By Ron Laging

Occasionally a writer may have a thought that never gets published. I&8217;m not blaming the publisher.

I mean it never gets written. There may be a number of reasons why not. It could be that it doesn&8217;t pertain to the story or the thought is really out of place. For example something about Willie Mays would not fit easily into a story about Martina Navratilova. Other times it may fit, but is destructive to the point you&8217;re trying to make. Other times you&8217;re struck by a brilliant revelation, but if you&8217;re like me you&8217;ll forget it, by the time you finish your next paragraph.

Revelations also happen at night. A person wakes up with the solution, perhaps to the &8220;fountain of youth,&8221; but unless you write it down, it&8217;s gone in the morning. And if you turn on the light, find a pen, find paper, write it down, its time to get up before you get back to sleep. Sometimes when you write it down it doesn&8217;t make any sense the next morning and you&8217;ve wasted a couple of hours you could have been sleeping.

For what it&8217;s worth here are some recent random thoughts that I didn&8217;t think would make a complete column.

You may remember that when the University of Minnesota was looking for both a new head football and basketball coach, I suggested that they hire a black coach. That a black coach would benefit the University in a number of ways.

Well they did, they hired Tubby Smith. What a great move! It was a hiring of such magnitude that I never even thought about Smith being black. Now, that seems to me to really spell out Smith&8217;s stature. Either that or I totally blanked it out, or it may have been a terrific case of political correctness. I think it was Smith&8217;s stature.

The news has broken that a young woman has charged three Gopher football players with a sexual crime. If true, it was a horrible thing to happen to a young lady. And the three football players will have ruined their lives for the foreseeable future. The following is far down the list of concerns relating to this alleged crime, but it occurred to me that it was the last thing new head coach Tim Brewster needed to happen, while he was on the recruiting trail. The parents of the prospective student-athlete might well ask: What kind of players do you have on that football team?

The Minnesota Twins look the same o&8217; same o&8217; with one exception as I write this. Joe Mauer is hitting well, Justine Morneau is crushing the ball and Torii Hunter is continuing his play of last year, being wildly inconsistent both fielding and hitting. The Piranhas are doing what they do best.

The exception to last year is newcomer Ramon Ortiz pitching well the first time out. The Twins need to win early and often this spring, as they can ill afford a start similar to last year. If their pitching folds early, something must be done in short order.

There really is nothing to say about the Timberwolves except see Kevin Garnett play while you can.

Isn&8217;t spring a wonderful time of the year in Minnesota. What with outdoor grills, local baseball games, fishing vacations and the Minnesota Twins. One thing about the major league baseball season is that you have six or with luck seven months to enjoy it. One hundred sixty two games.

Also, should you decide on a small bet on your favorite team to win the Central Division against, say a White Sox supporter, it won&8217;t get settled for a long period of time. If you divide your wager of a few dollars by 162, it seems very very reasonable, win or lose.

Jon Laging writes a regional commentary from his home in Preston.