Enjoy the Season!!

Maybe we can all form a circle and sing Kumbaya and be thankful our billionaire owner overlords simply let us have the privledge of watching their teams perform while continually giving them more of our tax money.  ?

All out Champions would be 1991 and the Twins right?  

A ) Minnesota is not a city.

B ) Maybe we can use this as leverage to end the sports obsession, at least locally.

Do not forget the Golden Gophers who have been in Nowheres Ville since 1962, NorthWestern went from the toilet bowl to the best in those years while the Gophers just swirl around.

"All of that said, if there is such a thing as karma -- and I believe that there is -- the negative attitude of fans may be having some effect."

Gee, way to blame the victim, buddy.  Just to be clear, these "negative fans" have been shelling out tax dollars and hard-earned recreational bucks to support these teams and house them in state-of-the-art facilities. All this despite a total drought of championships.

I think it's more likely exactly the opposite. Minnesota sports fans tolerate failure in ways other fanbases don't, which may mean that FOs and managers/coaches don't feel any great pressure to produce results here. Midwestern culture typically requires one to be even-keeled and humble about expectations. That could be playing a role here, too.

The Lynx won the championship in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 ... so, no, it hasn't been since 1991.

3 hours ago, Squirrel said:

The Lynx won the championship in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 ... so, no, it hasn't been since 1991.

That team is on the level of Minor League baseball, no matter how one wants to glorify women's sports.

Women's golf is still second string and it has been around a long, long time with a Minnesotan Woman, Patty Berg who was one of the best.

I nearly bought a set of her golf clubs at a large flea market at the Minn. State Fair Grounds, twenty years ago, as they were long enough for me, I am six feet tall,  but while  I have never broken, or bent a golf club, at that,  they looked a bit fragile;  I was curios what it would be like, playing with the golf club heads she had.

14 hours ago, MABB1959 said:

All out Champions would be 1991 and the Twins right?  

That's what I read.

12 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

A ) Minnesota is not a city.

B ) Maybe we can use this as leverage to end the sports obsession, at least locally.

A)  That's why I put "city" in quotes

2 hours ago, RpR said:

That team is on the level of Minor League baseball, no matter how one wants to glorify women's sports.

Women's golf is still second string and it has been around a long, long time with a Minnesotan Woman, Patty Berg who was one of the best.

I nearly bought a set of her golf clubs at a large flea market at the Minn. State Fair Grounds, twenty years ago, as they were long enough for me, I am six feet tall,  but while  I have never broken, or bent a golf club, at that,  they looked a bit fragile;  I was curios what it would be like, playing with the golf club heads she had.

Is the lightweight boxing champion less an athlete than the heavyweight champion?

49 minutes ago, glunn said:

Is the lightweight boxing champion less an athlete than the heavyweight champion?

 

Sports is now money, if it does not bring in large amounts of money, it is a lessor sport; sad but very true down to so called amateur sports.

10 hours ago, glunn said:

Is the lightweight boxing champion less an athlete than the heavyweight champion?

 

The WNBA draw similar numbers to minor league baseball teams per game and they only have 30 games a year. Overall attendance and interest in the WNBA excludes it from being generally considered part of the major sports discussion. Essentially, nobody outside of Hennepin and Ramsey county cares about the Lynx enough to even know where they play so using a WNBA team as a source of state pride in a discussion will get you laughed at in 99% of cases. Even using a dramatically more popular MLS team will probably get an eye roll and chuckle.

Conversely, a lot of people would recognize the name Floyd Mayweather and would be interested in watching a bout with him or some other boxer who isn't in the heavyweight division.

14 hours ago, RpR said:

Sports is now money, if it does not bring in large amounts of money, it is a lessor sport; sad but very true down to so called amateur sports.

I agree that is sad and am going to actively celebrate the Lynx.

If you use the four main professional sports leages- NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL, Minneapolis currently has the longest title drought of any city with all four leagues represented. End of story-worst state to be a sports fan. 

Throw the MLS in there too, though the United have only had four seasons in the MLS so far and definitely overachieved last year.

Who's the next team to break the title drought? Uh...Wild, maybe? 

