Although 2012 is an election year for Minnesota legislators, it’s likely a Vikings stadium bill will be approved in the coming weeks.

That’s the opinion of an experienced stadium authority who spoke to Sports Headliners this week with the understanding his name would not be used.  There’s public pessimism a stadium deal won’t get done not only because the controversial issue has been pending for more than a decade, but also state legislators are up for re-election in November.

Maybe some legislators will be concerned about voting for a stadium bill and then going back to face angry voters in their home districts but that possibility didn’t remove the optimism of the stadium source.  “If the governor wants to get something done, normally we can get…it done,” the authority said.

Vikings stadium proponents pushed the issue in front of governors Arne Carlson, Jesse Ventura and Tim Pawlenty, but only Mark Dayton has been aggressively supportive. Dayton is advocating a downtown facility that the source said is likely to have a permanent, not retractable roof.  Given the minimal need for outdoor events including Vikings games, the source said he didn’t know why stadium planners would “go to the expense” of having a retractable roof that would add another $25 million to the project.

Dayton has reportedly persuaded the Vikings to commit about $427 million for a new stadium on or near the Metrodome site.  It’s a figure similar to what the Vikings had talked about spending on their preferred site at Arden Hills.  “That’s pretty significant,” the source said.

Funding details for a downtown stadium costing about $975 million remain unsettled, although it appears Dayton is favorable toward sourcing part of the cost from electronic pull-tabs.  Although that represents an expansion of gambling, the source said it’s a move more politically acceptable than other gaming options.

Maturi and University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler announced earlier this month that Maturi, the school’s A.D. since 2002, will leave his position in June when his contract expires.  Although his tenure has been controversial, Maturi said he’s recently received over 500 emails and 99 percent have been “positive.”

“I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low,” Maturi said.

Maturi, 67, won’t be a member of the search committee announced yesterday to find his successor.  “Gosh, absolutely not,” he said.  “That wouldn’t be right.  I wouldn’t accept it (an appointment).”

Media birthdays this week: KARE TV’s Dave Schwartz, 33; FSN’s Kevin Gorg, 45; Lynx assistant coach and Wolves broadcaster Jim Petersen, 50.

The Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman turns 92 on March 15.

Although it’s the offseason, Hartman has Gophers football coach Jerry Kill on WCCO Radio every Sunday from 9:30 to 10 a.m.  Co-host Dave Mona said last Sunday that Kill’s weekly comments are transcribed and posted on Gopherhole.com.

C.O.R.E.S. members have a March 5 deadline for attending the March 8 program with Kill in Bloomington.  Ron Stolski, Brainerd High football coach and executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, will introduce Kill.  Members can contact Jim Dotseth for more information, dotsethj@comcast.net.  C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.

The Gophers basketball team, 5-9 in the Big Ten, plays 11-3 MichiganState at Williams Arena tonight and Minnesota will try to end a three game losing streak.  In five seasons Minnesota coach Tubby Smith is 0-9 against Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.  Smith’s conference record as Gophers coach is 37-49.

As a high school player, MSU’s Draymond Green committed to Kentucky when Smith was coaching the Wildcats, but then changed his college choice. The senior forward, who might be the Big Ten’s best player, leads the conference in rebounding at 10.5 per game and is MSU’s leading scorer, 15.4 points per game.

Gophers senior center Ralph Sampson, described earlier this season as one of Minnesota’s star players by the Star Tribune, has scored four points in each of his last three games (all losses).  Sampson is averaging 7.9 points per game, the lowest since his freshman season (6.4).

Although former Gophers forward Royce White is second in Big 12 Conference rebounding at 9.1 and is 14^th in scoring, 12.9, the Iowa State sophomore isn’t listed by nbadraft.net among its projected 60 NBA draft picks next June.  Look for White to return to the Cyclones next season.

Former Star Tribune Gophers basketball beat writer Myron Medcalf still lives in the metro area and works seven days per week in his new college basketball writing assignment for ESPN.com.

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson was in the news last week because his league is merging with ConferenceUSA.  Thompson, who used to work in the Gophers sports information department, is from Redwood Falls, Minnesota and could be a candidate for the athletic director job at Minnesota.

