Twins 2015: Improved Work In Progress

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the first time in five years, we have reasonable expectations that the Minnesota Twins will not be one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball this season.   Which is surprising to those of us who had given the team up for dead after four awful seasons, and the Target Field 'new car smell' had just about given way to something worse.

The Twins have the second-best record in the American League this season at 49-40, good enough for second place in the Central division headed out of the All Star break.  Ahead of them is the Kansas City Royals, another team that came from the gutter back to prosperity as the defending AL champions.

What changed?  Manager Paul Molitor is credited with turning this sorry bunch of Twins around, but a few other things came together.  The starting pitching has improved with Phil Hughes, Kyle Gibson and Mike Pelfrey turning in some more-than-decent performances.  Fielding mistakes are fewer.  Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe have been contributing plenty to the Twins' offense.  And veterans Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter are hitting the ball like they used to, though not as much.

What still needs work are the middle relievers who give up so many runs that closer Glen Perkins seldom has a chance to save games.  The jury's still out on those much-publicized rookies the Twins brought up from the minors.  Byron Buxton is injury-prone.  Aaron Hicks is hot and cold in the outfield.  Miguel Sano has a hot bat, but has yet to prove he can cut it in the outfield.

If the Twins want to compete with the Royals the rest of the season, they will need to play above-.500 ball.  The way to do that is to keep leaning on the pitching staff, which includes the just-back-from-drug-suspension Ervin Santana.   The offense can't just be a few runs in the early innings, then taking the rest of the game off.  And those rookies need to justify the hype.

With the new MLB playoff system, the Twins don't need to win the division title to make the post-season.  They could be one of two wild-card teams that will face long-shot odds to make it to the World Series, just like the Royals did last year.  The American League will have home-field advantage for the Series, having won the All Star game in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?  Nobody expected the Twins to be this good this fast, and we will soon see whether they can handle the pressure.

Women's World Cup: U.S. Claims Another Title

English: Carli Lloyd of the United States Women's National Soccer team warming up prior to a friendly match against Canada on September 17th, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The United States won the FIFA Women's World cup for the third time Sunday in Vancouver, British Columbia.  The last one was in 1999, back when Hillary Clinton's husband was President, and Brandi Chastain flashed her sports bra in celebration after she scored the winning penalty kick against China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

No such histrionics this time at B.C. Place Stadium, as the U.S. coasted to a 5-2 win over Japan--who they had lost the World Cup to in 2011.  The Americans scored four goals in the first half--three of them by Carli Lloyd, who was rewarded with the most outstanding player trophy--before the Japanese team knew what hit them.  Tobin Heath and Lauren Holiday also scored for the U.S.

This was clearly the Americans' best performance in a tournament where they had been criticized for their sluggish offensive play, which was the game plan of coach Jill Ellis.  It must have worked because it got the U.S. team to the final.

This World Cup had its problems before the opening kickoff, indicating that FIFA hasn't quite put the women's tournament on a par with the men's.

• Matches were played across Canada from Vancouver to Moncton, New Brunswick.  But where was Toronto, the most populous Canadian city?  That's like holding the World Cup in the United States, but New York and Los Angeles aren't involved.
• There were complaints that some of the Canadian Football League venues being used had artificial turf instead of a natural surface.
• Hotel accommodations were less than ideal, with some teams lodging in the same building.
• The apparent sexism of FIFA's worldwide TV feed, which included shots of Hope Solo looking like she's suggestively hydrating herself.  And why were women crossing their arms during the player introductions?
• FIFA president Sepp Blattner is reportedly having second thoughts about his decision to resign.  Considering the mess the organization's in right now, Blattner should stick to his first thought.

Fox's TV coverage was a relief to those who had feared the worst when they took over the World Cup broadcasting rights from ESPN.  The best you could say about it is that it wasn't terrible, unlike the U.S. Open golf coverage.  Having been on a steady diet of British soccer voices the past few years, it was quite a jolt to hear Americans call the tournament for a change.  Other than J.P. Dellacamera, who has been doing this for decades, the rest of the Fox announcing crew sounded like refugees from a college sports channel.

The U.S. team has its share of stars that will carry them into future competitions:  Lloyd, Heath, Holiday, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.  Abby Wambach is leaving the game a winner.  Hope Solo?  Once the afterglow of this championship has dimmed, Solo will be back fighting the domestic abuse charges that made people wonder whether she should have played in this World Cup in the first place.  Her performance in goal should have settled that question.

This was the most watched soccer event in American TV history, with Fox claiming 25 million viewers for the final match.  That's more than for the NBA and NHL finals.  Which is easy to do on the Fourth of July weekend against summer reruns and a rain-delayed NASCAR race.

