NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

NOTE: This appeared first at RandBall, your home for staycations.

Monday, the Twins had an off day, and so Fox Sports North decided to show a mid-afternoon game featuring the Twins’ Single-A affiliate in Cedar Rapids. The story of the day was Kernels center fielder Byron Buxton, one of the best prospects the Twins have had in living memory; Buxton doubled, tripled, drove in three runs, and made one of the best catches you’ll ever see anywhere. By the end of the afternoon, he’d become a folk hero in Minnesota, and people were openly wondering whether a 19-year-old could jump over three levels in the minors and debut for the Twins.

I’m not sure if FSN had ever broadcasted a game from a Twins affiliate before, but by the end of Monday, I was wishing they would do it all the time. It’d be great to check in on Miguel Sano in New Britain, to see how Liam Hendriks is throwing at Rochester, to check out Jose Berrios and Eddie Rosario and the rest of the prospects in the Twins’ system. Unfortunately, FSN has limited time in the schedule, and won’t be showing other games. Frankly, it’s enough to make me wish that we had Victory Sports back.

We’re not too far away from the 10th anniversary of the Twins’ ill-fated cable network, which launched in October of 2003. The channel died partway through 2004, after cable companies refused point-blank to pay ESPN-type money to carry a channel that had the Twins and basically nothing else. But what if it had lived? What if it had grown into a Twins-centered but baseball-obsessed channel that needed unique content? We could have had all of the Kernels we could watch, and maybe all the Rock Cats and the Red Wings and the Miracle, too. It would have been a prospect hound’s nirvana.

Ten years ago, as I railed against Victory Sports holding Twins games hostage, I could hardly have dreamed of the smorgasbord of televised sports I’d have available in the year 2013 – and Rochester games are already available to watch online, for a fee, so I suppose nirvana is on its way. Still, I can only wonder what might have been if we’d given Victory Sports a chance. Maybe we’d already have the option of turning off the Twins – and turning on the Kernels.

*On with the links:

*I really enjoyed Matt Crossman’s SB Nation story, which I cannot describe better than the title: “How NASCAR saved my daughter.”

*Patrick Reusse had a chance to revisit his column from the Gophers’ 38-35 loss to Michigan in 2003, otherwise known as the worst night of my life.

*Parker Hageman of Twins Daily sat down with Dick Bremer to talk stats, and what is and is not appropriate to throw into an FSN Twins broadcast. Key quote: “We’re still wondering once or twice a year if we should explain the infield fly rule.”

*Much is made of baseball losing its title as the National Pastime to football; that said, it’s pretty clear to me that baseball is still pretty solid in second place. For example, Tuesday the NBA Finals went head-to-head with regular-season baseball, followed by the Stanley Cup Finals doing the same on Wednesday – and they both got waxed in the ratings by middling baseball games in a bunch of big markets.

*And finally: Now Tiger Woods is just bullying people.

This week on the podcast, we were joined by Parker Hageman, to recap an idea that Parker reminded me had started on our podcast – taking a party bus to a Northwoods League game. Plus, we talked Twins and the MLB Draft and whatever else happened to pop into our little heads, so check it out.

It’s a rare, strange person who would take a serious story about the government snooping on our private communications, and turn it into a long-winded joke about the Twins’ scouting efforts.

Luckily, I have Twinkie Town for that sort of thing.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Monday evening, I was a guest on the internet radio show Ultras Alive, hosted by Fort Lauderdale Strikers experts Pieter Brown and – I just love this – Uncle Ed. We talked Strikers, Minnesota United FC, and a bunch about the league as a whole and MLS, so listen here if you’re so inclined.

Here’s my game story in the Star Tribune.

NOTE: The following appeared first, after the game, at SoccerCentric.

A bevy of promotions brought some new fans to the Metrodome for the final Minnesota United FC game downtown – and if the crowd’s excitement at the end is any indication, the team just created some new die-hards.

Pablo Campos scored in the fourth minute of second-half injury time, giving Minnesota a 2-1 win and sending the crowd into a frenzy. It was certainly the most exciting United game of the year, and after the team gave up late goals in their previous two Dome games, it’s nice that for once the fans drove home happy.

Give some credit for the winning goal, maybe most of the credit, to Simone Bracalello. He was the one that created the winner, dancing away from two defenders on the left side of the penalty area (how does he do that?) and dropping an inch-perfect cross over keeper Matt Glaeser and right onto Campos’s head.

It was fitting that Bracalello, Minnesota’s best player this year, should be the one to create the goal; this week, he was named the NASL player of the month for May.

Campos, who scored both Minnesota goals, was thrilled to triple his goal total for the season, after scoring just one in the season’s first eight games. “As a striker, I need to have confidence,” he said. “I need to know that I can score goals. If I don’t score goals, there is no confidence that I can put the ball in the net. Getting goals means I’m confident, so it was great to get the winning goal, and a couple of goals tonight, and help the team.”

