Poor, poor Minnesota.

On the plus side at least Minnesota sports fans are getting their crappy seasons out of the way at the same time. Note that we have seen these two headlines in the same calendar year.

Twins Notes: Worst season ever? - Aaron Gleeman

Is this the worst Vikings team ever? - Star Tribune

Oh, and this one is just a couple years old

Worst Timberwolves team ever? - Twolvesblog.

At least we KNOW the Gophers can get so, so much worse, right?

Which coach will be the bigger name?

So, it's pretty much no doubt that the Vikings will be getting rid of Brad Childress this year. This would mean that, at the end of the football season, there will be no Minnesota football team with a head coach. Who will be the new coaches here in Minnesota? Which coach will make the biggest splash upon his hire?
Ever since Tim Brewster was let go, anyone with an opinion has said that the Gophers need to add a big name to help bolster their recruiting and become competitive once again in the Big Ten. Who could they possible ad? Larry Coker claimed interest during the last hiring process, but now Coker hasn't been working for 5 years and just took a job at Texas-San Antonio, so he wouldn't be the big name coach we would think. The hot name for the Gophers right now is Kevin Sumlin from Houston. He is an up and comer who has worked at Minnesota in the past as a WR/QB coach, but I'm not sure this is really all that big a name for Minnesotans who are already clamoring for Mike Leach.
The Vikings shouldn't have too much of a hard time adding that big name, but they haven't ever shown a tendency to make such waves. Consider their last three coaches were Brad Childress, Mike Tice and Denny Green, with Green the only one with prior head coaching experience. I still expect Zygi Wilf is in this for the money, not the wins. He needs a more marketable team with bigger names. I expect him to go with a defensive coach who will need a fully developed quarterback (because Wilf will want to bring in a big name QB after Favre leaves). I think this means the Vikings will take a good long look at Jon Gruden. If I am mistaken, and the Vikings will continue to avoid the big name coaches, they will more than likely seek to add Jack Del Rio or maybe even promote Leslie Frasier. Either way, I would be willing to guess that Carson Palmer will be coming to Minnesota in the not too distant future. Of course, all this assumes that the Vikings AREN'T headed to California, in which case the novelty of a new team in LA would lead to a pretty impressive gate and high value, low cost marketing, and they might be content to go with an offensive guy and draft a QB like Ryan Mallett.
Oh, who am I kidding. The best option is Ron Gardenhire. He might win Manager of the Year, and he doesn;t know a THING about baseball!

Are Minnesota GM's second guessed more than any others?

Every time I see a story about a transaction executed by a Minnesota sports team, it doesn't take long for the critics to jump down their throats I'm sure there are loud mouthed critics in every market, but I don't think anyone gets second guessed by the national media more than Minnesota GMs. Just look at the past few years with current general management.

Timberwolves: The Wolves have been bad ever since Kevin Garnett departed. That was Kevin McHale's poor trade, and none of the components worked out terribly well, aside from Al Jefferson. Eventually, David Kahn was chosen to replace McHale and has since been a trading machine. He has also drafted several at the same position and seemingly added a bounty of players at similar positions. People seem to think he's insane for his assemblage of players, but remember, aside from Corey Brewer and Kevin Love, this is now entirely his team, and he got whatever he could get while jettisoning McHale's players. As for the draft, couldn't he be operating on the premise of just seeing what fits in Minnesota. Rickey Rubio and Ramon Sessions probably don't. Jonny Flynn does and Luke Ridnour might. As for Darko Milicic's hefty contract. Some were saying that they didn't understand when they bid so much when there were no other bidders. They forget that they were bidding against the pull of returning home to Europe, not against other teams. But it's easier to criticize.

