Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Pay Coming for U Football Players, Others?

Posted on July 10, 2022 by David Shama

It looks more and more like Power Five football players, including the Gophers, will in the future be paid for their services on the field. National and local authorities are talking about these athletes sharing in the riches of major college football.

“There will be pay-for-play, in my opinion, in the near future,” Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners. The former Gophers athletics director offered that view while making it clear he isn’t speaking for the University of Minnesota or other schools.

Former University of Minnesota regent Michael Hsu said the change to employee status could come as soon as the 2024 season. The timing will be driven by litigation in the courts versus voluntary change by commissioners and school leaders in the Power Five conferences.

New NCAA policy now allows schools to provide financial support to student-athletes for academic success. The Gophers plan to institute the policy in the fall and it goes beyond the scholarship benefits student-athletes have long received. Schools are allowed to pay out up to $5,980 per year to an athlete. A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago opened the door for schools to pay athletes.

The times are changing fast in college sports and there is a wave of new found freedoms for student-athletes. The transfer portal allows athletes to become free agents on a whim, with thousands choosing new schools where they have immediate eligibility. The Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) phenomenon is allowing athletes to monetize their success on the field or the court with endorsements, personal appearances and other marketing.

The recent announcement of USC and UCLA to join the Big Ten starting in 2024 may provide momentum to the pay-for-play movement. “Yes, I think it puts pressure on them (the schools) to voluntarily collectively bargain,” Hsu told Sports Headliners.

USC and UCLA, based in Los Angeles, give a soon to be 16-member Big Ten a TV presence in the nation’s three largest markets, New York, L.A. and Chicago. The Big Ten’s media rights deal expires in 2023 and adding the two California programs, including an elite football brand in USC, only increases the riches expected in the next TV bonanza.

Hsu, an outspoken advocate for compensating athletes, said that before the Big Ten’s announced expansion there was speculation each Big Ten school could receive up to $110 million annually. Now there should be even more money coming into athletic departments including at Minnesota. “It’s the TV people driving all of this,” said Hsu who was an early advisor to the Minnesota-based College Football Players Association.

The new TV windfall could easily be double the $50 million or so payout the Gophers receive in the present Big Ten rights agreement. Maturi predicted the new deal will be a lot more than the entire athletic department budget of about $56 million in place when he was hired at Minnesota in 2002.

The Big Ten’s expansion is further strengthening its position as a super conference. It’s a league with a great legacy and fan following, with more eyeballs likely watching its football teams in 2024 than ever before. Big Ten football has long been a business but it’s becoming more so, with Hsu and others wanting to see players compensated for their efforts.

“When you put players on airplanes to fly them six hours coast-to-coast to play games…to say they’re student-athletes and not employees—I think it’s going to put further pressure on that definition,” Hsu said in reference to Big Ten expansion. “I think it’s going to put further pressure on the fact that everyone is looking at where the money is going…the players are going to start realizing that really this NIL stuff is a joke compared to how much they’re worth actually to the teams that they’re playing for.”

Pay-for-play could take on various models. Hourly pay has been discussed as well as salaries. Bonuses could be part of how football players are compensated, too. Revenue sharing with the athletic departments will also be on the table. “I don’t think it’s going to be any one thing,” Hsu said.

Maturi said he can’t predict what form pay-for-play will take. “None of us knows what that means. Is it going to be open market where you can pay what you wish? …”

What is clear to Hsu is players will be employees and not independent contractors.
Why? Because football players operate in a year-round structured environment where they adhere to direction and rules, and independent contractors by definition have more freedom.

In a short time a lot will be decided about the college football model. There will be protests from other college sports if football players are receiving salaries and other athletes aren’t. Those differences, Hsu suggests, could even lead to schools like Minnesota selling off the football program to an outside entity that runs Golden Gophers football. Other sports could remain under University control and benefit as they do now from football profits.

There is speculation the Big Ten may further expand its membership. While schools are lined up at the door to join the conference, new members could reduce the slice of revenue pie for existing members. Applicants will have to bring considerable value monetarily and fit the academic pedigree of Big Ten institutions.

“Let’s face it, everybody wants to join the Big Ten now with the mega TV contract that’s coming up,” Maturi said. “And that’s gotta be decided by the commissioner (Kevin Warren) and the presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten.”

Looming as a big prize is Notre Dame, the juggernaut football independent that could make more TV money joining the Big Ten but would have to sacrifice controlling its schedule of opponents and perhaps lessen its chances of qualifying for the college football playoff.

“Right now Notre Dame is leaving money on the table,” Maturi said. “It already has. They don’t get the money from NBC that they would have gotten by joining a (major) conference, but they’ve kept what they believe is their mission, their values, their principles—and how long they’ll be able to continue to do that remains to be seen.”

Former Gophers football coach Glen Mason can see a Big Ten with 20 teams. “I don’t think we’re done yet (with expansion). I think there’s going to be two premier conferences. The way I see it as a fan, it will be the Big Ten and SEC. Probably both eyeing…to get 20-team leagues.”

Mason isn’t sure if he approves of pay-for-play but he recognizes players are in a far different world than when he competed for Ohio State in the early 1970s. “It was not a year round job,” Mason said.

