Blast From The Past

I'm enjoying a favorite fall and winter Sunday afternoon tradition. Watching the late-afternoon NFL game? No - listening to Vikings Fan Whine Line on KFAN ("Your Reaction To All The Action".) This is a call-in show after the Vikings game where Purple fans call in with their opinions on the game, players, coaches, etc. It's hosted by Jeff Dubay and Mike Morris. (Favorite Morris-isms include "they are what they are" and "the calvary isn't coming any time soon" ... Morris has been using that last one for at least three years now - it's the only calvary I've heard of that travels on foot.) With as mediocre as the Purple have been the past few years, the angry and frustrated calls from the armchair quarterbacks and general managers are hilarious.

A few minutes ago, there was a call from a guy in Detroit Lakes calling for Bud Grant to be brought in as head coach. The caller was serious and based on his unique name and voice, I'm sure it was a slow-witted, acne-inflicted dude I used to work with at a Hardee's in DL during over twenty years ago! Whine Line - entertaining as hell and bringing up summer job nostalgia - I LOVE IT!!

More On The 'Mats Book

I finished reading Jim Walsh's 'Mats book, All Over But The Shouting, last night but blew through it so fast that I will have to read it again this winter to absorb it. A few thoughts:

1) Replacements book drinking game! Any time someone mentions booze or being drunk, take a drink. See if you can make it through a chapter, I dare ya. (Thanks to Carin for getting the idea of a 'Mats book drinking game in my head.)

2) I am strangely glad to be the one responsible for Taco John's being mentioned in the book.

3) About two-thirds of the way through the book, it dawned on me: For whatever reason, what this story reminds me of the most is the original The Bad News Bears.

Things You'll Never Hear

Inspired by the "Things You'll Never Hear" bit on the Common Man Progrum (i.e. "And with that sure-handed grab, Troy Williamson makes his fourth reception of the game." ... "Carl Pohlad went out and tried to buy himself a World Series title."... Hello Gopher football fans! Welcome to the game and Happy New Year!"), I came up with a few of my own:


Things You'll Never Hear From A Gopher Hockey Fan:

"Yeah we have a good freshmen class, but your team's is better."


Things You'll Never Hear From A Gopher Hockey Coach:

"You don't actually think I'd use the 'we're still tired from World Juniors' excuse weeks into the new year, do you?"


Things You'll Never Hear On A Gopher Hockey Broadcast:

"Boy the Gophers are really playing the body tonight, they're physically manhandling the opponent."

" And as expected, the heavily-favored Gophers have easily beaten their opening-round opponent in the NCAA tourney."

Replacements Book Is Out Now

Jim Walsh's The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History is out sooner than earlier expected - I picked up my copy today. It's a sharp-looking book, great cover photo and also great photos inside. I've flipped through it a couple of times and have chuckled at some of the quotes.

I'm proud to be part of the permanent unauthorized record - I'm in there a couple of times talking about seeing the band live. (Please don't let this discourage you from buying the book.)

Congratulations, Jim. The 'Mats legacy was one screaming for a book-length telling. I'll raise a cold one to ya as I read your book this week.

RIP, Max McGee

The hero of the first Super Bowl, Max McGee, is dead at age 75 after falling off his roof. McGee's Super Bowl story is a classic of old school sports heroism: He didn't expect to play in the game and was up all night drinking. The Packers' starting wideout went down, and McGee stepped in to score two touchdowns.

As a kid, I read every childrens or young adults history of football and history of baseball book I could get my hands on. Also in the mix were football and baseball stars bios and books such as The Linebackers: The Tough Ones Of Pro Football (that one written by SI's own Dr. Z.) So the Max McGee Super Bowl I story was known at an early age. Though I would like to look at the book or books that contained the story - they said that McGee had been up all night, but I doubt drinking or a severe hangover were mentioned. (Historical aside: Super Bowl I was at the time actually known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Of Football.)

The story from the Strib contains a couple of classic McGee quotes:

- "When it's third-and-10, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time."

- McGee once teased Vince Lombardi when the coach showed the team a football on their first meeting and said, "Gentlemen, this is a football."McGee said, 'Not so fast, not so fast.'"

Rest in peace, Max McGee.

Gopher Radio Announcers As Inept As The Team On The Field

I listened to the last minutes of 1-AA Football Championship Subdivision squad North Dakota State knocking off Minnesota today on WCCO-AM. The crew on the radio was laughable. In the short time I listened, I heard the following:

- Darrell Thompson suggested that the Gophers might be able to drive down the field and force overtime. Thing is, they trailed by six points at the time. Was he banking on a missed extra point?

- Dave Lee questioned why the Bison would throw the ball on third-and-nine. They were near midfield at the time, but weren't in field goal range.

- Dave Mona was quick to go after the officials and call a roughing the punter call as questionable, though to his credit he did reverse his stance after seeing the replay.

I still have a soft spot for Darrell Thompson though. Years ago when he played at the UM, somebody at the office I worked at said they had seen him on Nicollet Mall during the lunch hour. I immediately piped up with a Fast Times quote: "Wow! Does he really live here? I thought he just flew in for games!"

Boston College: If You Can't Host Big-Time College Hockey Then Move To Division III

Boston College, notorious Frozen Four bridesmaid and winner of a mere two national championships in college hockey, is hosting North Dakota tonight.

1) The game time was delayed by twenty-plus minutes due to a power outage.

2) Early in the second period the game was stopped due to a power outage. The TV and Internet feeds were out for twenty-plus minutes and now they say the game will restart in five minutes.

