The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Positive Numbers: University of St. Thomas baseball (New!).  Congratulations to the baseball program of my brother's alma mater for winning the Division III college baseball championship!  They had to battle in the College World Series to do it, too.  They got shut out by Wooster (they're in Ohio) Sunday night, 3-0, had to come back and beat Carthage 3-1 the following afternoon, then had to beat Wooster not once but twice on Tuesday, both cardiac-style, to win the whole enchilada.  (Like top-flight, Div. III is a double-elimination tournament.)  In the first game, St. Thomas squandered a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth, but scratched out two runs in the top of the ninth to give them the final margin of their victory.  The insurance run was a squeeze bunt by senior Dan Leslie, who'd figure huge in the deciding game.  In the bottom of the 12th, Leslie punched a grounder through the hole on the left side to score junior and CWS Most Outstanding Player Matt Olson from second base to end the game and give the Tommies their second baseball championship and 13th title in school history.  Moreover, UST beat two All-American starting pitchers from Wooster in Tuesday's doubleheader, Justin McDowell and Mark Miller, the latter of whom pitched all 11 1/3 innings in the Scots' loss.  And the CWS-ending sweep was the fifth and sixth elimination games the Tommies won in the playoffs.  Coach Dennis Denning gets to add a second trophy to the one he won for UST in '01.

St. Thomas is one of a few teams that take advantage of the Metrodome, albeit in a weird way.  The Gopher baseball team hates their field, so whenever they can (but especially early in their season, when the Twins are in Spring Training) they play at the Dome to escape the March cold.  Other local teams do the same thing for the same reason, but since the Gophers have first dibs and they usually hold four-team tournaments at that time, the only times these smaller schools can play is after the Gophers are done.  (Read this article from USA Today to see what I mean.)  Check on the Tommies' second game on their schedule -- at the Dome, against Wisconsin-Whitewater, March 6, starting at 10 in the evening ... doubleheader.  A couple years ago I saw the first half of a doubleheader featuring a local school playing some school in Nebraska, I think.  During the Gophers game (the reason I went to the Dome) I saw these guys in uniforms and I didn't know what they were doing there.  After the Gophs got done and the PA announcer said things that made me realize they were playing a game, I just had to pay $5 and stick around.  It was weird; there were no player announcements, no video scoreboard, and I couldn't follow with a scorecard because I didn't know who the hell these people were.  It got done after two hours, around midnight, and after their game was over they all piled onto the field and started warming up.  They were playing a second game?!?!?!  That could last till 3 0'clock?!?!?!  I love baseball, but fuck this, and I left.

Anyway, one of those teams this year is the Div. III national champions, and my brother went to the school.  Congrats again!

#-1: Twins (Last Week: -3).  As much as they were playing like doo-doo last week, they were 180 degrees better this week; a close Memorial afternoon loss was the only thing that stopped them from going 7-0 this week.  That 20-1 beatdown of the White Sox, snapping their six-game losing streak, seems to have been the game that snapped them from their doldrums.  And if they couldn't win against Chicago, in retrospect beginning interleague play would have done the trick; from '97 (the first year of interleague play) through last year, the Twins have the third-best interleague record.  That may have improved, for they swept/beat the asses of Milwaukee over the weekend.

Seeing Joe Mauer up close (though in the Cheap Seats, like I already blogged about), it looks like he is either swinging for the fences or he's on something .  Whatever the case, his power has been nothing short of revelatory and his May (though he's quieted down against the Red Sox) has been almost historic.  And it's great he's being backed up by Justin Morneau, who hit a grand slam on Sunday and is providing great protection for Mauer.

The M&M boys are going to be really fun to watch if they keep this up over the summer.  It's good that they're picking up the slack for the starting pitching, which continues to have its ups and downs.  I need to single out Francisco Liriano, who lost Monday because he gave up five runs over four innings.  It's becoming clear that he is not Santana v.2.0.  That trade with the Mets is slowly gaining, Mine That Bird-style, on the Delmon Young-for-Matt Garza trade for worst trade in recent franchise history.  This week: Boston this afternoon, at Tampa for the weekend to close out the month, then three against Cleveland at the Dome.

#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1).  They are in the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence, that's all that counts.  They complete the week at the Big Ten Tournament in Columbus (home of the Blue Diamond) 3-2 and a second-place finish.  Their losses come at the hands of, of all teams, third seed Indiana; the Hoosiers whipped the Gophers 12-3 to begin Minnesota's tournament and whipped them 13-2 in the title game.

Prospects now, however, are not great.  They go down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the host, LSU, was placed as the third-overall seed in the 64-team tourney.  The good news is that the second-seed Minnesota's first opponent, Baylor, was called unqualified for inclusion in the tournament by Baseball America's Aaron Fit.  He's got a point: The Bears lost 12 of their last 14 regular season games, including being swept in their last three series, the last one being at the hands of Big 12 cellar-dweller Nebraska (although they did beat Texas and Kansas in the Big 12 baseball tournament).  The No. 4 is Southern, which is an HBCU, and although I don't want to demean HBCU's, and they are better in baseball than, say, basketball, well, they're an HBCU.  And, also unlike basketball (and like hockey and soccer), upsets are much more likely to happen in this sport.  Let's cross our fingers; they start play Friday.

#-3: Wild (Re-Entry).  To quote blowhard fatass Rush Limbaugh upon hearing John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate: Home fucking run.  Unlike Palin, though, Owner Craig Leipold's choice of Chuck Fletcher as new General Manager actually looks like a good choice on paper.  Fletch was apparently Leipold's #1 target, and for good reason: He's been in the NHL since 1993, and all three teams he's worked for (Florida, Anaheim, Pittsburgh) got to the Stanley Cup finals when he worked for that team.  His father is Hall Of Fame executive Cliff Fletcher.  He wants to make the Wild into a fast-breaking, offensive team, which may persuade some well-known free agents to come to Minnesota, thereby reinjecting interest in the franchise.  And maybe most importantly, he has a reputation of being a great communicator, something his predecessor, Doug Risebrough, apparently didn't think was an important responsibility.  But the reason this is a great hire is because it makes so much sense: Chuck Fletcher is a guy who has paid his dues as an Assistant General Manager, has built a track record of success, and deserves a shot to run his own team.  Contrast that with the:

#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -2).  What the fuck is this?  David Kahn?  A guy who hasn't been in the NBA since '04?  A guy who's been sued when he was a flop as an owner of some teams in the NBDL?  A guy whose accomplishments at Indiana were mostly on the business side?  And do you really want a President Of Basketball Operations who can put on his resume consultant for NBA Showtime for the NBA on NBC?  There is nothing about him that says he has been a lauded GM or a keen talent evaluator or a great communicator, or even a guy who is competent to lead a franchise.

Owner Glen Taylor can pooh-pooh all he wants, but Kahn is probably his fourth choice.  The other three guys either wanted the power to fire Coach Kevin McHale and Taylor didn't give it to him, or saw that the Woofie Dogs were in such terrible shape they never were serious about entertaining an offer for the position and used the team to get more money and/or a better title to stay with their own team.  Even worse, this only alienates the fanbase, and such a bad read has to be laid at Taylor's feet.  At least he finds a guy in Kahn who is friends with Commissioner David Stern and will allow McHale to do whatever the fuck he wants.  Too bad he won't know how to negotiate through three first-round picks in the worst draft in modern NBA history.  Epic.  Fucking.  Fail.