The Rake Magazine

Category: Blog Post

  • Original Flavors

    berr.JPG
    lingonberries are a part of our flavor….

    OK, it’s here people. This is the real Retaurant Week, the one you’ve been waiting for. Now get out and EAT to feed the libraries.

    Not only do you get to eat in the aid of young, fresh minds, but you have a chance to sample what our city is capable of, culinarily. You wonder if we can stack up to the chains that seem to invade every corner, every tall building? Do we have what it takes to garner attention from the glossy food mags and televised food icons? Yes, yes we do. This is the week where the independant restaurants, the Twin Cities Originals will prove to you that we are worthy of praise, we are fresh in flavor, and possess an original spark that is tasty, indeed.

    Today I am breakfasting with my 4-year-old at Edina Grill where the RW special is Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam and creme fraiche. Good Morning!

    I’m skipping lunch today, because I plan to hole up at the Dakota for Happy Hour from 4-6pm and dive into the all-you-can-eat Shrimp Creole special while washing it down with $2 Amstel Lights. This might be one of the RW deals that I repeat.

    Don’t forget to mention that you want the Restaurant Week special menu. Now go forth and EAT!

  • Free Doug Tice!

    I suspect I’m not alone in believing there are at least two elephant-in-the-room-sized topics the Star Tribune’s in-house, salaried, reader representative/ombudsman, Kate Parry, could have moved on Sunday rather than a fusty dissection of ethical overreaching in the Eric Black-Doug Tice blog, “The Big Question”. But that’s just me, I guess.

    I mean, Parry’s own publisher is sued by his former employer for what is described — in public, legal documents known now to the entire American journalistic community — as a comically clumsy attempt to subvert his old shop, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, retain proprietary material that did not belong to him, and on and on.

    Or, if that doesn’t quite rise to newsworthiness, or seem sufficiently worrisome in terms of breaches of ethics, maybe a thought or two on why Parry’s paper has played so far back on its heels in the matter of Rachel Paulose and the on-going, still-expanding, US Attorneys story? There is a drama with a significant appearance of faulty editorial judgment on the part of the Star Tribune. Especially when you consider the quality of reporting done by former D.C. staffers that has been excluded from publication in the new Avista-owned, Par Ridder-operated Star Tribune.

    But, let the elephants graze on the carpeting, and lets concern ourselves with whether Doug Tice overstepped in recommending that his blog readers dial up Michael Brodkorb’s website if they want to read Al Franken’s comic profanities in all their original glory.

    My, my, my … I am truly feeling the vapors.

    Let me just say here that I’ve worked for Doug Tice and with both him and Parry. Well, sort of anyway. They were and are both diligent office workers, something never said of me. Which is a way of saying that we probably never exchanged more than a nod in the 15 years I was at the Pioneer Press.

    Parry’s “issue” is that Tice failed, however momentarily, to walk the finest of silk-thin lines between his day job as the Star Tribune’s political editor — where he would have some involvement in coverage of, say, Rachel Paulose — and his other day job as the conservative end of the Black-Tice blogger duo.

    I’m tempted to dismiss the whole thing with a glib, “Give me a break!” but that would dodge an opportunity to argue that it isn’t the temerity of Tice’s blog work that is the problem, it’s the timidity. Tice is one of the most thoughtful conservative writers in town, at a time when the whole liberal-conservative, blue-red debate needs more thought and far less sophomoric, radio-style demagoguerey. For God’s sake, get off the guy’s back and let him write!

    Parry’s first order of business, if she wanted to avoid the perils of Par and Paulose, should have been to explain why in hell Doug Tice, a well-known and well-regarded conservative, is parked in the hibernaculum of “political editor” when he so clearly has reasoning and writing skills well beyond any other conservative among the paper’s current staff?

    Parry dispenses smothering maternal concern over Tice going a bit too far in his blog — by recommending a website for language he’d rather not print … IN A GODDAM BLOG! — because of the appearance problem it creates for his political editorship. As though the constant accusations of political hedging and orientation thrown up against the Star Tribune will disappear if Tice — that loose cannon — will just rein himself in and pretend he isn’t really a conservative on the internet.

    This kind of clubhouse logic is so ingrown and anachronistic it really isn’t worth trying to deconstruct.

