Packer Circus and Central Division Leaders

It has been a while since I had a sports post so here are my reflections from the last few days.
Packer Circus
Listening to Chris Mortenson, Ed Werder, and Wendi Nix on ESPN the last couple of days has gotten pretty annoying. The Brett Favre circus has continued and as I previously noted I want Brett to just go away. I am pleased that the Packers do have distractions. The Vikings for once don't have players getting in trouble or making big headlines during training camp. The Vikes optimism has been created due to signing and retaining players that aren't considering retirement and comebacks, but are entering the primes of their respective careers (Kevin Williams, Jared Allen, Chad Greenway, E.J. Henderson, Bernard Berrian, Steve Hutchingson, AP, etc.). We do have some vets on the downward slope of their careers (Pat Williams, Darren Sharper, Matt Birk, Ryan Longwell). The recent report that the Packers talked to the Vikes about Favre all flows from the assessment that Tavaris Jackson can't lead this team to a Super Bowl Title. I mean what Ben Roethlisberger did for the Steelers a few years back was a rarity in the NFL. Young 2nd and 3rd year quarterbacks just don't lead teams to Super Bowl wins, except in the Steelers case. Do the Vikes have a better shot to win a Super Bowl this year with Favre as our quarterback? The answer is a most definite YES! I would take my chances with T Jack as he will save the Vikes a lot more money, and will prevent this type of circus from coming to Mankato, MN next year during training camp. Oh and I am sure that Aaron Rodgers really has a fair chance in the new quarterback competition that will be had now in Green Bay. Good luck Aaron - you don't really stand a chance. What happened to those Packer front office people that said we are 100% committed to Aaron Rodgers?

AL Central Division Leaders
With yesterdays victory the Twins took a 1/2 game lead on the hated south siders from Chicago. Back in mid-May the Twins was the last time the Twins were in 1st place in the AL Central Division. I remember watching Baseball Tonight and hearing the analysis that the Twins will fad, their young pitchers can't keep this up, and their +.300 avg. with runners in scoring position won't last long. Here we are in the dog days of summer and the Twins are a serious threat to win the division and make the playoffs w/out Torii Hunter or Johan Santana. Here are my keys to understanding why the Twins are where they are.

• Clubhouse Leadership: Say what you want, but Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson (pitching coach) do about the best job in baseball with what they have to work with. They teach, demand the game to be played hard, and develop players from within. I do wish that Gardy would use Nathan more as my friend Aaron Gleeman has pointed out.
• On Field Leadership: Everything flows from Mauer and Morneau - It can be pretty much guaranteed that if one of these two All-Stars wouldn't have remained healthy all season the Twins wouldn't be where they are at right now.
• Patience - the Twins were forced to be patient with young players. Although it looks like Denard Span could've been more valuable all season rather than Carlos Gomez (who did hit for the cycle earlier this year) - the Twins have done a nice job of allowing young talent to grow and mature.
• Finally dumping Craig Monroe and Livan Hernandez - this gives us more optimism than ever as we were highly overpaying washed up veterans to do a job that Francisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz can do way better and for a lot less $$.

It may only be for a couple of days or for the rest of the season, but what the Twins do year after year is commendable amongst the giant spendors and giant media market teams that they compete with year in and year out.