Rod's Tuesday Take N Things

The Twins seem to be on the verge of signing Joe Mauer to that multi year contract. That is a good thing. Professional sports team's need to embrace their local guys. College Sports too. SDSU should probably sign the best high school player in South Dakota every year. If they don't then USD should. Same for the Twins. Mauer is from St. Paul. The Vikings should probably grab up a stud from the Golden Gophers when they can. Or at least one from the Dakota's like they have with Greenway and Leber. The Bears and Bulls and Cubs should get someone who was a really good player from Notre Dame or Purdue. Nebraska usually does this via their walk on program in football. Their basketball team should do the same. It just keeps the local interest a little bit higher that it would otherwise. Here in Pierre, we all have a soft spot of course for SDSU, but with Steph Paluch and Katie Lingle on the team, the spot is a little softer. And face it, even though NDSU is the evil Bison, with Michael Tveidt on the men's basketball team, even the staunchist SDSU person has to be checking the stats to see how he did and hopes he does well. And Pacific. Who in Pierre cares about Pacific? Alot of us because of Sam Willard. Sammy is the second leading scorer on the team. Coming off a career high 20 points on national TV the other night and probably the team we will watch with great interest come NCAA tournament time. They are this year's NDSU. They have a great chance to make the tournament and then probably be the one to take on the Kansas's or Duke's in the NCAA first round. I would also like to take this time and pat myself on the back for the job of snow removal I did on the sidewalk and driveway at my house. I can see the pavement. I look at the street in front of my house and It's all snow.