Fifteen years ago I took my firs pelagic birding trip; I was seasick almost the whole time but was still amazed at the birds we saw, especially the beautiful Sabine’s Gull, which I had never heard of. There were also good looks at many other species, particularly Phalaropes, as we cruised along the Continental Shelf […]
It is well known that Minnesota sports fans expect the worst when it comes down to a big game for their team. Whether this stems from the Vikings’ 0-4 record in early Super Bowls or a general Midwestern lack of self-confidence, I don’t know. Nor do I know whether this defeatism is at all unique […]
June 1: I don’t feel at all bad that the Timberwolves lost to the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. I’m sorry they didn’t win a second game and glad they at least won one. Dallas was clearly the superior team: not only did Doncic and Irving outperform Edwards and Towns, their secondary players–Gafford, Washington, […]
September 24: As the Twins’ freefall out of the wild-card race continues, what’s even more dispiriting is the view into the future. Each morning I watch Recap Rundown on mlb.com, which shows highlights of every Major League game from the day before. Time and again I am impressed by the exploits of some young player […]
As the Minnesota Twins’ 2024 season opener approaches I am more doubtful than sanguine. While the national prognosticators uniformly pick the Twins to win their division, I read this more as a referendum on the weakness of their rivals than an endorsement of the Twins’ strength. And given their success last year–winning the division plus […]
While baseball has a stupid rule or two–one less next year, as I’ll discuss later–football has a doozy that has more actual impact on the game: the fumble-out-of-the-end-zone-for-a-touchback rule. When this rule was invoked against the Vikings in mid-season it may have cost them a win and led to general speculation that the rule would […]
Even when there are no new birds to be seen or locales to visit, birding can give me great satisfaction, as two days this weekend demonstrated. On Friday, December 29, the day before Santa Barbara’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), I took the noon-to-two Snowy Plover docent shift at Coal Oil Point. The beach had […]
A quick note on Game 2 of the Rangers-Diamondbacks series: yesterday the Diamondbacks bounced back from a heartbreaking extra-inning loss in Dallas to whump the Rangers, 9-1. Arizona struck out only two times the whole game. With 16 hits. I wonder if the Twins were watching. Post mortem: I was part of why this was […]
Much of the reporting on the USWNT’s overtime loss concentrated on Sweden’s winning penalty kick, which crossed the goal line by one, or maybe two, millimeters after being largely saved by US goalie Alyssa Naeher. Had it been saved, however, there was no guarantee the result would have been any different. The US would still […]
On Sunday (7/11) the Twins blew a game, 7-6, to the Blue Jays when Emilio Pagan gave up two singles and a home run in the 8th inning, but the loss equally belonged to Carlos Correa, whose throw in the dirt on the back end of a sure double play allowed the Jays’ three previous […]
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