Chevy Volt performance? Electrifying!
Chevrolet's plug-in Volt commutes without gasoline.
By John Gilbert
ROCHESTER, MICH. — We’ve all heard about the Chevrolet Volt, through five years of hyperbole and breathless promotion. But finally, Chevrolet’s plug-in electric car is ready to start production as a 2011 model, with a few prototypes already hitting the streets and highways. First drive experiences indicates it might be better than the most enthusiastic claim from the always enthusiastic staff that remains in the rebuilt General Motors.
The Volt might inspire a brave new world in automotives, and it certainly could become the vanguard indicating that Chevrolet and GM could return to automotive technical prominence. The Volt is sleekly styled, somewhere between compact and subcompact size. It’s heavy, because its primary drive system is a battery pack and two electric motors, along with its backup gas engine. And, it’s expensive, costing just over $40,000 and probably fetching closer to $43,000 after production gets going by the end of November. Read more
EcoBoost paces F150’s 4 new engines
Black grille available on 2011 EcoBoost Ford F150.
By John Gilbert
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — When Ford redesigned its popular F150 pickup truck, it connected every objective to maintain its 33-year-old title as largest-selling vehicle in the U.S. The assorted V6 and V8 engines Ford offered in the half-ton pickups seemed adequate enough, but Ford decided it could upgrade all of them for 2011.
Riding the crest of a technical wave, Ford is offering four new engines in the F150, starting with a base 3.7-liter V6, then to a high-revving 5.0 V8 adapted from the Mustang GT, and up to the 6.2 V8 built for the larger SuperDuty pickups. The coup de grace is the smallest but arguably the most potent — the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, which is aimed at convincing truck buyers that refining and turbocharging the smallest-displacement offering results in far more than just “the little engine that could.”
Distinctive for its new horizontal-bar grille, all four engines have specific purposes, and all represent a shift to high-tech powerplants that are both more powerful and more economical. Ford unveiled the new arsenal in Fort Worth, Texas, where waves of media showed up to drive them through various tests against top opposition from Chevrolet and Dodge on area highways and freeways, including competitive towing and handling exhibitions. Read more
Field of Dreams can be a Natural
First-round Senior tournament action at Union Hill's Field of Dreams.
By John Gilbert
The movie “Field of Dreams” is a classic for anyone who has ever played, watched, or heard about the game of baseball at the small town level. It rivals “The Natural” for being the most intriguing baseball movie ever made.
The Natural is more of a drama, about a fictional character who makes a magical bat out of a peculiar chunk of wood and it powers him to fame. Field of Dreams is different, more of a whimsical story about the magic of the game of baseball. It’s hard to pick out the best part of Field of Dreams, where a farmer in Iowa decides to build a ballfield out in the corn, inspired by the motto, “If you build it, they will come.” The field is built, looking like a giant emerald, and, sure enough, Shoeless Joe Jackson and a bunch of ancient ballplayers emerge out of the tall cornstalks to play on that field.
Maybe the movie is especially captivating to those who have been to a small town that really cares about its ballpark. Those of us in the…uh…”senior” category have been feeling the inspirational fire every year, playing in the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball League, for those over 35. This is a league started 31 years ago by a guy named Duane Gaulke, who lives down in Jordan, Minnesota, a small town off Hwy. 169 after you’ve driven through Shakopee and are headed for Belle Plaine, or Mankato. Gaulke was getting older, slowing down a bit, and he could sense the young lions coming up to force him and his equally aging contemporaries out of the game. Normally, that means they gracefully become fans, reduced to occasionally reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
So Gaulke concocted a set of rules to organize a league for players 35 and over. No young pups allowed. He declared each of nine innings would start with one out, and each at-bat would start with a 1-and-1 count. The games would be fast, less than two hours, rather than high-scoring. Batters would go up swinging instead of taking pitches, and the pitcher would pitch a complete game and still function at his real-world job come Monday. The rules worked, and the league grew. Gaulke, the everlasting commissioner, conceded only in recent years to switch to seven innings with three outs, but retaining the abbreviated count.
