Author: David Shama

Roy Smalley told Sports Headliners the Twins might have fewer abilities “on paper” than the Yankees and Rays but Minnesota is still a formidable potential playoff team with its talent and attitude.

Smalley, who follows the team as an analyst for Fox Sports North, said if the Twins had an additional high quality pitcher it could be a difference maker for Minnesota in a playoff series.  “In a short series it just comes down to who can step up,” he said.

Still, the Twins have turned heads this year.  Yes, there is talent with pitchers like Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano, and position players such as Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Delmon Young, Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia.  Bench contributors have been impressive, too, players who have come from Triple A Rochester to sub for injured regulars, or players filling roles assigned to them last spring like clutch slugger Jim Thome (six home runs in the last 10 games).

But the Twins’ resiliency in overcoming injuries and determination to keep winning, including close games, prompts Smalley to speak with conviction about the franchise he helped to a World Series title in 1987.  “Very tough in the gut,” Smalley said of the 2010 Twins who have won six of their last 11 games by one run.

The patience and perseverance to win close games has shown up in the team’s competition against the White Sox this season.  The two teams have played nine one- run games.  The Twins lead the season series 10-5 going into tomorrow night’s final three games between Chicago and Minnesota.

The series has the host White Sox in a predicament.  With each team having only 19 games remaining, Chicago is six games back of the Twins in the Central Division standings.  The Twins are the likely winners of the division even if they win only a game or two this week in Chicago.

What’s also important is for the Twins to maximize their wins and possibly finish with the best record in the American League.  That would assure home field advantage in the league playoffs.

Several weeks ago Murray Warmath biographer Mike Wilkinson called with disturbing news. A Warmath caregiver had notified Wilkinson, author of the The Autumn Warrior, that the former Gophers coach was ailing and his health might soon fail him.

Since then the health of the 97-year-old Tennessee native has improved and plans are for him to attend Saturday’s game against USC and watch a ceremony honoring his 1960 national championship team at TCF Bank Stadium.  Although confined to a wheelchair for years, Warmath has regularly attended Gophers home games at the Metrodome and now TCF Bank Stadium, but the many former players and others who love him worried earlier this summer that the coach wouldn’t be around to see the reunion of his most acclaimed team from his 18 years coaching at Minnesota.

Warmath’s longevity and resiliency is no surprise to Gophers coach Tim Brewster who recognizes how special it is to have the boss of the 1960 team be in attendance on Saturday.  “He’s been struggling,” Brewster told Sports Headliners. “He keeps hanging on, and there’s a reason why he’s hanging on.  There’s a reason why he’s not letting go.  That maybe part of the reason that he wants to be on the field at TCF Bank Stadium with his team.”

Warmath has been a fighter, a survivor his whole life. His mother died when he was 10 years old and after that Warmath lived with relatives.

Warmath used football to start a career path after playing at the University of Tennessee. His coaching stops included being an assistant at Army where the staff included head coach Earl Blaik and an assistant named Vince Lombardi.

Warmath’s first head coaching job was at Mississippi State where he had enough success to interest Minnesota athletic director Ike Armstrong.  Warmath arrived at Minnesota in 1954 and was not particularly welcome from the start.  Media and fans considered him a southern outsider, not the right choice to coach the Gophers when there was a former Gopher named Bud Wilkinson dominating college football as head coach at Oklahoma.

By the end of the 1959 season anti-Warmath sentiment was at an all-time high.  That year the Gophers finished last in the Big Ten with a 1-6 record.  The conference record in 1958 was also 1-6, a ninth place finish.

The extreme critics had strewn garbage on the lawn of Warmath’s property in Edina.  On campus the coach was hung in effigy.  But Warmath had no intention of moving on.

By the late 1950’s the Gophers and other northern schools had begun recruiting African-American players.  The Gophers landed players who would become among the greatest in school history.

