#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1). Beat goes on. Crushed Phoenix Sunday and Dallas Wednesday. The Western Conference, led by Head Coach Cheryl Reeve and dotted with four of the Starting Five (only Lindsay Whalen failed to make the squad), beat the East in the WNBA All-Star Game yesterday (Saturday), even. My mantra remains the same: Beat L.A., and win the championship again. This week: Home to New York Tuesday, at Atlanta Friday.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). The trade deadline comes up at the end of the month. And while most other teams have self-categorized into buyers or sellers, depending on their prospects of winning it all this year, the Twinks still are in a limbo zone. I get the feeling that they think that they don't have the horses to really compete this year, and that they have some young players who, with time and some smart fortifications when the time comes, can be even more formidable in the future.
That would mean that it would be best if the organization were to be sellers around now. And yet, despite their 3-3 screening week, where they now sit only two games above .500, they still have a chance of winning the American League Central Division and thus make the playoffs. Despite recent lackluster form, capped off by Jose Berrios being shaky as of late and Ervin Santana mustering only ten outs in the team's 6-3 loss to Detroit at Target Field Friday, they sit only 1 1/2 games back (as of press time) of Cleveland and in a second-place tie with red-hot Kansas City. Things can quickly go south for this squad quickly -- in which case there would be a clearly mandate for them to try and trade Santana and Brian Dozier, or at least some minor league long shots. But if the lineup continues to hit, and if the bullpen doesn't blow up like it did in almost squandering last (Saturday) night's win over the Tigers in which the pen was handed a 6-0 lead and gave up five runs before Brandon Kintzler got four outs for the save, it would make sense to be buyers and, at the very least, get some cheap, journeyman arms that have enough stuff for this year.
Bottom line is they still need to win. And the opponents will brook no quarter -- especially this week, where, after finishing up their series vs. Detroit today (Sunday), they head out on a long West Coast swing, where they will play three against the Dodgers starting on Monday and travel to that dump in Oakland for three with The Bastard Philadelphia By Way Of Kansas City Athletics.
#-3: United FC (Re-Entry!). I keep telling myself that it's OK that the Loons suck. They're an expansion team; they're supposed to. But like I've said before, it would be better to see this team improve throughout the season. Sure, they were just godawful to begin the year. But the early turnaround and victories at home brought up expectations when maybe I should have slowed my own role.
Right now, the side may have reached a nadir. The New York Red Bulls came to town yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. They came in red hot, but they only have two guys, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Daniel Royer. Well, each of those guys scored a Goal as they beat the everloving shit out of MNUFC, 3-0.
That encapsulates the current predicament the organization is in. Injuries and call-ups to national teams during schedule breaks have exacerbated the problem. But they had scant time to pull a team together, Owner Bill McGuire seems to be holding the purse strings tightly, and so they have been exposed as a team that, after the starters, doesn't have much depth. That has showed in their recent form, where they are now winless in their last five matches. Without Johan Venegas, they can't create in the last third. And without Francisco Calvo, the backline is paper thin. Sam Cronin taking the day off for exhaustion didn't help; neither did Joe Greenspan, who may have suffered a third concussion this year.
It showed in the game. When the Red Bulls scored in the First Half, it felt like Game Over. Twenty minutes from the full-time whistle, shortly after NYRB scored its second tally, I started looking through my phone instead. I totally missed the third Goal, and frankly, I don't care. This may be more disappointing than the ass-kicking vs. Atlanta because I expected them not to be this shitty at this point in the season, depleted forces notwithstanding. Wednesday's scoreless, desultory draw against the Houston Dynamo is the only bright spot.
And even though the guys called up might be back by Saturday's tilt vs. D.C. United, the Loons now will be without Brent Kallman, who has to sit out the game for accumulating too many Yellow Cards. Man, when is this team going to get better?
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). This program isn't here for anything on the ice. Well, in a way; they're here for the ice itself -- the name. A couple weeks ago (yes, I know I'm late) the University of Minnesota Athletic Department said that the new name for Mariucci Arena, the home ice for the men's hockey team, has turned into 3M Arena at Mariucci. They have sold off naming rights to one of the great edifices to men's college hockey to a corporation -- a local corporation, and one that makes some awesome products (I mean, Post-Its, hello), but this is another in a continuing, burgeoning falling of dominoes when it comes to colleges whoring themselves by selling off the names of their buildings.
I have and I have always been against naming sports stadiums after corporations. It's a signal of how much money talks in sports, and worst of all, it gives off the impression that Big Business is an entity, a concept that must be respected at all costs. When your favorite team plays in an arena named after a corporation, you see that corporation in a better light. I mean, that's why 3M paid for the privilege of renaming Mariucci. But this is all in an effort to spin fans on how good, how virtuous, how much of a member of the community a business this is. So who cares if it's been accused of dumping a toxic chemical into the Mississippi -- the hockey team plays for these guys!!!
I understand the business of college sports. And AD Mark Coyle certainly can rest at night knowing one of his school's signature programs has just been shot with an infusion of money. But as much of an apocrypha the "purity" of college sport is, that doesn't mean I want to see a blatant instance of money ruling over it.
But here it is, and now I'll have to trudge into 3M Arena (yeah, people will insist on calling it Mariucci, but pretty soon, mark my words, they'll call it 3M Arena) to watch an underperforming program year after year. Or maybe I won't march in there? No, yeah, I will at some point.
#-5: Gopher softball (Re-Entry!). I did not know about this, and I should have. Off of a humiliating season, where the program reached a high in wins in a season, reached #1 in the rankings for the first time ever, but then was forced onto the road for a Regional and proved the NCAA and the haters right by failing to win it, the Head Coach of this year's club, as well as the author of the program's resurrection, is leaving.
Earlier this week, Jessica Allister has taken the job at Stanford, her alma mater. The writing was on the wall when the Cardinal forced its Head Coach, Rachel Hanson, to resign after a 19-32 season. Allister played for Stanford at Catcher and was an Assistant Coach from 2007 to 2009, so it was almost assured that she would return to resurrect her school.
As much as last season shoved a bad taste in my mouth, there would have been no way the Goofers would have been better with anyone else leading the club besides Allister. Minnesota went 56-5 in 2017, and despite losing Sara Groenewegen, it will still be a force to be reckoned with in 2018 behind Kendyl Lindaman, named last month as Catcher Of The Year. But now they'll do without the HC. Speculation starts and maybe ends with current Gophers assistant Jessica Merchant. But the school can't replace Allister, who also took the U. out of the trash heap it was in and brought it to unprecedented heights. Who knows if Minnesota can catch lighting in a bottle twice, so that's why this team is at the bottom of this week's standings.
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