Good Monday morning to everyone! I hope that your weekends were all wonderful and fun-filled! Mine was good. I got out of town for the first time in awhile, and hopefully I have come back with a new energy. And, hopefully that starts tomorrow!
I got back yesterday and got caught up on my e-mails and some other things, and then sat down and watched the Super Bowl commercials... er... the Super Bowl game, that is! So, for today, I am just going to write for an hour on a number of topics and see how much I can talk about. (Note - if you are a big Super Bowl fan, there is a very entertaining Super Bowl Blog over at BrentNet today!)
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For those of you who missed my (rather lengthy) American League Central Hitters preview from Friday, be sure to check it out. I anticipate my AL East Hitters preview on Wednesday with the AL West to follow on Friday. Then I hope to work on a bunch of it over the weekend so I can post articles/previews on consecutive days the following week.
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For those of you who missed my game of Pepper! with the Stick and Ball Guy from Friday, check it out here. That was a lot of fun and turned out well!
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The Super Bowl was an incredibly boring game, as per usual. There was no score after the 1st Quarter. It was 7-7 at halftime. Paul McCartney bored the crowd (or maybe just me?) with his halftime performance. I mean, how many people did they hire to go on the field and jump around while he sang?? Anyway, the action didn't get much better in the second half. Fortunately the poor football kept the score close so that there was need for an onside kick. And, seriously, everyone should be shouting the virtues of what Terrell Owens today! Everyone told him not to play and that he wouldn't play and yet he started. And it wasn't a Randy Moss, extend-a-streak start, Owens had 9 catches for 122 yards. He looked great, showed speed and cutting abilities. Tom Brady was OK, as he was in the previous Super Bowl wins. Fortunately he picked Deion Branch to throw most of his passes to most, so Branch won the MVP award. He caught 11 passes, after catching 10 in last year's Super Bowl.
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Now to the important discussion, the Super Bowl commercials. $2.4 million for a 30 second spot! So, who did well? Well, I really enjoyed the Ford Mustang commercial where the man was frozen at the stop light in the cold weather. The P. Diddy/Diet Pepsi Truck commercial was great. It was full of celebrities and the concept was so true. I liked the Lebron James-Lebron's Lightning Lemonade Bubblicious commercial. The Lays commercial, where the ball was hit over the fence into the mean neighbors yard, was great. They throw a bag of Lays potato chips over the fence and the ball comes back, and a pet, and finally MC Hammer flies back over the fence and starts dancing. The kids throw him back! HA!
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The best series of commercials had to be by careerbuilder.com. They had a man who worked "with a bunch of monkeys." First, monkeys are always funny! Second, the side jokes were hilarious. The whoopee cushion. The butt kissing. All very funny!
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I
should point out to any SethSpeaks.net fans out there
that I just yesterday signed up to own this domain name for
three more years. I
was thrilled that the company that I bought it from made a very
impressive appearance with a Super Bowl commercial.
GoDaddy.com
had
a very nice commercial. Nikki Cappelli was on
trial, in a CSpan format. She has a wardrobe malfunction of her
own as a strap breaks. Lets just say that it made my purchase so
worthwhile! You can also go to their site to see
The Full "Web Only" Censorship Hearing. Interestingly,
the name Nikki Cappelli is the company's CEO's 17 year old
daughter's name. -
Almost as eerie is a quote from Joe Simpson that I read in my most recent issue of Blender magazine. In it, he says about his daughter Jessica, "She's got double D's! You can't cover those suckers up!" Dude, that's your daughter. I don't care if it's true, you don't say that!! And, didn't you used to be a preacher or something????
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Do you figure this story will get baseball's attention? Jose Canseco's book is coming out, and he is naming names in the steroid situation. He discussed injection Mark McGwire while they were teammates. He helped Jason Giambi with steroids. He also says that he introduced Ranger teammates Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmiero and Juan Gonzalez to steroids and human-growth hormones. Just a couple of thoughts. Based on his own history, is Jose Canseco really a good source for accurate information? Second, Canseco has been bitter since he stopped playing in the big leagues, feeling that owners blacklisted him, and conspired to keep him out. I'm not naive enough to think that he isn't telling some truths, but I woudln't consider everything he says/writes to be accurate. And again, "innocent until proven guilty" is a good concept!
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Did you know that the Twins released Adam Johnson last month? Boy, that was kept quiet, huh? He signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks recently.
