Now, the bad news: Last/Tuesday night the T-Wolves began their Western Conference Semifinal series at Target Center vs. The Bastard Philadelphia Warriors, and they lost, 99-88. Worse than that, Golden State won going away without the services of Stephen Curry, who left midway through Game 1 because of a hamstring. If the Woofie Dogs can lose to the Warriors this badly without Curry, you can imagine they could get their brains kicked in with Curry playing the entire Game.
What softens the bad news: Every single team in the four series this Round that had home-court advantage to start (the others being The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland and Boston) lost it in Game 1. (Even worse for the Cavaliers, last/Tuesday night they lost Game 2 at home to Indiana, too.) There have already been four Games in these NBA Playoffs where the winning side came back from a deficit of at least 20 Points, an all-time record. So yes, in theory, Minnesota certainly can come back to win this series. The Warriors have looked vulnerable often in their First Round Win over The Bastard San Diego Rockets. With that being said: This is a Minnesota sports team, so it might fucking be over already.
Oh, by the way, there is a local craft brewery called Falling Knife that became immensely popular for bringing in a huge outdoor TV that fans could watch on their premises. I really thought I was going to go there last/Tuesday night for their Game-watching party. I eventually decided against it: I really wanted to see the season finale of Night Court, which ended about 30 minutes before the start of the Game; I've never been there before so I was afraid I was going to miss the start of the Game if I got lost; and seeing that I would just get there before tip-off at the earliest, I don't know if I would have been able to find a good spot to sit (or, actually, stand; I saw an Instagram reel where every fan brought their own lawn chair), and that doesn't even take into account the beer and possibly food I wanted to have and the long lines that would make me miss the start of the Game. Also, there was mail that came in for which I need to talk to Mother about. Well, seeing as they lost, I'm sure glad I skipped that!
#-2: United FC (Last Week: -4). Now that's a way to bounce back from a humbling defeat at home to a very strong Vancouver Whitecaps squad: By going to Austin and crushing Austin FC, 3-0. Congratulations go out to Anthony Markanich, who scored his first Goal as a Loon (I think?). They may be seven Points behind the 'Caps in the West, but they are in second place in the Conference, and they have lost only twice so far in 2025.
Tonight/Wednesday night they have a U. S. Open Cup Match at lower-Division Louisville City FC. MNUFC might be rotating, because they have most likely The Biggest Game In Franchise History coming to Allianz Field Saturday: Lionel Messi and Inter Miami come to The Nest, the former probably for the first, last, and only time in not just his career but his life. I've just checked SeatGeek and StubHub. There is one ticket on the former selling for $203. After that, you're looking at $250, $260. I'm so glad I'm a season ticket holder!
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -2). A 3-3 screening Week. Started off losing the last two contests of a four-Game series in Cleveland; they would win only the opening Game of that series, which was back on Monday, April 28. They then dropped the first Game of a weekend trio at Fenway versus The Boston Red Sox (extending their losing streak to four) before taking a pair of one-Run decisions to win the series. And they finished the Week routing The Bastard St. Louis Browns at Target Field, 9-1, giving the Twins a current three-Game winning streak.
They are playing better as of late, but they're 6 1/2 Games behind Detroit in the Division. The Tigers, by the way, boast the best record in The American League. After finishing up with the Orioles, they host The Bastard New York Giants for a three-Game series, then travel to Baltimore for three beginning on Tuesday.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -5). On Wednesday they routed St. Thomas in St. Paul, 11-0. But then they went to Lincoln and dropped two-of-three to Nebraska, and in their sole Win of the weekend, they had to go to ten Innings before finally besting the Cornhuskers, 6-4. This weekend they finish up their tilts at Siebert Field with a three-Game set versus Maryland.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher softball and Wild (Last Week, respectively: -1 and -3). The Goofer softballers finished their year at home vs. Michigan. And they won the Friday Game -- shut the Wolverines out, in fact, 4-0, which extended their winning streak to six Games. But they got mercy-ruled by Michigan on Saturday, 8-0 in five Innings, then got blanked again on the season-capper Sunday, 3-0. I don't have much more to say about this program right now beyond stating that they finished 2025 5-17 in the Big Ten and 20-30 overall.
Now to the Mild ... I guess they fought valiantly before losing to Team Third Base, The (Las) Vegas Golden Knights in six Games. But there's a Groundhog Day-quality to seeing this fanbase being as optimistic about this franchise's future when their track record is the very definition of meh. I heard this stat on KFAN: This is the first organization in The Four Major North American Sports to reach its sport's postseason at least eight out of the previous ten seasons and go out in the First Round in every single postseason.
Everybody is now ready to break free from the yokes of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. The Mild took a dead cap hit of $14.7 million each of the past two Years, but that will go down to around $1.7 million for 2025-6 before being gone for good. I guess that's great, but they're still a mediocre team, and I don't know if getting to add $13 million more in salary is a significant upgrade -- not if the first task in the to-do list is locking up Kirill Kaprizov to a long-term contract. Kaprizov said in his season-ending news conference that he's not worried about getting a contract he thinks he deserves, so that should be good news. What might be next up is what to do with Marco Rossi. His move down the lines makes him look like a viable trade piece. (Just between you and me, I think he has never fully recovered from long COVID. Trade him to an organization that doesn't believe in that.)
But hey, sign so people and develop your youth, and you might have a viable club one day! Seriously, though, I still think the fanbase's unwarranted hype over the Mild is due to the fact that they're scared that if they don't support the Wild, they'll get stolen from us like the North Stars were. And to that I think the thing we need to do is take back the North Stars name, logo, colors and history. That is when we'll actually get our balls back. Fucking make it happen, Craig Leipold!
No comments:
Post a Comment