    My points are these:

    A: The Star Tribune has at least two far more relevant and serious ethical questions readers would like represented than the arcane matter of an entirely reasonable and (some say exceedingly) sober conservative nodding to another conservative on the company website.

    B: The political editorship should be turned over to a veteran staff journalist with no track record of ideological preference.

    And finally,

    C: Doug Tice should be freed up to regularly contribute intelligently-formed, debate-worthy conservative (or whatever) viewpoints on the whole gamut of issues afflicting this community and country.

  • 'She' = 'He.' And 'Her' = 'Him' And 'His.' Just Because It's Easier That Way

    snow globe 15.jpg

    He took her somewhere. She went willingly. They went together.

    It wasn’t exactly as if she were lost, although that description would work for the sake of melodrama or metaphor. She didn’t, though, have any melodrama left in her, and she no longer had any use at all for metaphor. Things exactly as they were were scary enough without trying to read something else into them. She was simply in a place she was never going to come back from.

    There were bare trees and a frozen creek and gray skies there, and it snowed every time the world was turned upside down.

    Sometimes at night when she craned her neck she could see small spasms of light skidding across the rounded ceiling of the glass globe in which she would spend the rest of her days.

    When she shouted, which she did less and less often, her words bounced right back at her. Occasionally they knocked her clean off her feet and she would spend days flat on her back.

    It would get murky, then dark, and the snow would finally settle over and around her. She knew that eventually she would no longer even bother to get up.

  • A Full Evening… with options

    I hope you dressed for work today ready to head straight out. You’ve got a full evening ahead, so you best pick up the phone, shoot out an email, or turn around and yell, and see who’s going with you. Work hard today. Don’t dawdle around on the computer all day long. Limit your MNSpeak lurking — just for the day — and give the phone and email a rest. It’s Monday, and you want to start the week out right and get out early. (I’ll give you some videos to waste time with tomorrow.)

    olive_logo.jpgOnce you’re out, meet up with your partner(s), and head straight to Old Arizona for an organic wine tasting. Yes, that’s right. Start the week out healthy. With the weather warming up, you might want to even go for a run. Do it now, because you’re going to eat right tonight. The organic wine tasting — Taste of the Earth — is in honor of Earth Day, but don’t worry, it’s OK to support the earth; you don’t have to hold hands and sing Kumbaya. Do-gooders can feel good about drinking for the land, and if you’re too cynical to buy into that you can just enjoy the wine and still satisfy that little inkling that needs to be there just in case. Get there exactly at 5:30, when the going is fresh and there are no crowds. Sample the wine, and get out for the next course once your tongue has been aroused. You might want to call ahead, or go here to see if there are tickets left. If not, don’t worry, you can skip straight to the next event. Your time is precious this evening. (And if $23 a person is too rich a way to start out the evening, just continue.)

    5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Taste for the Earth, Old Arizona, 2821 Nicollet Ave S., Minneapolis, 612-871-0050; $23.

    promo_rakeguy_menu.gifFrom there, go out to enjoy a titillating meal on the first night of Twin Cities Restaurant Week. See, one more opportunity to turn decadence into philanthropy. You’re going to eat well this week, and you’re going to feel great about doing it. You’re supporting the Minneapolis and St. Paul libraries. No guilt. This is all for good. Empty the wallets and fill up those tummies. Read up on your latest Wine Spectator. Read Oliver’s latest column. Definitely read Oliver’s latest column, or seek back into the archives for some doozies.

    If you’d rather break up the night into smaller bites, so that you can better savor them, don’t head for the full meal right away. Just get a bite before you move onto the next event. Complement the wine with something a bit more solid and just as pleasant for the tongue. What the heck; it’s warm out, it’s early, it’s Monday, and there won’t be a lot of cars on the road. Head over to Solera for some tapas. Or you can go later for the late night happy hour.

    Solera, 900 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, 612-338-0062.

    If you’re neurotic and need to stay on track, like me, then go to The Herkimer. It’s on the way, and frankly, it’ll get you in the mood for the next event. But you better be careful; you don’t have a lot of time. They have a sampling menu for $10. Get one, and split it. If you’re with a group, get a couple and get out. Sample the Sky Pilot Keeler Bier, and make up your mind. Are you staying, or are you heading out for more?