I was working at the Minneapolis Tribune when a fellow called me up to tell me about the league, which was going into its third season, and how it might be a good story. Heck with the story, I wanted to play. After joining the Burnsville team for that season, I started my own team — the Shoreview Hawks. Since I was coaching my sons’ teams, I recruited some athletic-looking dads to start the team. That was 27 years ago. . At the time, the teams were all in the Minnesota River Valley, and we were the only team north of Bloomington. The league proliferated, and several other competing leagues have sprung up. We’re still at it, although it’s more of a haul, splitting time between Duluth and the Twin Cities. But we only play a game or two each week, from late May until early August.
And then we have our state tournament, which is right now. It takes two weekends, with each team assured four games, and it incorporates all the teams from our league’s three divisions, plus a northwestern Minnesota league contingent that comes down for a season-ending highlight. The beauty of it is that we get to play at those small towns with their own Fields of Dreams, as we live those dreams. Or relive memories, take your pick.
The Shoreview Hawks are not going to win the championship this year. Again. We were tournament runners-up in our first three years of existence, but in recent years, our fortunes have faded. We were always competitive when we had two outstanding pitchers, which is no surprise, but one of them left to play for a team nearer to where he lives, and the other was lured away by a guy hand-picking a better team from selected players on existing teams. But we keep playing, with the same objective as always: Play the best we can, play for the love of the game, and enjoy being as competitive as possible within the scope of having good guys more than star players. Noble concepts, those, and, unfortunately, they pretty much always fall short against superior pitching, hitting and defense.
This season, we don’t win, but we invent extremely creative ways to not win. One game we rallied from a 5-1 deficit to tie the game in the last inning, only to lose 6-5 in extra innings when our outfielder’s perfect one-hop throw to the plate would have foiled a tag-up from third — except that we executed a perfect cutoff on the throw and the winning run scored. Another time we were in a 0-0 game and gave up two runs in the sixth on a shocking dropped fly ball — only to come back when our newest player, playing in his first game, got his first hit in the top of the seventh to drive in two runs for a 2-2 tie. Then we played extra innings until it was too dark to continue, and we had to settle for a tie.
We’ve pitched better as the season has progressed, played pretty good defense, but not consistently, and we’ve hit sporadically, and we certainly haven’t done all three in the same game.
For us, the tournament opened in Union Hill, a tiny town south of Jordan and west of New Prague. Somehow, our catcher, shortstop, centerfielder and third baseman all misjudged the distance from their Twin Cities homes, and failed to arrive until only a few minutes to game time. It happens, at this level, and all you can do is stall the nice lady trying to get my lineup sheet for the public address announcer. We lost 6-1 to Northfield in a game I thought we’d win.
We lost Sunday in Jordan, too, in another game I was sure we could win. This time, we walked the bases loaded in the top of the first, then on a grounder up the middle, our shortstop fielded it, stepped on second and threw to first for a double play, after which our first baseman spotted the runner trying to score from third and threw him out at the plate for a triple play. The only one I’ve ever seen or heard about in this league. But four pitchers went on to walk so many guys the Minneapolis Bombers didn’t need to get many hits to beat us 16-4. Other than our pitching, hitting and defense, we stayed right with ’em.
I feel a little bit like Charlie Brown, because we seem to lose, game after game, but I’ve never anticipated we wouldn’t win.
We played early enough both days that I could drive around that rural farmland and watch games in Veseli and Shakopee, as well. Shakopee has the newest and slickest field in the league, which figures, because it’s basically a Minneapolis suburb now, with lots of residents, and a raised sophistication. It also happens that Shakopee was undefeated all season to win their division, and they entered the tournament as heavy favorite.