In Mason’s day winter conditioning was minimal and after spring football practices ended players went home. Big Ten teams played 10 game schedules and only one team could participate in a bowl game. Ticket prices to watch conference teams was minimal and coach’s salaries were modest. Now college football players see coaches making $4 million to $10 million per year while athletic departments generate mega revenues via TV and other sources. “I think players said all of a sudden, hey, wait a minute,” Mason told Sports Headliners.

Mason looks at schools like USC, UCLA, Oklahoma and Texas jumping leagues and asks where is the loyalty to their conferences? The Sooners and Longhorns are leaving the Big 12 and bolting for the SEC, just like USC and UCLA are on their way out of the Pac-12. Those moves create a lot of problems and stress for the remaining members of their conferences.

When Mason coached at Kansas in the Big Eight the power players were Oklahoma and Nebraska. Those schools questioned whether they should share revenues in the same amounts as their Big Eight peers, or keep more for themselves.

“You can see the disparity in that,” Mason said. “Those discussions when I came back to the Big Ten, those never came up. You never had the big dogs on the block, Ohio State and Michigan, talking about that. They realized they were partners in the Big Ten and even though they might be the guys driving the train, that’s just the way it was.”

In the new world of college football it’s more business focused than ever. “We’re lucky we have the membership in the Big Ten,” Hsu said about Minnesota.

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Fidel Castro Part of Local Baseball Lore

Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 2022 by David Shama

Minor Treasures is a new book from Nodin Press in Minneapolis that will provide any Minnesotan interested in Millers and Saints history a detailed account of Twin Cities minor league baseball history. Authors Stew Thornley, Taylor Simons and Dave Kaplan write about the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints from their origins, offering an array of interesting names and tales with a background of vintage photos and illustrations.

Now is a nostalgic time to peruse the soft-cover book because for decades an annual ritual of summer was watching the Saints and Millers play a double header on the Fourth of July. It was known as a street car series, with fans attending games in each city on Independence Day. For more than six decades there was a cross-river rivalry between the two franchises, with much of it focused on the street car matchups of doubleheaders played on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.

Legendary players wore the uniforms of the Millers and Saints including many who are honored in baseball’s shrine at Cooperstown, New York. Willie Mays, arguably the game’s greatest player ever, played in Minneapolis for part of a season in 1951. Minor Treasures profiles the “Say Hey Kid” and includes a photo of the home on Fourth Avenue that Mays rented and still stands near the Hosmer Library.

For many readers a surprising name on the book’s pages will be Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who seized power in the late 1950s. Castro was a baseball player in his youth and to say he took an interest in Havana’s Junior World Series against the Millers is an understatement.

The Junior World Series was a Triple-A showdown between teams from the American Association and International League. In the postseason playoffs of 1959 the AA Millers and IL Havana Sugar Canes advanced to the Junior World Series. Castro attended all the games in Havana and so did his henchmen. Minor Treasures described the atmosphere: “Nearly 3,000 soldiers were present, many lining the field, while others stationed themselves in the dugouts, their rifles and bayonets clearly evident.”

The book makes clear that this was a series about more than competition on the field. Politically motivated intimidation was a dark presence as described in Minor Treasures: “As Millers centerfielder Tom Umphlett entered the dugout after making a catch to end an inning, a soldier made a slicing motion across his throat. Umphlett and the other players clearly understood the message.”

The Millers forced a series deciding game seven in Havana. Minor Treasures writes that Castro walked by the Minneapolis bullpen before the game, patted a large revolver on his hip and declared: “Tonight, we win.” And that’s what the Sugar Canes did, scoring the final run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 3-2.

Minneapolis manager Gene Mauch offered the postmortem with this quote in the book: “Our players were truly fearful of what might happen if we won. But we still tried our hardest, figuring we’d take our chances if we did win.”

Worth Noting

Twins front office boss Derek Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli are in communication before and after each game. Falvey told Sports Headliners the conversations are part of their routine “because that’s the way our partnership works here.”

Falvey said he thinks outside perceptions about those conversations might be of “some secret vault meeting,” or involve lineup meddling by him. “…I will say this to the end of my career. I’ve never written a lineup in my life and I don’t really want to, and I don’t plan to,” he said.

Pregame meetings (10 or 15 minutes) between Falvey and Baldelli include medical updates about players. Falvey said Baldelli likes to “bounce ideas off” him and others in the clubhouse about personnel but the manager makes the final call on details like “where he is going to hit guys” in the lineup. The pregame chats, Falvey, added, don’t even merit “formal meeting” status and may include non-baseball subjects like European football, a Baldelli favorite interest.

Post game is a short meeting and can focus on the bullpen and whether there is a need for a call up. Injuries, illness or tired arms can prompt roster changes including help from the Triple-A St. Paul Saints. “We usually check in for a short five-10 minutes postgame just to make sure we didn’t miss anything on the roster,” Falvey said. “We rarely break down (for example) what happened in the seventh inning unless it’s something meaningful and he wants to talk about it. …

“It’s truly a partnership (with Baldelli, including their meetings). He makes the decisions on the team. Who plays, where they play, what pitching moves they make. That’s all the manager. It’s always been that way for me and everywhere I’ve been in my career. My job is to try and help support him and thinking through those things. …”

Assistant coach Dave Thorson told Sports Headliners his background with head coach Ben Johnson gives him a special understanding about his younger boss. Thorson, going into his second season as a Johnson assistant coach on the Gophers men’s basketball team, has known Johnson since he was in sixth grade.

