General – Knuckleballs

“WHY Are You Doing This?”

Posted on 29 June, 2023 by Jim Crikket

Welcome to Knuckleballs.

I was going to say “Welcome back to Knuckleballs,” but let’s be honest… many of you weren’t even aware this blog existed.

First two books are available. Book Three should be published July 8. Available in paperback and Kindle through Amazon.com

It’s been going on three years since I (that’s me up there on the byline… “Jim Crikket”) posted an article here. In 2020, I used this site as a vehicle for sharing my interest in sports betting, and to provide updates on the surgery I underwent that resulted in a plate and a couple of screws being put in my left foot.

Before that, my co-founders and I wrote primarily about Minnesota Twins baseball here. Then we got lives.

This article isn’t about any of that, however.

This is about my new career. Or new avocation. Whatever it is.

I have become an author. In fact, given that I published my first novel through Amazon in April and I already have a second book available and a third that should be published in less than two weeks, I think I can rightfully claim to be a prolific author.

Based on early sales volumes, however, James Patterson has little to be concerned about with regard to losing market share to S.D. Buhr.

That’s okay.

So… you may be wondering why I decided to do this, if not to make money.

It’s a fair question. And it’s not that I’d mind generating a little income from this venture. It’s not inexpensive to self-publish books, so please know I appreciate everyone who’s supported me by buying my books. I genuinely want the books to be read. I’d love to get them into some libraries, as difficult as that can be to accomplish for an independent author.

But I didn’t start doing this to make millions of dollars (although I’ll answer the phone if Netflix ever calls). In fact, at the onset of this project, I honestly never intended to publish any of what I was writing.

Remember 2020? It sucked.

For me, the sucking started in 2019 when I broke my foot while I was hanging out at the condo in Fort Myers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The resulting surgery already had me laid up for several weeks BEFORE we all got virtually locked down for COVID the following March.

Somewhere during that stretch–I don’t recall exactly when–I decided to start writing a story. The purpose, frankly, was to keep my mind from turning to mush.

I had enjoyed a retirement life that involved family, friends, golfing, travel, attending minor league baseball games… and writing about minor league baseball.

Then, just like that, spending time with anyone outside the immediate family you lived with was discouraged, for everyone’s safety. Travel was out of the question. Golfing was okay, to degree, although I certainly did much less of it. And after professional baseball shut down spring training that March, minor league baseball literally ceased to exist.

So, with no minor league baseball to write about, I decided to write about something else. I just wasn’t sure what that should be. They say you should write what you know. Great advice, unless you’re someone who really doesn’t know enough about anything to write about it.

But I decided there was one thing I did know about. I knew what it was like to grow up a high school coach’s son. I knew what it was like to be a teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I knew what it was like to be uprooted by my parents from my southern Minnesota hometown and dragged kicking and screaming to a smaller town in northcentral Iowa.

So that’s what I began to write about.

For a short time, I started writing about my actual life in Albert Lea, Minnesota, back in 1968. About half an hour later, however, I got bored with that. I realized my life simply wasn’t all that exciting. I was just a kid, like every other kid in the neighborhood.

That’s when I decided to make stuff up. That was a HUGE decision. It made writing a lot more fun and, I truly believe, it made the story a lot better!

Over the following several months, I wrote. I wrote about this poor kid having to move away from his friends (including his first crush) and into this strange world in his new Iowa hometown.

Naturally, the early life of the protagonist (we’ll call him “Du” because that’s what I called him in the book) parallels the author’s life (that’s me, by the way) in some ways. But not many. Honest… I had to make 99% of the story up because my reality (while I enjoyed the heck out of it when I was living it) just wasn’t the stuff that makes for a good novel.

I wrote what I felt was a nice story, ending with the first date between Du and one of the girls in his junior high school class.

It took maybe three months, but it was done.

I didn’t know what to do next. I never intended to show it to anyone. I didn’t even tell my family I was writing it!

But I kind of liked the characters I had created. Some–not all–of them were based VERY loosely on people I knew back then. If you happened to know my parents, you very well might recognize some of my real parents’ mannerisms, language, etc. But the parents I created were not my real parents. They were almost caricatures of my real parents. And, frankly, not particularly flattering caricatures in some ways.

The same might be true of some of the friends I grew up with. Some of the characters in the book share mannerisms, family backgrounds, hair color, etc., with people I grew up with. But the characters themselves… what they do and what they say… that’s all fiction.

Not to mention, I discovered quickly that even if I had wanted to write a character for every friend I grew up with back then, there wasn’t room. There may have been times when I was a teenager that it didn’t feel like I had many friends, but when I started writing, I figured out very quickly that there would only be room for a limited number to play significant roles in the book. So that’s when I learned, first hand, about consolidating characters.

In my real life, the kids I played baseball and basketball with were not necessarily the same kids with whom I did all the other crazy stuff I did back then. But for the sake of keeping things from becoming unwieldly, in Du’s world, the guys he played basketball with were the same guys he raced cars and rode motorcycles with.

What’s that you say? Thirteen year olds don’t race cars and ride motorcycles? I’m glad you brought that up.

So, after I finished the story and STILL had no minor league baseball to go see, I decided to just keep writing.

First, I wrote about what happens to Du on the day AFTER that first date. And the week after that. And the month after that. And the year after that.

It was early during this period that I made a decision. I’m not sure I would make the same choice if I were starting over today. I not only tried to make sure I never used any real names of anyone in my life (for obvious reasons), I also changed the names of the towns where most of the story takes place.

Why do that? Was I ashamed of having grown up in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and Webster City, Iowa? Not for a moment. I cherish the memories I have of living in both towns, and the friends I had in each.

But with this being a work of fiction, there were instances where I needed (or at least strongly desired) a feature in a park, or at a lake, or in a school, that did not actually exist in the towns I grew up in. So, I exercised literary license and changed the names of some of the towns.

So my friends from Webster City can’t read something and say, “Hey, we didn’t have that store or anything like it when we were growing up there.”

I also was toying with the idea of Du, once he was in high school, making frequent trips back to his old hometown in Minnesota to visit friends, so I sort of “relocated” the fictional version of my real hometown of Webster City to a geographical location much closer to the Iowa/Minnesota border.

I didn’t end up doing anything much with that kind of story arc, however, so I probably wouldn’t have had to do that. I could have gone back and “moved” the town closer to where Webster City is located, but by then I was a year (and a million words) into this deal and the thought of trying to do that gave me a headache.

Plus… like I’ve said… NOBODY was ever going to read any of this anyway! So who cares where the towns are located or what they’re called? I KNOW. Nobody else will need to.

Anyway, by the time we were coming out of that COVID lockdown, our boy Du and his friends had graduated from high school… and I had a “book” that had more words than War and Peace. I’m serious. I looked it up.

Did I let that stop me? Hell no. I kept writing until Du and some of his friends had managed to graduate from college, get married, and have a couple of pretty cool careers. Now we were up to twice the number of words in War and Peace.