The 1958 freshman team (freshmen weren’t eligible to play) included quarterback Sandy Stephens, a quarterback from Uniontown, Pennsylvania who had 50 schools or more recruiting him including Ohio State.  After his career ended at Minnesota in 1961 he was the first NCAA black All-American quarterback.

Headlining the 1959 freshman class was quarterback Bobby Bell from Shelby,        North Carolina.  Bell was so gifted he could have excelled at several positions but settled in as a tackle for the Gophers and was a phenomenal pass rusher.  He was a two-time All-American at Minnesota and won the Outland Trophy in 1962.

Warmath knew his team and record would be much improved in 1960 but even he couldn’t have imagined a national championship season.  The team’s best player was senior defensive lineman Tom Brown, a rock of a man who played high school football in Minneapolis, went into military service and then came home to play for Warmath.  Brown could be unblockable and he was honored after the 1960 season as the Big Ten’s MVP.

Back in 1960 the national champion was determined by the polls before the outcome of bowl games.  The Gophers were 8-2 including a Rose Bowl loss to Washington.  The Gophers also lost to Purdue to finish 6-1 in the Big Ten where they were co-champs with Iowa.  During the season the Gophers defeated No. 1 ranked Iowa at Memorial Stadium in perhaps the greatest University of Minnesota game of all time.

The Gophers had gone from last in the conference to league champs and national kings.  It was remarkable.  “That’s got to go down in history as one of the great accomplishments ever in college football,” Brewster said.

On Saturday Minnesotans should cheer long and loud for all those 1960 players who will be back in town, and especially the old coach who made it happen and will live to see the 50^th anniversary of the school’s sixth and last national championship.

The Twins’ starting pitchers in the White Sox series are expected to be Francisco Liriano (13-7), Brian Duensing (8-2) and Carl Pavano (16-11). Their records this season against the White Sox are: 2-0, 2-0 and 2-1.

The Gophers 41-38 loss to Football Championship Subdivision South Dakota on Saturday was among the most difficult for the program in a long time.  Since 2006 the Gophers are 1-1 against FCS division North Dakota State, 1-0 against South Dakota State and 0-1 versus South Dakota.  That’s a 2-2 record against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams.

Gophers coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners that suspended players Kyle Theret and Dom Alford will return for the USC game on Saturday.  Whether they start the game is to be determined.

Woodbury’s Lamonte Edwards was considered a potential breakthrough freshman this summer for the Gophers but the running back had an ankle injury that slowed his development and Brewster told Sports Headliners “you would love to be able to redshirt Lamonte.”

The Wild expect to renew about 85 percent of season tickets, a lower percentage than in the past, according to team executive Billy Robertson.  Tickets remain for each home game including the home opener on October 14 against Edmonton.

The Wild have the longest current consecutive streak of 409 home sellouts in the NHL but Robertson said if that ends “we will start another.”  The team has been aggressively promoting partial season ticket packages, and single game seats went on sale last Saturday.  A Coon Rapids man, Allen Dick, pitched a tent outside Xcel Energy Center last Wednesday to be first in line to buy tickets.

The Wild’s first two games of the regular season will be on October 7 and 8 in Finland against Carolina.  Both games will be televised starting at 11 a.m. Minnesota time on Versus.

Mikko Koivu is from Finland but he told Sports Headliners his Finnish and Wild teammate Niklas Backstrom is responsible for pointing the team toward the best restaurants when in Helsinki.  Koivu is the Wild’s first and only full time captain.

Forward Matt Cullen signed a three-year contract in July to play with the Wild.  A college player at St. Cloud State and Moorhead native, Cullen said he’s being recognized a lot more these days than earlier in his career with stops in several other NHL cities. “Nobody knew I played in the NHL until I signed with Minnesota,” he said.

The Big Ten Network has named former Gopher Neal Broten as Big Ten Icon No. 31. The Big Ten Icons program is counting down the top 50 student-athletes in Big Ten history on www.BigTenIcons.com based on their collegiate playing careers.