Twins: Bill Smith was given a tough hand to start with. He had to move Johan Santana... somewhere. He made a conscious decision to take less to move him to the National League. While the eventual haul after other trades was JJ Hardy, Jon Rauch and Deolis Guerra, it was lambasted at the time. We could have had Joba! Tell me how THAT turned out. Bill Smith's next criticized move (which actually occurred first) was the decision to move, essentially, Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza to Tampa for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris. People STILL think this was a bad trade. Excuse me, but I disagree. While Bartlett and Garza were great during the Rays World Series run in 2008, since, they have been average to mediocre. Yes, Garza threw a no hitter, but that's still only one win. It's possible that Delmon Young wins significant MVP votes this year. That's not just best player on a team, that's among the best players in the league. The numbers he is putting up are the same type that Joe Mauer is expected to produce. You would trade Garza and Bartlett for Mauer, right? Even if he wasn't a catcher, I think most Minnesotans would make that deal in a heartbeat. And Young is 4 years younger than Mauer. Of course, there are some that are critical of the deal Mauer got, perhaps because outsiders, especially those in New York or Los Angeles, don't quite understand how much one player can mean to a small market. Not just the team, but the entire market. (see: James, Lebron). Then there was the Ramos-Capps trade. I agree the Twins overpaid for Capps. That said, I don't see much that the Twins could have done that would have been better. The Twins didn't have the pitching to pair with Ramos for a top player like Cliff Lee. They didn't have the pitching depth to go for Haren and Oswalt didn't want to come here. We wouldn't have gained anything if Ramos was buried on our roster. Capps was the best player we could have got for Ramos, and our bullpen is now deeper for it.And we don't have to worry about Ramos directly.

Vikings: The Vikings have been the butt of many jokes through the whole Brett Favre saga. I have made them too, but mostly because of how gutless the fans are with their lack of loyalty or pride. I digress. The Vikings front office doesn't care about pride, they care about winning, even if they are made to look like fools during the process. And they look like fools. The groveling and brown nosing worked though. They got Favre, and he was better than anyone imagined. Sure, the Vikings didn't win the NFC Championship, but that was further than they would have got without him, probably. That said, I don't expect a repeat performance this year, but they will be better with Favre than without.

Wild: Chuck Fletcher hasn't exactly set the world ablaze, but his hands have been tied, again, by the previous administration. Doug Risebrough didn't do anything to soften Marian Gaborik's departure, and Fletcher was stuck rebuilding this team from the ground up. He's doing it centered on Mikko Koivu, a fan favorite and first line center. He hasn't added a lot of bulky veterans, preferring a youth movement, but the problem is that because of Risebrough's poor draft history, the Wild haven't had any good frontline prospects since... Gaborik and Koivu. The only trade chip is Brent Burns, so he needs to maximize the value there. It's a lot of work, and Fletcher is getting criticized for not doing it. I am looking at things and I can't even figure out a place to start. Draft and hope, that's all I've got. No need to jump down Fletcher's throat.

So, national media, please, get off our general manager's backs. We don't have a lot of success, in Minnesota, but give them some credit.

Who are the sports friends in Minnesota?

