MN Fan

Being a 26 year old sports fan in Minnesota has never been easy. We were 6 years old and 10 years old when the Twins won their two world series. Not quite old enough to really understand it or enjoy it. Since that time we've had to endure;
1991 North Stars being shut down by Pittsburgh.
1992 - 2001 Twins era which include Kirby Pucket getting Glacouma.
1997 Gophers final four that did not happen
1998 MN Vikings loss at home to Atlanta in the NFC championship game.
2000 MN Vikings 41-0 loss to the Giants in the NFC championship game
2002 MN Twins surprising Oakland in the first round of the playoffs only to be beaten by the also surprising Angels.
2003 MN Wild shocking upsets of both Colorado and Vancouver only to lose to Aneheim in the conference finals.
1996 - 2003 MN Timberwolves who couldn't advance past the first round of the playoffs.
2005 MN Timberwolves who were the heavy favorites going into the season and didn't even make the playoffs.
2003-2005 MN Twins who couldn't get to the world series, although have a lead against the Yankees in the playoffs.
2006 MN Twins have a miracle finish to the season only to get beat in the first round of the playoffs
2007 MN Wild lose to Colorado in the first round of the playoffs after winning the division and having a 2-1 series advantage in the playoffs.

The sad part is this is our list of accomplishments. There is another list where Minnesota teams failed to even make the playoffs. Those teams weren't even good enough to let us down. I never even touched on the Gopher football team which hasn't been relevant in my lifetime. Our only taste of a championship is our beloved Gopher hockey team which won back to back national championships. But in recent years they have also let us down. They were the first #1 overall to lost in the first round to a #16 team in the NCAA hockey tournament.

So it's been tough being a fan. We've had to endure Brett Favre and the Packers. We've had to watch Wisconsin go to rose bowls. Our hockey team left us for Dallas? Our baseball team tried to get out of the league completely. We've watched Kevin McHale prove time and time again that he does not know how to run a basketball team. We've watched Boston become the city of winners with our players (David Ortiz, Randy Moss, and Kevin Garnett) The Vikings have proven time and time again that they know how to build up your hopes only to watch them shatter. We're the state that traded away;
Stephon Marbury
Ray Allen
Randy Foye
Kevin Garnett
Johan Santana
Jason Bartlett
Matt Garza
Randy Moss
Duante Culpepper
Not to mention basically giving Dallas their building blocks for their 1990's dynasty.

So there hasn't been a whole lot to grab onto and really take pride in. If you compare us to other cities that have 3-4 major sports teams we have gone the longest without making it to the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, or Stanley Cup Finals. If you look at the Minnesota sports history, we've essentially played in roughly 140 professional seasons and have 2 championships, and 9 appearances in the championship games. We don't get the national coverage of our misery like other cities do. But we've suffered as much as anybody. We don't have curses associated with our losing, no famous plays to define the futility. We just managed to find ways to lose on our own. We don't have any real villains in the story just a bunch of likable players who just couldn't get the job done. It has been tough being a sports fan in Minnesota.