End of the Year

I have friends debating about whether this ends a decade or not. Since, by definition, a decade is simply a ten-year period, I have no qualms against anyone calling the years 2000-2009 a decade. It’s like calling June “Summer” or September “Fall”, even those their respective seasons don’t start until the ends of the months.

I actually have a couple of things I’d like to write about, but I think I’ll save them for the new year. (Sorry I didn’t write the last two weeks. I was sick, and then it was Christmas. I fully did intend to write Christmas morning, but nature gave those of us here in Minnesota a Christmas gift of six inches of snow, so instead I went out to shovel my driveway.)

Let’s review Minnesota sports.

The Swarm had a mediocre season, not even reaching the playoffs. Not much more can be said about their season, because, frankly, that was a long time ago, and I’ve forgotten it.

This year ended a disappointing season for the Wild, who missed the playoffs. They also lost, at various times, many members of their team were out with injury (which sounds familiar of the current season, actually, except with less concussions then). They got a new owner last year, and rid themselves of their previous general manager and head coach. They started out the year slowly, but in December have tied their franchise record of wins in a month (10, with one left to play), despite facing great adversity. Not only is the schedule tighter this year because of the Olympics, but the Wild had an equipment truck fire wherein half the team lost some to all of their gear.

The Timberwolves apparently played basketball. I say apparently, because their record seems to indicate that they didn’t, really. In their off-season, they unloaded their general manager (to be fair, they did that last December, when they made McHale their head coach), and their head coach. Their season this year started out marginally better than the past, but that’s really not much of a compliment.

The Vikings are playing in typical fashion, and choking as they get close to playoffs. They also traded for a new quarterback in the off-season, but the guy wasn’t that well known, and it didn’t make many headlines at all. In fact, I’m sure if pressed most people couldn’t even name the guy these days. No one really cared about it, and it certainly didn’t interrupt television scheduling to follow his plane as it landed in Minnesota. The guy’s name is Brent or Brett or Britt or something. Write in if you can tell us. We here at Victoria Times headquarters want to know!

The Twins, after everyone expected a mediocre year (again), and a very poor start, managed to have an amazing September. Down 7 games on September 7, and down 3 games with four left to play, they still managed to pull it out in the end, forcing Detroit to Game 163, which is considered quite the classic game—and, as should be expected when two teams play 162 games and come out tied, it was a tense game between two equal teams. For the second year in a row, Adam Everett was on the losing team of Game 163. And Bobby Keppel got his first major league win in that game.

Timberwolves update: They have a 4-7 record since I last reported. For the Timberwolves, that’s a winning record. They’re now at 7-26, or a 21.2% winning percentage—they’ve broke the 20% mark!. The have the worst record in the West, but New Jersey has the worst record, finally getting a couple of wins to compose three win in 32 games!

Wild Update: The Wild have won six games since we last checked in with them (and lost four) and have a 20-17-3 record, for a 50.0% winning percentage. Also, the Wild have three players out with concussions, but Petr Sykora is said to be close to returning; Brent Burns and Pierre-Marc Bouchard are further away from returning.