Joe Mauer is Awesome

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

Let me just repost what Aaron Gleeman wrote yesterday.  It should be no surprise to anyone that Joe Mauer is my favorite player in baseball.  The guy is  a total stud:

Mauer is such a great hitter that batting .417 or getting on base at a .500 clip during a 19-game stretch shouldn’t surprise anyone, but eight homers and five doubles in 72 at-bats is totally unexpected even without considering that he missed April with an injury. He hasn’t abandoned his patient approach at the plate and isn’t suddenly pulling the ball consistently. He’s still taking tons of pitches and going the the other way with most of the balls he hits, but the fly balls just seem to be traveling a little further.

I’m not sure how to explain it and have no idea whether it’ll last, but holy shit has Mauer been amazing. At .417/.500/.819 he’d be leading all of baseball in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage with enough plate appearances to qualify and he has one homer per 9.0 at-bats after going deep once every 46.8 at-bats coming into the season. Plus, Ron Gardenhire may even leave him in the No. 2 spot that I’ve been advocating for years now after the 20-run outburst with Mauer there yesterday.

Music and Basketball

Another good quote from The Sports Guy.  He had an email exchange with Macolm Gladwell and the subject of music and basketball came up.  The Sports Guys responds:

We had lunch a few weeks ago and discussed the parallels between music and basketball. The structure is fundamentally the same: You have a lead singer (the NBA alpha dog, like LeBron or Kobe), the lead guitarist (the sidekick, like Pippen or McHale), the drummer (an unsung third wheel, like Parish or Worthy), the bassist (a solid, reliable and ultimately disposable role player: like Byron Scott or Anderson Varejao); and then everyone else (the other rotation guys). Bands can go different ways just like successful basketball teams. McCartney and Lennon were two geniuses who ultimately needed one another (like Young Magic and Older Kareem, or Shaq and Young Kobe), whereas MJ and LeBron were more like Sting or Springsteen (someone who could carry the band by themselves). And if you want to drag hip-hop or rap into it, the best parallel would obviously be Jordan’s post-baseball Bulls: MJ was Chuck D, Pippen was Terminator X, and there is no effing doubt that Rodman was Flavor Flav.

It’s a great read if you’re into the NBA and what’s happening right now.  I like The Sports Guy’s take about Lebron.  This is a great time to be a viewer as Lebron is doing what Michael Jordan did in the early 90’s. He’s just destroying people and making it great to watch.  Plus, there’s a Spinal Tap refernce in there.  How could it be a bad article then.  It reads:

As the 2009 postseason rolls on, the King has become its most compelling story, not just because of his insane numbers, that Jordan-like hunger in his eyes, even the fact that he’s still on cruise control to some degree. (Note: I would compare

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

him to Nigel Tufnel’s amp. He alternated between “9″ and “10″ in the regular season, and he’s been at 10 in the playoffs, but I can’t shake the feeling that he has an “11″ in store for Kobe and the Finals. An extra decibel level, if you will. In my lifetime, Jordan could go to 11. So could Bird. Shaq and Kobe could get there together, but not apart. And really, that’s it. Even Magic could get to 10 3/4 but never quite 11. It’s a whole other ball game: You aren’t just beating teams, you’re destroying their will. You never know when you’ll see another 11. I’m just glad we’re here. End of tangent.) But his relationship with his teammates continues to fascinate me; because of his character and the spirit of the players that surround him, it’s like watching a more animated/funny/bombastic version of Duncan’s Spurs, or even last season’s Boston team. I really get a kick out of them. Only LeBron and Magic could foster a climate like that just by being themselves.

Any other insight from my readers?

Bill Simmons to be Timberwolves GM?

Two of my favorite things are intersecting today.  My love for The Sports Guy and for the Timberwolves could turn into a marraige as he’s launching a campaign to be the Twolves GM.  The Star Tribune did an interview (via email) with him here.

