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.

Words of Wisdom at B-Day Time

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 by David Shama

I had a birthday this week. If there is a piece of wisdom I can share from the last 12 months, it is this: Who in the name of our Founding Fathers knows what’s next?

I was chilling last Saturday (at home of course) when I walked out the front door to retrieve the mail. I was in a comfortable mood, having cleaned out a messy bedroom closet that a slovenly teenager would envy. As I opened the mailbox, at the top of the stack, was an envelope marked “Important Tax Document.”

My blood pressure rose. Colorful language was uttered as I walked back to the house. I opened the envelope and on the form were two dreaded words I didn’t expect to see this tax season: “Corrected 1099.”

Some of you may be tax procrastinators. I am not. I begin tax preparations in early January and we target filing state and federal income tax returns in the first days of March. I hate the tax process and system. Abolish the Internal Revenue Service and show me where to sign up for a national sales tax!

When we signed our electronic approval form early last week and mailed it to our tax preparer, my wife and I thought another tax year had mercifully been put behind us. The “Corrected 1099” had other ideas, and to expedite the new process I drove to my tax preparer’s office last Saturday afternoon to deliver the surprise paperwork so she could refigure the federal and state income tax returns.

A brother-in-law emailed this message on my birthday: “Hey, this doesn’t seem to be a good time for birthdays, but I guess you can’t decide that.”

Spot on, Mark. Who could have predicted the scourge of the coronavirus threatening the health of Americans and causing millions to retreat to inside their homes. I have spent hours on mundane chores like cleaning a closet or bookcase, and purging old files. I haven’t been inside a store since last Thursday.

Sports fans have been reduced to watching baseball, basketball and football games from the past. Presumably the most hard core fans have learned there is more to home life than guzzling beer on the couch while watching the latest big game. Some may have discovered there are children in the house, although oblivion doesn’t include the ever faithful dog that retrieves beer from the cooler.

It’s just a strange year so far. Maybe my first clue should have been when my wife and I were in Palm Springs. She was waiting in a long car rental line when her cell phone kept ringing from an unknown number. Finally, she answered the call and it was a stranger who had mistakenly taken a piece of her luggage at the airport. My wife and stranger not only had identical bags, but both had the same style of luggage tags.

My wife loves to travel and her departure for Europe last July coincided with my developing severe back spasms the night before I was to drive her to the airport. Welcome to Uber, honey.

Excruciating pain doesn’t do justice to the experience of having back spasms. During my wife’s three week absence I struggled to avoid contractions but many times without success. Reaching into the refrigerator or into the oven was a sure invitation for attack. One Saturday while she was gone I called one of my sons to drive me to an urgent care facility.

Last summer and into the fall the spasms persisted. I had multiple cortisone shots, and lined my drawer with Celebrex, Prednisone and Tizanidine. I also discovered Tylenol 8 hour Arthritis Pain tablets were useful. My schedule and activities were reduced for months. It was almost like my back was preparing me for stay-at-home times when the virus hit this winter.

I had experienced previous bouts with back spasms, but nothing like the duration of 2019. The spasms stopped November 1 and haven’t returned since then. I credit exercises learned in physical therapy for most of my recovery. A couple glasses of wine helps, too.

I couldn’t have prognosticated the back saga anymore than I could have foreseen a couple of startling developments on the local sports scene. In spring training a year ago the baseball gods were proclaiming the Minnesota Twins might win 85 games and finish second to the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central Division.

Ha!

Instead they set a MLB record with 307 home runs as the Bomba Squad led the charge in winning 101 games and the division championship.

The Gophers football season was at least as impressive. Coach P.J. Fleck’s team was a popular choice to finish next to last in the Big Ten’s West Division. Instead, Minnesota was 7-2 in Big Ten games and tied Wisconsin for the best record in the division. The Gophers finished up as a national top 10 team after their startling bowl win over SEC power Auburn.

Remember what also happened in January?

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins won a playoff game!

My birthday celebration was to include a party with my sons and their families. We called it off about a week in advance. Instead of decisions about how to decorate the party room, we pondered whether to gather via FaceTime or Zoom!

I had a nice birthday, though. Lots to be grateful for even in these strange and stressful times. Birthday morning I inexplicably slept until 9 a.m. No idea when I last slept that late—perhaps decades ago. Maybe I am becoming another Benjamin Button.

I never contemplated becoming like the movie character who grows younger as time passes. Guess you never know what’s next.

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Vikings Could Draft St. John’s Tackle

Posted on March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Friday notes column referencing the Minnesota Vikings upcoming draft, regular season and playoff predictions for the Minnesota Twins, and more.

