Amateur Athletes

Man, I feel old

Mathias Baden — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:30:00 -0500

Man, I feel old.

I never remember my dreams unless they are really good, really bad, or important enough to tell someone. So that's why I'm telling you about this one.

One day last week, I woke up excited about an exceptional interest rate that I got. That makes me feel old, because interest rates really do lack excitement, even more so for a young person.

Other things that I've realized that make me feel old:

- Four years ago, I messed up my checkbook to the tune of having an extra $1,000. My only purchase: a lawnmower.

Amateur Athletes

Try Jon Krakauer's books

Mathias Baden — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:49:29 -0500

Inspired by the deeply spiritual movie "Into the Wild," which was based on a book by Jon Krakauer, I have a good mind to delve into some other books by the avid outdoorsman.

Today, I picked up an audio copy of "Eiger Dreams." It's a book of short stories about mountain -- and boulder -- climbers and their search for the next, more risky climb. My personal suggestions are "Into Thin Air," "Into the Wild," but so far I've also liked "Eiger Dreams" and I'm definitely interested in reading "Under the Banner of Heaven."

Amateur Athletes

Wrestling champ: Kivel or Selly?

Mathias Baden — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:48:18 -0600

Who's going to win the rematch to decide the Class 2A state wrestling champion at 135 pounds?

Amateur Athletes

Lately, I've been hot at hoops

Mathias Baden — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:34:49 -0600

Lately, I've been a hot shooter on the basketball court.

I have always considered myself a much better defensive player than offensive and a much better coach than a player. But I've been lighting up the scoreboard in my two weekly pickup leagues at churches in Woodbury and Maplewood, and I wasn't so bad at the Maplewood Community Center last Saturday.

Last Sunday, I scored about 25 one-pointers (we score what would normally be two-pointers as one point and three-pointers count as two), almost half of my team's points toward the end of the night.

Amateur Athletes

Boys basketball at home against Rockford

bhall09 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:04:37 -0600

Start: 12/18/2007 - 7:30pm

End: 12/18/2007 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-6

The Jordan boys basketball team has its second home game in a row tonight after opening the season with two straight road games.

The Hubmen will look for win No. 2 tonight when they host Rockford starting at 7:30 p.m.

The JV game is set for 6 p.m.

Amateur Athletes

Fantasy playoffs

Brandon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:22:29 -0600

Fantasy sports-wise, it wasn’t my best weekend of the year, but it certainly wasn’t a bad one. While I continue my free fall from the top of the Pick’em leader board, I advanced to the next round in both my Otte Football League and Wooddale Football League fantasy football playoffs.

Amateur Athletes

Time to regroup

Brandon — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:24:21 -0600

Wow. I was having a couple of good weeks in both fantasy football and in the newspaper football pick’em, but I’ve hit hard times during the stretch run.

Amateur Athletes

A fantasy success

Brandon — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:06:04 -0500

Another good week for me in fantasy land!

Amateur Athletes

A fantasy fantasy

Brandon — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:02:01 -0500

I knew it was too good to be true. My weekend in fantasy football was a bust.

Amateur Athletes

World's longest strikeout

Mathias Baden — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:13:16 -0500

On Tuesday, I set a world record.

Amateur Athletes

I wish I had the Vikings’ record

Brandon — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:30:44 -0500

This is how sad the state of the OFL Ocelots has become: I wish I had the win-loss record of the Minnesota Vikings.

Amateur Athletes

Playing like L-Rod

Mathias Baden — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:00:00 -0500

Lately, I've been playing softball as often as Minnesota Twins backup utility infielder Luis Rodriguez (I like to call him L-Rod) has been playing baseball.

Amateur Athletes

Meet author of book on amateur baseball tonight

sfiecke — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:52:10 -0500

Armand Peterson, one of the authors of "Town Ball: Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball," will speak at 7 p.m

Amateur Athletes

I don’t like making dinner

Brandon — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:38:59 -0500

Heading into week three of the fantasy season, I’m already starting to get worried.

Amateur Athletes

Second week, same as the first

Brandon — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:24:45 -0500

In my second week of the Otte Football League, I’ve got the exact same problem as my first week team – defense.

Amateur Athletes

My football picks: Worth bragging about

Mathias Baden — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:00:00 -0500

My football picks are worth bragging about, despite the fact that nationally I rank in the 2 percentile on Football Zone.

