March Madness

It's March, and time once again for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. And it's not March Madness without my two cents.

I don't have a winner picked this year, since my perennial favorite, Purdue, isn't in it. But it's good to see that, once again, we are reminded of just why single-elimination tournaments are so much fun to watch: anything can happen.

Already there have been "upsets;" that is, teams have been losing that weren't predicted to lose. Since those predictions are generally subjective, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing them proved wrong.

Basketball really is a game that can be won by a team that is not loaded with talent, but heart. And by a small school that doesn't have deep pockets for extracurricular sports.

Why Al Franken shouldn't run for senator in Minesota

Maybe I have a wish to be back in Minnesota lately, I don't know; but lately I seem to be spending a lot of time writing about Minnesota people.

Al Franken, Saturday Night Live alum, comedian, author, host of the Al Franken Show on Air America Radio, is considering running for senator from the state of Minnesota. He has been considering the move since his friend, the great Senator Paul Wellstone, was tragically killed in a plane accident days before the general election in which he was running for re-election.

Al Franken is a good Minnesota boy who, as part of Franken and Davis comedy team, moved to LA and eventually to New York, where he lived until recently when he moved back to Minnesota. In the meantime, he gained status as a member of the Jewish Ivy League east coast liberal elite. Even though Minnesota progressive liberal trumps it any day.

I love Al Franken, and all he does. And I think he would be an effective senator. However, I think that running for Senate would be a mistake. Why? Because it would limit his voice and influence. Right now, I truly believe that he has more influence as an intelligent, articulate radio talk show host than he would be in the US Senate.

Of course I wholeheartedly agree that Norm Coleman, who handily defeated Walter Mondale after a ten day campaign to replace the dead Wellstone, need to be replaced, and preferrably by a Democrat.

But Al Franken isn't the one who should do it. (And, if he does run, I think he'll win.) We need Al too much to bury him in the politics on the Hill.

Daunte Culpepper

The Minnesota Vikings traded Daunte Culpepper to the Miami Dolphins today for a 2nd round draft choice.

It is another indication about what a big waste of time Culpepper was for the Vikings. No doubt he will be happier at Miami, and possibly even will excel.

Ironically, he will be replaced, at least for the time being, by the backup quarterback, Brad Johnson. Brad Johnson is the guy who should have been starting quarterback instead of Culpepper in the first place, and saved the Vikings last year by winning seven out of nine games.

The Vikings are a mess, no question. I sure was glad I had the Seahawks to fall back on, especially once that stupid drunken orgy boat thing on Minnetonka happened. But, as I remain a Twins fan, so too I remain a Vikings fan, holding out for that Lombardi Trophy from a Super Bowl win.

We'll see. For now, I'm just glad it's baseball season.

Update on that suspended teacher

Remember the teacher who was put on leave for making political statements? In a class where critical discussion is standard, it should be okay for a teacher to express opinions to inspire discussion. Apparently the investigating school officials agreed, and reinstated him.

We should never be so firm in our opinion that we are afraid to teach our children to consider other viewpoints.

Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett died yesterday, the day after suffering from a stroke. At 45, he is the second youngest person in baseball to die already a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I grew up loving baseball, and I grew up a Twins fan. By the time I was five, I was a die-hard Harmon Killebrew fan, and I could name the starting lineup. Over the years, the highlight of my year was that trip to see the Minnesota Twins with my grandfather at Metropolitan Stadium. The joys of baseball in that ballpark is an essay to itself.

After I left college and started working in Minneapolis, I went to an occasional game, and watched the Twins faithfully on television. When the Twins went into the Metrodome, I even kept attending games as they had horrible seasons and played like a high school pick up game.

But then, the Twins started forming a talented team -- Kent Hrbek. Gary Gaietti. Dan Gladden. And Kirby Puckett.

I don't clearly remember the first time I saw Kirby Puckett. I do, however, remember the first time I saw him hit a home run. A short, squat, powerful-looking player with a goofy batty stance, he hit it into the stands in what seemed to be an afterthought. His swing seemed to say, "I just hit this enough, but wait until I really hit the ball."

His outfield skills matched his hitting. People quickly figured out that no game was ever over as long as Kirby Puckett was playing.

