Author: David Shama

This fall the Star Tribune published a four part series detailing the life and death of Kirby Puckett after baseball.  It was another look into the good and bad of perhaps Minnesota’s most revered baseball player ever.  For all of his personal problems, memories of Puckett remain positive for many people including those who were fond of him for much more than his ball playing skills. 

Among those with such recollections is Gregg Wong, the former Pioneer Press sports writer.  I called Wong on Sunday, May 7 to pass along the news Puckett had suffered a stroke and was in grave condition.  Puckett died later that day.   

I recently asked Wong to write about his memories of Puckett.  Wong was a Twins beat writer from 1985-1987 and covered the team part time during other seasons.   Here’s what Wong wrote: 

“He was the most upbeat, most accessible athlete I’ve ever dealt with on a regular basis. He would light up whatever room he was in with his non-stop chatter, banter and energy. The noise level in the clubhouse always would go up once he walked in. 

“He always had something to say for the record. A lot of times it might just be a cliché, but he always was there to face the music. He never ran and hid, like many top athletes, even if he struck out with the winning run on base in the bottom of the ninth. He was a true professional in that regard; he knew you had a job to do, too. 

“Probably my favorite remembrance of him was when he made his first all-star team in 1986, where he was voted in as a starter. The paper did not send me to the game in Houston, but the boss wanted a Puckett sidebar after the game. I asked if he would call me as soon as the game got over so I could ask about his experience and he said he would, although I believed he would get caught up in the hype and hoopla and forget to call. 

“I watched the game on TV, made some notes and prayed that he’d call. Five minutes after the game was over, the phone rang. ‘What’s up, Wongie?’ he said. ‘How you doin’?’ Here he had just ended the biggest moment of his career up to that point and he remembered to call and asked how I was doing (just fine because he called)! Not many pro athletes would do anything like that today — and certainly none of the Vikings I covered in a half-dozen years.”

How do you like Pohlad Park or Wheaties Field as possible names for the new Twins baseball stadium? 

The University of Minnesota is campaigning to sell tickets for the Insight Bowl through its ticket allotments.  If Gopher fans buy tickets through University inventory then the school can document its fan following and potentially use this to diminish the reputation that Minnesota boosters don’t support the team at bowl games.  Fans interested in a travel package to the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona can contact Creative Charters, 651-748-0080, www.creativecharter.com.  Ticket information is also available from the Gopher ticket office, 612-624-8080, or 800-U-Gopher. 

M Club president George Adzick is inviting University letter winners to play in the first annual “Bowl Cup” golf outing on Friday, December 29, the same day as the Insight Bowl.   If interested contact Adzick at 612-626-7305. 

Matt Boockmeier, a former all conference football guard for the University of St. Thomas, is a State Farm Insurance agent and offices in Edina.  His first career was as a pro football scout including with the Vikings, Packers and Saints.  In1994 he started his pro football career as a training camp intern with the Vikings, earning $5 per hour.  He then “begged” for an internship in pro personnel scouting with the Vikings and was hired at $300 per month.  The NFL later hired him as a regional college scout where he “lived out of my trunk,” spending about 220 days per year on the road.  Scouting assignments with the Packers and Saints followed before Boockmeier got married and decided to give up the nomadic life of scouting in 2001.

The Fanball.com Fall Poker Classic, Canterbury Park’s signature poker event, recently paid out a record $1,448,736 in total prize money. There were a record 4,303 entries, from 22 states and three countries. 

Local tennis pro Greg Wicklund, who writes a newsy column for Tennis Life magazine, reports in the December issue that former Gopher coach David Geatz is “now in corporate real estate with the Staubach Corporation in Minneapolis.” 

Recently retired tennis legend Andre Agassi won his first professional tennis tournament at the Minikahda Tennis Invitational at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis in 1987.

There’s an old maxim in business that says the people you don’t fire come back to haunt you.  There was support within the University of Minnesota late last winter, according to my sources, to fire basketball coach Dan Monson.  After the Gophers’ season ending NIT loss to Cincinnati, media reports said Monson would be terminated but the University didn’t take action. 

Today, following years of criticism among fans and media, Monson ended his eight season career as Gopher coach.  The fact Monson is no longer coaching the Gophers is not surprising, only the timing of the development. It seems unprecedented for a Big Ten football or basketball coach to resign only a few weeks into the nonconference season. 

The Gophers have lost five of seven games, including five in a row (two straight at Williams Arena).  Monson’s team looks like a candidate to finish last in the Big Ten Conference.  Last season the Gophers finished 10^th among 11 teams.  In his career at Minnesota, Monson’s Big Ten record was 44-68 and his conference finishes have been 10^th three times, ninth once, sixth twice and fourth once. 

The shrewdest and most passionate followers of the program wanted Monson ousted after the 2003-2004 season (3-13 in the conference).  Since then failure on the court and in attendance has followed.  Empty seats have been everywhere at games this season, and last season average attendance was about 3,000 less than capacity.  

Monson most certainly should have been let go last winter.  Instead, many fans have walked out on the program while others have apathetically remained to agonizingly watch poor basketball in an atmosphere that has changed from one of the most electric in college sports to a place of sadness and solitude.  Patrick Reusse said recently on KSTP Radio the change is enough to make you “puke.” 

At last night’s game at Williams Arena, a 90-68 loss to Clemson, a fan seated near me couldn’t decide whether to cheer for the Gophers or the Tigers, speculating that a Clemson win would contribute to Monson’s departure.  Before the game Monson’s wife Darci was one of the few adults in the arena’s lower level who stood to applaud the Gophers as they were introduced.   

Frustration, ridicule and apathy have been choking this once proud program that for three decades produced all-American players, conference champions, NCAA tournament teams and a home court environment that was the envy of schools near and far.  Monson inherited a winning program with great tradition and turned it into something that looks more like Northwestern than Minnesota.  (The Gophers have lost five straight games to the Wildcats, historically the conference’s worst basketball program).

Jim Dutcher, who coached the Gophers for 11 seasons and won the conference championship in 1982, said Monson didn’t recruit effectively enough to win. “You win with athletes,” Dutcher said.  “The recruiting didn’t turn out to be consistent and so he had to rely on some kids who went other places and came back (home), and some junior college players. And with a mix of junior college players and transfers it’s hard to build a program that way.  Generally when programs break down a little bit, you are not getting that talent that you need.”