Action!

"They saved my life," says Meyer, who was airlifted to an Aberdeen hospital after a 30-minute wait.

"It's a testament to Coach," Schwan says. "In essence he saved his own life because of the way he taught us."

Meyer, 64, will coach in his wheelchair Saturday night. A win against the University of Mary gives him his 903rd of his coaching career, one more than Knight.

(Photo courtesy of Northern State University)

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Carl Pohlad, 1915-2009

Posted at 4:08 PM on January 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Sports

Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Minnesota Twins, has died, Twins officials said today.

Pohlad became a lightning rod for controversy while trying -- and eventually succeeding -- to get taxpayers to pay for a new baseball stadium. He died a year before Target Field opens.

While Pohlad is best-known for his ownership of the Twins, he built his wealth through a diverse set of investments including Marquette Bank (which he sold to Wells Fargo for $1 billion). As president, he bought up 30 other banks before selling it to FirstBank (now USBank). He also owns or has owned a Pepsi bottling operation, United Properties, and Mesaba Airlines. He also owned Twin City Rapid Transit, the streetcar and bus service of St. Paul, which was acquired by Metro Transit in 1970.

According to Forbes Magazine, Pohlad was the 78th 102nd richest man in America, and the 245th richest man in the world. His net worth was estimated at $3.6 billion. He ranked as the third-wealthiest Minnesotan, trailing Whitney MacMillan and Cargill MacMillan Jr.

"I had no experience dealing with reporters, especially sports reporters," he told MPR's Mark Zdechlik in 2001 on the subject of criticism of Pohlad during his bid to get public financing for a new stadium. "I don't want to see the Twin Cities without a baseball team and I've proven I want to keep them here." Find the old interview here.

But the public never warmed to a Pohlad image of baseball savior. He served on the committee that voted to eliminate -- "contract" it was called at the time -- the Twins during the height of public debate over public financing of the Twins stadium at the Capitol. Eventually, lawmakers voted to tax Hennepin County residents for the stadium.

Pohlad contributed a fraction of the cost, calling it "fair and substantial". One of his last public appearances was the groundbreaking for the new stadium in 2007. Pohlad was also the richest owner in baseball.

Businessman Irwin Jacobs, a close friend of Pohlad's, said "when Carl was hurting, he didn't want anyone else to know his pain. When someone else was hurting, he wanted to know your pain." He said Pohlad "lost a literal fortune keeping the Twins here. I told him, 'Carl, get out of it, if people don't appreciate it, move on.' and he didn't and if it was me, I'd have done it. I wouldn't have put up with it." ( Listen to entire interview)

Pohlad came from a poor upbringing. He was one of eight children during the Depression years in Valley Junction, Iowa. He served in World War II in the U.S. infantry, before returning to Iowa and starting a career in banking.

"Carl never lost sight of the fact of his roots and where he came from, "Jacobs said. "How many people are losing their fortunes today because they'd forgotten where they'd come from. He always evaluated risk."

Pohlad was the finance director for Hubert Humphrey's last Senate campaign, but his politics was hard to pin down. In the latest election cycle, for example, Pohlad contributed to Barack Obama's presidential campaign and Norm Coleman's re-election campaign for Senate. He also financial supported DFLers Amy Klobuchar, Patty Wetterling, and Jim Oberestar and also Republicans Gil Gutknecht, Rod Grams, and George Bush.

His wife, Eloise, died in 2003. The couple had three children. They released a statement on their father's death this afternoon:

Carl was the leader of our family as well as the founder and leader of our family businesses. We've loved and respected him and are enormously proud of his accomplishments. And we will all miss him deeply.

We greatly appreciate the support and prayers of our friends, colleagues and the community. We especially appreciate the support of our employees throughout the Pohlad family of companies at this difficult time. We want to assure everyone that we will continue Dad's work and his legacy - just as he would have wanted and as he has prepared us to do.

On his last visit with Pohlad last week, Jacobs said Pohlad told him he was going to do "one more deal after the first of the year." He said there was no deal; he just loved the excitement of the possibility, Jacobs said. "I hope this community appreciates what Carl has done . They're such good people and they give so much. I just hope they treat the boys in the way they should be treated. This community should cherish the history of Carl Pohlad here," Jacobs said.

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Will the Vikes' sell out?

Posted at 5:13 PM on December 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

According to an official with the Minnesota Vikings, only 55 percent of season ticket holders have purchased tickets to the Vikes' playoff game next week against Philadelphia.

I always take these "Oh, dear, there may be a blackout" stories with a grain of salt. The TV stations that stand to make money on advertisements will eventually step in to buy tickets.

But it's possible that this will be a test of whether the poor economy has hit the football fan yet.

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Bulldogs hope for championship, warmer weather

Posted at 2:11 PM on December 12, 2008 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports, Weather

Sure enough, the UMD Bulldogs football team heads to Alabama for the NCAA Division II championship game and what do they get?

Snow.

It shouldn't bother them, though. Most of the kids figure to be ice-hardened alums of the Minnesota and Wisconsin gridirons.

Still, I have to imagine that a few of the Mighty Mutts were hoping for a reprieve from the cold. They should get it.

Game day figures to be partly sunny, with a high near 53 degrees according to the National Weather Service.

"Say the word 'snow' down here, and people panic," North Alabama senior Adam White said. "But in the summer we have tornado warnings two or three times a week, and people just blow that off because we're used to it."

Then again, a little snow might be an advantage against Northwest Missouri State.

(Photo by Brett Groehler / Minnesota Duluth for the Duluth News Tribune)

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The invisible sports franchise

Posted at 12:21 PM on December 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

The Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota's most forlorn sports franchise, fired coach Randy Wittman today, according to reports, and put the man most responsible for the team's collapse -- Kevin McHale -- back in charge as head coach.

How tough are things for the Timberwolves? Since you're smart enough to find your way to News Cut on a regular basis, I'm assuming you're familiar with Wikipedia, and the nature by which the online encyclopedia is updated by people who pride themselves on being the first to add new nuggets of information to a listing within seconds of its occurrence.

Here's a section of the Wikipedia listing for the Minnesota Timberwolves:

Not only had Wittman's firing not been added (as of 12:17 p.m.), but not a word of any aspect of the current season had been added. The section on the team's "rebuilding" had not been updated in 14 months. No mention was made of the Timberwolves rookie draft last year, even though the team had the #3 overall pick (which McHale botched by trading it).

McHale is holding a 2 p.m. news conference, which could have a high entertainment value.

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It's a girl's game, too

Posted at 10:15 AM on December 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I'm sure I mentioned this back in the day when I was writing for Bleacher Bums, but the best baseball player in my family of five kids was my sister. I'm guessing if we dragged our aged bodies out to the diamond behind the family estate again -- we're all in our '50s, except for my brother who turns 60 tomorrow -- she'd still be the best player.

I'm thinking about this today because the Collins clan wouldn't think twice of this item in the news: Japanese 16-year-old girl signs professional baseball contract.

The Cruise are more like a farm team and a far cry from Japan's mainstream pro teams such as the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. But the 5-foot, 114-pound Yoshida has broken a barrier in baseball-crazy Japan, where women are normally relegated to amateur, company-sponsored teams or to softball.

Yoshida, who started playing baseball when she was in second grade, said she wants to emulate Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career as a knuckleballer.