The jury is still out on whether Americans will watch women in sports beyond the Olympics and the World Cup.  It's hard enough to take female athletes seriously, given that pro leagues in soccer and basketball are struggling to find an audience, without having to sex them up.  They deserve better than that, and not just every four years.

Wolves 2015-16: The Freshmen Class of '15

Alternate logo (2008-present) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After years of bad ping pong ball mojo and NBA draft picks that never really worked out, the Minnesota Timberwolves made the most of the first number one draft pick they've ever had.  They chose Karl-Anthony Towns of Kentucky to help lead them out of the NBA wilderness.

That wasn't the biggest surprise coach Flip Saunders (wearing his President of Basketball Operations hat) would pull off Thursday night, considering that every basketball pundit from ESPN on down predicted that the Wolves would take Towns.  No, the honor went to Tyus Jones, for whom the Wolves traded two second round draft picks to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Oh, and Jones just happens to be from the Twin Cities suburb of Apple Valley.  How convenient.

Towns gives Minnesota something they've been sorely lacking--a 6'11 center who can play defense.  James is a 6'1 point guard, the kind the team doesn't need at this time because they already have Ricky Rubio.  But since Rubio hasn't made the impact the Wolves had hoped for because of injuries, Saunders must think that having Jones around might light a fire under Rubio if he doesn't get traded first.

Both Towns and Jones came from the "one and done" world that college basketball has become, leaving after their freshmen years to enter the NBA draft.  Towns was part of a Kentucky Wildcat team that went undefeated for nearly an entire season, until they lost to Wisconsin at the NCAA Men's Final Four in Indianapolis last spring.  The Badgers proceeded to lose the national championship game to Duke . . . and Tyus Jones.

While visions of playoffs and NBA championships dance in the heads of Wolves' fans, it should be noted that Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyus Jones are joining Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine as part of one of the youngest lineups in the league.  Meaning it should be quite awhile before they show any kind of progress, and by then they should feel confident enough to leave Minnesota and win their championships somewhere else.  Because that's how the Timberwolves roll--as a development team for the NBA's creme-de-la-creme.  And it's not in Minnesota.

Golden Warriors

Wizards v/s Warriors 03/02/11 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Golden State Warriors and their fans had been waiting 40 years for another chance at an NBA title.  The wait ended Tuesday night when the Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97, winning their Finals series four games to two.

The Warriors had a big season, dominating the Western Conference with a 67-15 regular season record.  Novice coach and former TV analyst Steve Kerr got plenty of help from Stephen Curry (who scored 25 points in Game 6), Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala.  Their playoff run took them past the New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets.

As for the Cavs, their Eastern Conference playoffs went through the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks with minimal effort.

When LeBron James came back to Cleveland after his championship sojourn in Miami, he was expected to bring a title to a city that hasn't seen one in over 50 years.  He almost did it single-handedly, scoring a triple-double (32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists) in Game 6.  Some said James should have been the playoff MVP, an honor that ultimately went to Iguodala.

James had to be a one-man team when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love went out of the playoffs with injuries.  But you can't win championships when the starting lineup consists of one superstar and four other guys.

The San Francisco Bay Area now has two teams that have won pro sports championships in the past nine months, with the Giants winning baseball's World Series last October.  The Warriors seem likely to make a long run at the top with the talent they've got, provided they remain healthy.

Cleveland?  They're still waiting.

Blackhawks On The Six

Chicago Blackhawks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the Chicago Blackhawks, their number this season was six.  They are an Original Six NHL franchise (though Keith Olbermann of ESPN disputes that) who have now won six Stanley Cups in its history, three of them in the past six years.

It took the Hawks six games to clear the final hurdle against the Tampa Bay Lightning, with a 2-0 win at United Center in Chicago to take the series four games to two.  Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, who was named winner of the Conn Smythe trophy for being MVP of the playoffs, scored one goal each.

This was a tight series, with all but one game--the last one--being decided by one goal.   Corey Crawford of the Hawks and Ben Bishop of the Lightning were both solid in goal, though there were times when Bishop's on-ice behavior was so erratic that you wondered what was really going on with him.

Both teams' road to the finals were daunting, but no less doable.  The Blackhawks' Western Conference path went through the Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks. (They benefited from not having to play the defending champion Los Angeles Kings, who missed the playoffs this year.)  Tampa Bay's Eastern Conference journey went through three of the Original Six teams--Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers.  They couldn't get past the fourth.

