As sports fans, we sometimes like to joke – or seriously complain – about how big of losers our favorite teams are.
If you look at the numbers, though, the picture isn’t quite as bleak as one might imagine.
Let’s start with the Vikings, who I refuse to spend three hours a week with these days. Through last season, their all-time regular season record, excluding ties, is 426-355, a .545 winning percentage. Not bad, really. Throw in the playoffs, and it dips to .538 with a 445-382 mark.
Through 2013, the Twins – since they became the Twins and not the Senators – stand at .498 with a 4,204-4,243 record. As recently as two years ago, they were above .500 all-time.
The Wild, who haven’t been around as long, are chugging along at 431-381 (again excluding ties, which there are a lot of in hockey) for a .531 mark.
Finally, the Timberwolves have actually won 731 games in their existence with 1,107 losses for a .398 percentage. I would have thought it to be much worse, given all the miserable seasons and should-have-been-lottery-draft-picks.
Bottom line: they’re not so bad. The competitive balance of pro sports is so strong that you have to be really awful for a long time, and even then you win 4 out of 10.
Mouth-watering Omaha Steaks
Showing posts with label Twins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twins. Show all posts
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Book review: in memory of the 2013 MN Twins
One more baseball book – title is: “100 Things Twins Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die” by Alex Halstad.
Sorry, but this one doesn’t cut it. Although it has the variety and is comprehensive enough about the Twins’ 50-plus years, it lacks on three points:
• Repetitive – when topics overlap, too much detail is repeated in multiple places. For example, a player’s performance in the World Series would be repeated in both essays.
• Organization – it probably was intentional, but the topics jump around as if drawn from a hat. An organized outline might have helped alleviate the repetitiveness as well.
• Writing – although clean, it just isn’t quite interesting enough. Reads like a book report.
Instead, I would recommend Steve Ascheburner’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”
Although a few years older and thus pre-Target Field, it covers much of the same material without the flaws above. I own a copy because I left it out in the rain on vacation and the library made me buy it.
Sorry, but this one doesn’t cut it. Although it has the variety and is comprehensive enough about the Twins’ 50-plus years, it lacks on three points:
• Repetitive – when topics overlap, too much detail is repeated in multiple places. For example, a player’s performance in the World Series would be repeated in both essays.
• Organization – it probably was intentional, but the topics jump around as if drawn from a hat. An organized outline might have helped alleviate the repetitiveness as well.
• Writing – although clean, it just isn’t quite interesting enough. Reads like a book report.
Instead, I would recommend Steve Ascheburner’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”
Although a few years older and thus pre-Target Field, it covers much of the same material without the flaws above. I own a copy because I left it out in the rain on vacation and the library made me buy it.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Follow-ups: Mauer, Moneyball
Joe Mauer got a concussion Aug. 19. On Sept. 4, I predicted he wouldn’t play again this season. On Sept. 24, the Twins said so too.
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Ten years later, the Oakland A’s are still at it, and in the playoffs. Swingin’ A’s describes their new “Moneyball” approach: the platoon system. Another great look into making statistics work favorably.
With the A's success this year, here are a couple more looks from MLB and even Japan.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sports: Target (Out)Field
I’ve been to Target Field quite a few times but fortunate to have seats around the infield. This time, scored free tickets in auto dealer promotion which were in the “Home Run Porch View.” As expected, he definition of view is upper deck, left field.
Got there early enough to snag the free ear buds (thanks T-mobile) and used the time to wander around the park to places we’ve never seen before, a self-guided tour without getting in trouble.
The outfield view at TF is amazingly good, other than that you can’t see the outfielder below you if he gets close to the wall.
This we’d discovered before, but made another visit: there’s a small area behind center field where you can get a nice close look into the bullpens. It has a real zoo-like quality about it as you watch the caged subjects in their native habitat.
Oh, yeah, there was a game, sort of. Toronto scored 5 in the top of the first, and when the Twins left bases loaded a couple times that could have at least made it interesting, it wasn’t.
This is rookie time. There’s a youthful photo in the Legends Club of Hrbek, Puckett, Brunansky, Gaetti, and one other player when they were first called up to the big leagues. Hope we can look back on this starting lineup with Presley, Mastroianni, Arcia, Colabello, Pinto, and Florimon someday after they’ve won a couple championships.
Got there early enough to snag the free ear buds (thanks T-mobile) and used the time to wander around the park to places we’ve never seen before, a self-guided tour without getting in trouble.
The outfield view at TF is amazingly good, other than that you can’t see the outfielder below you if he gets close to the wall.
This we’d discovered before, but made another visit: there’s a small area behind center field where you can get a nice close look into the bullpens. It has a real zoo-like quality about it as you watch the caged subjects in their native habitat.
Oh, yeah, there was a game, sort of. Toronto scored 5 in the top of the first, and when the Twins left bases loaded a couple times that could have at least made it interesting, it wasn’t.
This is rookie time. There’s a youthful photo in the Legends Club of Hrbek, Puckett, Brunansky, Gaetti, and one other player when they were first called up to the big leagues. Hope we can look back on this starting lineup with Presley, Mastroianni, Arcia, Colabello, Pinto, and Florimon someday after they’ve won a couple championships.
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