Jake Mauer told Sports Headliners on Tuesday that grandson Joe’s cold, which has been bothering him for “two weeks,” still persists and has “slowed” him down. Mauer has seen his average drop from .413 to .394 in the last 10 games.
A Wall Street Journal blog, https://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2009/06/19/the-count-joe-mauers-pursuit-of-ted-williams/, speculates that Mauer has a one in 50 chance of hitting .400 this season. The Braves’ Chipper Jones was hitting .420 last June and finished the season at .364. Ted Williams was the last .400 hitter at .406 in 1941. Also amazing is that the legendary Red Sox hitter batted .388 in 1957 when he was 39 years old and slow afoot. If Williams, who played minor league baseball in Minneapolis, could have beaten out some infield hits he would have batted .400 in 1957.
Jake has been predicting a .400 season for Joe. “I think he’s gonna get (it), if not this year, next year for sure,” Jake said.
Mauer is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated. It’s the second time he’s been an SI cover boy.
The Twins and Mauer open a three game series against the Cardinals in St. Louis tomorrow night. Busch Stadium will also be the site of next month’s All-Star game. Jake said Joe will be spending over $1,500 per person to bring 17 family members to the All-Star game where he figures to be the American League’s starting catcher.
Collective heads are probably shaking across the country with the surprising news that former Northwestern coach Kevin O’Neill has been hired to replace Tim Floyd as USC basketball coach. “This guy is amazing,” said Jim Dutcher, former Gophers coach. “He keeps getting jobs and there’s nothing to support it.”
O’Neill has a 171-180 record with head jobs at Marquette, Tennessee, Northwestern and Arizona (interim coach in 2007-2008). He also coached the Toronto Raptors in the NBA for one season, finishing with a 33-49 record.
Dutcher said that when O’Neill, who is known for a temper and colorful vocabulary, was coaching at Arizona as the interim replacement to Lute Olson the two weren’t speaking.
Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi had surgery recently on his left Achilles and is on crutches. He won’t be able to jog for another four weeks or so.
Don Lucia’s Gopher hockey team will play its first game since 2000 at Target Center next year. The Gophers-Wisconsin game on March 5 will be played at the downtown facility because of a scheduling conflict at Mariucci Arena.
The Gophers’ Jordan Schroeder, who led all college freshmen in scoring last year, is expected to return to school even though he could be a high pick in tomorrow night’s NHL Entry Draft.
The Gophers, who are possible contenders for the national championship, open their schedule next fall with eight consecutive WCHA games.