Tag Archives: Minnesota Timberwolves

Confession of a Fair Weather Fan

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Yep, I’m “that guy.” I’m that much-maligned bandwagon sports fan who tunes in when his favorite team is winning and unapologetically tunes out when it is losing. 

In other words, now that my hometown professional basketball team has made the playoffs for the first time in a long time, swept a team that owned them during the regular season, and won the first two games of the second round series on the road against the world champions, I’m here to add my full-throated “WOLVES IN FOUR! and “REFS YOU SUCK” chants.

I admit, I wasn’t there to cheer on the likes of Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen, Michael “Candy Man,” Olowokandi , and Earvin “No Magic” Johnson. I just couldn’t. But I am here for this talented, disciplined, deep, and successful team.

“Real fans,” the ones who in good times and bad dig deep to buy season tickets, TV packages, and closets full of gear, ridicule guys like me. But I maintain that my selective approach is the only sane approach to sports. Life is too short to put too much faith into billionaire Wolves owner Glen Taylor finally figuring it out.

Photo credit: CBS News Minnesota

If you see sports as strictly entertainment, as I do, it only makes sense to show up when it is entertaining for you.

If you see it as the path to self-actualization, I guess I could understand the passionate commitment to blind loyalty that I hear on sports talk radio. But that just doesn’t strike me as particularly sane or healthy.

Therefore, I have only recently shelled out something well into the two figures for the Bally Sports add-on to my DirectTV streaming service and my single Wolves t-shirt.

Who knows, if things are going well tonight in the pivotal Game 3 — and by “well” I mean a non-stress-inducing Wolves blow-out — I might even tune in until halftime! Even if that happens, at half-time my wife will serve me my warm milk and tuck me into bed in my nightshirt at the appointed bedtime. As I have so many times before, I will set a recording and watch the second half tomorrow, if, and only if, my morning headlines scan indicates that I will find the second half to my liking.

And if my favorite team brings me joy again on Sunday? Well, then I might even move to the next phase of bandwagon fandom, and purchase that face paint I’ve been eyeing. You know, the water-soluble, easily removed kind? LET’S GO WOLVES!

What if Romney Picked Bachmann To Be His Running Mate? He Did.

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Congressman Paul Ryan comes across well.  He’s attractive, smiles a lot, wears the presidential uniform well, and has a ready string of impressive-sounding statistics on the tip of his tongue.

But beyond the candidate packaging, what does this guy stand for?

When trying to understand something new entering our lives, the natural tendency is to seek out a local point-of-reference.  For instance, when Minnesota Timberwolves fans recently asked “who the heck is Alexy Shved,” a player the Wolves’ brain trust acquired this summer, Wolves PR people explained “He’s the Russian Rubio,” referencing their talented point guard Ricky Rubio.

Whether or not the “Russian Rubio” description turns out to be an apt description of Shved’s ability and style of play, it connected with Minnesotans, because it took something unknown and linked it to something known.

So with the Russian Rubio example in mind, what’s the Minnesota parallel to Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan?

Since he’s a popular, moderate-feeling Republican, is he “the Wisconsin Jim Ramstad?”   Since the Beltway media often labels him a “serious” numbers guy, is he “the Wisconsin Arne Carlson?”

Try “the Wisconsin Michele Bachmann.” An analysis of congressional voting patterns by DW-Nominate found that Paul Ryan’s voting record is nearly identical to  Michele Bachmann’s, the local politician who most consistently embarrasses Minnesotans with her ideologically extreme positions.

(Incidentally, another analysis found that Ryan was the most extreme conservative vice presidential nominee — the furthest from the center — since at least 1900.)

Ryan’s tone may be less grating than Bachmann’s, but once you remove the packaging, his policies are almost identical to Michele Bachmann’s.  Paul Ryan is Michele Bachmann, just with more lip control and less lipstick.

Knowing that, ask yourself this question: “If Mitt Romney had chosen Michele Bachman for his running mate, would that make Minnesotans more or less likely to support Romney?”  Because, substantively, that is the question Romney has now effectively posed to Minnesotans, and Americans.

Though Michele Bachman continually gets reelected in one of the most conservative parts of Minnesota, she is remarkably unpopular with Minnesotans as a whole.  A January 2012 PPP survey found that only 34% of Minnesotans view her favorably, while 57% view her unfavorably.  She would get crushed by a whopping 23 points in a head-to-head race versus U.S. Senator Amy Kloubachar.

In other words, Governor Mitt Romney just picked the ideological twin of one of Minnesota’s least popular figures to join his ticket.  Good luck selling that in Minnesota.

– Loveland