May 2013
12 posts
Back on the diamond with the Renner Monarchs
Last night I put a baseball uniform back on. After (last year) going an entire summer without playing organized baseball for the first time since, like, 1986, I was back on the diamond for the Renner Monarchs’ season opener. We played the Harrisburg Woodies in Harrisburg. Just getting to the game in uniform proved to be difficult. Manager Kevin Knetsch had told me beforehand that my No. 22...
Gardy still stinks at bullpen'n.
Last night in Atlanta, the Twins were in position to snap their losing streak at six. Anthony Swarzak (who is apparently kinda good now) threw four strong in relief to give the Twins a chance, and on came Glen Perkins in the ninth to save it. Perkins was 8-for-8 in save chances coming in.
But he blew it.
That in itself isn’t a real big deal, even though the Twins ended up losing,...
Live Chat Day
Twins, Canaries, Storm, whatever. See ya at 2.
Breakfast with the Birds
This is a new one, but hey, give the Canaries credit. They’re not afraid to try new ideas to get people excited about their ballclub. They’ve already changed the name, now the Birds are inviting fans to the Birdcage for an Opening Day…breakfast? The Canaries are offering fans free breakfast from 7-9 a.m. Friday at the Birdcage. Players and coaches will be there, and the first 50...
The Birds are back
Today is media day for the Sioux Falls Canaries Fighting Pheasants Canaries. I’ll be there gathering everything I need for my usual season preview, stuff, which will include a column with me complaining about the second name change. At around 1 p.m. Stu and I will host a special Sports Web Live with Steve Shirley and Ben Moore our guests.
That means no live chat this week. The season opener...
TWTW: Way to go, Scott
I was in desperate need of a day off Sunday, so you’re not getting the typical weekly recap from me. I took a day to enjoy myself with the person who’s most important to me.
But instead of reading my drivel, read this story about my good friend Scott Nelsen. Scott spent several years as the SID at Minnesota State in Mankato, and we became fast friends because, well, he’s about...
Pick a number, any number
After a year away, I’m back playing amateur baseball again this year, for the 15-time state champions of the state, the Renner Monarchs. While I’m sure I’ll spend most of my time coaching first base, warming up the pitcher between innings and hoping for our hitters to build a big enough lead that I can be trusted to pitch an inning or two of mopup duty, I’m still happy...
A Rough Draft of the Augie and USF football depth...
I covered the Augie and USF spring football games over the last two weekends. USF’s defense handled its offense pretty good, while Augie didn’t even really play a game, just holding a public practice session. With USF having graduated 25 seniors and Augustana transitioning to a new coaching staff, it’s obviously a new era for both teams. That meant there was plenty to be curious about heading into...
This Bill Dance blooper video is the funniest...
Unstable patio furniture? Middle-aged men falling in lakes? Runaway trolling motors? Labradors shot out of cannons? It’s all here.
“Ded Gummit!”
So long, Chris Kluwe
Over the last couple years, Chris Kluwe became my favorite player in the NFL. That isn’t as significant as it may sound — while a lot of thought goes into picking a favorite player as a kid, when you grow up, you find yourself rooting ever more for the laundry. It feels kind of silly to have a ‘favorite player’ when you’re an adult, because they’re an adult and...
On Jason Collins
Last Monday, NBA veteran Jason Collins announced his intent to continue playing pro basketball as an openly gay man. I spent much of the week reading about it, seeing a level of ignorance and hatred (in comment sections and social media postings) that was almost impossible to comprehend, but also plenty of support; clear evidence that the tide has turned, and that Collins is more than likely going...
Jurassic Park has aged far better than The...
I’m not sure exactly how far back the trend of bringing old movies back to theaters goes — I seem to remember a high school girlfriend trying (and failing) to drag me to a showing of ‘Grease’ in the late 90s — but I’ve never participated. Star Wars, ET, Jaws — I’ve never felt compelled to pay $8 to see a movie I’ve already seen. That changed...
April 2013
17 posts
I saved a mouse's life. Also it's live chat day.