The Vikings’ offseason campaign to upgrade the offensive line could include a draft eligible player from inside the state’s borders. St. John’s left tackle Ben Bartch has earned praise in the months leading up to the April NFL Draft despite playing Division III football.

Pete Najarian, the former Gopher linebacker who has been an ESPN college football analyst, has a son who attends St. John’s. Najarian has watched Bartch’s career as the Oregon native has transitioned from a tight end to tackle while dramatically increasing his weight to about 310 pounds. Despite an impressive NFL Scouting Combine performance this winter, Najarian told Sports Headliners a lot of observers “don’t really understand how good he is.”

Najarian believes the 6-foot-6 Bartch, who could play tackle or guard in the NFL, might be drafted in the fourth round. “He’s athletic as heck,” Najarian said.

Najarian is also a fan of Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts who he thinks the Vikings should pursue, perhaps in the second round. The Vikings don’t have an athletic quarterback with the skill-set of Hurts who also was a star at Alabama. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Hurts ran a 4:59 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“…I think he could be a quarterback not too dissimilar to a Dak Prescott, or some of the other quarterbacks that are considered dual-threats including Lamar Jackson,” Najarian said. “I think he is somewhere in that category, and his combine numbers say a lot about how fast and big he really is.”

Najarian, best known as a financial whiz on television, played for the NFL’s Tampa Bucs, who have acquired 42-year-old quarterback Tom Brady. The team is known for its offensive talent, but not at quarterback. Last season the Bucs had a 7-9 record. Najarian believes the arrival of Brady, considered by many to be the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all time, transforms the Bucs into Super Bowl contenders.

“I think he’s that good,” Najarian said. “I think he still has the ability to play at a high enough level—probably not the highest level he ever played at—but a higher level than most quarterbacks in the NFL still. So it gives Tampa what they have been missing, which is somebody secure at the quarterback position.”

Sports Illustrated’s spring baseball issue predicts the Twins, who won 101 games last season and became American League Central Division champs, will again finish ahead of the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. The Twins will have a 93-69 regular season record but will lose their AL Division series to the Houston Astros (will they cheat?), according to S.I.

S.I. points out the Twins hit an MLB record 307 home runs but at least as impressive was that the pitching staff struck out a franchise record 1,463 batters. “The dingers got the attention last year, but the biggest change was the embrace of modern approaches under new pitching coach (Wes) Johnson,” the magazine said.

The publication forecasts the New York Yankees will defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Yesterday the website BetOnline.com gave Minnesota the third best odds to win the American League playoffs, and sixth best chance of any MLB club to win the World Series.

Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, now the Tigers’ skipper, saw his team lose 114 games last season and could be on track for a similar total in 2020. While the Twins had nine players slug more than 20 home runs, no Tiger hit more than 15 last season.

Former Twins infielders C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop, now with the Tigers, hit 25 and 23 respectively last season.

It will be interesting to see if former Timberwolves player and coach Sam Mitchell, who resigned from his assistant’s position with the Memphis Tigers about a year ago, gets back into coaching. Mitchell, 56, now has both NBA and college coaching experience.

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle speaks to the CORES lunch group Thursday, May 14 at the Bloomington Event Center, 1114 American Blvd. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.

The retirement celebration for prep football coaching legend Ron Stolski has been moved from April 4 to June 13 at Cragun’s Legacy Clubhouse in Brainerd. He coached football in Minnesota for 58 years, including the last 45 at Brainerd.

Comments Welcome

Why Pitino Return May Have Happened

Posted on March 18, 2020March 18, 2020 by David Shama

Did circumstances caused by the coronavirus prompt Golden Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle to announce last week that basketball coach Richard Pitino will return for another season?

A sports executive, asking for anonymity, told Sports Headliners a couple of weeks ago he heard Coyle had decided to fire Pitino, who was completing his seventh season leading the Gophers. Another source, with close ties to the University of Minnesota, said rumors this winter were Coyle had reached out to potential replacements.

As of last week, developments from the coronavirus had the University anticipating $50 million or more in new expenses. It could be that Coyle, in consultation with school president Joan Gabel, decided against giving Pitino the $2 million buyout his contract demands.

Critics would have pounced hard on University leaders for spending $2 million during such difficult times at the U and throughout the state of Minnesota. Fault-finders wouldn’t care the $2 million probably would have come from the largely self-supporting athletic department, and not from tax dollars out of the University’s general fund.

Gabel and Coyle may well have sized up the situation and seen that the practicality and the perception of changing basketball coaches just now was not the way to go. “Richard was (probably) spared by the pandemic,” said the source with close ties to the U.

Was it the right decision? For years there has been a chorus of Pitino critics, speaking with conviction that the program has underperformed. This winter the noise level jumped with loud complaining and second-guessing from the fan-base. There were blown leads in games and close defeats, including to border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. The emotions of this winter became combined with too many past seasons of frustrations that even involved misbehavior by players.