I had about a bajillion ideas for a post today, but this is the one I settled on. I had all these ideas that were so negative, but one of those negative ideas leads back to the one I went with today. I had been noticing a trend among local teams that I will probably get into later, but I recognized that the teams probably aren't working in conjunction with each other But what teams DO get along? How do teams feel about the other home town teams? I'm going to go in descending order of how well the teams coexist.
Let's start with the obvious buddies. I think the Timberwolves and Twins are going to get along famously. Their arenas are right next door, so the success of one will likely call attention to the success of the other. I've already seen Crunch standing outside the Target Center after Twins games are over. Long the outcast of Minnesota sports, the Timberwolves will benefit from the success of the Twins. The Twins would be wise to return the adulation. Just look at Cleveland, where the Cavaliers and Indians play right next door. When the Indians were successful, they didn't do much for the Cavs, and now the Indians are in the tank and haven't been able to get any help from the Lebron James fueled popularity across the street.
The Wild and Twins are also buddies. Twins players and personnel have encouraged the team to drop the puck on multiple occasions at XCel. Heck, the Twins even borrowed the Wild's idea for logo design. These two teams definitely share a good deal of mutual respect, but I'm not sure coexisting is the right word. They enjoy each other, as is often the case with northern baseball teams and their hockey counterparts.
The Wild and Timberwolves are apples and oranges. They play at the same time of year, but they don't really share a similar fan base. The demographic is just completely different. If the Wild are going to help a fledgling Minnesota franchise, it will be lacrosse's Swarm, and if the Wolves will, it will be the WNBA Lynx. I think the Wild and Wolves share a mutual ambivalence.
The Vikings are a different story. They are all business, just like every other team in the NFL. This isn't about the Vikings, this is more about the NFL when I say, the Vikings don't like the Wolves, they don't like the Wild and the Wolves and Wild return the disdain. Oh, sure, you may see Crunch at a Vikings game or something, but truly, the Vikings see the Wolves as competition, just like the Wild. The Wolves need all the help they can get in terms of publicity though so they are more willing to suck up to the Vikes. If it were up to the NFL, however, the NBA and NHL would shrivel and die. Until February, at least.
The Twins and Vikings probably have the most contentious relationship. It all comes back to the stadium issue. The Twins were playing in a football stadium and are owned by Minnesota owners. The Minnesota Gophers were a state run institution that could use their football money to bolster their facilities and reduce the necessary taxpayer contributions to that school. The Vikings are owned by out of state owners and playing a in a stadium designed for football and doesn't cost a thing to the taxpayer. The Vikings have always been the lowest priority for a new stadium, and now we are in a recession. Somehow, this is the Twins' fault, and the Vikings organization openly resents the Twins. Remember last years game 163? The Vikings and Twins have long had an understanding that the Twins post season took precedence at the Dome, but this time, Zygi Wilf refused to move a game against the Pakcers, and forced the Twins into an awful situation that required them to win their game and play in New York early the next day. It's very possible that the Vikings cost the Twins their post season last year. How would things have been different if the Twins were refreshed and ready for game 1?
It's interesting to think about, especially since so many fans don't care about the upper level machinations of the teams. We all just want to pretend every team in our town gets along so well, but it's not always the case.

Is this guy serious?

I don't care if this is some sort of "Modest Proposal" (which it probably is), its perhaps the most idiotic thing written in the state of Minnesota this year, and I've written a lot of stupid stuff. What am I talking about? This opinion article at the hands of Chuck Chalberg, writing for the Star Tribune.
On the surface, it proposes to knock the less than excellent Gophers football team down to a different level, like Division II or the NAIA, rent facilities from schools like St. Thomas or just drop the program all together. Then, the vacant TCF Bank stadium would be available for the Vikings to move into. There are some obvious reasons why this would be foolish:
- The Gophers are, when compared to the other 119 teams, at least in the top half of all programs in the country.
- Taking a public facility, selling it at a discount to a private entity, then renting private facilities to the public entity is perhaps less cost effective than building a new stadium in the long run.
- Like it or not, athletics are the best advertising and after tuition, the best source of revenue that doesn't come from a taxpayer. I know you laud the University of Chicago for dumping football, but, well, Minnesota has 40 THOUSAND more students. Chicago probably couldn't fill out their stadium. Not even the crappy St. Thomas facilities you want to rent.
- Colleges aren't about winning and losing when it comes to athletics. It's a side business, there to make money. Perhaps you shouldn't judge the U for their .500 record, but rather on their ability to thrive as an academic institution.

Like I said though, there is probably a deeper meaning than "The Gophers suck, give the Vikings their stadium!" The deeper meaning would be a question as to why the Gophers get a stadium and the Vikings don't. This is an easy answer. A public institution is upgrading a facility that will in turn lead to greater revenue for said upgrade received the public funds. A private institution got turned down. It's just smart finance to sink money into something that will earn you money directly
Think of it this way. If there were two proposals on the table in Victoria, one to build a new school gymnasium and another to build me a new house, which one do you think is going to get the funding? If I wanted a gymnasium instead of a house, it would be the same thing. A more fitting question would be why the Twins are getting a new stadium and the Vikings aren't. Comparing it to TCF Bank Stadium is patently ridiculous.

Why do Minnesota sports have to be so BORING?!

