The Vikings' New Stadium Gets a Super Upgrade

The new NFL logo went into use at the 2008 draft. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You really didn't think that the (nearly) billion dollar glass palace of a football stadium, about to be constructed in downtown Minneapolis, was going to be the biggest white elephant in Minnesota's history, did you?

Erasing at least some of the doubts about the new Minnesota Vikings' stadium's ability to land national attractions, the National Football League awarded its 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis.

This is Minnesota's second shot at the Big Game, which they last hosted in 1992.  Back then, the since-demolished Metrodome was considered state of the art enough for the NFL to put its championship game in a city that's colder than, let's say, Miami or San Diego in the winter.

This time, Minnesota's competition was Indianapolis and New Orleans, both of whom have hosted Super Bowls in more recent years.  The fact that the Vikings successfully convinced (to put it mildly) the Minnesota legislature to help fund the new stadium was reportedly a deciding factor.

The other factor is that the NFL is no longer averse to putting its biggest game in colder climates, now that the season has been pushed into February.  The success of the last Super Bowl had to do with two things:  It was held outdoors, and it was played near New York City.  The league has yet to announce any more such games, so the move to an indoor stadium in Minneapolis should be considered a hedged bet.  Besides, how often can you get lucky outdoors without a snowstorm or an arctic blast messing things up?

Come February 2018, the Twin Cities will be on NFL lockdown.  Besides all the freebies (also known as "financial considerations") the league is getting from the state just to host this shindig, every hotel and restaurant in the area will be packed with league officials, corporate sponsors, media and other hangers-on.

What's in it for the general public, besides watching the game on the big screen?  Not much, aside from a few bones the league is going to toss them with "The NFL Experience", or something like that.  Only one percent will be able to see the game in person, and that's if you're fortunate to win a special ticket lottery.  For all you stadium haters out there (and you know who you are), the taxpayers' bill for the Super Bowl won't be revealed until after the game has been played, if at all.  That's to avoid rioting in the streets, we suppose?

The people who run the glass palace tell us that they're going to bid for more events in the future, to fill in the time between Vikings games.  Such as a men's basketball Final Four, a Major League Soccer franchise, or a major convention.  Right now, they should focus on what the stadium is going to look like once it's built by the 2016 NFL season.  If it really does become a white elephant, would it be worth going into on a cold day in February?

Wild 2013-14: They Made The Playoffs. Now What?

Minnesota Wild (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another up-and-down season for the Minnesota Wild was redeemed by its most extensive playoff run since 2003.  They defeated the Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the first round, only to fall to the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the next round in six games.

The Wild finished the regular NHL season with 96 points, which is good enough for fourth place in the Central Division and a wild card playoff spot.  Once again, they have done just enough to get by.

They did all this despite the lack of scoring, a constant carousel of goaltenders, and the inability to win on the road.

• The efforts of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and others notwithstanding, the Wild scored 207 goals during the regular season, which is par for the course unless you were expecting more.  Still, there were too many nights where one-goal games were the norm, and almost all of them ended in overtime and/or a shootout.
• There were at least four players who tended goal at various times this season:  Niklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Josh Harding and Ilya Bryzgalov.  (Did we leave anyone out?)  Because of injuries and illness to Backstrom and Harding, the stretch run and the playoffs fell to a young minor leaguer (Kuemper) and an NHL journeyman (Bryzgalov) who performed very well under the circumstances.  This can't happen again.
• You'll notice that the Wild won only once on the road during the playoffs, and that was Game 7 at Colorado.  That reflects what happened away from the confines of the Xcel Energy Center this past season.

Thanks to the playoff run, coach Mike Yeo will likely get a contract extension.  Should that happen, he'll be under more pressure to produce a winner.  Wild owner Craig Leipold will be more than happy to open up his vault and sign whatever free agent he can get his hands on.  The priorities, of course, are for more scoring and stable goaltending.  But having Thomas Vanek, currently enjoying playoff success with the Montreal Canadiens after having suffered in Buffalo and Long Island, might be too good to pass up for Leipold.