Since it was nice out again Monday but probably won’t be again for a while, I took the opportunity to give my dogs a bath. I do this by holding their leash in one hand and dousing them with ice cold water fired from a hose-gun at close range. Tiger, the springer spaniel (and the one who more often needs a bath), actually kinda likes it, especially when it’s hot out. For the last couple...
TWTW: RIP George Jones
I’ve been aware of country music legend George Jones for a long time, dating back to early in my childhood, when I saw a video on TNN (remember TNN?) for a song called ‘I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair’ which, I discovered this week, is every bit as corny today as it was then. When you’re a kid, country music, especially ‘authentic’ country music, is pretty...
Vikings Draft Reaction
A defensive tackle that some draft pundits had going in the top 10?
A cornerback?
A wide receiver?
No Manti Te’o?
Yeah, I’m happy.
The Twins top prospects are off to a hot start
Much has been made of the fact that, while the Twins aren’t expected to contend this year, and possibly not next year, either, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the resurgence of the farm system. Thanks to the draft, international signings and the trades of Denard Span and Ben Revere, the Twins have been able to quickly get their minor league talent back to a very high level, with...
WatchVideo: The Stampede advanced to the USHL’s Western Conference finals with a 2-0 win over the Lincoln Stars Tuesday night at the Arena.
Catching up on Augie and USF spring sports (Live...
I’ll be honest. I haven’t been able to keep up with spring sports at Augustana and USF too well. Obviously, the weather has wreaked havoc on the spring schedules, but my duties with the Stampede (Game 5 tonight!) and Storm, not to mention my trip to San Antonio, have also prevented me from covering all the stuff I’d ideally be able to. So here’s a somewhat crude attempt to...
Letter from an old friend
I got a letter the other day. Not an email, a hand-written letter that was delivered to the Argus Leader, addressed to me. There was a short note and a newspaper clipping. I scanned the newspaper clipping and saw that it included a quote from my 80-something grandmother. Then I read the note, and saw it was from an old ‘friend’. Here’s the clip and the note.
In case you...
Remembering the wonderful Pat Summerall
Reggie Jackson gave the nickname ‘The Voice of God’ to longtime Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard, but with all due respect to Sheppard, that never felt right to me. While Sheppard’s voice had a dignified, regal quality to it, it was soft and weathered, almost a whisper, and quite obviously the voice of an elderly man (at least, that’s the Sheppard I...
Finding good in Boston, humanity
When I heard I thought the same things you did. Who would do this? Why? What is wrong with people? What is happening to this planet? I am living in the end of days. We are circling the drain. People have never been worse than they are now. I thought about whether or not I can ever truly feel safe again, anywhere, ever, in my life. I thought about how hard/terrifying it must be to be a parent...
The Week That Was
So how did the Icepocalypse go for you? Living in a relatively new neighborhood in Northwest Sioux Falls, I had hope I’d be able to avoid losing power, and for the whole first day of the storm, I did. Then Wednesday morning, at about 9:30 I snapped awake thanks to a sudden jolt of quiet, as my ceiling fan and the hand-sized fan that rests next to my face at night both stopped. In the eery...
Again...stop whining about officials (Live Chat...
I followed the first half of last night’s NCAA title game mostly through twitter, then watched the second half on TV, and twitter was pretty much a non-stop run of people complaining about the officiating. This is nothing new, of course, as players, coaches and fans constantly complaining about refs is a big part of the game of basketball. It just is. It doesn’t bother me so much when...
The Week That Was
Holy cow was this an eventful week. - Baseball season started. - The Final Four and a bunch of complaining about officiating. - The Mike Rice controversy (though I don’t suppose it’s a controversy when the whole world agrees that the guy should be fired). - Roger Ebert died. - Spring football started. - Terrance Bryant returned to the Storm. - Yu Darvish missed a no-hitter by one...
College Baseball: Augie hosts USF today at 3
The Augie/USF rivalry resumes today on the baseball diamond, as the Vikings will host USF at the new and improved Ronken Field. The teams will play a double header that will start at 3 p.m. As is the NSIC’s custom, the first game is seven innings, the second is nine. If you haven’t been out to see the improvements Augie has made to their facility, you should. It’s really nice.
...
