Hope springs eternal
By Brian Miller
HTF Columnist
It’s been a little nervewracking to be a Minnesota pro sports fan the last few days. The Twins were nearly no-hit on Monday and were en route to getting swept out of Texas pending Thursday’s elite pitching matchup between Francisco Liriano and Cliff Lee.
And Sidney Rice, whose breakout season a year ago elevated him to near elite status amongst NFL wide receivers, finally underwent surgery on the hip he injured seven months ago in the NFC title game and will miss at least half, if not all, of the upcoming season.
Not exactly the best news for the Minny faithful. And add to that the still uncertain status of the respective noggins of the Twins’ Justin Morneau with his lingering concussion and the Vikings’ Percy Harvin with his persistent migraines, and the nervous Nellies out there are undoubtedly wringing their hands.
But this writer has never been one to deal with such troublesome oddities such as reality. Possibilities spring eternal, delusional though they may be, when one is a hopeless optimist or eternal romantic or however those words go together.
Take the Twins. Despite the stumbles in the Lone Star State, the Twins still have the best record in baseball since the All-Star break and the hottest hitter in baseball in Joe Mauer, who is charging up the charts in search of his fourth AL batting title. That roll has helped the Twins blow past the Chicago White Sox and seize control of the AL Central.
And there are bright spots galore up and down the Minnesota roster.
For instance, there is Danny Valencia, the rookie third baseman, who posted another three-hit game in Wednesday’s loss to raise his average to .330. Were it not for his mid-summer call-up to the bigs, he would be in the conversation for Rookie of the Year.
And going from young to old, how about Jim Thome, who clubbed the first walkoff homer for the Twins in Target Field history to stun his old team, the White Sox, in extra innings last week. His offseason signing has given the Twins an outstanding, clutch, power bat off the bench, and one that has been invaluable in the regular lineup as well in Morneau’s absence.
And how about Jesse Crain and Delmon Young? A year ago, both were referred to by most Minny fans mostly with unprintables. And now? Crain has given up one run in the last two months, while Young, before his recent slump, was arguably the Twins best player the first four months of the season.
And don’t forget about Ron Gardenhire. The Twins skipper has done a masterful job with the lineup, which has been far from set in stone. Injuries ended Joe Nathan’s season, a large chunk of Morneau,’s, and portions of those of J.J. Hardy, Orlando Hudson, Nick Punto, Kevin Slowey, Jose Mijares, Mauer and others. But Valencia, Alexi Casilla and Brian Duensing and more have provided key contributions in their absence.
The bottom line is the Twins lead by 3 ½ games with less than a fourth of the season to play and have Morneau, one of their top two bats coming back supposedly soon. They should be fine.
As for the Vikings, sure, the receiving corps looks like a MASH unit right now with Rice out indefinitely and Harvin day-to-day. But there are a lot of things to like, starting with the health of middle linebacker E.J. Henderson, who was all over the field in his first game back from injury against the 49ers Sunday. The Vikings also signed former Pro Bowler Javon Walker and traded for Miami’s Greg Camarillo, who has great hands, to add depth to their receiving corps.
Oh yeah, and that Brett Favre guy showed up again. (Surprise, surprise.)
Even if Favre isn’t as brilliant as he was last season, there’s no reason to think that the Vikes aren’t set up for another deep playoff run. They have as much talent on either side of the ball as any team in the league with Pro Bowlers such as Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams and Steve Hutchinson dotting the lineup.
Of course, it is August, and optimism runs high for any NFL team at this time of year, even for Lions’ fans. And in this writer’s case, it is no different. I remain overly optimistic that this will be the first year of my lifetime that I will see the Vikings play in a Super Bowl. Of course, being a lifelong Vikings fan, I know if they do get there, they will probably lose. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm forever runs high.
As for those nervous Nellies out there after the events of the last week? To quote an optimist’s theme song, “Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing’s gonna be all right now…”
Until next time…
Brian Miller is a longtime local sports writer and the co-founder of iSportsNorth. He currently resides in Eveleth and can be reached at miller24bri@gmail.com.
