A Squirrel's Eye View of Target Field

The diminutive dictator apparently escaped the lawn yesterday, and found himself at the Minnesota Twins shiny new ballpark for a sporting contest. Using his tiny sciuridae claws, he was able to send me two photos of the visit, before his natural urge to bury nuts led to him being escorted out of the park after he tore up the warning track.

Photo 1: "That brick is the top of the dugout."

Photo 2: "Well played, Mauer."

Bonus Third Photo: Hey, we know that guy...

Squirrel Week

Washington Post columnist John Kelly is clearly one of America's brightest journalistic lights. Yesterday, he kicked off #dcsquirrelweek to honor the noblest, bravest, nimblest, cleverest, and downright cutest beast roaming our planet. Mr. Kelly, you're doing God's work.

Nutz

Like a 2004 Yankees AL Champions t-shirt, today's originally scheduled post will only see the light of day in sub-Saharan Africa, adorning the dust-streaked screen of Manute: the Blog's readership. Shame, really, because our exposition of the movable object versus stoppable force conflict scheduled for Sunday in Cleveland was quite an effort by our standards. Cleveland's victory over the Clippers last night dulled the shine on this weekend's Wiz/Cavs battle of dipshits, but since everything happens for a reason, we soldier on, Kellen Winslow-style.

So we don't get to declaim extensively about 0-25 against 0-27. We'll still celebrate, for yesterday marked a milestone. Happy first birthday to Nutzy the Squirrel, mascot of the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Season opener is April 7. I believe a road trip is in order.

BONUS: A rare clip of Nutzy in action:

"Teamwork. Part...of...a...team."

The creator of this blog (rob) sent me his picks this week, so what the hell, I'm gonna run with these and attempt to guess the rationale behind each...

UCLA at Arizona
UCLA. Rob has manlove for Aaron Afflalo. I am not here to judge his picks, but if there is one game on this list where I would switch choices, it's this one. HOWEVAH, it's his show, and it says here the return to health of Darren Collison leads the Bruins to victory. Barely.

Washington at Pittsburgh
Pitt. Rob has manlove for Aaron Gray. Pitt was absolutely embarrassed by Louisville at home last week, where they never lose (78-7 since the Petersen Events Center opened in 2002). Plus, Washington is traveling 3,000 miles for this game and you see where that got UCLA last weekend. The Huskies also play no defense, so that could be a problem for Lorenzo Romar's bunch.

Southern Illinois at Butler
Butler. Rob has manlove for...all right, enough of this. Butler is good, but they're not even in first place in their conference. SIU, however, leads the very tough MVC. Not sure how Rob got this one, perhaps he was swayed by Butler's 6-0 home record?

Memphis at Gonzaga
Memphis. Despite the lengthy travel, Tigers by 10+. Conquering Conference USA is akin to taking Australia in Risk - sure, you've conquered a continent and get the two extra armies, feeling good about yourself in the process, but really what did you gain? False optimism, that's what. Rob is too "high"brow for the lame drug reference here. But obviously I'm not.

Northern Iowa at Nevada
Nevada. I have manlove for Nick Fazekas. Early in the year it looked like NIU could vie for the MVC title, but a recent 4 game losing streak has ended those dreams. My love for Nevada is only barely topped by the VCU love, so this is a relatively easy pick. Question - Which current NBA whitey does Fazekas remind you of most? And yes Dennis, Euro whiteys are allowed in this conversation.

North Carolina at Boston College
UNC. Rob is expecting back-to-back lame efforts from the Eagles I guess. Carolina will be out to prove something after the home loss to Va Tech, and Rob obviously assumes BC will lay down again for a big time opponent (Duke owned them the other night). UNC and their deep, talented roster wear down BC, and Al Skinner finger paints during the entire second half.

UConn at Syracuse
Cuse. Now I think he's just kissing up...might be an at-large elimination game the way these two have played this year. Cuse has struggled with consistency all year, but will turn it on in front of the Carrier Dome faithful this weekend, pushing Jim Calhoun's Huskies to the brink of NIT-dom. Here's hoping you caught Demetris Nichols one-man show last week against St. John's (37 and 10)...it's much better than Bruce Vilanch's "Almost Famous".

Georgetown at Villanova
Georgetown. Hottest team in college hoops right now. Easiest pick on this list. 8 game winning streak in which they aren't just winning, they're crushing teams. I'm still having trouble processing the November version of this team vs. the February version...polar opposites. Hoyas could have 10 game win streak when they host Pitt for Big East regular season title Febraury 24 at the MCI (nee Verizon) Center.