Veseli is another tiny town, south of Prior Lake and east of New Prague, nestled down there near Webster and Lonsdale — which also have teams and neat ballparks. Every player on Veseli’s team comes out to work on the field, while other residents flip burgers and sell soft drinks. The Veseli field is another shrine to small-town perfection, with an American flag flying from the left-field foul post, and a Czech flag flying with equal pride from the right-field foul post. I love flags, but I’m not sure if that flag represents the Czech Republic, or the previous nation of Czechoslovakia. Doesn’t matter, actually, because Czechoslovakia is where most Veseli residents can trace their heritage. .
A new player on our team, who moved to Minnesota from out of the state, was wide-eyed when he got to Union Hill’s field. It has a short but high fence in left that’s short enough to not intrude on the barn out there. From the barn, rows of corn 7 feet high completely surround the fence as it curves from center field to right field, and beyond, on and on, all the way to Hwy. 19. The modest little grandstand is in the shade, and the concession stand is under the public address booth. The whole scene caused our newcomer to say, “This IS the field of dreams!” He couldn’t wait to snap some keepsake photos of the place.
Part of the attraction is hanging around after the game to watch the next one, and maybe compare notes and heckles with teammates and opponents. That’s part of the whole scene, as are the grilled burgers with fried onions, which taste better there than anywhere else. Especially at Union Hill, where you can choose between beef or pork sausage patties. Or, for an extra buck, you can coax them into putting one of each on the same bun.
Another treat of playing at both Jordan and Union Hill is the best shortcut between the two towns is a small highway that gets you to a little dirt road where Lyle Lambrecht lives. Lambrecht used to play in the league, and since retiring, he started messing around making bats. Now he’s turned it into an art form. There are other bat makers in Minnesota, and elsewhere, now that wood bats are becoming prominent again, but Lambrecht Bats are something special. If pressed, I’d bet the others might actually be a bit better, but every single one of Lyle’s bats has its own personality.
Lyle Lambrecht, in his studio with a few of his friends.
He gets ash, and maple, and birch from the Adirondacks, and he gets a bit of mystery wood, which, he says, is like a cross between the hardest maple and the next-hardest birch. Ash, the lightest and most common, is easiest to swing, but also easiest to break on those blasted inside curveballs. You walk into the first little building where Lyle works, and it is like an amateur baseball shrine. There are bats in all sizes, length and weight, and type of wood. If you want a bat and you heft a dozen supposedly identical bats, you will find several you prefer, and if you work at it, you can eliminate them, down to the best one or two. At $40 apiece, you are buying a work of art, personalized with your name inscribed. And it could be an implement that could help your batting average.
I’ve bought several Lambrecht Bats for the team to use, and a couple of special ones that I stash away for my own private use. My older son, Jack, plays for us now, too, and he’s a talented hitter. He didn’t know it, but I went up to Lambrecht’s last Sunday and bought him a belated birthday present, with his name inscribed on the barrel. Now he’ll hit even better.
I hope he feels the magic, because now that I think about it, getting your hands on one of those personally selected Lambrecht Bats, and carrying it onto one of those fabulous fields, is more than just special. It is like giving you the opportunity to combine both your own Field of Dreams AND The Natural.
We go back at it this weekend. The Hawks never seem to win, but we’re going to win Saturday. I’m sure of it. Or Sunday. Or maybe both. And if we don’t? Well, it’s been a heck of a season.
Fast hook costs Slowey chance for no-hitter
By John Gilbert
So you’re the manager of the Minnesota Twins, and you’ve earned consistent praise for operating a winning ballclub, always contending for the pennant. You’ve got some concerns, such as the absence of Justin Morneau with lingering effects of a concussion, and the sore-shoulder layoff of catcher Joe Mauer. But your biggest concern has been pitching.
As has been discussed here, the problem early was the starting pitching, but that was mainly because the relief staff often seemed to function as though they were throwing gasoline on opposing fires, rather than putting them out. But now, as we head into the stretch drive for another pennant, the starting pitching has come around right well. Brian Duensing, elevated from a relief role to spot starter, threw a complete-game shutout the other day, and it was positively masterful.
