FM Compared to the Minnesota Timberwolves

[michelej1]

Feelings Aren’t Numbers: Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

By Steve McPherson | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities March 21, 2016

http://www.1500espn.com/wolves-2/201...bout-tomorrow/

When I was barely a basketball writer at all, I spent a lot of time drawing parallels between my new obsession with the game and my old obsession, music. LeBron James as Eric Clapton; Kobe as Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jordan’s Jimi Hendrix; the San Antonio Spurs as Steely Dan. I always saw this not as a way to necessarily better understand either the game or the music, but as a way to better understand how we process the things we love or follow or obsess about. It works best with individual players and solo artists, but there’s a bit of stumbling block when it comes to teams and bands because teams are constantly changing from year to year while bands, generally speaking, are models of continuity.

But then there’s Fleetwood Mac, and there are the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Formed in 1967 in England, Fleetwood Mac began when guitarist and singer Peter Green left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and took with him Mayall’s rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie — “Fleetwood Mac” was originally the name of an instrumental by Green and the band was actually called Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. With the mercurial and wild-haired Jeremy Spencer on slide guitar, the band recorded two (criminally underrated) albums of British blues, Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful.

Now, I’ve long held the belief that if you’re going to do the basketball-music thing, point guards should be drummers. They are above all responsible for setting pace, tone and dynamic, and can do more than most any other instrument to push the music in different directions. So let’s take a 21-year-old but already professionally seasoned Ricky Rubio in his rookie year of 2011-12 and pair him with Mick Fleetwood, another seasoned pro at the ripe age of 20 in 1967. Kevin Love — beginning to come into his own under Rick Adelman after toiling as a mere sideman under Randy Wittman and Kurt Rambis — can be our Peter Green. For continuity’s sake with the current team and because no one truly appreciates bassists, Nikola Pekovic can be John McVie. And Michael Beasley will be Jeremy Spencer for reasons that will become entirely obvious shortly.

This initial version of Fleetwood Mac was awesome and reasonably if not terrifically popular, while the Wolves under Adelman for their first two years achieved something like critical acclaim for the brief moments when all of Rubio, Love and Pekovic could share the court and showed off the potential displayed therein. Before releasing their third album, The Pious Bird of Good Omen, Fleetwood Mac added guitarist Danny Kirwan, while prior to their third season under Adelman, the Wolves added shooting guard Kevin Martin. Fleetwood Mac released their first number one single, “Albatross” and the Wolves were way way better than you remember, boasting one of the league’s best starting lineups to go along with one of the league’s worst benches and a coach dealing with personal issues off the court and the impending end of his coaching career on the court. The team and the band each contained the seeds of their own destruction.

While on tour, Jeremy Spencer told the band he was going out to “get a magazine” and never came back. They found him a few days later and learned he had joined a cult. (I told you the Beasley thing would connect.) Peter Green took a hit of LSD at a commune in Germany and lost his mind, eventually being diagnosed with schizophrenia but not before he threatened his manager at gunpoint when the manager refused to stop sending him royalty checks. (In this way, he was maybe a little different from Kevin Love.) It got dark and weird for the band, basically, including a ridiculous stint in 1974 when their manager, Clifford Davis, claimed ownership of the name “Fleetwood Mac” and put together a tour with an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT group of musicians billed as Fleetwood Mac.

But after the band moved to Los Angeles from England — consisting at this point of John McVie, his wife Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Bob Welch (Thad Young, for our purposes) — they found their new franchise cornerstones, their number one draft picks in Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. This was the beginning of Fleetwood Mac as chart-topping monsters of pop mastercraft, a completely different version of the band from the one Peter Green started a decade earlier and ultimately, geometrically more successful.

The crux of this comparison to me is the idea that a group — whether team, band or something else — can be amazing or incredible in some ways and yet still limited by fit, personality or things completely outside of their control. The original Fleetwood Mac was a focused dart of pure British blues. Their greatest strength was in their directness and simplicity, in Peter Green’s restrained but often vicious guitar work. But there was a ceiling there so long as they stuck to straight-ahead blues, and they bumped up against it as they expanded their palette with Then Play On. Add in the non-musical personal problems the members dealt with and the whole thing frayed and unraveled.

But faced with simply breaking up or trying to recapture the success they’d already had, the remaining core of the band pivoted and reinvented themselves. Sports teams deal with this all the time, but are often loathe to completely abandon what worked before. We saw that with the Wolves in the wake of their 2004 run to the Western Conference Finals as they frittered away the final few years of Kevin Garnett’s first stint in Minnesota. At this point, the roster has had a near 100% turnover from Kevin Love’s final year with the Wolves, and with ownership an open question, the identity of the franchise itself could be changing in ways beyond the roster itself.

So are Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns the Wolves’ Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, respectively? Rubio can still be Mick Fleetwood, shepherding the team forward from behind the kit. Pekovic as McVie? OK, maybe not at this point. But Zach LaVine can be their third option, their Christine McVie. But if the Wolves are going to complete the equivalent of the transition from top-drawer blues band to world-bestriding pop juggernaut, it has to go beyond changing the players. Fans just have to hope they can make their Rumours without all the infighting, infidelity and drugs. That might finally make loving the Wolves fun.