Ila Borders was signed by the St. Paul Saints as a pitcher. She wasn't very good, but so what? She was the first woman pitcher on an integrated men's professional baseball team. Eventually, she was shipped off to Duluth. She was also the first woman to pitch for an NCAA men's team.

At last check -- 1993 2003 -- she was training to be a firefighter.

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Whatever happened to Stephon Marbury?

Posted at 4:32 PM on November 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

When last we left Minnesota Timberwolf Stephon Marbury, he was sulking his way out of Minnesota where his chief complaints were -- in no particular order -- nobody realized he was better than Kevin Garnett and the pizza in the Twin Cities stinks.

The only thing a Minnesota sports fan hates more than a quitter -- are you listening Marian Gaborik? -- is someone who doesn't like Minnesota (pizza optional). Chuck Knoblach incurred the wrath, and so did Marbury.

But the kid who, in our most private moments, has caused us to think about what might have been with the Timberwolves, is in the middle of a huge soap opera in his native New York. The Knicks don't want him anymore and he's refusing a buyout. So since day one, he's been on the sidelines.

But with injuries mounting, the Knicks, according to the New York Times, asked Marbury to play this week and he reportedly refused. Today, the team suspended him for one game. So he won't play in a game he wasn't going to play in anyway. Tough love.

Miami, Boston, the Clippers and Dallas are said to be interested in taking Marbury off the Knicks' hands. Boston, of course, is where Kevin Garnett plays. But the city has good pizza.

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Imponderables: Celebrating the Metrodome

Posted at 11:43 AM on November 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

The Minnesota Twins today announced plans for celebrating their final season in the Metrodome. Each game will feature at least one of 100 "Metrodome memories," throwback uniforms, and the naming of an all-time Metrodome team.

Let's hit the Wayback Machine:

There's a romance to baseball if it's played on grass on a sunny day or a nice evening. And you can't experience that in a football stadium, particularly not in a domed football stadium.

That was Jerry Bell, the chief Twins lobbyist for a new stadium in 1999.

Part of the reason for a new baseball stadium -- thank you, Hennepin County taxpayers -- was that the Metrodome, well, stinks for baseball. It was, conventional wisdom said, a sterile football stadium that had absolutely no charm.

Are we supposed to get misty eyed about it now?

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Vikings fans get no love

Posted at 3:06 PM on October 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Seldom am I inclined to start a post with "don't shoot the messenger," but don't shoot the messenger.

Sports Illustrated is out with its stadium rankings and the Minnesota Vikings do not do well, ranking 30th overall out of 32 venues.

The "atmosphere" at the Metrodome ranks 24 out of 32, partially because of its rating on "fan IQ," and SI highlighted this nugget as an example of the worst behavior at the Metrodome:

"At the end of a game, the throwing of plastic bottles and half-full beer cups at a Chicago Bears fan with Down's Syndrome who wasn't moving as quickly as others toward the exit doors. It was the most disgusting behavior I have ever personally witnessed at a football game."

The Dome also gets low marks for parking and finishes dead last in tailgating (there's no place to tailgate these days).

But perhaps the biggest insult was the best ratings the Vikings and their fans got was the quality of the team's play.

(h/t:Michael Wells)

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The next big thing?

Posted at 4:58 PM on September 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

College and professional sports franchises are trying to wring every last dollar from their stadium deals, what with naming rights and seat licenses and all.

Here's a trend we're hoping doesn't catch on. The University of Georgia boosters are unveiling an official team cemetery on Saturday:

"Bulldog Haven," a designated area of burial plots within famous Oconee Hill Cemetery next to Sanford Stadium reserved in death only for those that have worn the uniform, their coaches and their families. Now a Bulldog can come full circle," said Mack Guest, Letterman's Association president and one of the conceptual founders of the project.

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Keep the ball!

Posted at 2:25 PM on September 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

A few months ago, Star Tribune writer Patrick Reusse wrote one of the most important columns ever written in the history of baseball. It revealed why we do stupid things:

"You have the ball in your hands for one second, and there are 100, 200, I don't know how many people, hollering in unison, 'Throw it back, throw it back,... I always said, 'I would never throw back a ball,' but the approval of the crowd is irresistible, I guess."

It was a column about Chris Fink of Minneapolis who threw Alex Rodriguez' 526th career homerun back on the field because the peer pressure was too much to resist. It's time expand the DARE program to Twins fans.

I've been a baseball fan as long as anybody, but throwing a homerun ball back as a sign that you're a real baseball fan is about as illogical as it gets. A real baseball fan has an appreciation for the exploits of its best players.

The thing is: it happened again last night. Ken Griffey Jr., who, if it weren't for injuries, would be the all-time home run champion in baseball, hit his 611th career home run.

Griffey is 38 and is, for the most part, finished. That home run may be the last one he ever hits, and it puts him in 5th place on the all-time home run list.

And somebody threw it back.

People, this isn't even a Minnesota tradition! It's a Chicago Cubs tradition. Throw a fish back! Better still, rip off one of you kid's T-ball "homers" and when you catch a ball tonight, throw that one back instead.

Your kid will never notice. And neither will anyone else in Section 112 212.

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Remembering Lyman Bostock

Posted at 10:30 AM on September 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Lyman Bostock may be one of the best hitters ever to come through the Minnesota Twins organization. But he stands out in the history of Major League Baseball for another reason. He is the only Major League Baseball player to be murdered during a season.

It was 30 years ago this year. ESPN has put together a section on its Web site about Bostock.

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How to ruin the bucket list

Posted at 7:27 AM on September 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

My "bucket list" (things to do before I die) is pretty short now that I've crossed the impossible "see Cleveland Indians win a world championship" from positions 1 through 9, leaving only "catch a ball at a baseball game" on the list.

I came close once at Yankee Stadium in the '80s. A foul ball was hit in the row behind me and after a scramble, another guy came up with it. Typical of Yankee Stadium, however, a kid sitting nearby bent over and held his stomach, then collapsed into his seat. The section began chanting "give the kid the ball" and the guy had no choice but to hand it over to the kid, who then made a miraculous recovery. As he sat back down in his seat with the ball, I heard the kid say to his friend, "that's the second ball I've gotten this week that way.

But I've never been able to come up with one by any means.

So there's no joy in my neck of the stadium for this guy, who is getting some nationwide love this week for catching home-run balls on consecutive nights at Yankee Stadium.

What is it with Yankee Stadium? Last year, a fan caught two balls in one game.
What are the odds of that? 1/196,000,000 it says here.

But this guy is Zack Hample, who has beat the odds over the years by grabbing more than 30,000 3,000 balls at Yankee Stadium, some on the fly and some not.

It was happening. The ball kept coming. I could tell I had a chance to catch it, but that it wasn't going to reach the seats, so I jumped up on the chest-high railing (just as I'd done the day before to catch that BP ball tossed by Phil Hughes) and balanced on my stomach (cracked rib and all) and reached waaaaaaay out over the wall as the ball came shooting toward me, and BAM, just like that, I made the back-handed catch right in the pocket of my Mizuno glove. There was a guy on my left who made more of an effort to grab my legs to prevent me from flipping over the wall than he'd made to grab the ball himself.

Hample is making the rounds of the talk shows today wearing his "Baseball is Life" shirt. It is. And it's not fair.

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The cost of the new stadium

Posted at 3:28 PM on September 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

The Minnesota Twins today unveiled their season ticket prices for their first season at "Expect More Pay Less" Park. Based on season ticket plans, the lowest price is $20. The luxury level will run you about $50 with an extra fee of at least $1,000.

