Think of Denver as our sister city of sorts

Minneapolis was built on grain, and Denver was built on cattle that were fattened up on grain. The economies have diversified. There are now roughly 3 million people living within a 30-mile radius of both cities.

Denver wanted to make itself an international city by hosting the 1976 Winter Olympics. Then, Colorado politicians backed out because of protests from environmentalists.

An icon of our local sports media wondered out loud why civic leaders didn't campaign to bring a Winter Olympics to the Twin Cities. He backed off when it was mentioned that we were missing one vital resource: a mountain.

We're relevant enough now out here in Flyoverland that the national parties have found us.

The Democrats will be in Denver and the Republicans will be in St. Paul this summer.

Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul are among a dozen metro areas that have teams in all four of North America's major professional sports leagues. The two metro areas are the least populated of the areas with that distinction.

Denver also has a franchise, the Colorado Rapids, in Major League Soccer. We don't want to offend our western neighbors, so we'll just guffaw quickly and move on.

The Broncos' status in Denver is permanent, after the taxpayers came through with a new stadium -- Invesco Field -- in 2001. There's no such guarantee with the Vikings, as public funding for a new stadium seems remote and the team's lease in the Metrodome expires after the 2011 season.

Let's make it clear right here: Even if Zygi Wilf takes our Vikings to Albuquerque, N.M., we don't want to join Denver in having an MLS franchise.

The Twins arrived on the Bloomington prairie as part of baseball's western movement in 1961.

Denver was a final frontier in that land rush, when the Rockies arrived as an expansion team in 1993.

The Twins and the Rockies have played one interleague series. That was in 2003 at the Dome, with the Twins winning two of three. The teams play for the first time in Denver the weekend of May 16-18.

The Timberwolves came to the NBA as an expansion team in 1989. They have been in two divisions, but always with the Denver Nuggets.

The teams met in the first round of the 2004 playoffs. The Wolves, as you might be able to envision again if you squint real hard, we're the No. 1 seeds in the Western Conference and eliminated the Nuggets 4-1.

There were some ill feelings from elbows thrown and taunts made, but it failed to turn into anything long-term for this reason: The Wolves have gone sadly absent from the playoffs.

That leaves hockey, where both areas share this: lost NHL teams.

The North Stars left Minnesota after 26 seasons in 1993 and were replaced by the expansion Wild in 2000. The hockey version of the Colorado Rockies surfaced in Denver with the relocation of the Kansas City Scouts in 1976 and lasted six seasons, until owner John McMullen moved them to New Jersey as the Devils.

The Wild upset the Avalanche in seven games in a first-round series in '03. There were no lasting grudges.

Now, they are at it again -- 1-1 in a first-rounder that resumes tonight in Denver. The Avs are a skating team and have offered little reason for Minnesota fans to be agitated about their presence in this series.

It could stay that way for a full seven games, unless someone in the Avalanche marketing department were to decide to use the Pepsi Center's big screens to post a scoreboard for Stanley Cups (and Lombardi Trophies):

Denver 2, Minneapolis-St. Paul 0.