In Minnesota, we've been blessed with decent sports franchises, generally getting a team into the postseason every year, be it the Twins or the Vikings or Wild or the Timberwolves (though not lately). Usually, there is one winner somewhere in Minnesota. Even when they are winning, however, the teams are grueling to watch. What does Minnesota have against offense?
The Twins, for example, have emerged as a perennial threat to win the AL Central, thanks to quality pitching and defense. They tend to score runs by accident and prefer it when less than 5 runs a game are scored. Perhaps they worry about paying the price of a baseball if it were to go over the fence?
The Vikings too, would prefer to run the ball and let their defense take over. The component they need, a fgood passing attack, is ignored so the team can add yet another defensive back, because they would prefer that there not be any passing whatsoever in the Dome. Which is awesome, because they always need to worry about the elements affecting their passing game.
The Wild employ the game killing trap defense that slows opposition attacks down while at the same time limits their opportunity to break out on the rush. It should say something that even without their franchise's all time goal leader, they haven't really had a setback in overall team production.
When you get right down to it, the most exciting team to watch might be the Wolves, because at least the opposition can put up 120 points a game. Too bad the NBA sucks.

Revolutionizing sports in Minnestoa

Sports in Minnesota are getting an overhaul over the next couple of seasons. Two teams, the Minnesota Gophers football team and the Minnesota Twins will be getting new stadiums. The Gophers begin play in TCF Bank stadium next season. It will be the first stadium built for a Big Ten team since, well, the Metrodome. TCF will be the newest stadium in the conference by 49 years when it opens. It will also be the smallest stadium in the Big Ten, despite Minnesota being one of the largest schools in the country. They may actually have some sellouts, especially if the Gophers continue to improve.
In other news, the Twins have announced a name to their new stadium. Despite my wish that local cereal giant General Mills would get naming rights so we could call it Lucky Charms Field or at the very least the Cereal Bowl (along with the Trix Track. I had it all planned out), they went with one of the two major retailers in the city, Target. It's pretty underwhelming, having a Target Field when we already have a Target Center where the Timberwolves play. Better than having it named after a cell phone company, I suppose.
Speaking of the Timberwolves, they have made some changes as well. Deciding that their logo didn't look quite stupid enough, they went ahead and tweaked it. Going for the Phantom of the Opera look for the theater community, I suppose. Compounding the problem, they have also chosen to wear uniforms that appear to have pine trees stabbing them in the armpits. Ridiculous. Additionally, I like that one of the commenters appreciated that the Wolves were "repping their city" by putting Minnesota on the jersey. Right.
Even if I'm not a fan of all the teams in the area, I think it improves the quality of life for the area, having sports teams, and having those in charge investing so much time and effort into them, even if it results in some ugly uniforms and boring stadium names.

Somewhere in a Minnesota Saloon

(Sebastian Telfair and Delmon Young sit at a table, drinking Sarsaparilla. Bryant McKinnie steps in).

BK: Well, I just got out jail. Got into a fight.

DY: Oh yeah? I mostly haven't been busted, except for that time I chucked a bat at the umpire.

ST: That's nothing. My posse and I were implicated in the shooting of a rapper.

BK: I got a lap dance on a boat one time. Oh, and there was some other stuff too.

ST: I walk around with a gun, even though I've been arrested twice for it.

DY: I scared the crap out of Josh Paul using my bat and Triscuits.

BK: Well, I was involved in dogfighting.

ST: I didn't hear --

BK: Oh, I didn't use two dogs. I just punch puppies.

DY: I hijacked a bus full of nuns and made them watch The Hottie and the Nottie.

ST: I had to be traded out of Boston because because they found out that I relieved myself on the first row of seats at the Garden. Like, daily.

BK: I use stolen identities to buy swords online. I use the swords to threaten the elderly.

DY: I kick mall Santas in the junk.

ST: I teach kindergarteners how to make meth.

BK: I --

(McKinnie is interrupted as a new figure enters the saloon. They look at him. He looks at them.)

DY: Who the hell are you?

(The stranger swings a hockey stick at Young's head, breaks McKinnie's ankle with a well placed stomp and grabs Telfair by the collar and leans in close.)

Stranger: Go out there and tell everyone that this is Chris Simon's town now, bitches.

