Epic Failure

Big Ben Beef Jerk

It's not easy being a Steeler's fan these days. The face of the franchise is quite possibly a criminal who just got away with rape, or at the very least he's a cad. I can't imagine that the Rooney family is going to stand by and not respond with a suspension if it doesn't come from the NFL first. I see the company that brought us Big Ben Beef Jerky has ended its marketing relationship with Roethlisberger. What they should do is just change the name to Big Ben Beef Jerk and promise to donate the proceeds of each unit sold to a women's sexual abuse awareness organization.

Keeping It Together After a Tragedy

I haven't watched much of the Olympics but upon reading about the performance of Canadian skater Joannie Rochette after her mom unexpectedly died of a heart attack two days earlier, I watched the performance online. I found it to be moving.

Hometown Skier Wins Gold

If I wasn't so lazy I would walk up the street and take a picture of Buck Hill which is not far from my house. It is just a little ski hill. But somehow it turns out Olympic caliber skiers. Lindsey Vonn, who just won the Gold Medal in the Alpine Skiing Womens Downhill at British Colombia, grew up here in Burnsville and learned to ski at Buck Hill. The 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, saw two Buck Hill skiers on the US Olympic Team. Both Kristina Koznick and Tasha Nelson started their skiing careers as members of the Buck Hill Ski Racing Team. Ski Magazine calls Buck the "Legendary capital of American ski racing."

It's just a little hill. Pretty amazing. Congratulations to Vonn.

Take that America's Team

This Steeler's fan is happy for the hometown Vikings.

Inside Baseball

In a few minutes the hometown Minnesota Twins play their final regular season game in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Next year they get their own brand-spanking-new outdoor ballpark. The way baseball should be played.

It is worth noting, though, that right now it is 44 degrees outside and raining hard. As it has been for most of the past week. Snow is forecast for the weekend, when, should the Twins win today they will be hosting the Yankees. But with global warming on the way by next year I am sure it will be warm here in April and October.

Update: What a game. On to New York to play the evil Yankees. The Twins have yet to beat them this season. But there is at least one more game to be played in the Dome.

Signs of the Apocalypse?

Penn State blows out Indiana in the Big Ten tournament and we are talking basketball not football.

McCants Gone

The Timberwolves just traded Rashad McCants to Sacramento as part of a four player deal. McCants was a first-round pick in 2005 and turned out to be a huge disappointment. He was a fantastic shooter but played no defense and had a terrible work ethic.

McCants has "Born to Be Hated" tattooed on one arm and "Dying to Be Loved," on the other. At least he knows he has a problem.

Calvin Booth was also part of the Wolves trade. Booth is the only Penn State grad currently in the NBA.

The More Things Change...

I am back from vacation and getting caught up on e-mails and news. In no particular order a few brief comments:

1) The Timberwolves are dreadful- Randy Wittman was fired as coach while I was gone and Kevin McHale was "demoted" from Vice President of basketball operations to coach. Why owner Glenn Taylor can't bring himself to fire McHale is beyond me. McHale made one good move his entire career as VP when he signed Kevin Garnett as a kid out of high school, but he has bungled every other decision he has made. Taylor is incredibly loyal, which is admirable, but McHale needs to go.

2) Politicians are corrupt - Not all politicians are corrupt and in fact most are fine, if flawed, public servants. But some are corrupt and some are so stupidly corrupt that you wonder how they ever managed to get elected to office, unless of course they bought or cheated their way in. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested after he was caught on a wiretap essentially selling the US Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama to the highest bidder. He even said that if he couldn't enrich himself in a deal for the seat he might just take it himself. There is some convergence here between the arrogance of power and sheer stupidity that makes it possible to think you could get away with this, and to talk about it all over the phone and not imagine that someone might be listening in.

3) The American auto industry is in denial - It appears a bailout of the big three auto industries is near complete; everyone seems to agree that they, because of all the jobs linked to them, are too big to fail. I read about this on the front page of the Star Tribune this morning. On the back page of the Sports section was a full page ad by the Walser Automotive Group, one of the largest auto dealerships in the twin cities. Here, in part is what the ad said:

Part of the Big Three automaker's plan presented to congress details the investments being made in fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles. If gas remains at its current, relatively low, levels will America embrace these new vehicles? Lower demand is a key factor in the drop in gas prices. The drop in gas prices is a key factor in the sale of larger, less efficient vehicles. See where this is heading?

We think folks should be able to own the type of vehicles they need...and enjoy driving. If you own a boat you need to be able to tow it. If you are a carpenter you can't haul your tools and building materials to the jobsite in the trunk of a sub-compact...

The message here is that Americans won't buy those fuel efficient vehicles if gas prices stay low. They want the big gas guzzlers they enjoy driving. But wait, then why is the American auto industry in trouble in the first place? If America wants what the Big Three are building then why are Americans buying Toyotas and Hyundais and Nissans? And who really thinks gas prices are going to stay this low when the economy recovers? The same market forces - increased global demand for oil coupled with the arrival of "peak oil" - is going to push gas prices higher again.

The issue isn't whether you need a big truck or a small car. The issue is whether that big truck or small car is fuel efficient and built with quality. The American auto industry has fought tooth and nail every attempt to mandate better fuel economy in vehicles, arguing that Americans don't want to pay for it. But long before the latest energy crisis hit us with $4 a gallon gas Americans were deserting American car makers for foreign cars. The energy crisis just accelerated the process.

But don't believe any of this silly stuff about an energy crisis or even an economic downturn. Go out there and buy yourself a new Hummer. You know you want one.

Kansas Wins

That's my prediction for tonight. I picked them to win it all from the very beginning. I did not pick Memphis to be in the final.

Update: Amen!