Alexandria, Minnesota native Tom Lehman tied for third in last weekend’s ACE Group Classic in Naples, Florida.  Kentucky native Kenny Perry won the Champions Tour event and earned $240,000.  Lehman, 52, was the tour leader last year earning over $2 million.

The Twins, on March 3, will be the first major league team to play the Red Sox in the team’s new Fort Myers ballpark that includes a replica of the famed Green Monster wall in left field.  Lee County spent $77.8 million on the new ballpark and expects an annual economic impact of $24 million from Red Sox generated spring training monies, according to a February 18 article in the Naples Daily News.

The Beloit Snappers, the Twins Class A farm team, has much publicized prospects Miguel Sano (third base), Levi Michael (shortstop) and Eddie Rosario (second base) on the roster. Jim Rantz, Twins senior director for minor league operations, has heard the talk about Beloit road trips by fans.  “I’ve had people stop me and say, ‘Sounds like we need to make a trip to Beloit this year,’ ” Rantz told Sports Headliners.

Mlb.com’s top 2012 prospects has Sano ranked No. 23 in a top 100 listing.  That’s better than any other player in the Twins organization but Rantz was “surprised” the 18-year-old Dominican Republic native didn’t receive even a higher ranking.

Last fall Sporting News Magazine listed Sano and Washington’s Bryce Harper as its two top candidates for 2012 Minor League Player of the Year.  Sano is known for his power and in just 267 at bats for Elizabethton hit 20 home runs last year.  In an October interview with Sports Headliners Rantz said if Sano “does not get hurt and progresses like he has been, he is a can’t miss guy.”

Rosario impressed a lot last season, too, and he’s intriguing because the former center fielder is being moved to second base.  The 20-year-old was a teammate of Sano and hit 21 home runs in 270 at-bats.

“He will play second base because of all the center fielders (in the organization) we have coming along,” Rantz said.  “I know there’s a lot of buzz about both these guys (Sano and Rosario).”

Michael was the Twins first pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft.  Michael, who turns 21 tomorrow, has Rantz and other Twins officials anxious to see him play at Beloit because injuries in 2011 limited their evaluation of the promising infielder.

The Mlb.com prospect listing had one other player from the Twins in the top 100, center fielder Aaron Hicks.  The 2007 No. 1 draft choice was ranked No. 72.  “He’s a heck of an athlete,” Rantz said.  “He’s a scratch golfer and a lot of organizations took him as a pitcher.”

Mlb.com said the switch hitting Hicks batted only .258 hitting right-handers in the Arizona Fall League but hit .361 versus left-handers.  Rantz said the 22-year-old will play for Class AA New Britain this season.  “He’s got a chance to do it from both sides,” Rantz said.

The old Muskies were thought of as anything but classic before they moved to Florida because of fan apathy.  They were replaced by the Minnesota Pipers, another ABA club that met with similar disinterest by the public and lasted only one season at the Met.

There is an old joke—true or not—associated with both teams that Jonckowski recalls and it goes like this:  A potential ticket buyer telephones the Met Center and asks what time a Muskies or Pipers game starts?  The phone operator replies: “What time can you be here?”

Jonckowski, known now to local basketball fans as the public address voice of the Gophers, was the Muskies’ assistant public relations director.  He remembers “we couldn’t draw people no matter what we did.”

The team tried all kinds of promotions like free t-shirts, wristbands and basketballs without success.  During an interview with Sports Headliners it didn’t take much effort to prompt Jonckowski to make jokes about the team’s lack of fans.

“We had three busloads pull up (to the Met) one afternoon,” he said.  “Then we find out they only wanted to use the restroom.”

The team claimed to draw 6,000 fans for its opening game but even if accurate a more typical crowd was 2,000.  There were thousands of empty green and gold seats in the building (capacity about 15,000 for basketball).  Jonckowski recalled that general manager Eddie Holman didn’t like TV cameras showing all those empty seats.

“People would buy the cheap seats.  He (Holman) would wave the people down to sit in the front row because we only drew 2,000—maybe 3,000 people— not many,” Jonckowski said.

