Vixen Twins watch Wild Wolves and Loony Lynx (MN Sports Thread)

[wcblack34]

Losing to the Mets really stings. However, it was worth watching the entire game just to see that Schoop/Arraez at-bat. Keep waiting for Arraez to regress, but the kid just keeps doing his thing. 

[TENINCH]

5 hours ago, wcblack34 said:

Losing to the Mets really stings. However, it was worth watching the entire game just to see that Schoop/Arraez at-bat. Keep waiting for Arraez to regress, but the kid just keeps doing his thing. 

Just come back to Minnesota with Noah Syndegaard and all will be forgiven.

[Cearbhall]

Owing to visitors from Europe that I am hosting I took a trip into the twin cities metro yesterday to catch the Twins game at noon and the Loons game in the evening. I'll offer a little report on that trip here.

For perceptive on my opinions of these events I should disclose that I know almost nothing about soccer. I was once a huge baseball fan as I grew up a baseball fan that hardly noticed the NFL. I even paid less attention to the NFL back then than the NBA as I was a Celtics fan; they generated lots of excitement for their fans.

I haven't paid much attention to baseball since the last strike. That was the final straw for me -- one more work stoppage than I could stomach from millionaires arguing about money. This was only the third Twins game that I have attended since the strike. I also visited Wrigley once since then to watch the Cubs play the Braves. I haven't watched any baseball games on TV since the strike. As such, even though I was once a hardcore baseball fanatic I hope my opinion isn't too biased anymore.

The baseball game cost about $200 for the seven tickets as I bought tickets up in section 308 (the nosebleeds up above first base) knowing that it wouldn't be worth expensive tickets for the crowd that I was with. The European visitors were utterly bored with the baseball game. The sport moves too slow for the pace people want to be entertained nowadays. Even I felt like it was dragging at times. I don't remember that back when I cared about baseball.  I used to like keeping my own scorebook of the games I attended; perhaps that helped pass the time. I could hardly blame the visitors being bored as the crowd for the most part seemed bored outside the kids from several YMCA camps that were there. In the end, all the visitors got out of the afternoon is the ability to say they have been to a baseball game. They were not entertained.

This soccer game was the second soccer game of any level that I have attended. The other was over in Europe while I was visiting these same people that are over visiting the US at the moment. While I know almost nothing about soccer, the visitors that I brought have season tickets to their favorite team and would never miss watching a game similar to how I feel about football.

The soccer tickets that I got cost almost exactly the same as the baseball tickets. For the soccer game we were behind the end zone in a section without chairs. I should have paid more attention when I was buying the tickets but I didn't and was surprised to find out that our tickets didn't include a seat but just a place to stand. It never occurred to me that GA tickets might not include seats. I am used to that being called standing room only tickets. The not having seats was annoying, but we were a lot closer to the action. Also, I didn't realize when I bought the tickets that the game I bought the tickets for was not a real game but instead some sort of exhibition or practice game, as it was explained to me by the visitors. Again, that is probably what I get for not reading anything and simply clicking through the Loons site to purchase the cheapest tickets they had available.

There were cheerleaders with megaphones right in front of us that were pretty annoying. Soccer cheerleaders are not nearly as good looking as football cheerleaders. And that is a shame too, because the sport of soccer is utterly boring. Even the fans seemed to understand that the sport itself was boring as they went to great lengths to entertain themselves rather than paying attention to the actual sport. One one hand, the fans' seeming understanding of how boring the sport was seemed ridiculous. On the other, it made me consider that the Twins game would have been less boring if the fans allowed themselves to get into it for more than an occasionally cheer for a home run.

One thing that I noticed at the soccer game was that the Minnesota team refers to themselves as a football club. I found referring to themselves that way to be distasteful and disrespectful. If they insist on calling it football they ought to at least refer to it as non-American football. It does seem to show a lot more awareness if they simply call themselves a soccer team -- MNUST instead of MNUFC.

The visitors also seemed bored with the soccer game. Maybe it was because it wasn't their team playing. But they didn't seem impressed with the game itself and certainly not with the officiating. They noted a lack of effort from the players and mentioned that it was because it wasn't a real game.

In the end, the almost $400 for tickets to these two games combined with the other costs associated with the day trip were not at all close to worth it. I would not recommend going to games of either sport to anyone that wasn't already emotionally invested in the teams. It is just a way to spend money to be bored. I will say that I had more fun at the soccer game but that fun had nothing to do with the actual sport itself. Soccer would be wise to focus their marketing efforts on people that are a few decades younger than myself. I think they do so they are on the right track. Best of luck to the Loons. I am not sure baseball's best path to staying relevant but they seem to be doing just fine. They'll continue doing just fine without me. It doesn't look like baseball is going the way of boxing.

For me, I'll continue directing my sports watching dollars to football for the time being.

 

 

[swede700]

 

 

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42 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

Owing to visitors from Europe that I am hosting I took a trip into the twin cities metro yesterday to catch the Twins game at noon and the Loons game in the evening. I'll offer a little report on that trip here.

