The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

Touching all the sports

By Tom Grout

March 3, 2008

1 comment

-The Vikings have been in the news this past weekend as they have signed some free agents.

The first guy they signed was a former Gopher fullback, Thomas Tapeh. He has playing for Philadelphia the last few years and was a good signing because Tony Richardson has indicated that he will leave through free agency. I don’t get too excited about fullback signings but as long as he can block for Peterson that would be fine with me.

The next player they signed was Madieu Williams formerly of the Bengals. He is a safety and after they let Dwight Smith go this also was a good signing. Williams is a pretty good player too so this just isn’t a fill in.

Bernard Berrian was the next free agent signing and let’s hope he is the answer to the receiving core. He better be for what they paid him and for how long. I hope he comes as advertised which is a deep threat who should be able to catch the ball better than Troy Willimason.

They still need to find a defensive end some where and in my opinion they still could use a quarterback.

-The Wild have won their last couple of games as well they should have. The teams they played recently are teams that will not be making the playoffs this year. The sad part is, they didn’t defeat them easily in fact Sunday’s game went into overtime. The winning goal was made by the much maligned Martin Skoula which was not only good for the team but good for Skoula.

The thing about the Wild is that they are a good team and I am hoping that they get themselves together right before the playoffs. In fact that is maybe what they need to get that spark going. When they do gets it going they can be a very good team.

My Wild source says that Derek Boogaard is about ready to return. He told my source that he may be available for a game this week. He started practicing with the team Saturday which is always a good sign.

He has been bothered by lower back spasms and for a tall hockey player that has to be tough. He was quoted as saying, “I can’t tell how I have looked forward to practicing with the team again.”

-The word has it from Fort Myers is that Francisco Liriano had a great bullpen session the other day. He faced live hitting and the poor guys couldn’t touch the ball. He is working on a changeup this spring which should be a wicked pitch and be easier on his arm. If Liriano can come back and be close to what he was before, the Twins may do just fine this summer.

-The Gopher basketball team may not make the NCAA playoffs this year but Tubby Smith has done a great job with what he has. There is no doubt that the next few seasons when all his new recruits start playing that Gopher basketball will be the talk of the town.

-As far as the most “conditioned athlete” topic is concerned. It looks like some of you are drawing your lines on your favorite sport. Bigsly, from what I gather, basketball seems to be you favorite sport and you have given you reasons why. TDog and Randlars have indicated wrestling, and not the pro sport, I was just kidding by the way, as their sport of choice. So I will add one little point for the baseball players, my favorite sport. They have one of the more grueling schedules of any other sport. They play 162 games in a season and that doesn’t count spring games or playoff games. Now it may not take the same conditioning to get ready for that schedule but believe me its takes something.