The problem wasn’t the Muskies weren’t a good ballclub.  The team finished second in its division and had several talented players but Minnesotans literally weren’t buying into a start-up league after having the five-time world champion Minneapolis Lakers a decade earlier.

The Muskies franchise had several owners and a general manager in Holman who Jonckowski said got the job because he was a neighbor of George Mikan, the former Laker great and ABA commissioner.  Holman, who was in the restaurant and bar business, offered free food and drink to the media at the old Eddie Webster’s near the Met Center.

“It was crazy.” Jonckowski said.  “It had to cost him a lot of money.”

Jonckowski, just beginning his career, would have liked some of that money sent his way.   “I worked for $60 a week,” he remembered.  “I just wanted to get my foot in the door in pro sports.  I didn’t even have enough money to park my car.  In those days I parked my car down on Glenwood Ave.(a long walk from the team’s offices downtown). …”

Jim Rantz, Twins senior director for minor league operations, likes infielder Brian Dozier who will start the season at Class AAA Rochester.  Dozier hit .296 in the Arizona Fall League and will play mostly second base at Rochester, although he’s drawn past speculation as a big league shortstop.

Sports Headliners has been told that to build a Vikings Stadium on the Arden Hills site will require about 33 permits from government agencies, a far larger number than building on or near the Metrodome site.

The Gophers, 0-2 in the Big Ten this season against Iowa, play another border rival tomorrow night, Wisconsin at Williams Arena.  The Gophers play in Madison on February 28.

Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, now in his fifth season with the Golden Gophers, is 6-2  in rivalry games against Iowa, and 3-3 versus Wisconsin.

The Gophers will likely start two Minnesotans tomorrow night, forward Rodney Williams and guard Joe Coleman.  The Badgers figure to start three Minnesotans, forward Mike Bruesewitz, center Jared Berggren and guard Jordan Taylor.

Last season Badgers sophomore guard Josh Gasser became the first Big Ten freshman to earn a triple double since Magic Johnson in 1977.

The NBA All-Star balloting is a reminder about the lack of quality centers in pro basketball compared with power forwards.  Superior power forwards like the Wolves’ Kevin Love weren’t voted on to the first team.

The Wild are home tomorrow night against Vancouver, part of a favorable home schedule the rest of the season that has Minnesota playing 18 of its remaining 29 games atXcel EnergyCenter.  Tickets remain for all home games.

The Wild’s Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Schultz answer questions and provide autographs tonight at Main Street Bar and Grill in Hopkins.  Matt Kassian and Nate Prosser will do the same on Monday at Cowboy Jack’s in Bloomington.  Both appearances begin at 7 p.m. and are part of the Wild Hockey Unplugged series.  Autograph tickets for each player will be distributed.

Saint John’s forward Aaron Barmore knows about perfection.  The former Bloomington Jefferson High School player is the MIAC Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week.  All he did last week was not miss a single field goal attempt in helping the Johnnies upset St. Thomas for the first time since 2003 and also defeat Hamline.  Barmore averaged 16 points and 6 rebounds per game.  He made all 12 of his field goal attempts.

The Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game training camp will for the first time be at Saint John’s University in Collegeville.  The game will be played on June 30 at TCF Bank Stadium.

Minneapolis businessman and former Gophers golfer Harvey Mackay was one of 350 guests who attended Muhammad Ali’s 70^th birthday party in Louisville last month.  Mackay, a New York Times best selling author, met Ali years ago when he visited the legendary former heavyweight champion at his home in Michigan.

“He loves magic and I did some of my best tricks for him,” Mackay told Sports Headliners.  “That forged the relationship.”

It’s a relationship that includes Ali’s wife Lonnie and Mackay’s spouse Carol Ann.  The couples live within about seven minutes of one another in the Phoenix area.  They frequently go out to dinner together.

Perhaps the most famous personality in the world, Ali’s speech and mobility are limited by Parkinson’s disease.  Mackay admires his friend’s courage in living with the disease.  “He never complains,” Mackay said.  “I know he’s in pain and not feeling good.”

Ali has been admired for years not only for his fame in the ring, but also for his work on behalf of charities and the graciousness with which he treats others.  “His eyes sparkle and pop when a young person approaches him,” Mackay said.  “He will take a picture with anybody.”