    The Herkimer, 2922 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis, 612-821-0101; $10.

    the_american_dream.jpgStimulate the mind before you sit down for more indulgence. Let the wine and beer course through you — and the sampler settle — while you explore the American dream with a reading by Mike Palecek. I’d send you to silently stare at some art for a while why you daydream, but most galleries are closed on Mondays. Palecek will do the trick. He’s the perfect third course the evening — a writer and activist for peace and social justice, so you’ll be able to relate to him tonight as you drink for the earth and eat for free thought and access to knowledge. OK, you probably won’t end up in a federal penitentiary for civil disobedience, like he did. But who knows? You could still run for Congress. Go meet Palecek. Stand in his presence. We need some more of that around here. Get yourself a copy of The American Dream if you haven’t read his latest satirical novel. And what the heck, pick up a new copy of On the Road. It’s time to read it again.

    7:30 p.m., Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave S., Minneapolis, 612-822-4611.

    feed-the-libraries.gifBy now, that wine and beer should have worked itself well into your system, and you’re probably feeling hungry again. If all that talk about America got you craving a ride, then open up the windows and drive to one of the great, locally-owned Twin Cities Originals restaurants sponsoring Restaurant Week. Make sure you tell them you’re there for Restaurant Week. They have a special menu for you and everything, so just let them spoil you. Remember, the little children must read. Sorry. I’m really not mocking this, people. It’s the libraries, for crying out loud. Get out there and eat! Tell your waiter you’re there for Restaurant Week, pick up an “ENTER TO WIN” card, fill it out, and leave it there. You’ll help feed the libraries and be entered to win one of many prizes, including a trip for two. Contributions to the libraries depend on the number of “ENTER TO WIN” cards the restaurants receive, so be sure pick one up at any participating restaurant, online, in our April print issue, or in any Twin Cities library.

    Wiazrd.jpgIf you passed up the reading and went straight to dinner, then you have time for more fun. Your belly should be full, so go sit in the dark a while, relax, digest, and watch the 4th Annual Five Fifths of the Wizard of Oz at The Southern Theater. I have to be honest with you, I can’t find a darn thing about it on their site, so I would suggest calling and verifying this before heading out there. Five different companies are supposed to perform five different segments of The Wizard of Oz. It should be great fun to see the various interpretations come together.

    8 p.m., Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave S., Minneapolis, 612- 340-1725.

  • The New Dehli Star Tribune?

    The following circulated through the Star Tribune newsroom last Friday on its way to Gov. Pawlenty:

    Dear Guild members,

    You might be interested in this description of how Star Tribune management is treating our brothers and sisters in the Advertising Operations Department.

    There will be more information on this soon.

    Respectfully,
    Unit officers

    Dear Governor Pawlenty:
    My name is Mike Blazek, I am the Business Representative for the Graphic
    Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
    Local 1-M. We represent a newly organized group of Art Directors, Production
    Artists, and Designers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune Newspaper. For the
    past two years we have been working at negotiating an inaugural contract for
    these 32 men and women.

    One hour before our negotiations this past Tuesday, April 10th, we were
    blindsided by Helen Wainwright’s (VP of Human Resources and Labor
    Management) annoncement that the Star is pursuing bids from three companies
    to “outsource” this groups’ work to India, and that we would be doing
    effects bargaining for the expected 25 jobs to be lost, starting in June of
    this year.
    This comes after several months of highly contested debate over jurisdiction
    of this group’s work; affects ONLY the newly organized group, and takes
    place in the immediate wake of New Ownership (from outside the state of
    Minnesota) who has been in question as to what their plans are for the
    Minneapolis newspaper.

    This is not a “done deal” yet, but when your three options from the
    publisher on the table are: Accept the company proposal as given, Give $500
    000 in concessions to keep the jobs, or Bargain to legal impasse and have
    the Publisher implement their proposal anyway, it becomes very obvious just
    what this is and where this is going.
    These people’s jobs are the more high end positions that our president has
    insisited will be staying in this country. Now, here we are faced with the
    threat of losing 25 more jobs from our state of Minnesota to the country of
    India, and why? That is the real question here!