Terrance Bryant is back
With the quarterback position suddenly in flux for the Storm, coach Kurtiss Riggs is turning to a familiar face to make things right. Terrance Bryant, who guided the Storm to four consecutive indoor football championships and ranks first in team history in every career passing statistic, will be under center when the Storm play host to the Green Bay Blizzard Sunday at the Arena. Sioux Falls has...
Live Chat Day
2 p.m. Baseball season is underway, so we can talk about that, as well as put a bow on basketball season. I’ll read you there.
Happy New Year
Basketball season was too busy this year for me to do my usual preseason baseball writing, but subconsciously I have to assume the fact that my favorite team has little hope going into the season has led to a lack of enthusiasm that prevented me from ever giving spring training my full attention. That hasn’t changed much, as what you’re reading right now was much more of a chore to...
March 2013
16 posts
Twins Talk: Expect another last place finish in...
After a stunningly horrific 2011 in which injuries seemed to be the primary culprit in a 99-loss season, the Twins were hoping to return to respectability, at least, in 2012. And a lot went right. Josh Willingham had a huge season. Ryan Doumit proved an excellent acquisition. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau returned to health, Trevor Plouffe emerged as a power threat, Glen Perkins and Jared Burton...
A collection of amateur iPhone photos from the...
I was in San Antonio for five days and four nights covering the Augie women’s basketball team. It was a lot of fun. The Vikings knocked off the No. 1 team in the nation to reach the Final Four for the first time ever, and staying on the Riverwalk was pretty cool, even though I never once felt like I was in Texas. I was expecting Cowboys, or at least, you know, GWB types. But I only saw two...
Quick reaction to the end of the Augie season
It doesn’t feel like it should’ve ended like this. Not so much that the Augustana women’s historic season ended with a loss — that was a distinct possibility all along, and coach Dave Krauth reminded the media all week that when you get to the Elite Eight, both the winners and the losers are great teams. But what made the last game of the best season in Augie women’s...
Previewing the Final Four: Augie relaxed as they...
Well, needless to say, a pretty big win for the Vikings over No. 1, undefeated Clayton State on Tuesday in Texas. I’ll be honest. I didn’t really see it coming. At least, not until closer to tipoff, when a few people who know a lot more about basketball than me, started dropping hints that an upset might be forthcoming. Augie men’s coach Tom Billeter, along to do color commentary...
Q&A with Dave Krauth
Dave Krauth is 492-215 in 24 years as Augustana coach, but before this year, most of those seasons ended in disappointment, at least to some degree. Never had the Vikings won a conference title or regional championship, though they’d come close enough times to get sick of being reminded. Six times Krauth’s teams finished second in the NCC or NSIC and six times they finished third. And...
Reflections on 9 years of Augie women's hoops from...
The last college basketball team in South Dakota still alive for a championship boarded a bus at 8:30 Sunday morning at the Elmen Center on their way to San Antonio, where the Augustana women will be making their first appearance in the Division II Elite Eight on Tuesday. No, they didn’t bus the whole way, instead a traveling group of about 25 or so including coaches, media, etc., chartered...
Down with the World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic — I’m pretty sure this was the third one — ended last night with the Dominican Republic defeating Puerto Rico 3-0. Sam Deduno was the star, throwing five shutout innings for the win. I watched the last inning, after tuning in sporadically for an inning or two at a time throughout the tournament, though I never sat through an entire game. I hated the...
TWTW: A brief recap of Augie's weekend
My truck is wheezing from overwork and I’m in need of sleep so this will be quick. Obviously, a very impressive run by the Augie men’s team, reaching the NCAA tournament and picking up a win over Upper Iowa before falling (rather hard) to Winona State.
I honestly think it was kind of hard for Tom Billeter and the team’s only seniors — Cam McCaffrey and Leif Nomeland...
Filling out my brackets...D2 brackets, that is.
Here are my men’s and women’s brackets for the NCAA Division II Tournaments. I will be the first to admit that, outside of the Central Region, I know next to nothing. And since I picked both Augie teams to win two games, you could argue I don’t know anything about the Central Region, either. Anyway, these are purely for entertainment purposes.
The men’s bracket…
...
A suggestion for improving ESPN's First Take
By now, most people with even a modicum of intelligence are aware that ‘First Take’ is virtually the worst thing to ever happen to sports television.