[FuzzyPlum]

Oh, how I wish I knew who the heck these players are. Interesting nevertheless

How The 2016 Minnesota Twins Are Like Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk'
By RandBall's Stu on Mar 25, 2016,

The best way to attract millennial readers is to reference an album that came out in 1979.

http://www.twinkietown.com/2016/3/25...twood-mac-tusk

Tusk is Fleetwood Mac's weirdest record, a double album follow-up to Rumours, the gazillion-selling soundtrack to your parents' trial separation. Lindsey Buckingham recorded songs in his bathroom or propped up on the floor, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie occasionally checked in, and not a one of the 20 songs sounded like "Go Your Own Way." It's also a terrific record, especially if you dig Lindsey indulging his Brian Wilson jones or speculating about what happened to Stevie's voice between Rumours and Tusk. (Cocaine. The answer is cocaine.)

And that brings us to your 2016 Minnesota Twins. The talented Steve McPherson compared the recent vintage Minnesota Timberwolves to the evolution of Fleetwood Mac for 1500ESPN. I read this, asked someone on Twitter to do something like this for the Twins, and realized only one person was stupid and old enough to do so.



Here, then, is each song on Tusk and its 2016 Minnesota Twins equivalent.


"Over & Over" = Eddie Rosario. Baserunners keep testing Eddie, even when they oughtn't.

"The Ledge" = Phil Hughes. If he returns to 2014 form, that's a major plus for a team with plenty of offensive firepower. If he doesn't, there's a lot of time and money left on that contract.

"Think About Me" = Eduardo Escobar. The Twins have been looking for an answer at shortstop for 170 years, give or take. Finally, last year, they just said, "Eff it. Ed, go out there." And Ed kept his shoulder to the wheel and gave them a terrific year. Buncha bleep-talkers probably thinking they can upgrade over Ed, but Ed's just gonna be here, grinding, doing his job, and proving you wrong, a-holes.

"Save Me a Place" = J.O. Berrios. He wasn't sent down to due to service time considerations, it's because the other options are all better than him. Ok. When he gets called back up, the other options will no longer be better than him, and it'll just be a coincidence that the service time considerations are more favorable to the franchise. Ok. She was a pool waitress, Russ.

"Sara" = Tommy Milone. The best Stevie song on the record. Contains the lyric, "You're the poet in my heart." "Mommy Tilone" is the most poetic spoonerism on this roster. This would work better if Milone wrote poetry or was named Sara, but this will have to do.

"What Makes You Think You're The One" = Ervin Santana. A failed drug test marred Santana's first season with the Twins. He was also nails during the Twins unexpected run at a playoff spot in September. He also *also* wouldn't have been eligible if they'd somehow gotten past the Astros. So, Erv, yeah.

"Storms" = Byung Ho Park. He's been hitting some thunderous dingers in spring training (GET IT?). Also, if another expensive overseas signing flames out, it might become...stormy for the Twins front office. The name of the song is "Storms." I don't know if you caught that.

"That's All for Everyone" = Kurt Suzuki. Almost definitely his last go-round in a Twins uniform. Remember when he was an All-Star? That was wild. Anyway, have a good one, Kurt.

"Not That Funny" = Ricky Nolasco. Everything he says to the media tends to sound, whether intended or not, like he's miserable here. Also, one could say this describes Nolasco still having a rotation spot. One could say this a lot, as a matter of fact.

"Sisters of the Moon" = Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia. "So we make our choices/When there is no choice." Congratulations on making the team/not having any minor league options left, guys!

"Angel" = Brian Dozier. Both due to his All-Star production and sent-from-heaven hair. I do not think he will be traded to the Angels, but if that does happen please refer back to this piece and drive traffic to the site thx.

"That's Enough for Me" = Trevor Plouffe. Made himself into a competent third baseperson, largely without fanfare. Will probably be the guy who gets moved first once the Twins go into buyer/seller mode or Miguel Sano goes full Delmon in right. I appreciated you, Trevor. I did.

"Brown Eyes" = Kyle Gibson. It looks like he has brown eyes. They might be hazel, but I really don't know where else to fit him in here.

"Never Make Me Cry" = Glen Perkins. Be healthy, Glen. Please.

"I Know I'm Not Wrong" = Trevor May. You should be starting, Trevor. You taking the 7th/8th inning without complaint is fine, but if Tommy Milone is getting beaten like a tin drum every fifth day and you have to pitch in a low-leverage situation just to get work, I'm going to be sad.

"Honey Hi" = John Ryan Murphy. Please be a good catcherman. Your spring training average is Butera-esque. That's not good. Are you related to anyone from iCarly?

"Beautiful Child" = Joe Mauer. Sigh.

"Walk a Thin Line" = Byron Buxton. Despite the presence of "Tusk"/Miguel Sano, this/he is possibly the best song/player on the album/team. Also, Buxton is thin.

"Tusk" = Miguel Sano. The only real hit on the record, it has an unstoppable, violent momentum, similar to the swing Sano uses to murder innocent baseballs that never did anything to anyone. A cynic might say this also describes how Sano fields his new position, but I will not be that cynic today.

"Never Forget" = Kevin Jepsen and Tyler Duffey. Hey, remember when these two stabilized the pitching staff last year? Don't forget that!