FOX 9 is reporting that the University of Minnesota will fire head football coach Glenn Mason. Is Joel Maturi next?
Update: Mason's buyout was $2.2 million.
Update: Mason has a friend in Ivan Maisel of ESPN.COM. Good gravy, I hope Mason paid Maisel something for that article.
Update: Reusse sums it up in one word. [...]

I will be making some updates to this new template, but I'm going to go with it.
Why did I do it?
Well, for one thing, this particular template is actually supported so that if there are problems, they can be corrected by someone who knows more about programming than I do.
Secondly, it should be a lot [...]

The calendar on the wall of my den says January 2007. It's off by a day.
I was reading the Coffeyville Whirlwind (which I enjoy quite a bit, by the way) the other day and he linked to an article by the Washington Post's George Will, the unofficial winner of Pompous Ass of the Year [...]

Tiger Woods announces that he and his wife are having a baby in 2007. Oh sure, Tiger, where the heck did you get that idea?
By the way, today is my oldest niece's birthday. She shares her birthday with LeBron James. And Tiger Woods.

Link:
Johan will be dealt before the Twins report to spring training in 2008. That became a given when the Giants presented $18 million per year to Zito.
I don't know. The Twins have shown little inclination to trade players at their peak value. (Torii Hunter.) But, with Zito getting the $18 million per, [...]

The Gophers led this game 31-0. It was 38-7 half-way through the third quarter.

It's been awhile since I sat down and wrote something for this site of any substance. I was thinking today that maybe tonight I'd do that.
I had planned to spend a lot more time writing about the Timberwolves this season, but I've found that I have very little enthusiasm for that. The team [...]

(Editor's Note: Ubelmann takes a look at the Barry Zito contract. -- SBG)
Barry Zito has reportedly been signed. The Giants decided Mr. Zito would be a good addition to their rotation in 2007. And 2008. And 2009. And 2010. And 2011. And 2012. And 2013. And [...]

I've written a few times about how the NFL is really unfair in how it treats player "contracts". By not guaranteeing the contracts the players are bound but the team is not. Here's another Christmas moment courtesy of your Minnesota Vikings. Fred Smoot will not be paid for the last game of [...]

I watched most of the T-Wolves game last night and it was almost a huge giveaway. But, the Wolves got a basket by Randy Foye in the closing seconds to win by 2, 100-98. The Wolves blew a 25 point lead over the Chicago Bulls, but held on in the end.
Ugh.
Not a good [...]

It's Christmas morning and Lucy is sleeping.
We've had a memorable Christmas so far, to be sure. I think we'll remember Christmas 2006 for some time into the future.
I did some cooking and it was all right, but made a little flub and it was memorable. My mother-in-law gave me my 12 pack of [...]

It's early and my darling wife is sleeping about 10 feet away. I'm in my father-in-law's basement, and I'm pretty sure that next time I'm bringing an air mattress. I dread the thought of sleeping on that hide-a-bed the next two nights.
Last night the Timberwolves won in Indiana in a game that wasn't [...]

The aluminum pole is up -- no tinsel! -- the pasta dish is piping hot, I've made my annual donation to the Human Fund (Money for People!) and I'm in the Festivus Spirit!
And now, the airing of grievances!

To the Minnesota Timberwolves. You have greatly disappointed me! Marcus Banks for a number 1, are [...]

Tomorrow is the great feast of Festivus. I will be posting my annual list of grievances. Be sure to come around and add yours. And remember, Festivus is not over until the feats of strength!

I just fired off a draft patent application to a client. I have the radio playing in my office. It's late, and I need a little noise. Anyway, I'm listening to JACK FM. I know. I know. Anyway, a song comes on from Jefferson Starship. I think to [...]

Get your list of grievances ready.

Not only is Allen Iverson not coming to Minnesota, but he's reportedly going to the chief rival in our division, Denver. AI to Denver for Andre Miller, Joe Smith(!), and two number 1s this year. Smith is an expiring contract ($7 million). Miller has $19.2 million left over the next two seasons.
Philly [...]

