Author: David Shama

Resilient.  The Minnesota Twins players could wear that word on their uniforms.  A team that many thought would play .500 baseball or worse, and has now lost 15 of its last 25 games, finds itself 2.5 games behind Chicago in the Central Division race with the White Sox coming to the Metrodome for a three-game series starting tomorrow night.

With only six games remaining in the season for the Twins, probably nothing less than a sweep of the White Sox will keep the division title drive on track.  That would leave the Twins 8-1 in the dome against the White Sox this season.

The Twins hope their strengths, pitching, defense, and timely hits, will be in place this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.  The White Sox, who like the Twins have been stumbling in September losing 10 games and winning nine, will want to show their power game, 223 home runs, best in the majors.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners on Friday he hopes his team can minimize White Sox power.  “If we can keep the ball in the park, I like our chances a lot,” he said.

The easy guess is to write that the Twins are too far back to win, but the White Sox are playing without the injured Carlos Quentin, their best player gone for the season, and they’re not playing winning baseball.  Then, too, the Twins have been surprising most everyone all season.

“It’s going to come down to pitching,” St. Peter said.

The White Sox finish their season at home against Cleveland and could have to make up a previously postponed game against Detroit on Monday of next week if the division race is still being decided.  The game would be in Chicago.

The fans were booing the Vikings’ offense and presumably coach Brad Childress with gusto in the first quarter of yesterday’s game against Carolina, a Minnesota 20-10 win.  St. Paul native and 11 year Vikings veteran Matt Birk isn’t critical of the fans, though.  He told Sports Headliners he understands their passion.

Vikings’ defensive end Ray Edwards said during the off-season he wants to break Michael Strahan’s single season NFL sack record of 22.5.  Through three games Edwards has no sacks but he says the “sky’s the limit.”

Edwards told Sports headliners that so far opponents aren’t verbally giving him a bad time about his sack drought.  A third year pro, Edwards’ contract is up after next season and he’s using the sack goal for inspiration.  “A lot of motivation?” he asked.  “Yes, because if I do that I definitely set up my family up for life.  Retire my grandmother and everything will fall into place for me.”

Brett Favre will celebrate his 39^th birthday on October 10 but Vikings wide receiver Robert Ferguson, who played six seasons with Favre in Green Bay, still sees a kid in the New York Jets quarterback. “He’ll bring enthusiasm to their offense,” Ferguson told Sports Headliners.  “He has a little boy spirit. …Just brings a passion to the game.”

Ferguson thinks Favre’s throwing arm is still special but mobility likely isn’t what it was.  “In the past he probably scrambled a little bit more to create more time to make plays, but now he knows (different),” Ferguson said.  “He’s probably a little less (with) mobility.”

When the two were in Green Bay, Ferguson said Favre adopted a country song called “I Ain’t As Good As I Once Was.”  The lyrics include the line “But I am as good once as I ever was.”

“He used to walk around saying that all the time,” Ferguson said. “I think he really believes that.  He might mess up here and there but he’s going to have a couple plays that he’s extraordinary at.”

Here’s a trivia question, courtesy of Dave Mona’s new book, Beyond the Sports Huddle:  Who is the former Vikings’ running back who starred as a cop on TV’s Hill Street Blues?  (Answer at bottom of column.)

Timberwolves president Chris Wright told Sports Headliners the new basketball floor at Target Center won’t be in place until the team’s opening regular season game on October 29.

Wright said the Wolves have renewed about 76 percent of their full season tickets.  Seats that weren’t renewed are available to new purchasers.   He expects season tickets of about 5,000 and with partial season packages total of about 6,000, similar numbers to last year.

The Wolves have some $20 per game lower level season tickets available.

Former Pioneer Press Timberwolves beat writer Rick Alonzo, now covering the Vikings for the St. Paul newspaper, predicts the Wolves will win 33 and lose 59 next season, an 11 game improvement over 2007-2008.

The Wild reported that 96 percent of its season ticket holders have renewed for the 2008-09 NHL season.  The Wild will offer approximately 2,000 tickets per game for all games at Xcel Energy Center.  Over 7,500 people are on the Wild Warming House season ticket holder waiting list, according to a franchise news release.

The Gophers open their Big Ten Conference season at Ohio State on Saturday and the Buckeyes lead the series 40-7.  Ouch.

The Gophers’ Big Ten schedule is favorable, not having to play Penn State, perhaps the conference’s best team, and dark horse Michigan State.  Plus, the Gophers play three of the more beatable teams at home, Indiana, Northwestern and Iowa.  If quarterback Adam Weber and wide receiver Eric Decker stay healthy, the Gophers could win two or more conference games after being winless last season.

In 2009, for the first time in memory, the Gopher football team will open its Big Ten Conference home schedule against Wisconsin.

Another scheduling oddity has Tubby Smith’s Gopher basketball team opening its conference schedule at home on New Year’s Eve of this year.  Michigan State will be the opponent.

Former Gopher football player Mark Dusbabek, is a PGA rules official.

Three football coaches with Minnesota ties who could be job hunting by January are Scott Linehan, Ty Willingham and Mitch Browning.  Linehan, the former Vikings offensive coordinator, is 0-3 as head coach of the St. Louis Rams after being 3-13  last season.  Willingham, another former Vikings assistant, is off to a 0-3 start at the University of Washington where his career record is 11-28, according to Wikipedia.org.  Browning, the Gophers offensive coordinator under Glen Mason, has the same title at Syracuse where the Orange is 1-3 including a loss to Akron and win over Northeastern.  Head coach Greg Robinson has a 7-31 record at Syracuse, according to Wikipedia.org.

The Minnesota Thunder was undefeated in its last six games and now has earned the seventh and final playoff spot in the USL First Division.  The Thunder will play the Vancouver Whitecaps in a two-game aggregate score series on Friday in Vancouver, and on Sunday, September 28 at the National Sports Center starting at 5:05 p.m. Each ticket purchased in advance of Sunday’s game is $2 off.  For ticket information, call 651-989-5151 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

“The team really did what they had to do down the stretch,” Djorn Buchholz, Thunder general manager, said via e-mail.  “To go unbeaten in our last six games with three of them being wins is exactly what we needed. We’re playing our best soccer of the year right now and hopefully that carries us far into the playoffs.”

Trivia answer: Ed Marinaro.