Wisconsin had five Minnesotans on its roster this year and some played key roles in helping the Badgers tie for the 2020 Big Ten championship. Next season the Badgers add two promising Minnesota prep players in Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl. The roster in Madison is expected to have seven Minnesotans for 2020-2021.

For 20 consecutive Big Ten seasons the Badgers have produced better records than the Gophers! And often Minnesotans were major contributors. Part of that Wisconsin success story the last 20 years includes five Big Ten regular season titles and two Final Four appearances. Impressive results for the Badgers who represent a state and school that is demographically, culturally and geographically similar to Minnesota.

Critics have been outspoken for a long time about the Gophers not recruiting more quality Minnesota prep players. A former Big Ten coach told Sports Headliners there were more than a dozen Minnesotans playing for other NCAA basketball teams this winter that could have helped the Gophers. Pitino’s two most recent recruiting classes have no Minnesotans—and he and his staff have come up empty on three of the last four classes.

This year’s Gopher team had five Minnesotans on the roster, with two of them starters. Sophomore center Daniel Oturu was named an All-American and is likely to depart for the NBA in the spring. Sophomore guard Gabe Kalscheur was also a starter and the team’s most active three-point shooter. Forwards Michael Hurt and Jarvis Omersa played limited minutes off the bench, and guard Brady Rudrud hardly at all.

Fans have an expectation that the high caliber and large number of talented prep players in the state will translate into success for the Gophers. Minnesota has become a hotbed of talent, and a regular recruiting stop for college coaches from other places including prominent names like Tom Izzo of Michigan State, Bill Self from Kansas and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke.

Pitino’s seven-year Big Ten record is 48 wins, 72 losses. Only once, in 2016-2017, have his teams won more conference regular season games than they have lost. That 11-7 record was a pleasant surprise and resulted in Pitino being selected the league’s Coach of the Year.

The 2016-2017 team made the NCAA Tournament where the Gophers lost their opening game. Pitino’s team last year also made the tournament and had an impressive upset win over Louisville before losing to Michigan State. In the coach’s first season, 2013-2014, Minnesota won the National Invitational Tournament.

Qualifying for the 68-field NCAA Tournament has become a popular measure of success in the college basketball world, but it shouldn’t be seen by fans or administrators as meaningful as being a conference title contender most seasons. In a statement last week Coyle expressed his expectations for Pitino to compete for championships. (While more detail was sought, Coyle declined to be interviewed for this column.)

Next fall and winter the pressure on the coach and Coyle could increase even more. If Oturu departs, it’s difficult to speculate how the returning players and incoming freshmen (two four-star recruits from out of state) will produce and with what results.

Those results weren’t so good this year with the Gophers finishing in 12th place in the 14-team Big Ten. Minnesota’s record was 8-12 in the conference and 15-16 overall. Home attendance had an announced average for 16 games of 10,232. That is the lowest since the program had an average of 8,395 during the 1970-1971 season. (Announced attendance means tickets distributed.)

The Gophers had one sellout all season when 14,625 was announced for the February 16 Iowa game. Fan apathy has been a reality for years and this offseason indifference is likely to grow. Certainly Coyle sees this and may well have considered how a change in leadership could have jump-started expectations and revenues including season tickets and donations. The right coach could make up the $2 million buyout in short order.

Coyle is a savvy administrator and has impressed with his coaching selections since becoming athletic director in 2016. His hires include football coach P.J. Fleck who in year three at Minnesota led the Gophers to a final A.P. ranking of No. 10 in the nation. That was the highest ranking for the program at the end of a season since 1962. For decades Gopher football mostly struggled against Big Ten opponents, but last year Minnesota had a 7-2 record. The seven wins tied a school record. Fleck’s teams are 15-4 in their last 19 games.

If the football program—requiring large numbers of players—can become a quick success story at Minnesota, then surely basketball can rebound, too. The rise of football should mute the apologists who say Gophers basketball can’t do much better than land in the lower portion of the Big Ten standings.

Pitino was hired in 2013 by infamous U athletic director Norwood Teague who had been unable to convince other candidates to accept the job. Pitino, then 30 years old, had one season of head coaching experience at Florida International where his record was 18-14. The job at Minnesota has been rewarding financially with a current salary base of about $2 million and millions more earned over seven years including through bonuses. Not so rewarded are the Gopher loyalists who have invested their money, time and emotions in the program with minimal return for years.

Teague showed patience with Pitino, and so, too, has Coyle who is on record as personally liking the coach. I like Richard, too, but coaches are hired to win and there has been too little of that for most of the last seven seasons.

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