I certainly feel the frustration, but I hate the defeatist attitude that people have about Minnesota sports. When the Twins are bad, I like to speculate about the future, look for bright spots, and think about what moves they can make to improve. I hate when people let conversations boil down to "Well, that's just Minnesota sports. We should never expect better." That's the attitude of a boring person with no imagination.

On 9/14/2021 at 6:32 PM, Squirrel said:

The Lynx won the championship in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 ... so, no, it hasn't been since 1991.

That's why when I have the same rant about how awful the Minnesota championship drought is, I clarify "men's professional sports teams". Otherwise, people throw the Lynx, UMD hockey, and other titles won by teams located in this state in your face. Just for the record, I do consider the Lynx championships as equal to a Twins, Vikings, Wild, or Wolves championship just a different category.

1 hour ago, Unwinder said:

I certainly feel the frustration, but I hate the defeatist attitude that people have about Minnesota sports. When the Twins are bad, I like to speculate about the future, look for bright spots, and think about what moves they can make to improve. I hate when people let conversations boil down to "Well, that's just Minnesota sports. We should never expect better." That's the attitude of a boring person with no imagination.

I was born in '91, so I've never seen a MN major sports championship, but if the Royals and Marlins can win a WS, the Twins should be able to. The Brewers have a shot this year getting zero help from their former MVP; there's no excuse for the Twins not winning a world series or playoff series when teams like the Marlins, Royals, Brewers, Reds, Rays, Rockies, and Cardinals have done it recently. I mean, the Rays have been to two world series in recent memory in the toughest division in baseball with zero fan support, a crappy stadium, and the lowest average payroll in the league. 

I think there is a lot of pent up frustration, jealousy, and insecurity with Minnesota sports fans that may be unique to the region. I am not an exception to this, but I try my best not to act like this all the time  

30 years without a championship in the men’s major 4 sports is the source of the frustration. Frankly, only the Vikings have gotten relatively close to a championship in those 30 years. The Twins can’t overcome the Yankees in the playoffs, the T-Wolves have been a laughingstock for 15 years, and the Wild haven’t been able to put it all together. 

I think there is a TON of jealousy from fans. You can see it on this very thread that we’re using tax dollars to support “billionaire owner overlords”. A common theme I see all the time is bitching about the highest paid player on the team, and essentially running them out of town. Joe Mauer was the local hero who could do no wrong. Then once he became the highest paid player on the team and a career altering concussion happens, the hate starts pouring in. Josh Donaldson this year has had unwarranted attacks written about him on this very site. Kirk Cousins is the most polarizing player in the state. The list goes on and on. 

Finally, I think there’s a ton of insecurity from fans. There’s a constant worry that player X will never sign here because of cold weather, or a myriad of other things that aren’t important as money. As soon as a current Minnesota sports player says they may be looking elsewhere after their contract is over, fans turn on them saying “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Jimmy Butler is a prime example. He was the only reason the T Wolves were relevant for a year. The minute he expressed his concerns about the team and maybe playing elsewhere, people wanted him gone immediately. 

It’s a truly wild dynamic here. I highly doubt people at Dodgers Daily bitch about paying Matt Kemp deferred money all these years later. Or if they won or lost a trade from 2 years ago. It’s only here. And I don’t know why. 

1 hour ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

That's why when I have the same rant about how awful the Minnesota championship drought is, I clarify "men's professional sports teams". Otherwise, people throw the Lynx, UMD hockey, and other titles won by teams located in this state in your face. Just for the record, I do consider the Lynx championships as equal to a Twins, Vikings, Wild, or Wolves championship just a different category.

I appreciate the acknowledgement, and I wasn't trying to throw it in anyone's face, and whether or not they are truly 'lesser', as some here have indicated, I think those were championships that excited the fanbase and the city, which is why I mentioned it. Honestly, I don't follow basketball at all, either WNBA or NBA, and I don't live in Minnesota, but I still heard and read about their successes, so, they garnered some attention, which is why I mentioned it. I don't think it's completely true that Minnesota is completely devoid of 'happiness' since '91, but I get the general gist of the 'major 4 men's sports' in Minnesota being devoid of bringing us happiness.  

