Author: David Shama

A new artificial playing surface, Sportexe, will be in place at Mall of America Field when the Vikings play their first preseason game at home on August 28.  The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission paid $475,000 for the turf which replaces a six-year-old playing surface, according to commission executive director Bill Lester.

Lester also said the commission has spent $700,000 for the new Gridiron Club and $100,000 to relocate the Vikings’ ticket operations.  The club is a hospitality area available for a fee to Vikings’ season ticket holders and is located in the space formerly occupied by the Twins’ offices at the stadium.  The club will include an outdoor deck overlooking the stadium’s plaza and provides views of downtown.  The facility will be open for the August 28 game.

The new ticketing operation, now located on Chicago Avenue in the Twins’ former ticket locale, will provide the Vikings about “four times” the space the NFL team had on the stadium’s east side, Lester said.

The Vikings will also continue to play rent free in the stadium which became Mall of America Field last year, Lester said.  The commission’s budgets for 2010 and 2011 include no revenues from Vikings rent, a policy that dates back to the late 1990’s after the debt on the Metrodome was retired.

The Vikings will continue to pay a 10 percent admissions tax to the commission.   The team’s lease at the stadium expires after the 2011 season.

The Twins’ move to Target Field eliminated 81 playing dates for baseball at the dome.  Lester said, however, that since January 1 the dome has hosted more than 400 amateur baseball games including a full schedule played by the Gophers.

Jake Mauer, 79, is selling his tip sheet at Canterbury Park, working a reduced  scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays only.  After last season he had planned to retire.  “I really missed those people (customers),” Mauer said.  “If I had good health I would do it all four days.”

Next week Mauer visits the Mayo Clinic where a lens will be installed in his eyeglasses to improve his sight.  He is blind in the right eye but his vision is okay in the left.

The 12th annual Claiming Crown will be at Canterbury Park on Saturday. The six-race series, featuring $500,000 in purse money for thoroughbred racing’s “blue collar” runners, starts at 1:30 p.m.  This is the 10th time in 12 years that Canterbury will host some of the nation’s leading trainers and jockeys for this one-of-a-kind event.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said on his KSTP AM radio show Sunday that the club isn’t interested in re-signing Mike Redmond who was cut by Cleveland.  The former Twins catcher, now 39, doesn’t run or throw like he once did, according to Gardenhire.

Anthony Slama, a short reliever with a 1.71 ERA at AAA Rochester, has often been on the wish list for recall by second-guessing Twins fans.  Monday night the Twins put Slama on their roster.  He is a strikeout pitcher.  He had 64 strikeouts in 52.2 innings at Rochester.

Francisco Liriano, who is scheduled to start for the Twins today against Cleveland, has allowed only two home runs this season, both against the Red Sox in Boston.  Dating back to last year, Liriano has gone 64.1 innings without giving up a home run.

John Anderson has been named the Mideast Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association for leading the Gophers to a fifth Big Ten title since 2000.  Fundraising for a new outdoor baseball stadium is ongoing, although the Gophers are probably better positioned to win and improve by continuing to play inside at Mall of America Field.

Kevin Noreen, Minnesota’s 2010 Mr. Basketball, will be given an opportunity to play this fall as a freshman at West Virginia and isn’t planning to redshirt.

Aw shucks.  The word on the web is Tiger Woods’ alleged friend Rachel Uchitel will not be invited to appear on TV’s hit show Celebrity Apprentice.

With the Twins having lost 23 of their last 41 games and at times looking like a Central Division wannabe instead of a champion, the finger pointing among fans now even includes manager Ron Gardenhire.  He’s long been a favorite in this town but anybody and everybody receives blame when the Twins lose a comfortable division lead and play like second stringers instead of heroes.

But don’t expect team management or ownership to have thoughts about changing managers any time soon.  And most everyone who pulls for the Twins is feeling better after last weekend’s Target Field series when the Twins won three of four against the first place White Sox who now lead Minnesota and Detroit by 1.5 games.

The Twins’ decision makers are likely to want Gardenhire to manage the team even if the team falters on the field the balance of this season and next.  It’s the organization’s philosophy to minimize change and create continuity.

During the last 25 seasons the Twins have had two managers, Tom Kelly, 1986-2001 and Gardenhire, 2002-present.  The front office folks kept Kelly around for years after he managed two World Series champions even though the Twins had teams that were among the worst in the American League.

Gardenhire has managed five teams to Central Division titles with the most recent championships in 2006 and 2009.  His teams haven’t experienced post-season success and the Twins struggles are so bad they haven’t won a playoff series since 2002.

Like any group of coaches, even the best in the game, the Twins coaching staff led by Gardenhire doesn’t always make the right decisions.  But there’s consensus among baseball authorities that the Twins have outstanding on field leadership.

Gardenhire’s contract ends after next season.  Neither Gardenhire nor management is likely to be talking contract now, or perhaps even during the next off-season.

It would be just like the front office and Gardenhire to stay in the moment, play out the season and see what the situation looks like then.  Even use the same approach next season.

The end of the 2011 season seems far away.  Gardenhire will be 54 years old by then.  He’s had some health issues and his older brother Mike died unexpectedly at age 55 two years ago.  So who knows if Gardenhire will even want to manage after his  contract expires?

Both he and the front office will be in a much different and better place to evaluate his future in early or late 2011.  But despite some public finger pointing, count on Gardenhire being around for awhile, maybe a long while.