Tom Ryther: 1936-2024

Just hearing that longtime Twin Cities sportscaster Tom Ryther passed away Friday at the age of 87.

Tom was part of the soundtrack of my youth, whether it was his sports reporting for KSTP or KARE, hosting Bowling For Dollars, being part of the 93 X morning show in the late '80s, etc.

It was great spending time with him 5 years ago when he appeared on a broadcast to tout his memoir "The Hummelsheim Kid." We even stayed in touch after that, getting together for lunch on a couple of occasions. I basically ate while he shared anecdotes about legendary Minnesota sports figures. 

Condolences to Tom's loved ones.

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Veep debate

If there's one lasting image which encapsulates Tuesday evening's Vice Presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), it would be this: 

JD Vance hitting the Jim Halpert on Walz… pic.twitter.com/CsUAOF23Hb

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) October 2, 2024

I have to admit that it was gratifying for America at large to get a glimpse of what we Minnesotans (at least those of us who acknowledge reality) have known for some time: Walz is major dork. Also, the fact the Minnesota media rarely (if ever) pressed Walz on his questionable background or insane policy proposals played a major role in his being ill-prepared for this debate. 

Jim Geraghty at National Review noticed this, too. 

(Tuesday) night, Walz’s inexperience with tough races and tough questions showed. Once the Bubble Wrap came off, he was supposed to demonstrate toughness, a steely spine, a righteous anger over Republicans’ outrages, and the strong will of a man who’s ready to be commander in chief. Instead, Walz looked and sounded like he was made of Nerf.

The Minnesota governor looked like a guy who had no expectation of being on a nationally televised debate stage three months ago, and who realized early in the night that the moment was too big for him. His default facial expression is one of worry; he does not have a commanding presence. He looked down to take notes so often, someone on social media asked if he was working on a crossword puzzle.

Typically debates are a pointless exercise simply because each side will declare their candidate won. But Vance so dominated this affair that for any credible Dems to suggest Walz did well would be utterly delusional. In fact, you know Vance prevailed when prominent leftists downplay what occurred. 

This spin from the senior advisor to President Barack Obama is Exhibit A: 

Here's the thing:
VPs don't make policy. Presidents do.
Who talks about the Pence years?!?

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 2, 2024

While that may be a valid point, the fact of the matter is the current presidential team has consistently been referred to as the Biden-Harris administration for more than 3-1/2 years. The current VP was touted as having a key role in overseeing the southern U.S. border as well as actively decrying voter reform legislation in certain states. I get why progs wanna hide that fact given Kamala Harris's abysmal failure in both areas, but the fact is Veeps are more prominent in this current political climate. Specifically, you have Donald Trump living under the threat of assassination on an almost daily basis, including actually being struck by a bullet in mid-July. Given what the American people witnessed Tuesday evening, Vance likely wouldn't be overwhelmed were he to be elevated to POTUS in the event something happened to Trump. 

Like VP Mike Pence in 2020, Vance is much more dignified and coherent messenger for the MAGA movement than Trump himself. As such, if anyone had ever looked back at Vance's previous performances on a debate stage (specifically in 2022 against his Ohio Senate opponent Tim Ryan), Tuesday's performance shouldn't have come as a huge shock. That's why the left's caricatures of Vance were so stupefying. If they underestimated his ability to do what he did to Walz, they clearly weren't engaging in even basic opposition research. 

So with there being no more debates (we think?) among the candidates, it's now crunch time. What can we expect over the next five weeks that could possibly sway this election one way or the other? I have no idea, but given what we've endured in just that past few months alone likely means there isn't a whole lot more that can shock us from here on out. 

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Box Score of the Week

Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians - September 28, 1984.

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With four games remaining in the 1984 season, the Twins were 1-1/2 games behind the American League West Division leading Kansas City Royals. If the Twins could, at minimum, take 3 of 4 from the pitiful Indians in that final series of the year, they'd win the West if the Royals got swept in Oakland. But if the Twins took all four games, the A's would only have to take 2 of 3 against KC. 

On Thursday night, the Twins kicked away a 3-0 eighth inning lead, culminated by light hitting catcher Jamie Quirk (in literally his first and only at bat for Cleveland that year) hitting a walk off homer in the 9th for a 4-3 Indians win.

Now to this week's featured game, which occurred the following night. 

It appeared the Twins would live to fight another day as they were up 10-0 in the third inning with ace starter Frank Viola on the mound. With the score 10-2 in the bottom of the 6th, the Tribe started to chip away with 3 more runs to make it 10-5. With two outs and runners at 2nd and 3rd, relief pitcher Rick Lysander induced Julio Franco to hit a ground ball to third baseman Gary Gaetti. However, the normally sure fielding Gaetti booted the ball, allowing another run to score to make it 10-6. The Indians would tack on three more unearned runs to get within 10-9. 

From there, a complete unraveling felt inevitable. Sure enough, Cleveland's Joe Carter hit a game-tying solo homer in the 8th.  To cap off a miserable 24 hours, Brett Butler hit a bases loaded single in the 9th for an 11-10 Indians win. The Royals would defeat Oakland a few hours later to officially end the Twins' unexpected '84 postseason contention. 

Before the 2024 season, my contention was that final weekend in 1984 was the Twins' most gut-wrenching (and in some ways inexplicable) collapse, capped off by kicking away a 10-0 lead against a lousy opponent. I now consider that meltdown #2 in Twins history. 

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The NARN Closer's playlist - 9/29/2024

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I can't win your losing fight all the time....

With a mere 37 days until Election Day, there's a lot to get to on my radio show The Closer. Today's 2-hour blitz gets started at 1:00 PM Central Time. 

