Minnesota
Minnesota Twins Finally Change The Regular Season Narrative Against The New York Yankees
The narrative concerning the Twins and Yankees is partially over for now. At the least the half concerning the common season.
To say the Twins successful a season collection over the Yankees was a very long time coming is perhaps an understatement however to place it in context, contemplate what a number of the key figures in serving to Minnesota obtain their first season collection win over the Yankees since 2001 had been doing practically 22 years in the past.
The Twins have performed 141 common season video games in opposition to the Yankees in between clinching a season collection from them again on Could 10, 2001 when AJ Pierzynski scored on a handed ball by Joe Oliver within the tenth inning of a 5-4 win.
Of these video games since then, the Twins have misplaced 100 of them usually in troublesome vogue similar to permitting a walk-off grand slam to Jason Giambi within the 14th on Could 17, 2002 on the fourth anniversary of David Wells throwing an ideal recreation in opposition to them after a well-documented evening of late evening partying with forged members of Saturday Evening Reside. Then there are the three straight walkoffs within the first 12 months of the present Yankee Stadium when the Yankees had been reversing a sluggish begin on their method to their solely World Collection title since 2000.
The Twins had been in a position to clinch the season collection due to the great mixture of pitching and energy.
Joe Ryan, who was a four-year-old pitched the clincher with seven innings and is beginning to compete with former Yankee Sonny Grey for the function of group ace. Byron Buxton, who was seven when the Twins final received a season collection, delivered the tiebreaking homer after getting into Tuesday hitless in 16 at-bats in opposition to the Yankees.
Buxton additionally offered essentially the most memorable response when he advised reporters how his thoughts was blown after listening to about how lengthy it had been and struggling to place it into phrases.
“Twenty-two years? I used to be 6,” Buxton stated when advised 2001 was the final time the Twins received the season collection in opposition to New York. “This one felt additional good after listening to that then.”
It additionally was so lengthy Joe Mauer was not even in drafted but by the Twins who had the primary total decide. It additionally was so way back David Ortiz performed in Minnesota’s two wins on the Metrodome and was nonetheless two years shy of becoming a member of the likes of Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as a number of the members of the Yankee-killer membership.
It was so way back that Aaron Boone was nonetheless 26 months shy of changing into a Yankee for 4 months, one thing he did in 2003 when he was acquired from the Reds and hit the well-known pennant clinching homer off Tim Wakefield at 12:16 am on Oct. 17, 2003 after the Purple Sox had been 5 outs away from attending to the World Collection.
The final season collection loss was so lengthy that Aaron Choose was practically a 12 months away from being born. Now he’s slumping of late because the Yankees are also enduring a tough time on the plate that resembles final 12 months’s postseason and parts of their 2021 tedious seasons.
There nonetheless is the matter of the playoffs and ending that skid of 13 straight losses to the Yankees since Sport 1 of the 2004 ALDS when Johan Santana acquired three double performs a 12 months after getting 5 double performs within the 2003 ALDS opener.
These postseason losses embrace some outcomes equally as excruciating as a number of the common season video games similar to Sport 2 of 2009 on Alex Rodriguez’s tying homer and Mark Teixeira’s lined homer down the left subject line. After which there was the 2017 wild-card recreation when the Twins knocked out Luis Severino within the first inning, led by three runs and wound up with an 8-4 loss.
October is a protracted methods off and the assumption is each groups have good possibilities at being there, particularly for the reason that subject is expanded however these are good instances for the Twins and annoying instances for the Yankees, whose backside of the lineup is a mixture of gamers usually not in these roles as a result of accidents, resulting in frustration of being unable to constantly rating and will be cited as a partial contributor for the offensive woes.
No matter who’s or shouldn’t be within the Yankee lineup, you’ll hear concerning the 22 years it took for the Twins to lastly slay the demon often called the common season collection and keep tuned to see if they will truly obtain it in a postseason setting.
Minnesota
Blackhawks leave Minnesota empty-handed again entering holiday break
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Most NHL arenas have been houses of horror for the Blackhawks in recent seasons, but none more so than the Xcel Energy Center.
The Hawks’ 4-3 loss Monday marked their eighth consecutive defeat in Minnesota, where they haven’t won since the 2018-19 season. The Hawks have lost 14 of 15 games against the Wild in any location since 2020.
Wild defenseman Brock Faber, who narrowly lost out on the Calder Trophy to Hawks star Connor Bedard last season, scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period. The Hawks weren’t able to penetrate the Wild’s 1-1-3 neutral-zone trap very often after that.
The Hawks enter the NHL’s three-day Christmas break with a 12-21-2 record, having dropped back-to-back games since their three-game winning streak.
‘‘When the game is on the line . . . we’ve got to be willing to go and play offensively,’’ interim coach Anders Sorensen said. ‘‘We sat back a little bit too much there. I thought we did that in the home games we played, but these past two road games, not so much.’’
Sorensen’s system changes have made the Hawks more aggressive to start games, but he agreed that the team subconsciously tends to fall back on conservative habits at times in crucial later-game situations.
So how can they break those habits?
‘‘Talk about it, work on it, show it,’’ Sorensen responded. ‘‘It’s going to be a process, for sure.’’
One bright spot was young forward Frank Nazar bouncing back from a rough outing Saturday against the Flames with a strong performance. Sorensen gave Nazar a season-high 16œ minutes of ice time, and the Hawks generated an 11-5 advantage in scoring chances with him on the ice.