In 1986 and 1987, there were many evenings when my roommate and I would hop the bus and head downtown to a game. We'd buy $3 upper deck seats, get a hot dog and popcorn, and some coffee or soda, and sit in left field. It was cheaper than a movie, even with the concessions. By late summer of 1987, we were buying our tickets in advance. Baseball fever had hit the Twin Cities, because the Twins were on their way to the World Series.

In late September of 1987, the Twins beat Detroit, in Detroit, to clinch the ALCS title. That evening, the Twins organization announced that there would be a free welcome home pep fest that evening in the Metrodome. Doors would open a couple of hours earlier. Armed with our Homer Hankies, we went down and joined a packed house to welcome back the Twins. We learned later that the Twins had only expected, and planned for, two to three thousand people. But denied the chance to be at the historic pennant clincher, we wanted to celebrate.

The Twins' plane was late returning from Detroit, but no one left, and people kept coming. The excitement was palpable, and did not dissapate, even as the hour grew later and later. I think it is the only time I've seen people enthusiastically do the wave multiple times in a row without faltering. Between the organ and the announcer, we were content to wait.

Two hours after the team was supposed to arrive, they finally reached the Metrodome. When they entered the field, it was to a thunderous roar that did not stop. The players, one by one, were introduced to a surge of the continuous roar. But when Kirby Puckett was introduced, it was clear who was the most beloved Twin.

When he was playing, people would ask, "Besides Kirby Puckett, who is your favorite Twin?" Because he was everyone's favorite.

No one played baseball liked Kirby. As a ballplayer, he was the best, and he seemed to make everyone around him better. He was the catalyst in a remarkable team.

I miss Kirby. I just hope that when he arrived, Bob Casey was on hand to announce, "Kirrrbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Puckett!"

A teacher in Colorado has been put on leave after a student in his American history class, tired of his "left-wing rants" recorded 20 minutes of discussion in class about President Bush's State of the Union address and brought it home to his father. An investigation is being made into what was said, and whether or not it violated school policy against teachers expressing their own beliefs.

That this happened in a history or social studies class caught my attention. Certainly teachers should refrain from expressing political opinions in class. In a math class or an English class, it would be inappropriate, deliberately manipulative, and superfluous. And when a history teacher argues with a student, disparaging the student's beliefs, it's inappropriate.

But, perhaps what is happening here is something different. Could the teacher have been attempting to present an objective critical commentary on the State of the Union address? Have we reached a point where we are intolerant of hearing any other opinion than our own? What happened in the forty minutes of classtime not recorded? Did the teacher open the floor to discussion?

My senior year in high school, I took a required course in Government, what some schools call Civics. I lived in town with a mix of conservatives and liberals in a primarily conservative state. Our teacher, Mr. Garland, was a hard-line conservative. He stood up at the beginning of the semester and announced that, in this one class, he would express his opinions to provide balance to our discussions. His rationale? Six of us were the children of active Democrats. His assumption was that we would dominate the class with our opinions, and intimidate anyone else who wanted to speak.

In fact, he was wrong. We were all intelligent kids, who had been raised to believe in fair political discussion. Sure, we had our opinions, but we voiced them respectfully, and listened to other students' points of view. We also listened to Mr. Garland's opinions, and argued with him. He challenged what we believed, and forced us to defend our beliefs beyond mere rhetoric.

If we lose the ability to think critically about our government, we are in danger of losing the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. That teacher, in an appropriate setting, should be allowed to apply critical analysis and alternate viewpoints to any partisan speech that takes place in the political arena, and teach his students to do the same thing.

I just wonder, though: If he had ranted against the Democrats, and in support of the president, and a student had complained, would he have still been put on leave?

Actress Jessica Alba is suing Playboy magazine after they placed a photo of her on the cover without her permission. Her lawsuit states that her photo on the cover of Playboy implies that she poses nude inside the issue, something she would never do. Playboy defends their use of her photo on the cover as a part of a "sexiest star of the year" feature, and does not claim to have nude photos of the actress inside.

Playboy spokeswoman Lauren Malone said, “Many celebrities have appeared on the cover of Playboy, but not nude, including Claudia Schiffer, Paris Hilton, Goldie Hawn, Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields and Donald Trump (my italics)..." Thank God for that!

Would you like to see this man nude?