Twins: Back In WCCO Radio's Arms

After a decade in the radio wilderness, the Minnesota Twins are returning to WCCO-AM (830) as its flagship station for the 2018 season and beyond.  Those folks who have warm and fuzzy memories of hearing Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall and John Gordon call the games during the team's original 1961-2006 run on the station are saying it's about time.

Entercom, having just purchased the former CBS Radio empire that includes WCCO, wanted to make a big splash locally on the first day they took ownership.  With the merger, the media company now holds radio rights to 45 pro sports teams, 14 of them belonging to Major League Baseball.

The Twins' period in exile began when WCCO was outbid for the rights by KSTP-AM (1500) in 2007, which had just switched to a sports talk format.  Both stations had 50,000-watt signals, but KSTP only had a directional antenna that limited its coverage area.  Thus the complaints from fans who couldn't pick up the games, even in the daytime.

The Pohlad family, which owns the Twins, then moved the team's broadcasts to the FM station they owned at 96.3, now known as KQGO.  There were signal problems here too, not to mention confusion over where to find the station.  Also, 96.3 seemed to change musical formats that were incompatible with a baseball audience every so often.  Currently, it's alternative rock.  They must have been thinking that, if you like baseball, you'll love Imagine Dragons.

Instead of Carneal, Hall and Gordon, you'll be getting Cory Provus and Dan Gladden when the Twins return to WCCO.  For those occasions when the station's other properties (Timberwolves basketball and severe weather coverage) take precedence, Entercom's other Minnesota stations--country KMNB (102.9 FM) and KZJK a.k.a. Jack FM (104.1)--would pick up the slack.  No word yet on what happens when there's a conflict with University of St. Thomas football games.

Both the Twins and WCCO had seen better days.  Is it any coincidence that during the separation, the baseball team's fortunes took a nosedive and the radio station's audience was either dwindling, dying off, or both?  But last season the Twins improbably made the playoffs as a wild card and Paul Molitor was named American League Manager of the Year, while WCCO got new owners.  Could this be a sign that both are about to become relevant again?

Vikings 2017: Waiting for Teddy

Minnesota Vikings logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Vikings, carrying a 6-2 record as leaders of the NFL's NFC North division, are currently on the horns of another quarterback dilemma.

It started out like this:  Teddy Bridgewater was supposed to be this Quarterback of the Future who would end the Vikings' revolving door at that position, until a freak off-the-field injury sidelined him for the 2016 season.  Then Sam Bradford came in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for draft picks, and he did pretty well.  But after one game this season, Bradford tore up his knee.  Enter backup Case Keenum, who has done surprisingly well this season.  But nobody believes he's the Vikings' long term solution.

Now Bridgewater has been deemed healthy enough to play again, a season and a half after his devastating injury.  He has been assigned backup duties to Keenum, while Bradford has been put on injured reserve.  Which begs the question:  After being out of action for so long, is it reasonable to expect Bridgewater to be anywhere near the player he was before his injury?  Or will the Vikings have to go out and draft another quarterback?  The only way to know, of course, is when he gets out on the field.

Otherwise, the defense is one of the best in the NFL if you don't count the points they've given up.  Nobody is talking about the offensive line, which must be a good thing given the overhaul they've had.  And no one seems to miss Adrian Peterson, now that he's moved on to the Arizona Cardinals after his ugly departure from New Orleans.

The Vikings are division leaders for two reasons:  (A)  They played a mostly powder puff schedule against mediocre teams like the Chicago Bears, Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns.  They have lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions, which could pose a problem down the stretch, and (B) the absence of Aaron Rodgers, whose broken collarbone injury has reduced the Green Bay Packers from Super Bowl contenders to also-rans.

No matter who the quarterback is, it's going to be tough to say whether the Vikings are playoff material or what.  Maybe they'll win the division, but only if the Lions or Packers don't throw challenges.  Maybe they'll be in the wild card, but only if they win at least half of their remaining games.  They have a lot more questions this season while waiting to see if Teddy Bridgewater can still play.

Houston, You Have a Champion

Astros logo, 1965–1974 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Out of the receding flood waters of a hurricane-damaged city in Texas, a baseball team that only a few years ago were so bad that they had to change leagues has risen to become world champions.

They are the Houston Astros, born in 1962 as the Colt 45s, who won Game 7 of the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 Wednesday night at Chavez Ravine.  The Astros scored all their runs in the first two innings.  Both starters Lance McCullers Jr. of the Astros and Yu Darvish of the Dodgers were knocked out by the third inning.  Unlike the high-scoring of earlier games in the series, in which it seemed like whoever scored last would win, this one ended quietly with Houston taking home the trophy and Carlos Correa taking home the woman he had proposed to on live TV.

About the Slugfest for the Ages, which had contributed to the most home runs in World Series history (25) and the Astros' George Springer (who hit five of them, another record) winning the MVP award, a few things stand out:

• Games 2 and 5 were high scoring affairs that ended in extra innings.
• The pitching staffs of both teams were fried, not only because they couldn't get anyone out but also because of how many times they were used during the playoffs.
• Comebacks from several runs down by both teams became common.  This has led to speculation that maybe the balls were juiced, like we never left the Steroid Era.
• The pace of the games were so pokey because of replay challenges and pitching changes (allowing enough time for Fox to slip in as many six-second commercials as possible) that most viewers went to bed before the finish.

In the last few years, teams who had been forever in last place had accumulated enough talent through shrewd deals and the draft to win a World Series or two.  It's happened to the San Francisco Giants, Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs.  This year it was the Astros, which had come all the way from the outhouse of a 111-loss season to the penthouse.  Of course, prying away pitcher Justin Verlander from the Detroit Tigers in midseason helped too.

This World Series championship was for the city of Houston, which is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.  They should celebrate, then go back to work no matter how much money T-Mobile is allegedly giving them in hurricane relief.  While we're at it, maybe San Juan and Key West deserve a break too, no matter if they have a baseball team or not.