Author: David Shama

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.

Brett Favre told NBC during a pre-recorded interview prior to last night’s Vikings-Saints game that he would have retired had his team won the Super Bowl last February.  “No brainer.  I would be gone (retired),” Favre said.

During the game NBC announcer Al Michaels reported the Vikings quarterback second guessed himself this week about coming back for a 20^th NFL season.  The 40-year-old Favre missed pre-season practice and games by reporting late to the team (August 17).

Last night Favre’s timing with his receivers sometimes didn’t look right.  There were only four receptions by wide outs, with tight end Visanthe Shiancoe being the favorite receiver.  He caught four passes for 76 yards including the Vikings only touchdown in the 14-9 loss.

It was evident the Vikings were not only without a less than sharp Favre but also hurting without his favorite receiver from last season, wide receiver Sidney Rice out indefinitely following hip surgery.  The Vikings passing game couldn’t get established with either Percy Harvin, who missed a lot of August practice time because of his migraine headaches, or veteran Bernard Berrian who even last year didn’t seem to click with Favre.

Favre was 15-27 for 171 yards.  In the second half the Saints adjusted to Shiancoe who was a Favre favorite earlier in the game.

After the game Vikings coach Brad Childress was asked on KFAN about his quarterback.  “I thought he did okay,” he said.  “I think he’ll get better and better again working with these guys and with the offensive line.  He probably missed some but made some nice plays as well.”

The Vikings didn’t have much to brag about after losing to the Saints in the nationally televised NFL opener that followed last January’s NFC title game in which New Orleans won in overtime 31-28 to advance to the Super Bowl.  The Vikings offense, featuring All Pro Adrian Peterson, tried to establish a running game to take pressure off Favre and the depleted receiver corps.  That didn’t work very well with the Vikings rushing for 91 yards, including 87 by Peterson.

The Vikings defense was consistent enough against the run to hold the Saints under 100 yards but that defense wasn’t good enough to stop New Orleans from making some important yardage in the first drive of the third quarter when the Saints went ahead 14-9.  Nor could the highly hyped defense stop the Saints running game when everyone watching knew New Orleans was trying to run time off the clock in the closing minutes.  That’s what they did while the Vikings offense watched the final minutes from the sidelines.

The Vikings have 15 more games to ease the frustration of another loss to the Saints, the Super Bowl champs.  Maybe they will but last night New Orleans only added to the hurt the Saints have caused the Vikings twice in nine months.

“We got a lot to work on, and we’re going to be a good football team before the season is over,” Childress said on the radio last night.

That’s why Favre came back.

Results from a state fair poll reject public funding for a new Vikings stadium by a two-to-one ratio, according to a news release this week from the Minnesota House of Representatives.  When asked if public funding should be used to help pay for the stadium, 66.4 percent of poll participants said no while 24.5 answered yes.  The poll, with 9,926 participating, didn’t ask other stadium questions such as whether it’s important to keep the Vikings in the state, or if public funding from a metro area lodging tax is acceptable.  https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hinfo/Fair/2010Results.pdf

The Twins starters for next week’s series against the White Sox in Chicago could be Francisco Liriano, Brian Duensing and Carl Pavano.  The major league season ends on October 3 and the Twins have a six game lead on the White Sox today.

WCCO talk show host and former Twins newspaper reporter Dave Mona believes if the Twins come out of next week’s series with a four game lead in the Central Division they will be solidly positioned to end the season in first place.  “It will be devastating to the White Sox who will realize that the race is pretty much over because there are no more head-to-head meetings between the teams,” he said.

Liriano pitched Winter Ball prior to this season.  Now he’s at a career high for innings pitched, with 172.1.  The September 1-7 issue of USA Today Sports Weekly included the following from him:  “I won’t pitch winter ball this year, not at all.  I’m going to go home and rest.  I think I need a break.”

Twins shortstop J.J. Hardy is hitting .444 in his last six games with eight RBI and seven runs scored.

The Twins franchise needs two more wins to reach 4,000 victories since the club began operations here in 1961.  Only five other American League teams have won more games since 1961.

Ron Gardenhire needs eight more wins to reach 800 as Twins manager.

Mona’s award winning Gopher vignettes are heard prior to Minnesota football broadcasts on WCCO Radio.  Tomorrow’s vignette (about 10:30 a.m.) is devoted to legendary broadcaster Tom Brokaw, a University of South Dakota alum, who perhaps has mixed emotions about Saturday’s game between the Gophers and Coyotes.  Brokaw, while growing up in South Dakota, was captivated by Gophers football, including by his hero, Gophers All-American Paul Giel.  Mona’s vignette references Brokaw’s book A Long Way From Home and how the small town South Dakota boy “knew every Gopher player from a religious weekly reading” of the Minneapolis Tribune.