sports
Don't even try to complain
- Updated: July 4, 2011 - 9:25 PM
Whatever's wrong in sports and elsewhere has to be forgotten on a weekend like that one.
Concerned about the performance of Twins closer Matt Capps this weekend? Don't be. It's too nice outside.
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Sometimes sportswriters and fans can be -- no! -- a little cynical. When things are bad, there is a temptation to dwell on the negative. Our 1-60 news cycle (hours and minutes, or minutes and seconds, depending on just how embedded you are in it) has replaced 24-7, which replaced finding out about things gracefully. When something goes wrong in a Twins game, you don't groan and forget about it. You read 18 other people piling onto it on Twitter.
This year, of course, has been far from great. Through June, the Twins were hardly perfect (to put it kindly) and the weather was often worse (again, being kind here). If ever a state needed a holiday weekend to deliver a welcome change, it was Minnesota desperately needing the three days over the July 4th holiday to come through.
And goodness, did it ever.
You can quibble about some outcomes (Saturday's Twins game didn't quite go according to plan). Maybe you're still fuming about Matt Capps blowing that game and venturing into dangerous territory Sunday.
But you cannot argue with the quality of entertainment and life that was available the past three days. Did anyone see a cloud from 6 a.m. Saturday through late Monday night? Seriously, it was like Mother Nature was begging you to get out there and take it all in.
Some of us woke up at 5 a.m. Monday for the gorgeous Red White and Boom half-marathon running along the Mississippi River and through parts of Northeast Minneapolis. Exhausted and still sweaty at breakfast after running 13.1 miles, a friend wondered if we were up for an impromptu round of golf at 12:30.
Instincts said a nap would be the logical course. But the eyeballs took one look outside and said, "Let's do this." It was the nice middle piece to the strange sports triple Monday, completed when a group of us headed to Blaine (why not?) to watch the NSC Stars soccer game, followed by fireworks.
It was a must-do weekend, whether your sport was boating, baseball, golf or just alternating between sitting in the sun and the shade with a cool beverage and something to eat. So we don't want to hear about how you didn't get to do this or that ... how you wish it was Saturday morning again ... how the Twins are still not the team we thought they would be. You can have that negativity and wishful thinking again sometime, but not now.
Tuesday is reserved for summer's version of Thanksgiving. If you were here and had a chance to take in even a fraction of what these past three days had to offer, you should truly give thanks.
MICHAEL RAND
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| Minnesota - LP: V. Worley | 3 | FINAL |
| Atlanta - WP: P. Maholm | 8 |
| Cincinnati - WP: A. Simon | 7 | FINAL |
| NY Mets - LP: B. Parnell | 4 |
| Los Angeles - WP: H. Ryu | 9 | FINAL |
| Milwaukee - LP: W. Peralta | 2 |
| Oakland - LP: J. Parker | 1 | FINAL |
| Texas - WP: R. Wolf | 3 |
| Arizona - LP: T. Cahill | 1 | FINAL |
| Colorado - WP: J. De La Rosa | 4 |
| Washington - WP: T. Clippard | 2 | FINAL |
| San Francisco - LP: J. Affeldt | 1 |
| Tampa Bay - LP: C. Ramos | 3 | FINAL |
| Toronto - WP: A. Loup | 4 |
| Chicago Cubs - LP: J. Samardzija | 0 | FINAL |
| Pittsburgh - WP: F. Liriano | 1 |
| Detroit - WP: J. Verlander | 11 | FINAL |
| Cleveland - LP: U. Jimenez | 7 |
| NY Yankees - LP: H. Kuroda | 3 | FINAL |
| Baltimore - WP: J. Hammel | 6 |
| Seattle - LP: B. Maurer | 1 | FINAL |
| LA Angels - WP: C. Wilson | 7 |
| Philadelphia - WP: C. Lee | 3 | FINAL |
| Miami - LP: K. Slowey | 0 |
| Boston - WP: C. Buchholz | 6 | FINAL |
| Chicago WSox - LP: H. Santiago | 2 |
| Kansas City - LP: J. Shields | 1 | FINAL |
| Houston - WP: J. Lyles | 3 |
| St. Louis - WP: T. Lyons | 5 | FINAL |
| San Diego - LP: B. Smith | 3 |
| Indiana | 102 | FINAL |
| Miami | 103 |
| Pittsburgh | 7 | FINAL |
| Ottawa | 3 |
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