NOTES: Nerd Wars

Suduko versus crossword puzzles
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

MINNEAPOLIS - It’s no secret in the Sass clubhouse that pitcher Matt Guerrier and first baseman Nick Swisher are rivals. Matt G. is from Cleveland, Ohio, and Nick is from Columbus, Ohio. What started as a rivalry between which city is “awesomer”, it’s moved to almost every aspect of their lives. It reached a new high--or low--on Wednesday, when Matt G. started his daily suduko puzzle, just as Nick was pulling out his daily crossword puzzle.

“Crossword puzzles are so much harder,” said Nick. “Suduko is just putting in numbers. Any child can do that. A child would need a pretty good vocabulary and do a lot of studying to solve a crossword puzzle.”

Matt G. disagreed, “Sure, any kid could do a simple suduko puzzle, but any kid could also do a simple crossword puzzle. There are some very challenging suduko puzzles out there.”

So far, utility player Casey Blake has joined Matt G. in the agreement that suduko taxes the logical part of the brain, which uses a lot more effort than simple words; pitcher Justin Miller has joined Nick that the knowledge of trivia and vocabulary necessary to complete a crossword puzzle is much more taxing.

Shoes! With the loss of outfielder Juan Encarnacion to free agency, Manager Dawn Sass lost her shoe-shopping buddy. However, she was pleasantly surprised when pitcher Jake Peavy and catcher Joe Mauer invited her to go shoe shopping with them.

“Jake loves to go shopping, so we thought it was only fitting to invite Dawn to go shoe shopping,” Joe said.

Jake was pretty excited to check out the local shops, although he admitted shoes weren’t usually his destination. “I really just love to shop,” Jake said. “Joe’s pretty dedicated to shoes, but usually I can get him to look at clothes and toys and electronics and movies and books and…well, everything, when we got out. But if given the choice, he heads for the shoes.”

Gooooal! While pitcher Kyle Kendrick was on the mound on Wednesday, he was completely focused. However, he later admitted that when he was in the dugout, he was getting hockey updates from Sass Photographer and Manager of Hakan’s Loob, Bobbi.

“It’s playoff time, and things are really exciting,” Kyle gushed. “This is when things get really exciting.”

While normally Manager Beth Sass joins him in discussions about hockey, she was at Church Wednesday, and noted that since the Minnesota Wild were off that night, she likely wouldn’t have been paying that close of attention to hockey.

“I love hockey, no doubt,” Beth said, “But baseball is really my first love.”