Then, of course, Thorson coached Johnson at DeLaSalle High School. “I think the neat thing for me is because I understand him, I can help him in a way that may be different than anybody else.” Thorson said.

With a remade roster assembled on the fly, the Gophers struggled last season with a 4-16 Big Ten record, but Thorson describes Johnson as a “star in the making.” More observers could feel that way if Minnesota, with better talent now, improves significantly next season and earns its way into the NCAA Tournament.

The latest issue of Sports Illustrated includes a feature on Chet Holmgren whose 7-foot versatile skills are earning him the “Unicorn” nickname and a nation-wide following after the Oklahoma City Thunder made him the No. 2 selection in last month’s NBA Draft. The former Minnehaha Academy prep All-American was coached by Larry Suggs in AAU basketball. “I wanted to make Chet the best American-born white basketball player since Larry Bird,” Suggs told Sports Illustrated.

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Luis Arraez: Strike Zone Specialist

Posted on June 28, 2022 by David Shama

The Derek Falvey era can’t take credit for discovering Luis Arraez but that doesn’t make the Twins’ baseball boss hesitate in appreciating the American League’s leading hitter.

Minnesota signed the then 16-year-old Venezuela native as an undrafted free agent in November of 2013. Whether in the minors or the bigs, Arraez has hit over .300 every year except last when his average was still an impressive .294. “He’s never not hit,” said Falvey who joined the Twins in the fall of 2016.

Arraez is second among all MLB hitters behind Paul Goldschmidt’s .347 average. Arraez also leads the AL in on-base-percentage at .427. He is a career .320 hitter during four seasons with the Twins. His rookie average of .334 in 2019 is the best in club history for a first-year player. Rod Carew, the Twins’ legend and Cooperstown Hall of Famer, had a career mark of .328 over 19 seasons, including 12 in Minnesota.

“I am not that surprised at how well he hits,” Falvey told Sports Headliners while talking about Arraez. “When I first got to see him, when I first got to this organization, he had just recovered from a knee injury and he was in A-Ball. …I watched him hit in BP (batting practice), and then I watched him in a game. He knew the strike zone better than most big league hitters then. He just had a really good feel for what was a ball, what was a strike, and how to kind of get the bat to the ball. …”

Part of the success in 2022 is fueled by his performance during May when his .376 average was the highest in a month for a Twin since Joe Mauer’s .380 in August of 2010. In his last 30 games his average is .336 and it’s .298 in the prior 15.

The left-handed 25-year-old is hitting .383 against right-handed pitching. His average versus lefties is .212 . In the past that discrepancy sometimes caused manager Rocco Baldelli to bench Arraez against left handers.

Arraez has played in 65 of the Twins’ 75 games and has 232 at-bats. For awhile this spring there was concern he could finish the season with the American League’s best batting average but without the necessary 502 at-bats to be awarded the title. But Baldelli has made Arraez pretty much an everyday player since early May.

Falvey believes Arraez can win a batting championship, if not this season then down the road. “I certainly hope so. You keep your fingers crossed you get your players on the field as much as possible from a health standpoint.

“As long as he continues to play the way he is playing there is no doubt (he is going to be on the field). We viewed Luie as an everyday player right from the outset of the season, even if the position wasn’t locked in as much.”

A second baseman when he joined the Twins, Arraez has unexpectedly returned to that position this month with Jorge Polanco unable to play for awhile because of lower back tightness. Arraez has played 29 games at first, 24 at second and five at third base.

Arraez has infrequently been the team’s DH this season and in the past the Twins have also played him in left field. With regular first baseman Miguel Sano out for most of the season so far with a knee injury, Arraez may have locked up that position for this year and beyond.

Falvey believes Arraez is most comfortable in the infield. Arraez’s versatility in the field fits in with the trend in baseball to have players who can play multiple positions. “I think the more flexible your roster is the better off you are,” Falvey said.

Unlike most of his peers, Arraez isn’t focused on hitting home runs. He has 10 in his career including a first grand slam this spring. His 20 whiffs at the plate in 2022 are impressive and his ability to make contact with the ball can especially be a welcome contribution on nights the Twins are struggling for base runners.

Carew, a native of Panama, was a left-handed hitter with superb bat control and difficult to strike out. He won seven American League batting titles. Don’t bet against Arraez winning a few also.

Arraez’s batting stance and style of hitting, including line drives to all fields, is reminiscent of Carew who started his MLB career as a second baseman and transitioned to first base. The legendary Carew was selected 18 times for the All-Star game. Arraez should receive his first All-Star invite next month.

The two Latin American natives have multiple similarities but Arraez doesn’t have to be the next Carew. His plate production and versatility in the field make him plenty valuable just being who he is.

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