Given that the Twins have just swept the Giants at Target Field in extremely compelling fashion, perhaps this isn't the most opportune time to reveal my findings. I've always joked about a curse in Minnesota, and I think, at long last, I've found the source.
First, let's go back to the last time there was any success whatsoever in Minnesota men's sports. Back in 1991, the Twins won the World Series, but also, the Minnesota North Stars were in the Stanley Cup Finals earlier in the year. Then, less than two seasons later, Norm Green chose to move the team to Dallas.
Green is a terrible guy, overall, and said he wanted to move the hockey team from Minnesota because it wasn't popular enough. The hockey team that just reached the Stanley Cup, he claimed, wasn't popular enough because college and high school hockey were TOO popular. All right, buddy. If this sounds bogus to you, that's because it probably was.
Not only did Green chase money (he'd already relocated the Atlanta Flames to Calgary as well) there were allegations of sexual harassment and perhaps an affair. His wife is reported to have demanded that Green move the team. Green originally intended to move the team to Los Angeles (only to be supplanted by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks) and settled on Dallas, again, to get away from the temptresses in Minnesota.
So they moved, and the Met Center, in the foreground of the above image, was torn down. The sports complex south of 494 in Bloomington had been turned to rubble, with Metropolitan Stadium having been torn down years before, when replaced by the Metrodome. The sin wasn't that the stadiums were torn down. Curses don't start until graveyards are disturbed.
The Met Center was replaced by the Bloomington Ikea, but the Mall of America opened just over 30 years ago, on top of the remains of the former home of the Twins and Vikings, Metropolitan Stadium. Since the mall opened, and sports abandoned this site for good when the North Stars left, Minnesota has failed to put a men's sports team into any championship game or series ever since. Think about that the next time you are at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, on the desiccated remains of Minnesota Sports history.
Since the final blow to sports at this site was the scornful wife of a misogynist, the sports Gods had one final tweak to other misogynists in the area. You'll note that the curse applies only to men's sports. Women's sports have proven to be extremely successful. The curse remains intact for those that can't appreciate that.
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