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.

Twins Missed on Retractable Roof

Posted on April 1, 2019April 1, 2019 by David Shama

A Monday notes column that includes quotes from Minnesota governors and a lot more.

The Twins did okay with the weather for their 2019 home opening series in Minneapolis. Game time temperatures in their three-game series with the Cleveland Indians were 49 degrees on Thursday and 34 both Saturday and Sunday. The 34 degrees tied a record for the third coldest temperature in Target Field history. The coldest is 27 on April 7 of last year.

Not exactly balmy but better than early season weather in 2018 that led to postponements. Cold weather, rain and snow keeps ticket buyers away, and the Twins management knew this years ago when they pushed state officials for a retractable roof facility to be built along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

Arne Carlson, Minnesota’s governor in the late 1990s and a sports fan, saw the advantage of a retractable roof facility. Reached by telephone last weekend at his residence in Florida, Carlson talked about Minnesota’s “adverse weather” in both the spring and late fall. “…So a retractable roof only makes good common sense,” he said.

A financial package couldn’t be agreed upon for a retractable roof baseball stadium in the 1990s and the club finally worked out a deal with Hennepin County to build open air Target Field, a facility in operation since 2010. The acclaimed ballpark is often ranked among baseball’s best stadiums, but it can’t guarantee that weather won’t postpone games, and that’s a challenge in selling tickets to potential customers who live near and far.

The proposed cost for a Twins retractable roof stadium years ago was $438.8 million. Target Field, with financing from the county and the Twins, cost over $550 million including original expenditures and later enhancements.

The Twins drew a sellout crowd of 39,519 for opening day, then announced attendances of 15,271 Saturday and 15,613 Sunday. The best numbers of the last few days for the Twins were winning two of three games against their AL Central Division rival Indians, the favorite to win a fourth consecutive championship.

Minnesota native and Indians ace reliever Brad Hand pitched in both Thursday’s and Saturday’s games. After the Saturday game he told Fox Sports North that as an amateur in Minnesota he had pitched while it was snowing.

In a feature story on how technology has impacted baseball, the late March issue of Sports Illustrated said, “the Twins hope they have found the next undervalued pitcher based on data.” The magazine reported Martin Perez, who Minnesota signed in January for a reported $3.5 million for one season, threw his fastball 97 miles per hour in spring training—faster than he had achieved in four years. The left-hander had a 6.22 ERA with the Texas Rangers last season.

Perez, pitching in relief, was the winning pitcher yesterday in Minnesota’s 9-3 victory. In 3.2 innings he gave up three earned runs but struck out six batters.

Governor Tim Walz, elected to office last fall, spoke to high school football coaches Friday night. He is a former prep football coach. “My peers sit in this room,” he said at the 12th annual Minnesota Football Coaches Clinic in St. Louis Park.

Walz was the defensive coordinator for the 1999 Mankato West state championship team. “This game (football) shaped me,” he said.

Three-day event organizers, including Ron Stolski and Jim Dotseth, said the clinic had record attendance of about 1,500. Among the recipients of awards from the Minnesota Football Coaches Association (MFCA) was KARE TV’s Randy Shaver, who was recognized for his contributions to football in the state including through his Prep Sports Extra program that starts its 35th season this fall.

At Iowa State Shaver planned to be a football coach and teacher before deciding to enter broadcasting. At KARE 11, first as a sportscaster and now a news anchor, Shaver remained intrigued with high school football. On Friday nights after going off the air he will work until 3 a.m. poring over game film for information he will eventually use to determine the station’s all-metro offensive and defensive teams. “People think I am crazy,” he told Sports Headliners about his passion to review film.

The MFCA announced Mike Kesler of Rochester Lourdes as its 2018 Coach of the Year on Saturday. His Eagles had a 14-0 record in 2018 and won the Class 3A State Football Championship last November.

Among clinic speakers was Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck who recommended reading the following books: Belichick, Date Your Wife, Power of a Positive Team, and You Have What It takes: What Every Father Needs to Know.

Fleck also told the audience he enjoys vacationing at Disney World in Orlando.

