#0: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1). Quite a triumphant week for the College Nine. They swept their way through the Big Ten Baseball Tournament last week in grand style, needing only three games to beat Indiana, Michigan (in 10 innings) and Iowa to claim the conference tourney title and the automatic bid (and only bid from the conference) into the NCAA Tournament.
They are now in Fullerton, Calif. to begin tourney play against pod top-seed and host Cal State-Fullerton. These guys are hot, winning 15 of their last 19. Baseball America calls them a deep sleeper. And the magazine's John Manuel calls the 4-seed Gophers his out-of-nowhere team to reach Omaha for the College World Series. That'd be something to see. Now watch them crash and burn in two games. (Well, actually, as I type this, Minnesota has a 3-0 lead on Fullerton in the top of the third inning. This team is good and they're in a groove now, but I had no thought they could beat the Titans. If they do, they'll be the only 4-seed to win today.)
#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -3). They actually won a game! They actually won a game!! And they beat the defending champions, too!!! And by ten damn points!!!! Is this a fucking dream or something??? On Tuesday the Jynx beat the Phoenix Mercury 92-82, snapping a five-game losing streak. I'm not sure if they hit on a winning formula or something, but maybe, just maybe, this is the start of something good? No? No, probably not.
This comes after another home game, a 15-point loss to Chicago at Target Center on Saturday. Guess who was at that game? I didn't want to beat the Twins traffic escaping downtown, and I had less than an hour to transfer between the Twinks and this club. I thought the not-too-long, not-too-short transition meant I should go to this game. I recounted how I felt during that game. They were playing so bad, I don't know they could win another game. The Lynx have three games this week: at Tulsa tomorrow (Friday), home to Indiana Sunday, and at Phoenix Thursday night.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). They actually went 4-3 for the week, but since the sweep of Texas happened the first part of the cutoff week and the three losses to Seattle ended the week, it seems worse, and besides, we need some variety, so I'll put the Twinkies at the bottom this week. They scored only one run in their three losses to the Mariners; offense is now suddenly a problem, even though they're holding onto a lead against the Bastard Philadelphia Athletics as I type. After their weekend trio versus the A's, they have a weeknight set at home versus Kansas City.
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