But at one point, I encountered a problem.

There came a point in the story… I think when Du was in college… where I thought it would be really helpful to insert a chapter from the perspective of one of the women in his life at that time. When I was done writing that, I liked it. So I wrote another similar chapter to insert at another point where I felt it was helpful.

Now that cat was out of the bag, Pandor’s Box had been opened, and all those other similar cliches you want to try to avoid using when you write, but end up using anyway.

But I went back to the beginning. And I inserted chapters from the perspectives of the girls he went to junior high with. And the girls he went to high school with. And the women he met during his college years. And his wife.

That, my friends, is how you take a story that’s already at War and Peace levels and jack it up to three times that size.

It’s also how you turn a three-month project into a three-year (and counting) project.

But for a long time, the length simply didn’t matter to me. I was just writing it because I enjoyed doing it. I became very attached to almost all of the characters. It took almost no time at all for them to completely escape any remote resemblance to any of my friends who may have at least partially inspired them. They all had lives and personalities and hopes and fears and strengths and weaknesses of their own.

And that particularly includes Du, the protagonist. He was never me. Not really. But he became his own man, long before he reached manhood. He tried. He failed. He made mistakes. He was hurt. He hurt others, including those he loved. He was a product of the environment he grew up in.

Speaking of that environment, as I continued to write, something I really enjoyed doing was incorporating references to iconic moments in history from that era, and references to our music in particular. I would hear a classic song and think, “Oh, I know a great spot where I can reference that song in the story!”

Often, those thoughts would come to me in the middle of the night, and I’d have no recollection of them the next day, but occasionally I’d manage to remember to plug it in where I wanted it.

Anyway, once I had the story “done” (I put that word in quote marks because I know this story won’t be done until I’ve published the final book), I began to have some thoughts about sharing it. As soon as I started down that path, I had a problem.

It was probably too long.

Unless…

That’s how “The Du-Over” went from an insanely long book to being the first book in the “Growing Up Barely Boomer” SERIES of novels.

Of course, that meant I had to go back and chop the story into book-sized units, with each book having an ending that at least made SOME sense. I’m not big on cliffhangers, so I tried to minimize those. But you also want to leave the reader with enough interest to wonder about what happens next.

So, that’s where we are today. It’s also why I can kick out a new book every couple of months instead of maybe one or two a year like a normal author. The story’s over (for me). I know what happens to every character from junior high to adulthood. Sure, I could (and certainly will) make some additional changes. But the time involved between each book is mostly a factor of getting them into a final version I’m happy with, having my wife read through it, then getting it in the hands of my editors, who take what I write and turn it into something readable.

Here’s the thing, though… and I’m sure you’ll be devastated by this… I’m not sure I’m going to actually publish all of the books.

I’ve made a commitment to myself to publish nine books. That gets Du and the rest of these crazy kids through their high school graduation. Maybe that’s enough. Maybe it’s enough that I know what happens to them after that. I’m not sure.

After all, I’m pretty sure that even those friends I grew up with who have been very supportive and kind in their assessments of the first couple of books in the series probably took one look at the picture of nine book covers and said something along the lines of, “That idiot is writing NINE books? I was all for one of them. That was nice. But NINE? Listen, just because I dated that loser for a couple of months in high school, I’m not going to buy NINE freaking books! After all, I dumped his ass for a reason back then. I didn’t want to keep listening to him talk. I sure don’t want to turn around and read a million words he’s written!”

And I get that.

But I’m going to publish them anyway. And years from now (hopefully) when I’m no longer around, there will be at least nine books out there somewhere that my grandkids can point to and say, “My grandpa wrote that story.”

I can happily live with that.

And now you know why I’m doing this.

Steve

P.S. If you’re feeling like doing some reading, you can find my Amazon author’s page here. You can also keep abreast of news concerning my writing on Facebook here. I’m hoping to make appearances at a few more author events/shows this summer and fall, and I’ll be announcing those appearances on that Facebook page. If you’re anywhere near my old stomping grounds in Webster City, Iowa, put September 14 on your calendar. I’m scheduled to make an appearance at Kendall Young Library at 6 p.m. that evening.

Happy Birthday, Moneyball (and Damn You!)

Posted on 18 June, 2018 by Jim Crikket

Happy birthday, Moneyball!

Yes, as Yahoo’s Jeff Passan alerted us via Twitter over breakfast this morning, Michael Lewis’ seminal baseball book, Moneyball, was released 15 years ago today.

I have to admit, I was picturing the entire SABR community simultaneously Skyping and toasting Lewis and his book, each member raising a glass of their favorite obscure local craft beer. It made me chuckle.

Moneyball’s birthday seems like a good day to discuss the state of baseball, today, given that Passan argues that the book, “set into motion the most significant changes in baseball since Jackie Robinson integrated the game in 1947.”

Wow, right?

So, let’s talk about the changes (and potential changes) to the game of baseball that we can could credit (blame?) Moneyball for.

Before we do that, though, a few personal recollections of Moneyball, the book.

I read it not too long after it came out. I didn’t rush out to buy it the day it was released or anything, but I’m pretty sure I read it within a few months of its release.

I enjoyed it. It didn’t cause an immediate seismic shift in my feelings concerning conventional baseball strategy, but I thought the points that A’s General Manager Billy Beane made were worth considering.

Sometime later, I remember reading that the film rights to the book had been purchased and I tried to imagine how anyone would be able to make a commercial movie out of a book about the application of statistical analysis to baseball. Yes, bringing Brad Pitt on to star as Beane would get a few fannies in the seats, but still.

It turned out my skepticism was well founded as Hollywood had some trouble coming up with a usable script. Then Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing,” “SportsNight,” “A Few Good Men,” et al) was reported to be taking on the task of doing re-writing the teleplay. At that point, I knew I would have to see the movie, not because I’m much of a Pitt fan, but because I’m a huge Sorkin fan.

Sorkin managed to fictionalize the underlying story enough to make it be entertaining without losing the underlying point of the book, in my opinion, but I know some feel otherwise. Regardless, by the time the movie came out to critical acclaim in 2011, most MLB teams were already subscribing to most of Beane’s philosophies, anyway.

Anyway, let’s get back to talking about changes to baseball that may be directly or indirectly traced to Moneyball and also a bit about what some see as inevitable future changes that we might as well blame Moneyball for, as well, while we’re at it.

Passan traces the current focus on “three true outcomes” to Moneyball, as well as defensive shifts, current bullpen usage and the significant spike in pitching velocity.

I’ll let you decide for yourselves whether Lewis’ book about Beane’s Oakland A’s is responsible for those and other changes. In truth the Moneyball reference is just something I’m using as a hook to get your attention (how’s that for honesty?). I just want to talk about the changes themselves, whether they’re good or bad for the game and what, if anything, should be done about them.

I also want to bring in topics that Jayson Stark brought up in his piece at The Athletic last week, specifically, expansion and resulting realignment.

