Benster and D Pick Your Games -- Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter Edition

Old dude, are you ready to celebrate Christmas this year?

I'm as holly jolly as anyone, young fella. And I have the Burl Ives physique to match:

True enough. But we're not just about wassailing, or whatever that is. We also have some football to watch, which is better than avoiding all of the boring NBA games where defense is an afterthought and the best players in the league seemingly forgot everything they learned in Little Dribblers.

I remember Little Dribblers! Playing basketball with a bib!

That's not it, although it's easy to see how you'd get confused. You remember the glorious days of my youth basketball experience at various gyms in the North Metro, right?

Sure. It was magic. But I didn't see LeBron there.

He wasn't good enough to hang with me. Yeah, that was a shot against the NBA, but it is time to feel the HYYYYYYYYPPPEE and watch me work!

Minnesota Vikings (-8) vs. Glorious Green Bay Packers. The Packers decided to roll with Brett Hundley once again now that they can't have another miracle playoff rally. I think that is a decision that makes sense, but the problem is that it is a defeatist choice. The Vikings are still hunting a first round bye, but part of me wonders if the Vikings are actually good, or if they have benefited from an NFC North that has not been as good as predicted.That is something that the Vikings homers on KFAN or in the Strib would rather not tell you, but I will because I am not beholden to those corporate narratives. The Vikings have to win the Super Bowl this year, because if they waste this chance then there will be some truth to the narrative about the Vikings we have been told for years. I think the Vikings will be a very tough out, but the Packers will get their revenge. Packers 24, Vikings 17.

It's possible, even without Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams. But it's gonna take some defense and the Packers haven't been playing much of that lately. If the Packers can turn this into a slog, they could win, but a few big plays and it won't be very merry at Lambeau. Vikings 27, Packers 20.

Cleveland Browns (+7) vs. Bear Down Chicago Da Bearz. If you choose to watch this game, you either are a very loyal fan, or really have nothing else to watch. These teams quite frankly suck this year. The Browns are lucky that they do not play in the Premier League, because they would have been relegated already. Da Bearz are hanging on to the hope that it is Trubisky Time, but he is having the normal growing pains. I like Da Bearz because they are slightly more competent. Plus, John Fox can be fired sooner so the Packers can hire Fangio as our next defensive coordinator. Da Bearz Still Suck 9, Clowns 0.

I like the Fangio idea rather a lot. The Bears defense has been far nastier than their available personnel would suggest they should be, so that's a sign of good coaching. As for the rest of it, well, the Bears should be thankful they are playing a terrible team. The Browns have talent, but they are a dumpster fire. It should keep Chicago warm for the holidays. Bears 20, Browns 13.

Merry Christmas, and enjoy this weekend. Watch football if you don't want to talk to family members. Ben out!

Too good

Ah, youth sports:

Jason Hanauska found out Friday his high school team with Rogers Area Youth Basketball Association (RAYBA) was kicked out of their own league.

“We found out on Friday they were not going to be allowed because according to the league our girls were too talented,” Hanauska said.

Their winning streak cut short ahead of this weekend's 3-on-3 tournament.

I don't find this scenario particularly surprising. A few years back, Fearless Maria was on a summer softball team that represented the Arden Hills Parks and Recreation Department. The team played a round-robin schedule with the parks departments for two other neighboring towns, Shoreview and Mounds View. Maria's team was, to put it mildly, loaded. Most of the Arden Hills girls were multi-sport athletes and have gone on to be varsity performers in various sports at both Irondale and Mounds View high schools. The other two teams had girls who were (a) younger and (b) didn't have nearly the same level of athleticism, so every game was an utter mismatch. Maria's team would win games 30-4, or 36-2, or 33-5. The other two teams, when they played each other, were competitive, but they had no shot against Maria's team. It had to be frustrating for the other teams to show up to the field and know they were going to get destroyed.

Our family has also been on the other side of the ledger. Benster played on some, ahem, challenged teams during his youth sports days. I wrote here about a game his team played in back in 2006 in which his basketball squad was edged 70-6. 

So why does this happen? As I wrote back in '06, sometimes the league is to blame:

For some reason, the grandees who run the program didn’t consider the wisdom of balancing the teams. Our inexperienced 5th graders were playing a team that was filled with experienced, talented 6th graders. The result was unsurprising. Ben is one of the more experienced kids on our team. He is not a big kid, though – about 4-8 and less than 80 pounds. He knew what was coming but he didn’t have the physical skills to deal with bigger, faster, more aggressive kids.

While Ben was playing on an Irondale Youth team, his team also played against kids from St. Anthony and Roseville and the IBA might have decided to put the good kids on the same team to ensure they would beat the St. Anthony and Roseville kids. I can't prove that was what happened, and 10 years on it doesn't matter, but it's a typical situation. Two years later, Benster played on a different Irondale Youth team with some of the kids who had kicked his butt in the past. By then, he was older and more ready to play and he was a contributor to a team that won most of its games.

It was the same dynamic in Maria's situation, but for different reasons; most of the Arden Hills kids knew one another growing up and had competed together in other sports; they decided to play in-house softball during the summer just to have fun. There wasn't anything particularly pernicious about it, but I'm sure the parents from the other teams didn't think so highly of our team.

You can learn from playing a superior team and you can improve. It's difficult to see that when you are in the middle of a whipping. The lessons you learn from youth sports often aren't understood until much, much later.