The school has only been around since the mid-90's, but Rochester Century's athletic program has already made its mark on the state and even national scene. Track and field and cross country were amoung the first sports in which the Panthers excelled. Then came a baseball team that won the state tournament and, with a little help from a couple Lourdes players, the American Legion World Series. The football team is a Big 9 threat and now, the boys hockey team has finally broken through.
The team has been solid for years. You don't get to four straight section championship games with average talent. But each time, whether it was Austin or Lakeville, the Panthers came up short. Having seen each of the last four defeats, I can only imagine the sense of relief coach Bruce Frutiger had when the clock hit zero. Relief for himself, to be sure. But in my time dealing with Coach Frutiger I learned that he is the type of coach who is happy most of all for his players.
Century will face Moorhead in the first round of the state tournament on Thursday. If this group of kids is anything like the Panthers baseball team from a few years back, playing on the big stage won't even faze them.
Spring Training is just underway and already, the Twins are dealing with a common foe: injuries. So far this year, the plague has focused its attention on the pitching staff. Grant Balfour had a minor forearm problem, Jessie Crain tweaked a hamstring and Terry Mulholland went down for a few days with bronchitis. But other players aren't immune. Infielder Nick Punto, who will battle for the starting shortstop position, went down with a strained back on Tuesday.
Granted, none of these is serious. Unless they become worse, these conditions will be forgotten about by the time the Twins open their season. But one can't help but be reminded of how injury plagued the Twins have been over the past three seasons.
Joe Mauer, Cory Koskie, does anyone remember what Joe Mays looks like in uniform? The Twins haven't had an easy time of it over the past few years, but they seem to fight through. The last three seasons, all of which have seen the Twins injury ridden, have all resulted in Division Championships.
So bring on the injuries. Fate can throw whatever it wants at this team. They won't be phased and, unlike their counterparts from Chicago, they won't use injuries as an excuse. The Twins will fight through. They will make it four in a row, regardless of who gets injured.
According to Moss' agent, the troubled superstar will be out of our hair, causing problems for the Oakland Raiders this fall instead of the Vikings. We can move on. We can field a team. With Moss gone, we can even compete for a Super Bowl.
Nothing But Trouble
No one can doubt Moss' ability. He's not the "super freak" for nothing. He does things on the football field that others only dream of, and his stats show it. He's the only receiver in the history of the game to start his career with six 1,000-yard seasons. He's approaching the 100 touchdown mark and 10,000 receiving yards after just seven seasons. Every defensive back in the league knows he's overmatched when Moss lines up across from him.
Still, I've never been so excited about my home team losing a player.
His misbehavior has been well documented. What hasn't been considered is the escalation of his misbehavior. It started in 1999 with his first fine for yelling at an official. The next season he upgraded to squirting an official with water. Later the same year, he was fined for touching an official. Mix in some taunting, yelling at innocent sponsors and a little mooning here and there (which, in fairness, was harmless), and you have a nice resume of wrong doing. Not to mention his little run-in with the traffic cop, which was his most serious offense by far.
Moss believes he is above the law. In many respects, he is. But it won't be long before he takes it too far. Minnesota was the best place for him. It's relatively calm, the fans are understanding and for the most part he could stay out of trouble. Oakland will be little more than a trap. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in Jamal Lewis' position sometime soon: trying to negotiate jail-time around the football season.
An Overrated Asset
Not only is Moss trouble, he's also not as big of an asset on the football field as most people automatically assume. I acknowledge his stats, but the lack of winning he so readily blames on others can be tracked right back to him.
Who else on the team takes plays off, much less defiantly admits to it? Who else gets in Daunte's face in the middle of a game, demanding the ball? Who else leaves the field while the game is still being played? Who else has such little respect for his teammates that he won't accept responsibility for his role in the losing and watches silently while his quarterback willingly carries the blame by himself? This line of questioning could go on for days.
Not only are the Vikings going to benefit from Moss' departure, they will also be better because of what they get in return. Napoleon Harris is a young linebacker with speed, decent size and sure tackling ability. He proved what he is capable of during the 2003 season, when he racked up 109 tackles, 79 of them solos. Harris will help fill the void we have at the linebacker position while Kevin Williams and Kenechi Udeze lead an improving defensive line. If Antoine Winfield stays healthy and the secondary holds its own, the defense could be okay. Along with Harris, the Vikings will reportedly received the seventh pick overall in this year's draft. They could either draft another linebacker or a defensive back, or they could opt to fill Moss' roll on the team with someone like Michigan's Braylon Edwards.
This team could be good. This team really could become a winner. And it's all because they got smart and got rid of Randy Moss.
I almost went crazy today. A close friend of mine and I were having lunch while we watched Barry Bonds' press conference. Somehow, we convinced ourselves that we should feel some sympathy for Bonds. After all, he shouldn't have to allow the media into his personal life. His family should be able to stay out of the spotlight. He might not be the most polite fellow in the world, but at least he shows up for the interviews.
What in the world were we thinking?
Bonds has proven two things over his 19-year career. He can hit the crap out of the baseball and he is a punk.
Make that three things: he has also used steroids.
