Bob CollinsWho says there’s no heat in Minnesota right now? Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Sports
Star Tribune sports columnist Jim Souhan has had it up to here with what baseball writers have had to endure when submitting their votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Read more →
There are just 19 days before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, but Major League Baseball is already in mid-season form when it comes to trying to stiff players who aren’t stars and are trying to make ends meet while pursuing a dream. Read more →
No more entries, please, we have a winner in the competition to see how many sleds sled dogs can pull. Ten. This is how folks in northern Minnesota survive winter. Read more →
The two conference championship games on Sunday proved anew that the NFL has the worst officiating in all of sports. The lamentations in the aftermath of the New Orleans – Los Angeles Rams game proves anew that the world has too many lawyers. Read more →
Mark Bush would have had an easy win in a wrestling tournament in New York if he’d finished off an injured opponent. But he didn’t want to win that way. So he lost instead. Read more →
Tyler Johnson, the University of Minnesota receiver, is the kind of star athlete that more people should notice — not because of his football skills, but because he knows the value of an education. Read more →
Cody Parkey missed a field goal (officially a blocked kick) on Sunday night that would have sent his team deeper into the NFL playoffs, and people wanted him dead. They literally wanted him to die. Read more →
What year is this? 2019? And we still think it’s funny to put people in this horrible, awkward space? Read more →
Given the grief that parents at youth games give officials on behalf of their little charges, why would anyone want to be a referee or umpire anymore? In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, they don’t. Read more →
Construction is already underway. The Twins open the season on March 28, against the Cleveland Indians, who have become an entirely beatable team in the off-season. Read more →
If you’ve spent any time online in the last day or so, you probably haven’t missed the bovine drama of athletic competition when the mascot of the University of Texas — a longhorn — ran roughshod over photographers who, for reasons not yet explained, were overly enthralled by a dog, in this case the mascot of the University of Georgia at the Sugar Bowl.
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Kyle Williams, a defensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills, played his last NFL game on Sunday and retired with a final lesson that has very little to do with football per se. Read more →
Dan Shrader, of Prior Lake, was likely out picking up the trash this morning. It’s his full-time job. Between a few stops, he helps build one of the best franchises in the National Hockey League. Read more →
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A farm couple builds a sports complex in the belief that people will come. And they do. In Hendricks, MN., however, it’s not baseball and corn. It’s a farm shed and gymnastics that’s gotten people to sit up and take notice. Read more →