    I am asking you on behalf of all the potentially affected employees of the
    Minneapolis Star Tribune to investigate this matter and to do your utmost as
    Governor to put a stop to this.
    Governor Pawlenty, this is the Minneapolis Star Tribune……do you want it
    to be the New Dehli Star Tribune?!
    I am sending a copy of this letter to both Senators Coleman and Klobuchar in
    the hopes that they may also be able to intervene and stop this dispicable
    act.

    Thank You for your attention to this most serious of matters,

    Mike Blazek
    Business Representative
    Local 1-M
    651-645-0833 ext 14

  • Ouch, That Smarts…

    Take another kick at my heart.

    Or as Tom Kelly would say: Oh my.

    It must have something to do with cosmic vibrations or something. Joe Nathan can take comfort in the fact that Mariano Rivera blew his own first save today, on a two-out, three-run walk-off homer to Oakland’s Marco Scutaro, who in this lifetime is a light-hitting utility player. In a past life, however, he was a notoriously unscrupulous bookkeeper who died in jail for embezzling money from the Medici.

    Also, did you see Kyle Lohse’s line against the Cubs today? Eight innings, four hits, twelve strikeouts and a walk. A very good Johan Santana start, in other words. The other ex-Twins in the same game –Juan Castro and Jacque Jones– didn’t fare quite as well; they were a combined 0-7. There was a classic Jacque flashback in the sixth, when, with runners on first and third and nobody out, he struck out flailing on an outside breaking ball.

    Good to know Kyle was paying attention when he was wearing a Minnesota uniform.

  • Hey, Tampa Bay Devil Rays: You've Been Ponsoned!

    Damn straight!

    There’s not much finer than seeing the Twins’ offense living as large as its starting pitcher, and when that starting pitcher is Big Sid, brothers and sisters, that is very large indeed. Large and in charge, and very, very greasy. The guy allowed eleven base runners in five-and-a-third innings yet surrendered only two runs. That’s pitching! That is sheer craftiness! The appreciative home crowd rewarded Siddhartha with a well-deserved standing ovation when he left the mound.

    Almost as entertaining as the performance of the Twins tonight was watching the beer league baserunning and defense of the Devil Rays. That would be a mighty tough team to root for, would it not? But, you know, also sort of fun in a sadomasochistic sort of way.

    Seriously, though, has there ever been a reason to cheer for Tampa Bay (all right, maybe Aubrey Huff, maybe Rocco Baldelli –nah)? The franchise has been around, what? Ten years? The career victories leader is Victor Zambrano with 35. The team has never had a guy win 20 games. They’ve never even had a guy win 15 games (Rolano Arrojo won 14 in 1998). The Rays managed to win 70 games one year; they finished in fifth place in the East in eight of their first nine seasons –that 70-win season under Lou Pinella bumped them up to fourth in 2004. They play in a warehouse that makes the Dome look like Ebbets Field, and some of the larger Old Country Buffets in Tampa draw better crowds.

    Still –what the hell?– this train wreck of a baseball team managed to beat Johan Santana one night and lose to Sidney Ponson the next.

    Baseball’s a beautiful game.

  • The Three-Pointer: Casey-Wittman Comparison

    Game #79, Home Game #40– San Antonio 110, Minnesota 91

    1. Wittman is Without Defense

    We are now 79 games into the season–40 of them coached by Dwane Casey, 39 by Randy Wittman. I suppose we could wait until after Sunday in Golden State to make an exact, 40-40 comparison of the two coaches, but with KG out and the team in full tank mode, these next few games aren’t really going to tell us anything about anybody. Everyone just wants it to be over.

    Thanks to Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson, I have the breakdown on team performance under the two coaches, and what is interesting in many cases is the similarity of the numbers. Kevin Garnett, for example, averaged 22.1 points, 12.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 39:12 per game under Casey, and 22.8, 12.9, and 4.0 in 39:38 under Wittman. Per 48 minutes, KG numbers under the two coaches were exactly the same in steals and turnovers, .4 apart in assists, .1 away in rebounds, and .6 apart in points. That’s reliability. About the only thing that is revealing there is how quickly Wittman reneged on his pledge not to play guys extended minutes–he rode Garnett and Davis slightly more than did Casey.

