Rainy Days and Mondays

Recapping a wet weekend....

A light but nearly constant rain fell all weekend and is continuing today, although we have it on good authority that the rain will end this afternoon. Among the things that the weather affected was the debut of the mighty Arden Hills Phillies, who had their weekend games wiped out by the rain, along with 30 other games scheduled for Perry Park. The Phillies will take the field on Tuesday against the dreaded Yankees at Island Lake School, assuming the rain finally stops.

One trick on a rainy weekend is finding things to keep kids occupied, especially kids who are disappointed that they can't play baseball. Both kids were able to participate in an indoor baseball clinic sponsored by the Minnesota Twins, which took place Saturday morning at the New Brighton Family Service Center. This is a program the Twins have been doing for nearly 20 years now and it's really one of the better things they do. The Twins employ good high school coaches, some of whom have experience in organized ball at the minor league level, to teach youngsters the fundamentals of the game. The clinics are free and participants usually get ticket vouchers to attend a game at the Dome. As we've noted here previously, baseball is a sport that is declining in popularity and it will take a concerted effort for the sport to retain its fan base. I believe that those who play baseball and have a good experience with the game are the future of the sport, so the Twins are wise to offer this program.

Unfortunately for the Twins, it did not rain in Detroit all weekend, unless you count the deluge of runs that Twins pitching gave up. The Twins were absolutely humiliated at Comerica, losing games to the Tigers 9-0, 18-1 and 6-0 over the weekend. The TC Men looked inept in nearly all phases of the game. It's difficult to imagine that they will continue to be this ineffective, but early indications are that fans are looking at a long season.

One activity that is perfect for rainy weekends is watching the NFL draft coverage. There's a torrent of words (and even more commercials) among the highlight clips and prolonged stretches of inactivity that attend to what is an administrative exercise. My beloved Packers seem to have made a wise decision in choosing A. J. Hawk, a talented and marketable linebacker from Ohio State who should greatly improve the Packer defense. He could be the best overall linebacker the Packers have had since the days of Fred Carr back in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the Vikes picked another Big Ten backer, Chad Greenway of Iowa, who is similar in many ways to Hawk in both talent and pedigree. It will be interesting to compare the trajectory of their respective professional careers - this is really the first time we've seen comparable players at comparable positions drafted by the Packers and Vikings since tailbacks Eddie Lee Ivery and Ted Brown arrived in 1979.