Secrets of the City

The Vikings play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Predictions?

Here’s a game preview from Vikings Gab.

“The Vikings will dominate this game as the Seahawk’s will provide little more than a few speed bumps as resistance.  Home field advantage, nearly at full health, and superior talent spells a victory for the Vikings.”

Seems like a no-brainer. Put money on it.

As for the home field advantage, however, looks like it’s going to be the Metrodome for a while still — which the Vikings aren’t very happy about. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission approved a plan to force them to extend their Metrodome lease by two years.

Timberwolves GM David Kahn recently wrote a letter to fans after his team lost nine games in a row. Here’s a link to the letter from Jerry Zgoda’s Wolves blog on the Strib’s website. Here’s a link to Deadspin making fun of the letter and the Wolves in general.

Kahn and the Wolves organization have taken an open and honest approach with fans this season, stressing that there is no expectation of making the playoffs and not sugarcoating the team’s ineptitude. At first I thought Kahn’s honestly was refreshing. But the more letters he writes and quotes he gives that continue to lower expectations, the more I wonder if he’s already desperate 11 games into his tenure.

Bottom line: No matter what Kahn says or writes, it’s difficult to appear competent when your team will be lucky to win more than 18 games. Perhaps we should just embrace his candor. Compare Kahn to Gophers football coach Tim Brewster. Would you rather have Brewster’s never-ending sales pitch or Kahn’s frankness about how his team sucks but they’re working to fix it?

During the Hank Williams III show at First Avenue on Saturday night, I couldn’t stop thinking about possible parallels the foul-mouthed grandson of a country music legend could potentially have with Brett Favre. Williams splits his shows into two different sets, the first hour he plays a rowdy brand of hillbilly country that pays tribute to the country legends of old while mixing in elements of punk rock. The second hour he ditches the stand-up bass, banjo, and steel guitar, unbraids his mid-back length hair, and headbangs to death metal anthems that send country fans running for the exits and metal fans rushing the stage.

Hank doesn’t care that some fans of his country music can’t stomach the metal portion of his show. He also doesn’t care that he makes his metal fans wait through the country set before unleashing the heavy guitars and double-bass drum pounding. For much of his career, Favre didn’t seem to mind crossing over two different styles either. He embraced his heavy metal side: Making risky throws into double and triple coverage, flinging underhand pass as he’s inches away from being sacked, and launching the 50-yard bomb when a receiver may have been more open underneath. He also showed a country side: Throwing conservative slants and screens with precision, involving his team’s tight ends to pick apart coverages designed to eliminate his downfield threat, and speaking frequently about sitting on his lawn tractor in Mississippi. (more…)

Ricky Rubio, David Kahn, or Kurt Rambis won’t be able to save the Timberwolves if Al Jefferson isn’t able to fully recover from offseason ACL surgery. Much of the Wolves offseason chatter revolved around the Rubio soap opera and the hiring of Kahn and Rambis as GM and coach, respectively. Almost forgotten was the fact that Jefferson, the key asset in the Garnett trade, the main piece in the Wolves rebuilding project, and their best player was coming off major knee surgery. So far, Jefferson looks like he has a ways to go before he’s back to his old self. If he can’t find his old form soon, however, the Wolves could set a record for ineptitude.

Jefferson looked overmatched against Blazers center Greg Oden during another lopsided Wolves loss on Wednesday. Oden pushed Jefferson around for three quarters, throwing down dunks and tearing away rebounds from a befuddled Big Al. There’s no shame in being dominated by an elite NBA center, but Oden has been far from elite during his time in the league. If all was right in Wolves land, Jefferson would’ve looked like the franchise center on Wednesday, making Oden and his grizzly beard move laterally on defense and forcing him out of position (Guys with beards like Oden’s are supposed to be slow and plodding, right?). Instead, all Jefferson was able to do against the 21-year-old who could easily pass for 45 was throw up desperate looking quarter-hook shots that ricocheted off the rim.

Jefferson was averaging 23.1 points and 11 rebounds before the injury last season. Those numbers are down to 15.1 and 6.1 through nine games this season. Nobody expected the Wolves to resemble anything close to a contender in 2009-10. But the new coach, GM, Johnny Flynn, and Rubio tease at least provided a glimmer of hope. That hope is all but gone now. Don’t look for it to return any time soon if the team’s biggest asset continues to hobble around and looks broken down against the likes of Oden.

Suspended Minnesota Gopher Royce White is now under investigation for a laptop computer theft on campus last weekend. The freshman forward already faces misdemeanor theft and fifth-degree assault charges for allegedly shoplifting and shoving a security guard at a mall last month.

Teammate Devron Bostick was suspended for violating team rules. Forward Trevor Mbakwe is sidelined until his upcoming felony aggravated assault trial wraps up in Florida in December.

And in football, freshman defensive back Michael Carter was arrested and jailed early this month for underage drinking and obstruction of justice. Linebacker Gary Tinsley was arrested last month. And Cedric McKinley and Tim Dandridge received two-game suspensions for violations of team rules.

To top it off, the Gophers just don’t seem to be doing very well at all. Why the continual embarrassment?

(via PiPress)

“Twins catcher Joe Mauer won his second straight Gold Glove today, marking the 40th time a Minnesota player has won the award.”

AP report on Gold Glove winners.

Twinkie Talk congrats to Mauer.

Anybody want to weigh in on the latest Twins trade: Carlos Gomez for J.J. Hardy?

Unhappy with the September decision to allow Minnesota Vikings Kevin Williams and Pat Williams to continue playing, despite violating the league’s antidoping policy (they were using an over-the-counter weight-loss supplement called StarCaps, which contains diuretic bumetanide), N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodall is asking Congress to change federal labor laws so that state labor laws cannot interfere with league policies. Are the Vikings hiding behind Minnesota workplace laws? Is the N.F.L. oozing out of its britches by trying to interfere with labor laws? Or… should sports only be played in countries with centralized governments? (Or have we had just about enough of this ridiculous case?)

Some baseball economics: According to ESPN, the Yankees total 2009 salary was $208 million.  The Twins’ was $68 million. So NY paid $227K for every run they scored this year (915) and over $2M per win (103). Twins paid $83K per run (817) and $777K per win (87).  Not like these numbers are a big surprise, but I guess it remains to be seen who got the better deal.

As our Twins prepare to face the Yankees in New York today, I thought we should pause a moment to discuss last night’s extra-innings victory in the Dome, which some players are now calling “the greatest game ever.” Even this Detroit columnist was impressed. What do you think, MNSpeakers?