    But there is one stat that jumps off the page: Team Defense. Under Casey, the Wolves permitted just 96.7 points per game; under Wittman, that swells to an unsightly 101.4, a huge 4.6 point differential that swallowed the measly .4 bump in offense under Wittman (from 95.6 to 96 ppg). One reason for that is the Wolves played a more wide-open game under Wittman, attempting 95 more treys–more than two per game–than they did under Casey. Meanwhile, Wolves opponents shot 198 more three-pointers in 39 games coached by Wittman than they did in the 40 coached by Casey, and made a higher percentage (.353 to .346).

    Well, maybe that was because the Wolves were packing the paint down low to discourage penetration and to box out for rebounds? Nope. Opponents shot a better two-point FG% versus Wittman’s Wolves (.495) than Casey’s (.483) and reversed the advantage the Wolves had on the boards under Casey. Rebounds per game declined just a titch under Wittman (from 48.8 to 48) but the opponents’ rebounding total went way up (from 46.8 under Casey to 50.5 under Wittman). Minnesota also registered 50 more blocks under Casey (more than one per game) than they did under Wittman.

    Not all the “fundamentals” have been worse under Wittman–turnovers are down with Wittman on the sidelines–but I think it is fair to say that when your squad sacrifices that many more points while getting beaten more regularly both on the perimeter and in the paint, without getting a commensurate bump on the offensive end due to a higher tempo or something, than the team simply isn’t playing as well. That could mean less intelligently and/or less energetically–I would argue both. Remember, this is almost exactly the same personnel, except that Casey didn’t have the benefit of the then-injured Rashad McCants.

    Sure, there are some mitigating factors: Mark Blount decided to mail in the rest of the season after the All Star break, and for the past month or so, the team certainly appears to be trying not to have its most synergistic combos on the floor in order to keep its draft pick. But Wittman controls Blount’s minutes, and hasn’t really cut them very much compared to Casey. As for the “tanking with vets,” well, Casey never really was embraced by this franchise–be it Taylor or McHale or KG–the way Wittman was, and is. And those are the folks who created the sorry mess that has provoked this tanking. McHale initially wanted to hire PJ from SA; Casey originally wanted to hang on to Roy, not Foye. Neither one got their way. One would hope, if nothing else, that McHale and Wittman are at least on the same page. Because the next housecleaning–sooner rather than later would be nice–should be very very thorough.

    2. More Fun With Numbers
    Another way to look at the Casey-Wittman figures is as a progression throughout the season. In other words, regardless of who was in charge, did the rooks develop during the course of the season? Did the vets tank? Did anybody flourish or wither?

    The good news is that Randy Foye slowly but surely became a classically more effective point guard in the second half, and under Wittman. Under Casey, Foye’s totals per-48 minutes were 5.3 assists and 4.3 turnovers. Under Wittman they were 6.4 assists and 3.3 turnovers, a much better ratio (his point total declined negligibly under Wittman, from 21.4 to 20.4). Smith’s points went up a bit, from 18.5 to 19.4 under Wittman, but his rebounds per 48 declined from 13.5 to 12.2. In the other categories (assists, steals, turnovers per 48) he was marginally more effective under Casey than under Wittman, but that just may be because he tired a bit, or was better scouted or adjusted to, in the 3+ more minutes per game he got under Wittman.

    One player who took a big hit in minutes was Hassell, who went from an average 32:03 under Casey to 26:25 under Wittman, which helps explain the more porous defense. Mike James experienced a more severe decline, from 29:06 under Casey to 21:38 under Wittman. Yet the lost time didn’t affect James that much during the time he did play–he averaged 19.1 points and 7.2 assists per 48 under Wittman and 19.2 points and 6.5 assists under Wittman. Hassell’s rebounds went down slightly under Wittman, but his scoring per 48 remained almost exactly the same (from 11.3 to 11.2).

    3. The Tank Race
    For those still interested in the gory details of Friday’s blowout, the Wolves got blasted late in the first quarter and it lasted through to halftime, turning a tie game with 3:44 to play in the first into a 16-point halftime deficit. Mike James looked mahvalous, nailing 10-14 FG and posting a superficially impressive 23 points in just 26:31, which would have given him at least 30 with a typical starter’s 32-38 minutes played. Of course he also would have been even worse than the -17 he registered on the popcornmachine.net calibrations, meaning the Wolves were just -2 in the 21:29 he sat down. Wittman knows this–that defense and ball movement (James had just 2 dimes) also count for something–but continues to go with the vets. Thus, the worse plus/minus according to the popcorn was Mark Blount at -19, followed closely by Ricky Davis at -18 and James at -17: See a pattern here? The hustle guys, the fundamental guys, like Mark Madsen (+7 in 18:26) and Rashad McCants (zero in 21:39) fared a little better.