(Telfair runs, weeping)

Minnesota is clearly Sports Hell

Not so long ago, 100% Injury Rate argued that the Bay Area was a sports hell. Sure, they've had a rough patch, but if you pit the Minnesota sports scene for the past few months, and really, over the course of the past 20 years or so, against the Bay Area or any other city or area with more than one sports team and you'll see that Minnesota is in an awful string of luck.
First lets start more recently. It's really been nothing but bad news for local teams, like the Twins who have lost Torii Hunter to free agency and discussions are rampant that ace Johan Santana will soon be traded to someone who can afford him. And oh yeah, it was the Twins worst season since 2000. Let's also not forget that whole contraction debacle.
The Vikings have missed the playoffs the past couple of years and haven't won more than 9 games since, that magic year 2000, when they lost by 41 in the NFC championship game. And if you don't remember, there was that whole Love Boat thing and the Mike Tice era, the Red McCombs tenure and now Zygi Wilf and his whole looking down on the Minnesota area act. To make it better, they get
The Timberwolves made headlines this offseason by trading away the face of the franchise, and in many ways the face of sports in Minnesota, to the Celtics. So, Kevin Garnett is gone, and now the Wolves have the second worst record in the NBA.
The Wild are the best team in Minnesota right now, and will continue to be until Marian Gaborik inevitably injures his groin. They're yet to win their conference, and unless they all stay healthy, it won't happen this year.
Gophers football? 1-10. One and ten. And the one win was in overtime against Miami of Ohio. At home. And then there were ten losses.
The Gophers basketball team finished ahead of only Penn State and Northwestern, but to be fair, they each only had 2 conference wins. Each of them had one win against the Gophers, and both had more overall wins than Minnesota, but at least the Gophers added Tubby Smith as their coach, right?
So, thats the bleak state of the Minnesota sports scene now, but I think I should touch on one more thing. No Minnesota team has made it to the Championship game of their sport in 16 years. That's longer than any city that I can think of other than maybe Cincinnati. Cleveland put the Indians in the World Series twice in '95 and '97 and Buffalo has been in the Super Bowl a couple years more recently, going in 1994. Those are the two cities most associated with sports misery, and Minnesota surpasses them, and Minnesota has more pro sports teams than either of those cities. For reference, by the way, Since the Twins went to and one the World Series in 1991, Bay area teams have competed in 3 championship games or series.
So, yeah, Minneapolis is sports hell.

No NHL? At least we still have college

Originally posted on "Is It Sports?" by Ryan

Ryan:let me see if i can get all the D-1 schools in minnesota
Ryan:Minnesota
Ryan: got em
Steve: good job!
Ryan: for hockey though, lets see... minnesota, minnesota state, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State
Steve:Does Illinois even have a hockey school?
Ryan: im looking right now... if nebraska omaha is a d-1 hockey school, then by god illinois should have one
Steve: where is the list?
Ryan: www.uscho.com
Ryan: looking through these divisions, its like a who's who of 16 seeds in the big dance

I shudder to think that anyone would label me a stereotypical Minnesotan, namely because there are very few Minnesotans that fall into that stereotype. If there was one way to separate a native Minnesotan from someone who just moved there it would be hockey. Almost everyone who has lived there from childhood has an affinity, however fleeting, for the game.

I went to a University of Minnesota hockey game at Mariucci Arena in Downtown Minneapolis. We played Merrimack, a school I had never heard of. The fans at the game were into the game. They had choreographed cheers, and new exactly when to use them. They gasped at the close calls, cheered when the puck was cleared from the zone. The fans knew the game.

Instead of an NHL section in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there were two pages devoted to hockey, high school and college, boys and girls. Minnesotans care about hockey the game, even if they don’t particularly seem interested in professional hockey. Everyone in Minnesota knows someone who plays, from mini-midgets just learning to skate to someone who was a fourth round draft pick by the Blues a few years ago. My brother played for at least half a dozen years. I would have, but my enormous head was not conducive to good equilibrium on a pair of ice skates.

The high school I attended won two state championships while I was there. This has the rough equivalent to a school in Indiana winning the basketball championship, or a school in Texas winning a football title. High school hockey in Minnesota is important. College hockey in Minnesota is important. Pee Wee hockey in Minnesota is important. Professional hockey is mere entertainment.

The state of the game of hockey is in great shape among its truest fans. The National Hockey League has its demons to work out, but in the mean time, the real fans of the game are content to watch their own boys and girls skate at the community rink. -Ryan