I personally think he knows the intricacies of the league, the contracts the budgets and the trades to do the job rather well.  Plus he has good NBA common sense. He knows how it works – arguably more than any other journalist.  Here are some thoughts he has:

I would think outside the box, and really, that’s what a team like Minnesota needs from their GM. I would go out to dinner with every [original] Minny season ticket holder — and there can’t be many — in groups of eight or 10 just to let them know that someone appreciates that they stuck with the franchise for this long. I would make a vow that, if we are ever eliminated from the playoffs in any season, from that point on, every home game is half-price and all season ticket holders get a half-price refund on the remaining games so they aren’t paying for crappy tank jobs. I would make myself accountable at every game and via email. I would make a rule that any T-Wolves fan could trade in a jersey of a player no longer on the team and get 40% off a new one. I would have a contest to find two T-Wolves fans to announce all our home games on Timberwolves.com, kinda like Mystery Science Theater but with diehard fans of the team. Etc etc etc. I have a million ideas. Really, you have to be an idea guy to be an NBA GM – you deal with a lot of stuff beyond “Which players should I pick?” And anyone who reads my column knows that I never, ever, EVER run out of ideas.

I would LOVE for this to happen.  One can only hope

Celebrity Voicemails

While reading the highly entertaining mailbag by Bill Simmons, i read this from one of his readers:

Recently, Morgan Freeman came to my town to help celebrate the opening of one of his restaurants, Pig ‘N Whistle BBQ. He came around and greeted every table and talked with each guest, and everyone was getting their picture taken with him. I had a stroke of genius, though, and had my phone out. When Mr. Freeman reached our table, I asked if he would be so kind as to record a message for me. He said yes. Now I have this on my cell: “This is actor Morgan Freeman, Barnz is away from his phone right now but leave a message and he will call you back, I hope … I hope.” Is there a better choice for voicemail and a specific person to leave it?
– Barnz, Fayettesville, Ark.

That’s truly amazing.  Of course Bill provided a few that he’d rather see:

2. Jack Nicholson: “This is Jack Nicholson. Bill isn’t home right now. You’re entitled to leave a message for him. Just know that I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain where he is, especially to someone who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said ‘thank you’ and went on your way. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!!!”

3. Al Pacino: “Hi, this is Al Pacino. I don’t know where Bill is right now. But I do know this. Life is just a game of inches. I am still willing to fight and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is!!! The six inches in front of your face!!!!! Now I can’t make you leave a message. You gotta do it. So wait for the beep.”

4. Buffalo Bill (from Silence of the Lambs): “This is Jame Gumb answering Bill’s cell phone. Bill’s not here. (Long pause.) Is this a great big fat person?”

It’s pretty funny – can you think of  anything better?

Edina Hockey

Growing up in Edina, MN is a great experience.  One of the highlights of the year is the state hockey tournament. If Edina made (which we always did) we’d get the days of school off and everyone would go to the Xcel Center dressed up like maniacs and cheer like mad for the Hornet players.  Hockey there is huge and it doesn’t get any bigger than the state tourney.  You can imagine how happy i was to see Sports Illustrated do an article about this year’s team.

THE BOYS made a pledge, like many 13-year-olds do. No contract. No blood oath. Just a promise. In 2004, five eighth-graders from Edina, Minn., teammates in the youth hockey program, committed to the same dream. They would not merely win the state high school hockey championship someday. They would win it together, for Edina High.

It might not have been an extraordinary pledge in other sports, but in hockey, star players have the opportunity to leave high school for prep schools, junior leagues or the national development program in Ann Arbor, Mich. The idea of playing against better competition, developing more rapidly and enhancing their value to Division I schools or NHL scouts is too seductive for many boys to resist. Stay at your high school and you’ll go to your prom—but you might not go to the pros.

No matter: For kids steeped in Minnesota’s puck culture some things are more important. “My heroes [growing up] weren’t guys who played for the [NHL's Minnesota] Wild,” says Edina’s Baker, 17, a defenseman who will play for Holy Cross next year. “They were guys who played at the high school.”

Damn straight.  High school hockey is ridiculously awesome.  Go Hornets

Shane Battier and NBA stats

There’s a good article in the NYTimes today by my alter-ego (Michael Lewis) the author who wrote Moneyball, the influential book about stats and baseball.  In the article he talks instead about the NBA and how the statistics are often misleading don’t tell the whole story.  It’s also a case study of the Rockets forward Shane Battier and how while his stats are often horrible he’s an extremely valuable player, saying,

Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse.