Nazar also notched his first NHL point of the season with an assist on Nick Foligno’s goal in the second period, although the Wild responded within a minute to tie the score. That continued an ongoing Hawks problem with conceding quick-response goals.
‘‘[I] felt a lot better out there,’’ Nazar said. ‘‘I came back after that [Flames] game wanting to do better and not happy with myself, so [I tried] to do my best today.’’
Bedard, who scored the Hawks’ first goal, now has 11 points in nine games under Sorensen. He’s creeping back toward a point-per-game pace with 30 points in 35 games this season.
Swedish roots
Goalie Arvid Soderblom, the Hawks’ lone Swedish player at the moment, never crossed paths with Sorensen before joining the Hawks’ organization. Soderblom grew up in Gothenburg, which is on the west coast of the country, whereas Sorensen grew up and coached in Sodertalje, a city near Stockholm on the east coast. The cities are about a four-hour drive apart.
Nonetheless, Soderblom has heard that the hockey community throughout Sweden is excited about Sorensen becoming the NHL’s first Swedish-born head coach.
‘‘Of course, you see it has been recognized at home, and people are happy for him,’’ Soderblom said. ‘‘It’s great for Swedish hockey . . . to show that it’s possible. There’s a lot of great coaches in Sweden, so hopefully he can show the way and we can have some more coaches over here.’’
Kubalik’s decline
Looking back at the 2020 Calder Trophy voting results is a mind-blowing exercise.
The top two finishers were Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar and Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, who since have won Norris Trophies. In third was ex-Hawks forward Dominik Kubalik, who now is playing in Switzerland. Behind Kubalik — in fourth place — was Rangers defenseman Adam Fox, who also has turned into a world-class star.
Kubalik’s fall out of the NHL has been as steep as his rise into it. He erupted for 30 goals in 68 games for the Hawks in 2019-20, but he was so awful on the Senators last season that he couldn’t even get an NHL contract as a 28-year-old this past summer.
Notes
The Hawks won’t play again until Friday at the Sabres, who finally snapped their 13-game losing streak with a 7-1 blowout Monday of the Islanders.
• It seems likely the Hawks will keep Nazar and defenseman Kevin Korchinski in the NHL for the time being, rather than sending them back to the AHL.
Sorensen said Monday, with regard to Korchinski specifically, that he’s ‘‘playing well, so we’ll keep playing him here.’’
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Minnesota
Top Minnesota politics moments in 2024: Walz for vice president, legislative chaos and more
MINNEAPOLIS — From Gov. Tim Walz becoming the Democratic nominee for vice president to the whirlwind conclusion of Minnesota’s legislative session, 2024 was packed with political highlights in the state.
Here’s a look back at some of the biggest moments of the year.
2024 Election
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her vice presidential running mate, putting the state in the national spotlight for the 2024 presidential election.
President-elect Donald Trump would go on to win the November election thanks, in part, to the battleground state of Wisconsin flipping in favor of Trump. However, the Minnesota section of the “blue wall” held on Election Day, marking the 13th straight presidential race where the Democratic candidate won the state — and the seventh time that candidate lost.
Trump wasted little time after becoming president-elect to start announcing picks for his cabinet. Just one week after the election, Trump announced he would be selecting Minnesotan Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. The Fox News Channel host was valedictorian at Forest Lake High School and was a member of the Minnesota National Guard.
On a state level, a close House race has resulted in a court battle.
Incumbent DFL Rep. Brad Tabke beat GOP candidate Aaron Paul by 14 votes and maintained his lead after a recount in the race for House District 54A covering Shakopee. Now, Paul is asking a judge to invalidate the results after an investigation by county officials found 21 missing ballots were likely thrown away in the trash and cannot be recovered.
If the results are invalidated, the seat would be declared vacant and a special election would happen sometime early next year. The race will determine control of the House.
Around 45,000 Minnesota Democrats voted for “uncommitted” instead of incumbent President Biden during the presidential primary in March. The votes were the result of an effort by Uncommitted MN, a group protesting Biden’s stance on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Chaotic end to Minnesota legislative session
In May, political tensions reached a boiling point over a last-minute decision by Democrats to put their unfinished priorities into one bill to get them across the finish line.
Democrats bypassed debate and went straight to a vote on a tax bill in which they added provisions from eight other proposals. The move resulted in a descension into chaos in the Minnesota Legislature.
Democrats said the state House did what was needed to pass their agenda, while Republicans were yelling “tyranny” and “communism” in the final minutes of the session, seeking motions to stop the vote.
What bills did and didn’t pass the Minnesota Legislature this year?
PASSED
DIDN’T PASS
New laws in effect in 2024
Other headlines
In April, Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, was charged with first-degree burglary. According to the criminal complaint, Mitchell is accused of burgling her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes. Mitchell has pleaded not guilty, denied stealing and stayed in office despite calls from Democrats and Republicans for her to resign.
Cannabis regulators are pushing a plan for the initial rollout of the state’s legal marijuana market to spring of next year following a judge’s decision to halt a planned lottery last month to choose the first business license holders.
The state’s new flag and State Seal are now in official use, following months of meetings, spirited debates, design submissions and an attempt by some Republican lawmakers to halt the flag’s rollout.
Minnesota is expected to have a $616 million surplus in the next two-year budget, according to the latest forecast, but state officials say there is a looming $5 billion deficit in future years.
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