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Cup of Coffee: February 5, 2008

Cup of Coffee What's going on?

This entry was posted by SBG on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 5:38 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 3096 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

86 comments to Cup of Coffee: February 5, 2008

  • Kyle
    February 5th, 2008 at 6:46 am

    Question for Andrew/Will: Which EPL should I follow? I spoke to several people in our London office last night at work. The consensus there is that rooting for Man U. would be like rooting for the Yankees, Chelsea is out because they bought their last two championships, Arsenal are out because they're South London travellers and that I should go with Tottenham. Or, if not a London team then Liverpool.

    Your thoughts? I've got no affinity for any club at present but figure it'd be more entertaining to follow a specific team. I've got to do something to kill the time between the Super Bowl and March 30th and I have no interest in the NHL or NBA (WCHA is alright though).

    • Andrew
      February 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am

      That's a toughie. There's obviously no right or wrong answer, but here's my general feelings. First the Big Four:

      1. Manchester United: Cristiano Ronaldo is the type of player to watch just to see what he can do. He has a reputation as a flopper, but in the season and a half since the last WC he's done less of that and put more work into acutally playing the game. But they have a bit of a Yankees feel about them.
      2. Chelsea: I could not stand Jose Morinho. Him alone was enough for me to hate Chelsea. Now he's no longer the manager, so that's subsided a bit, but I still don't like them. In the late 90's they averaged around 6th place in the league. Since Abrohimovich bought the team, they've not finshed worse than 2nd. To me they are a bit of the Boston of the EPL - inferiority complex with regards to ManU, and now that they're winning you'll never hear the end of it and there's a fair bit of whining when things don't go their way.
      3. Arsenal: Arsenal play with more flair than pretty much anyone else in the EPL, but it can get frustrating. For all their impressive dribbling and passing, they have a real lack of finishing. Imagine Kobe and LeBron going doing mind-blowing stuff to get through a full-court press, then just whipping the ball either out of bounds or right into Tim Duncan's stomach. For all their quality, they don't get good shots off at the end.
      4. Liverpool: Liverpool isn't a bad choice. They have Steven Gerrard, who is one of the best in the world. The only thing about them this particular season is that they are underperforming. The skill on the pitch is not translating to wins in the schedule. Rafa Benitez has a frustrating tendency to fiddle around too much with his lineups that create a discontinuity for players on a roll. He won't hesitate to sit someone who's scored in the last 3 games for someone who scored against this week's opponent 3 months ago, or for no real reason at all. Also, there's a big row about the club's American ownership. Tom Hicks (owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars) and George Gillett (owner of the Canadiens and a NASCAR team) took over the team about this time last year. The clubs supporters are not happy about it and are currently looking to retake the team for themselves, a la the Green Bay Packers.

      I'll write up something about some other teams in a little bit.

      • frightwig
        February 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am

        For all their impressive dribbling and passing, they have a real lack of finishing.

        I think this was a problem in the last couple seasons, since Henry was practically alone out there without Bergkamp and Pires anymore, but it's changed this season since Adebayor has come into his own. Recently it occurred to me that Adebayor reminds me a bit of Van Nistelroy when he was with Man U; he has that knack for standing in an open space in front of the goal just as the ball bounces by, and he doesn't usually miss those chances. I think Flamini and Fabregas have come a long way with their finishing skill, as well.

        My advice to anyone thinking of getting into English soccer is just to watch every game you can through the course of a season, and let an allegiance to one team develop naturally. If you align yourself with a team just because some punters in England have certain geographic/economic/class biases rooted in their upbringing, you could wind up spending a lot of time following a team that isn't so much fun for you to watch.

    • Dread Pirate Will Young
      February 5th, 2008 at 8:17 am

      Andrew could give you better advice, but my thoughts:

      -Everton is a pretty fun team to follow; Arteta is a great creator in the midfield and Tim Howard gives you a talented US goalie (unlike Keller)
      -Liverpool has RoboCrouch; the giant goofy looking forward prone to doing the robot after his rare goals
      -Man City has pretty powder blue uniforms, a great coach (Sven-Goran Eriksson who was most recently the head of the English National Team in the World Cup) and no longer has the 2nd most overrated American player of all time (Claudio Reyna behind only the aforementioned Keller); plus they have the natural chip on their shoulder towards ManU
      -Fulham has a ton of Americans, but one of them is Keller; plus they suck this year and are in very real danger of being relegated

      I think I probably follow Everton/Fulham closer than the others, but you can't go wrong with either Man City or Liverpool. Although, from your criteria, I wouldn't rule out Arsenal so quickly because they're the rare EPL team that absolutely loves to attack at all times.