He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also ha

s a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly ­reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates

Shane is an interesting case because almost everyone in the NBA, players and owners and GM’s, think Shane is overrated and not overly talented.

It was, and is, far easier to spot what Battier doesn’t do than what he does. His conventional statistics are unremarkable: he doesn’t score many points, snag many rebounds, block many shots, steal many balls or dish out many assists. On top of that, it is easy to see what he can never do: what points he scores tend to come from jump shots taken immediately after receiving a pass. “That’s the telltale sign of someone who can’t ramp up his offense,”

Going further about Shane,:

“I call him Lego,” Morey says. “When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category.”

The article is great and discusses how the traditional box score is extremely outdated and there’s new, better thinking about statistics that are much more relevant.  For example, if you want to know a player’s value as a ­rebounder, you need to know not whether he got a rebound but the likelihood of the team getting the rebound when a missed shot enters that player’s zone.

Basketball is unique in this way as the stats are more intermingled with the play than baseball and football where it’s easier to seperate the indivudal from the team.   Either way, it’s a good article and worth a read.  it’s here:

Sports blogs are the best

As I’ve been talking about all over this blog, traditional media is on the decline (here and here). Papers are on their way out and everyone knows it.  Ever since i was a kid, I’ve always loved the local sports pages but one thing I’ve been doing for the past few years is reading sports blogs instead of the local paper’s coverage. Why? Because there are a few benefits:

1) They are biased. Obviously, sports reporting for a local town are biased but they try to come off as neutral and objective.  They definitely aren’t and it’s nice to read a blog where the writer is unabashedly biased towards your team.  It gives them the freedom to speak freely and accomplish my next point

2) They are funny. Sports blogs aren’t afraid to rip someone down in a funny and often juvinule manner. This is sports, not world news

3) They are mean. I almost never read in a paper that someone is playing poorly.  If someone has a bad game, they don’t mention it – they only focus on who scored the points and why one team won.  They rarely go into the details of what was happening. They don’t give you a feel of the game.  Blogs will tell you straight-up what’s happening.  If you don’t watch the game, this is huge.  It’s as if you are getting a report from a friend (subjective blog) rather than a robot (objective newspaper).

4) They are passionate. These writers analyze the crap out of the team. They drum up stats that would only arise if someone was spending night and day thinking about the team. They compare players to supermodels, they conjure up theories about their pregame warmups.  They provide much more thinking about a team than a local beat writer.

5) They web-based meaning they link, embed, reference and do all the stuff that other web sites do. These are things that newspaper columns don’t do.  Having YouTube clips in a column makes it infinitely more readable.  Seeing sports is fun.  Linking to other points is a good idea.  These things doing happen with local columnists and it limits the usefulness of their output.

All of these things are why i love sports blogs and i’m also happy to see that my bud Jim Bankoff (Qloud investor/chairman) recently became CEO Of Sports Blog Nation (or SB Nation) which has a network of over 185 blogs covering almost every sport.  There’s a good article in yesterday’s WashingtonPost. These blogs and others like them are going to be my go-to for getting news (Twolves blog here) and you should probably check them out too.

Related articles:

• SB Nation Got $5 Million In Funding For Sports Blogs (paidcontent.org)
• SB Nation: Startup Sports Blog Network Backed By Tech, Media Luminaries (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Printed Blog: Just Why? (appscout.com)
• This Printed Newspaper Is Made of Blogs Only (labnol.org)

25 Random Things About Me

Image via CrunchBase

I got tagged in Facebook to do one of these lists.  I really enjoyed reading some of my colleagues and some of my old friends from high school so i thought i’d put one together.

The rules are that once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged or however many you want. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

Here are my items:

1. I don’t like fruit (with the exception of apples) and i’m happy that my sister’s the same way. It makes me feel less strange

2. I tend to get around. I’ve been to 49 states and hope to get to the final one, Mississippi, sometime soon.  Since college, I’ve lived in Virginia, New York, Washington DC, Boston (sort of), and now Los Angeles.

