Author: David Shama

Harmon Killebrew’s charity dinner and golf events for June 29 and 30 to benefit the Twins Community Fund and Miracle League of Minnesota were sold out before he passed away last week.

Manager Ron Gardenhire said on his 1500 ESPN radio show Sunday that his new shortstop Trevor Plouffe sometimes “guides the ball” when throwing and the club can’t have Plouffe “baby the ball.”

Will Plouffe remain at shortstop when middle infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka comes off the disabled list?  Plouffe has made two errors in 13 games and at times looks uncertain in the field.  At bat he has a .212 average with three home runs and 10 RBI.

The Twins have lost four of their last five games and also nine of the last 10 at home.  A positive is Minnesota’s 12 home runs in the last six games.

Jim Thome, who has 593 career home runs, has hit 113 of them against left-handed pitchers.  Thome has passed Reggie Jackson for fifth place for most homers by a left-handed hitter versus lefties.  Barry Bonds holds the record at 227.

Happy birthday to Don Shelby, the former WCCO-TV anchor and basketball lover, who is 66 on Friday.

ESPN.com’s Andy Katz offered a men’s college basketball top 25 preseason listing earlier this month with Ohio State No. 3, Wisconsin No. 11 and Michigan No. 23.  The Gophers, coming off a 6-12 Big Ten season in coach Tubby Smith’s fourth year, won’t be in anyone’s preseason top 25, although Minnesota does return three starters including the league’s best rebounder, Trevor Mbakwe.

Mbakwe, who made second team All-Big Ten, averaged 11 rebounds per game in league games.  In Big Ten and other games he had 10 rebounds or more 20 times.  He was in double figures in both rebounding and scoring for all 18 league games.

The Wild’s Houston farm team won game seven against Hamilton in the Western Conference Finals last night to advance to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Finals. The Aeros are 6-0 all-time in Calder Cup playoff game sevens and have won  five of those games on the road.  Minnesotans Jared Palmer, Nate Prosser and Chad Rau have all contributed in the Aeros playoffs game with Rau ranking among the top Houston goal scorers with six.

Look for Aeros head coach Mike Yeo to receive strong consideration for the Wild’s head coaching job replacing Todd Richards.  Count on Yeo, who has built a solid locker room culture in Houston, to be an NHL head coach in the next couple of years. The Wild will likely announce a coach before the June 24-25 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul.

St. Thomas finished first in the final standings of the 2010-11 MIAC All-Sports Competition. Gustavus was second followed by St. Olaf, Saint Benedict, Concordia, Carleton, Bethel, Saint Mary’s, Hamline, Augsburg, St. Catherine and Macalester.

The annual C.O.R.E.S-Minnesota Minutemen Golf Tournament will be Wednesday, July 13 at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan.  Members of those organizations should contact Duane McEwen via email for more information, mcewendh@aol.com.  (C.O.R.E.S is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans).

Here’s what Sports Headliners knows about a possible new Vikings stadium after following the issue for years and talking with a stadium authority late last week.

Legislative supporters of the Arden Hills site didn’t have enough votes to pass a stadium bill during the regular session but might during a special session, according to the source who spoke anonymously.  But a better move is to form a blue ribbon committee to study all the stadium options and make a recommendation for the 2012 session.  Don’t rush to judgment on this controversial issue that demands public support.

If the stadium issue is unsettled going into next year, the Farmers Market site in Minneapolis could eventually become home to the Vikings.  That location ties in with Target Field, Target Center and the many bars and restaurants in the area.  “The business guys like the clustering of facilities,” the source said.

Either the Metrodome or Farmers Market site conforms better than Arden Hills to Governor Mark Dayton’s mantra to build a “people’s stadium.”  The Minneapolis sites are more centrally located, better served by mass transit, have superior road access, won’t require expensive highway upgrades, and offer proximity to hotels, bars and restaurants.  Major attractions like an NCAA Final Four need additional facilities for their activities including hospitality amenities and exhibition space.

Whatever site is chosen, legislation needs to stipulate “sweetheart” usage deals for nonprofits like MIAC baseball teams that have benefitted in the past from playing in the Metrodome.

The source said Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is enamored with the Arden Hills site after talking with two owners who have successful stadium operations in the suburbs, Jerry Jones with Dallas and Robert Kraft from New England.  The source believes the Vikings could charge $30 per car for the projected 21,000 parking spaces in Arden Hills.

With a career background in real estate, it’s assumed Wilf also likes the potential for commercial development at Arden Hills.

A Ramsey County location for the stadium should lessen decades old complaints from the east metro that Minneapolis “gets everything,” but the source said not necessarily so.  “They (the more paranoid) still think they will get screwed (on the stadium),” he said.  “Even when the Xcel Center was built, they thought Minneapolis would figure a way to get the team (the Wild).”

Jason LaFrenz from the Gophers marketing department said after the last football season a survey indicated 83 percent of public season ticket holders planned to renew their tickets.  Now the renewal process is “pretty much finalized” and 90 percent of season ticket holders have committed for next season.  He said that figure compares with 93 percent last year.

The better than expected renewal rate ties to the growing popularity of new coach Jerry Kill.  The hire didn’t create much positivity with many fans last fall but the public and media has been impressed with his coaching success at other schools and the forthright way he’s gone about his job so far at Minnesota.

A website called Coaches By The Numbers analyzes college football coaches and offers data flattering toward Kill.  Kill has won almost 70 percent of his games when playing teams with equal talent, and approaches 50 percent when at a talent disadvantage, according to the website’s analysis.

Former Gophers’ football player Jim Brunzell is working on a book about his professional wrestling career.  Jumping Jim wrote in an email: “I’ve had knee, shoulder, and hip replacement.  For 28 years, nearly 5,000 matches, I had a great run.”

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien told Sports Headliners via e-mail that Siyani Chambers from Hopkins is drawing interest from Providence and Georgia Tech while Sanjay Lumpkin of Benilde-St. Margaret’s has offers from Northwestern, Santa Clara and Princeton.  Lumpkin’s teammate, Isaiah Zierden, has interest from Maryland and Notre Dame, while Braham’s Tyler Vaughn received offers from St. Cloud State and Northern State, according to Lien.

Ndudi Ebi, who the Timberwolves drafted out of high school as their first pick in 2003, is playing pro basketball in Europe.

NBAdraft.net has the Wolves choosing forward Derrick Williams from Arizona with the No. 2 pick in next month’s draft.  Former Gopher Mychal Thompson’s son, forward Klay Thompson, is projected by the website to be drafted No. 12 by Utah.

Sports Headliners believes the Wolves will draft Kentucky center Enes Kanter.