      • Andrew
        February 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am

        What's with all the hatin' on Keller and Claudio? I don't know how you can call Claudio Reyna over-rated. Look at his resume. He may not be the greatest player in the world, but for a long time he was the best America had. His last WC was a bit of a let down, to be sure, but that is more an indication of his age at the time and not his overall career.

        • Dread Pirate Will Young
          February 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am

          Claudio is what he is - a defensive-minded center midfielder. However, that was the exact opposite skillset of what the MNT needed to mesh with the young guns. Beasley, Donovon, McBride, Johnson, Dempsey, etc. would all create a lot of space with great runs and creativity and then Reyna would get the ball, completely stop the flow of the attack and then stifle and US chances.

          Keller, on the other hand, doesn't seem like a bad guy. I'm just projecting my displeasure with Bruce Arena's arrogance onto him for getting the starts in the World Cup over several more qualified alternatives.

          Edited to add: and while the MNT needs a midfielder willing to play defense, Reyna the past few years was too slow to even do that

          • Andrew
            February 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am

            While I don't disagree with your characterization of Reyna, I do disagree with your assessment of his value to the team. I felt that he was always a good compliment to Donovan. Knowing Reyna was behind him allowed Donovan to play more forward in the formation. Yes, he's didn't distribute the ball particularly well or start the attack, but he was the safety measure that allowed the rest of the team to get forward.

            And it's unfortunate that Reyna had to play those last few years at reduced capacity, but time and again Pablo Maestroeni has shown himself incapable of doing that job at the international level and someone has to do it. Hopefully, Ricardo Clark is the future for the US at that position.

          • frightwig
            February 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am

            Keller, on the other hand, doesn't seem like a bad guy. I'm just projecting my displeasure with Bruce Arena's arrogance onto him for getting the starts in the World Cup over several more qualified alternatives.

            Speaking of American keepers, no love for Brad Friedel and Blackburn?

      • Whiffers
        February 5th, 2008 at 10:04 am

        I second Everton - after the 06 World Cup I was hooked on soccer and subscribed to Fox Soccer Channel - the EPL drew me in much more than Italy's Serie A.

        After searching for a squad, I settled on Everton at least partly because of Tim Howard, but I also got to watch them in a match where Arteta and Andy Johnson probably made it an interesting, fun-to-watch game. On an incredibly superficial level, their kits match the Colts colors, a bonus in my book.

        I really dig their efforts to crash the Big 3/4 (depending on your feelings about Liverpool) without the huge budget of those teams.

    • Andrew
      February 5th, 2008 at 10:16 am

      Some other big-name clubs you may have heard of.

      • Manchester City: Much like the White Sox or Clippers, Man. City has long played second fiddle to their cross-town rivals. They do have somethings in their favor. A big one for me is that Noel and Liam Gallagher are big City supporters, and come on, who doesn't love Oasis? They do have a good on-field product led by, as Will mentioned, Sven-Goran Erikson, former England skipper. While he didn't have the greatest run with the 3 Lions, he's settled in well at City. Elano has played very well this season, and they just aquired Benjani from Portsmith. Benjani was a big reason I had been keeping tabs on Pompey this season. (I have a Nigerian friend who absolutely raved about Benjani when the season was beginning, so I picked him up for peanuts in my EPL fantasy league. Now he's second in the league in goals scored and part of an 8M Pound transfer to City).
      • Tottenham Hotspur: One caveat: Either say "Tottenham Hotspur" or "Spurs", but never just "Tottenham". The locals get a bit cranky about that. I know first hand (same night I just about got hit for the Tim Howard crack). Tottenham has some good talent, and they finally got over their Ross-Rachel Will They? Won't They? drama with manager Martin Jol (They didn't). New manager Juande Ramos is in charge now and has them to 5th in the table. They do have Paul Robinson, former England keeper who's not on Capello's roster for this month's friendly vs. Switzerland, thanks to flubbs like this. And this. He's a bit tough on the ol' ticker, to put it nicely. Another caveat: Spurs are supposedly Bill Simmons' EPL team.
      • Fulham: I personally started rooting for Fulham back when Brian McBride was the only American in England worth a crap. Then they signed Carlos Bocanegra. Then my new most favorite player, Clint Dempsey. (After Eddie Pope retired, I needed a new favorite player. Clint emerged as the front runner against Ghana [the only goal scored by an American in the WC] in what would be Pope's last international game, and cemented it with this workman-like effort. But that's neither here nor there, let's continue.) At this point, more American fans are gravitating towards Fulham. DuNord (an excellent soccer news blog) took to calling them Fulhamerica. Then they signed Keller and Eddie Johnson, bringing their total to 5 US nationals. If you're looking for names you'll know, and a chance at coverage here in the States, Fulham is the way to go. If you're worried about looking like a bandwagon jumper, watch out.
      • Everton: As Man City is to ManU, so is Everton to Liverpool. The other team from Merseyside has some trouble winning in the past - their last cup was the 1995 FA Cup - but things are on the upswing. They're currently 4th in the table, good enough to qualify for next year's Champions League if they can remain there. In fact, they're above Liverpool (5th) in the standings right now. They have Tim Howard (Tim-my How-ard! Clap! Clap! ClapClapClap!) in goal for them. Everton is a really good choice to get in on the ground floor before a lot of US fans realize what's going on

