Sports Spectacular!

Baseball

Loved seeing the Cardinals pull off the World Series victory this year.  I am a fan, and must say by mid June had already consigned myself to wait for next year as far as baseball was concerned.  The Cardinals were suffering from injuries and not playing well coupled with Milwaukee playing wonderfully.  The Twins, well they reverted back to the Twins of old and just could not win games no matter what they did.  But then September came...  The Cardinals did something amazing and somehow snuck into the playoffs.  Then, they took out the World Series favorite from the NL Phillies...  After a series of football like scores they dispatched Milwaukee too. 

When it came to the World Series I will admit by then I was just happy to see them still playing.  I figured they had a chance, but they would have to play very well and not make mistakes.  Boy was I wrong.  They kept on hitting, but they also made some wonderful mistakes.  Watching game 6 was hard because I felt making mistakes to lose the World Series would be a lot harder to take than simply being outplayed.  Then they managed an improbable series of comebacks to take the game.  What an end to the season.

Hockey

Coming into the year I was not sure what to expect from my favorite team the Golden Gophers.  They have struggled the last few years and had some younger players they would be counting on this year.  I was pleased that I would be seeing them play early in the year here in Duluth so I could see for myself what they had to work with this year.  I was both impressed and concerned.  Some of the players really impressed me, specifically freshman Marshall and Rau.  But the overall play on Saturday in Duluth was not very good.  When they coupled that with a loss at home to a very poor Vermont squad, I was a little worried with a trip to Alaska Anchorage coming this weekend.  The travel can sap any team, and Alaska plays well at home every year and looks decent this year. 

Well, last night the Gophers knocked Alaska around for a 5-0 win.  Another shutout for Patterson and another 5 goals for the Gopher offense.  Lets see if they can get the sweep tonight.  Those WCHA league points will be important come February and March.

Now if the Wild could just get going and string together a couple of regulation victories...

More trail running tomorrow, I will check in after the Lester Park run.