A Whirlwind Weekend

Frequently I find myself seeking out stories or events to write about when I come here to Wolfden V. Then there are other times when I have 27 different ideas. After a whirlwind weekend, the latter is true at this particular juncture.

A Compass Pointe reunion took place here in Minnesota with my fellow roomies coming up from Kansas City and Milwaukee. I remember portions of their visit better than others. Images of Twins baseball, bowling alleys, and Wendy's frosties are most vivid in my mind. Some of these highlights of the past three days are written here in as entertaining a manner as possible so as to not bore the other 4 readers of this web page.

-Carl Crawford's base running blunder will forever be with me. Ends up the Twins/Devil Rays split their four game series at the Metrodome, but Tampa Bay almost certainly should have taken 3 of 4, a respectable feet considering the Twins are the defending AL Central Champs and Tampa is terrible. But, Crawford manage to run the Devil Rays into a loss in the 9th inning of Thursday's game by arriving at third base only to find Ben Zobrist already standing there. Both became panic stricken and ran in opposite directions allowing Minnesota to clear the base paths.

-Justin Morneau made Crawford's night worse. In the bottom half of the ninth inning, Justin Morneau led off with a homerun giving the Twinkies the victory. The ball just barely cleared the fence and, ironically, Carl Crawford's glove. Much celebration ensued.

-A formal presentation of Tori Hunter's gold glove actually kicked off the Thursday night festivities. Kirby Puckett's son threw out the first pitch to Hunter who showed off those fielding skills by promptly dropping the 30 mile an hour ceremonial toss. Egh.

-Two nights later Johan Santana's Cy Young was the pregame focus. His wife and two young daughters threw out the first pitch to Santana. After his wife threw a dead on strike (with bounce!), the youngest daughter decided she also needed to participate. She chased after the baseball which daddy gave her. She felt the need to show off her arm, and the toddler chucked the ball approximately 2 feet in the wrong direction. 25,000 people in the Metrodome in unison chuckled and said, "awwww." After the game, the Devil Rays signed her to a 2 year, 1.1 million dollar developmental deal.

-Elsewhere in sports, Tim Duncan was ejected from his Sunday game while sitting on the bench. I'm not entirely sure the whole situation, but referee Joey Crawford does not believe in "sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt." Chuckling on the sidelines, Duncan picked up his second technical by a feisty Crawford.

"He looked at me and said, 'Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?"' Duncan said. "If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don't have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, 'Do you want to fight?"'

Duncan probably isn't as completely squeaky clean innocent as his comments would allow, but I'm pretty sure that if I'm Joey Crawford, "fight" isn't in my vocabulary with a 6'11" 260 lbs professional athlete.

-Despite this fun NBA story, it's not even my favorite one from the weekend. That would belong to my hometown Minnesota Timberwolves whose futility is fascinating. Ricky Davis went crazy, scoring 42 points and dishing out 5 assists. He was so good in leading Minnesota that they back slapped Golden State in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Warriors by 27, 42-15. And yet, they lost. Not only did they lose, they were blown out. 121-108. Which of course means that Minnesota was losing by 40 at one point. 40!! Unbelievable.

-I am the best bowler in the history of Blainbrook Bowl. Recording an all-time personal best of 144, I embarrassed those who tried to defeat the mighty Wolfman. Not only this, but I accomplished this feat while 90% crippled in my right arm thanks to throwing totes into a Walgreens truck by myself the previous afternoon (Ed will attest to the level of difficulty here, especially considering my frail frame). There is a partial chance that consumption of alcohol later in the evening may have blurred some memories in this instance, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case.

-JR enjoys a bizarre combination of Raisin Nut Brand, Caffeine Free Pepsi, and Captain Morgan. In high quantities.