
Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Cooler, where it pleases me to bring you some good news. Let's get to it:
*Since I brought you the gloom-and-doom "here's Target Field three weeks from Opening Day" photo 12 days ago, showing a snow-filled, almost desolate looking ballpark, it is only responsible in the name of BOTH SIDES journalism to report that the weather — as happens in March — is looking considerably better now.
On a personal note, I went for a run outside Monday for the first time since probably mid-January — or whenever we entered the vicious cycle of snow-bitter cold and repeated it about 17 times until all of us wanted to leave everything behind and start a new life somewhere warm. When I walked from the train station to the office today, it was already in the UPPER THIRTIES, and the sun felt like a friend I hadn't seen for 25 years.
My relentless checking of the 10-day forecast for any shred of good news has also revealed this: on Thursday, March 28, the current projected high temperature in Minneapolis is 59 degrees with sun. That happens to be the day MLB in its infinite wisdom scheduled the Twins to open the season at Target Field against Cleveland.
Maybe, just maybe, this will work out?
A lot can change between now and then, of course — even though I tend to cling to long-term projections I like and disregard ones I don't like — but for now feel free to express some optimism.
Did we make it? I think maybe we did, but I don't want to jinx it.
*Vegas has the No. 10 seed Gophers as 5.5 point underdogs against seventh-seeded Louisville in the NCAA opener Thursday — a bigger underdog than any other No. 10 seed.