These are the mad political rantings of one Matthew McNeil, Liberal/Democratic radio host in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. The postings are mine, the thoughts are mine. Mostly about politics, but I will occasionally get into raising kids, cooking, gardening, the arts and my favorite sports. Bon Appetite!
A few seasonal things to get to. With baseball's playoffs heating up, and with the Twins nowhere near them, it's time to revisit the World Series Championship. NOT the 1991 series, one of the best series ever played, but rather the forgotten championship, 1987. That was such a ragtag team, which really underwhelmed all season long, but when it came to the playoffs, they all clicked perfectly.
This video from 3-0 Greenlight claims the 87 Twins as the Worst Team to ever win the series. I highly disagree with that, but they were insanely unlikely champions. He also brings up the litany of allegations about the team cheating at the Metrodome. They weren't cheating. If anything, they were playing on artificial grass on top of concrete, which was so different than most of the other fields. A grounder up the middle moved a lot faster there. That might have been an unfair advantage, but since the MLB allowed the field, that was more of a league problem.
Staying with sports, with the Vikings on their bye week, let's go back to 1998 and the Randy Moss coming out Party that was the Week 5 Monday Night game between the unbeaten Packers and the unbeaten Vikings.
Played in Green Bay, where the Packers hadn't lost a game since 1995, what happened was absolute domination. Randy Moss was so damn good, and when Cris Carter is your second option, there is nothing the other teams could do.
98/99 was the Vikings' year, but Denny Green's mismanagement of the NFC Championship game and one missed field goal cost the Vikings their one guaranteed Championship. They were undoubtedly the best team in football that year.
Finally, tonight, maybe because I was searching for more on the Chicago mobsters I learned about on the Chicago Crime Tour I took, I had this video pop up in my timeline. It runs down how exactly all of the major crime bosses in New York and Chicago..."retired."
There was not a lot of long-term career advancement in the mob. (Apparently you will have to click through and watch this one on YouTube as well).
This week, we begin with an Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies. I really liked the Fantastic Four movie, but like every movie, Screen Junkies must rip it to shreds. To be fair, this is the best version of the Fantastic Four, period, but the bar was pretty low.
We also have not checked in with Joe Scott lately. His channel is always a top-notch source of great and interesting videos.
A long one today, so enjoy in moderation over time. Here is a collection of strange tales from history for you to enjoy! The ones on the Victorian Era are so weird.
Finally, tonight, ICE tried to arrest a bicyclist in Chicago, and they ended up looking like fools. Every time I watch this, I see something else that makes me chuckle (Cowboy hat guy???). I initially said it looked like a modern version of the Keystone Cops, but then I decided an even better outcome would be if someone put the Yakety Sax song from Benny Hill underneath the action. It's damn near perfect. Enjoy the chase on a loop. These guys are their own worst enemy.
Have a great weekend, everyone. Make sure to get your flu shot and your COVID shots!