Look, I’m kind of old school. I’m one of those “fat old white men” that are responsible for everything wrong with baseball (and the country in general, I suppose) according to… well… seemingly everyone who ISN’T a fat old white man.

I’d have probably been perfectly happy if Major League Baseball still had the ten teams in each league that existed during my childhood in the 1960s. But I was fine with putting a team in Kansas City and thought their stadium was really cool the first time my family went to a game there. I still think so.

I was OK with the designated hitter rule. Maybe that was because it meant I got to see one of my boyhood heroes, Tony Oliva, extend his career a bit longer than his knees would have allowed had the Twins been required to find a defensive spot for him.

Divisional play and pre-World Series postseason games? Sure, no problem. After all, my Twins won the first couple of AL West titles in seasons that they would have otherwise had virtually no chance to prevent Baltimore from winning the pennant without a playoff system. Of course, they couldn’t prevent that outcome, anyway, as it turned out, but the Twins won SOMETHING anyway in 1969 and 1970,

I’d have probably appreciated that even more had I known it would be another 17 years before they’d do it again.

All of this is by way of pointing out that I have not been universally opposed to changes to the MLB game.

In fact, changes for the sake of making the game more competitive and to improve/broaden fan interest (aka “make more money”) is about as woven into the fabric of the game as any of the rules governing the game, so let’s just stop using “tradition” as an excuse for rejecting any and all suggestions concerning potential changes.

MLB has tried best-of-9 World Series. They’ve tried having two All-Star Games. Some changes worked better than others. Some changes took far too long to make (desegregation, for example).

So, let’s go down the list of changes Passan and Stark have written about and this one fat old white man will tell you what I think of each.

Defensive shifts: I’m pro shift. If you’ve got data, it would be stupid not to use it to prevent runs. I’m against adopting a rule requiring two infielders on each side of second base, but if baseball decides that’s what’s needed to bring more offense back into the game, I wouldn’t whine too loud about it.

I’d like to think, though, that hitters could and would make adjustments to beat the shifts, causing teams to shift less and, thus, correcting the trend over time.

That said, I’ve had people inside baseball that I respect tell me that making such an adjustment isn’t quite that simple. Maybe Wee Willie Keeler could, “keep my eyes clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t,” but it’s unlikely Keeler saw too many 95-100 mph fastballs in the 1890s.

I think if most fans had to step into the batters box to face a 95+ mph fastball, they’d wet themselves.

Hell, I wouldn’t want to try to CATCH a ball thrown at me that fast. Which is why I don’t often criticize a catcher who occasionally doesn’t get in position to block one of those throws that a pitcher doesn’t deliver on a straight line to the catcher’s mitt.

Pitching: Just a few years ago, I was talking to a couple of Twins pitching prospects who had spent time with the Cedar Rapids Kernels and I mentioned something about the scoreboard pitch speed indicator not working. One of them chuckled a little at the reference to what he somewhat derisively termed the “talent meter.”

That conversation took place at a time when pitch “velo” was starting to generate a lot of discussion.

Now, as Passan cites, the average fastball velocity in the big leagues has risen from 88.9 mph in 2003, when Moneyball was released, to 92.2 mph today.

If the young pitching coming through Cedar Rapids is any indication, that trend is not going to be reversing any time soon. It seems very rare to see any pitcher – starter or bullpen arm – who isn’t hitting at least 92 mph on that “talent meter.”

I was a pitcher (well, as long as my high school coach isn’t likely to read this, I’m going to continue claiming that, anyway), so I’ve tended to side with pitchers in just about any pitcher vs. hitter debate. But we are soon going to be watching games where the average fastball is going to be nearing 95 mph.

You can’t tell me that pitch velocity alone isn’t largely responsible for less hitting and, thus, the proliferation of the three true outcomes – a strikeout, a walk or a home run (if you DO get your bat on one of those things squarely, it’s likely to travel some distance).

That gets us to…

Pace of Play: The “three true outcomes” thing is what’s slowing the game down. Not much you can say will change my opinion of that. Two of those three outcomes take a long time to accomplish and can get pretty tedious. That is not good for baseball.

Changing the rules to require just three balls for a walk and two strikes for a strikeout would speed things up, but would just get to those two potential boring outcomes faster. Likewise, changing the rules to make the strike zone bigger or smaller would also just get to one of those outcomes sooner. No thanks.

No, the increase in velocity has shifted the advantage to the pitcher too far. We need something to bring more doubles and triples into the game.

Here’s what I think: Let’s move the rubber back a foot. Maybe it would only take six inches. I dunno. Someone smarter than me could figure out the right distance. But give the hitters just a little more time for their brains to send the communication to their bodies concerning whether or not to swing.

Right now, hitters are just guessing. I was taught by my coach-father to read the spin on the ball, identify the pitch, then make the decision concerning whether to swing or not.

There is no way a human can take the time to do that on a 95 mph fastball. They have no choice but to guess.

But 60 ‘ 6” is what the distance has always been! We can’t change that!

Of course we can. Baseball lowered the mound in the 60s. Why? Because the then-current-height gave pitchers too much of an advantage and hardly anyone was able to hit .300. Sound familiar?

Personally, I think it’s the one rule change that could get more action back into the game while minimizing all other aspects of the game. Just do it, already.

Umpiring: Implement the technology to call balls and strikes electronically. I’ve had it with strike zones that change from umpire to umpire, from pitcher to pitcher and even based on count. (Take a look at the differences between what’s called a strike on 0-2 counts vs. 3-0 counts. It’s absurd and there is NO justifiable reason for it.)

We’ve given the umpires and their union long enough to get it right. Maybe it comes back to the velocity thing, again. It’s tough to accurately judge where today’s fastballs are crossing the plate. Fine, but that’s an argument for using technology, not for defending an outmoded system.

When the game was invented, the best technology available to determine a strike from a ball might have been to put a guy behind the catcher to make that call. That is no longer the case. Make every pitcher and every hitter use the same strike zone.

Expansion and realignment: It’s hard to believe that, in less than two decades, we’ve gone from Bud Selig pushing contraction to Rob Manfred strongly considering expansion.

I’m not really convinced there are two more communities in North America that would successfully support a MLB franchise. I’ve looked at Stark’s list of potential cities and I’m not optimistic about any of them. They are:

Portland
Charlotte
Nashville
Montreal
San Antonio/Austin
Las Vegas
Mexico City

Frankly, I find more reasons why teams might NOT succeed in each of those locations than why they would, but if baseball becomes convinced, I would say, “go for it.”

32 teams are better than 30. It just is. The scheduling issue alone makes this true.

I kind of liked intrer-league scheduling when it was first introduced. Now, not so much. There’s just no way to make scheduling a handful of inter-league games fair for everyone. It screws up competitive balance and that’s not a good thing.

Stark writes that eventually we’ll see an alignment based on geography. Well, maybe most of us fat old white men will be dead by then, but our kids will see it.