Ryan Suter can become the third Minnesota Wild player ever to win the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The popular defenseman would join goalies Devin Dubnyk and Josh Harding as winners of the award named after the late Bill Masterton from the Minnesota North Stars. The trophy is presented annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

You can be sure the many friends Fred Hoiberg made while working for the Timberwolves are happy he is back in coaching. The former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach, who both played for and worked in the Wolves front office, has agreed to a reported seven-year, $25 million deal to coach at Nebraska. It looks like another savvy hire by Bill Moos, one of the best athletic directors in the country. At Nebraska Moos also hired football coach Scott Frost and while at Washington State he hired football coach Mike Leach.

The Michigan State team that plays in the Minneapolis Final Four on Saturday had a great season even though the Spartans’ Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson declared early for the NBA where they are averaging 7.2 and 13.8 points per game respectively.

Comments Welcome

U Lining Up ‘Next’ Shannon Brooks

Posted on March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Thursday notes column with a focus on Golden Gophers football including recruiting for the 2020 class, and comments and quotes from Tuesday’s spring practice open to the media and public.

Per 247Sports, Minnesota has five verbal commitments for its class of 2020. The commits include Topeka, Kansas running back Ky Thomas, who could come to Minneapolis next year as a four-star prospect. Ryan Burns, the local recruiting authority with Gopherillustrated.com, is intrigued by Thomas, listed at 5-11, 185 pounds by 247.

“I think if he can stay healthy, I think he’s going to be the next Shannon Brooks,” Burns told Sports Headliners this week. “I think he’s got the best lateral quickness we’ve seen in a Gopher running back since Jeff Jones.”

Brooks, a redshirt senior this fall with the Gophers, is a slashing, side-to-side runner that is also elusive in the open field. Despite injuries resulting in partial seasons, he has 1,882 career rushing yards and five touchdown runs of 37 yards or longer. Jones, the 2013 Mr. Football in Minnesota, was a four-star recruit coming out of Washburn High School but personal issues held back his development in college football.

Another 2020 recruit at a playmaking position is Rosemount’s Jonathan Mann, 6-foot-2, 190 pounds per 247. The wide receiver has been committed to Minnesota for about a year, despite offers from Big Ten and SEC programs. When Burns talks about the three-star recruit, he mentions Gophers senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson who was named Association Press All-Big Ten First Team last fall after catching 74 passes for 1,112 receiving yards (second in the Big Ten in both categories).

“Someone (Mann) that I think with an athletic skill-set as good as what Tyler Johnson was coming out of high school,” Burns said. “I am not saying he’s going to be Tyler Johnson but I think athletically he’s as raw as Tyler was coming out and I think he’s on the same level athletically.”

A second verbal commit from the state of Minnesota is Winona defensive end Aaron Witt, listed at 6-5, 230, according to 247. Burns describes him as a “very aggressive” player.

‘’Aaron Witt is someone that they (the Gophers coaches) really, really like at the defensive end position now,” Burns said. “He’s got to put on a lot of weight. He’s only 235 pounds right now, and you look at him, and you’re like he looks like he’s a buck 70 soaking wet.”

C.J. West from La Grange Park, Illinois is another defensive commit, a 6-2, 305 pound tackle. Iowa and Iowa State have pursued him but 247 reported in late February that West wants to play for the Gophers. “Someone that the staff thinks is the most powerful defensive tackle in the Midwest,” Burns said.

The fifth verbal commit for 2020 is Casey Collier, a 6-6, 300-pound offensive tackle per 247. He is from an under recruited part of Texas (small town Mont Belvieu) and Burns said that’s a factor in why other Power Five schools haven’t offered him a scholarship. “Obviously good size,” Burns said. “He’s got extremely long arms; someone that is athletic enough in their eyes (Gopher coaches) to play tackle.”

Collier’s older sister, Charli, was a McDonald’s girls basketball All-American last year.

An estimated 250 fans attended Tuesday’s indoor Gopher football practice where loyalists could not only watch the team but have a photo taken with Paul Bunyan’s Axe. Minnesota reclaimed the traditional trophy with the Badgers with a win last fall for the first time in the series since 2003.

