#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -4). With all the stuff you can find on the Internet, softball bracketology sites is not one of them. I Googled "softball bracketology" to make absolutely sure the Golden Gopher softball team has no chance of reaching the NCAA Tournament. I have found only site: The one by the angels at College Sports Madness. And wouldn't you know, Minnesota is in the tourney, albeit on the road at Seattle.
I really didn't think they had a chance, after the Gophers finished with a 17-11 non-conference schedule. But one (well, the only) site thinks the Nine is in. And that projection has been further boosted by their three-game sweep at Iowa last screening week. Weird note: None of the three games ended exactly in regulation. The middle game, which the Gophers won 6-2, went into extra Innings; the 8-0 series opener and the 11-1 series closer didn't least even seven.
By the way, due to "inclement weather" (I've been using that phrase and quotation marks a lot lately), the U. and the Hawkeyes on Wednesday pushed the series up a day. And then on Friday they announced that the scheduled contest on Saturday would instead be the back part of a Friday Doubleheader. Good that they were able to get in all three games, and hope the club got home safely. But with even more goddamn snow coming in for Wednesday, will they get to play the scheduled DH vs. Wisconsin that day? And just because I'm now paranoid about anything weather-related, will they get in the weekend series against Nebraska?
(By the way, all the details as to why the series-ender was cancelled I got from the Purdue athletics website. The Gopher site just blamed the cancellation on "poor field conditions" and the curfew. It may be obvious, but it's important to note that the conditions of the field was the result of rain. Why wouldn't they just state that?)
I don't know if there are more college baseball bracketologists, but I know that Baseball America has been around a long time. They project the NCAA tourney, and right now they say the U. is in. That status should be bolstered by this pseudo-sweep. Even though the softball squad takes the top spot this week because they went 3-0 and these guys went 2-0, I think the baseball team has the stronger case for the postseason than the softball team. We'll see if they can keep this roll going as all their games this week are at home: North Dakota St. for a game Tuesday, then three versus Iowa this weekend. Fingers crossed that they can actually play them.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -2). In what may be the most weather-affected week the Twinks have ever had, the last three games of their four-game series vs. the Chicago White Sox at Target have been postponed because of, well, no shit, The Tax Day Blizzard of 2018. But at least they got Thursday's opener in, and Jose Berrios was superlative, matching his career high of 11 Strikeouts in a 4-0 win. Moreover, at the beginning of the screening week they took two-of-three from The Defending World Series Champion Houston Astros. Wednesday afternoon's rubber match was the best of them; they choked on an 8-1 lead, but with two Strikes and two Out in the bottom of the Ninth Inning, Max Kepler uncorked a lining Homer to Right for the game-ender. They need more games to evaluate where they are, but going 3-1 is pretty good.
They are "home" for a two-game set against Cleveland. But they are not at home (which is a good thing; more fucking snow is coming Wednesday). Instead, they are in San Juan, P.R. for an outreach series that will still count in the standings. That does mean two fewer home games, but for the greater good, I don't mind. The team is down there right now and will practice today (Monday) for the games tomorrow/Tuesday and Wednesday. They come back to the mainland Thursday and then face the Bay Rays in Tampa over the weekend.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -3). OK, so they didn't get swept. That's a good thing -- for obvious reasons, for one, and two, it looked like The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers were decisively better than the Mild in all facets. In particular, it felt as though the speed that our team is predicated on ran into the customary wall where Toughness Wins Stanley Cups. That may have been the case in Games 1 and 2 (especially Game 2; damn, they had their shot in Game 1), where home-ice gives you last shift, but it was bombs away at the X last (Sunday) night, and the pucks were flying into the net, leading to a 6-2 victory.
Again, that's good. But can they repeat that tomorrow/Tuesday for Game 4? One statistic I was not aware of until I saw it last night: The Bastard Thrashers and the Mild are the two teams with the best home records in the National Hockey League this year. Minnesota needs to fight that stat if they want to win this series.
Again, that's good. But can they repeat that tomorrow/Tuesday for Game 4? One statistic I was not aware of until I saw it last night: The Bastard Thrashers and the Mild are the two teams with the best home records in the National Hockey League this year. Minnesota needs to fight that stat if they want to win this series.
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). Gosh, it's so weird to go to the team's Schedule page and see at the end there is a section for "Post Season" and have the same foe logo seven games in a row.
They finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak. They crushed The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies Monday by 19 and then, more importantly, they proved me and much of their hate fans wrong by outlasting the Denver Nuggets Wednesday in a winner-take-all match, 112-106 in Overtime. But they were gassed as fuck by the end of that game; they had a late lead and choked it away, and while I was listening on the radio I thought for sure they were toast. But somehow, they held on.
Even more surprising was Game 1 last/Sunday night. They lost, no surprise, but they were in it all the way, losing only by a 104-101 margin; just like with the Wild, the Wolves had a chance to steal Game 1 on the road and couldn't take it. That is a spirited effort. And seeing that I thought the main goal was only to just freakin' make the playoffs, the season in my mind is a success, even if the club was in line to grab the 3-seed just five weeks ago. So yeah, I can take a moral victory away from Game 1. Of course, this is the wake-up call The Bastard San Diego Rockets need to blow the Woofie Dogs out the rest of the way. We're still talking about the most 3-reliant -- and 3-making -- team in the National Basketball Association against a team that neither defends nor shoots the 3 well. The stretch goal for this squad is winning a game.
They finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak. They crushed The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies Monday by 19 and then, more importantly, they proved me and much of their hate fans wrong by outlasting the Denver Nuggets Wednesday in a winner-take-all match, 112-106 in Overtime. But they were gassed as fuck by the end of that game; they had a late lead and choked it away, and while I was listening on the radio I thought for sure they were toast. But somehow, they held on.
Even more surprising was Game 1 last/Sunday night. They lost, no surprise, but they were in it all the way, losing only by a 104-101 margin; just like with the Wild, the Wolves had a chance to steal Game 1 on the road and couldn't take it. That is a spirited effort. And seeing that I thought the main goal was only to just freakin' make the playoffs, the season in my mind is a success, even if the club was in line to grab the 3-seed just five weeks ago. So yeah, I can take a moral victory away from Game 1. Of course, this is the wake-up call The Bastard San Diego Rockets need to blow the Woofie Dogs out the rest of the way. We're still talking about the most 3-reliant -- and 3-making -- team in the National Basketball Association against a team that neither defends nor shoots the 3 well. The stretch goal for this squad is winning a game.
#-6: United FC (Re-Entry!). Did you see Zlatan Ibrahimovic score the tying and winning Goals for the L.A. Galaxy over LAFC in his Major League Soccer debut? It was exquisite, but that prodigious performance reinforces how minor league, IMHO, MLS remains when compared to the big European club leagues. This is the MLS' problem in a nutshell, and it might be permanent: Even seeing how far the league has come from its amateurish beginnings, the level of talent there is such that a world superstar, on the downside of his career and riding his club's bench (in this case Manchester United), can flit away to the United States and immediately be The Best Player In The League. From David Beckham to Robbie Keane to Thierry Henry to Bastian Schweinsteiger, those from Europe see the money and the fame and the potential and the inferior competition and see a chance to not just play but to dominate, a flashback to their primes.
On a much smaller scale, I see that happening with the Loons. Saturday night in Portland saw the debut of the first Designated Player in team history, Darwin Quintero. The winger is probably playing as a #10, and in my estimation, at his best he already is more talented than any other player on MNUFC. He was the only Loon to score a Goal in the match:
The good guys still lost, though, 3-2. The other Minnesota tally was an own-Goal. There were also Goals from both sides that was overturned by Video Assistant Referee. Adrian Heath was happy with the effort but not the result. I am neither happy with the effort nor the result. This is the 18th Game in a row where the team conceded at least one Goal. As important a role Quintero might play from now on, he can't be the only one playing defense for 90 Minutes. I still wait for an encouraging sign from these guys.
They are at Seattle Sunday afternoon. With the "inclement weather" here, I wonder if they shouldn't just stay out in the West Coast all week.
On a much smaller scale, I see that happening with the Loons. Saturday night in Portland saw the debut of the first Designated Player in team history, Darwin Quintero. The winger is probably playing as a #10, and in my estimation, at his best he already is more talented than any other player on MNUFC. He was the only Loon to score a Goal in the match:
The good guys still lost, though, 3-2. The other Minnesota tally was an own-Goal. There were also Goals from both sides that was overturned by Video Assistant Referee. Adrian Heath was happy with the effort but not the result. I am neither happy with the effort nor the result. This is the 18th Game in a row where the team conceded at least one Goal. As important a role Quintero might play from now on, he can't be the only one playing defense for 90 Minutes. I still wait for an encouraging sign from these guys.
They are at Seattle Sunday afternoon. With the "inclement weather" here, I wonder if they shouldn't just stay out in the West Coast all week.
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