We can't say whether the Minnesota Wild will be a Stanley Cup contender in the near future.  It's more likely that they'll be the Midwestern version of the San Jose Sharks--a perennial playoff team that for some reason never quite got over the hump.  But the self-proclaimed State of Hockey won't mind, just so long as the Wild keep playing deep into the spring every year.

NFL Draft: Passing On Passers

National Football League Draft (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It always happens.  For months, you've seen every Tom, Dick and (maybe a few) Marys give their take on what player their favorite NFL team should draft in every available form of media.  As for the people who do this for a living, their picks seem to change by the hour depending on what kind of information the teams themselves choose to tell them.

Thursday's first round of the NFL Draft in New York showed why many of these so-called speculators would be better off scratching lottery tickets.  In a year where all we've heard about was the plethora of high-value college quarterbacks (i.e. Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M and Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville), most teams went for offensive or defensive line help.  Which is fine, because we're told defense wins championships.

The only quarterback chosen among the bottom of the barrel (that is, the first ten teams in the draft) was Blake Bortles of Central Florida, chosen third by the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Manziel, Bridgewater and a baffled nation watched as team after team in the first round passed on these passers.  Even the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings, teams that were known to be seeking its latest franchise-saving QB after their last ones didn't pan out, went with defensive help first.

So why did it take until the 22nd pick (and a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles) for the Browns to choose Manziel, or the Vikings with the 32nd pick (and a trade with the Seattle Seahawks) to choose Bridgewater?  Is it Manziel's sophomore status or his baggage?  Was it Bridgewater's reportedly lousy audition that undermined his otherwise stellar collegiate career?

Whatever it was, all the fake drama succeeded in making the ESPN crew covering the draft look like fools after having hyped "Johnny Football" for so long.  But after awhile, it became a bit much to watch analyst Jon Gruden constantly defending his man when the possibility existed that Manziel might not get drafted in the first round at all--until he was.  For a quarterback with two years of college experience, he sure sucks a lot of the air out of the room.

As the draft continues through Saturday, this is only Step One of a long process to see whether any of the players drafted has what it takes to be NFL material.  If not, at this time next year, others will be chosen by either the league or ESPN as the Next Big Thing in football.  That's why we have college football.  Like it or not, they exist to prime the pump for (to paraphrase Joni Mitchell) the starmaking machinery that is pro football.

Wolves 2013-14: Life Below .500

The current Minnesota Timberwolves logo (2008-present) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Timberwolves ended their NBA season with a double overtime loss to the Utah Jazz Wednesday night at Target Center, 136-130.

At 40-42, this is the Wolves' best record since the 2004-05 season.  But they've also gone a full decade without reaching the playoffs.  A lot of us checked out when it became apparent that the only thing the team was playing for was to get to a .500 record.  And they didn't even do that.

So now the Wolves face another off-season of uncertainty.  The most immediate concern is who is going to coach this team.  Unless we hear differently, Rick Adelman has coached his 1791st and last NBA game with a 1042-749 mark to show for it.  During his career, he's worked wonders in Portland, Houston, Golden State and Sacramento.  Coaching the Wolves, however, has proven that his magic only went so far.

Then there's the Kevin Love question.  Should he stay in Minnesota another year before heading off to a contender in free agency, or should he be traded?  The Wolves, given their history, are flirting with disaster on this one.  If Love waves bye-bye, they risk getting nothing in return.  If he is traded, the Wolves stand a good chance of getting some past-his-prime player and/or draft picks that seldom work out.

Is there life for the Timberwolves beyond reaching the elusive .500 mark, and maybe offering its dwindling base of fans some hope for the future?  Only owner Glen Taylor (soon to be a newspaper publisher) and team president Flip Saunders seem to know the answers.  For a franchise that's generally considered to be the worst in the NBA, they'd better be the right ones.

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This is who we think will be playing for the NBA title come June:  Miami vs. San Antonio.

The Husky Basketball Double

English: University of Connecticut head women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma during a game against the University of Texas on March 23, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For only the second time, the University of Connecticut's men's and women's basketball teams have won national titles.