That was the last remaining concern on the starting rotation. Well, that, and the fact that Kevin Slowey had to miss a turn with a minor elbow problem.
As manager, you send Slowey out to the mound to face the Oakland A’s in a midsummer assignment at Target Field. Slowey, in his first start in almost two weeks, couldn’t have been better. He got through inning after inning, and the TV guys waited until about the sixth inning to inform the audience that Slowey had not given up a hit. It’s bad luck to mention it, of course, but announcers have to bend to their primary role, which is informing the populace of what the heck is happening.
The Twins had staked Slowey to an early 1-0 lead. Joe Mauer — who is on such a roll that he is surging toward yet another batting title (you read it here first) — drilled another couple of hits and helped account for the run. That lasted until late in the game, when the drama of a 1-0 no-hitter was suddenly ballooned to 4-0 when Jim Thome smacked a 3-run home run.
But now you, as manager, are watching closely. You have a general rule that you don’t like pitchers to go over 100 pitchers in a start. It’s an arbitrary rule, but it’s your rule. Slowey used to have a history of going through four innings well, then getting bombed in the fifth or sixth. He became better and more consistent as the season progressed, but this day — Sunday — he might be more delicate than ever, just coming off the nonstart and sore arm. So you watch him closely. In the seventh, he walks one, and hits another, but gets out of trouble by inducing a hard-hit shot that becomes a double play.
Lucky? Yes, but that’s what it takes to throw a no-hitter. Slowey also was lucky a couple times when his outfielders made sensational catches, over their heads. But because the walk, hit batsman, and hard-hit double play had just occurred, you, as manager, are faced with a tough choice.
Do you let Slowey go out to pitch the eighth, having already thrown 106 pitches? Or do you follow your trusty “book” to bring in a reliever and chalk it up to a great night’s work?
Lat’s make an aside here. Pitchers used to start in a rotation of four, and they would pitch with no pitch count, always attempting to go the distance. A complete game was the measure of a pitcher’s worth, really, right after number of wins. Often, although counts weren’t kept, I’d bet that starting pitchers 25 years ago or so often pitched over 125, maybe 150 pitches. They’d be sore the next day, maybe a little joint stiffness, although icing down the arm did wonders to rellieve the problems. Three days later, they were ready to throw again, and four days later, they were back out on the mound, striving again for a complete game.
In the current method, pitchers throw on five-day rotations, and with the corps of rellievers set up by every team, starters go 5-6 innings, then turn the game over to a middle reliever, then a “set-up”man, and then, in the ninth, if it’s close enough, the closer gets to finish off the game. The Twins have used this style, and it has worked very well. Or has it?
When Johan Santana was the Twins ace, he would never be allowed to pitch over 100 pitches, and he never threw complete games. After he got traded, it took awhile, but in his first season, I heard a national TV announcer say that Santana was great, although “he’s not the sort of pitcher who can go nine innings.”
That offended me, because Santana certainly was the type, but he was never allowed to go nine innings. After some strong seasons, Santana now is capable of going the distance often.
It’s all a matter of conditioning. As someone who has pitched a fair amount in amateur baseball, I can tell you that if you go seven innings, or nine innings, it makes a difference in how sore you might be the next day. But sometimes you can throw only four or five innings and feel spent, and other times you can go all the way and feel like you might be able to go right on and pitch another couple of innings. Maybe that equates to a major leaguer throwing 140 pitches when he’s rolling, and getting the outs, while sometimes maybe he’s spent after 80 pitches, or six innings, when things aren’t going so well.
There are two points here. First, if you are conditioned to throw 130 pitches and go nine innings, you can still be 100 percent recovered after four days of rest. And the more you do it, the easier it is to do. On the other hand, if you are never allowed to go the distance, or to go over 100 pitches, then — guess what? — you will never be able to do it. The overriding thing about going longer and conditioning better is that it’s not as though turning the game over to the Twins relief corps is any sure thing. More often than not, it’s a disaster. You could look it up.
