March 20, 2004

Minnesota, Hats Off to Thee

It’s finally Minnesota’s turn on Sports Illustrated’s 50-state “Sports in America” series, and I’d say the magazine does my home state justice. There’s a decent piece on the state high school hockey tournament (it’s like “Hoosiers” on ice), a very funny Steve Rushin essay that name-checks SuperAmerica (the Wawa of the Midwest) as well as Minnesotans’ tendency to write checks for very small amounts. And didn’t everyone play floor hockey in 7th grade gym class?

Can’t disagree with much in terms of the greatest homegrown athletes (Bronco Nagurski, Paul Molitor, Kevin McHale, Dave Winfield, Neal Broten, golfer Patty Burg); no Hrbek, but he gets best quote. And Game 7 of the ’91 World Series is the only logical choice for greatest moment- SI includes the great scoreboard shot of nine-and-a-half innings of zeroes for the second time in as many years. And unfortunately, the list came a year too early to feature any mention of the Tower of Mauer.

Still, it would’ve been cool to see something like this in the geography section:

Tom Niedenfuer, the Dodgers pitcher who gave up Jack Clark’s series-clinching home run in Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS, was born in St. Louis Park.

One more thing- wanna know a word that doesn’t appear anywhere in the SI story? “Minny.”

Posted by Stephen Silver at March 20, 2004 12:35 AM
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