like many baseball geeks, i rejoiced last august when i learned that the twins would be getting their own stadium in 2010. no more neon green astroturf or “synthetic grass” field turf. no more leaving a sunny 75-degree day to walk into a decrepit, domed menace for a baseball game. no more having to tilt my head and body 30 degrees for three hours to see home plate. finally: the twins would be playing baseball how it’s supposed to be played.

but then i read about the new location. northwest of the target center. isn’t that right next to the…

yup.

as if we haven’t been subjected to enough stinky performances on the field from the team in the last twenty years, i thought… the tons of burning garbage next door to the stadium might make me miss watching jerald clark, kevin maas, and matt walbeck.

the news today? no stinky. at least, beyond anything occurring on the field of play.

Dear Star Tribune,

I’m writing in regard to a headline found on this morning’s (1/31) startribune.com.

The headline reads: Wild gets offense untracked

“Untracked” is a word that has crept into the sports lexicon over the past few years. Oddly enough, “untracked” when used in the sports world has the exact opposite meaning that you would think. Instead of meaning that something has no direction or path, it actually means that things are “on track” (which is probably what the originator of “untracked” meant to say).

I’m not sure who started using this word in this way, but it’s gotten to the point where its new meaning is recognized in some dictionaries. E.g. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/untracked

Please ask the Sports department to NEVER use this word ever again. I know I shouldn’t look to the sports section as a bastion of quality grammar, but shouldn’t a newspaper help set/maintain the proper usage of words? Especially since our dictionaries seem unwilling to do so.

Sincerely,
wadE (Minnetonka)

Interesting post over at MLB Trade Rumors. Check out the names in the projected Giants lineup this year:

Roberts, Vizquel, Aurilia, Bonds, Durham, Molina, Feliz, Winn.

That’s a pretty impressive lineup… ten years ago! The average (average!) age there is just a shade under thirty-five!

Maybe Barry Zito can fill in as a utility player on days he’s not pitching…

I will admit that I like to surf popular-URL sites (Digg, Reddit, popurls, etc.), not because I feel as though I’m getting hard news, but just because it’s a good place to find quirky, interesting stuff.

Of course, the problem is that I assume some people are using these sites on a factual basis, likey mostly because of the word “news” in the sites’ headers.

In most cases, I don’t have much of a problem with it. However, have a look at two links from today. This is a sensationalistic story about how “scientists” have already “cured” cancer, but we’ll never see it because there’s no money in the cure for the drug companies. This is a thoughtful and well-reasoned debunking of the first article, and others like it. It’s a long read, and it requires both thought and reason of the reader.

Guess which article you’re more likely to hear about at the water cooler? Yes, I’m cynical.

I don’t know that I have a definitive point here, aside from the traditional “don’t believe everything you hear (and only half of what you see)”. I do like that there are alternative sources of information available, since I’m not sure that traditional media isn’t so much informing me as “selling” me on themselves. I just hope we can keep some of this stuff from being called “news”, I guess.

Anyone else have opinions here? Please offer ‘em up in the comments section.

Addendum: Here’s a very concise debunking.

from the “i’m sure mickey mantle and roger maris did this sort of thing all the time” department:

Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer attended the Justin Timberlake concert at Xcel Energy Center. Mauer, impressed that Timberlake plays multiple instruments, gave the performance a thumbs up.

(courtesy LEN-III)