See the particulars and what the view will look like here.

The new prices are roughly even with the what it cost to go to a game at the Dome.

Tangent time: Wrigley Field and the owner of a building across the street have taken their spat to a new level.

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A link to hockey's past

Posted at 6:51 PM on September 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

If Minnesota really is the state of hockey -- and as a native son of Massachusetts, I'm bound by genetics to insist it's not, though I know better -- then you'll know the name Jack Falla.

Falla, a former sportswriter for Sports Illustrated, is the guy who caused a tempest back in the '90s by insisting that the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame belongs anywhere but in Eveleth, Minnesota.

In 1993 the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame was described by its executive director, Ted Brill, as "a place of dignity and honor which all Americans should be able to point to with pride." Point to? Few Americans even know where the museum is. Perhaps that's because it's hidden away in Eveleth, Minn. (pop. 4,064), 200 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. While the area is popular for fishing, hunting, skiing and snowmobiling, the 23-year-old Hall of Fame is not, as Brill concedes, "a tourist destination."

Nor should it be, given the shabby state it's in. Last year the Hall drew about 10,000 visitors, most of them during the summer. The museum is located in Eveleth because the people there were the first ones to raise the money to open it, but now, sadly, it is a disappointing collection of broken exhibits, outdated and tarnished plaques, and an inappropriately violent video show.

The guy could write, but more important, the guy knew that what connects hockey to this land isn't the spiffy indoor ice arenas that have made "softies" of all hockey players in the state who play in them, but it was the backyard rink and the ice on the ponds of Minnesota and elsewhere. It was frostbitten toes and comic books stuffed down into the jeans as shin guards. There was no checking on a lot of backyard rinks because if you did, you really would knock the snot out of the other guy, sometimes with disastrous results.

If you've ever tried to build a backyard hockey rink, chances are good, you were instructed by Jack Falla. His own rink, born of years of frustration at trying to build one, became a pretty famous hangout for purists in Natick, Mass. He wrote a book about the emotional connections to backyard rinks (video). You folks reading this blog from outside the land of the frozen pond wouldn't understand.

He was one of the stars, sort of, of the documentary film, Pond Hockey, which was produced by a couple of folks with Minnesota connections who were, as Euan Kerr of MPR described earlier this year, worried that the roots of hockey were being lost.

Fallin died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack in Maine. One of his former students -- he also taught public relations and journalism at Boston University -- penned a nice tribute to him today on the Boston Globe's Bruins blog.

Two years ago, several days after Hana was born, she got one of her first birthday presents. My friend Jack Falla had mailed the stick, on which he inscribed, in his unique and horrendous handwriting, the following message: "Retaliate first. H. Shinzawa #1."

It belongs to Hana, but it means so much more to her father.

The stick captures everything about the man. His passion for hockey. His affinity for goaltending. His admiration for Montreal, the city more so than its hockey franchise, and his exploration of French-Canadian culture. His mastery of language. Most of all, his love for children and friends and connecting in a human way in which he had no equal.

Don't tell that to the folks in Eveleth.

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Melody's Olympics - 'Zai jian!'

Posted at 2:58 PM on August 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

It means "goodbye" and it's fitting now that the Olympics are over, for one last slideshow and diary from MPR's Melody Ng, who's been on vacation in China and providing us with a street-level view of the Olympics.

8-22-08 Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. I have no idea what watching paddling is like on days that aren't hot and sunny, but it's wacky today. The less expensive tickets (80 RMB - < $12) give spectators access to bleachers facing the afternoon sun, and there's absolutely no shade in the stands. So anytime athletes aren't paddling, pretty much everyone (most people in my section are Chinese) abandons his or her seat for the grass outside the stadium, where the bleachers to their west provide some filtered shade. Almost no one watches the medal ceremonies from our side of the paddling course. (The other side of the water, presumably where the important people sit, faces east, away from the sun. Moreover, their bleachers are covered. Those people stay in their seats throughout the time we're there.)

We're late for the start of the competition - finals for men's and women's canoe and kayak. We didn't allot enough time for the half hour subway ride and nearly 50-minute express bus ride up to the venue, 30 km east of the Olympic Green. This means we spend more than 2.5 hours in travel for a total of about 5 minutes of sitting in the bleachers watching some of the best paddlers in the world vie for the gold. I choose to stay in the stands for the medal ceremonies and most of the breaks in between events because I want to make the most of my time there. My family retreats to the other side of the bleachers with everyone else.

My effort is worth it because I end up sitting (at least whenever an event is going on) just in front of several rows of grade school children. The races we watch are 1000 m long, and we're the first set of bleachers the canoes and kayaks pass. Each time the paddlers approach our section, some adult calls out: "Jia you!" ("Go, go, go!!!"), and the kids scream in response, "Zhong Guo Dui!" ("Team China"). This continues until the paddlers are way out of range to hear. Even at their closest, the boats are far enough away that I can't really make out which team is which. But if the Chinese paddlers can hear these kids, I'm sure it gives them a boost.

Minutes after the final event finishes, and well before the medal ceremonies begin, the bleachers on our side are empty of everyone but the cleaning people and the Olympic volunteers. But some people congregate in the entrance area, taking photos with a group of men who are decked out in China red and gold and waving huge Chinese flags. College student volunteers in their blue jerseys stand together singing chorus after chorus. Today's the final day of competitions at this venue, and the final day of their work here, until the Paralympics rowing begins on 9 Sept. They look beat, but happy, enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done.

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Melody's Olympics - Living in Beijing

Posted at 6:25 PM on August 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

MPR's Melody Ng is in Beijing on vacation and has been providing us a street-level view of life during the Olympics. Here is her latest dispatch.

8-21-08 Fulicheng (our apartment complex). Everyone agrees that the middle class in China is growing markedly. You can't miss it here in Beijing. Teens in supposedly mod hairdos and outfits text message and canoodle over fries and Big Macs at McDonalds and KFC. Kids zip around on these sleek, small-wheeled bicycles that can fold up to be carried onto the subway or up the elevator. Our local five-story mall has eight jewelry stores on the first floor, Starbucks (where a Frappuccino Venti costs 34 RMB, ~$5), Häagen-Dazs, a Merrell store, Quicksilver and Lenscrafters. Its lobby doubles as a showroom for Chrysler and Skoda. Hop into one of the vehicles to see what you'll look like behind the wheel; take the Jeep home for 450,000 RMB (~$66K).

Women stroll the grounds of our apartment complex trailing small fluffy dogs: American Eskimos, Pomeranians, Pekinese and miniature Schnauzers. Yesterday, I watched an elderly woman directing four skinny men pushing an upright piano on a wheeled platform across a large intersection, down the sidewalk, and across a couple other intersections into our complex.

We're staying in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the 22nd floor of a large, high-rise apartment complex named Fulicheng, complete with private gardens and water features. Our apartment isn't anything special by U.S. standards, but it's by far the fanciest place I've ever lived in China. And the grounds of our complex really are impressive. Rent here is upwards of 6000 RMB/month (nearly $900). Pay extra for a membership at the exclusive, on-site gym and pool with floor-to-ceiling windows. I'd say this place is upper middle class.