Brad Childress has named Tarvaris Jackson the starter for Thursday's game. Two weeks too late. Now that the Vikings are all but completely out of the playoffs (a totally predictable outcome two weeks ago) someone tell me what good it did to beat the Lions last week? Or more accurately, what good [...]

Brad Radke to announce his retirement on Tuesday. This is a guy that I'll miss. He's been a great asset for the Twins for a long time. In fact, there was a time when he was about the only asset this club had.
Best wishes, Mr. Radke. Too bad this is the [...]

The Vikings have not only pretty played their way out of playoff contention in a ridiculously weak NFC, but they've committed the cardinal sin of being boring. This was entirely predictable, because they went into the season with a backup quarterback at the helm. I hate to say I told you so. [...]

Lucy and I are off to South Dakota to visit my brother Putzer. Actually, everyone in my family will be there.

I like both of these guys. I'd like it a lot more, though, if they would switch uniforms.

The Twins have declined to offer Luis Rodriguez and "Groundskeeper" Willie Eyre contracts for the 2007 season. Baseball decisions aside, the Groundskeeper was a favorite topic in the 2006 season game logs. As for L-Rod, man, did the guy even get any at bats this year? I hope those guys can find [...]

Just got the vehicle back from the third trip to the transmission shop in the last six weeks. I drove 1000 feet this morning and got pulled over for allegedly failing to stop at a stop sign. BS. I stopped. I'm pretty sure I did. Well, anyways, I got a [...]

I think it's highly unlikely that AI will end up in a T-Wolves uniform. I can't imagine that Philly would say, hey, this is the best offer we can get. But, oh boy, if the Wolves could steal Iverson -- and it would be a steal considering what the Wolves have to offer. [...]

The NBA is going back to the leather ball as of Jan. 1. The composite ball will be shipped to the "Okay. It Was A Bad Idea." museum, along with New Coke, The Ford Edsel, a copy of Tony Batista's Twins contract, and David Stern's moustache.

Marc Stein's rumor mongering on the impending AI trade:
I keep hearing that the Wolves have the player Philly wants most for Iverson: Villanova alumnus Randy Foye.
Not clear is how they can complete this deal with zero first-round picks to offer the Sixers and only unfavorable contracts to add to Foye, Ricky Davis and Eddie Griffin [...]

The 2006 Minnesota Vikings through 13 weeks:

Game results sorted by turnover margin

Points
Turnovers

Result
Vikings
Opponent
Vikings
Opponent
TO Margin

W
31
26
1
5
4

W
30
20
2
6
4

W
31
13
0
3
3

L
3
9
1
3
2

W
26
17
3
4
1

W
19
16
0
0
0

W
16
13
1
1
0

W
19
16
2
2
0

L
13
23
5
5
0

L
20
24
3
2
-1

L
12
17
2
0
-2

L
7
31
4
2
-2

L
17
23
2
0
-2

Excepting the 9-3 debacle of a loss to the 49ers, this season has been very simple: when the Vikings have forced more turnovers than they've committed, they've won, and when they've committed more turnovers than they've forced, they've lost. [...]

The Wolves went to Chicago and drilled the Bulls Saturday night, winning 91-81. It was a very impressive win for the T-Wolves. On Friday night, the Wolves rode an 80 point outburst by KG, Mike James, and Ricky Davis. Tonight, it was a different process, but a similar result.
KG lead the way [...]

Last night, when we were out someone came and asked us if our waitress had waited on us. When I informed her that she had, she said "Perfect". Perfect?
Tonight, we went to "Il Vesco Vino" in St. Paul. We were waiting for our table at the bar and I ordered a Summit [...]

Talk amongst yourselves. Here are some topics.

SI has a new power poll ranking NBA players. Number 5 is KG.
Kevin Garnett
If someone was to present to you a roster that included Mark Blount, Mike James and Ricky Davis in its starting lineup, alongside a rotation that featured heavy minutes for Troy Hudson, you'd probably [...]

The Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Utah Jazz on Friday night to pull even at 9-9 on the season. The T-Wolves have won six of nine and they got another inspired performance from Kevin Garnett tonight.
KG scored 31 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, dished out just one assist, but added two steals and three blocks. [...]

