Blogging With A Vengeance

August 4, 2008 - WILD CUT TIES WITH HOMETOWN BOY

On Tuesday night former St. Cloud State standout and now former Minnesota Wild fan favorite Mark Parrish was given his walking papers from the organization before having a chance to play out the third year of his five year deal with the club.

Parrish cleared waivers and is having the remaining two thirds of his contract bought out by the team making him an unrestricted free agent. This was expected to happen due the size and time remaining on his contract and his age. Parrish’s agent John Vollan was on the phone with some teams feeling out the interest for Parrish.

The move was said by the team to be a salary cap casualty but one has to wonder the merit of that statement. Parrish has been known to be in Coach Jacques Lemaire’s doghouse for a good part of the 2007-08 season and had often not seen eye to eye with the coach about how to approach his game and contribute to the squad. That could make you think that if Lemaire had decided not to return would Parrish still be a member of the Wild.

I know for a fact that the way Lemaire had Mark playing had a direct effect on his stats. Parrish is an offensive player who was not given the chance to show his skills.

Also one would wonder how much the two concussions Parrish suffered last year weighed into the decision along with some minor back problems he ran into also. He was given a clean bill of health by team physicians.

I have not had the chance to talk to Parrish about the move but I know how much playing for his hometown team meant to him. I do expect him to catch on someplace else and you could conceive that it would happen closer to the beginning of the season after teams have a chance to evaluate their squads and realize that they need a goal scorer.

I do know that Mark had told me with confidence that he in no way asked to be traded or asked for his release. That conversation was two weeks prior to his unconditional release.

All I know is that this is not the way I wanted to get my hands on a discounted Mark Parrish Wild Jersey.

Sox skipper sings nothing but praise for the Twins, Morneau.

It is no secret that The Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has all the respect in the world for The Twins and he is still singing that song.

Before the first game of the four game stint at Metrodome Guillen was asked why he keeps praising a division rival, especially in the heat of a pennant race.

“I know about baseball and I don’t think they (writers) know about baseball, I know about baseball. Why? Ask the people in Chicago how many playoff (the) White Sox have and how many Minnesota Twins playoff they have since I am managing, since I am playing.” The Manager said, but he wasn’t even close to being done.

“They have good players, real good players. They are playing the game good and they’ve been playing like that since I was playing. That’s’ why I do it. If people in Chicago don’t like it, that’s not the first time they don’t like what I say. When I say it I mean it.”

He made mention of the fact that the Twins were projected to be in last place but they are right up top in the division and there is a reason for the success. One main reason he attributes to the former MVP Justin Morneau, he also thinks Morneau does not get the acclaim he rightfully deserves.

“They have one of the best, to me, best hitter in baseball and no body say anything about this kid. If this kid was playing for New York, Boston, Chicago, the Cubs, anybody else – but he plays for the Minnesota Twins” He said.

“I like everything on him besides being at the plate. This kid’s dangerous. He’s one of the best in the big leagues and nobody ever talks about him” he continued.

Guillen basically said that he will continue to praise the Twins and what they do. “They know how to play and I have to give them credit, (and) if people don’t want to do it that’s there problem.

Random Justin Morneau Quotes

- on his swing following the Home Run Derby

“Maybe it helped me; we’ll see (laughs). It was a little different this year going in. It was a little more relaxed and I just had fun with it. I didn’t want to use that as an excuse.”

- On losing Casilla

“That’s a big hit, but somebody’s gonna have to step up and do the job. He’s been great since he’s been up here, seen a lot of pitches in that number 2 spot, getting on base, running around, playing unbelievable defense. Hopefully whoever they stick out there can try to continue what he was doing. I mean that’s a big blow to our team but it seems like when something like that happens somebody else comes in with the opportunity and takes advantage of it and hopefully that happens again.”

- On Parrish

“That’s unfortunate. He’s too good of a player not to find a job somewhere”

- On me having strawberry fruit freezy stuff all over the front of my shirt

“I thought you got in a fight with a bottle of Gatorade”

Stuff

- The Minnesota Timberwolves resigned Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, and “The Rhino” Craig Smith. Along with the additions of Mike Miller, and Kevin Love things are only looking up for the squad who resides at 600 1st Ave.

- The Brett Favre situation is still unresolved and he is still not a Viking.

- Danny Zuko beat Crater Face (The leader of the Scorpions gang) in a drag race at Thunder Road. They were racing for Pinks (Pinks you punk, pink slips, ownership papers) while Sandy Olsson watched anonymously from above.

July 28, 2008 - Twins Plan To Stick With Slumping Rookie

Carlos Gomez is arguably the most exciting player the on the Twins roster. He is by far the fastest which not only makes him a threat every time he steps foot on the base paths but it also makes him something special to watch in centerfield. I can honestly say that I have not seen anyone close on a ball as fast as he can.

