DID ... NOT ... AGE ... WELL

The Timberwolves on the big screen. The Wild on the iPad. Coo the Highland Cow to the left of the TV. Out of camera range: Talking Butt-head.

11:20 p.m. is a great time to be a Minnesota sports fan.

This makes Denny Hecker look like he really was "good people helping good people."

Game over. This post wins 420 Day top honors.

Are the Wolves uninspired, unprepared or a combination of both?

I am hoping this question ages badly over the next 36 minutes of play.

Sunset on Ka’anapali Beach on Maui.

If you see this, post something orange from your gallery.

Sunset on Kaanapali Beach, Maui, last month.

Matt, Thanks for boiling down my rant! I am a season-ticket holder. Going to games is in my DNA. But I can’t understand how the messaging and performance appeal to casual fans who are vital to the franchise.

Twins have lowest payroll in 12 years, rank 24th in MLB Says owner Tom Pohlad: “Let’s get halfway through the year to the end of the year, and let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses.”

Translation: “Let’s float this leaky boat and hope.”

The Twins talk like they’re ignorant of competing in a market of more successful teams that don’t ask their fans to bet on hope. It’s a blind spot that conspires with the product they’ve created to keep fans from coming to Target Field.

*Leaving 11 runners on base in a one-run loss after leaving 9 runner on in the previous night’s one-run loss.

I’ll puke my Kramarczuk’s if this quote is recycled again. “Let’s get halfway through the year to the end of the year, and let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses.” 3/4

*Twins take a 4-2 lead into the seventh and three mediocre (at best) relievers give up a run apiece in their innings.

*An awful defensive play by Brooks Lee to start the 9th, a hit that should have been an error (putting my ex-official scorer cred on display), that started the losing rally. 2/4

Let me try (again) to make this simple. It *IS* a payroll issue with the Twins because they didn’t do the job of finishing their roster, and you can’t tell me the off-season ownership and front-office drama didn’t play a role in the disarray. Saturday loss showed all the problems in one place: 1/4

This feels like an “I don’t really know the game, so Imma gonna go California Postal” moment by the boys.

sports take | If You Resent Them, You Aren't Really With Them 4.16.26

New Sports Take: Lynx fans angry about players leaving as free agents are being hypocritical and unrealistic. Also: What we've learned about the Twins so far. Maybe the Vikings *won't* take the safety everyone was talking about. @startribune.com takes a deep dive into high school athlete transfers.

Excellent at gametime. Chilly but comfortable starting midgame. Wore a hoodie and windbreaker. For April, that's winning!

Twins winning + Great weather has not captured the hearts of baseball fans.

It’s a great draft with lots of intrigue. Because the Lynx lost bigs (Masha, Shepard and Smith) and backcourt/swing players (Hiedeman, Carleton, Carrington), I have absolutely no clue which way they’ll go. There are no bad choices.

WNBA mock draft: Four UCLA Bruins will be picked in first round UCLA stars Kiki Rice, Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens are expected to be selected in the first round of the WNBA draft on Monday.

I know a lot of us are Lauren Betts fans and are rooting for her to be taken by the Lynx. But this mock draft from the excellent L.A. Times reporter @mingemi.bsky.social doesn't even have the 6-foot-7 center in the top five selections -- or as the first UCLA player chosen.

Lynx must hit with the No. 2 overall pick. I'm on Team Betts/Fam, but would be happy with Olivia Miles, too. Their only other pick is at end of Round 3. The free-agent signing period is only in Day 2.

If the Lynx get Natasha Cloud, that's a point guard upgrade. And Courtney is back to bring the🔥

Now it's on Cheryl to find the right replacements. She turned borderline and developing players into valuable members of their new teams.

To be upset about this is in opposition to supporting what players achieved: marketability and other improvements comparable to what men have had for years. 2/2

Hey, Lynx fan friends. We all supported the players in the battle for a better CBA. Now the players are cashing in, including more now-former Lynx players that you'd imagined, probably. Good on the players, whose relationships with teams have become much more transactional, as they should be 1/2

Nice! Here’s the St. Paul version of well-done hit pieces, done by college students at Macalester.

Marcy-Holmes neighborhood group seeks to rename park named for slavery advocate 19th-century statesman William Marcy's contemporaries called him a "doughface," a northerner with southern principles on slavery.

Thanks, Vic. I just read the Strib article about changing the name of the park and the neighborhood association did the right thing.

Not quite an issue to caucus on, but yes, I understand.

Marcy Park was in Dinkytown and, in an unreported travesty last year, was renamed Dinky Park. I hope it had nothing to do with the distribution of sex and candy.

There’s also a Marcy Park in Brooklyn.

Not sure that .790 in only 98 PAs over the course of 2025 season proves much. Bigger issue is that the Twins *need* to go lefty-lefty because of their roster construction.

We can hope this game marks the end of the Matt Wallner as a full-time player nonsense. His allergy to hitting with runners on base -- 3 HR, 5 RBI, .366 OPS with men on base -- is not a small sample size when you look at last year's stats too. Find another right-handed hitting outfielder now!

A billboard for Heinz ketchup at Rogers Centre says, "Canadian ketchup made with Canadian tomatoes."

🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦Canadian pride on full display 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Quality Control Editor FTW!

New Sports Take: I'm playing Tour Guide in this week's newsletter, talking you through the WNBA free agency/draft craziness, the Wild and Timberwolves as they begin their playoff pursuits, the transfer portal and more on this week's 42-9 baseball game between St. Scholastica and Carleton.