#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). They're on top by default. A deflating series loss at Tampa Bay reinforces the notion they can't win away from the Metrodome. But a series win against Cleveland, even though it puts the team's record at 3-4 for this week, proves that they can win at the Metrodome and, since they'll be facing teams not much better than the Indians for the entire month of June, they have the ability to beat inferior teams. Went to the game Tuesday where Joe Mauer again hit a home run and drove in 3 RBI. I now apologize to Mr. Mauer, the Mauer family and Twins fans who thought they did the right thing in drafting him over Mark Prior in '01. It is the right move, I must say. Now, they just need to get better pitching.
#-2: Lynx (New!). Don Zierden seemed to be a nice guy, but bailing (tm KARE-11's Randy Shaver, the best sportscaster on local TV) on the Lynx just four days before their home opener was a total bitch-ass move. Why couldn't he quit as soon as Flip Saunders became coach at Washington? Couple that with the sudden ascendancy of Jennifer Gillom, former WNBA player, soon-to-be Hall Of Famer and Assistant Coach under Zierden for two years. The only head coaching experience she has? A girls' high school team in Phoenix. This team may have the same level of talent as Gillom's high school team. But at least she's been there five years, three longer than Zierden's tenure with the Lynx. The bottom line, though, is that Gillom is the sixth coach in the 11 years of this franchise's existence, and the awful timing to this coaching change merely exacerbates the lack of stability that is needed for any franchise to succeed. This team has stockpiled high draft picks and talent, and in basketball, you've got to believe that at some point its fortunes are going to turn around. I've been waiting for the Lynx to rise from the dead the past two seasons, and now, after this, I think they're going to be just as listless and flaccid as they've been all throughout its miserable life. This team should either be moved or put out of its misery.
They kick off the season Saturday and have three games this week: at home to Chicago, at Indiana, then home to Los Angeles. And I'm still kind of ashamed that I have no idea what the team's chances are -- well, besides thinking they'll lose all three because of this blindside resignation.
#-Infinity: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). It is what it is. They are eliminated by LSU, final score 10-3. The entire four-team regional actually went to form: 4-seed Southern, 3-seed Baylor and the 2-seed Gophers went out in order in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers, considered the third-best team in the tournament, goes on to super-regionals.
I don't know what to say, except that this team has never gotten to the super-regionals ever in the program's existence. That shouldn't be too shocking; I mean, there are other sports the Gophers haven't been successful in. But this is baseball, a sport where they have won College World Series titles, albeit in the sixties. However, it's difficult to think they'll ever make it that far ever again -- college baseball's an arms race now, and the players are flocking to southern schools because it feels much better to play baseball in February where it's warm outside. As I've said before, the Big Ten is a mid-major when it comes to baseball. But goddammit, we're the Big Ten! How can a BCS conference like us have three teams all get wiped out in the regional round (Indiana went 0-2 with a combined score of 18-2; Ohio State did win twice, but lost to Georgia 24-8 and to Florida State 37-6)? Wouldn't it be easier to ... um ... discontinue the program?
If they don't gas the team, they can play three guys who made this year's Freshman All-American team. Yay?
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