I'll be your friend, Branko.

I'm intending to write a new weekly review of all the sports and news that comes up on a more daily basis every Monday. I hope to be able to keep tabs on the more subtle story trends in the sports world as well as in other realms of interest to me. It's my blog after all.
Comcast had some problems establishing a working cable connection yesterday, which explains why this little update is creeping up on us on Tuesday. Later tonight I will give you my recap of the week in the NFL.

ITEM ONE: The Twins had a good week, going 5-2 in a pair of series with the A's and Indians. The series against the A's is something of a mystery to me, as I was in a hotel somewhere in the south when the games were played. All I know is I watched the ESPN Bottom Line and yelped in excitement when I saw the scores. I can say with what little authority I possess that the True Twins were seen in their series against the Indians. Minnesota demonstrated a good grasp of the fundamentals, but when things went wrong, as in their loss on the 15th, it was because the fundamentals broke down. Sloppy, lazy defense was what killed the Twins, and even then, they only lost in extra frames. But most nights, the Twinks get it done the Right Way.
Naturally, the thing that has people the most worried, i.e. a pitching staff who's cumulative age is less than Julio Franco's, has done well. The only pitcher who really struggled this week was Johan Santana, Local Deity. And yes, that is his new name.

ITEM TWO: Much has been made about Marian Gaborik becoming more comfortable in Minneapolis, and it having something to do with the addition of Pavol Demitra and Branko Radivojevic in the offseason. Demitra and Radivojevic are also Slovakian, which implies that Marian was uncomfortable without his countrymen and not that Minneapolis is a total change from Trencin, Slovakia.
Besides that, I don't see how Branko can go unnoticed thus far in the local media. His name is BRANKO for heaven's sake! Maybe it's because he's only the second person with that name to grace the Minnesota sports scene. But truth be told, reading this article, especially looking at the pictures, Radivojevic looks rather on the outs with his new pals Demitra and Gaborik. Poor guy. If it wasn't for the fact that I would need to jerseys to fit your name on it, I would totally get a Radivojevic.

ITEM THREE: The Gophers are a mystery to me. Are they any good? They win 44-0 over a bad team, lose convincingly to a very good team and then beat Temple by 62. Just how mediocre are they? Do they have a bowl in them? If so how good? I think next week will be the judge.

ITEM FOUR: And Purdue is just the team to let us know. Their offense has looked good (albeit against MAC teams) and their defense has looked really bad (like I said; against MAC teams! Ouch). So the only possible result is a shootout. Either Minnesota can slow down Purdue's defense a little bit (Lord knows it won't be the other way around) or both teams score at least 35. One thing is for sure, the Purdue faithful will be extremely intoxicated.

ITEM FIVE: During the Amazing Race premiere Sunday, there were only two teams that didn't immediately make me want to punch the TV, namely the "Beards" (A pair of Cleveland Muslims) and "Team Karma" (An Indian-American couple (the wife was gorgeous (Mostly I just want to see the triple parenthesees when I'm done here))). Naturally, both were eliminated when they got to Beijing. Now I'm rooting for the mothers from Alabama (surely the next pair out) or the Korean brothers. One day, I'll learn their names.

ITEM SIX: I've made a promise. Don't talk politics. Well, in the spirit of that, I'll keep my comments to a minimum. Read this article than send a letter to Senator Mark Dayton to tell him that he's a ^%ing idiot.