Our first apartment, the one I described earlier in our trip, is probably more middle middle class. But then again, I'd say my former students, some of whom were college professors, who lived husband, wife and young child in a single room with unfinished cement floors, cooked on a two-burner gas range in a dark hallway, and shared a common bathroom with everyone else of the same gender on their floor were middle class, too. That, though, may have been true only in the old China of 15 years ago. Today, people who live in those conditions might no longer fall into the middle class.

Chinese people call regular people "lao bai xin," literally, "old hundred surnames." These are the common folk. The term used to mean anyone who wasn't a government leader or official. But now, its meaning may more be people who aren't middle class yet - the migrant construction workers, dumpling wrappers, street sweepers, ticket collectors, waiters, fruit sellers, and security guards - people we encounter every day and rarely think to converse with even though we benefit greatly from their labor. Many people have shared with MPR News their stories of feeling left behind, of the middle class no longer being financially stable.

Although Chinese people didn't have much in the past, I never had the sense that most were discontent with or anxious about their financial situations - perhaps because everyone (in the cities, anyway) made about the same amount. Today, I'd still say the middle class here seems to see themselves as doing well, or at least OK. They have a little disposable income. They can afford tickets to the Olympics (and are able to navigate the Internet well enough to have entered the ticket lottery).

What about the new lao bai xin? If the middle class is growing, then the working class must be shrinking. Are they feeling left behind? They've already endured generations of "eating bitter" ("chi ku" - a common Chinese expression for dealing with difficulties, or sucking it up). How much longer?

8-21-08 Outside the Worker's Stadium (football - i.e., soccer - venue): So much for cracking down on scalpers. I hope the police are as easy on those one hundred plus scalpers they arrested in that big bust earlier this week as they are on scalpers outside the soccer stadium this evening. As we walk the long block past Worker's Stadium on our way to dinner, we pass numerous fans heading to their seats, as well as dozens of men who are trying to sell tickets - and not so subtly either.

Some walk around fanning themselves with groups of six or seven tickets. Others stand with tickets peeking out of their shirt pockets. Many call out to passersby: "Want tickets?" or their selling prices. I hear people haggling over prices, and watch a group of students move from scalper to scalper seeking out the best deal. What astonishes me, though, is that two police cars and several officers are standing by the entrance to the stadium, within 50 feet of many of these transactions, and they are completely ignoring them.

A Taiwanese-American friend who joins us for dinner isn't surprised. She says that when she went over to the beach volleyball venue a couple days ago to try to pick up some scalped tickets, a police officer actually gave her advice to buy tickets not for that day's competition, but for the next day's. Overhearing the conversation, the college student Olympic volunteers standing nearby laughed at his helpfulness. My friend's really cute, and she speaks Chinese fluently, but honestly.

8-22-08 Bummed. Yes, the I.O.C ought to investigate thoroughly the allegations that gold medal Chinese gymnast He Kexin may be only 14 and not 16 as her passport, she, and Chinese officials have claimed. No, she and her team don't deserve their gold medals, no matter how good their performances, if they broke the rules of the Games. But I am so deeply saddened by the news of additional evidence that He and other Chinese gymnasts may be underage, because I don't want "China cheats!" to be what people outside China take away from this year's Games.

A few days ago, I asked my Chinese friend Alan what people are saying about other accusations of ... let's call it dishonesty - for example, the lip synching little girl at the opening ceremonies. Now my friend is an honest guy. But his attitude, and that of other Chinese people he's heard discussing this issue, is that China wanted to put on a good show, to make the opening ceremonies as perfect as they could be. So is it really a big deal that they substituted a prettier little girl for one who has a lovely voice but isn't as attractive?

Personally, I don't understand how any little girl could be so unattractive that she wouldn't be deemed fit for the big show, but Alan's point is that China wants the world to see it at its best. That's true of the government, who we can and should criticize for all the bad decisions they've made and continue to make (though we should also recognize the reforms they're trying to make). But it's just as true, if not more so, for the Chinese people.

Before I even walked on Chinese soil, I knew that Chinese people are proud of their country, particularly its rich history and culture. After all, I grew up with Chinese parents, who even though they left this country as young children and never intended to return here, were constantly mindful of their heritage, reminding me daily that I was Chinese, and therefore had to behave in a certain way that honored the standards of my ancestors. My childhood was full of "Chinese children do this" and "Chinese children don't do that."

In the fall of 1993, when I was teaching at the N.W. Institute of Political Science and Law in Xi'an, the I.O.C. chose Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. I'm not sure I was even aware that a host city was about to be named, but my students all came to class the next day tired (because they had stayed up late into the night waiting for the decision), and despondent (because they so desperately wanted the Olympics to come to China). It was on that morning that I realized how important these Games were for to regular Chinese people - even if they're an 18-hr train ride away and even if they likely wouldn't have the opportunity to see an event in person. And it was on that day that I decided that should China ever win their bid to host, that I wanted to be here to share in the experience.

Everyday Chinese people have given so much of their time and efforts to these Games - all those seniors in their white volunteer jerseys who are sitting out on the sidewalk all day long on what seems to be every block of the city, ready to answer questions and be of service, all those eager students in their blue volunteer jerseys who are finally putting their years of language training to good use, all those other hundred of thousands or millions (I've never been very good at estimating) of people who aren't recognized or repaid in any way for their contributions, but upon whose work the Games have been built and continue to run. These Chinese citizens are so proud that the Olympics are in China right now. And none of these wrongdoings, crimes, failings - or whatever you want to call the sins of the Chinese government - is their faults.

On the second day of competitions, my friend Alan was taking a bus up to the Olympic tennis venue to watch the first round of the women's doubles. Because he speaks English and is super thoughtful, he stopped to help an American family that was confused about which way to go. The signage was poor, and even the bus driver wasn't sure where they should get off, because it was early on in the Games, and (according to Alan) things weren't well organized. He watched the woman lose her patience as more and more Chinese people tried to cram onto the bus, as is common here. She started yelling at them in English that there was no more room and they needed to back off. He continued to try to get this family to where they wanted to go even as the woman was addressing his as "tennis guy" and saying if she had known what it'd be like here she never would have come to Beijing. He did this not only because he's terrific, but also because he wants the world to experience the best of his country.

Alan's wife, Li Jian, a journalist here in Beijing, said last week that she hopes people will understand that China's not going to be able to do the Olympics perfectly, that they'll make mistakes because this is their first time doing something like this. She asks us for patience as they learn. Lying about the age of your athletes so they can compete (if true) would be much more than a "mistake." But I echo Li Jian's sentiments. I hope people will remember so much more of the Beijing Olympics. And I hope everyday Chinese people will say good-bye to the Games on Sunday with their joy and pride intact.

8-22-08 One more thought on Chinese athletes. This may be highly unpatriotic, but although I love the U.S., I almost always root for athletes from communist/socialist countries at the Olympics. Our athletes seem to mostly have well-rounded lives, and something to look forward to beyond their sport. Think Shawn Johnson who's going back to Des Moines with a gold medal and three silvers. She hangs out with friends, attends dances at her public high school, tries to limit her training to 25 hours per week, and gets straight A's. Unless something goes horribly awry, she'll do great when she gives up gymnastics. Not so for Chinese athletes.

