Whenever Minnesota is on the national stage, Minnesotans keep an eye on what the rest of the country is saying about us. So these links are fairly representative of the current opinion on Minnesota's place in the baseball world. Because these are external links, we can't guarantee that each will remain active. If you'd like to tell us about a column, just send me the link and I'll check it out and post it. Use the e-mail link above.

John Donovan, CNN/Sports Illustrated
"For more than a century, baseball has been bad business. Really bad, if you believe the owners. Still, the league expands, more parks are built, team values shoot through the retractable roofs and everybody in the game, it seems, from owner to player to the guy that pulls a rake around in the middle of the inning, drives a Mercedes or a Lexus." (12/7/01)

Chris Isidore, CNNMoney
"If the Twins managed to lose money this year, it's only because they paid their scouts, minor leaguers, peanut vendors and other normally lowly paid employees more than they paid their All-Star baseball players." (12/5/2001)

Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated
"The part I loved was when everybody wept and wailed that baseball had ruined the wonderful World Series by talking business too soon. Oh come on, five minutes after the World Series ended, most fans were already betting next week's NFL games and checking their e-mail for their fantasy basketball results." (11/30/01)

Ken Rosenthal, The Sporting News
"If contraction is such a brilliant plan, then why didn't the owners start hammering it out with the players last summer instead of announcing it at the moment the labor agreement expired?" (11/29/01)

Jayson Stark, ESPN
"If the financial picture is so bleak, why would Expos owner Jeffrey Loria and Marlins owner John Henry want to sell their teams -- and then leap right back into the same paralyzing pit of bleakness by buying other teams?" (11/28/01)

Scott Miller, CBS Sportsline
" If Contraction Carl" Pohlad, the Twins' miserly owner, does sell them down the river, though, it will be despite an extraordinary amount of integrity shown by those in the organization." (11/23/01)

Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri On-Line
"The owners have been pushed and pushed and can take it no longer. The good lords of baseball are merely responding to the callous citizenry of Minnesota, who have opted not to raise taxes to build the beautiful new ballpark the team's owner, Carl Pohlad, has coming to him." (11/22/01)

Luke Cyphers, NY Daily News
"The problem is, baseball isn't a real business. It's a flabby, anti-competitive, communistic industry always on the lookout for a handout." (11/21/01)

Dave Kindred, The Sporting News
"Life is so good. Jesse everywhere. With Jay Leno, with David Letterman, with Larry King. Jesse growling at Tim Russert. Who knows, the governor could wind up in Afghanistan on Christiane Amanpour's lap, saying, "Osama was a twerp. The guy I want is Bud Selig." (11/20/01)

Rob Dibble, ESPN Radio
"I hope you were a better car salesman than you are a commissioner. I would love to know who put you in charge of baseball. Because, if I could still throw, someone would be getting one high and tight." (11/19/01)