76 thoughts on “August 6, 2012: Luck”

  1. I'm going to be very disappointed in Roger Goodell if, after all this, he reduces Jonathan Vilma's suspension.

    1. There's this aura around football fans - at least around here - that they're just over it because it's old news and it's time to move on and GET READY FOR FOOTBALL, WOOOOOOOOO!

      It was a disgusting and embarrassing event for the NFL, but I'm not surprised that football is willing to shrug its shoulders. After all, it was nothing more than guys getting paid for violent acts...

      1. I think I'm starting to even feel a little bad about playing fantasy football instead of distancing myself from the sport completely.

        1. You are on your way. Baseball ends in October, right about the time the NBA fires up. That's all you need.

              1. That's true! (also, its not like I didn't win Hand and Ball Guys last season, in case anyone forgot.)

        2. I expect to keep playing because I've always loved my money league and that's how I "hang out" with some of the best friends that I never see, but I think I'm about to get much worse at it. I've always been a way better fantasy football coach than my NFL fandom would suggest, but it'll be tough if I stop watching the games. Granted, I don't know if that's going to happen yet.

          1. I still don't have enough anger built up for football that I'm going to stop watching.

            I will admit, though, I'm more excited for the upcoming Wild season than the Vikings. I'm also excited to at long last become a basketball fan and lose all sports credibility with my dad.

            1. I don't think I'm anywhere near basketball fandom, but I'll admit that my passing interest in the wolves is almost at the point where it will surpass my passing interest in football. For me, football seems to have embraced some of the worst of major sports, in that they're putting the "stories" above the product on the field (New Orleans needs a super bowl win! vs. bounties), and really don't care too much about the consequences - to either players or the legitimacy of their game.

              Also, I'm getting more and more annoyed by people who are badmouthing baseball as a way of expressing their desire to watch football. It's been around forever, but it's really starting to get to me in a way it never did before.

            2. Heh. My Dad loathes basketball too, and I can't even bring up the fact that I enjoy watching this Wolves team or I hear a rant about how stupid the sport is.

            3. Yeah, something really earth-shattering would have to happen for me to lose interest in football. The same could be said for any major sport. I like sports.

              1. I think that quite a bit of my ties to football are nostalgic in nature. If Minnesota were to lose the Vikings, I'm wondering whether I'd have any interest anymore.

              2. That's kind of the thing for me, too. I really like watching the NFL. It's probably my second-favorite sport, though a distant second behind baseball (well, it's probably third behind curling, but I only get to see curling once every four years, so in some ways it doesn't count). I'm starting to feel guilty about liking the NFL, though, so I'm not sure where that's going to go.

                1. I'm starting to feel guilty about liking the NFL, though, so I'm not sure where that's going to go.

                  This.

                  I am thankful that my son never played football. He suffered more than his share of injuries in wrestling as it was. Now that we have a reasonable set of cable channels, I can easily avoid watching the NFL this fall. I probably will still watch some games, but nothing like the devotion I once had.

                  College football I've all but forgotten about. It's a cesspool.

                  1. Sunday afternoons in the fall are times that I generally give to my wife, either in family activities or good old fix-it projects or such. Makes me feel good not to waste (most of them) on NFL football.

        2. Very cool photo. Unfortunately, it seems I can't watch Flash video for more than a few minutes. Recovering from my second blue-screen now. Fortunately, I was able to catch that photo after the first restart.

    4. You should have put this in the Spoiler tab. I was going to watch it tonight on NBC.

  3. Well, guys, when I resurfaced over the weekend I indicated that things have been rough since I got back from Russia. Here's what's going on:

    Mrs. Hayes was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 15. She's been on immunosuppressants since then and had one surgery in college. Since we've been together she's had two serious flares, one a couple years ago and the other which began last December. Stress is a trigger for flares, and between my stepdad's sudden death, tax season at her accounting firm, looking for and buying the house, and moving she's had one hell of a flare.

    When I got back from Russia at 2am on June 27 Mrs. Hayes and her mother met me at O'Hare. I could tell something was wrong because of the way she was holding herself, and then I saw an ice pack in the car. She'd been in intense pain for a few days, but the GI clinic here in Madison basically blew her off; her GI doc was on vacation, so they passed her to someone else who told her to go to the ER if the pain became too much. We drove up to Madison in the afternoon and I took her to the ER right away. Nine hours later Mrs. Hayes was admitted to the hospital. She had six abscesses and a partial fistula. Even after she began receiving IV hydromorphone and oral oxycodone in the ER the pain was at 9/10. She was ultimately in the hospital for six days, then came home for a month to recuperate. She was on IV antibiotics for the duration, four infusions a day, three of them every eight hours. There was a drain installed in her abdomen to drain the abscesses and a PICC line in her arm for the infusions. The drain was taken out once, prematurely, and reinstalled a couple days later. Both finally were taken out in the last ten days.

    All told she missed more than a month of work, which wasn't great, but thankfully it was in the summer, when I could take care of her, and she was covered by short-term disability under the FMLA. I don't know what would have happened had this come up during the semester. It looks like our normally awful health insurance is going to (knock wood) absorb most of the cost (apart from the deductible, of course), which means we get to keep the house. Not sure what we would have done without barely marginal health insurance, either.

    On the plus side, however, is that we were able to stain the cedar siding at the same time as all this was going on.

