D. Hocking

Just THIS year?

With talent but heavily drinking? (at least for O'Toole -- not sure about Gielgud, but I will go with the unfair assumption that many of the British actors of that time were drinking).

My fault - just finished a meeting and turned the radio on as things started to go south - I will shut if off now and turn back the tide. This was not a danger when I actually went into the office.

Have fewer spring training games been on the radio this year? It seems like every time I try to listen to one, it is not being broadcast - at least on WCCO.

I remember one year during the post-2010 dark ages where I believe they finished spring training at the top of the Grapefruit league and I had hopes that they were going to start the turn-around. It did not end up being a good season and might have ended up being the year where they did not win their first game until around August.

Nancy Reagan and Harvey references - things you do not find in many of the other sport forums and what makes this one stand alone Although no amount of bleach is going to erase that image of Chief and Nancy.

So you have gone every year since grade school? You do know if they win the World Series this year, you will never be able to go to spring training again.

1980 Miracle on Ice. Not technically a MN event, but since Minnesota claims any connection (they adopted a pet who was born in Minnesota) and the team did actually have a strong Minnesota presence. It was probably one of the biggest things from my home town to have someone on the team including big celebrations when he returned to town. Strange to think that night we were not even watching the game live, since it had played that afternoon, but the results had not leaked out. Cannot imagine that happening now. The championship against Finland was actually on Sunday morning (we almost late for my sister's confirmation - a lot of people walking in last minute).

My sister had that album.

I was 2 when the Vikings made their first super bowl appearance, and every five to ten years they manage to have some sort of extra painful play-off loss. A name change might not be a bad idea... I wish I could remember enough of it to find it, but I read one article that nicely spelled out how even names that seem like they are honoring a culture it ends up being a stereotype and trivializes certain aspects of the culture. I am not explaining it well, but the article did a great job of making its point that even when the intentions were meant to be good, they were not. Like Chief Wahoo, I am not sure how the tomahawk chop made it to the 21st century.

I have to say this shows you have a wide range in what you like to watch. I am guessing not a lot of cross over of actors appearing in both shows.

Being that these days each week seems like about a month and the season seems like it ended a year ago, I could be remembering this incorrectly, but I seem to remember him tweeting good bye in a way that made me think more than likely he would not be coming back. He seemed like a decent guy and developed to be pretty reliable. Hopefully, there will be a good replacement. Best luck to him (unless we are playing the Mets in the 2021 World Series).

I think the unspoken words when talking about his new coaching career were -- you don't have to deal with the parents as much when you are the assistant coach. I wonder if he tells his players to battle their tales off. He most likely would never say it if it were the case, but I have never gotten the impression from any of his post-retirement interviews that he has had any second thoughts about the retirement decision. I am guessing having the baby two days later helped that (and I have always felt, despite him saying he had not made up his mind, the decision was largely made when he had the concussion symptoms the previous summer).

Not quite the same thing, but my company did tell people to take Juneteenth off even though it was not a regular day off for us. They wanted people to take the day off and volunteer or reflect at what was happening and the on-going issues that had created the situation or simply use as a mental health day to deal with all the stress that was happening at the time. I am sure some of it was a calculated PR move, but there have been what I take are sincere efforts to spot light things that go under the radar for a lot of us and highlight things that people of color have to thing about that would not even occur to me. They had a number of employees candidly speak on what it is like to be the only person of color on a team or on a project or even in some offices, as well as warnings they have to give their kids if they ever get pulled over or how they can spot a clerk watching them when they are in a nice store etc. Obviously, this is not going to solve all of the problems, but it is generating some additional discussion, and maybe some of the athlete's statements will make this seem more like a real issue to people who do not experience it. I do realize I am lucky in that I could just take a day off, not everyone is in a situation where they can do that or has a job where that is feasible.

Some of the athlete interviews I have seen over this in general clearly show this is a very personal issue to some of them, This not something they have only experienced by watching the news, and they are not making these decisions or statements lightly.

I remember thinking that everytime you were out on the mound. Looks like it was a good evening to take the dog for an extra long walk.

I remember when Provus first started he was pretty deferential to Gladden and also take a lot of ribbing. Once he hit his stride he started to started to needle DAN back, albeit in a more subtle way. He is great and I think he and DAN have developed a good chemistry. Not announcing, but I remember when Morris used to do a post-game show on 1500. The thing that used to bug me about that is that whoever was on with him for the week and about half of the callers had to go on about how great he was and make sure his complete WS game was mentioned at least 3 times. While I like the ex-twins announcers, and they were great players, sometimes I do think the non-player announcers or radio hosts feel they need to heap praise about what a great player they were more than is necessary. I do like Justin, but he does need to be paired with someone with some voice inflection. Can you imagine if he and Mauer were paired up? It would be like those old SNL spoofs of NPR announcers.

That would be one way for the Twins to get passed the Yankees in the play-offs.

I initially assumed it was your joke before I saw the poster name, but yes, not really curmudgeonly enough to truly capture your style.

Record number of new cases today. There has been COVID discovered at the Phillies facility, an exhibition tennis match, and the PGA. I would love to see baseball, but is it really worth it to try to start the season at this time, esp. when it in some ways it is going to feel like like watching a series of exhibition games.

In some ways the whole erecting a statue is kind of an odd thing in general. Often they are put up by the people in power who want to make sure their version of events are what are placed front and center There is a reason why statues are often toppled when there is a power shift or change in view of the majority They can still acknowledge him if they want with a museum type poster board on one of the walls inside the ball field. They can then acknowledge his accomplishments and place in Twins history but also share some of these comments and why the Twins do not stand behind these statement.

I remember thinking that things were going to go from bad to disaster when they got rid of Dozier and others basically calling it a season, and then being pleasantly surprised when the actually seemed to get better and finished the last third of the season by playing respectfully. I thought the wheels would come completely off of the bus, but the remaining players kept on playing as if they had a chance. Mauer's "unofficial" retirement really did pack an emotional punch that a lot formal retirement celebrations have (esp. when they are drawn out for a full season) and doing it that way was very Mauer (even though he says otherwise, I suspect he knew that was his last game and was that he would retire in the off-season). Although he did basically get the official celebration when they retired his number the next year.

I am watching a couple of things on Netflix that might be targeted more for a much younger demographic ... Derry Girls -- I cannot decide if it is really clever/good or really stupid/bad (I think it might be really good), but it does make me laugh (as comedies of 1990's Northern Ireland strife tend to do). Locke and Key -- about half way through and it is so far has some suspenseful and creepy moments. Hopefully, it will have a stronger home-stretch than Hill House. A show probably not aimed at the tween set -- I am resuming my rewatch of the first season of Cheers. I suspect it will be pulled at some point when NBC's streaming service is in full pay mode. I loved Coach when I watched as a kid, and still do, but in retrospect, Woody might have been a funnier character (Harrelson did develop into a pretty good actor and might have been able to do more with the one-note of the character).

I am somewhat bitter about Picard being on CBS Access. I have three streaming services already (Hulu, Amazon, Netflix), and don't want to add another one, but would love to watch Picard and I heard the second season of Star Trek Discovery was pretty good. Maybe if I dropped Hulu or Netflix, but I was already thinking of doing that if I decided to get Disney Plus. Sadly, I don't think the trend of each studio or network wanting their content on their own streaming service is going to end. Anyone watch The Good Place? I did not think the last couple of seasons were as good as the first two, but I thought they really nailed the series finale. It was one of the best wrapping up of a series I have seen (although I could see people either loving or hating it).

Thanks -- looking forward to the 2020 season.