The Brazilian striker also had the celebration of the night, after getting the ball in the net with about ten minutes to go. The assistant referee flagged Campos for offside, which he didn’t see – so while his teammates remonstrated with the ref, he took off on a celebration jog, waving at the crowd and slapping hands all the way back to the center line. “Nobody told me,” he said. (He had a smile on his face, but when I mentioned his “second” goal, he immediately said, “It was supposed to be three.”)

As for the offside call – it’s funny how justice is served, sometimes. According to the broadcast crew, the striker wasn’t offside on that second goal – but was offside on the game-winning strike. I guess sometimes everything evens out.

For his part, Campos knew the look of the goal didn’t matter. “We needed the ball in the net,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a beautiful goal.”

“We needed that”

I don’t know if head coach **Manny Lagos’s **celebration following the winning goal was captured on film, but trust me – it was epic. Following the game, he said he knew what it meant for the team to – for once – get an exciting win.

“It’s tough because I know the mental strain of when you’re not finishing and how hard it is,” he said. “The goal, when you’re doing well, seems really big; when you’re not, it just seems like it can’t go in. Like the guys, I felt the pain of the team, of us not solving some problems and getting some goals. I couldn’t have been prouder of the effort in the second half and the fight and the battle not to give up and really to push the game to the final whistle.

“This game started off like the past couple of weeks, we gave up a really soft goal at the beginning of the game and had so many chances in the first half to get back in it at halftime. I felt like the guys could easily at halftime have put their heads down and come out and maybe not even gotten the tie. But I really thought they came out energetic, wanting to fight, wanting to battle and get three points. That part of the game is nice for us because we needed that.”

Injury Update

Four players – forward Max Griffin, midfielders Bryan Arguez and Bracalello, and defender Connor Tobin – made their return to the field. Arguez and Bracalello had missed only one game, but Tobin and Griffin had been out for more than a month.

Tobin, however, didn’t make it through the 90 minutes, going off with an unspecified injury with only a few minutes left. He wasn’t the only one; Miguel Ibarra was carted off just minutes earlier, with what the winger thought was a knee issue. Keeper Matt Van Oekel was also unavailable after the game, wanting to see the trainer with an injury of some kind.

No word on the severity of those injuries. Given that striker Etienne Barbara and midfielder Aaron Pitchkolan didn’t dress for the game, and those three potential injuries, in some ways the bye week is going to be welcome for United – even if they fall further down the standings.

NOTE: This appeared first at RandBall, your home for #StearnsCountyPartyBus.

The Metrodome now has an official shelf life; the stadium that’s been at the center of Minnesota sports for more than three decades will expire in a matter of months, after the Vikings finish up their final voyage under the Teflon. I’ll be there today, for the Minnesota United FC soccer match, and unless I make it to a Vikings game this fall, today is likely to be my final trip to the Dome.

Last year, my parents moved out of the house I grew up in, and though I tried not to be sentimental during the move, it was impossible, because everywhere I looked was another memory; that now-empty room was my room, that now-bare floor was where I used to lay down and read, that corner of the yard was home plate, and on, and on. For a kid like me who grew up loving all Minnesota sports, the Dome feels the exact same way. It’s where I saw my first Twins game, and my first Vikings game, and my first Gopher football game. It’s where I used to imagine myself, playing major league baseball or college football or in the Final Four.

The Metrodome always felt basic, shall we say, but in this era of Target Fields and Xcel Energy Centers it feels positively Spartan. It’s terrible for half the sports played there and just uncomfortable for the rest, and when the new Football Crystal Cathedral is in place to replace it, I suppose not many fans will shed much of a tear.

You can bet that I’ll linger as much as possible today, though. I tried not to look back when I drove away from the house, and my childhood, for the final time. I doubt I’ll really be able to do the same today.

*On with the links:

*The Timberwolves badly, badly need a shooting guard, and the preceding part of this sentence has been true more or less since 1989. Canis Hoopus looks at the free agent and trade options this offseason.

*Wright Thompson of ESPN goes to Italy to explore the virulent racism that most often expresses itself through soccer fandom in Italy.

*Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played in the French Open semifinals yesterday, and Grantland’s Brian Phillips was there every step of the insane way.

*Spencer Hall interviewed Baylor football coach Art Briles, and while Briles is the immediate subject, you’re better off just reading it as a profile of every college football head coach ever.

*And finally: GQ sent Drew Magary on a Kid Rock-themed cruise, and the result is entertaining (if not necessarily appropriate for all audiences.)

The Twins are in Washington, where things aren’t looking so good. Here’s a look at the series ahead.

This week on The Sportive, Twinkie Town boss Jesse Lund stopped by, which was impressive because he lives in Boston.  (He was in town for a wedding.) He also brought a friend of his from Minnesota, Ladonna, who was funnier than the rest of us put together. As Brandon asked me in a text the next day, “How is she not on television?”