      A few more of the smaller market teams to follow.

      • Kyle
        February 5th, 2008 at 10:51 am

        Andrew - thanks, this is great stuff. But:

        "A big one for me is that Noel and Liam Gallagher are big City supporters, and come on, who doesn't love Oasis?"

        Doesn't anyone here rock hard? Anything heavy I've seen at the WGOM is at least 20 years old. Manchester City loses points. "Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannon ball. Where were you while we were getting high," might be the worst three lines of lyrics in any rock song, evar.

      • Kyle
        February 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

        Andrew/Will - Do you guys know about myp2p.eu? It's supposed to have a lot of streaming video of live soccer matches.

  • twayn
    February 5th, 2008 at 10:40 am

    LEN III's Strib article today carried this headline: Santana Has No Hard Feelings About Trade.

    I can think of 137.5 million reasons why.

    • SBG
      February 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am

      Most people, when they get what they want, don't have hard feelings.

      For example:

      "SBG has no hard feelings over neighbor's decision to come over and clean out cat litter boxes for a year, free of charge."

  • twayn
    February 5th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    So I stumbled upon this list from Baseball Cube of all MLB rookies who made their debut at the age of 30 or higher. This one stuck out and I'm pretty sure there's a typo involved....

    Bill Hallman. Born: 03-31-1867. Debut: 04-23-1988. Debut Age: 121

  • SBG
    February 5th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Jack Nicklaus: I wouldn't put the Grand Slam past Tiger.

  • brianS
    February 5th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Spamtown Races sing this song, doo-dah, doo-dah

    A man whom doctors call the “index case” — the first patient they knew about — got sick in December 2006 and was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic for about two weeks. His job at Quality Pork was to extract the brains from swine heads.

    “He was quite ill and severely affected neurologically, with significant weakness in his legs and loss of function in the lower part of his body,” said Dr. Daniel H. Lachance, a neurologist at Mayo.

    Tests showed that the man’s spinal cord was markedly inflamed. The cause seemed to be an autoimmune reaction: his immune system was mistakenly attacking his own nerves as if they were a foreign body or a germ. ....

    By spring, he went back to his job. But within weeks, he became ill again. Once more, he recovered after a few months and returned to work — only to get sick all over again.

    By then, November 2007, other cases had begun to turn up. Ultimately, there were 12 — 6 men and 6 women, ranging in age from 21 to 51. Doctors and the plant owner, realizing they had an outbreak on their hands, had already called in the Minnesota Department of Health, which, in turn, sought help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Ruh roh. Mad Pig Disease?

  • SBG
    February 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    Forget about hitting and pitching, who's going to be the vocal go-to guy in the clubhouse?

    • Moss
      February 6th, 2008 at 9:14 am

      Moss thinks "vocal go-to guy" translates well to "bigmouth who the media can turn to when in need of a throwaway quote," in the case of Hunter at least. It's the media who need the "vocal go-to guy," not the team.

