This Olympic loss doesn't hurt as much

As this is written, it has been a little over two hours since the great game ended. Canada nudged the USA, 3-2, in overtime in the Gold Medal Game in the Olympics before a roaring, adoring crowd in Vancouver. As so happens in these cases, the winning play was a bit of a fluke. A puck bounced an official's skate right to a Canadian player, who forwarded it to Sidney Crosby, who has the fastest wrists since Hank Aaron's heyday. Crosby did what he does best ... and the party was on.

But some losses don't hurt too much. Oh, it would have been grand if the USA, a huge underdog that dumped the Canadians fair and square a week ago, had won the game. They made a noble comeback, stunning the hometowners with a goal in the final minute of play to force OT.

But the beauty of this sport is the game wasn't going to end in a tie. You play to win and the locals made the right play. There was nothing the Americans could do but shake the winner's hand, wish them well and head home.

Hockey is a misunderstood sport by many because, at times, it is played crudely. Then there are times -- and this game was one of them -- where its majesty is there for all to see. Both goalies were superb today. The passing was excellent, the hits were solid and clean and the defenses were stout. There was constant plays and counterplays. Canada's early 2-0 lead looked safe and shaky at the same time. And just when the hometown crowd thought they could exhale their breath, the Americans made a remarkable play to force bonus overtime.

In the end, the sport may turn out to be the biggest winner. When the game is played as it was today, even the nonfans stopped what they were doing to watch. Losing is ... well ... disappointing and frustrating. But today was the rare game when the losing team had no reason whatsoever to question anything they did. They did everything they could but win. Deep down inside, one suspects most of the players probably know this already. But it needed to be said publicly anyway.

Nothing to cheer about here

We had some very sad news in our little part of the world yesterday. Two longtime Catholic schools - St. Bernard's High School and Holy Childhood Grade School - announced they will close for good at the end of the school year. St. Bernard's served the Rice Street area of St. Paul for 119 years. It was always a small school ... and that is what probably did it in. But it kept a lot of kids on the straight and narrow path while not trying to beat anybody over the head with a Catholic message. I did the p.a. for their football games for years. They rarely had good teams but they always played hard and fair.

I have a lot of friends who graduated from there and who work there. They are fine people, credits to society.

We need schools like this and Holy Childhood to keep some sanity in the world.

Last night, I was working a hockey game involving Como Park, a public school that has always been a big athletic rival of St. Bernard's. To a man, the CP people were shaking their heads in disbelief and sorrow at the news.

I am sure the decision by the archdiocese was a sound one based solely on the financial situation of the school ... and the parish. All I can say is the decisions hurts like hell.

It's the little things you miss

Yesterday, I made the final step to recovery from my little heart episode. Dr. Kravitz removed the penicillin PICK that has been in my right arm for five weeks. Now I can take a shower without a bag on my arm and I am no longer dragging a bowling ball around with me.

It's amazing the little things you miss.

From what I read and heard, it sounds like President Clinton's problem yesterday was very similar. Great bodies think alike. Hope he doesn't end up with a PICK, too.

Welcome to our world

There is much ado being made tonight about a big snowstorm in the Washington, DC area. Word is anywhere from 1-2 feet of snow is going to fall in a span of roughly 30 hours.

That's a lot of white stuff. Being a glass half-full guy, I see a bright light in their troubles. The next time we grumble to them about weather difficulties, those folks might be a bit more sympathetic to our plight.

One can only hope.

Scoops can be risky business

It used to be that it was a big deal to get a scoop that would run in the next day's paper. Such, sadly, is no longer the case. Today's scoop gets on the internet in a matter of seconds. By the time a paper writes it, half the world knows the story ... if it turns out to be true.

There was a big hullabaloo here yesterday when Mark Rosen, a longtime TV sports guy here, reported that Joe Mauer, the Twins' catcher, had an agreement for a 10-year contract. You could hear the sighs of relief from Bagley to Yankton because catchers who can hit and throw like Mauer are rare commodities, indeed. The fear was that if Mauer, who can become a free agent after the 2010 season, ever got on the market, the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers would offer him more money than the combined GNP of, say, Canada.

But the signs of content have turned to worry again. Seems Mr. Rosen has had to backpedal a bit on his claim the deal was done. By the time the 10 p.m. report came around, he was offering up the idea that the "framework" for such a deal is in place.

In short, the pen has not come out and the deal is not done.

This is what happens in a competitive society where TV guys double up on radio and want to scoop everybody else. In the past, a TV guy could make an outrageous claim and, if it wasn't in the papers, it would be forgotten a day later.

No longer.

