It's been a long, strange and often rough past six months if you are a Minnesota sports fan. We've witnessed much of the carnage from the stands or from the press box. Though it's hard to say exactly when this thing turned sour, the approximate time for the start of the fall seems to be ... well ... the start of last fall. It was a mid-to-late September weekend when this writer attended USC at Gophers (loss) and Dolphins at Vikings (loss) on consecutive days. Since then, we've seen both head coaches of those teams fired.
Tough times to weather
The temperatures are looking up, unlike most of Minnesota's professional and Division I major sports teams.
March 21, 2011 at 5:08AM
We've attended Gophers men's hockey, Gophers men's basketball, Twins, Timberwolves and Wild games since then, which means we've heard choruses of boos for teams and decision-makers.
We've watched three promising developments -- Twins in the playoffs, Gophers hoops starting 16-4, Wild making an improbable playoff push -- all fade away. We've watched the Gophers men's hockey team miss the NCAA field for the third consecutive season. We've watched the Timberwolves take a step sideways in their never-ending rebuilding project.
And all the while, we've watched rivals excel. The Twins were undone in the playoffs by their nemesis, the Yankees. Wisconsin's football team reached the Rose Bowl; the Packers won the Super Bowl; Wisconsin's men's hoops team is in the Sweet 16; the UND hockey team just won the WCHA Final Five, in St. Paul, while the Gophers had the weekend off; Vancouver has the best record in the NHL; as for the Timberwolves, they are years away from having a rival.
We don't revisit all this to pick at a well-worn scab. Rather, we bring it up in a quest for symbolic optimism, even when it is not immediately apparent on any field of play. Sunday, you see, marked the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. If this all began with the fall, maybe it can bounce back with what many consider to be the start of spring?
Maybe this upcoming baseball season will be the catalyst. Maybe the NFL will solve its labor woes, the Vikings will make a shrewd pick at No. 12, and suddenly there will be new life in that realm. Maybe the Gophers, with a new coach (football) and some new talent (basketball and hockey), can start a Dinkytown revival after one of the worst major sports years over there in recent memory. Maybe the Wild -- failing an unlikely final push this season -- will find the missing puzzle pieces. Maybe the Wolves will take steps to at least figure out the shape of the puzzle.
And failing all -- or any -- of that, we have the old Minnesota standby that even if things continue to go poorly for the next six months, the weather will sure be a lot nicer than the previous six.
MICHAEL RAND
about the writer
The Duluth-based musher was among the fastest rookies covering 1,128 miles across Alaska. She came in 18th.