At Ali’s party in Louisville Mackay saw another friend, coach John Calipari of the No. 1 ranked Kentucky Wildcats.  Calipari asked Mackay to give a motivational talk to his team later this year to help inspire Kentucky’s bid for the NCAA title.  “I want to do it,” Mackay said.  “I am just not sure of my schedule.”

Mackay’s latest book is The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World.  Like his previous best sellers the new book not only includes many personal stories about famous newsmakers like Ali but also everyday people with interesting experiences.  Mackay said for years he’s kept files with headings like creativity, time management and motivation that document business and life lessons.

The daily exercise has helped Mackay write his well-known books including Swim with the Sharks.  “A person’s life equals the total sum of his or her experiences,” he said.

Former Vikings defensive end Chris Doleman will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August and he was introduced with other 2012 inductees before last night’s Super Bowl.  “Doleman is one of those rare guys–maybe one of four or five that I played against during my career–right there with Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Derrick Thomas, that you had to know where they were and set your protection accordingly,” said former NFL quarterback Warren Moon.  “You had to know if you were going to help the tackle out with a tight end or running back to chip on those guys. Doleman was someone you always had to worry about because you knew he could get to the quarterback. …”

NBClosangeles.com reported on Friday that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has no plans for expansion and doesn’t want to relocate existing teams.  A new stadium plan in Los Angeles hasn’t been finalized as a potential home to the Vikings or another NFL team.

The Lucas Oil Stadium where last night’s Super Bowl was played will be among the facility models that planners for a new Vikings stadium will study.

Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl in 1992 and a new Vikings stadium is almost certain to be the site of a future Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl will be in New Orleans next season, then at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for outdoor football in 2014.

Since 1988 the NFC has won the Super Bowl every year during a presidential election year except 2004.

Among the TV competition for the Super Bowl is Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl.  The annual show achieved a ratings record last year with 9.2 million viewers, according to Huffingtonpost.com.  The 2011 Super Bowl had a record 111 million viewers.

The 17^th annual Vikings Arctic Blast Snowmobile Rally, scheduled at Lake Mille Lacs next Saturday and Sunday, will feature current and former Vikings players along with coaches and team executives.  Among those scheduled to participate and help raise money for the Vikings Children’s Fund are quarterback Joe Webb and running back Toby Gerhart.

Allen Trieu of Scout.com speaking on the Big Ten Network about Gophers football recruit Ben Lauer from Wayzata High School: “Watch out for Ben Lauer, an offensive tackle that I don’t think gets talked about enough from right there in their backyard.”

Gophersillustrated.com’s Zach Johnson said Gophers coach Jerry Kill  works his tail off recruiting.

In addition to discussing Kill, Johnson told Sports Headliners assistant coaches Bill Miller and Jay Sawvell were most instrumental in recruiting the 2012 class announced last week.  Miller, the Gophers only assistant with BCS recruiting experience, specializes in south Florida.  Sawvell was active in the Deep South and North Carolina including recruitment of highly regarded wide receiver Jamel Harbison from Charlotte.

Wisconsin has won consecutive Big Ten football championships but only twice in the last 10 years has Rivals.com ranked the Badgers recruiting classes among the top half in the conference.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed that sophomore Apple Valley High School point guard Tyus Jones received a scholarship offer from Duke.

The start time for the Wild game against the Bruins atXcel Energy Center on Sunday, February 19 has been changed to 2:30 p.m. from 2 p.m.  The game will be televised nationally as part of “Hockey Day inAmerica” coverage on NBC.

Maturi, 66, has been the athletic director since 2002 and is retiring.  Kaler, who became president last July, has likely been thinking for some time about a new department leader.  He will receive a lot of advice from the public and special interest groups including former Gopher athletes regarding who to hire.

Three qualities should top the list in searching for a new athletic director.  The department needs a boss who is exceptional in identifying and hiring extraordinary coaches. Minnesota’s teams can compete with the best schools in the Big Ten in all sports if the coaches are high achievers.

