Posted July 2, 2008    

• Delmon Young

• U.S. Women's Open

• Harmon Killebrew

• Jerry Burns

• Sam Maresh

Oliva Predicts Better Power Days for Young

Delmon Young, 22, has two home runs so far in his first season with the Twins even though he has almost 300 at-bats and the season is more than half over.  That’s the fewest home runs of any Twins regular since the start of the season, including shortstop Brendan Harris who has four.  However, Twins' legend Tony Oliva told Sports Headliners he believes that in time Young will increase his home run frequency. 

Expectations of many fans are more than even the 13 home runs Young hit in his first full season in the majors last season, playing for Tampa Bay.  The expectations are based on Young’s reputation in recent years as one of baseball’s best young prospects, plus his physical size, 6-3, 200 pounds, and power is expected from those who play the outfield and hit in the middle of the batting order.  Young was impressive last year leading all American League rookies in games (162), hits (186) and RBI (93). 

Oliva, who is a part-time coach with the Twins and is frequently around the players, said eventually Young “will pull the ball” and hit more home runs.  How many will he hit?  “Who knows?” answered Oliva, who had a career .304 batting average, and although he hit the ball to all fields, he had 220 career home runs. 

Young, a right-handed hitter, doesn’t try to pull the ball and hit home runs now, preferring to even hit the ball to the right of second base.  That style has produced a respectable average, .278, but not power.  He had a hot June including a second home run on Sunday and ended the month on a six game hitting streak. 

The hope has to be that with maturity Young will develop a balance between power and average.  In the minor leagues he twice hit 20 home runs or more. 

The Twins consistently lack for home run hitting.  They have 57 home runs, fewest in the American League.  Last season they hit 118, second lowest to Kansas City’s 102. 

Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel lead the Twins in home runs with 12 each.  The last two seasons Morneau has hit 34 and 31 home runs.  Oliva said Morneau is capable of hitting “30 to 40 home runs.”

  

  Delmon Young

Tony Oliva

Worth Noting 

The 2008 U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen Country Club attracted about twice the TV audience locally on the final day of the championship as compared with the last day in 2007.  Among the numbers were a 7.5 rating and 20 share in 2008 versus 3.6 and 10 in 2007. 

Major League baseball is partially through an announcement process of the Hall of Famers who will be honored during a special pre-game on-field ceremony prior to the 79th All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 15 from Yankee Stadium in New York.  It’s being billed as the largest gathering of baseball stars in history and the list includes former Twins Harmon Killebrew and Dave Winfield. 

The Twins finished 2008 Interleague competition with a record of 14-4 after winning two of three games from Milwaukee over the weekend.  The Twins are 120-90 all-time in Interleague play.  Since the beginning of 2006, they are 41-13 while winning 15 of the 18 series.  The Twins have been winners of five straight series and have won five of their last seven series versus Milwaukee. 

The Twins, who defeated Detroit last night, have won 14 of their last 17 games. Their starting pitchers are 11-2, with a 3.00 ERA in those 17 games. 

Twins’ first baseman Justin Morneau has hit safely in 19 of his last 22 games since June 8. During that period he has hit .368 (32-for-87) with nine multi-hit games and the Twins are 14-7.

Canterbury Park’s Extreme Race Day is Sunday, July 20 and includes exhibitions of camel and ostrich racing.  The public can’t wager on the races.   

Larry Fitzgerald, who covers local sports in print, radio and TV, recently did a one-on-one interview with David Stern, the NBA’s commissioner since 1984.  In an e-mail to Sports Headliners Fitzgerald described Stern as a “man very much in control of the NBA and proud of the league’s growth under his leadership.”

 

Justin Morneau
Photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins
 

 See Canterbury Park Note

Extra Innings

Former Vikings head coach Jerry Burns: “I am sorry to say my golf game is deteriorating on a daily basis.  I am one step from picking up a fishing pole to see if my luck is better there.” 

Burns, who was an assistant coach at Iowa in the 1950’s and head coach from 1961-65, will attend a Hawkeye reunion this fall for the 1958 Iowa Rose Bowl team.  After living in the Minneapolis area for 40 years, and developing friends with Gopher ties, Burns said he’s more partial to the Gophers now than Iowa. 

Gopher football recruit Sam Maresh underwent successful heart valve replacement surgery at Mayo Clinic last week and the Maresh family will post updates about Sam's treatment and recovery on http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sammaresh.

The Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game, won by the Metro over the Outstate 22-17 last Saturday, will be televised beginning at 7 p.m. tonight  (Wednesday) on FSN North, according to Vikings.com.  The Vikings and FSN are “partnering” to make the telecast possible.  

Gopher football coach Tim Brewster attended the annual Bruce Smith Golf Classic recently at Faribault Golf Club.  The event raises money for the Faribault community and is named after Faribault native Bruce Smith, the only Gopher ever to win the Heisman Trophy and to inspire a Hollywood movie, "Smith of Minnesota."  Event chair Bruce Krinke reported via e-mail that he expects with this year’s revenues the 19 year total for the event will be over $150,000. 

Thunder general manager Djorn Buchholz told Sports Headliners recently that work is ahead of schedule in preparing the National Sports Center Stadium for a home game against Carolina on July 11. The track at the NSC stadium field is being removed so the playing surface will be 80 feet closer to the grandstand.

 

Jerry Burns

 Djorn Buchholz