The victory over Wisconsin was part of a surge by the Gophers with surprise victories in three of their last four games. With most of his players returning in 2019, head coach P.J. Fleck knows the Gophers, who are drawing top 25 national mentions in early rankings, won’t be taken lightly by opponents this year. “We’re not going to shock anybody; surprise anybody at all,” Fleck said at a post-practice media session.

The 2019 season will be Fleck’s third as Minnesota’s head coach. Struggling college programs, including Minnesota’s in the past, are characterized by small senior classes and totals can even dip under 10. The Gopher roster lists 14 players in their final season of college eligibility, but Fleck sees things going in the direction he wants.

“We don’t have those senior classes of 25 or 30 guys…we’re not there yet,” he said. “Those guys (who will make a large senior group) are still sophomores (total 36).”

Sophomores include running back Mohamed Ibrahim who rushed for 1,160 yards last season, the second most for a Gopher freshman ever. He set a school single game rushing record with 224 yards in the impressive 34-10 bowl win over Georgia Tech.

Fleck said Ibrahim can get better. “I don’t worry about him because he’s the hardest worker we have. The way he works, the commitment level he has. He doesn’t take anything for granted, whatsoever. He knows he has to get better, loves getting better, loves the competition and that’s what you want to recruit and develop (in players).”

Seth Green, the Gophers wildcat formation specialist who scored eight rushing touchdowns last season as a redshirt sophomore, has a lower body injury that Fleck said needs time to heal. “He’ll be fine,” Fleck said.

Green, the former East Ridge quarterback, could be among the players Fleck will hold out of the April 13 Spring Game at TCF Bank Stadium.

In addition to the Spring Game, the other remaining opportunity for the public to see the team is next Tuesday starting at 4:45 p.m. on campus.

Antoine Winfield Jr. returns as a redshirt sophomore this spring having played in only four games last season because of injury. He will go into the fall regarded as one of the Big Ten’s best secondary players and perhaps eventually become a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award given to the nation’s premier defensive back. His father, former Minnesota Viking Antoine Winfield, won the Thorpe while at Ohio State.

Junior’s brother Austin will join the Gophers later in the year as a freshman walk-on defensive back. Asked what the first tip will be for his little bro, Antoine Jr. said, “Never be late for anything.”

Former Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi, now in his sixth year serving on the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, will host colleagues in town for the Minneapolis Final Four for an open house at his residence on Sunday, April 7.

The Twins, who open their regular season today, have a formidable schedule between now and early May. They play championship contending teams in the Astros (twice), Indians, Mets, Phillies and Yankees. If Minnesota can be at .500 by May 6 it will be impressive.

Last Sunday’s “60 Minutes” program on CBS predicted legalized sports gambling will be approved in over half of the states by year’s end. Minnesota is all but certain to be included, if not in 2020 then sometime beyond.

Nbadraftnet.net’s latest projections for the 2019 NBA Draft in June don’t include Gophers Amir Coffey or Jordan Murphy in either the first or second rounds. Apple Valley’s Tre Jones, a freshman at Duke, is projected to go in the second round at No. 36 to the Mavericks. The website predicts the Timberwolves will take Texas Tech shooting guard Jarrett Culver at No. 13 and Washington forward Robert Franks at 43.

The MLS United’s Darwin Quintero has three assists and is tied for the league lead in that category with two other players. The Loons, who will have their first game ever at Allianz Field in St. Paul on April 13, hosted season ticket holders for an open house last weekend. The club’s Black and Blue Team Store, and Brew Hall, are open to the public including on non-game days.

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Molitor Optimistic about Twins’ Season

Posted on March 26, 2019March 26, 2019 by David Shama

Paul Molitor told Sports Headliners during a telephone interview yesterday he is “optimistic” about the Twins having a successful 2019 season. The former Twins manager likes the team’s potential and he was down in spring training recently watching the club he managed from 2015-2018. He likes the roster’s potential.

Many odds-making authorities believe the Cleveland Indians will win the AL Central Division. The Indians, winners of three consecutive division titles, are in town for a three-game series against the Twins starting with Thursday’s season opener at Target Field. This week Bovada, the popular online gambling site, had Cleveland as the favorite to win another division championship, with the Twins next and followed by the White Sox, Tigers and Royals.