Amateur Athletes

A dreadful first week

Brandon — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:32:35 -0500

Well, week one of the fantasy football season has come and gone, but it couldn’t go fast enough for me. My team got beat in both leagues in which I’m a member.

Amateur Athletes

Pickin' em

Brandon — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:15:55 -0500

The National Football League opens tonight, and I've been looking forward to it for weeks.

Amateur Athletes

Draft report: outlook not good

Brandon — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:58:09 -0500

Well, the third-annual draft of the Otte Football League (OFL) has come and gone, and I’m looking at the wrong end of an awful draft.

Amateur Athletes

Fantasy football pre-draft countdown

Brandon — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:35:11 -0500

Draft day is tomorrow, and I can’t wait to find out who makes my team.

Amateur Athletes

2-for-7 in a little more than 2 games

Mathias Baden — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:00:00 -0500

Amateur Athletes

I’m ready for some football!

Brandon — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:20:04 -0500

The Otte Football League (my family’s yearly fantasy football league) begins with an Aug. 30 draft, and I can’t wait. I’m hard at work ranking my players and coming up with my own draft board.

Amateur Athletes

Forget about losses; be selfish

Mathias Baden — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:38:59 -0500

Rushing from the state tournament in St. Cloud, traffic made me late to the first game in Blaine, but for the second time this year, I trotted into the outfield in the middle of a game.

Amateur Athletes

Crappy weather but a decent night

Mathias Baden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:18:41 -0500

Boy, was it tough to pitch in that wind last night! It was even tougher to hit in it, though.

Amateur Athletes

Less than 10

Brandon — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:41:35 -0500

The Peeps lost again Tuesday night. I was not on the half that played, but I was at the game.

Amateur Athletes

Less hitting results in more losses

Mathias Baden — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:51:25 -0500

In softball, less hitting usually means less winning. No surprise there.

Amateur Athletes

Safely sliding home

Mathias Baden — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:59:08 -0500

I wouldn't say that baserunning is the strongest point in my softball game, but I'm not bad. And I can slide with the best of them.

Amateur Athletes

Still looking for a win

Brandon — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:12:25 -0500

The woeful Wooddale Peeps are, unfortunately, still winless in their softball league. But the team is improving.

Amateur Athletes

News flash: I've started hitting

Mathias Baden — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:01:12 -0500

News flash! I've started hitting.

After a 5-for-7 day on Wednesday, I went 4-for-7 on Thursday. For Hoggsbreath, I pitched 13 innings, got two runs batted in, and scored twice.

Amateur Athletes

A good bat and a Jell-O arm

Mathias Baden — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:59:06 -0500

For nearly four games, I had kept the honor of wearing the pink jersey with a backwards K on it instead of a number. No one had struck out after my game-one K.

Amateur Athletes

It's gonna be a long season

Mathias Baden — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:16:37 -0500

I pitched another bad game for Hoggsbreath. We got wasted in our first game. Don't care to know the score.

Amateur Athletes

Learning to lose

Mathias Baden — Thu, 17 May 2007 09:32:19 -0500

As a slow-pitch softball pitcher, what is one to do when the team gets down 12-0, none of the players behind you are in the right position, and they are making errors every time they have a

Amateur Athletes

Don't want to know how badly we lost

Mathias Baden — Fri, 11 May 2007 10:04:30 -0500

You don't want to know how badly we lost last night. I didn't ask about the scores, because I didn't want to know.

Amateur Athletes

Pink Sox's record drops to 3-1

Mathias Baden — Thu, 10 May 2007 10:05:15 -0500

The Pink Sox's record dropped to 3-1, and I did something I never thought I'd do: I struck out.

Amateur Athletes

2 teams, 2 wins, 2 losses

Mathias Baden — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:49:37 -0500

The two slow-pitch softball teams for which I play have distinctly different characters.

Amateur Athletes

Peeps drop second game

Brandon — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:56:55 -0500

Amateur Athletes

Softball leagues heat up this week

Mathias Baden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:03:21 -0500

Two slow-pitch softball teams with a Jordan connection kick off their seasons this week.

Amateur Athletes

Wooddale Peeps fall to Beyond Al’s Bar

Brandon — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:22:31 -0500

Amateur Athletes