I’m good with that. Adopt the designated hitter across the board and give us eight four-team divisions (four divisions in each league).

Stark throws out a couple of possible scenarios for realignment. There are problems with both, but they’re starting points.

One has the Twins with the Cubs, White Sox and Brewers. The other, which tries to largely keep the current AL and NL intact, lumps Minnesota with the Tigers, White Sox and Indians. Not ideal, perhaps, but I understand they can’t build a system with, “what is best for Twins fans?” as it’s starting point, so I wouldn’t get bent out of shape with either alignment.

In the end, here’s where I come down:

I would love for some of my grandkids and their kids to love baseball as much as I do. Whatever it takes to make that happen, I’ll try to be open to.

If some of the changes are hard to swallow, I’ll simply do what I always do – blame someone else.

Damn you, Moneyball. (See how easy that is?)

Updated Guide for the Out-of-Town Kernels Fan

Posted on 10 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

A little over five years ago, as the Minnesota Twins were just beginning their era of affiliation with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, I posted an article here with some basic information about the Cedar Rapids area, for the benefit of fellow Twins fans who might be considering a trip to watch Byron Buxton and his friends play some baseball that summer.

Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Photo by SD Buhr)

I’ve been hearing from various contacts that the upcoming Memorial Weekend could see another significant influx of baseball fans visiting the area and, once again, I’ve been asked for some suggestions concerning what might be worth checking out (besides the baseball games, of course) while you’re in the area.

That being the case, I went back and re-read that 2013 article and it surprisingly held up pretty well, with a couple of possible exceptions.

My family and I don’t spend every Friday at Bushwood Sports Bar & Grill like we did back in 2013. It might be unkind to blame the arrival of grandkids into our lives for this, but facts are facts – we haven’t been as regular at Bushwood as we were before we were blessed to have Jack, Erik and Lily enter our lives. Still, I remain a regular at Bushwood and it remains my favorite before-or-after the game establishment.

I still don’t know much about what hotel you should stay at because I still don’t stay at hotels here. The DoubleTree Hilton, downtown on First Avenue (which is the main local artery through town), is definitely my first recommendation, if you can get a decent rate or if the rate isn’t all that important to you (in which case, Lucky You!).

But, if you are a member of another hotel chain’s frequent stay club, I’m sure you can find plenty of options where you can earn reward points (or use those points you already have built up).

One reason that the DoubleTree has risen to the top of my hotel recommendation list is that, since it re-opened following an extensive remodel job in 2013, a significant number of pretty good new independent local restaurants have opened up downtown within about a two block walk of the front of the DoubleTree.

So, assuming you want more than just my recommendation concerning Bushwood, here are a few options.

Downtown

I’ll use the DoubleTree Hotel as a reference point for directions, but Cedar Rapids has on-street parking downtown if you aren’t staying downtown. Also, there’s no charge for on-street parking after 6:00 PM week nights or any time on the weekends.

La Cantina (a block west of, and across the street from, the DoubleTree) is still my preferred Mexican restaurant in the area, though there are plenty of others that are good as well. I’m far from an expert on what constitutes “authentic” Mexican food, though, so take that into account. I almost always do the seafood enchiladas at La Cantina, along with a margarita or three.

If you walk out the front door of the DoubleTree and walk one block south on Third Street, you come to Second Avenue. There’s an area about a block to a block and a half long that has at least half a dozen restaurants and bars that are worth your while.

There are a couple that I haven’t tried yet, myself, but here are several that I have eaten at and I don’t hesitate to recommend each of them, depending on what you’re looking for.

Need Pizza is good. They have the usual pizzas, but also various more eclectic styles, including gluten free crusts and less common toppings like artichoke hearts, clams, mashed potatoes and vegan cheese. They also have a very lengthy craft beer list.

Rock Bar American Grill is in that same block. They have a hot beef sandwich I like on their lunch menu and I’m a fan of the Cajun chicken pasta on the dinner menu. They also have a mechanical bull, just in case you’re one of those people who have never done that, but always wanted to try.

Grin N Goose is one I just finally got around to trying for the first time in the past month. I had the Cajun grilled tenderloin. (Have you noticed yet that I have an affinity for Cajun food?) I always look for new menu items that sound interesting to me and I certainly found one here on their appetizer menu. The Man Candy is made up of eight strips of crisp bacon that have been treated with some sort of sugar/jalapeno coating. It’s really, really good (though undoubtedly NOT good for you), but also has a pretty solid kick to it.

Brick’s Pub is also on Second Avenue and is your basic sports bar with a good selection of craft beers.

The Quarter Barrel Arcade & Brewery is also on Second Avenue but a few blocks further east than the grouping of places listed above. Honestly, all I’ve ever had here was a couple of beers while I watched a Twins game, but I hear the pizza is good. The “gimmick” here is the large selection of old school arcade machines they have on site.

Dublin City Pub is an Irish restaurant on First Street that I’ve liked when I’ve been, though it has been a couple of years for me, I think. It’s maybe six or seven blocks from the DoubleTree.

There’s a downtown Farmers Market that, while I can’t give much of a personal reference, I’m told is generally well worth the time to visit and I believe that it opens for the first time this summer on Saturday morning of Memorial Weekend. It is just two blocks south of the DoubleTree at Third Avenue and Third Street.

NewBo (New Bohemia) and Czech Village Districts

These areas are 12 blocks south of the downtown DoubleTree, but there are a few places well worth checking out.

NewBo Market was one of my recommendations from the 2013 article. It’s kind of a smaller (and indoor) version of a farmers market with a lot of local vendors. The NewBo Market is at the intersection of Third Street SE and 12th Avenue SE.

Also at that same intersection, you’ll find three establishments to consider.

Parlor City Pub & Eatery is my favorite restaurant in the NewBo area. It has a good menu and a large craft beer selection. They also have live music.

Chrome Horse Saloon (South) is in the cement bank-looking building (it’s actually located in an old bank). I haven’t eaten at the Chrome Horse in several years, but it was a favorite of some of my staff members for department lunches back before the big 2008 flood. Then, it was located in the building across the street on the remaining corner of this intersection, where an establishment called Brewhemia now is located. I have not yet patronized Brewhemia.

The Pig & Porter is in the NewBo area, as well. I haven’t given that a try yet. I’ve heard both positive and less-positive things about it. I understand they have a Sunday brunch of some sort and their thing is basically a “farm to table” limited menu.

Lion Bridge Brewery is my “go-to” craft brewery in the area. It’s a few blocks west of NewBo, on the west side of the Cedar River, in Czech Village. It’s a local craft brewery with a limited, but very interesting, food menu that is tailored to match their beer selections.

North Side

If you’ve opted to stay at a hotel on the north side of Cedar Rapids, I still highly recommend Third Base Brewery, which is on Blairs Ferry Road NE, maybe a mile or so east of the cluster of hotels off of I-380 at the Blairs Ferry or Collins Road exits. I’m partial to the southwest eggrolls and several of their own craft beers brewed on site.