3. I have no toenails on my 2 little toes

4. I was born in NY, then moved to CA, then moved to Texas before i finished my youth in Minnesota.

5. I grew up in Minnesota.  When i moved east in 1996, i felt like a Midwesterner.  I then lived on the east coast for 11 years.  When i moved to California last year, i felt like an Easterner.  After a few years here, who knows who i’ll be

6. i’ve never broken a bone. I attribute this to my love of milk

7. I love the extended Lewis Family clan and feel so fortunate that i have such great cousins, aunts and uncles.

8. When i was younger I used to dress up like a ninja and wonder around in the woods with my brother.

The Dark Art of Rebounding

I would like to call to attention a post written today about my new favorite player in the NBA.  Let me ask you this question:

if you take:

• Every rookie who has ever played in the NBA since 1946 …
• Weed out everyone who played less than twenty minutes per game …
• And sort them by who gets the highest percentage of total rebounds while on the court …

Which rookies over the past 100 years do you think would be in that list?  I’ll give you a hint: 2 of the top 10 are rookies this year.  At number 9 you have Greg Oden. He’s ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Another 2008-2009 rookie, however, is currently third all time. He’s ahead of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Oakley, Buck Williams, and Bill Walton (trailing only Clifford Ray and Larry Smith, who were three years older in their rookie years than the guy I’m talking about).  It’s, of course, Kevin Love.

It’s strange considering:

Kevin Love’s total rebounding percentage is greater than his age, which just about never happens. He’s only 20, but he grabs 21.3 percent of the rebounds while he’s on the court.  He’s also smaller and less athletic than a lot of the players he’s competing against for those loose balls. And he’s best known as a passer

Whatever it is, it’s amazing to see Love haul in offensive board after offensive board.  Even more amazing to think that he’s only 20.   The article is good as it describes his mentality when playing.  Check it out and Go Kevin Love and Go T-Wolves!

Why Run?

I read a great little post by Lizard about her morning.  It is a great depiction of the pain of waking up and the joy of finishing.  It takes a while to learn that there’s nothing as rewarding as getting up to run.  It always delivers.  Liz’s morning:

• Get up
• Whine
• Go back to bed
• Get back up. Shiver.
• Whine
• Brush teeth. Look for running clothes
• Be filled with love that the Boss has washed my running clothes
• Stub toe. Curse.
• Look for socks. Find one. Victory!
• Remember that you need two socks. Damnit!
• Find second sock. Sock #2 is different thickness than sock #1. Debate how much this will bother me while running.
• Decide “A lot”, look for different sock.
• Fail at finding new sock, suck up the different thickness socks.
• Reach for caffeinated Gu.
• Discover lack of caffeinated Gu. Curse.
• Look for gloves. Find gloves. Rejoice!
• Look for Ipod. Remember have not charged iPod in 4 days. Curse.
• Attempt to tie shoes while wearing gloves. Fail. remove gloves, tie shoes. Leave house
• Step outside. Note that it is raining. And cold. Curse.
• Go to start watch. Notice that you forgot watch. Curse
• Begin to notice how pretty everything is all covered in fog
• …until the second running step when it becomes clear that water on the streets is turning into big sheets of ice.
• Run slow so as to not slip. (yeah. That’s it. That’s *exactly* why I run slow)
• Notice that ass has frozen and seems to be bouncing independently from my body.
• Bitch about ice on ground.
• Suspend bitching once sun rises and I notice how pretty the National Mall looks.
• Resume bitching when submerge foot in big puddle.
• Dream about the wonderful DC Spring weather, and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, conveniently forgetting that I am allergic to the cherry blossoms and will in no way be able to run while they are in bloom.
• Be annoyed that socks are different thickness and one shoe is looser than the other.
• Round the end of the Mall over by Lincoln. Look up at Abe, look at slick steps covered in ice and puddles leading up to Abe, and give him a wave, promising to visit him later.
• Get cold. Start to run faster to warm up and get home.
• Send The Boss mental thoughts consisting of “Make breakfast and coffee…make breakfast and coffee…’
• Stop running fast. Pant.
• Get home.
• Give The Boss a big sweaty kiss despite the fact that he did not get the mental message of “coffee and breakfast”
• Hop in warm shower and think to self “I love running”
• Smile when I realize: I actually meant it. I DO love running.