Welcome aboard.

I am not familiar with the book you recommended. I shall keep an eye out for it.

The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball, by Derek Zumsteg

Derek is a brilliant writer and is one of the creators of the leading Seattle Mariners blog – http://www.ussmariner.com

From reading his columns, it is clear that Bob Molinaro grew up in Baltimore during the days when the Baltimore Colts were there and when the Orioles were important players in the American League. I read his comment as an opportunity to vent just a bit on that event from the past.

I think you are right to some extent regarding the nostalgia that the Vikings feel for “the good old days” with Bud Grant on the sidelines and the Purple People Eaters playing defense out in the cold. However, I also think that there is another level of perception going on there.

For the last 30 years or so, the Lions and Vikes were “dome teams” in what used to be the “black-and-blue division” while the Packers and Bears were the “outdoor-tough-guys”. I THINK – - I surely do not KNOW – - that more than a few Vikings’ fans would rather think of themselves as “outdoor-tough guys” like the Bears or those rascally Packers than like the “Motor City Kitties”.

Just a thought…

That sounds like a scholarly paper that deals with important issues regarding the potential importance of sports in society. That is not what Scott Ostler’s book is all about.

He looks at “cheating” as something that happens and puts no moral stamp on that fact. Now that he considers it as fact, the book goes about explaining how the “cheaters” ply their trade.

I think part of Minny playing outdoors is nostalgia for the days under Bud Grant when they played outdoors, froze people out, and had a real homefield advantage to help them get to the Super Bowl so Tarkenton could end his season with the usual loss. You know those nostalgics – the ones who had to walk to school twelve miles, uphill both ways, in waist deep snow, after feeding the pigs, planting the crops, and milking the cows… despite the fact they were living in downtown Brooklyn at the tme….