There’s a Chrome Horse Saloon location on Blairs Ferry Road, as well. Again, I haven’t tried this particular location. It was relocated here from the NewBo area after the 2008 flood.

The north side is also where my favorite steak restaurant is now located. The Butcher Block Steakhouse used to be on First Avenue across the street from Coe College, but is now located on the north side of town at C Avenue NE and Boyson Road NE. Reservations aren’t required, but might be a good idea.

Papa Juans/Stefano’s is a combination Mexican/Italian restaurant in the strip mall at the intersection of Blairs Ferry Road NE and Center Point Rd NE. Papa Juans was, for a long time, our favorite Mexican restaurant. I’m really not sure what the whole idea was about adding an Italian menu, but they didn’t ask my opinion when they did it.

Southwest/Ballpark Areas

If you stay in one of the hotels at the 33rd Street Exit off of I-380, there are all sorts of fast food chain restaurants right there, but not a lot of local places

One that I do like in that area, though, is Pei’s Ohana. Pei’s has a Chinese lunch buffet that I really like and also claims to have a traditional sushi bar and a Korean menu.

Just a few blocks north of Pei’s on Sixth Street SW is Riley’s Café, one of my two favorite breakfast diners. There are actually four Riley’s Cafe locations around town, including one a few blocks east of the DoubleTree downtown. Riley’s is owned by the same family that owns the Butcher Block Steak House on the north side of town.

Further north (probably another 15 blocks or so) of Riley’s is The Breakfast House, which I included in the 2013 list of favorites. It remains my top choice for breakfast in Cedar Rapids. It’s a small, old-school diner with great food at a reasonable price.

Leonardo’s (or “Leo’s” to the locals) is on 16th Avenue SW, not all that far from Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Kernels, and their pizza remains my favorite in town. Turn over your Kernels ticket stub and you’ll probably find a $2.00-off coupon for a Leo’s pizza. So with one trip to Leonardo’s you get good pizza AND you get to feel good for patronizing a long-time Kernels sponsor.

The Union Station Bar & Grill is also on 16th Avenue SW, relatively near the ballpark. I haven’t been to Union Station in a while, but I always found it perfectly acceptable as a neighborhood bar and grill. The one thing it does have going for it that not a lot of other places on this list do is pool tables. If you want to play some pool, Union Station is your place.

If you’re like me, sometimes you either get to the ballpark early and just want a beer and/or a bite to eat or the game ends and you just want one more beer. Even those of you who have been to a Kernels game before may not have noticed it, but the Stadium Lounge sits directly across the street from the ballpark’s right field wall. It’s a no-frills neighborhood bar where you won’t find a bunch of craft beers or an extensive food menu, but you will find domestic beers and bar food at a no-frills price. (No, I didn’t forget to include a link to their website. They don’t have a website.)

Not Quite In Cedar Rapids

If you’re willing to drive just a few miles southwest of Cedar Rapids, there are a couple more places you might want to look into.

First, the Amana Colonies are maybe 15-20 minutes southwest of Cedar Rapids on Hwy 151. Main Amana has several “family style” restaurants, as well as various shops.

Cedar Ridge Winery & Distillery is similarly maybe 15 minutes south of Cedar Rapids. Take I-385 to the Swisher Exit. Better yet, turn on your GPS and follow the directions. Cedar Ridge has some excellent wines and spirits and usually has live music on weekend evenings. I’m not sure what their Memorial Weekend schedule is, however, so you might want to check that ahead of time.

If you’d like to give the wine a try (or maybe one of their whiskeys), you might check the bar vendor stand behind section 110 at the Kernels ballpark. I’m sure it was Cedar Ridge Distillery booze that I was adding to my hot chocolate during those frigid ballgames at the beginning of the season. Chances are, “Woody” is working that stand. Tell him I said “hi.”

Speaking of the ballpark, if you spend some time checking the beer selections at each of the multiple beer stands along the concourse, you’ll find an increasing number of craft beers, including several from Iowa breweries. Of course, if you’re feeling homesick, there’s a Surry option, as well.

Finally, I can’t write all of this without recommending my favorite menu item at the ballpark. It’s the grilled tenderloin available at the Strike Zone food stand. There are a lot of good food options if you take the time to look for them, but I keep coming back to the grilled tenderloin.

Golf

My summers since retirement are pretty much a steady diet of grandkids (and other family, too, of course), baseball and golf. On the off chance you are bringing your sticks to town, I’ll just mention a couple of golf options.

There are four municipal courses. If you’re a beginner, I suggest Twin Pines. Ellis Park, Gardener Park or Jones Park are a little more challenging and all the courses are pretty well kept up.

My favorite course to play locally lately is Hunters Ridge in Marion. Bent grass fairways and a challenging course for any level of golfer. Checking online for tee times will sometimes uncover a pretty good discount.

The Amana Colonies Golf Club is probably the most challenging course around and is very picturesque.

Field of Dreams

No article would be complete without a suggestion that you consider a side trip to the Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville, Iowa. I’d like to give a personal recommendation, but I have to admit that I’ve never visited the site. But I know many who have.

By the way, the Kernels, along with the three other Iowa minor league teams (Clinton Lumber Kings, Quad Cities River Bandits and Des Moines Cubs) all pitched in this spring to help repair the field after vandals caused thousands of dollars of damage.

So, that’s it. I hope you found plenty of ideas for what you might want to do in the Cedar Rapids area when you come in for a ballgame.

Just promise me you won’t get so wrapped up in all the other stuff that you forget to show up for the baseball games!

One More Ft. Myers Minor League Photos Post

Posted on 28 March, 2018 by Jim Crikket

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Ft. Myers for almost a month, but come Friday, I’ll be packed up and headed back to Cedar Rapids. In a matter of days, the Cedar Rapids Kernels will be introducing the Opening Day roster and a short time later, they’ll be suiting up to begin their Midwest League season under new manager Toby Gardenhire.

But for now, here are another few (actually, more than a few) final pictures from the back fields in Ft. Myers. I’ve never had anyone tell me I’ve posted too many pictures in a post here, but this may be the post that puts the limit to the test.

I’m hearing that the Twins have released a number of minor leaguers over the past couple of days, but I have not heard or seen a complete list, so it’s quite possible that some of these guys have gotten some bad news since I took these photos. That’s the unfortunate part of the business of baseball.

Brent Rooker gets some instruction at first base from Justin Morneau (Photo: SD Buhr)

Stephen Gonsalves with Sean Miller at SS behind him (Photo: SD Buhr)

Royce Lewis with the play at shortstop (Photo: SD Buhr)

Ariel Monetesino with a safe slide into second base (Photo: SD Buhr)

One of these guys is Seth Stohs of TwinsDaily and the other is Twins IF prospect Jose Miranda. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which. (Photo: SD Buhr)

Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire and Akil Baddoo (Photo: SD Buhr)

Trey Cabbage (I really want to know what he’s seeing in that helmet, don’t you?) (Photo: SD Buhr)

Will Congress Screw Minor League Players Today?