It should have been expected to see someone with as much raw talent (let us emphasize the word raw) to struggle at some point this season, but maybe not in the way he has over the past couple weeks. He started out hot hovering around .300ish, (ok more like .280) stealing bases, raising havoc for defenses, and making spectacular grabs in the outfield but has slowly slid into the funk that he is currently in. Skipper Ron Gardenhire said that he plans to let Gomez play through it.

“You don’t want to devastate him anymore than he already is because he’s fighting it pretty hard and he knows where he’s at obviously.” Said the skipper. “He’s still gonna hit and he’s gonna play center.” He continued.

Gomez who is currently hitting an ugly .248 knows that he has to keep working hard at it and keep working with hitting Coach Joe Vavra. Vavra is trying to work out the kinks with the young speedster by putting him in a more disciplined routine in the batting cage that seems to be taking effect on his at bats. He did say it is more than just trying to settle Gomez down.

“I don’t know how you can settle a 22 year old down with that experience and I don’t know if you want to, I think you just have to give him a little bit better plan. He’s gotta be able to accept it and that’s where he is now; understanding his at bats.” Vavra told me.

It just may be a matter of moving him down in the line up which Gardenhire told me was a possibility and has already happened (Gomez was dropped to ninth when the team went to New York). He also told me that it doesn’t matter as much as us writers think because you only lead off the game once per game.

“You can only lead off as the first hitter of the game once and then it rolls around. I always find that kind of amazing how much emphasis we put on that, but he’s gonna end up leading off a couple times and you guys are gonna say ‘why he leading off the 9th, why is he leading off now?’ It’s gonna happen, he’s just gotta have better at bats is what I’m trying to say here” said Gardenhire.

With that said if you look at the at bats totals up to this point, Gomez has 400 of them which leads the team. The closest player to him in that column is Justin Morneau with 381.

I think Gomez has shown that when he is getting on base and having good at bats it is a no brainer to have him leading off because he changes defenses when he is running, but until he can prove that he is ready to do that it is better to have him at the bottom of the line up.

Twins historically bad against the Yankees

Some teams are just horrible against certain teams whether they are good or bad or vice versa and the Yankees have always been a thorn in the Twins side.

Even though the Yanks Evil Empire days are slowing turning their Star Destroyers into Spaceball 1, they still have the Twins number and the last series in the Bronx zoo was no different.

The young Twins pitchers went in there only to get shelled by the aging Spaceball army and the offence got shut down by Sidney Ponson, Mike Mussina, and something called Darrell Rasner.

After Wednesday’s loss the Twins all time record against the Bronx Bombers has dropped to 238-316-1 (don’t ask me about the 1, I have no idea). Since 1961 the Twins have only had a winning record against New York seven times. Seven times in forty seven years they have won the season series so it has to be more than the yearly match ups.

I expected to see the losing records in the mid to late nineties so we can’t look at those and say we should have had them because those were the prime years of the Evil Empire and the Twins were, well pretty bad. Even in the Twins return to prominence early this decade they are 12-40 against them.

What could it possibly be? Is it the mystical aura of the pinstripes? Is it the thoughts of the greats that lived before them? Is it the mystique of Yankee Stadium? Is it the ghost of Don Slaught? I don’t have those answers, heck I don’t think anyone does.

Mauer and Nathan on wearing the home whites in Yankee Stadium for the All Star Game

Joe Nathan – “It’s always a special feeling no matter where you are, especially for me being from there. It’s nice going over to the home side and seeing what it looks like but now we gotta take care of business against them.

Joe Mauer – “Yeah it was pretty neat. It kind of threw me off being on the home side, I am used to seeing it from the visitors but it’s a special place, great atmosphere. It’s a fun place to play at.”

Joe Mauer on taking to the Hall Of Famers at the All Star Game.

“I talked to Yogi (Berra) a little bit; I was kind of in awe with all of them. Harmon (Killebrew), I saw him at the parade. Ya see Harmon a lot and you almost take it for granted sometimes, you don’t realize some of the things that he’s done because he’s such a great guy.”

“He was like ‘let me introduce you to my friend Brooks Robinson’ and that was my first time meeting him so I was like ‘wow this is pretty cool’. They are all great guys and it was a special moment when we had that opening ceremony.”

Joe told me that unfortunately he did not get any Yogi-isms out of Mr. Berra but he said that he was a great guy.

Izzy Presley
Sports Director
izzypresley@rxmagazine.net

July 22, 2008 - Could Brett Favre Keep The Vikings In Minnesota?