Our men's teams might be struggling -- the Twins are flirting with a 100-loss season, the Vikings are coming off last year's three-win nightmare and the Timberwolves haven't made the playoffs since 2004 -- but at least they've got sharp uniforms, right?
Not according to ESPN.com, which thinks our guys fare as bad in appearance as they do in performance. The online component of the cable TV sports network recently took it upon itself to rate the uniforms of the 122 teams in the four major pro sports: football, baseball, hockey and men's basketball.
The Vikings' new outfits were scraping the bottom of the list at No. 119. The judges complained: "It didn't seem possible that this design could get any worse -- until they came out with that two-tone collar for this season."
The Timberwolves were just a few slots higher at No. 115. The assessment: "The Wolves' numbering and lettering have evolved over the years from illegible to semi-legible to childish."
The Twins landed at No. 71 with "a look that feels just a tad rinky-dink."
Only the Wild, at No. 32, drew praise: "Almost every design move by this franchise has been a winner."
Wild spokesman Aaron Sickman said the team will share the kudos with its supporters. "When we launched the franchise 10 years ago, we did a lot of polling of the fans to see what they wanted," he said.
As for the criticism of the way our teams look, it doesn't mean anything, but it probably makes this a bad time to bring up the old saw about how clothes make the man.