Posted on 19 March, 2018 by Jim Crikket

If you believe that maintaining the status quo in minor league baseball is important, you aren’t going to like this article.

However, if you believe that some things – like simple human decency in the area of fair pay – are more important than whether or not the current minor league model is continued, I suspect you’ll be joining me in raising your voice in objection to what Major League Baseball (along with their weak sister organization, Minor League Baseball) are conspiring with members of the U.S. Congress to do as early as today.

The Washington Post is reporting that MLB lobbyists and a handful of Congressmen plan to attach an amendment to the $1.3 trillion spending bill that must become law this week in order to avoid another government shutdown. That amendment would specifically hand baseball an exemption to federal labor laws for their treatment of minor league ballplayers.

Congressmen in MLB/MiLB’s pockets introduced a separate bill to grant this exemption a couple of years ago, but it has gone nowhere. So, now, it’s apparently time to slip the provisions into a bill that has nothing whatsoever to do with anything related to baseball.

It’s what’s commonly called a “Christmas Tree Ornament” amendment that gets attached to a big “tree,” in this case the critical spending bill. And guess who’s getting the big present? Yes, 30 multi-billionaires who simply don’t want to share even a fraction of the enormous revenues that fans are giving them with the very poorest of their players.

And the amendment’s supporters aren’t even being up front with their intention to hang this ornament on the spending bill tree.

According to the Post report, the amendment has not been included in any of the drafts of the bill distributed thus far. The intent, clearly, was to hang this particular ornament on the tree at the last minute, when nobody was looking closely enough to even notice it.

Let me pose this question, for any of you who may still think there’s nothing wrong with 20 year old ballplayers working for far less than minimum wage. If giving MLB this exemption is the right thing to do, why hide it this way, even from other members of Congress?

Players at lower levels (such as with the Class A Cedar Rapids Kernels) are making maybe $1,200 per month. That’s GROSS pay, by the way.

The players that will be sent to Cedar Rapids at the beginning of April aren’t getting paid that while they’re down in Ft. Myers for spring training, either. They get paid only for time spent on an active minor league roster. In the minor leagues, that’s five months… at most. Many players play in “short season” leagues that run only three months during the summer.

Just for reference, I made better money working for a fast food burger chain… in 1976.

MLB has obviously been threatening the minor league organization, along with those who own and operate affiliated minor league teams, with all manner of catastrophic consequences (up to and including contraction of teams/classes within the minor league system, no doubt) should MLB end up required to pay their minor leaguers anything remotely close to a livable wage.

You see, despite the millions of dollars MLB’s billionaires have paid their lobbyists, 30 wealth old white guys only can carry so much clout with Congress. But when you threaten the hundreds of minor league teams in Congressional districts across the country and get the front offices and fans of those teams involved with personal lobbying to save their local teams, now you’ve got yourself some effective lobbying. Lobbying that MLB didn’t even have to pay for, just use a little not-so-subtle coercion.

Don’t think this is what’s going on? Listen to this quote within the Post story from Pat O’Conner, the head of MiLB.

“We’re in 42 states, 160 cities. We’ve got over $3 billion of infrastructure, much of which is still being paid off by the clubs and the communities where they exist,” he said. “This is about constituents, this is about jobs at home, and this is about quality of life at home.”

So, obviously, the concern is for the, “quality of life at home,” for the local fans, rather than the quality of life for players, many of whom are from poor Latin American countries and most of whom did not receive anything close to the large signing bonuses that get all the media attention when they sign contracts with a MLB team.

The minimum wage in the big leagues is approaching $600,000. For the roughly price of one minimum wage big leaguer on each team, MLB could afford to pay an extra $1,200 per month to 100 of their minor league players (that’s four rosters worth of players). For under a million of their precious dollars per year, MLB owners could effectively make this issue go away.

The Twins reportedly will have an Opening Day big league payroll of $130,000,000 (and they are only in the middle of the pack among their MLB peers in payroll). Think about that for just a moment.

It’s not a coincidence that minor league pay is determined by negotiations with the MLB players’ union – a union that minor leaguers are not actually members of.

In effect, the billionaire owners are putting the screws to minor league operators and fans (not to mention the players) in order to save themselves from having to spend a small fraction of 1% of their annual revenues on additional minor league pay.

The contract between MLB and MiLB that sets the terms for how affiliates operate together is due to expire in 2020 and MLB isn’t going to renew it until this matter is resolved. They are obviously using the contract as leverage to get the minor league organizations to lobby Congress on their behalf.

It’s coercion, plain and simple, and it’s shameful.

Yet, because Congress is Congress, don’t be surprised if it’s also effective.

Thank You, Betsy

Posted on 30 December, 2017 by Jim Crikket

If you’re a Minnesota Twins fan, you’re probably already well aware of the allegations that independent photographer Betsy Bissen went public via Twitter a couple days ago with her #MeToo experience involving Twins star Miguel Sano. I won’t go into all the details but you can easily find them with a quick browser search.

In a nutshell, Betsy’s account is that, following an autograph session at a memorabilia store in 2015, Sano forcibly attempted to pull her into a restroom. The struggle, from which she ultimately extricated herself, lasted several terrifying minutes.

Over the past few weeks and months, we’ve seen victim after victim of male abuse of power/position come to light, most predominantly in the Hollywood, political and corporate environments. However, to my limited knowledge, this is perhaps the first allegation against a major league professional athlete, at least since the #MeToo movement came to prominence.

Given the historically misogynistic world of professional sports, the only surprising thing is that it took this long for experiences such as Betsy’s to become public. Her allegation may or may not have been the first involving a MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL player, but I think we can be pretty certain it won’t be the last.

MLB is beginning an investigation into the allegations regarding Sano, as is their responsibility and duty, apparently, under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement with the MLB Players Association. It is proper, I know, for those who know neither Sano nor Bissen personally, to decide they want to hold off on judgement until MLB does it’s investigation thing.

Most of us who know Betsy at all (I consider myself her friend, though we are not what either of us, I’m sure, would consider to be close friends) are not generally feeling compelled to wait out an investigation before expressing our unequivocal support for her.

In fact, since she went public, she has received what would at least be considered public corroborative support from various parties who have, in the past, been at least somewhat familiar with Mr. Sano’s treatment of women in manners not inconsistent with what Betsy described.

One person, Mike Holmdahl, recounted via Twitter that he had observed Sano making a female usher in Chattanooga uncomfortable during Sano’s playing days with the Lookouts earlier in the same season that the event involving Bissen took place. That person was told by a senior usher there that they were so aware of Sano’s activities with regard to female ushers that they had made an effort to avoid posting females near the home dugout. (You can find Holmdahl’s full recounting as part of Brandon Warne’s excellent piece at Zone Coverage.)