According to a 22 July story from NPR, an estimated 80 percent of China's retired athletes are destitute, ill/injured, or unemployed, reports a publication of China's Physical Education and Sport Committee. I'm not exactly surprised. I met a coach of the Chinese weight lifting team back in Beijing years ago. He steadied me on a crowded public bus when my heavy hiking backpack knocked me off balance as the bus sped up. He then helped me off at my stop, and carried my backpack for me a ways down the road as we talked. My Mandarin was pretty bad, but he was patient, and we communicated enough to for me to find out that he had competed in the 1984 Olympics in L.A., and was now coaching. He had a job, and he didn't look poor or injured. But later, I received a letter from him, and - just thinking about his letter now almost makes me tear up. I wish I knew where he is now - his handwriting looked like mine (nearly illiterate, me). It was big and blocky, like a kid's. It was clear that he had received little schooling. China's athletes deserve better. Maybe this gymnastics investigation will help.

Update Fri 6:45 a.m. - A few days ago, Melody promised to send pictures of her trip to the beach volleyball venue that a friend took. We waited anxiously. One arrived today. It was of the men's competition. They dress normally. Not that it matters, of course.

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Melody's Olympics: The lard birthday cake and other tales from Beijing

Posted at 10:48 AM on August 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Minnesota Public Radio's Melody Ng is in China on vacation, providing News Cut readers with a street-level view of life in Beijing during the Olympics.

8-20-08 The Shuangjing Neighborhood (where we're living). We're off for baked goods this morning. My husband doesn't think our daughter has been eating enough. So we're forgoing our usual breakfast of steamed pork buns and sweet tofu pudding or rice porridge with thousand-year-old eggs, and heading to a Chinese bakery around the corner.

Bakeries of the sort with which we're familiar are new to China. Breads here are steamed, deep fried, or grilled on a flat, hot iron plate. Back when I lived in Xi'an, we also had these small, flat breads that were made by throwing round discs of dough up against the inside wall of what looked like a metal oil drum heated by coal, sitting out in the street. They'd stick to the wall until the bread was thoroughly cooked. So they were baked, but not in a conventional oven. I've never seen an oven in a Chinese apartment before, and I think even now in more modern China, they're very rare in homes.

This bakery has what I think of as Taiwanese style breads and pastries - light, airy pre-sliced breads wrapped in cellophane, and western-like pastries, but of more Asian flavors: almond, coconut, peach, green tea, and lots of red bean. A guy follows us around the small shop carrying a tray and tongs, and when we select an item, he picks it up and places it onto the tray.

I feel silly having this attentive service when I'm buying just two pastries, but it's obviously the way things are done here. The shop is empty of customers as it appears almost every time I pass by, but there are three other women in uniform standing around, on hand to wait on other customers should they materialize. Our puff pastry filled with cream is pretty good. My daughter digs happily into her sticky rice and red bean flat cake.

China's westernesque baking has come a long way since 15 years ago when my teaching partner Amy and I (incredibly stupidly - please don't try this at home!) stuffed a 10" birthday cake down her toilet because we couldn't eat it (it tasted like it was made of lard), and we didn't want our school staff to know we didn't eat it (because they had bought what was probably a very costly gift to celebrate Amy's birthday in the way they figured she was used to).

We, of course, plugged up the toilet and flooded the bathroom floor. I ended up having to take a broom handle to try to break the cake up, which was really difficult because it was so solid. And Amy's apartment smelled rancid for days.

8-20-08 An Olympic requirement. Hard to believe, but I think every cab driver in Beijing has now gone through six months of English lessons. At least, that's what our driver said on the way to the beach volleyball competition the other evening. Mr. Li has been driving taxis for about 30 years now. He's 51, and is looking forward to his forced retirement in four years when he turns 55. He says he speaks no English, that he's "too old" to learn, and that he hasn't needed it for work thus far. But for the past six months, after each of his 10-hour shifts, he's had to sit through two hours of English lessons in preparation for the Olympics and us foreign visitors. To him, that was the only onerous part of hosting the Games in his hometown, but now it's over. Classes ended with the opening ceremonies on 8-8-08 - a very auspicious day for Beijing cab drivers.

Can you imagine Twin Cities cabbies all having to take classes on civics and U.S. government (or the history of the Republican Party) to prepare for the RNC?

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Melody's Olympics: What might have been

Posted at 1:03 PM on August 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

MPR's Melody Ng is in China on vacation. But nobody is allowed to go on vacation at MPR without sending material back to News Cut. Here is today's dispatch from Beijing.

8-19-08 Great Wall at Simatai. Liu Shuying is two years younger than I am. Her son is 12. Her husband grows corn on a small plot of land. And she climbs the Great Wall several times a day, following tourists, offering helpful (or not so helpful) tips on directions and vantage points, sharing bits of Wall history, and often, lending an arm to support ascent or descent of a particularly steep spot. She and her 73 colleagues may spend several hours of their time with a group, whether tourists want them around or not (it was the latter with us today), just so they can attempt to sell an "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirt, fan, or pair of chopsticks at the end of the trip.

Liu Shuying is surprisingly upbeat about her situation. She's the third of four sisters. Her father farmed - back then it was more wheat (I'm petty sure that's the grain she was describing) than corn. He died when she was 23. She got married that same year, and had to move to her husband's village on the opposite side of the Great Wall - what, when the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty, had been the Chinese side (her family had lived on what was the outside side of the wall - the side that belonged to the barbarians of the north.)

Ms. Liu follows tourists around because she says she has no other way to make a living. There are no factories in the area, and farming their tiny bit of land yields little. She tries to be helpful (I'm convinced she's sincere in her efforts), but mostly ends up being a pest because the whole reason we choose to come out to Simatai, the most isolated section of the Great Wall near Beijing that's open to tourists, is because we don't want to be around a bunch of people when we're taking in what has to be one of the most amazing and beautiful feats of humankind.

When I visited Simatai 14 years ago, it had just opened to tourists, and was basically a partially restored wall with numerous intact guard towers, known for its steep climbs and lack of infrastructure that surrounds most Chinese tourist attractions. My friend Ben and I had to take a crowded long distance bus that locals use to travel between cities out to the Wall. It was January, gray and cold. We were the only people there other than members of an Air France flight crew that I thought were the most elegant people I had ever met. No one was selling entrance tickets. No one was selling anything. No one was even around. We climbed until we could go no further, and then realized that we had no way to travel the two hours back to Beijing, and Benny had a flight to Israel he had to catch that night. I still smile whenever I see an Air France plane because those kind people rescued us by standing up to the wrath of their Chinese driver and giving us a ride back to town.

Now Simatai (admission 40 RMB, or about $5.75 per person) has a cable sky cab line to speed your trip up, and a zip wire line to speed your trip down. It has vendor stalls, a post office, two guest houses, and a dam upon which you can take a "cruise." It has a delegation of persistent guide women like Liu Shuying. And now, during the Olympics, it also has an official information booth where blue jerseyed volunteers continually update Olympic medal counts.

As I speak with Liu Shuying this afternoon, I wonder (as I often do while people watching in China), how similar would my life be to hers if my great grandfather had not come to the U.S. to try to better his life? That thought usually helps me empathize with people that I find rude or annoying or worse. Today it mostly just makes me wish that Ms. Liu was carrying around better souvenirs in her bag of wares.

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Melody's Olympics: Melody exposed to beach volleyball

Posted at 10:05 PM on August 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

If you've been a faithful reader of Melody Ng's dispatches from China here on News Cut (previous versions here and here), you probably have a feeling for her. Yes, she's every bit as delightful as her prose would indicate.

"What do you think you'll want me to send from Beijing," she asked me last week.

"Whatever you find interesting, I'll find interesting," I said.

