Positive Numbers: Gopher softball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). OK, this is an historic run for the softball program. They have never been this good, ever. They may reach the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla., for the first time ever. Hell, they should. Because this team has demonstrated they are now a national title contender.
Their six wins this screening week extends their program-best winning streak to 19 games. Three of those six victories were shutouts. The whole weekend series at Cowles Stadium this weekend versus Purdue ended early -- two five-inning games and (slackers) one six-inning game. They allowed four runs during that stretch, three of those in the series-ending doubleheader against the Boilermakers which was rijiggered because rain was forecast for Sunday's game (which is accurate; it's raining now). Oh, and the team has now reached its highest ranking ever for Golden Gopher softball at #4. This team is really damn good, and now I have to see them play -- hopefully in a regional, preferably in a super-regional.
The regular season ends for them next week. Like the baseball team (see below), they will be playing at Penn St. I wonder if the softball and baseball teams are going to share the same plane. They should.
#0: Twins (Last Week: -2). Yesterday's (Saturday's) game was postponed because of rain, and that'll be made up in July, I think. (Footnote: As of right now, today's/Sunday's game is being delayed by rain.) So it's possible the organization traveled down to K.C. for just one game.
OK. So for the screening week, the Twins have gone 3-2. Got drubbed by Detroit 13-4, then won two-of-three in Arlington. Two players who have been singled out for their improved play are Placido Polanco (actually he's been playing well for a while) and, for his patience, Miguel Sano.
Sorry, I have nothing else to add. The team returns home for series against Oakland and Boston.
#-1: United FC (Re-Entry!). If you think about it, this team, not even reaching double digit matches in its top-flight soccer history, has already been through a significant roller-coaster. After allowing an historic 18 Goals to begin the year, they made some moves and brought in some new players and not only started playing competently, but well. The side's recent upswing, where they went 2-1-1, actually put the Loons into playoff position (albeit as the Western Conference's 6-seed and thus a virtual play-in game) before yesterday's (Saturday's) matchup against the San Jose Earthquakes. After lambasting this team's horrid start -- and forgive me if you think me a hypocrite for saying this; you might have a good point -- I was actually just as fearful of their recent form. This is an expansion team. They're not supposed to be going to the playoffs. And so I was afraid that their moves would jeopardize their intermediate- and long-term growth. In other words, I was, and kind of still am, worried that these guys are too good right now.
So in essence we may have overreacted to the United's shitty start and may have been spoiled by their recent run. What we fans should be expecting, and hoping for, are matches the two MNUFC had this screening week. On Sunday, versus a depleted Colorado Rapids squad that was missing several starters including USMNT Goalkeeper Tim Howard, the club had its chances and finally put in the game's only score via Miguel Ibarra's diving header. It's a grind-out type of win that you expect an organization just starting out to have -- if they win. Yesterday's 1-0 defeat to the Quakes was the flip side. Against an equally adrift squad, United just didn't have it offensively, failing to make that final pass to finish off a scoring opportunity. The defense, markedly improving from awful to, uh, average, made a mistake off a Corner Kick, which resulted in the only Goal of that game. Now, if a casual fan pays attention to the gist of this game -- new squad just couldn't score, defense played well, they just coughed up a score off a set piece -- you would think that's the typical game for an expansion team. It just feels disappointing, though -- not just because this was a vulnerable San Jose side but also because we have seen Minnesota play a lot better. Hey, I'm in this conundrum as well. Don't know what to say except that I am a season-ticketholder and I'm on this ride now matter where it goes.
They're off till next Sunday, which means they'll fall off the survey next week.
#-2: Vikings (Re-Entry!). Do we have any idea how these draft picks will pan out? No. Doesn't stop people from giving grades. Hey, cogent evaluations of draft picks requires waiting years, and patience is the providence of journalists, and you see how they get treated these days. (Some days I'm glad I didn't pursue sports reporting.) Hot-take evaluations based on no information is what sells these days, and so there were, according to the Daily Norseman, nine writers who gave the Vikings' draft a ... after calculating and averaging, a B. Well, technically, a 2.99 GPA, so just below a B, but a B nonetheless. That gets you, uh, not the bottom for the WMNSS.
My issue, and maybe the issue, is the first pick the Vikes made in the Draft, their second-round pick, Dalvin Cook out of Florida St. I have just looked into the history of his past off-the-field issues, and frankly, Joe Mixon looks like a choir boy next to Cook. Everybody was going into the NFL Draft wondering if Mixon, the Running Back out of Oklahoma, would even be drafted. He was, by the Cincinnati Bengals, a franchise that regularly takes players that have run afoul of the law. #hottake here; Mixon punching a woman in the face isn't, in the overall scheme of things, serious enough to ruin his career nor his character. Why? He had never been in trouble with the law before punching out that girl, and he really hasn't been since. (Well, there was an incident with a parking attendant, but that wasn't assault.) Therefore, you can say that what Mixon did was one very bad choice, and one that was amplified because there is security camera footage showing him decking her, which has been rebroadcast over and over again.
Now, contrast that with the history of Cook, the Seminole Running Back. He has not assaulted anyone, or at least has been convicted of assaulting anyone. All he has are incidents where he was involved -- a BB gun incident, stealing, brandishing a weapon, shit like that. But there are several instances of these small events. And in my mind, a pattern of questionable behavior is a much better indicator of a man's character than one extremely awful and dumb punch. So in that sense, I don't know how much his life off the field won't affect his career on it.
So, of course the only true way to keep those worries and troubles at bay, at least when it comes to Cook's playing days, is to fucking run. So, fuck character -- just be good at running the damn ball.
#-3: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1). Oh, crap, what has happened to the U. baseball nine? They lost the series to Nebraska at Siebert Field Sunday, 9-4, barely outlasted the Huskies of Northern Illinois in DeKalb Tuesday, won 5-4 Friday over Illinois (also at home), then dropped both ends of a doubleheader yesterday (Saturday) by scores of 9-5 and, ick, 14-1. They now sit at 9-6 in the B1G, in a four-way tie for third in the conference, and are even farther away from the NCAA Tournament than they were before dropping two-of-three against the Cornhuskers (at least according to Baseball America). And this is the Big Ten in baseball, where quality victories are relatively hard to come by. Shoot, the two-game mid-week series the Gophers are hosting against Georgia St. won't help much because Georgia St. apparently isn't all that good. (I'd actually want to watch one of those games because of the sheer novelty of seeing a non-B1G team playing at Siebert, but I'm busy test scoring.) All they can do now is win -- those two games, and then the three games against Penn St. this weekend on the road.
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