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports wrote that he had been told by, “five people, including teammates, ex-teammates and confidants, with whom he has spent time,” that they characterized Sano as someone who, “saw the pursuit of women as sport,” One of them called Sano “a ticking time bomb.”

Jeff Goldklang, a member of the ownership group that currently owns the St. Paul Saints (for whom Bissen does some photography work) and previously owned the Twins’ class high-A Ft. Myers Miracle related via Twitter that, “I’ve seen enough of both people to have absolutely no doubts in this story’s veracity. I’ve personally seen Sano act inappropriately towards a woman- while in uniform, no less.”

In fact, given these statements of at least partial corroboration, it does lead one to wonder what the Twins’ front office knew about Sano’s issues with women and when they knew it. But that’s a question for another day and, if the MLB and the media do their jobs, we’ll possibly get some answers some day.

All of this is just by way of saying that it would appear that Betsy Bissen is worthy of the support that her friends and many others are giving her.

But I’m not writing this to say I support her. She deserves more than that.

I’m writing to say, “Thank you,” to Betsy for having the courage to speak out, knowing that the result would not be 100% supportive – that there would be a significant – and very vocal – segment of the population of Twins Territory who would demonize her for speaking out (conveniently hiding behind anonymous social media pseudonyms in most cases, of course}.

I will admit that Betsy’s public allegations made me uncomfortable, just as the whole #MeToo movement has made me uncomfortable. But you know what? It’s SUPPOSED to make me uncomfortable.

It’s supposed to make me take stock of my own views and treatment of women – past, present and, in particular, future. And it has done just that.

I’m a 61 year old man. And while I certainly have never behaved toward any woman the way that Betsy related that Sano behaved toward her, I’m absolutely certain my words and actions toward women at various points in my life would not stand up to the spotlight that #MeToo is shining on us today.

I’m not naive enough to think #MeToo and people like Betsy Bissen are going to quickly and dramatically change the way we view and treat women in our society, especially, perhaps, in an era where our country has elected an openly misogynist President, sending a signal to a considerable segment of our population that it’s OK to behave similarly toward our wives, girlfriends, sisters, daughters and granddaughters.

In fact, I doubt we’ll see the kind of change that is needed take hold fully during my lifetime.

But, thanks to people like Betsy and others possessing similar courage, I have hope that my two grandsons (ages 2 and 4) will grow up in a world where they don’t even question whether it’s appropriate to treat girls and women with respect and, frankly, just common decency.

More importantly yet, I have hope that my not-quite-yet born granddaughter will grow up in such a world.

I have hope that she will grow up knowing that, if she aspires to be a sports photographer (or an actress or a political aide or a corporate executive), she shouldn’t have to accept that being subject to what Betsy Bissen went through (or much worse) is considered just the price of admission into her chosen profession or avocation.

So, on behalf of my granddaughter and myself, let me just say it.

Thank you, Betsy.

Note: I’m not interested in a debate of this matter within the comments section of our site, so I won’t be opening this post for comments. If that bothers you, I’m sorry (but not very). I’ve seen enough of the hate being cast toward Betsy elsewhere. There’s no shortage of places you can go to make those sorts of comments, but this won’t be one of them. – Steve

Sorting Through the BS

Posted on 27 November, 2017 by Jim Crikket

A whole LOT of sports stuff has been going on over the past week or so.

Whether you’re a Twins fan, a Vikings fan, a college football fan or a fan of one a team in one of those sports leagues I don’t really give a crap about like the NBA and NHL, there’s been so much stuff happening, that you could spend almost all day reading stories on every major sports site, just to try to understand all of it.

Who has time for that?

Well, I do, of course. I have time for pretty much anything. For me it’s just motivation that’s lacking. I just don’t WANT to read all that crap.

But I’ve read enough that I’m going to perform a public service and cut through all the bullshit and tell you what you really need to know about the things we care about. So let’s get started.

Since the focus of this site has been baseball related and, specifically, Twins baseball related, let’s start with Twins stuff.

Twins GM That Levine is talking like the Twins are going after the big free agent fish in this season’s free agent pool. Don’t believe it.

You may have heard that the Twins have a real shot at landing Japanese star Shohei Ohtani.

He’s the guy that would become the next Harmon Killebrew AND the next Johan Santana rolled into one if the Twins could sign him.

That is BS, of course, but it doesn’t matter because the Twins won’t land this big fish.

I can just hear you now. “But Thad Levine said on the radio…”

I know. That was BS, too.

Listen, no matter what you hear about all the stuff that Minnesota could offer Ohtani from his supposed “list” of things important to him, remember this: The New York Yankees can offer all of it, too. All of it.

I figure the Twins are expressing interest to drive up the price and make sure the Yankees have to pay every nickel possible, up to and including having to cough up some bodies from their heralded farm system to get more international bonus money to make sure they get Ohtani.

Come to think of it, the Twins have a bunch of international bonus money that could be made available in a trade.

Say… you don’t suppose that’s what Levine had in mind when he went on about how serious the Twins are about Ohtanom do you? No, of course not.

Anyway, Ohtani will be a Yankee, so that’s all you really need to know.

Part of the Ohtani chatter also involved speculation that the Twins would also go after starting pitcher Yu Darvish.

Yeah, that isn’t happening, either. Not because they can’t afford it (they can), but because they’re the Twins.

The Twins don’t sign premier free agents and premier free agents don’t have interest in signing with the Twins. Don’t waste your time hoping that will change.

The Vikings have a similar amount of BS swirling through their fanbase. Seems they have won football games week after week after week… to the point where they have the second best record in their conference.

This has people excited. Not so excited that they aren’t willing to toss the quarterback who led the team to all those wins overboard for a guy who hasn’t taken a snap in forever, but excited nonetheless.

But real Vikings fans know we can cut through the BS because we know what’s going to happen. We’ve been here before. Doesn’t matter the QB or the coach or the stadium. We know how this ends.

When it matters… when it REALLY matters… a kick will sail wide of the uprights and the Vikings’ season will be over.

If you accept that inevitability right now and just enjoy the ride until that happens, it will make life so much easier.

I’d write something about the Wild or the Timberwolves if I really cared, but I don’t.

I’m not really sure anyone in Minnesota cares, either. All I hear about the Wild is that they suck. Always. But at least fans are consistent on the Wild, I keep hearing how the T-Wolves are great – or suck – or are great – or suck – except when they’re great.

Bottom line for both teams is, when they show signs they can win something, someone let the rest of us know, so we can start paying attention. And since nothing matters less in pro sports than what happens in the NHL and NBA regular seasons, don’t bother talking about it until the playoffs or the offseason, whichever comes first for these two organizations.

That leaves major college football.

I know it really isn’t fair to talk about big time college football when I’ve just said the NHL and NBA are irrelevant for these purposes, since both the Wild and T-Pups have been relevant since the last time the same could be said about Gophers football.