So Kevin Slowey looked tired in the sixth, and more weary in the seventh. Ron Gardenhire pulled him after seven innings, because he had thrown 106 pitches, and, no-hitter or not, he wasn’t going to let him throw more, for fear of reinjuring his arm. Turns out, Jim Thome’s 3-run homer made it 4-0, so the cushion was there. The relievers came striding in from the bullpen, yielding an immediate hit, then another, and giving up a run in the eighth. More rellievers came in for the ninth, gave up a couple more hits, and another run. Finally the Twins held on for a 4-2 victory.
Slowey got the victory, and the Twins won to stay hot. The media throng turned out in chorus to back Gardenhire’s cautious move, raving that Slowey obviously was finished, protecting his arm, and on and on…As second-guessers go, these guys are great. We can only wonder what they might have said had the relievers had more gasoline to throw on the fire and lost the game!
My feeling is a simple compromise. After seven innings, Gardenhire tells Slowey that he’s worried about him, but because he’s got a no-hitter going, and a chance for immortality, he can go back out for the eighth. Do your best, but if you falter, you’re immediately coming out.
Then if Slowey gives up a hit, give him the hook. If he continues with his incredible night-long run of good fortune, maybe he learns to pitch cleverly and slips by, inducing a pop fly here, a hard grounder there, and a long fly over there. Then he’s in the ninth, and we do it again, trusting that an extra dose of adrenaline might carry him. Maybe he can’t do it, and he gets pulled — but not until he gives up a hit.
Maybe, just maybe, he would have gotten through two more innings and completed a no-hitter. It would have been one of the most special moments in a very special season. And Kevin Slowey would have been a better pitcher — for having pushed himself to new levels of endurance, for having learned, maybe, how to out-duel a hitter here or there with fading stuff, and for having gutted out the greatest game he’s ever pitched.
Now we’ll never know. Except we do know that the Twins relief staff is still open to serious question — which makes my plan to stretch the starters farther and farther stand even taller.
Twins fly high, but plummet to All-Star break
By John Gilbert
The first half of the 2011 Major League Baseball season has been intriguing, to say the least. For the Minnesota Twins, the unanimous bandwagon residents who started the season jumped off to become doomsayers by All-Star time. Both extremes are probably mistaken.
It all came so easy for the Twins at the start of the season — the new ballpark, the big contract for hometown hero Joe Mauer, and a runaway start to the season that seemed to leave all the contenders behind. But it’s a long season in Major League baseball, and it was even a long way to the midpoint.
The Twins dropped from the clouds and reached the All-Star break much the way a man lost in the desert crawls across the last sand dune to find an oasis with water and shade. Ah, safe at last. But mostly, in equal doses, the oasis is a chance to regenerate for the Twins, and the opportunity to slow down the rampaging Chicago White Sox.
If you look at the standings at the break, Chicago was 49-38, leading Detroit (48-38) by a half-game, and the Twins (46-42) by three and a half in the division. That doesn’t sound too bad, but you have to look at what has happened in the last month before the break.
Better yet, let’s go back to the start of the season. Everyone was predicting a runaway for the Twins, because of Mauer, Morneau, and the addition of Jim Thome and a couple of infielders, plus those strong and young arms on the pitching staff. Me? I have watched Major League ball my whole life, and I’ve seen these artificial hype jobs. My preseason assessment was:
I think the Twins will score runs by the tons, but I don’t know if their pitching staff can keep any opponent from scoring more runs than they deserve. The new ballpark is going to be an enormous attraction, but fans who show up had better be prepared for some mighty shootouts, because the Twins pitching is as suspect as their offense is imposing. Without question, the Twins have the best talent in the division, but when things get tight, generally good pitching shuts down good hitting. The Twins will be tough to shut down, but on many dates, they may find it impossible to shut down even mediocre foes.
