matt weighs in

Thanks to ticket-hookups from friends, I was able to check out the Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Timberwolves in person over the last week. We had really good seats for the Wild (club level), even though there isn’t a bad seat in the place, and decent seats for the Wolves (center court, 1st row of upper level). As much as I love basketball, catching a hockey game at the X is a great sporting experience.

Growing up in small-town southern Minnesota, I followed in my dad’s and brothers’ footsteps and loved basketball – played it in our driveway, even in the snow, played it by myself in the high school gym at 10pm and played it in Ween’s hayloft when it was snowing at 10pm. I prefer to watch college and pro b-ball, rather than hockey, on TV, but it’s the exact opposite in person, and really, it’s not even close.

The Wild had a rematch from their playoff loss in 2007 against Anaheim, so I knew it would be a good game. I don’t follow hockey closely, but I hate Anaheim after the playoff series last year (yes, I think it’s ok to hate sports teams, players and their fans, but it’s not personal, just fun). The playoffs were physical, borderline dirty, throughout, but Anaheim crossed the line for many fans in game 4, when a third guy entered a 2-man fight and helped take the Wild player down to the ice face-first and by throwing knockout punches to a Wild player who avoids fights, for the most part, due to his size.

Sadly, in the game I saw this week, the Wild only mustered about 14 seconds worth of offense and lost 2-4. There was still bad-blood, as Boogie-man had more than his share of stare downs and shoving matches.

Watching from the Club level was great. Easy to follow the puck, see who is who and possibly the best part, only had a very short distance to walk for more beer, nachos, brats and bathrooms. And, the Wild still have an actual organ player for much of the background music. I loved the experience, even if it was a loss.

The Wolves, on the other hand, played the Suns, which I was really excited about, because I’m a big Steve Nash fan. I’ll admit that I was more into it than I thought I would be – the Wolves are horrible, Target Center is ok as an arena, but not great, and it was the Suns, who should have ran up and down the court against the young Wolves.

However, as it was earlier in the season, the Wolves pulled out a win by feeding the ball to “Big Al” Jefferson all game, and he couldn’t be stopped. Amazingly, too, is that the Wolves actually made some outside shots, which has been a huge plague this year for the whole team. As I said, I was excited about our seats, because usually we’re in the rafters (why pay a lot of money to see half-*ss basketball?). I believe the closer you are to the court for a pro-game, the better the experience and more into it you can get. Pro players just don’t bring out that much excitement in the game, unless your team has a superstar (we miss you KG!) or they go on a huge run to take a big lead or they win a game they really have no business winning.

Maybe the Wolves have made a turn for the better in the last week – wins at Golden State and against the Suns and a narrow loss in Boston to KG’s Celtics Friday night, in a game they should have won. We could not have said this about the Wolves at the turn of the New Year. The young guys appear to be mixing together well, finally, and even though they’ll still end up with a top-5 pick in the 2008 NBA draft, maybe they’ll give us something fun to watch the last couple months of the year, even if we have to watch from the nosebleed seats.

Random thoughts on the sporting world heading into the last weekend of 2007:

* Has anyone cared about the bowl games, yet? You know a playoff is needed when the biggest story, so far, is whether or not a guy on the sidelines (not even a coach, player or trainer) touched a bouncing ball before his team recovered. Even if he didn’t touch it, shouldn’t they have been penalized for all those guys being on the field, which would give the other team the ball back anyway? Apparently, Chris Jessie is the head coach’s stepson and in charge of coordinating the team’s travel and hotel reservations. And he’s on the sideline of a bowl game. Oh well. There is a BS in BCS (one of my favorite sayings, by the way).

* KG won’t let the Celtics slow down all year. I doubt they’ll match the Bulls’ 72 victories from ’95-’96, but damn, he has lit something under Paul Pierce that will carry them to a #1 seed in the East and well into June 2008. However, is it possible that KG’s current team sets the all-time win record, while his former team sets the all-time loss record? Can’t wait to see the outcome of their Feb. 8^th game at Target Center (note to Laura: that’s close to my birthday).

* NBA season has 6 months to go? Maybe thoughts on that another time, although it is now more intriguing than it has been in years. I miss “NBA on NBC” – one of my favorite lead-in tv musical anthems of all-time. I know some of you are humming it right now.

* I believe the Vikings blew their season last Sunday night at home against Washington. Win and they were in the playoffs, which no one could have foreseen after 34-0 in Lambeau. I heard the guys on KFAN’s morning show (AM-1130 in the Twin Cities) talking after the Washington game that if it had been outdoors, instead of in the ‘dome, the outcome would have been different. Really? What part of this Vikings team is so tough that playing in 18 degree, snowy weather gives us more faith in them to produce in such a huge game?

* I think the Giants will beat the Patriots, leaving the Pats 15-1 on the year. I want them to go 16-0 and win the Super Bowl (since the Vikings will be out of it, of course), but the Giants seem to do something every year to save Tom Coughlin’s job. They’ll win this game, giving them 11 wins, then won’t do much in the playoffs, but he’ll still have his job and that constipation-type pained look on his face.

* Johan’s still here, so I have hope the Twins will re-sign him. By the way, less than 2 months until pitchers and catchers report.

Happy New Year to all and to all a big drink!