I've heard a lot of talk about Adam Morrison as ROY. I'm not buying it and I stand by my assessment of him pre-draft as a bust. John Hollinger weighs in:
Morrison is a 6-9 forward playing 35 minutes a night, and yet he's grabbed three offensive rebounds the entire season. While I'd expect [...]

It's John, Herb, and the Dazzle Man in 2006. Dazzle got a four year deal, Gordon got a two year deal and Carneal got a one year deal. Herb will be calling 36 games in his 46th season behind the mike for the Twins.
A lot of people don't like John Gordon, but I've [...]

Barry Bonds has reportedly agreed to terms with the Giants. Like it or not, he's probably going to pass Hank Aaron in 2007. I watched Aaron hit number 715, and I want to see Bonds hit 756. And I want to see A-Rod hit whatever number it will take to wrest the [...]

I turned on the Timberwolves game on Wednesday night and I saw probably the most exciting couple of minutes of T-Wolves basketball that I’ve seen in some time. The Wolves got a great win against a very good Houston team and my dour mood on the club brightened a little. Sometimes the game [...]

About a month ago, I noticed that the tranmission on my vehicle wasn’t shifting properly. I believe I mentioned here that I ended up getting a rebuilt transmission, which cost me about $2300. Then, the day before Thanksgiving, it went out completely. The shop that did that work came and got me [...]

Hello everyone, I'm Lucy, SBG's wife.
I used to write on this site once in a while and I posted pictures of our cats. But, I don't post very much anymore. However, we got our annual cat pictures back on Sunday, so I thought that I'd take over this site and post a couple [...]

I found a trackback spam plugin that I have installed. It should eliminate the trackback spam from "users" such as Mr Smoking. I have turned on the "allow pings" and have eliminated the list of words that automatically flag comments. We'll see if it works. Meanwhile, feel free to use crapshoot [...]

That Bears/Vikings game was just like a baseball game. You know, the game where you don't have the ball when you are on offense...

Top Jimmy, expert on all matters, offers this advice on the Vikings quarterback sitch-iashun:
Now Childress must fix his no-offense huddle, and he faces a coach's toughest decision -- whether to change quarterbacks when the playoffs are a mathematical possibility.
His options: Johnson, who's playing like a victim of identity theft; Bollinger, who's hurt; and Jackson, who [...]

Lucy was volunteering to work in the nursery on Sunday at noon over at the church. She drove over there (it's about two miles) and she called me on the way and told me that she couldn't control her car -- she thought that there was something wrong with the steering. I asked [...]

If only the Vikings had given Brad Johnson a raise like our buddies Top Jimmy and Bump were advocating things would have been so much better.

NBCSports.Com has a video of Aaron Gleeman reviewing the big off-season deals in baseball. Go check out our favorite big-timer.

My buddy Drew is a Marquette alum. I might have to call him on Monday to discuss the latest victim of the Thundering Herd. NDSU has won the 45th Annual Blue and Gold tournament in Milwaukee, defeating the Marquette Golden Eagles in their supposed patsy tournament.
Seriously, what the Hell is going on in [...]

Player A: 33166 Minutes, 17660 points, 21.299 points per 40 minutes
Player B: 33245 Minutes, 17707 points, 21.304 points per 40 minutes
Player A is Kevin Garnett. Garnett's game has never been about scoring alone. But, he's been cast into the role of primary scorer because of the crappy team that was put [...]

I wonder why I'm bothering to write or even think about the Timberwolves.
To be fair, it's not like I've written much about the Timberwolves at all this year. I've posted a game log for most games, which has generated almost zero interest, even from myself. I've paid less attention to this year's team [...]

The Twins' hot stove has been downright frigid lately. Jason Jennings is the only player I can think of that has been connected to the Twins by the media. (Of course, it seems that usually we don't hear anything about Terry Ryan's significant moves until the official press conference. I don't think [...]

In progress. Eddie Griffin sucks.

When I get older losing my hair many years from now
will you still be sending me a valentine birthday greeting, bottle of wine
If I'd been out till quarter to three would you lock the door
Will you still need me Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four
You'll be older too And if you say the word [...]