Game on!

Yesterday was Shef's first hockey game.  He is in a 3-on-3 league and has been waiting for a chance to actually play hockey for months now.  The team is filled with a bunch of his friends from school and the season should be a lot of fun.

Shef was pretty excited as we got him ready to play:

Then it was game time!  The kids rotate through their shifts quickly, so there is a lot of ice time for everyone.  Here is Shef in action:

Shef worked hard the whole game, and was pretty wiped out afterwards:

Although we didn't win, the final score was not really indicative of how close the game actually was:

Still, everyone had a great time, which is what really matters.  Mac's also been begging us to let him play hockey, so he will start skating this Summer and will suit up for his first league next Winter.  I guess we are now officially a hockey family!

Dan the Man is back!

It has been a long road, but I am back! In our family, we all get eggs with slogans on them for easter. Per my mom (hi, Mom!), the slogans have to be affirming and not insulting, so we get things like "Doug's no slug," "Mac's no Hack" and "I go Pee for Phee." All my life - dating back to the days with my dad's parents used to run Easter - my egg has been "Dan the Man."

According to tradition, finding certain Easter eggs on the hunt earns you certain sums of money. Growing up, finding "Papa [my grandfather] West is the Best" was worth a ton of money (meaning about a dollar), whereas finding some random relative's egg (like an aunt or an uncle) was worth a lot less.

Nowadays, "Dobby West [my dad] is the Best" is the prize egg. But finding your own egg, or your mom or dad's egg also pays well. For a number of years, though, "Dan the Man" has been nearly worthless.

This is due to a grave injustice that, thankfully, has finally been corrected. You see, about 10 years ago, I was invited to a Timberwolves game. Naturally, I accepted. However, what I didn't realize at the time was that the game happened to be taking place on Easter Sunday. So, when the doorbell rang during Easter dinner, I was kind of surprised. But not nearly as surprised as KC, who suddenly found herself dateless at my family's Easter dinner before we were even engaged and also before the Easter festivities had really even gotten started.

Admittedly, this was not my best day. Still, though, it is hardly my fault that I made plans with a friend on Easter and forgot to tell my girlfriend and then stranded her with my family for the bulk of the afternoon.

Happily, after just a decade and many, many good deeds on my part, "Dan the Man" is now a profitable egg again for the lucky finder! So, Happy Easter to me! And to all y'all as well.

Challenge Results!!

Well, this is going to be a tough one to call.  We had a lot of great blogging(!) in this challenge, and, we usually don't crown winners.  However, More Caffeine, Please did check in today to see who won the challenge, so I figured I'd go ahead and tally up the results.

Turns out, three of the contestants managed to squeeze in all 30 MLB teams during this challenge:  More Caffeine, Please (hence, her interest in who won the challenge), Miscellaneous Missives, and yours truly!

Now, admittedly, I phoned in several posts, and basically the entire American League Central, so I will take myself out of the running.  That leaves it a two-woman race between Bethn8r (Caffeine's Twitter handle) and MM.  Here's how I see it breaking down:

More Caffeine, Please - This was Bethn8r's first blogging challenge, and I think it's clear that she took it with the seriousness it demanded.  I also think that, of all the contestants, Bethn8r knows the fewest other contestants IRL, so that makes her strong showing even more impressive.

Miscellaneous Missives - MM added poetry to all of her posts that tied in with the theme for each team/post, which is hard to do.  She also finished the post while on vacation in another country.  In addition, MM gave us TWO bonus, minor-league baseball posts.

Obviously, this is a close call.

I think, though, that I have to give this one to MM, because, the way I see it, I did the bare minimum, Bethn8r did a solid job, and MM went above-and-beyond.

The prize is kind of self-evident - a shout-out on Pronto Pup!!!  So, Congrats, MM!!!!

(full disclosure: This was a particularly difficult decision given the fact that Bethn8r and her guest-blogger husband sent me a birthday present during this challenge.  I decided not to let this factor into the decision, even though it was an awesome present.  Thanks again, guys!)

American League Central: Minnesota Twins

Obviously, I saved the best for last:  The Minnesota Twins!

The Twins have a new ballpark that is among the best in the league:

One time, after a brief rainfall, a rainbow appeared right over downtown.  Sadly, it wasn't a double rainbow, but, still, it looked really cool.  But I do have a lot of great memories of watching the Twins play in the Dome.  That ballpark was among the worst in the league:

See that banner with the pictures of old Twins on it?  It was filthy with dust stains all over it.  Also, they used it to cover hundreds of seats from view because they could never fill the Dome except when they went to the Playoffs.

I have been to more Twins games than to any other professional sport.  I guess that's not surprising since they play so many games, but it means I have a lot of memories that involve the Twins.  As I mentioned before, however, those memories do not include being there for the seventh game of the 1991 World Series because I had to go look at stupid colleges.

Bygones.

Anywho, I am really looking forward to the upcoming season.  The Twins aren't supposed to be all that good, but I think we can at least beat our 99-loss showing from last season.  Baby steps back to the World Series.

And that's the Minnesota Twins (and a wrap for this blogging challenge)!

American League Central: Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians have one of the most hideous mascots in professional sports:

But, they also inspired one of the best sports movies of all time:  Major League:

Best line from that movie:  "Hey, Johnny. Maybe we ought to do one of those waves."  And also, "Too high."

And that's the Cleveland Indians!

American League Central: Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers play in Detroit.  Magnum PI always wore a Detroit Tigers cap.  See?

And that's the Detroit Tigers!

American League Central: Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals were a lot better last year than they were for pretty much the whole decade before.  They are not a very good team, but have been coming back of late.

At one point, the Kansas City Royals had Chuck Knoblauch on their team.  Chuck Knoblauch was the AL Rookie of the Year with the Twins in 1991 and was instrumental to our World Series win that year.  Then, it turned out he was kind of a douche.  Later, he forgot how to throw from second base to first.  Seriously - it was some kind of mental problem.  So he was moved to right field.  That's where he was playing with the Yankees when he came back to the Metrodome to play the Twins.  Unfortunately, it was dollar dog night.  Naturally, we threw a lot of hot dogs at him until Tom Kelly calmed us down ( I say "we" and "us" but I wasn't there).

After his stint with the Yankees, he ended up with the Royals, but struggled there.

I had a poster of Chuck Knoblauch in my college dorm room.  It was a picture of him turning a double-play during the triumphant 1991 season, and the caption was "New Kid On The Blauch." Get it?

And that's the Kansas City Royals!