Those looking down from the bandwagon thought I was being negative. Especially when the Twins started out with a roar. Those strong, young arms were impressive. Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey, seemed destined to battle over which would be the staff ace, but after breezing through four or five innings, they’d get hammered. Nick Blackburn, however, looked like an ace, virtually unbeatable all through May. The biggest surprise to me was that Francisco Liriano had made a remarkable comeback after sitting out a whole season with surgery on his prized left arm, followed by season-long struggles in his attempts to return last season.
Liriano used to throw a great fastball and a stunning screwball, which backed up on left-handed hitters and broke away from right-handed hitters. However, the excessive torque a screwball places on a pitching elbow undoubtedly was the cause of Liriano’s ailments. He came back last year but couldn’t throw with the same velocity, or location. This year, Liriano is a different pitcher. He has gotten the velocity back up into the 90s on his fastball, and he has abandoned the screwball for a great slider, which he throws at different speeds to include a change-of-pace from his fastball.
With Liriano and Blackburn carrying the main load, the Twins ran up a 22-12 starting record as of May 13. That was good for a lead over Detroit (20-15) by two and a half games, while Chicago was 14-20, tied with the Cleveland Indians eight games off the pace.
A month later, on June 13, not much had changed, and everything had changed. The Twins were still in command, although some holes were showing. Justin Morneau’s sizzling bat carried the offense, even while the redoubtable Joe Mauer was struggling to stay in the mid-.300s — a departure for him, while other Major League players would be thrilled to be hitting anywhere over the .300 mark.
What had changed was the pitching. Blackburn, invincible in May, seemed able to only hit the fat parts of opposing bats in June, and his record reversed itself. Liriano was either great or awful, in somewhat equal amounts. It was Carl Pavano who rose up, throwing shutouts and complete games. Morneau kept hitting, Mauer hit less, but the Twins had a 36-27 record one month ago, on June 13, which was good enough to lead Detroit (33-29) by two and a half, and Chicago (28-34) by seven and a half.
On July 1, the Twins were 43-36, which led Detroit (41-36) by one slim game, while nobody seemed to notice that Chicago never lost anymore. Quietly, at least in Minnesota, the White Sox improved to 40-37, and trailed the Twins by only two games. The Twins kept faltering; nobody but Pavano looked good among the starting five, and the middle relief corps was getting bombarded.
Morneau caught a knee to the head sliding into second and was sidelined with a concussion that knocked him out of the All-Star game. Mauer, who spent the first two months hitting in bad luck — meaning he went out quite a bit, but usually only by smacking line drives that led to great catches. Detroit slipped past, but then the White Sox roared past both of them. As we paused for All-Star break, July 13, the White Sox had risen to 49-38 to take over the division lead, a half game ahead of Detroit (48-38), and three and a half ahead of the sputtering Twins (46-42).
While the Twins reached their oasis to regroup, the White Sox hammered Kansas City 15-5 to go into the break on an eight-game winning streak, and a more-amazing surge of a 25-5 run. They went from being an under-achieving also-ran to a run-away missile. They were a third-place team sitting nine games under .500 and 9 1/2 games out of first place in the American League Central on June 8, but rode that rocket to become a first-place team by the break.
Suddenly, the bandwagon jumpers are spewing news of hopelessness, but that’s not accurate, either. A Minneapolis columnist and radio guy said that because Delmon Young was having his best year ever, the Twins should trade him (!) for another starting pitcher. Hold on, here. A great starting pitcher can win once every five or six games, while a solid .300-plus hitter in the middle of the lineup can help win EVERY game.
