#-1: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1). Dropped two of three against Illinois, but won Wednesday at North Dakota State (aside: the Dakotas have made a hell of a lot of noise in their first year in top-flight competition) to finish at .500 for the week. Derek McCallum was named Big Ten Player Of The Week, but the Gophers slipped out of both polls to begin the new week. Hey, this is the best team in the Metro Area. This week: three against Purdue at the Metrodome, then host St. Thomas at Siebert, then at South Dakota State.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). The Twinkies also finished at .500 for the week (3-3), but I put them lower than the Gophers because they finished up with two very humiliating losses: A rain-plauged doubleheader/series sweep at Boston. Neither Scott Baker nor Francisco Liriano mustered up any decent stretch of pitching in their performances, and the Red Sox teed off on them. It's early, and this observation is marred by the fact that the Twins swept the Angels at home and then got clubbed on the road, but it's starting to feel like we're seeing a hierarchy in baseball -- there's Boston, then there are the Twins, and the Angels come in somewhere behind them. Not to be overshadowed, they designated Phil Humber for assignment, then got him back because no one else wanted him (he's been reassigned to AAA). Humber is one of the guys received from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade, so this is a sure sign that the Twins wound up on the losing end of this transaction. This week they play two three-gamers against teams that are probably better than them: Cleveland on the road, Tampa at home.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). If you haven't heard, Best Minnesota Girls Prep Hoops Player Ever Tayler Hill is going to Ohio State. There are two good reasons for her to leave: 1) Her big brother, P.J., plays basketball at Ohio State, and 2) to just get away from your family (that's what I did). Nonetheless, this is a damaging blow to the Minnesota program (who apparently finished third in the Hill sweepstakes behind Texas), and a demerit for Pam Borton's recruiting, specifically her edict to close the borders and not let any high school player from Minnesota leave Minnesota.
#-Infinity: Swarm (Last Week: -3). I was at the Swarm's season-ending loss to New York at the X Saturday night. And the thing I took from it was, Where the fuck was the defense? The Titans got out to a 4-1 lead, but Minnesota stormed back with a 5-0 second quarter to lead 6-4 at half. Sadly, New York outscored the Swarm 8-4 after the break for the 12-10 win, helping them win the Eastern Division title and eliminating Minnesota from the postseason. I'm no lacrosse expert, but seeing the Swarm not able to connect on passes, turn the ball over, get screened and trail slashers to the goal, and G Kevin Croswell not crouching late in the game when Titans attackers seemed to intentionally dive down at the goal to get the ball around him had me shaking my head. Defense and goaltending led to the end of their season, one in which they finished with a worse record (6-10) then the year previous for the first time in the history of the franchise. Translation: These guys are moonwalking backward. Good news: Sean Pollock scored his 100th career NLL goal. Yay?
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