This reminds me of A) when the clowns at Mariucci Arena a few years back who couldn't keep a good ice sheet going for a Sioux vs. Gophers game and there was an hour-plus delay, and B) in '96 when the idiots in Ohio had ponds of standing water on the ice during the Frozen Four.

Boston College ... not capable of running a peewee exhibition game. Sheesh.

Update: When they showed an on-the-ice angle during the second period, there was fog prevalent. The color announcer went on to tell about THREE different hockey games in this arena that had similar problems, and then went on to compare how foggy tonight's game is compared to a game against Boston University last season. (His verdict: The BU game was worse - it was suspended, which hasn't happened yet tonight.) Boston College ... not capable of hosting your "hey let's all go ice skating!" birthday party.

Update: Game cancelled after two periods and apparently settled as a 0-0 tie. Boston College ... get a fucking real facility and join the big boys.

C. Thomas Howell Plays For CC?

Four Colorado College hockey players were suspended for wearing blackface. Classy!

Unconfirmed rumors about the CC hockey team include: That a player who lagged on the ice was labeled as "being as mobile as a lawn jockey" and that the Tigers refer to their road jerseys as "darkies."

By The Way ... Nice Airbrush Job, Mojo

Upon getting the new Mojo mag in the mail Tuesday and getting it out of the plastic bag, my immediate reaction was:

"What the hell is Jackie Earle Haley doing on the cover of Mojo??"

Turns out is was Liam Gallagher ... or maybe it was Steve Nash?

In November Of 2000, I Wanted To Form A Band Called "The Recount Five" Soooo Bad

Via rockcritics.com, it's a great piece by Luc Sante on the essential Nuggets anthology.

He does a great job detailing the background of the original (and for my money, the best) punk rock. And wraps it up beautifully at the end:

Anyway, kiddies, these are your ancestors, who suffered through innumerable sock hops at American Legion halls so you can be the little Antichrists you are today.

Mike Wilbon Rules!

I'm sure that Tony "Monday Night Football" Kornheiser is considered the star of ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, but for my money Mike Wilbon is the man. I like Tony, but Wilbon is: The man whose sports sensibilites are better attuned (i.e. he is Midwest and not East Coast, he mocks the "the Yanks and the Sawks" overhyped rivalry, he is not a stars-only type sports fan), the man who is right more often, the man who is genuinely funnier, and the man from PTI who I would more like to drink beer with.

Today it was Wilbon who pointed that the Colorado Rockies great streak - they have won 18 out of their last 19 - has been underappreciated and that if this had been accomplished by the Yanks or the Sawks (or even the Mets or the Phillies) said team would be declared The Greatest Ever.

But on a generational note, Wilbon came up with the Quote Of The Week today. When asked by substitute co-host Dan Le Batard if he played video games as a kid, Wilbon yelled:

"No! We played Strat-O-Matic! Be a man!!"

Fun With Egosurfing

Just so you know, it was the State v. Tuomala case that decided that no pre-trial jail time credit be given for cases in which the defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity.

You Can Sing "Tuomala" To This Song

Maybe my favorite bit from the original UK version of The Office - their rendition of a Muppets classic. I could watch this all day.

If Derek Peltier Were My Teammate, My Nickname For Him Would Be "Free"

... and yet another funny sports thing. It's the annual "Gopher hockey team says it will be tougher" blurb in the sports page. According to Derek Peltier:

"We want teams, when they get done playing us, to have some bumps and bruises."

Yep, uh-huh, okay - but it won't be a big surprise when the Gophers are being pushed around by blue collar teams in February, March, and April (scratch that last month?) of 2008.

Gopher Hockey: Guaranteed Soft.

"No!! No!!!"

The Vikings have a bye this week, so alas you can't pen them in for a loss (and an automatic point) in your weekly football pool.

But you can watch this entertaing video. It's video of a game called Tecmo Bowl (note: my video game knowledge is pretty close to zero) combined with the radio call from noted homer, Paul Allen of KFAN, of the Vikings' classic loss to the Arizona Cardinals on the last week of the 2003 season.

Aside from hilarious memories of yet another classic Purple choke job, it's funny that the game spells "touchdown" as two words.

The King And I October Schedule

6-Sat> Nancy Cheng

8-Mon> Sigelman
9-Tue> Lisa McGrath
10-Wed> Plain Ole Bill
11-Thu> Housekeeping with Brian Thomas
12-Fri> Didgital Resistance with VERB X
13-Sat> Blunt City = JamesPatrick+DanielPaul

15-Mon> Rockit Fuel! Hosted by, C-Gull
16-Tue> D.O. & D.G.
17-Wed> Dj Nikoless
18-Thu> The Saint
19-Fri> Emma 1212 (from Paris) & The Fun Boys
20-Sat> Housekeeping with Brian Thomas

22-Mon> Rockit Fuel! Hosted by, C-Gull
23-Tue> It Takes All Kinds... with Platetektoniks
24-Wed> Brigadier Woodro of 3 King Sound System
25-Thu> Replicant Soul with Dj Tk
26-Fri> Treehouse Records
27-Sat> JOBOT

29-Mon> James Leonardo
30-Tue> It Takes All Kinds... with Platetektoniks

31- Wed> HALLOWEEN BASH!
with Ebony, The Saint & Cecil Otter
Costume Contest and 241's 9:30 'til 12:30

Exiled #43 Is Published

Here is the linkage.