First of all, I know the Lynx started their season last (Sunday) night (and, BTW, lost). For all of you wondering why I'm not talking about the team, I'm not leaving them out, I don't think women's basketball is inferior (far from it), I just have a rule: If you win your league's title, I don't bitch about your team until the moment after you end your season short of a championship. So if the Lynx can somehow (and finally) go back-to-back, I won't have to complain about them for two years.
I'm afraid I'll have to throw in that proviso with every survey. Anyway:
#0: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1). Rain once again wreaked havoc on the club's schedule, the last week of the regular season, but no matter. First of all they doubled up St. John's in Queens Tuesday, 8-4, in a game shortened by an Inning because of, you guessed it, rain. They then finished up the regular season with a weekend series at Rutgers. The very last game on Saturday was outright cancelled due to, you guessed it, inclement weather (guessing it's rain). But they got the first two games in, and the U. won both, 4-0 and 5-3 (both in nine Innings) and thus clinched the B1G Regular Season title, their 24th in history.
Congratulations to them, and good luck in this week's B1G Tournament taking place in Omaha, Neb., site of the College World Series. As the #1 seed they will begin play in the eight-team, double-elim tourney Wednesday versus Michigan St., a team they beat two-out-of-three last week (and BTW, they won all eight conference series this year, as well as the past ten (that includes said Red Storm and TCU, both earlier in the season). The only thing I fear is that this current hot streak (five in a row and nine-of-ten) still is not enough for the NCAA Selection Committee to believe the Gophers deserve to host a Regional. If they did, it'd be the first time in god-knows-how long, and I would have the weekend free to see as much of it as I can, which would be sweet. But if these guys get bumped off before the title contest, I don't think I'll get that opportunity. This is a special team, and I hope to Buddha they make noise. But the winning needs to continue.
#-1: United FC (Last Week: -3). There are no moral victories. But so long as there are ties in soccer, I have to shade my thinking in order to analyze what happened in order to rank for the survey. And I believe I am out of step compared to other writers about the Loons' 1-all draw against The Kansas City Wiz at TCF Bank Stadium yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Many writers post-match concentrated on the fact that United dropped two points, and that they still have many deficiencies they haven't been able to fix. I'm thinking that against the best team in the West, after a shit-ass loss at home to the worst team in the West (San Jose) last week, where Sporting Kansas City quadrupled the side in Shots (24-6), had possession of the ball 61% of the time, racked up nine Corner Kicks and allowed zero Corners to the Loons (is that a first?), I think a tie is a great thing!
First of all, my adventure in getting to the game. I thought I built myself enough time after leaving The Local and drinking a Strongbow. (I wanted to see a Serie A match, but the guy who does the soccer on TV stuff wasn't there, so I saw softball and, uh, hurling instead.) I thought I was making great time, till I turned onto a street that was reduced to one lane because of fucking construction. I was race to the stadium, where I get there on time, but had no time to put onions, relish and sauerkraut on my hot dog, and you all know how much I hate that. Didn't see the anthem or the starting lineups, even though I heard an audible groan coming from the masses when the PA announcer said Francisco Calvo was once again starting.
Well, he was marking the Khiry Shelton, the SKC player who scored his team's Goal -- once again early in the game, once again off a Set Piece, two weaknesses that are fast becoming character traits for MNUFC. But thank Buddha for Miguel Ibarra! The pest was all over the place (at least in the first half), and a Cross finally connected, as Darwin Quintero fired and stuffed the rebound into the net to tie up the game. K.C. substituted out Jimmy Medranda for an injury, but it proved to be very fortuitous; his replacement, Seth Sinovic, locked down Ibarra and pretty much the entire Loons Offense from the 36th Minute on.
That's another reason why I felt good about the tie; the club was basically on its heels the entire Second Half and yet they held. Oh, I also feel a bit better about Calvo's play, besides giving up the Goal. Oh, and best of all, Adrian Heath finally found the key to unshackle Brent Kallman from the bench, putting him in place of the potentially-concussed Rasmus Schuller. He has the strength, the guile and the leaping ability to head a Goal or two in. He was supposed to be on the receiving end of a Free Kick late in the game that just didn't connect, but it's that combination of skills which made me wonder (there I go using that word again) why Kallman hadn't played a minute of Major League Soccer action until now. Maybe Kallman proved he belongs on the pitch.
This long stretch of home games (five out of the past six) ends Saturday when with a match vs. Montreal Memorial Saturday.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). Went 2-4 this screening week: Lost the make-up date (which was delayed a couple hours due to rain) to Seattle, split the two-game series against St. Louis, then lost two-of-three this weekend versus The Bastard Seattle Pilots, all at Target. The main takeaway, I think, is the bloom falling off of Fernando Rodney. He was mighty vulnerable in Saturday's game, striking out only five and giving up four Runs when, up until to that start, he had given up only one Earned Run. Still can mow down batters by himself, but he still can't get through many Innings and now it seems as though The Show has caught up with him. Hope he can adapt, and soon.
This week they end their long homestand by hosting ex-Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire and the Detroit Tigers for three. They then visit Seattle for a three-game set over the weekend.
#-Infinity: Gopher softball (Last Week: 0). I wonder if the popularity of the Golden Gophers softball program spiked after news of them "getting screwed" by the NCAA last season. Well, this season it looks as though they were, again, properly seeded, as they were the last team to fall in the Seattle Region to host and overall 5-seed Washington.
They were behind from the get-go in the double-elimination format, losing 2-1 to Texas (which I thought was the higher seed, but I looked at the box score and it looks as though Minnesota was the home team, meaning the Gophs was the 2-seed in the Regional, not the Longhorns. Who knows?). But on Saturday they battled back, knocking off runt Boise St., 11-3, then exacting revenge on Texas, 3-0. To make it to the Super Regional they had to knock off the Huskies twice yesterday/Sunday. Sadly they couldn't even win the first one, going down for the 2018 season by a 5-2 count.
I don't know what to make of the autopsy of this team. They had a very good year. They won the Big Ten Tournament title, which is not nothing. They have Kendyl Lindamann, who may be one of the 20 best players in College Softball Nation. And like I said, they should be a force for years to come. The transition to Jamie Trachsel as Head Coach appears to have been seamless. And yet I'm worried that this is as good as this squad will be, which would be a huge waste of Lindamann's talents, the same way Minnesota couldn't reach the heights befitting of the wondrous Sara Groenewegen. Oh, well, we'll see next year.
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