The Twins staff at All-Star break shows Carl Pavano 10-6, with a 3.58 earned-run average, and three complete games; Baker 7-8, and 4.87; Liriano has slipped to 6-7, and 3.86; Blackburn has found sea-level at 7-7, with a bloated 6.40 earned run average, making it difficult to remember that he has the only other complete game on the staff. Slowey has shown signs of maturing, and is 8-5, with a lowering 4.64 ERA.
The White Sox pitchers are hardly burning up the league, either, but they also are big and strong. Gavin Floyd, for instance, is 5-6 for record, but he’s also an imposing 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds. Get this: All 12 Sox pitchers are 6-foot-2 or taller, and only one — John Danks — weighs under 220. Danks is 210. Sox closer Bobby Jenks is 6-4 and 275. Must eat a lot of Chicago steaks and Gino’s East deep-dish pizzas for pre-game, post-game, or both.
However, as we assess the Twins, their hitting also is worthy of scrutiny. Morneau went out leading the team in home runs and hitting a splendid .345, while Delmon Young rose to second on the team at .305. Mauer has slipped to .293. Denard Span, who was so hot early, is now at .273. Michael Cuddyer (.267) and Jason Kubel (.264) should be hitting better, and Jim Thome will rise from .255 as he gets more at-bats.
Looking only at hits, Morneau’s halfway stats show 102, Span 97, Cuddyer 86, Mauer — tied with Young — at 85, while Hudson has 81, and Kubel 73. Anothber vital category is runs batted in, where Young leads the team at 58, followed by Morneau 56, Kubel 49, Cuddyer 40, Span 37, Mauer 35, and Thome 29, even though he has only 145 at-bats, to 290 for Mauer. The other big key is runs scored, where leadoff man Span leads with 54, clean-up man Morneau 53, Cuddyer 50, Hudson 49, Mauer 47, and Young 38.
When the Twins hit, they seem to get taken down by faulty pitching; when their pitching is strong, they don’t hit well; when their starting pitchers do well, the middle relief collapses. But keep a few things in mind:Â There is still a lot of time to get it together. The season is only half through. The White Sox can’t keep playing at a 25-5 clip. Mauer will get his act together and start hitting over .300 again. The young pitchers with their live arms will become more consistent.
And the first series coming out of the All-Star break? The White Sox face the Twins. It should be fun, but just don’t let the gloom-sayers get to you. If it seems that all the Twin Cities columnists are writing as though they are talk-radio responders — they are, come to think of it.
WORLD CUP WINNERS
Spain won its first World Cup of soccer, after a rugged and style-free struggle to a 1-0 extra- time triumph over the Netherlands. It was a long, tough tournament in South Africa, but there was some great soccer sprinkled in among the yellow and red cards that seemed to dominate at the finish.
Every time I was impressed with a team, such as Brazil, or Argentina, or Ghana, or Germany, it seemed as though that team would then lose its next game. That was great, however, because it showed how competitive the world is when it comes to playing soccer.
Congratulations to Spain, and we can only hope that the all-time largest viewing crowd included enough U.S. observers to boost soccer to its rightful place in this country in time for a concerted effort four years from now, when it starts all over again.
XCEL CENTER LANDS NCAA PUCK
The Minnesota Wild’s Xcel Energy Center, which will be host to the 2011 NCAA Men’s Hockey Frozen Four next April 7-9, will also be the site of the 2012 West Regional in St. Paul. The NCAA sure does like those huge crowds the X can attract for college hockey.
It is the fourth straight year that the Twin Cities will play host to the NCAA hockey’s premier event and the third consecutive visit to Xcel Energy Center for the popular tournament. Xcel Energy Center also hosted the 2002 Frozen Four, which saw the Gophers defeat Maine in the title game, and held the West Regional for 2010.
The arena seats 18,064 for hockey, and has also been the site of the past 10 WCHA Final Five tournaments.
The 2012 West Regional will be played on March 23-24, or March 24-25, with each of the four participating teams having an open practice on the day before their opening round games. The regional winner earns a trip to the Frozen Four, which will be held at St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla., in 2012.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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