The other qualities leading the list are fundraising and solid fiscal leadership.  The athletic department has major financial challenges including whether to continue with 25 sports.  The football and basketball programs (men’s and women’s) are under- achieving financially.  A long term solution must be found for archaic Williams Arena.   A dynamic individual who has the expertise to see the challenges and also the vision to find solutions will place the department in a much healthier fiscal position.

Kaler should first search for candidates who know this community and the culture of Gophers athletics.  A local person with existing relationships will have a jump-start in fundraising and generating other support for Gophers athletics, plus an invaluable knowledge about the state and school.

Kaler must make the right hire, even it’s ultimately someone from outside Minnesota.  The new A.D. needs to be a person who is extremely passionate in his or her commitment to win while operating within the ethics of modern day athletics.  Nowhere is this more needed than in the “front porch” sports of football and men’s basketball.  Those sports are annually a source of major frustration to Gophers fans.

The new A.D. might ideally be a person with experience in both business and athletics, and certainly needs to be someone who can as adroitly manage a coaching search as a student protest.

Kaler may have interest in the athletic director he knew while working at Stony Brook University. Jim Fiore is in his ninth year at the New York school where his teams have won numerous conference championships and he’s known as an effective fundraiser.  He’s also consistently balanced the budget for his Division I school. Fiore’s name was rumored with the North Carolina athletic director opening last fall.

Other national names that could draw speculation include Iowa athletic director Gary Barta and Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson.  Barta was born in Minneapolis and attended Burnsville High School.  Thompson worked in the Gophers sports information office years ago.

Hired as Gophers coach about 14 months ago, Jerry Kill’s leadership is becoming more evident.  How do you measure it?

The classroom attendance and grades by his players are improving.  Academics were much more of a problem on the team when Kill and his staff first came here.  For fall semester the football team earned an impressive overall 3.1 G.P.A.  Expect more positive future news about football G.P.A.’s.

Although no major college football program is bullet proof, the Gophers haven’t been in the news for major off the field behavior problems and scandals.  There’s a code of conduct emphasized by the staff and plenty of reminders.

Most of the sports public is still apathetic about Gophers football but Kill has won many admirers among boosters, media and high school coaches since he came here in December of 2010.  His straightforward manner has earned him friends and is in contrast to his outspoken predecessor, Tim Brewster.

Kill has shown commitment to making the Gophers much better than a Big Ten bottom feeder with his tireless work on the job.  He has also demonstrated courage in dealing with his seizures.  Whether it’s coaching in front of a regional TV audience, or talking to a recruit in his home, Kill hasn’t let his history of seizures deter him.

At a Signing Day news conference on Wednesday, Kill said he’s still not driving a car.  His wife Rebecca accompanied him on recruiting trips to help out.

Signing Day on Wednesday was another indication that Kill will build his program similar to Wisconsin’s.  The Gophers signed 10 players from Minnesota to national letters of intent, compared to five in 2011 and three in 2010.  The Badgers roster, including stellar offensive linemen, has for years listed a dominant number of Wisconsin high school products.

Kill and his staff will continue to recruit plenty of players from beyond the Minnesota border but expect higher numbers of Minnesotans than in the past.  Kill knows there are good players here, just not enough to completely fill the roster of a contender.

Among the 27 signees are high-profile Hopkins wide receiver Andre McDonald and Mankato West quarterback Phillip Nelson.  McDonald, an ESPN four-star recruit, is a “tremendous talent,” Kill said.  MaxPreps’ Tom Lemming rates Nelson the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country and National Sleeper of the Year.

Tim Salem, the former Gophers quarterback, has been hired as running backs and special teams coordinator at Illinois.

Gophers junior player Rodney Williams isn’t included among players projected to be drafted next June by an NBA team, according to nbadraft.net.  In 2010 the website predicted Williams would be among the first 10 picks in the 2011 NBA draft.

There’s speculation the Vikings will take USC left tackle Matt Kalil with the No. 3 choice in the first round of the upcoming college draft.  He’s listed as the second best player in the draft after Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck by ESPN.com-Scouts Inc.

It was 40 years ago this winter the Vikings re-acquired Fran Tarkenton, pulling off a major trade with the Giants to bring the quarterback back toMinneapolis.  Tarkenton led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in the 1970s.