In the first hour I'll discuss the latest in presidential politics, including yet another example why Kamala Harris rarely does one-on-one interviews. 

At 1:30, Republican candidate for MN House Wayne Johnson will join the broadcast to discuss his candidacy in HD 41A (Lake Elmo, Afton, northern Cottage Grove). 

Then for the 2:00 hour, ISD 624 (White Bear Lake) school board candidates Scott Smith, Tim Klecker and Dan Skaar will join the broadcast to tout their respective candidacies. 

So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

 

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Alexa (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page, where we also conduct a "Live Stream" of the broadcast.

Until then.....

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Collapse completed

On August 17, the Minnesota Twins had a 70-53 record and were a scant two games behind the first place Cleveland Indians in the American League Central Division. At the very least, they were still in an advantageous position for a playoff berth as they were the second of three teams in the wildcard race with a seemingly ironclad 5-game lead. Their playoff odds at that point were well north of 90%.

With all those details at our disposal, it's not hyperbolic to say that the Twins being officially eliminated from postseason contention on Friday evening is the most stunning in-season collapse in the club's 64-year history. As someone who's been a Twins rube for nearly a half century, it's certainly tops in my time as a fan. Since that August 17 date, the Twins have compiled an awful record of 12-25 which, when extrapolated over 162 games, is a 53-109 pace. 

Fittingly, the final nail in the proverbial coffin for this season happened on the first night of Fan Appreciation Weekend. You see, it's been the fans who have bore the brunt of this pathetic display. Despite a resurrection of enthusiasm last October that hadn't been seen since Target Field's inaugural season of 2010, the Twins brass announced shortly after the club's 2023 postseason run that payroll would be slashed by about $30 million. And then when the team started to get hot at the end of April after a lousy start to the 2024 season, Bally's Sports North pulled the plug on airing Twins games due to a dispute with its regional carrier. With no TV or online streaming options, fans were essentially blacked out of what was the team's best stretch of baseball where, after a 7-13 start, they went on an incredible 63-40 run. Perhaps the final insult was the front office not seriously augmenting a playoff contending club at the July 31 trade deadline. The only acquisition trade the Twins made (mediocre middle reliever Trevor Richards from Toronto) ended up being released less than a month after being acquired.

There was a glimmer of hope in the final homestand as the Twins would be taking on a putrid Miami Marlins club and a Baltimore Orioles team whose playoff position (#1 A.L. wildcard) was locked in. If the Twins went, say, 5-1 in addition to a little help from the Kansas City Royals' opponents, they could still sneak in to the postseason. So how did the Twins respond? Why, by losing 2 of 3 to the 100-loss Marlins and then getting blown out Friday evening by Baltimore to put their playoff odds at a Blutarski-esque 0.0. For all the goodwill the Twins had built up almost a year ago with their first playoff win in 19 years and series victory in 21 seasons, they have thoroughly undone it all and then some.

So how does the franchise approach this offseason? I guess firing manager Rocco Baldelli would get peoples' attention. But what I'm hoping to hear is owner Joe Pohlad or President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey acknowledging that their strategy going into (and throughout) 2024 didn't work, so it's time to "recalibrate." And then they'll need to offer insights as to what that will entail. 

With the Twins having a top 5 (and in some rankings they're slated at #2) farm system, the future isn't at all lost. While that may placate baseball lifers like myself, it's not gonna do much for appealing to a new generation of fans. 

Since the status quo is not an option, this is easily the most crucial offseason Falvey & Co. will endure. 

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Foreign meddling in elections for we, not for ye

"WTF, WE LOVE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN OUR ELECTIONS NOW!!" 

Progressives, basically. 

After more than two years of squealing like stuck pigs that Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 due to Russia meddling in our elections (along with the unadulterated bullsh*t claims that Trump himself was a Russian asset), progs are pulling out all the stops to ensure Trump doesn't return to the White House. And one tactic they've employed recently? It's one which they've spent nearly a decade decrying. 

Erick Erickson breaks it down. 

(Dems and the media) are all strangely silent over the latest foreign interference in our elections.

That would be President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, on the American taxpayer’s dime, going to — surprise, surprise — highly contested Pennsylvania to thank munitions manufacturing employees.

In an interview, he also attacked Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance as “too radical.”

Look, I'm not totally opposed to providing assistance to Ukraine in defense of their country against the Russian offensive. However, I concede it's lunacy to a offer a proverbial blank check to this effort when the U.S. is already on the brink of financial ruin. So with that said, it's utterly reckless of President Zelenskyy to make such a characterization of a man who could well be Vice President of the United States in less than four months and thus have influence over foreign policy decisions. 

Back to Erickson. 

It was political, policy, and presidential malpractice for (President Joe) Biden to let Zelenskyy go down that road. Biden has compromised support for Ukraine by tying it directly to a partisan presidential election.

And notice just how approving so much of the press corps and Democrats are who regularly wail about election interference in the United States. They seem to be just fine with it if it helps Democrats.

So please do not be surprised when more Republicans turn against Ukraine and fewer care about the very real issue of electoral interference by foreign governments. It looks like the Democrats and much of the press really don’t care so long as it helps the left or, at least, hurts Donald Trump.

This was disgusting and deep down many of you who deny it actually know it was. Bad precedents just keep being set.

The one irreversible precedent that has been set? There no longer seems to be a single core principle which unites that vast majority of Americans. 

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Box Score of the Week

Oakland Athletics at Milwaukee Brewers - September 23, 1988.

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Before mega star Shohei Ohtani became the inaugural member of the 50-50 club (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season), someone had to be the first to attain 40-40. That would be Oakland's Jose Canseco, who in this game stole his 40th base of the 1988 season to go along with the 40 home runs he had coming into this game. 

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