56 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I think there is a lot of pent up frustration, jealousy, and insecurity with Minnesota sports fans that may be unique to the region. I am not an exception to this, but I try my best not to act like this all the time  

30 years without a championship in the men’s major 4 sports is the source of the frustration. Frankly, only the Vikings have gotten relatively close to a championship in those 30 years. The Twins can’t overcome the Yankees in the playoffs, the T-Wolves have been a laughingstock for 15 years, and the Wild haven’t been able to put it all together. 

I think there is a TON of jealousy from fans. You can see it on this very thread that we’re using tax dollars to support “billionaire owner overlords”. A common theme I see all the time is bitching about the highest paid player on the team, and essentially running them out of town. Joe Mauer was the local hero who could do no wrong. Then once he became the highest paid player on the team and a career altering concussion happens, the hate starts pouring in. Josh Donaldson this year has had unwarranted attacks written about him on this very site. Kirk Cousins is the most polarizing player in the state. The list goes on and on. 

Finally, I think there’s a ton of insecurity from fans. There’s a constant worry that player X will never sign here because of cold weather, or a myriad of other things that aren’t important as money. As soon as a current Minnesota sports player says they may be looking elsewhere after their contract is over, fans turn on them saying “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Jimmy Butler is a prime example. He was the only reason the T Wolves were relevant for a year. The minute he expressed his concerns about the team and maybe playing elsewhere, people wanted him gone immediately. 

It’s a truly wild dynamic here. I highly doubt people at Dodgers Daily bitch about paying Matt Kemp deferred money all these years later. Or if they won or lost a trade from 2 years ago. It’s only here. And I don’t know why. 

Very likely fans at Dodgers Daily don't bitch about things like the Kemp deal or even trades because the owners have a massive checkbook that can cover over any of those problems.  Money matters when it comes to the discourse on this site b/c that's how Pohlad operates.  

2 hours ago, heresthething said:

Very likely fans at Dodgers Daily don't bitch about things like the Kemp deal or even trades because the owners have a massive checkbook that can cover over any of those problems.  Money matters when it comes to the discourse on this site b/c that's how Pohlad operates.  

Sure, and the Dodgers specifically have made so many win now moves that it’s all lost in translation. I asked my Dodgers friend when the Maeda vs Graterol trade winner article came out here who he thought won the deal. That trade didn’t register on his radar because they’ve made so many blockbuster deals in the last 2 years alone. 

I do wonder if those type of arguments are central to MN sports fans or elsewhere? Do fans on Pirates Daily constantly bring up the Chris Archer trade as a reason to never trade again? Similarly to us thinking every player we let go could be the next David Ortiz? I don’t know. 

<<  All of that said, if there is such a thing as karma -- and I believe that there is -- the negative attitude of fans may be having some effect.  I wish that there was some way to change that.  >>

Start winning.

The American Wrestling Association of Minneapolis popularized wrestling, fed many personalities into later leagues, and is responsible for all of the variants we see today.  I dislike wrestling, but Minnesota played a huge part in its exponential growth.  If so many Minnesotans had not watched the AWA on Channel 9 on Sunday afternoons in the 80s, theatrical wrestling would have never taken off as it did.

As for the Gophers, college football has become a staple of the South.  Football talent, as a general rule, is not going to end up in Minnesota these days.  And that's fine, NCAA Division I football is the biggest con in sports.  I doubt anyone wants the UofM to turn into the University of Texas or Texas A&M anytime soon, where the tail wags the dog and the megadoners for the football program shape the priorities for the entire university.

If memory serves, Gophers hockey had a nice run of dominance around the turn of the century.

The Minnesota Kicks were a popular, exciting, and successful team for the short time they were around before the league collapsed due to mismanagement.

It was not until the 2000s when the LA Lakers won more championships in LA than they won while they were in Minnesota.

Did we forget about Minnesota Fats?  He was magical. 

Being the worst sports "city" should be a blessing for sports blogs, though, right? A  cornucopea of content from the discontented.