The women's team was a bit more expected, completing an undefeated season with a 79-58 rout of Notre Dame (also previously undefeated) at the NCAA championship game in Nashville.  Breanna Stewart led the Huskies with 21 points and nine rebounds as the player of the game.  This was the ninth national title for coach Geno Auriemma, unprecedented in women's basketball and approaching John Wooden territory.

The night before, the men's team defeated Kentucky 60-54 for the national title in Arlington, Texas.  This was the Huskies' fourth championship, and the third in the state of Texas (San Antonio in 2004, Houston in 2011).  Shabazz Napier was the game's best player with 22 points.

You recall that Warren Buffett offered a million bucks to the one who got all the brackets to the NCAA men's tournament right?  Safest bet he ever made.  Absolutely no one got it right as upsets took down the top-seeded teams to the point where the championship game became a matchup of the lowest-seeded teams ever:  #7 Connecticut vs. #8 Kentucky.  Lower seeds with championship pedigree, that is.

The Huskies and the Wildcats both had something to prove Monday night besides the seeding.  For the Huskies, they were coming off an NCAA-imposed one year ban for lack of academic performance--a fact Napier tried to get across in his post-game comments before CBS cut him off.  For Kentucky, coach John Calipari tried to win another title using freshman players who are in college only because they needed a year before NBA teams can draft them.

Yes, basketball rules in Storrs, Connecticut, home to the University of Connecticut.  If they can keep it up in the classroom as well as on the court, they'll be the envy of everyone.  That includes both genders.

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The University of Minnesota men's basketball team couldn't overcome their mediocrity in the first season for coach Richard Pitino, having been passed over by the NCAA again for an invitation to their tournament.  But the Gophers made up for it by winning the National Invitation Tournament in New York, defeating Southern Methodist for the championship at Madison Square Garden.  How much difference it will make for next season remains to be seen.

The women's team has hired Marlene Stollings, who spent three seasons at Virginia Commonwealth (where, not coincidentally, athletic director Norwood Teague hails from), to be its new basketball coach.  Stollings replaces Pam Borton, who was fired after 12 seasons in a case of "what have you done for me lately".  The Gophers haven't seen the NCAA tournament in several years, and is in danger of Rachel Banham (the Big 10's leading scorer) going through her entire college career without a post-season to show for it.  Maybe Stollings can help do something about that.

Twins 2014: Wait 'til Next Year

English: Minneapolis, Minn. (July 17, 2006) - Minnesota Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire the Minnesota Twins vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays game. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Twins will not be worth watching this season.  Maybe in 2015 or '16, who knows.  But not this season.

The baseball experts say this team is a shoo-in for another 90+ loss season.  The Twins have plenty of young talent, but most of those players are simply not ready to make the big move up from the minors.  Until then, the Pohlads have opened up the checkbook to bolster the pitching staff, and they came up with veterans Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes.  They have also kept manager Ron Gardenhire and most of his coaching staff.

Joe Mauer, the Face of the Franchise, is moving to first base in a career-extending move.  Being an MVP catcher has its advantages, but he got knocked in the head once too often, which meant that he was often out on the disabled list with concussion symptoms.  Thus the move to first, where the Twins could use his bat for nearly every game.  Replacing him behind the plate is Kurt Suzuki

The rest of the offense does not inspire confidence, with Brian Dozier, Josh Willingham, Aaron Hicks and others struggling to put runs on the board.  But fear not.  Jason Kubel has returned to the Twins after stints in Arizona and Cleveland, and if he's anywhere near the ballplayer he was in the 2000s, then it's money well spent.  Don't you think?

The upgrade in the pitching staff might mean less need for the bullpen, now led by Glen Perkins as its closer.  But you have to wonder how effective starters Nolasco, Hughes and Mike Pelfrey are going to be against guys who can hit, as opposed to keeping the Twins in the game when their teammates' bats fail them.

Target Field is hosting the MLB All-Star Game this July, and that will be a great chance for folks to see so much talent in one game in one place.   As for the rest of this season, the only talent you're likely to see is the opposition while everyone else in Twins Territory twiddles their thumbs and waits patiently for the Team of the Future.

