Its been a long time coming but we finally caught up with 4 time Puckett champ GM thorku.
1.) How did you discover HBD?
**I follow a Twins blog written by Aaron Gleeman. A few years back, he advertised a league he was starting.
2.) If you could have one player to your team in Puckett what player would that be?
***Alan Thompson, San Juan’s first baseman. In this league, with my park, I have become a sucker for big-time power hitters. Always wanted to see Thompson in Coors, surrounded by some of the other elite batters I have been able to acquire. I have been in negotiations for Thompson in the past but the asking price has been too high.
3.) You've pretty much owned the AL since the start. With that said which team would you least like to face in the playoffs?
***Jacksonville knocked me out of the playoffs a few years ago. I don’t like seeing them. I usually have good success against Tacoma, but that team, fundamentally, is a bad matchup for me with the pitching talent and the ballpark.
I don’t often have to worry about them, being in the other league, but Durham and San Juan are monsters. Every year in the playoffs I hope they are knocked out prior to the World Series.
4.) KU grad? Meet any NBA players that attended KU? You guys stole Bill Self from us!
***I am a journalism school grad of 2008. Two years ago I was in a “Coaching Basketball” class with some prominent members of the championship team, including Darrell Arthur, Sherron Collins and Russell Robinson. I was also a columnist for the school paper and interviewed Collins in that capacity.
5.) Who's your favorite all-time Twin?
***I actually can’t pinpoint that. I love several guys, all of whom are highly predictable: Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, etc. I couldn’t pick my favorite.
6.) Will Joe Mauer win the batting title?
***Not this year.
7.) Whats your best sports moment? Best in-person sports moment?
***I wasn’t much of an athlete. I played high school football, but was a 6’1’’, 190 pound offensive guard. I sucked at baseball and basketball.
***I was at the Final Four in San Antonio in 2008 when the Jayhawks won the title. Gives me goose bumps every time I think about it. We partied on the River Walk until they kicked us out around 4 AM.
8.) If you could sit at a poker table with 3 other people who would they be?
***Phil Hellmuth, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. I think Hellmuth is ridiculously entertaining – especially when needled – so I’d be OK with donking money off to him. Jordan and Barkley would be entertaining as well but appear irresponsible enough with their money that perhaps I could end my night with more money than I came with.
9.) What do you do in your spare time when you're not running your HBD teams?
***I am starting grad school -- in the non-fiction writing program – at the University of Iowa later this month. I moved to Iowa City last weekend. So I will be going to school and teaching Rhetoric to freshmen.
I also write for Rotoworld.com. I have a weekly column, do news updates and do some stuff with their premium content.
10.) If you can add/change one thing about HBD, what would it be and why?
***Lots of stuff. One big thing for me is that I would like players out of options who are in the minor leagues placed on the waiver wire at the end of every Spring Training. I hate how this oversight allows some teams to hoard talent at the top levels of their minor leagues.