There's no reason why the Chicago Blackhawks can't go for a seventh Stanley Cup--or more.  The core players of Kane, Keith, Jonathan Toews and others, along with coach Joel Quenneville, are all signed up for the next few years.  So don't be surprised if Lord Stanley's Cup continues to take up residence in the Windy City for the rest of this decade.

Lynx 2015: Hiding In Plain Sight

English: , home of the (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Lynx won their first two games of the 2015 WNBA season over the Tulsa Shock at home, and the Indiana Fever on the road.  With the NBA and NHL playoffs going on and the Twins playing better these days, most of you probably didn't notice.

The core regulars for the two-time league champions are all back:  Seimoine Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore and Rebekkah Brunson.  Janel McCarville is not.  She has chosen to take the season off to allow her body to heal after a grueling season of playing in Europe, or so the team says.

Unlike most professional athletes, women pro basketball players such as Augustus, Whalen and Moore play year-round not just in the WNBA and in international competitions like the Olympics, but overseas as well.  It's mainly because the WNBA is a summertime league that doesn't pay nearly as well as those in Europe or China.  The end result is that all that playing is bound to take a toll on their bodies, so the older these athletes get the more likely it is that they need time off.

Take the defending WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury, whose biggest star Diana Taurasi isn't playing this season because the Russian team she's contracted to for winter ball is paying her to sit out.  This may have been an understandable decision on Taurasi's part, but it doesn't make her or the WNBA look good.

Neither does domestic violence.  Brittney Griner of the Mercury is currently serving a seven-game suspension for an incident involving her and her married partner Glory Johnson, who just happens to play for the Shock.

The league's image has also taken a hit when the New York Liberty announced that Isiah Thomas has been brought in as president and part-owner.  Thomas, who has earned the everlasting enmity of Knicks fans for screwing up that franchise over the past few years, also happens to have had sexual harassment problems that make it hard for anyone to understand (beyond Liberty management) why he's the best choice to run a women's pro basketball team.

Back to the Lynx.  They may have won two titles, and are always a threat to win another with the collection of talent they've got.  But unless you buy a ticket to a game at Target Center, your chances of seeing them on TV are few and far between.

Fox Sports North currently holds the local TV rights to Lynx games.  Because the Twins take priority on the station during the summer, Lynx telecasts have to be scheduled on days when there's no baseball.   All others are either shown nationally on ESPN2 and NBA TV, or streaming live on the WNBA's website.

It's not as if FSN spends much money on covering the Lynx in the few games they do show.  The regular announcing crew of Marney Gellner and Lea B. Olson sometimes gives way to coverage provided by some of Fox Sports' other regional networks, even if the game is at home.

The Lynx are again the favorites to challenge for the WNBA title.  Our advice is to see this team as much as you possibly can, before age and time makes some of the players decide that taking a season off might be a good idea for them too.

Pot Shots 2015, Volume 1

English: National Lacrosse League game with the Philadelphia Wings visiting the Minnesota Swarm at the Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adrian Peterson is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  The Minnesota Vikings won't trade him, so he whines on Twitter about the unfairness of his contract.  Well, if he hadn't been taking most of last season off because he got caught taking a switch to his child's behind, we wouldn't be subjected to any of this.

Cleveland vs. Golden State in the NBA Finals.  One team is carrying the ball for a city that hasn't seen a pro sports champion in over 50 years.  The other hasn't been this far since 1975, when Bruce Springsteen graced the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week.

American Pharaoh is the latest horse to try for a Triple Crown, which is something that hasn't been done since the Disco Era.  At least he doesn't talk, or try to sell us satellite TV while being squired by a nearly naked supermodel.

The Minnesota Swarm are moving to the suburbs of Atlanta, citing financial issues and their inability to get a favorable lease with the Xcel Energy Center.  The fact that, in the Swarm's 11-year existence, few people knew they were an indoor lacrosse team suggests that poor marketing may also have been a factor.  Hope you like indoor lacrosse, y'all!

If a new soccer stadium is built, maybe the Twin Cities should try for an outdoor lacrosse franchise.

As we write this, the Minnesota Twins are tied for first in the American League Central Division.  No, this is not April 1.

The Timberwolves won the NBA draft lottery for the first time ever, after years of bad luck that would have perplexed a black cat.  Now the challenge is how not to screw up their number one pick.

Minneapolis is in the running for the 2020 college football championship game, which would be held in the new Vikings stadium.  Wait.  Minneapolis is a college football town?

Alex Rodriguez has now hit more home runs than Willie Mays.  A nation shrugs.

For the second consecutive year, the National Spelling Bee ended with two students being declared co-champions.  Either the kids are that good at spelling words most of us have never heard of, or the number of words in the final round needs to be increased from 25 to 40 or 50.