Today, she apologized because she's in two of the pictures in today's slideshow, which cracks me up. She's on vacation, visiting family, and apologizing to us.

She'll be sending her beach volleyball photos to be included the above slideshow soon. So please check back.

8-18-08 Thoughts from some Beijing folk about the Olympics. Had an opportunity to talk with some people today about the Olympics. Some of the thoughts they shared:

City volunteers (Forbidden City) - Met two Beijing college students, male, who were off from their volunteer assignments today (though still wearing their signature blue jerseys). They shared their crackers and dried haw fruit snacks with my daughter. Like all the other college student volunteers I've spoken with, they're thrilled to be hosting the Olympics in their very own country. They didn't sign up early enough to be part of the contingent of 70,000 BO COG (Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games) volunteers, what seem to be the most high status volunteer jobs. They're part of the 400,000 city volunteers who do anything from translating to giving directions to helping people who have medical problems. (Supposedly there are an additional approximately one million volunteers who are assigned other tasks - I'll get to that later.) To volunteer, they had to pass an exam on Beijing culture, Beijing landmarks and directions, and volunteering skills (these last questions might be something like: What do you say if you see a foreigner who looks lost?). Both admitted needing to study a little beforehand. But they passed, and they're honored to be able to be part of this historic occasion. They haven't felt any inconveniences due to the Games, and no Beijing visitors they've met through their volunteer work have been rude or unpleasant to them.

Cleaning woman (Forbidden City) - This young mom of a one-year-old has been sweeping and emptying trash receptacles in the Forbidden City for the past month. She says the job wasn't hard to get; one just has to "have the guts" to do it. She likes it. She likes the Olympics, too, as does her entire family, who live in Beijing. The Olympics haven't affected her life in any negative way. She believes the number of people visiting (and presumably the amount of trash she has to deal with) each day at work is about the same as other times - though I'm not sure how well she can compare since she's been there for only a short time.

Bottle collecting grandmother (outside the back gate, Forbidden City) - Many people in China dig plastic bottles out of trash cans and pick them up from the sides of roads to sell to recycling plants. It's best if you don't have to reach into dirty trash cans to get the bottles, so some people wait in crowded areas and ask passersby if they may have their finished bottles. This 70-something woman was doing just that with a companion behind the Forbidden City when we walked near. She says she has to collect bottles because her husband is dead and her son recently lost his job. Selling used bottles puts food on their table. Her face lights up when I ask how she feels about the Olympic Games. She watches competitions on TV; diving is one of her favorites.

8-18-08 Wangfujing Shopping District: A tale of two (or four, really) volunteers. Wangfujing, where we visited briefly earlier this week, is a giant pedestrian shopping area just a little east of Tiananmen. About half a block north of the McDonalds by the entrance to the area, a small placard stands in the street: "Need help? We speak Korean, English, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese." Young people stand around the sign; their white polo shirts say, "China loves you," and list off the languages they speak. I meet "Jenny" Zhang, 16, whose English is excellent. These volunteers all come from her foreign language academy for underprivileged kids in Guangzhou (southern China). 3.5 years ago, she was begging and collecting used plastic bottles to sell. She had to drop out of school because her parents could no longer afford the fees. Then her teacher rescued her from the streets, as he did all the other students. He houses and feeds them (I don't know how, because she says he's not working), and he teaches them the languages he speaks, and how to behave. Jenny and four classmates came up to Beijing to help with the Olympics. They aren't registered as official employees, but they stand in Wangfujing all day every day to help out however they can. (Several people speaking several languages stop by to ask for directions while I'm talking with Jenny.)

Near as I can tell, they get nothing for their work. But Jenny loves being able to be part of the Olympics in this way. She says they'll be in town through the Paralympics. They hope to travel to Sichuan Province later in the year to help with post-earthquake relief work.

I also meet three other people on Wangfujing. I've been wanting to ask some of the people I see wearing red arm bands stamped: "Public security volunteer," because I see these arm bands everywhere: a sidewalk bicycle repair man near the Dum Tower, a woman in charge of keeping public bathrooms clean in a hutong, a waiter at a famous dumpling restaurant where we eat lunch.

The first guy I see with a red armband is pouring the messy contents of a trash can into a trash cart he's been pedaling up and down the street. He says he's got too much work to do to explain, and pedals off. When I ask a guy behind the counter at a concession stand, he says the arm band's required - that he wouldn't be allowed to work here if he lost it. He can tell me nothing more about it. The street sweeper I sidle up to is by far the most forthcoming. He says that he's required to wear this arm bands (and the blue volunteer jerseys) during the Olympics. But he wasn't given any special training in security (even though the bands would make one believe he could help with security issues), and he's not even sure what the band means. It looks like a lot of people in the service industry were given these security volunteer bands to wear. Is it a big sham? Should I feel less safe now?

8-18-08 Beach volleyball men's quarterfinals. More Olympics tickets! Just after I hang up the phone after talking with Cathy Wurzer tonight, an American friend calls saying his mom and sister are too tired to attend the beach volleyball match in 40 minutes, and would we want to buy their seats? It's raining, but hey - how often will I ever have the chance to watch Olympic competitions? And no need to deal with scalpers (I read last night that a slew had been busted in a raid yesterday, Chinese and foreign. Was the guy who didn't show up at our sports bar one of them?). So I take the tickets, and my brother and I rush off for the stadium.

When we arrive (about 10 minutes after the first match started) things are looking deceptively unfestive outside. The queuing-up area is deserted, and there's just one vendor with the usual Chinese flag-themed merchandise. But volunteers greet us warmly, check our tickets, and send us to the metal detector. I also get patted down. The woman/girl makes me take everything out of my pockets (tissue paper, wet wipes, lip balm - which she makes me put on in front of her to prove it is what I claim it to be - and a lamb curry puff - which she doesn't make me take a bite out of) before letting me through.

We go into the stadium, and this is not at all what I was expecting. (No, I don't follow sports much.) Beach volleyball is raucous. I can't believe it's an Olympic sport. The music alternates between fraternity house party and sporting event tunes. The announcer is trying to hype up the crowd. He makes us stand and sit, clap, do the wave, stomp our feet, and yell "Jia you!" ("Go go go!" to the Chinese).

Two groups of young women in red bikinis are undulating to the beat at the ends of the court. One group looks Chinese, but with unnaturally deep tans for a people group whose beauty ideal is white skin. The Chinese announcer refers to them as "Shatan Baobei" - "Beach Babies." Three of the Olympic mascots show up as well. Unlike American mascots, they're not in furry, cloth suits, but in shiny, inflated plastic. They look like humongous, animated, blow up toys. (Guess that adage about never sticking your head inside a plastic bag has some exceptions.) I feel like we're at some MTV spring break beach party. It takes me almost the entire first match to learn to focus on the game and not get distracted by everything else going on around it. How do the judges do it? How do the volleyball players?

Our first match is Austria versus Brazil. Brazil wins, but I miss nearly every point. By the second match, U.S. (Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal) versus Brazil, I'm able to actually enjoy the game. But I still marvel that beach volleyball could be serious enough for the Olympics. Do people start off in regular volleyball and then "graduate" to the beach version? Is one more difficult than the other? The Brazilian fans stand out in their yellow and green. They're also united in their cheers, and sing cool songs. It seems we Americans (at least the ones here tonight) can manage only "U-S-A! U-S-A!" in unison, and only near the end of the match when we sense that our athletes need us to pull together. We don't sit together in the stadium, and we don't cheer together. Is this part of our heritage of independence and self-reliance? Now I feel badly that I'm not wearing red, white and blue, that I didn't even think to pack anything patriotic for this trip.