    1. Holy crap dude. Sorry to hear about the struggles. Best wishes for y'all as things start heading towards the better.

      1. We think so, but Mrs. Hayes still has some tenderness where the drains were installed. One of her team of docs thinks she has a little cellulitis, so as of this morning she's on a ten-day run of oral antibiotics. Fingers are crossed.

    5. I don't give my condolences often, but man, my heart goes out. I've seen Crohn's first hand as well and it's an awful thing to see and care for much less experience.

      1. It's a pretty rotten thing to be saddled with for life, but in a sense Mrs. Hayes is lucky. Her mom has Crohn's, too, but two of Mrs. Hayes' aunts have severe MS (which is related enough to be treated with some of the same drugs). We're both very conscious that things could be much worse, and try to keep things in perspective.

    7. that sounds pretty awful, CH. agreed with everyone that hopefully the worst is over. best wishes to the misses and you.

    13. I sure hope the Mrs. gets well and feels better soon, CH. Sounds like she could really use a nice long remission.

    16. Best wishes to you and Mrs. CH. That's tough and I hope she gets better from this one soon.

    17. CH, I emailed you a few times a few weeks ago, and when I received no response I feared that things had gotten rough for you again.

      I'm not sure what else can be added here, but I'm always wishing the best for you and I'm waiting for your world to get better.

      I too have a friend with Crohn's, so...aye to what everyone else has said.

  4. Nick Nelson is advocating that the Twins start Nishioka every day for the remainder of the season. Me, I'd DFA him to get him off the 40-man roster. No one will pick him up, for sure.

    1. if we're super lucky, he'll have an unsustainable BABIP for the next two months and we can dump his salary on the Royals or something

    2. Maybe Mr. Nelson is simply suggesting that the Twins go ahead and tank the rest of the season to improve their draft position. But we can't rule out a mental breakdown, either.

  5. First Monday Book Day will be making its triumphant(??) return later today (err, tonight).

  6. Somehow, I don't think I'll top this for my daughter's sixth birthday. A guy I know posted the following with a picture of his daughter standing on the top step of the visitor's dugout at Fenway next to a smiling Joe Mauer:

    We went to Boston this weekend to watch the Twins v Red Sox. We had field passes before the game and Joe Mauer saw my daughter and had her come over to the dugout and I took a picture. Joe hit the game winning homer in the 9th inning and it landed right by us (we sat on the Green Monster- I'll post more photos later). My daughter kept saying" hit it to me Joe". It is her 6th birthday today and she is absolutely convinced he heard her and was trying to hit ti to her!!!

      1. I'll have to look at the replay to see.

        Remember a while back when we were talking about the prices on those charity auction deals and I said I knew a guy for whom such money is no object? This is the guy. He obviously has a connection with the Twins (which I won't disclose) because how else does he get field passes? But, he just flew his family of five out to Boston and got monster seats because he probably didn't have anything else going on.

        1. Here's another of his facebook posts:

          After the Timberwolves vs. Miami Heat game last Friday LeBron James spotted my son Charles in the crowd and gave him his arm/elbow-band! (It was also LeBron's birthday). My 8 year old son said that several of the women around him asked him if they could hold it and touch it. He gave it tone to touch and he said she started rubbing it on her face. He said "girls are kinda weird".

        2. he just flew his family of five out to Boston and got monster seats because he probably didn't have anything else going on.

          I think the NY Times Ethicist needs to write a column about this guy.

          1. He also has an Olympic gold medal that he bought from somewhere originally won by an eastern European boxer. I've seen it.

        3. I once went to a wedding of a friend in KC (his father in law was a judge(?) there), and following the bride's brother left the reception early to fly to Indianapolis and take a helicopter to the 500. $$

    2. Absolute boo!

      I don't know why, but I'm always gratified by these stories of star athlete being appropriately gracious to the paying customers.

  7. It's always kind of interesting when you're out somewhere and some random person comes up to you and starts telling you their life story.

    1. Not to gloat or anything but that perfectly describes the pulled pork eggs benedict with jalapeno cheddar cornbread, habanero hollandaise, and apricot demi glaze I had for breakfast on sunday morning.

  9. I'm not watching, but getting various twitter updates. It sounds like the U.S. - Canada women's soccer game is insane. 3-3 with 10 minutes left, five goals scored in the last 15 minutes.

        3. Too bad Brandi Chastain's commentating yelling is ruining the atmosphere.

          No kidding.

          We watched the replay of US/NZ last night (for the second time; thanks, NBC, for your crap coverage on broadcast). Fortunately/unfortunately, there was a problem with the audio, so we could barely hear her chatter over the crowd noise 🙂

  10. so, while looking at this story on "2012's best colleges for you"*, I noticed in the sidebar, "BeastTV top party schools" lists at No. 2, Penn State. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

    *cutting to the chase, the Alma Mater weighs in as the second "happiest" college.

  11. Is the US Mens basketball team live on all coasts or tape delayed for the West Coast?

    1. Uverse gives me an Olympic Soccer Channel and an Olympic Basketball channel (actually, two of each, although they show exactly the same things at the same time), both in HD. They run, WITHOUT COMMERCIALS (for the repeats, anyway), game after game after game. They have shown games "live" as well as repeated ad infinitum.

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