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Elsewhere in Major League Baseball:

Alex Rodriguez will not be in a New York Yankees uniform this season.  Or maybe ever.

The season has already started with two games in Sydney, Australia between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, both won by baseball's newest highest-paid team.

Wrigley Field turns 100 this year.  The Chicago Cubs have been waiting longer than that to win a
World Series.

This is the last season for Vin Scully as the voice of the Dodgers.  The last season for Derek Jeter as a Yankee.  And the last season for Bud Selig as baseball's defacto commissioner.

There are new TV deals with ESPN, Fox and TBS.  There will be more games on cable (with the addition of Fox Sports 1) and fewer on broadcast.  But the All-Star Game and World Series will continue to be on Fox.

Our division projections:

American League

East:  Tampa Bay Rays

Central:  Detroit Tigers

West:  Oakland Athletics

Wild Card:  Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians

National League

East:  Atlanta Braves

Central:  St. Louis Cardinals

West:  Los Angeles Dodgers

Wild Card:  Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks

There's No "Me" In Sportsmanship, Is There?

On March 13, Hopkins defeated Shakopee 49-46 in four overtimes in the semifinal of the Minnesota Class 4A Boys Basketball Tournament in Minneapolis.  A Hopkins player hit the game-winning shot from half court at the buzzer in the fourth overtime, a play that has been run countless times on sports highlight shows.

What America didn't see was what led up to the big shot.  Toward the end of regulation and for the first three overtimes, a Hopkins player stood in the offensive zone with a basketball tucked under his arm, not moving until there were only a few seconds left so his team could take the last shot.  No attempt was made by Shakopee's players to come out of their zone defense, and at least try to foul the Hopkins player.  The Target Center crowd booed unmercifully.

This may have been bad sportsmanship on the coaches' part for using such a stalling tactic, but it's perfectly legal.  Minnesota is one of several states that do not use a shot clock for high school basketball.

But that wasn't all for Hopkins, whose reputation as a glorified all-star team of transfers took a big hit during this tournament.  Following a last-second loss to Lakeville North 84-82 for the 4A championship, some of the players who had just been awarded second-place medals immediately removed them in disgust.

We preach sportsmanship and fair play to so-called student athletes because of this fantasy we all have, sitting in the stands and on the couches, that playing sports will make us better people if we congratulated our opponents for a job well done and by accepting defeat graciously.

That's not how it is for the young athletes, for whom sportsmanship and fair play have long ago taken a back seat.  From the moment they are able to dribble or throw a ball, they have had their entire childhoods (with the exception of schoolwork) devoted to strenuous practice and pressure from coaches and parents to perform at the highest level.  How they develop is often the difference between a scholarship to a major Division I program that might lead to a megabucks pro contract, and a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.

If you are a young athlete whose home situation is so desperate that you need the scholarship and pro contract to help out your family and to get ahead in the world, second place is not gonna cut it.  Failure is not an option.  Nice guys finish last.

It is often said that kids imitate the behavior of the adults around them.  All they have to do is to turn on the TV or their smartphone.  Players who use performance-enhancing substances.  Racial and sexual slurs in the locker room and on the field.  Showing off in the end zone.  Trash talking on social media.  Coaches who freeze the kicker after the ball sails through the uprights.  Need we go on?

Perhaps the Hopkins players might have been "inspired" (if that's the word) by the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team, who lost the gold medal game in overtime to Canada at the Winter Games in Sochi, then pouted as they received their silver medals.  Or how about the 1972 American Olympic men's basketball team?  To this day, not one of those players has accepted their silver medals after a controversial loss to the then-Soviet Union, who won the gold medal at the Summer Games in Munich.

Selfish behavior?  Yes.  Understandable in the heat of the moment?  Yes.  Is this what we want our youth to emulate?  Certainly not.  But they're going to do it anyway.

So don't blame the young man if he throws his second-place "thanks for competing" medal in the garbage after a close defeat.  Blame the adults in his life who brought him to this point.