Gibb and Rosenthal play a good game, but lose (bummer). After the game, spectators start posing for pictures with people from countries other than their own. They also leave behind a lot, a lot of trash. The good and the bad of the Olympic Games.

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The Phelps conspiracy?

Posted at 8:11 PM on August 17, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

It didn't take long for the conspiracy theorists to set up shop. A web site has been created to "prove" that Michael Phelps didn't really win his 7th gold medal at the Olympics.

The next picture in the series, however, shows a bit more -- Sports Illustrated has the photos.

Phelps' fingers appear to be bent back, as if bent back by the wall. The swimmer on the right? Not so much.

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Melody's Olympics

Posted at 7:35 AM on August 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

MPR's Public Insight Network guru Melody Ng is back in China on vacation and has just provided some pictures and commentary on life around Beijing.

Melody reports:

"This is the first time I've been able to get online. It sounds ridiculous considering what a developed city Beijing is, but it's been difficult getting Internet access. The two apts we've lived in haven't had Internet, even though they were supposed to (and we left one for the other to try to get Internet)."

Her fascinating diary is below the fold.

Continue reading "Melody's Olympics"

Olympic fakery - Part II

Posted at 10:25 AM on August 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

On the heels of the revelation that China faked the giant footsteps fireworks for its TV and stadium audience (Good interview with NPR media critic here), comes word of another bit of showbiz.

The Mail Online reports that the cute girl who sang the national anthem was a phony, too. She lip-synced -- not uncommon for a major performance, one supposes -- the anthem, but not because she couldn't sing, but because the girl with the actual voice wasn't pretty enough.

The Web site reports the kid who didn't sing is now a big star.

A new Olympic-watching past-time: Calculating whether Michael Phelps will win more gold medals than the number of instances of China faking something.

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Olympic fakery

Posted at 5:33 PM on August 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Of all the moments of breathtaking pageantry that made up the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, the synchronized fireworks simulating footprints was a high point for many. They started miles away from the stadium and then, viewed from the air, created the appearance of giant footprints marching to the stadium.

"This is not some computer animation you're seeing," Bob Costas told us as we watched, amazed. And that's true. Well, except for the part about it not being a computer animation. (Update Tues morning: The NPR media critic this morning played the tape. It wasn't Costa. It was Lauer. His actual words were, "this is almost like an animation.")

Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

He said the main problem with trying to shoot the real thing was the difficulty of placing the television helicopter at the right angle to see all 28 footsteps in a row.

The Guardian

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Bobblelection

Posted at 9:00 PM on August 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Here are a couple of images from Saturday night's St. Paul Saints game. The Saints held a "bobblelection," giving away bobbleheads of the presidential candidates to see which was the most favored. Sorry, there was no Ron Paul bobblehead. I'll find out later who "won." I'm not completely sure this isn't a halfway decent way of electing a president.

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The fall of Glen Taylor?

Posted at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Sports

It wasn't that long ago that the proposed solution to every sports team's ownership misery in Minnesota -- specifically the Twins and Vikings -- was to have Glen Taylor buy it. Back then, though, the Timberwolves were good and Taylor was "one of us."

Taylor is still "one of us" but the bloom is off the successful-franchise-owner rose and now the guy's personal reputation isn't so great either.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal details a lawsuit filed by four women against one of Taylor's companies, alleging discrimination.

The suits also allege that "sexual favoritism" at the company, where female employees were retained due to their appearance or personal relationships with managers, extended to two employees who had personal relationships with Glen Taylor. The filings say that "it is common knowledge in the workplace" that one employee is on Taymark's payroll because she bore Taylor's illegitimate daughter and that Taylor placed her with the company rather than pay her child-support payments. The daughter, now an adult, also is on the company payroll, the court filings say, adding that the two women were not "held to the same work standards as other employees."

It's a damning article about a court case whose allegations, we have to point out, have not been proven. The allegations alone, however, may expedite Taylor's fall from sports grace.

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Discovering China

Posted at 10:24 AM on July 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I'm not sure which MPR talk show gets the not-so-coveted News Cut talk-show-of-the-week award (it's never been awarded before). Midmorning's hour with the Cowboy Junkies and its hour with critics and cartoonists on the New Yorker satire are among the top shows of the week. But in the "tell me something I didn't already know" department, I give the nod to Friday's Midday segment with Carleton College's Roy Grow, who was on the line from Vietnam, but spent much of the hour talking about China.

In particular was the portion discussing the incredible pollution as the Olympics near. It's something the Atlantic's James Fallows -- who now lives there -- has been harping on for some time, although in a post this weekend, he's pretty sure he's seeing light at the end of the smokestack.

As bad as that picture from Fallows looks (click for bigger image), he says it's "not that bad" compared to previous days.

Grow's segment also contrasted nicely with a National Public Radio piece on Friday, in which some Beijing residents are said to be upset at the modern architecture that's taking over their city.

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The skinny on the Saints

Posted at 11:40 AM on July 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

A near universally-ignored press release, brought to my attention today by reader Nathan Stohlman, announces a new corporate naming deal for the soon-to-be-former Midway Stadium, home of the St. Paul Saints.

The stadium will be renamed, Skinny Water Stadium.

For one week.

Skinny Water Stadium is set to be unveiled for their August 3-9 promotion. Skinny Water will have their name branded throughout the ballpark for one week. All facets of a typical stadium rights deal will be condensed into one week, with the addition of multiple new and creative twists on the concept. The team will sport new Skinny uniforms for their new stadium sponsor and fans will see the Skinny logo branded into the outfield, zero's around the pitcher's mound and homeplate, and of course sampling of Skinny water products.

It's an interesting concept. What if baseball parks give up the outmoded concept of a long-term naming rights deal, and change the name every week instead?

A prolonged team slump. Not a problem. Come out and see the boys play at Pucker's Mortuary Park.

The thing is, though, the Saints don't own Midway Stadium. The City of St. Paul does.

(Photo courtesy Hamline University)

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Olympic sports

Posted at 8:55 AM on July 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

The Olympics are approaching, the every-four-year period in which it's acceptable to say "stick it" on TV. But the Olympics occur against a backdrop of important athletic issues that cannot be ignored. Is prancing and tumbling around waving a stick with a ribbon a "sport"? Is hitting a little ball being thrown at you at 90 mph a sport?

Is ballroom dancing a sport?

Beer Pong?

What events do you think should be in the Olympics? What events do you think shouldn't?

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Live-blogging Timberwolves news conference

Posted at 1:05 PM on June 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

A news conference with Kevin McHale was held in Minneapolis this afternoon. He introduced Kevin Love, who was traded to the Timberwolves in a draft-day trade involving the Wolves' #3 pick - O.J. Mayo.

1:04 - Timberwolves boss Kevin McHale says "we were all excited." Who's this all you're talking about?

1:06 - "We were fully prepared to keep OJ. When you draft a guy and actually have him, teams call. There's probably more interest in the third pick before we picked it. "

1:09 - McHale said the trade started with a conversation between team owner Glenn Taylor and the Memphis owner.

Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press: "Timberwolves screw it up again with trade"

1:12 - As expected, the Twin Cities sports media appear to be asking pretty tame questions. Bloggers, on the other hand, have a much better handle on the sentiment of fans. Take Phil Mackey of KFAN, for example:

But after so many failed moves, this is a case of guilty until proven innocent.

Wolves front office: Prove to the fan base that you are indeed capable of stringing together a few fantastic moves. Prove to the fan base that you know what you are doing. Prove to the fan base that you can rebuild this team.

1:16 p.m. Meanwhile, back when Kevin Love was a Memphis Grizzly for a few hours, we he wasn't impressing anyone in Tennessee, according to Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper:

So the Grizzlies did the only thing they could have done. And it was impossibly frustrating.

Love didn't help when my colleague, Ron Tillery, told Love that Iavaroni compared Conley to a Ferrari at last year's draft night. So, what sort of car would Love compare himself to?

"A Prius," he said.

A Prius?

"It's reliable, you're getting good gas mileage and you don't have to pay too much for it," Love said.

Great quote, eh? But who gets excited about a Prius?

1:19 p.m. McHale still talking about draft night strategy. No questions about fan reaction.

1:21 p.m. Timberwolves exec answers -- without being asked -- questions about whether he lied when he was talking up O.J. Mayo after the Timberwolves selected him. Critics say execs lied to media knowing they were going to trade Mayo. Execs say they didn't know they'd trade him.

1:23 p.m. Star Tribune's Michael Rand likes the deal, but...

Now, the only quibble we have: the way it went down. It's tough to sell the public on a player like Mayo and then pull him back in the dead of night. Is there a good reason this deal couldn't have been arranged and ready to go the minute David Stern stepped to the podium? We don't think so. As we watched the draft with some RandBall regulars (good time had by all), we started trying to convince ourselves that Mayo could be a good fit. Local fans who wanted Mayo were ecstatic, only to be disappointed later. The timing and handling was bad; the end result, though, will be the best thing to happen to this franchise in a long time. And we're not just saying that because we kind of predicted it.

1:28 p.m. - McHale takes a shot at other players in the draft (O.J. Mayo refused to come to Minnesota to work out for the Timberwolves before the draft), saying Love agreed to work out against players while other players would only do basketball moves against a chair or cones. "If you can't beat a chair, you've got problems," said McHale.

The Rake's Britt Robson breaks down the deal and the draft. He says he hated some move the Timberwolves made yesterday, but likes the trade:

First of all, the question isn't whether the Timberwolves helped themselves last night--compare the pre-draft and post-draft rosters and try to tell me they didn't significantly upgrade--but whether they helped themselves as much as they could. My answer is no, they didn't, but that's because they idiotically punted the 34th pick for no discernible reason other than to be pennywise, and we all know the second half of that course of action.

1:33 - McHale says the Timberwolves "are going to have a lot of money to play with" in the market for free agents. Doesn't say how much.

1:37 - End of news conference. I'm still wondering if any Timberwolves season ticket holders are calling the Wolves' offices today. Any T'Wolves ticketholders here?

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'Celebrating' the Timberwolves?

Posted at 4:21 PM on June 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Sports

As the NBA draft nears, there is an overwhelming sense of doom among fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Judging draft talent is not the team's forte, as Patrick Reusse artfully pointed out yesterday.

Update 6:45 p.m. Minnesota's on the clock. Prayer beads getting a workout.

6:46 p.m. - Presuming the choice will be O.J. Mayo. I fear gleeful anchors announcing, "it was the Mayo Clinic at Target Center tonight," thinking it was the best lede ever written. MinnPost's David Brauer says if they take him and then don't trade him, we'll wake up to "Timberwolves hold the Mayo." It's a no-win situation here.

6:48 p.m. - Timberwolves select O.J. Mayo. Experts say he's the most NBA-ready player. He better be. "I'm going to bring some leadership, and determination," he tells ESPN. Plans to play point guard. Move over Randy Foye.

Update Friday 7:04 a.m. - Ugh. The Timberwolves did it again. They've traded Mayo to Memphis along with Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker and received Kevin Love (whom they considered drafting) in return. It appears to be another trade to get rid of high-priced players.)

With any luck at all, the team's new logo and uniforms won't be the highlight Timberwolves story of the day, but you never know.

The Minneapolis Business Journal analyzes the fashion:

The team's primary logo received a relatively modest facelift, including a splash of white on the wolf's face and sleeker trees. The word Timberwolves also gets a different font and converts from blue to white.

The Wolves first introduced that logo for the 1996-97 season.

The Timberwolves also unveiled a completely redesigned secondary logo that celebrates the team's 20th anniversary. The new logo features a wolf howling at the moon. The moon, however, is depicted as a basketball, paying homage to the team's original logo that featured a wolf's head in front of a ball.

"The secondary logo really throws us back to the logo we used initially and celebrates the history of the Timberwolves in this market," (TWolves marketing boss Chris ) Wright said.

The team is still selling merchandise with the old logo on its Web site. It's gear that screams Ndudi Ebi

(H/T: doodledee)

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'Buy me no peanuts and Cracker Jack'

Posted at 5:05 PM on June 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

A serious affliction is a marketing opportunity for the Minnesota Twins.

According to a release today, the Twins are making the Skybox "peanut-free and available exclusively for individuals with peanut allergies and their families for selected games during the 2008 season."

The first Peanut-free Skybox event is Monday against Detroit.

The danger of a peanut allergy is the unintentional consumption of food containing peanuts or peanut oil. It's also the possibility of coming in contact with peanuts, even through the skin.

According to a Star Tribune article last year:

it is relatively uncommon for children to be so allergic to peanuts that simply sitting next to someone eating a peanut could trigger a serious reaction. But it can occur that the dust from peanuts is inhaled and someone suffers from anaphylaxis, which is a complete and sometimes fatal allergic reaction.

At $30 a pop, the Peanut-free Skybox is a fairly pricey seat. Two of the three dates selected for the promotion are so-called "premium games," when the Twins increase the ticket prices because the team they're playing is good.

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There's no '$137.5 million' in 'team'

Posted at 7:12 AM on June 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Stop me if you've heard this before: baseball is a team game. Every once in awhile, the big high-priced free agent (or pitcher who forces another team to trade him because he's going to be a free agent) will make the difference between success and failure, but not that often.

Last night, the pitcher who spurned flyover country -- Johan Santana -- pitched another great game for the New York Mets (7 innings pitched, 1 earned run allowed) and lost... again. He's 0-3 this month, and has pitched better than just about any pitcher in baseball.

This makes him the best pitcher in baseball who isn't worth what the Mets paid him. Granted, it's not his fault that he hasn't put the Mets over the top, but he hasn't put the Mets over the top and it's a bottom-line sport.

With last night's loss, the Mets slipped one game below .500 (37-38).

The Twins, meanwhile, are 40-36, and just 1 1/2 games out of first in their division.

It's a funny game, but Johan likely isn't laughing.

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Secrets of the flame

Posted at 11:53 AM on April 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Twin Citian Amy Hyatt-Blat, who works here at MPR, has a unique perspective on the Olympic torch relay that's become the focus of demonstrations against China and its human rights violations. That's her above, getting the torch for her part of the relay in Australia for the 2000 Olympics. She not only got to run a few blocks as part of the relay, she was one of the people in charge of setting it up, working on the advance team that accompanied the torch on its run to the Sydney Olympics. The logistics were massive with over 12,000 runners involved.

But let's get to the juicy "secrets" of the flame: