Author: David Shama

St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck has known Detroit Tigers president Dave Dombrowski for 30 years and includes him among his “closest friends.”  They worked together with the Chicago White Sox in the 1970’s and Dombrowski helped Veeck with his alcoholism in the 1980s. 

Veeck said the Tigers’ success starts with his friend who he describes as a “great judge” of talent.  Unlike some presidents who aren’t well schooled in baseball, Dombrowski has an extraordinary mind for knowledge and details about players.  He also doesn’t hesitate to “pull the trigger” on trades and speaks his mind, according to Veeck. “The thing I love about him is he tells you what he thinks of a player,” Veeck said. “He doesn’t care who is in the room.” 

Veeck said Dombrowski “runs a scout driven organization” and that scouts, even low level ones, are loyal to their boss.  When Dombrowski changes teams, they follow. Dombrowski built contending teams in Montreal and Florida in the 1990s and his 1997 Marlins won the World Series. 

Veeck predicts the Tigers, a young team that made it to the World Series before losing to St. Louis, will be a force in the American League for the next few years.

What happened in the series where they lost to the Cardinals in six games?  “They (as a young team) have got to learn to win,” Veeck said. 

Ryan Longwell, who played nine seasons with Green Bay before coming to the Vikings this year, holds the Packer career scoring record of 1,054 points.  Packer legend Don Hutson is second on the list at 853. 

The late Herb Brooks, who coached the Gophers to two national championships and America’s “Miracle on Ice” win over the Soviet Union, is part of the University of Minnesota’s new 253-foot long Wall of Discovery that pays tribute to famous alumni and faculty.   The wall is located on the east campus and includes this quote from Brooks: “It is amazing what a group can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit.” 

Former University of Minnesota athletic director McKinley Boston has another “air show.”  At Minnesota he hired Jim Wacker whose teams set school records for passing.  Now the AD at New Mexico State, Boston’s football coach, Hal Mumme, has the Aggies second in the country in passing yards per game at almost 400 yards. Mumme is in his second season at New Mexico State and has a 2-7 record including 0-5 in the WAC Conference. 

Christopher (Critter) Nagurski, grandson of fabled footballer Bronko Nagurski, has been named to the United States College Hockey Online pre-season Division II and III all-American team.  The Augsburg senior forward’s goals-per-game average of 0.84 was fifth-best among Division III players last season.  Nagurski has been called Critter since he was an infant when siblings couldn’t pronounce Christopher. 

Freshman Chris Johnson is playing hockey for Augsburg, too, and his grandfather is the now deceased Bob Johnson, legendary former Wisconsin hockey coach.  His father Mark is a former 1980 Olympic player and now University of Wisconsin women’s hockey coach.

Four Anoka County Commissioner seats will be determined in next week’s elections.  A majority of commissioners in the past have been supportive of a sales tax increase to help fund a new Minnesota Vikings stadium in Blaine.  Scott LeDoux, the former pro boxer and a commissioner not up for re-election, predicts that after the election the stadium will still have support of the board. 

“I am more concerned about downtown,” he said.  “All the money is downtown.” 

LeDoux is concerned about reports that Viking owner Zygi Wilf will make a deal to play in a new stadium downtown (tear down the Metrodome, build on or near the site).  Money talks, whether it’s in business or politics, and many leaders, he said, prefer to keep the team in Minneapolis including for their own self interests.   

Such a decision would be consistent with what LeDoux said has been the trend of metro area economic development including infrastructure.  “I really believe the northern suburbs have been abused and neglected for the last 50 years,” he said. 

Wilf has increasingly shown interest in a downtown stadium and land development there.  “He’s leveraging Anoka versus Minneapolis,” LeDoux said.  “It’s all part of business.  That’s what business people do.” 

LeDoux remains optimistic the Blaine site will win out and he said Anoka County is negotiating weekly with the Vikings to reach an agreement on a stadium project deal.  He said whether an agreement with Minneapolis can offer Wilf enough land to satisfy him will have to be determined.   

Wilf’s Blaine proposal to build retail space, restaurants, office space, a water park and other development along with the stadium to spur economic activity excites LeDoux and a lot of other people in Anoka County.  He said the “billion dollar” project would produce $20 million in property taxes per year for the county.   

Regarding the downtown stadium, the question no one seems to have a definitive answer for is how to finance it.  With Hennepin County already financing the new Twins stadium using a sales tax increase, some other metro or state financing will be needed if the stadium is built in Minneapolis.   

Ultimately, leadership from the governor’s office will be important.  On a televised debate on KSTP earlier in the week Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty said, “The Vikings don’t even know where they are going to play yet.  Zygi Wilf, the owner, is looking at all of his options. We don’t even know what the proposal is.  I support a referendum.  I wish they would have had it on the Twins bill. I didn’t want to lose the Twins so I signed the Twins bill.  As Mr. (Mike) Hatch has said he would have done as well.” 

Independent party candidate Peter Hutchinson said during the debate he doesn’t “support public subsidies for businesses in general.”  The DFL’s Mike Hatch told the Elk River Star News earlier in the campaign he would need a “whole lot” of convincing to support state involvement for a Vikings stadium.