I'll say this, to start out this Saturday: the Gophers sure picked a good year to try to run the ball more often. Last week, it was below freezing in Minneapolis; this week, the team will be gallivanting in a foot of snow at Penn State. If a glacier rolls into Columbus before next weekend, you can't say you didn't notice the trend.
On that note, let's have a bunch of baseball links!
*First of all, I need to take a minute to plug the TwinsCentric Offseason GM Handbook. It's 137 (!) pages of analysis, compiled by some of the best Twins bloggers around, that'll tell you pretty much anything you need to know for the upcoming Minnesota offseason. John Bonnes, Parker Hageman, Nick Nelson, and Seth Stohs: take a bow, fellas. You've done a great thing.
*Second, some other Twins-related links, not coincidentally from some of the same guys mentioned above: we have Nelson on the tilted playing field in baseball. We also have Bonnes, discussing a statistic that he's using to judge relievers, that frankly makes a lot of sense. (This particular post touched off an email discussion between RandBall and I, about Joe Nathan. Nelson thinks that RandBall, Mr. Patrick Reusse, and other Twins fans who want to trade Nathan are overreacting. I agree with Nick.)
*Brian Quarstad at Inside Minnesota Soccer has an interview with Minnesota Thunder owner Dean Johnson. Let's just say that the owner, a St. Paul native, sounds awfully optimistic.
*And finally: Hugo Chavez is nationalizing golf courses in Venezuela. First they came for the duck hunters, and I did not speak out...
That's enough for this edition. I myself spent last night watching two hockey games at once, so I've got some recovering to do.