But since there are still millions of trolls out there who apparently enjoy two idiots yelling at each other, it seems unlikely that ESPN will pull the plug on the show.
So if they’re not going to cancel the show, at least replace...
Mayor Mike loves the Summit
Pay no attention to Bob Volvano’s seemingly enormous face. Or the fact that Clay Matvick’s face strangely looks like it’s been superimposed by bad special effects.
Instead, direct your gaze to the background, and observe our man Mike, the Mayor of our great city. I don’t know why he’s pointing at his grandpa, but either way, I’m glad he was able to enjoy...
TWTW: Krauth gets his title; Vikings get rematches...
March moves at breakneck speed in the sports world. Locally, we’ve got the Summit League tourney going on right now — I’ll be there today after being in Watertown for girls state basketball Thursday and Rochester for the NSIC tournament on Saturday. I’ll be in Mankato on Saturday for the men’s Central Region tournament while the Augie women are in Topeka, Kan., for...
Augie women capture their first conference crown
ROCHESTER, Minn. — For the first time in school history, the Augustana women’s basketball team will be hanging a conference championship banner from the Elmen Center rafters, courtesy of an immensely satisfying 81-73 win over Minnesota State-Mankato in Saturday’s NSIC tournament championship game. Emily Schulte had 19 points and five steals to cap off a brilliant tournament...
Live Chat Day
At 2.
TWTW: Outtakes from the McCaffrey story
As you might expect with a story of such length, there was plenty of stuff that got left on the cutting room floor in putting together my Sunday piece on Cam McCaffrey, not to mention from interviews with Cody Schilling, Bill Gross, Leif Nomeland and others. Here are some of the best bits and pieces from my interviews that didn’t make it into the final story. Cody on losing the scoring...
Busy busy
It’s that time of year. Four nights in a row of covering playoff basketball, all while trying to find time to finish the Cameron McCaffrey feature story that will run Sunday.
Also, I’m making the trip to Aberdeen Saturday to cover Augie vs. Northern State in the NSIC tournament.
All of which is a kind of whiny way for me to explain why I don’t have a fresh blog post for today....
February 2013
17 posts
NSIC Tournament First Round Picks
Here are my picks for tonight’s first round NSIC tournament games. Women St. Cloud State over SMSU Winona State over UMD MSU-Mankato over Bemidji State MSU-Moorhead over USF Concordia over Crookston Wayne State over Northern State Mary over Upper Iowa Augie over Minot State Men Concordia over St. Cloud State Upper Iowa over Minot State Winona State over Mary Bemidji State over Wayne State...
Zim's All-NSIC Basketball Teams (Live Chat Day)
If I had a vote for the NSIC postseason awards (I don’t, they’re picked by the league’s coaches), I wouldn’t have much trouble filling out my ballot for the women’s awards. Minot’s Carly Boag finished second in the league in scoring (18.1), and first in rebounding (by a wide margin) with 11.9 per game. She also ranked third in the league in FG percentage (.561),...
TWTW: NSIC playoffs begin
The Augie men pretty much assured themselves of their fifth berth in the NCAA tournament in the last six years with Saturday’s win over regional No. 1 Winona State. We’ll see if the Vikings go with their notoriously indifferent approach to the NSIC tournament on Wednesday against UMD. My guess is with a younger team they’re going to be pretty excited, and I expect them to win,...
Be a beer lover, not a beer snob
One of my very oldest friends (as in longest tenured friendship, not his age) was in town this week from Kansas City. He had sent me a text a few days in advance suggesting we meet up for a beer while he was around, and I told him that Wednesday worked best. I assume he expected me to suggest we meet at Rookies or Wild Wings or the Crow or one of my more typical hangouts, and that probably...
SportsWeb Live with the Skyforce
I went to the Skyforce game last night. Had a great time. My dad gave me his courtside seats, and me and the lady friend enjoyed watching the Force dispatch the Iowa Energy 117-112. Demetris Nichols had 42 points, eight boards and eight assists. That’s pretty good. And while the knock on the D-League is often that the guys don’t play hard or go through the motions or whatever, it was a...