I know Mark a bit. He is a good guy. I am sure he thought he had enough to break a story. But TV guys often misunderstand what print guys know: that a card laid is a card played. Even if the story turns out to be true down the line (say, tomorrow or even a week from now), it was not correct when he said it. In the newspaper biz, your butt gets in a lot of trouble for making that sort of mistake. In TV, if your ratings are good enough, such a mistake tends to get forgotten.

Those who do remember, however, will keep it in mind the next time they hear a "scoop" come from Mark.

TV sports guys used to have 2 or 3 shows to do in a day. Total time on the air: roughly 10 minutes. Not a lot of time to get in trouble.

But it is different now. With updates, radio shows, tweets and facebook info, the chance for mistakes are much higher. Losing your credibility is a bit like your virginity. You never get it back totally.

Hope there are some budding TV journalists out there who are paying attention.

It was just a football game

Two friends of mine told me that last Monday had been declared the most depressing day of the year. I figured it was because folks around these parts were in mourning over the Vikings' sudden demise in the NFC title game he day before. I was wrong. This had been so declared by somebody of importance. (Neither could remember who said it.)

But it might as well been over the football game.

I work in athletics and I understand games can be emotional things. But when I see a guy on TV who is claiming he can offer therapy to folks who were traumatized over a close, exasperating loss in a football game, I truly begin to wonder if folks have lost their collective minds.

Then I read that another guy has publicly put his athletic allegiance up for auction ... and some idiotic news outlet is running with the story.

The great, late Red Smith used to refer to covering athletics like working in the Toys and Games Department of a department store. He was, of course, correct. My neighbor Kenny is about as diehard a Viking fan as there is. He wears a jersey when he watches games and shouts advice at the TV at the local saloon where we watch such events.

But when I saw him the next day, he merely shrugged and said it was a fun run. He had moved on.

Listening to talk shows (and the hosts), it is clear, however, that others have not. A pity.

Don't misunderstand. Memories - good and bad - are a great part of athletics. I have never forgotten that Jack Reed hit the only home run of his major league careerin the 22nd inning to defeat the Tigers one day in 1962. Or that Hank Aguirre threw to the wrong base at a key moment in what proved to be a key loss to the Angels in the wild 1967 pennant race.

But the sun still came up the next day and life goes on. The difference here, I suppose, is that after losing that game the other day, Vike fans woke up here to a gray sky and the usual January chill.

To those folks, I offer this bit of sunny therapy: spring training begins in less than a month.

When saying you're sorry isn't good enough

This is one of the reasons why I entitled this little enterprise "Midwestern Sensibility Views." Us folks in flyover country know a copout when we see one ... and we don't like to allow people to get away with it.

Which is why many people in my neck of the woods are snickering at Mark McGwire suddenly admitting what everybody had suspected for more than a decade -- that he used steroids during his halcyon home run days in the 90s.

You may recall that McGwire basically took the 5th amendment in front of a Senate committee investigating steroids. That may have got him off the hook there but the folks who vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame took notice. As a result, he has never come close to induction into the hallways of Cooperstown.

Now that he has admitted his sins, his fans in St. Louis and elsewhere are reacting that this should change everything.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Confession may be good for the soul but a sin is still a sin. And there is no denying that anything McGwire achieved in his career has a stigma attached to it. As a result, it is now impossible to say whether his career figure of 583 home runs is more impressive than, say, Harmon Killebrew (573) or Willie McCovey (521) , two strongmen who, by all reports, did it the old fashioned way. (Milkshakes, hamburgers and perhaps a few beers.) It doesn't elevate you back in status. It just clarifies the situation.

Carl Pavano, a victim of McGwire's while pitching for Montreal, came out yesterday and said he should be in the Hall Of Fame now, In essence, Pavano said the past is the past and all previous mistakes can be forgiven. This might be the way it works in the non-real world. But in the hardscrabble world of the Midwest, we tend to look at things differently. True, a lot of mistakes are just that. They can be corrected, forgiven and we move on.

But some - ranging from the real world violence of shooting somebody in the back to the play world status of a baseball player shooting up to be able to hit a 95 mph fastball - are past that range.

And it helps if you own up to your screwup right away ... instead of 10 years later when your brother is about to come out with a book that basically nails you to the wall.

McGwire was a good player who decided he needed an edge to become better than good. For more than decade, he ducked and weaved his way around the truth. It is more than fair to give him good marks for finally coming out and admitting it. But it doesn't excuse him. He has a scarlet letter of his own making. Where I live, you don't get those sort of things easily because we like to give the benefit of the doubt as much as possible.

It doesn't mean he can't be forgiven. But it can't be forgotten. Like Pete Rose (who was banned for his gambling exploits), McGwire deserves to stay on the outside looking in forever.