Favorite Minnesota sports teams are winners, heartbreakers and varied

What's your favorite Minnesota sports team? What team? What season? Why do the memories stick with you?

That was the subject of Wednesday's Star Tribune sports Virtual Happy Hour. Some of us took teams that everyone can remember, both for what they accomplished and – in some cases – for how they fell short.

The first pick of our draft was the 2009 Twins, which closed down the Metrodome for baseball by winning the American League Central in a Game 163 playoff with Detroit – and then had nothing left to play the Yankees in the American League Divisional Series.

That team was picked before the 1991 and 1987 Twins, the World Series winners. There are three more Twins teams on the list, too.

There were four University of Minnesota teams chosen representing four different sports: The 2012-13 women's hockey team that finish 41-0 and the 1996-97 men's basketball team that reached the Final Four, only to have its season erased by an NCAA cheating scandal.

The other Gophers teams were more obscure, but there were good stories behind the picks.

Here's our list of 20 teams, and we invite you to see why they were chosen (and the reactions) by clicking below.

1. 2009 Twins (Jeff Day, copy editor)

2. 1997-98 Timberwolves (Michael Rand, basketball editor and digital writer)

3. 2012-13 Gophers women's hockey (Pete Steinert, Sunday editor)

4. 2017 Lynx (Howard Sinker, digital sports editor)

5. 1991 Twins (Ken Chia, copy editor)

6. 1996-97 Gophers men's basketball team (Randy Johnson, Puck Drop editor)

7. 1987 Twins (Casey Common, web editor)

8. 1965 Twins (Jerry Zgoda, golf and soccer writer)

9. 2017 Vikings (Andrew Krammer, Vikings writer)

10. 2003-04 Timberwolves (Krammer)

11. 1981 North Stars (Zgoda)

12. 1984 Twins (Common)

13. 2001 Gophers wrestling (Johnson)

14. 1998 Vikings (Chia)

15. 2014 Macalester football (Sinker)

16. 2002 Gophers men's golf (Steinert)

17. 2009 Vikings (Rand)

18. 2004 Twins (Day)

19. 2013-14 Timberwolves (Day, bonus pick)

20. 2006 Twins (Chia, bonus pick)