    There will be no Three-Pointer after the Golden State game Sunday. I’m still trying to decide whether to bother with any after Denver or Memphis, or simply to start previewing playoff series. I’m solciiting opinions on which you’d prefer.

    On a final, positive note, Seattle and Portland play each other tonight, meaning that one or the other will match Minnesota’s 32-win total. Gentleman, start your coin flips.

  • What I Have Learned, What I Am Trying To Learn

    forgiveyou.jpg

    to be a discoverer you hold close whatever

    you find, and after a while you decide

    what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,

    you turn to the open sea and let go.


    —William Stafford, from “Security”

    What you cannot hang onto you must let go of –that is the principle on which I operate, on my way to the sea.

    —William Maxwell, “What You Can’t Hang Onto”

    Be kind.

    Keep it in front of you.

    Let it come to you.

    Where there is not enough faith, there is lack of good faith.

    Listen up.

    Keep your eyes open.

    Count your blessings.

    Pay attention to what the moon’s up to.

    Hold out hope.

    Give joy its proper expression.

    Don’t just stand there, do something.

    Mix it up.

    Raise your voice.

    Speak your mind.

    Try to say what you mean.

    Stand by your words.

    Shut your fucking mouth.

    Don’t talk with your mouth full.

    Risk everything.

    Hit it where it’s pitched.

    Hit it where they they ain’t.

    Take one for the team.

    Be there.

    Eat something.

    Don’t be afraid of the merge.

    Signal your intentions.

    Play by whatever rules make some moral sense; disregard the others.

    Earn respect, and give it where it’s earned.

    Go to your station.

    Stay in touch.

    Call your mother.

    Question your motives.

    Change your mind.

    Answer the phone.

    Do not hesitate to show kindness to strangers, etc.

    Don’t keep score.

    Hold things close.

    Let things go.

    Wait your turn.

    Seize your moment.

    Be gracious.

    You can’t take it with you.

    This is it.

    Enough is enough.

  • A Spot Of Tough Luck, And That's That

    So Johan Santana’s 24-game unbeaten streak at the Dome comes to an end at the hands of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I figured it was going to happen one of these nights. Actually, I figured it was going to happen tonight. It’s a law of averages thing, and it also happens to be Friday the 13th.

    I’m a superstitious guy, and all day I didn’t have a good feeling about Johan’s chances tonight. He didn’t pitch poorly, which is small consolation, and the Twins didn’t exactly swing the bats for him –again, small consolation– but it’s pretty meaningless in the ultimate scheme of things. I expect Johan’s got plenty of astonishments remaining in that left arm of his, and I also expect that one of these days the Twins are gonna put up some seriously crooked numbers. Solo home runs from the MVP aren’t going to be worth a whole lot unless they’re consistently of the walk-off variety.

    No, I think what we need to see in the next week or so are some games where the Twins bat around and blow things open early and give their pitching staff a little breathing room.

    That would be encouraging.

    I’ll tell you what I really don’t want to see: I don’t want to see Roger Clemens come out of retirement for the umpteenth time to sign with whatever team –and understand that in this situation you’re using that term very loosely– throws the most cash (and use of private jets and all manner of other ridiculous perks and allowances) at him. I say enough of this bullshit. It seriously shouldn’t be allowed. I don’t care how good you are, if you want to play Major League Baseball you make a commitment and go through spring training and play the damn game wire-to-wire. You comport yourself like a team player, and get treated like everybody else in the game. These aren’t the days of barnstorming teams, for shit sake. This is Major League Baseball. A guy shouldn’t be allowed to sit on the sidelines for the first month or two of the season angling for the best opportunity. It’s a joke, and if Bud Selig had any stones at all (and we’ve had ample evidence that he does not) he’d put the kabosh on it.

    My only hope is that one of these times when Clemens comes back –hopefully this time– he’ll get rocked so hard and so consistently that he’ll make Lefty Carlton’s last couple years look like a graceful curtain call.