      • SBG
        February 6th, 2008 at 9:28 am

        Of course you are correct. Let me quote the article:

        Much has been made of the impact that the departures of Johan Santana and Torii Hunter will have on the field for the Twins in 2008.

        But an equally important question might just be the impact they will have inside the Twins clubhouse.

        Leadership and chemistry have long been considered to be critical aspects of a team's overall success.

        By whom?

  • AMR
    February 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    I'm a bit bummed that Phil Hughes didn't come to the Twins... He's an Alton Brown fan.
    But his taste in music is a bit questionable.

  • SBG
    February 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    I kind of wondered what was up with Arlen Specter and his raging erection over Spygate... why was he threatening the revocation of the NFL's Antitrust exemption over this deal?

    I googled "Arlen Spector [sic] nfl antitrust" and I found out that this is not the first time that he's gone after the NFL's antitrust exemption:

    Friday, December 8, 2006; Page E05

    The NFL's ability to negotiate exclusive sports packages is under fire from the outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) twice said he would introduce legislation in the next session aimed at eliminating the league's freedom from antitrust laws.

    Specter said the NFL should not use the exemption to negotiate exclusive programming packages such as DirecTV's Sunday Ticket, which allows viewers to watch teams outside their regional market.

    "As I look at what the NFL is doing today with the NFL channel with the DirecTV . . . a lot of people, including myself, would like to be able to have that ticket," Specter said.

    Arlen Specter wants DirecTV so that he can watch football all day long on Sunday. A U.S. Senator. Bullshit. What's going on? He seems to be more interested in the antitrust exemption than Spygate, now, doesn't he? Check out this from the same article:

    Access to out-of-market football games was one of many consumer fairness issues addressed during the hearing. Another hot topic was whether cable providers should be forced to share sports broadcasting rights with every service provider in an area.

    David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corp., said his company has not made a local Philadelphia sports network it owns available to DirecTV because it is one way his company can stay competitive with the Sunday Ticket package.

    Poor Comcast. They can't stay competitive with the Sunday Ticket package, so they, in turn, won't let DirecTV subscribers have access to their local sports channel. See how unfair the NFL is? Fight the good fight, Arlen!

    Then, I read this and it all makes sense. Comcast is Specter's second largest contributor (and the law firm that lobbies for them is #1) and they are fighting the NFL over the NFL Network as well as the NFL Sunday Ticket package. Now you can rest easy, knowing that all is right with the world. To those who say that Arlen Specter has better things to do than pick on the NFL, know that he has nothing better to do than pick on the NFL, because he knows where his bread is buttered.

    • brianS
      February 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

      that's a cool link.

      In the 1998 election cycle, Spector raised $34,050 from Blank, Rome, et al. (third-largest contributor) and $20,500 from Comcast (20th largest) out of $12M total receipts.

      In the 2004 cycle, he raised $258,500 from Blank, Rome, et al. (1st) and $101,750 from Comcast (2nd) out of $19.8M total receipts.

      obviously, something changed between the 1998 election and the 2004 election.

    • Moss
      February 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am

      Moss seriously believes that the Supreme Court screwed up royally when it guaranteed full First Amendment rights to corporations.

      First Amendment rights should be for the people, not entities. The Constitution is a contract between the government and the people, it's not a business charter.

      Moss isn't big into regulating everything, but it sure would improve things to cut out special interests and pork-barrel politics. If it could be done, that is.

  • ubelmann
    February 5th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    This is hilarious. I wonder whose job it is to sit around and figure out who to send those letters to.

  • Andrew
    February 5th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    So, I think someone (AMR?) brought this up already, so sorry if this is a repeat. I have the 2008 Twins Calendar from a give-away at the Dome this year. The players featured:

    October 2007 - Torii
    November 2007 - Carlos Silva
    December 2007 - KUBEL!!!
    January - Boof
    February - Jason Barlett
    March - Cuddyer
    April - Joe Nathan
    May - Johan
    June - Mike Redmond (I was a little too excited about this one. Redmond on my birthday month. w00t, indeed.)
    July - Morneau
    August - Sideshow Pat
    September - The Baby Jesus
    October - Light Rail
    November - Francisco Liriano
    December - Matt Guerrier

    It's so disappointing to switch your calendar during the offseason and as each month passes, instead of getting pumped because pitchers and catchers report, I keep seeing people who are gone.