Sports Illustrated, though, has a different forecast than the trend to favor the Indians, who boast perhaps baseball’s best starting staff but didn’t upgrade the overall roster enough to win the magazine’s full confidence. In the publication’s MLB preview issue that came out late this month, S.I. ranks the Twins No. 5 among American League clubs, and predicts Minnesota will win the division with a 90-72 record. The Indians will finish 89-73 and one game behind the Twins in the standings.

There is optimism about the Twins, 78-84 last season, because there are multiple promising additions to the roster—and their division is perhaps the worst in the 30-team majors. “The Twins lineup has been beefed up, and the (pitching) rotation boasts surprising depth,” said S.I.

Quotes in the magazine from an anonymous scout included comments about mystery players Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. “…Byron Buxton has all the talent in the world, but he essentially got the previous regime ousted with how he crapped the bed,” the scout said. “Miguel Sano is always hurt and always fat, but there’s hope for Buxton and Max Kepler, who needs to lift the ball with more authority.”

If S.I. is correct in predicting the Twins will lose in the postseason to the Yankees, that will be the sixth time New York has ended Minnesota’s advancement in the playoffs.

Molitor is in ongoing discussions with the Twins about a future role with the club. He was fired after last season with reportedly two years remaining on his contract. He was AL Manager of the Year in 2017 when he led the 85-77 team to the playoffs.

The popular 62-year-old Minnesota native said he remains open to managing again in the majors but he is using time away from the game to be with family including 12-year-old son Ben who accompanied him to spring training.

Worth Noting

Molitor is friends with Golden Gophers baseball coach John Anderson whose team has its home opener at Siebert Field starting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Minnesota is 7-13 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten.

Former Gopher football wide receiver Drew Hmielewski, who gave up football last year to focus on baseball, hit his first career home run for Minnesota on Sunday in a win over Penn State. He is a redshirt sophomore outfielder.

With his outstanding play in regular season and tournament games in March, Gophers junior forward Amir Coffey might now project as a late first round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Coffey will test NBA interest in the coming weeks. He is better than some players on current NBA rosters, but he might benefit from gaining more physical strength and experience by returning to Minnesota for his final season of eligibility.

This is the first school year in University of Minnesota history the Gophers have won a football bowl game (December against Georgia Tech) and NCAA Tourney basketball games (last Thursday, Louisville; Saturday, Michigan State).

The opinion here is Kevin Harlan, who called the Gophers’ two NCAA Tournament games for CBS last week and was the original radio voice of the Timberwolves, is the best play-by-play guy ever to work in Minneapolis-St. Paul calling professional or University of Minnesota sports.

If Scott Layden doesn’t return as Timberwolves general manager after this season, Calvin Booth might be a candidate to replace him. Booth is assistant general manager of the Nuggets and previously worked in the Wolves’ front office.

Media outlets, including the Kansas City Star, were reporting yesterday that Rochester John Marshall five-star forward Matthew Hurt will announce his college choice April 19. Presumably the University of Kansas is still a finalist, although speculation is Jayhawks coach Bill Self could one day be coaching in the NBA where his name has been linked to the Bulls, Spurs and Thunder.

Hopkins star point guard Paige Bueckers is on spring break this week in Billings, Montana, where she is instructing youngsters at the free “Buckets With Bueckers” clinics. Paige’s mom, Amy, lives in Billings.

Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill, now athletic director at Southern Illinois, will be in Minneapolis next week for the Final Four and plans to see friends he made here from 2011-2015.

Game time for the annual Gophers Spring Football Game has been set for 11 a.m. Saturday, April 13 at TCF Bank Stadium.

The top three overall seeds in the NCAA men’s hockey playoffs are schools from the state of Minnesota, with No. 1 St. Cloud State, No. 2 Minnesota Duluth and No. 3 Minnesota State. A college hockey authority told Sports Headliners that’s a historical first for Minnesota hockey.

The Minnesota Wild, with five games remaining in the regular season, are likely to make the playoffs if goalie Devan Dubnyk is at his best. A playoff spot will be a positive with season ticket holders who are seeing an increase in the cost of seats for 2019-2020.

Former Vikings draft choice WR Moritz Böhringer of Germany is on the Bengals practice squad as part of the 2018 NFL International Player Pathway Program.

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