Seven new affiliates have joined the Timberwolves Radio Network, bringing the total to 26, the most since the 2006-07 season.  The new affiliate stations in Minnesota are Aitkin/Brainerd, Mankato and Montevideo.  New in North Dakota are Carrington, Jamestown, Oakes andValley City.

Former North Stars executive Dean Lombardi, now general manager of the Kings, is earning praise for his decision to replace coach Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter.  The Kings are second in the NHL’s Pacific Division.

Herb Brooks, who coached the Gophers to three national championships and America’s “Miracle on Ice” in the 1980 Olympics, is included on the short list of the Big Ten Network Icons series that includes Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and Dan Gable.

St. Olaf hockey seniors Ben Leis, Charlie Raskob and Jeff Warren made the right impressions during summer internships and have full-time employment waiting after graduation.  Leis and Warren will be joining Best Buy as Demand Planning Analysts later this year.  Raskob will work for Target as a Business Analyst.

Ralph Sampson III is in the final months of his college basketball career but the Gophers 6-11 senior center appears no closer to fulfilling his potential now than when he was a freshman.

A gifted athlete and the son of former college Player of the Year Ralph Sampson II, the younger Sampson has compiled similar stats and performed inconsistently this season as in the past.  Tonight the Gophers play at Iowa—halfway through their Big Ten regular season schedule—and Minnesota fans wonder what contributions Sampson will make to a Minnesota team (4-5 in conference games, 16-6 overall) that could qualify for the NCAA tournament with a strong finish in February and March.

Last Saturday night, with his dad in town to watch him, Sampson played only 20 minutes before fouling out in Minnesota’s game against Illinois at Williams Arena.  He had three rebounds and five points while making two of eight shots.

That performance contrasted with Minnesota’s game at Illinois in late December when the Duluth, Georgia native scored 22 points and had nine rebounds in 35 minutes on the floor.

During Sampson’s first three seasons he shared playing time with center Colton Iverson and with Iverson having transferred after his junior season last spring it was expected that Sampson’s minutes and contributions would increase.  But he’s averaging 22.9 minutes per game, the fewest since his freshman season.  His scoring average of 8.2 points and rebounds of 4.8 per game this season are almost identical to career stats of 8.2 and 5.1.

Sampson’s lack of aggressiveness has limited his success and frustrated fans who often target him for criticism.  His dad was asked if Sampson can play more assertively for coach Tubby Smith.

“I know he is (capable),” Ralph II said.  “I’ve worked with the kid for all my life.  It’s just how do you do that?  How do you do that with the system and don’t break the system?  Tubby has that system where five guys play five minutes, and five guys play the next five minutes.  That’s a little different. …”

Sampson’s dad, who at 7-4 was a four-time All-American at Virginia, said ample minutes on the floor allow big body players to have a feel for the game, becoming more comfortable with themselves, teammates and opponents.  What’s evident, though, is the younger Sampson isn’t earning a lot of extra minutes in the Smith system and he doesn’t look like a player enjoying his time on the floor.

Does fan criticism bother the Gophers center?  Ralph II said fans should consider that unlike Iverson and guard Devoe Joseph, his son didn’t transfer from Minnesota.  Ralph III is the only player remaining from his freshman class at Minnesota.  “…You didn’t transfer like everybody else did and you stuck it out,” Ralph II said.  “I think they should appreciate that.”

Sampson said his son thought about transferring from Minnesota to another school.  “Every year, like everybody else,” Ralph II said.  “First year to this year.  I wouldn’t let him leave.  We started it, we’re gonna finish it.”

The Gophers’ team potential the last two seasons has lessened because of several players leaving the program.  The departed include forward Royce White who has become an All-American candidate at Iowa State in his first season.  Joseph is Oregon’s leading scorer at 15.4 points.

“The question is why did they leave?” Ralph II asked.  “What was going on that made them leave and wanted to leave?  I am not going to get into a lot of details with it because I don’t know the internal things about it. …”

What the older Sampson knows is he believes in his son’s potential to become a better player.  He acknowledges, too, that Ralph III is a young man of character who has never given his father problems.  “He’s a great kid,” Ralph II said. “He’s the best in the world.  The sky’s the limit if he wants to work at it.”