    • Moss
      February 6th, 2008 at 9:22 am

      They at least had the foresight to put the least likely returnees in 2007 instead of '08.

      Moss thought the same thing the other day. Saw Bartlett on February, and thought about flipping through to see what other months have guys playing for other teams.

  • SBG
    February 5th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Our guy at Sox Machine documents the dominance of Johan Santana over the White Sox.

  • Whiffers
    February 5th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    I experienced a caucus for the first time tonight. What an odd, inefficient process.

    • Andrew
      February 5th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

      Yeah, this year was my 3rd election cycle in Iowa - 1 in HS, 1 at Drake, now 1 as an adult. The entire state of Iowa gets a huge political boner over the process. To me it just seems like a dumb way to do things.

      • Dread Pirate Will Young
        February 5th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

        If Minnesota had a primary, I would have voted. In a caucus, I was tied up at work during the process. I'm just shocked at how much Minnesota Republicans apparently hate McCain. I would think that Pawlenty would have more sway with the party...

        I'm registered as a Republican in the state because I went out to support McCain in 2000 while in HS.

        • davidwatts
          February 5th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

          If Minnesota had a primary, I would have voted.

          same here

          • Neil
            February 6th, 2008 at 9:23 am

            It's a shame - I did a lot of work on the Obama campaign the past few weeks and I talked to quite a few people that couldn't go because they worked. I understand why the parties like them, but the negatives certainly do seem to outweigh the positives.
            The way they allowed people to vote and leave on the Dem side was basically a primary anyway... just one that you could only go to for 2.5 hours.

          • Moss
            February 6th, 2008 at 9:26 am

            Same here, and count Moss as a McCain supporter.

            It seems like McCain's moderate conservatism should play well here. Perhaps it's the hard-core conservatives who showed up to caucus last nite. After all, Huckabee had a fair showing too.

            • SBG
              February 6th, 2008 at 9:40 am

              Enjoy the next 100 years in Iraq.

            • frightwig
              February 6th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

              It seems like McCain's moderate conservatism should play well here. Perhaps it's the hard-core conservatives who showed up to caucus last nite.

              The GOP base really doesn't like him. In 2006, the Minnesota Republicans particularly pushed the immigration issue, which is a sore point between the rightwing and McCain. Maybe that has something to do with McCain's poor result there last night. Or maybe, as you indicate, the caucus system tends to shut out the moderate Republicans and independents who form his core support.

              I thought Andrew Sullivan had an astute comment:

              It's interesting, isn't it, that both (Obama and McCain) are doing particularly well in states that, in the general election, mainly go to the other party. But Obama has more traditional Democratic states as well. He has the base and he has the reach. McCain only seems to have the reach.

              We'll see if the conservative base comes around to him, or if he can maintain his reach towards the swing voters once they hear more about his plan to stay in Iraq for the next 100 years.

              • Moss
                February 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

                Might depend on his running mate. Maybe Huckabee would agree to be on the ticket -- that would get more support in the South.

                Or maybe McCain should ask Obama to be on the ticket, if HillBilly gets the nom.

              • Neil
                February 6th, 2008 at 8:23 pm

                That ticket would suffer from an... intellectual curiosity deficit. Though the last 7 years have shown that's not exactly a bar to presidency.

        • AMR
          February 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am

          Will, In MN you are not registered to a party. You can caucus with whomever you feel is your party that year. Since coming of age in 1995, I have caucused with the
          1996 DFL
          2000 GOP (McCain had a slight hope yet)
          2002 IP (I was a state leg candidate)
          2004 IP (virtual)
          2008 GOP

          I was really surprised by the MN GOP results, too (see today's Cup of Coffee).

          Also, this was a lot harder than the GOP caucus in 2000, when we got the Presidential Preference Poll within the first 15 minutes. Last night, it took 45 minutes to get to that, and that's only because delegate selection was postponed because the precinct chair didn't know how many delegates we got. Good on that, as the Wife and I had our kids with, assuming it would be quick and easy. It was not. And the boy typically goes to bed at 7pm, and the daughter at 8. They were troopers, and were really well behaved though, given the long dullness of it. The daughter did enjoy the pledge of allegiance though, and said "Aye" for all the acclamation elections.

          There is a point to the inefficiency, though: it's actually about party building rather than picking a nominee. And the high cost of participating makes it likely that only the strongest-feeling and non-toddler-parenting come out to build the party.