Sweeney is the perfect guy to afflict the comfortable. Eschewing the chummy, chat-'em-up school of beat reporting, he's a tireless researcher and dogged interviewer who doesn't much care whether or not his sources like him, so long as he gets the story straight. That was evident in his biggest coup of the past year, the revelation that Twins owner Carl Pohlad's "gift" of 49 percent of the Twins franchise was actually a loan. That story changed the debate over funding for a new stadium, one of the many public services Sweeney's work has rendered. This is a journalist who does our profession proud.