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I have written numerous times about how much I enjoy the movie Napolean Dynamite. I bought the DVD around Christmas, and in the month since, I think I have seen it 16-18 times. I laugh more every time I see it. Anyway, there is a great article in the Tribune from Saturday about a high school kid from Chaska, MN (Jeff Friend) who watched the movie over and over again and perfected the Napolean Dance, as seen in the movie. He then performed the entire 2:10 dance in front of the school. There are also some interesting stats and trivia about the movie in the article, discussion how it has become such a cult hit.
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I was just reading my new Baseball America issue. I was reading the Philadelphia Phillies Organization Report and found it to be incredibly ironic. In it is written:
The Phillies invited 16 of their top prospects to the team's Clearwater, Fla., training compound for a weekend in December. There were no gloves or spikes, yet team officials rated the weekend a success.
The prospects, including slugging first baseman Ryan Howard and pitchers Cole Hamels and Gavin Floyd, to part in a leadership seminar run by assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle, farm director Steve Noworyta, director of Latin American operations Sal Artiaga and employee assistance specialist Dickie Nole.
"I sensed the kids got a lot out of it." ...
"We talked a lot about what it means to to big league camp and how to conduct yourself. We also talked about how to act when you come back to minor league camp. We don't want players thinking they've already made it just because they went to big league camp."
The players participated in workshops dealing with mental toughness, setting and reaching goals, and how to deal with the media.
"The Phillies care about the players beyond the field, and I think it shows," Nororyta said. "I'm not sure if we're going to do it every year or every other year, but we'll do it again. That's how productive we felt it was."
So, how do you think they feel about Cole Hamels getting into a fight at a bar last week? Now he needs surgery and won't be able to throw for 3 or more months.
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MSN has an article on the Top 10 Romantic Movie Moments. And interesting topic, however, I have to question one of the choices. Coming in at #4 is Punch Drunk Love! I don't think that there was even one redeeming quality about that movie. It was terrible. It was not romantic. It is the only Adam Sandler movie that I can't even watch!
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Remember that I bought a house here in Northern Minnesota last July. The Tribune also had what I consider to be a very interesting article about housing costs throughout the state. The article gives numerous examples of the costs of small homes in the cities, comparing that dollar value to what could be purchased at the same cost in the out state regions. There is one example of a 520 square foot home in the Cities that sold for $174,000. Lets just say that my house is more than double the size, includes a single car garage and sits on almost an acre, and I paid well more than $100,000 less than that! Here is an interesting map of the average housing growth and median housing prices by county. I live in the county at the top of the state, second to the left.
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Since I last wrote, the Minnesota Timberwolves lost in overtime to the Rockets on Friday night and lost to the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon. It was the team's fifth straight loss, and their fourth in a row at home. Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak continue to play well. But the team is just not working. We could venture guess after guess as to why, but no one knows. I am now hearing from all over the place that Flip Saunders should be fired. I completely disagree. First, I like that the Wolves are a generally loyal and patient organization. But also, as Flip himself said, this is the first time in his time with the team that they have underachieved (I think that is what happened with Denny Green. One bad year and GONE!). Firing him makes little sense. Now, firing Kevin McHale makes some sense! Especially if he doesn't make some sort of a trade at this time! A shake up is needed, but I don't believe it should be with Saunders.
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As disappointing as this season has been for the Wolves, Gophers Men's basketball fans have to be thrilled with this year's team. Vincent Grier scored 26 of his 32 points in the second half in their 65-60 win over 19th ranked Wisconsin. Maybe Dan Monson can coach! It really shouldn't surprise people. He led Gonzaga into the national spotlight with good players who were not ball-hawking glory hounds (read- Rickert, Humphries). Now he has a group of players who just play hard. They are now 15-6 overall and 6-3 in the Big 10!
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Last week, a kid by the name of Cash Eggleston, a senior guard at Minnesota Transitions (a charter school), scored a state record 90 points against Community of Peace Academy. The team won 153-69. I was thinking these things, but the Tribune's John Millea wrote about the record in less than flattering terms, not blaming the player, but some other incredibly interesting situations that were in play. It's actually a great read!
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Finally, I got a lot of great e-mails last week and over the weekend about my preview of the AL Central Hitters, the Wayne Terwilliger story, and much more. I would encourage anyone with questions or comments on anything to feel free to e-mail me at any time.
And on that note, I wish you a great Monday. If you have any questions or comments on anything you have read above, please e-mail me. Have yourself a great week!