However, since so many of the best Minnesota high school football players are on rosters in Wisconsin or other locations where football IS relevant (like North Dakota, for instance), it’s understandable that Minnesotans still pay attention to the goings-on in the Big Ten Conference and elsewhere.

If you haven’t paid attention since back when the Gophers mattered, you may not be aware that the National Champion in football is no longer decided by who finishes first in the polls.

Years ago, something called the BCS was formed to match up the top two teams in the nation and that evolved into the current “final four” playoff system for it’s major college programs.

There’s a committee whose responsibility it is to decide who the top four teams are and then those teams play a mini-tournament in January to determine the National Champion.

Or that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Here’s what really happens: the Committee gives one of the four spots to Alabama, one to the ACC Champion and one to the B1G Champion, then picks the one other team that they think have the best chance to give Alabama a game.

You may have heard that the teams the committee ranks at the top keeps losing the following week. This is true. In fact the top two teams lost this weekend and one of those teams was Alabama.

Now everyone is talking and writing about how the Tide won’t even be in the SEC Championship Game, so is unlikely to be in the playoffs.

Don’t believe that BS.

There are few things more certain in life than Alabama being in the college football playoffs.

There have been three playoffs since the current system replaced the old BCS “one vs two” system. Alabama has been in all three. They were also in three of the last five BCS Championship games. That’s the next best thing to a sure thing.

The SEC Champion has been in the playoffs in each of the past 11 years – the final eight years of the BCS and first three years of the current playoff system. The inclusion of the SEC Champion is damn near the very definition of a “sure thing.”

Of course, that won’t be Alabama this year. But before you think for a moment that it means Nick Saban’s team will get left out of the party, keep in mind that the Tide didn’t win the SEC in 2011, either, but that didn’t stop the powers-that-be from matching them up in the BCS Championship game against LSU, the team that DID win the SEC title.

Yes, even though they could select only TWO teams, they chose Alabama over the champions of every other conference in the country. And you think that now, with four spots available, they won’t plug in Alabama over… well… pretty much anyone else? Fat chance.

When the teams are announced, here’s what you can be pretty certain will happen: The four teams will be the SEC Champion, the ACC Champion, the B1G Champion and… Alabama.

When it comes to Alabama being selected, it will happen for one reason: It always happens. Always.

Just like how the Vikings will always break your heart and any free agent that the Twins and Yankees both want will always sign with the Yankees.

Until one of those things doesn’t happen, we should just assume that anyone who tries to tell us otherwise is feeding us bullshit.

Memorial Day!

Posted on 27 May, 2017 by CapitalBabs

I hope you and your family enjoy your holiday weekend!! But here’s my annual reminder:

Kernels Home Opener in Photos

Posted on 8 April, 2017 by Jim Crikket

The Cedar Rapids Kernels jumped to an early 6-1 lead in their home opener against the Beloit Snappers on Saturday evening, but by the end of the night, only the bean counters in Cedar Rapids could call the night a success.

Thanks to a large walk-up, certainly helped by 76 degree temperatures, the Kernels set a franchise record for attendance at a home opener, but the Snappers played spoiler by rallying three runs in the visitors’ half of the ninth inning to top the Kernels 7-6.

Kernels starter Sean Poppen worked seven solid innings, surrendering three runs (only two of the earned run variety), while striking out seven Snappers without a walk.

The offense was led by DH Travis Blankenhorn who doubled and added a three-run home run.

Shane Carrier also homered while Jaylin Davis and Caleb Hamilton added triples.

Davis may have contributed the defensive play of the game, gunning down Beloit’s Nate Mondou at the plate,

In fact, let’s start our photo set with a series of shots showing catcher Ben Rortvedt’s tag of Mondou.

(All photos by SD Buhr)

All of that in the first inning before the Kernels even came to the plate!

Now, let’s back up to pregame activities.

Volunteers with the American flag prior to the game.

Kernels manager Tommy Watkins meets with the umpires and Snappers manager.

A record Home Opener crowd of 3,508 watches leadoff hitter Aaron Whitefield step into the batters box.

Now let’s look through the Kernels’ staring lineup.

LF Shane Carrier (watching his 2nd inning home run sail toward the wall)

Are You Ready For Some Baseball?

Posted on 30 March, 2017 by Jim Crikket

Yes, it has been a while since I posted anything, so I’ll be surprised if anyone still remembers we have this blog, but I’m back home after a couple of weeks in Florida and it’s almost time for the baseball season to begin. So, let’s fire up the blog again and see whether we, as Twins fans, have enough this season to even be worth talking about.

We are not off to a great start.

First of all, the new Twins front office did virtually nothing in their first offseason on the job to improve the team. I was asked during a brief radio interview on KMRY in Cedar Rapids this week what I felt about the Twins’ fortunes in 2017 after spending time at their spring training site in March. I’ll say the same thing here that I said in response during that interview.

The Twins did nothing to improve their team in the offseason, so any improvement will have to come from further development of their existing young roster, guys like Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, et al.

The good news is that there is every reason to believe that Buck, Max and friends like Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco and Eddie Rosario should indeed mature and see their games improve.

The bad news is that none of those guys can pitch. (Well, Buxton probably COULD, but it ain’t happening.)

This morning, many of the final roster moves were announced and we found out that the Twins will start the season with 13 pitchers and without the player that perhaps had the best spring training of anyone in camp, Byung ho Park, who was sent down and will apparently start his season in Rochester.

That leaves the Twins with just three bench bats and none of them are guys you would want to see come to the plate even as a pinch hitter.

The bottom line, it seems to me, is that the new front office is scared to death of their pitching staff. I understand that because I think most of us have been afraid of this pitching staff for a long time. But they had all offseason to address their obvious pitching needs and did virtually nothing to improve it.

So, to tell us they sent Park down because they felt they ended up needing more pitchers is really an indictment on their poor work in obtaining pitching during the offseason. Fans should not let them off the hook easily if this all blows up.

Now that I have that rant out of the way, let me just pass on some observations I had down in Fort Myers.

As always, I spent a fair amount of time on the minor league side of the complex watching past and future Cedar Rapids Kernels work out.

My sense, as I shared Tuesday on the MN Sports Weekly podcast, as well as the KMRY interview, is that the Kernels will have a better offensive lineup this season than they had a year ago and it appears that at least half of the team’s pitching rotation that finished the 2016 season will be returning to start 2017.

Lewin Diaz and Shane Carrier should add pop to the middle of the order and, for now anyway, it appears that Travis Blankenhorn and Jaylin Davis will return to start the new season in CR. That group could produce some runs if other guys can get on base with regularity.

It doesn’t look like slugger Amourys Minier will break camp with the Kernels at this point, but he should help out when he arrives later in the season, as could other bats such as Trey Cabbage and Wander Javier.

Jermaine Palacios will return and be among a large group of middle infielders worthy of getting opportunities in Cedar Rapids during the season.

Let’s wrap up with a few pictures from my time in Fort Myers.