We suppose we could speculate about the congressional hearings (on C-SPAN 2 and ESPN, but only one with STEPHEN A. SMITH) or muse about whether Phil Rivers’ injury that might keep him out of the AFC title game could actually be better for the Chargers than if he plays (feel the Volektricity!), but instead we’ll pose a question with no right or wrong answer — just a lot of anger and irrational rage: which winter team has been a bigger disappointment to this point. Your choices are A) The Timberwolves or B) The Gophers men’s hockey team. Colleague Jeff Shelman asked us this very question last night, and our gut reaction was Gophers puck. That was a team, after all, that had reasonable expectations of success based on countless years of tradition. To be in a three-way tie for sixth place in the WCHA with no goaltending solution in sight (again) is far less than what a fan could have thought was coming. But then again, the Gophers are at least above .500 overall. The McLovins, on the other hand, are 5-31. While few predicted even a 30-win pace this season, few also forecasted a free-fall that would find the team at the bottom of the NBA and the subject of discussions of whether they could set a league record for futility. Both teams are worse than expected. Both occupy roughly the same rung on the overall Twin Cities sports ladder right now in terms of popularity and buzz (below the other three major pro teams, below Gophers men’s hoops and then open for discussion). Which has been the bigger disappointment?

*What else: Some friends are blogging again: Local Quipster has found his way over to 10K Takes again, writing about the stupidity of resting players before the playoffs. He also has a chicken suit, but that’s neither here nor there. … Taco, meanwhile, has written a very interesting take on Juno’s Diablo Cody and old-tyme director Ed Wood. Yeah, we didn’t know those two things could go together so well, but the man is a wordsmith. He also knows what it’s like to drink Blatz unironically at a northern Minnesota VFW, but that’s neither here nor there.

*Hank Steinbrenner has no idea what he wants to do. The trade for Johan Santana might or might not be on the table. He might or might not want waffles for breakfast. He still thinks Dewey might pull it out over Truman. He just doesn’t know! And so no further mention of the Yankees will pass this way until after Santana is dealt somewhere.

*Fasola-link! Happy previous New Year! The inevitable future of Ryan Seacrest.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.