Author: David Shama

Baseball analyst Harold Reynolds said on the MLB Network that the Metrodome is the best home field advantage in sports.

Justin Morneau said on KSTP Radio earlier this week he will work on persuading his buddy, Joe Mauer, to encourage him to sign a new contract that will keep the Twins’ catcher with the organization.  Mauer officially won his American League third batting title yesterday, finishing with a .365 average.  He is now tied for second with Tony Oliva among Twins who have the most AL batting titles.  Rod Carew won seven titles while playing for the Twins.

Brett Favre hasn’t been entertaining while just playing football this fall.  His TV commercial for Sears is worth watching, too.  https://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=brett+favre+sears+commercial+youtube&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=9THKSunVL5GsNvCWrIMM&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1#

Adrian Peterson told Dan Patrick in the September 28 issue of Sports Illustrated that he’s had a 2010 Super Bowl on his mind for awhile now.  “Yeah, I expected to be in the Super Bowl even before Brett came here.  We’ve got all the tools in the toolbox to be able to put this run together.”

Vikings vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman talking to Sports Headliners about Gopher senior wide receiver Eric Decker: “Very good football player.  Sure handed guy.  Does a good job of finding the open seams in the zone.  He’s a heck of a college football player, and I know that he’s going to get his opportunity in the NFL.  A lot of teams will surely be looking at him.”

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez almost resurrected Badger football from the dead starting in 1990 when he was coach.  Alvarez led the Badgers to three Rose Bowls wins and national prominence while changing fan apathy into passion.  Alvarez, who was in Minneapolis last Saturday to watch Wisconsin win its sixth straight over the Gophers, was asked how he made the turn around in Madison.

“I had a good staff that could recruit,” Alvarez said.  “We were able to get good players in there.  I kept stability on my staff and my administration let me coach.  Then it’s just hard work and being sound, and having a plan that could work.

“I devised a plan with the type of kids that we could recruit.  Big linemen (and) physical type of play.  We’re not going to go out and get great skill guys.  We don’t have access to them.

“I figured out a way to win and sold everybody on it, and everybody bought in.”

ESPN analyst Bob Griese, who was also in Minneapolis for the Gophers-Badgers game, said he stays in contact with his former broadcast partner Keith Jackson, now retired and considered by many the greatest college football play-by-play man of all time.  Griese said Jackson told him he doesn’t care to attend games anymore.

Both the Vikings and Gophers have had offensive line breakdowns on pass protection this season but blame for the linemen isn’t always deserved.  Backs that don’t block on-rushing tacklers, or quarterbacks who hold the ball too long can also factor in.

The Wild ranked ninth best among 30 NHL teams in composite scores by ESPN The Magazine as part of its NHL preview issue of October 5.  Using a one (desperate) thru 10 (dominant) scale, the magazine gave the Wild a three for face-offs, six for shootouts, three for injury, seven for defense, eight for goaltending, five for power play, nine for penalty killing, two for scoring, two for five-on-five play, and five for intangibles. Overall rating: 4.7.

Ali Lucia, Gopher hockey Don Lucia’s daughter, is a Fox news anchor in Rochester, Minnesota.

The Gophers basketball team opens practice on Friday, October 16 with Tubby’s Tipoff at Williams Arena.  The public is invited to watch coach Tubby Smith’s team starting at 7:30 p.m.

Single game tickets for Gophers basketball went on sale Monday.  Season tickets are also available.  A Gophers spokesman emailed that 98 percent of season tickets have been renewed.  A public season ticket total of about 9,500 is expected.

The Wolves will be on local TV twice during the preseason with the first telecast on October 14 from Chicago and the second in Detroit October 22.

The new Minnesota Blizzards American Basketball Association franchise has scheduled a player tryout from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday at Bloomington Kennedy High School.  The Blizzards plan to begin play in the ABA in 2010.

Wayzata High School football coach Brad Anderson and Buffalo coach Gerald Rohl won their 100^th career games earlier this season and now have 101 and 102 wins respectively.  Terry Ogorek, Kittson County Central coach, earned career win 200 recently and now has 203 victories.

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame named Saint John’s senior defensive back Dominic Haik and Gustavus senior defensive back T.J. Ridley as two of 154 semifinalists for the 2009 William V. Campbell Trophy (formerly known as the Draddy Trophy).  Haik, from Minneapolis, is a political science major (pre-law emphasis) with a 3.75 grade-point average.  He is a three-year starter at cornerback for the Johnnies.  Ridley, from Edina, is a 2008 CoSIDA Academic All-American and a biology, pre-medicine major with a 3.95 grade point average.

Minnesota State Mankato is ranked No. 7 nationally in the Division II football coaches’ poll and is 6-0 for the first time since 1926.

With such a busy sports calendar, where does a writer start?  It seems best to report on a little here and there. ….

On Friday morning my friend John Bell Wilson gave me his predictions for the weekend.  “I think the Twins are in a playoff on Tuesday,” he said.  “I think the Tigers choke.”

Wilson was upbeat about the Gophers and Vikings, too.  Minnesota beats Wisconsin 24-21 and the Vikings “crush” the Packers, 28-10.

There will be plenty of jawing back and forth these days with two “border wars.”  Seems like bad timing to question the worth of Gophers for the school nickname but another friend, Mike Wilkinson, sent a group email last week reporting on Web sites taking “issue” with school nicknames.

Wilkinson asked what local school made most of the lists and then wrote the following: “Yup, our beloved University of Minnesota, thanks to what I have always felt was an awful nickname and mascot….a Gopher!!”

As consolation, though, Wilkinson offered that Illinois College is stuck with a bad one, Blue Boys.  Others he listed included the California-Santa Barbara Banana Slugs and the Cal-Irvine Anteaters. Richard Nixon’s alma mater, Whittier College, is the Poets.  Wilkinson’s other schools with “embarrassing names” are the Delta State Fighting Okra, the Tufts Jumbos, the Trinity Christian Trolls and the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys.

The Wild’s first regular season game was a loss in Columbus on Saturday night.  The Gophers won an exhibition game against the British Columbia Thunderbirds on Sunday.  Too early for hockey.  My golf clubs are in still in the car.