For perceptive on my opinions of these events I should disclose that I know almost nothing about soccer. I was once a huge baseball fan as I grew up a baseball fan that hardly noticed the NFL. I even paid less attention to the NFL back then than the NBA as I was a Celtics fan; they generated lots of excitement for their fans.

I haven't paid much attention to baseball since the last strike. That was the final straw for me -- one more work stoppage than I could stomach from millionaires arguing about money.

You aren't the only one.  I haven't been all that invested in baseball since the strike.  They lost me then, as there was no point to that strike and they killed a historically great season.  If not for that strike, the Expos would likely still be in Montreal and Matt Williams would have been the first guy to surpass 61 homers and Tony Gwynn would have had a good shot to be the first guy to hit .400 since Teddy Ballgame.  Add to that the fact that the remainder of the season was canceled on my birthday, I was done with it.  I've been to a handful of games since, but the game has never been the same for me.  

The last soccer game I went to was in the 80s, I think it was a Strikers-Steamers game in the old MISL.  I loved playing soccer, watching it is like watching paint dry.  

Football is pretty much it for me as far as being fully invested.  I follow the Wolves to an extent, but the NBA game as a whole is a farce, so I can't take it all that seriously. The "superteam" concept isn't new, as the 80s was pretty much comprised of several superteams as well, but there was more "team" basketball then as compared to now.  I can appreciate Golden State (without Durant) and the Spurs dynasties, as they played more team basketball, but the way these superteams have been "manufactured" is tragic to the sport.  The NBA is a perfect example of where CBA negotiations can go bad because the players have far too much power.    

[Heimdallr]

1 hour ago, Cearbhall said:

There were cheerleaders with megaphones right in front of us that were pretty annoying.

You are just lucky (or unlucky, depending on what you are looking for) it was a midweek exhibition game that nobody cared about, otherwise your stay in the supporter's section would have been much different. During a real game it will be extremely rowdy with an entire drum line, lots of flags flying everywhere, and nonstop chanting/singing. The "cheerleaders" (known as capos, who are leaders from each of the supporter groups) are responsible for coordinating the chants, setting off the smokebombs, and yelling at people that aren't singing. I saw on the broadcast that none of the real supporters were at that game, and it was pretty much dead.

That section is meant for the hardcore supporters that want to get drunk and party. Probably not the best spot if you don't know what you are getting into.  Supporter culture in soccer is a completely different beast from any other sport, and having a safe standing section was one of the primary reasons for building a soccer-specific stadium. Back at TCF we would all just stand on the metal bleachers, which was not super safe.

In terms of the actual game - yeah it sucked. We started all our backups, and Aston Villa is just trying to get in shape before their preseason starts. The only thing either team cared about was not getting hurt. It was never going to be a good/entertaining game. It was the equivalent of a Week 4 preseason game. 

 

[vike daddy]

8 hours ago, Heimdallr said:

That section is meant for the hardcore supporters that want to get drunk and party. Probably not the best spot if you don't know what you are getting into.  Supporter culture in soccer is a completely different beast from any other sport, and having a safe standing section was one of the primary reasons for building a soccer-specific stadium.

yeah, i went to a womens soccer match in Portland a year ago and the hardcores were there too.

[Klomp]

 

[JDBrocks]

Really hoping that that is  the spark that carries them through this tough stretch. 3 more vs the As and 3 vs the Yankees, while the Indians have the Jays and Royals. They need to play their best baseball during this stretch.

[SemperFeist]

The closer we get to the trade deadline without any moves, the more I believe no moves will happen. 

[JDBrocks]

18 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

The closer we get to the trade deadline without any moves, the more I believe no moves will happen. 

I don't know. I think that a lot of the assets that are being talked about are on teams that are still trying to decide if they will buy or sell at the deadline. There hasn't been a lot of movement anywhere. Once the first domino falls I think we will see a scramble, and the Twins will grab someone. 

For me, they have to make a big time move, results be damned. If they go get Bumgarner and he falls apart and they stumble down the stretch I won't put that on the FO. Just making a big time move, and the way they put this team together signals a massive organizational shift for the better. Their homegrown talent has improved significantly, they are using analytics and technology, the farm system has pieces at every level, and if they make a big move it shows that they are doing what it takes to win in a small market.

[The Gnat]

22 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

The closer we get to the trade deadline without any moves, the more I believe no moves will happen. 

I mean, that would primarily be the case for all of MLB, and the moves that do happen will be for Terrance Gore. Terrance Gore wouldn't help the Twins.

[swede700]

41 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

The closer we get to the trade deadline without any moves, the more I believe no moves will happen. 

Nothing ever happens till the last week before the deadline and more likely, the day or 2 before it.  

[RpMc]

Fun game to be at last night.  The energy in the place just took off after Rosario's bomba - my section didn't sit back down the rest of the game.

[SemperFeist]

I’ve run out of adjectives for this bull pen. 

They just suck. 

[vikesfan89]

1 hour ago, SemperFeist said:

I’ve run out of adjectives for this bull pen. 

They just suck. 

Would've helped if they could score with the bases loaded but yeah they could use some help in the bullpen