These days, Bonds doesn't even deny it anymore. He just sidesteps the question. For example, when asked directly whether he has used illegal substances, Bonds replied, "You repeat those things to children and then eventually they tell you. I don't."
Is that a denial?
How about this one. When asked if he thinks using steroids is cheating, Bonds fires back with, "I don't know what cheating is. I don't believe steroids can help your hand-eye coordination, technically hit a baseball."
Thanks for clearing that one up, Barry.
Another batch of evidence can be found in his statistics. In his first 10 years as a major leaguer, Bonds hit 292 home runs. In his last 9 seasons, he has hit 411. You would expect a player's greatest output to be during his physical prime. Especially a home run hitter. We're not talking about a marathoner here. I guess there's still hope for me. I could still hit 500 major league home runs. I just need some juice.
We all wanted to love Barry Bonds. We all wanted to cheer for him and tell our kids one day that we saw the greatest player ever. But instead, we'll tell them we had to put up with him. He's a modern day Ty Cobb. The days where he had a chance to be loved by the fans are long gone.
He was picked first in the draft, ahead of Mark Prior. He signed for millions. An All-Star was traded to make room for him. He was named starting catcher as a 20-year old kid--and succeeded. He's soft-spoken, well respected and has a bright future in the game. Only one thing has been able to hold Joe Mauer back: his left knee.
During the second game of last season, a seemingly harmless slide on the warning track behind home plate resulted in torn medial meniscus cartilage and sidelined Mauer for the majority of the season. Throughout the year, Twins officials insisted Mauer was close to being ready. When he was playing, they insisted he was feeling fine. But he went back on the disabled list and stayed there. Now he's said to be healthy, but I have my doubts.
If Mauer played any other position this wouldn't be an issue. People hurt themselves all the time and come back 100% as good as they were before the injury. But a catcher hurting his knee is completely different. The wear and tear on a catcher's knees is no secret. Countless catchers have started out with healthy knees, only to be forced to hang up their spikes when they went bad. It would make sense that the wear and tear on something that was once torn would be more destructive than on something that starts out healthy.
For that reason, I wonder how long Joe Mauer will be a catcher in the big leagues. I have no doubt that he will succeed somewhere, and possible behind the plate...to begin with. But don't be surprised if somewhere along the line--and before too long--the Twins make the announcement: Joe Mauer's knee won't allow him to catch any longer, but he will be starting for us somewhere else in the field.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope Mauer's youth will be an asset in the healing process and the knee won't be affected for years to come. I would love to see him behind the dish for the next decade. I wish him nothing but the best.
I'm just not convinced about the health of his left knee.
The NBA All-Star game shouldn't be classified as a game at all. It's similar to the NFL Pro Bowl in that defense is rarely if ever implemented, the atmosphere is closer to that of a party than a contest and players have free reign to break the rules of the game in order to appear as athletic as possible. One thing is for sure: the display of talent during the NBA All-Star game more closely resembles street ball than NBA basketball.
This is a league infamous for allowing players to routinely get away with violations that used to be called traveling, carrying the ball and fouling. And even by those standards, the All-Star game is out of hand.
Despite my questioning tone, I agree with the NBA's loose interpretation of some of the rules. The majority of the leeway given to players involves ball handling: the traveling and carrying oversights. These help players do more while dribbling the ball. The days of keeping your hand on the top of the ball when you dribble and only taking two steps without dribbling are long gone, and that makes the game more fun to watch.
But the All-Star game? I could do without that. I don't have any desire to watch Shaq dance or check out the different skits the guys come up with for the slam dunk contest. It also wouldn't bother me to miss a bunch of cherry pickers hanging back during the game to see if they can get a break-away dunk. Believe it or not, there is a lot of suspense in a jump-shot. I wouldn't mind seeing one once in a while.
The NBA All-Star game, while potentially entertaining, illustrates the reason so many people prefer college basketball to the NBA. College features players giving some effort for a full game. It is based on the best team rather than a collection of individuals. It's not so much a production as it is a game. The NBA can say none of these things, and the All-Star game is a perfect illustration of that.
I'm not just an over zealous alumnus when I say that the Iowa State men's basketball team will not only make the NCAA tournament, they will also make some noise there. Yesterday's 63-61 overtime upset of second-ranked Kansas is the game that put the Clones in the national spotlight, but this team didn't come out of nowhere.
After starting a dismal 0-5 in the Big 12 conference, Coach Wayne Morgan's team performed a complete 180. First came Oklahoma, a confident, ranked team that entered Hilton Coliseum fully expecting to destroy ISU. But the Cyclones came away with the upset on their home court, and the tides had been turned.
Baylor, Texas, Nebraska, Texas Tech, Kansas State and Kansas all followed. Anyone who was in Iowa State's path was removed. They have now won 7 straight conference games and have beaten four ranked teams in a row in less than a month.
This is a team the selection committee will fall in love with. A run like that late in the season will be good enough to give the Cyclones not only a berth in the Big Dance, but a decent seed. And then watch out. Anything can happen with this team. They proved that yesterday in Lawrence, Kansas.
