Welcome to the Friday edition of The Cooler, where you better not be reading this after 4 p.m. Friday on a holiday weekend. Let's get to it:
*The MIAC has made it big, though perhaps not for a reason it would prefer.
The excellent Scott Van Pelt brought to a national stage the big local story of St. Thomas getting booted from the conference during a two-minute monologue on ESPN late Thursday. His take on it was decidedly pro-St. Thomas.
"Now I tried to look at this from the perspective of the smaller schools," Van Pelt says toward the end. "I tried to see how it's anything other than what it is, but I can't. What it feels like is the parents in town who don't like that Little Leaguer who strikes out their kids and hits it in the corn field over there, so they try to ban it."
The indispensable C.J. Fogler got the whole thing here:
*Former Vikings special teams coordinator Mike Priefer departed in the offseason to take the same job with the Browns — where he is getting a chance to work with ANOTHER rookie kicker drafted in the fifth round, Austin Seibert of Oklahoma. We'll see if that young man can win the job and hold it longer than Daniel Carlson did last year with the Vikings.
Anyway, Priefer met with the assembled Browns media during organized team activities on Wednesday, and by the sound of it he was pretty impressed by the press contingent that gathered to ask him questions for 16 minutes.
He reportedly also used the time to compliment Cleveland and/or take a shot at what he perceived was a smaller group that used to listen to him in Minnesota.
*FSN's broadcast of the Twins game Thursday featured a hodge-podge of color analysts because LaTroy Hawkins couldn't stay for the makeup game because of a graduation conflict. Several different folks joined play-by-play voice Dick Bremer in the booth — including Twins baseball boss Derek Falvey for a few innings.
*Speaking of that game, Miguel Sano hit two home runs and has an .800 slugging percentage after starting the season injured. The Twins went 6-1 on their recent road trip, and those "Will Sano mess up the Twins?" takes are disappearing (dugout conspiracy theories aside).
