Author: David Shama

Joe Mauer is both a baseball and family all-star.  The Twins’ catcher plays in his second major league all-star game next Tuesday night and thanks to his generosity 10 family members, including 78-year-old grandfather Jake Mauer, will be watching the game at New York’s Yankee Stadium.

“Am I thrilled!” Jake told Sports Headliners. “I really am. …”

Jake loves baseball and started tutoring Joe when he was a little boy growing up in St. Paul.  “I have never seen a game at Yankee Stadium,” Jake said.  “I told Joe before he signed (a contract with the Twins, out of high school), I said, ‘Joe, there’s really only one thing that I would really like in my whole life before I pass away, and that’s to sit in Yankee Stadium and watch you play ball because I have never been there. …’ ”

The timing of the trip couldn’t be better because Yankee Stadium will be replaced with a new stadium after this season.  Jake said he “can’t wait” to see the monument area at Yankee Stadium where plaques of Yankee greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle are displayed.  He also hopes to walk the famed tunnel leading from the clubhouse out to the field.

Jake said the trip for 10 will cost his grandson “every bit” of $20,000 or so.  Just the game tickets will be $5,000.  The group leaves Monday, will stay in a hotel across from Central Park, take a three-hour sight-seeing tour of New York, plus enjoy the all-star home run derby and game before returning on Wednesday.  Limo service to and from Yankee Stadium will be part of the package, too.

Two years ago Jake was Joe’s guest at the all-star game in Pittsburgh.  New York, though, will be even a better experience, he said.   He described Pittsburgh as a “terrible town” with no excitement.  “No nothing,” Jake said.  “Outskirts (of Pittsburgh) are nice but we didn’t get to the outskirts.”

Joe, who will be joined at the all-star game by teammates Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan, is second in the American League in hitting with a .328 average.  Unlike two years ago when he won the league batting championship with a .347 average, he isn’t stringing together three or four hit games.  Joe told Jake that pitchers are pitching around him and he’s not seeing good balls to hit, but he thinks more multiple hit games are coming in July and August when he expects his performance to improve.

Another batting title?  “Definitely,” Jake said.  “Definitely. …Nobody will beat him. No.”

The Twins had won 16 of 18 through Sunday before losing three of their last four.  Jake said the attitude in the clubhouse is extraordinary this season, according to Joe.

“Everybody is happy,” Jake said.  “There are no harsh words.  I mean if they sit on the bench and they have a replacement, nobody disagrees with anything.  They give the cheers to them, and it’s just like a family.

“And he says it’s unbelievable when you walk into the clubhouse.  Nobody is down.  Everybody’s up and everybody thinks they’re going to win it.  And that’s the spirit.  He’s never seen it like this.”

Win what?  If the pitching is good, a world championship, Jake said.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners this week he feels optimistic about the franchise hosting the all-star game in the new Minneapolis ballpark in 2014 or 2016.  The game is played during alternate years in American and National league cities, and St. Peter said sites have been determined through 2010.

Major league baseball senior management and event staff decide on host cities.  “We have a ways to go to get that word,” St. Peter said.  “Our interest is well known. …”

In the Twins’ favor is the new ballpark opens in 2010, and Minneapolis-St. Paul hasn’t hosted the game since 1985.  Because of its weather and beauty, the area is known as a summer time favorite for national events, too.

St. Peter said he doesn’t know what the timetable will be for a decision on the game coming here. He hears from fans including season ticket holders who are excited about an all-star game in the new stadium.

Sports Headliners believes Kansas City, with its ballpark now being renovated, might be chosen as the all-star game host city for 2012.  A later date like 2014 for the all-star game would provide the Twins with another marketing tool after the stadium has been open for awhile.

St. Peter said no decision has been made regarding naming rights for the Twins’ stadium.  That includes the possibility the stadium won’t have a corporate name such as Wheaties Field.

He said the Twins have expressed preliminary interest to the Minnesota Wild in hosting an outdoor NHL game.  “We’re very interested in that,” he said.

Such a game would be played in the winter and there’s concern about how a natural grass field will be impacted.  The Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field will host a game in January between the Blackhawks and Detroit.  That game will provide more perspective about hockey being played on natural grass in a baseball stadium.

Tonight (Friday) the Minnesota Thunder plays its first home game in the renovated National Sports Center stadium against Carolina.  The track at the NSC stadium field has been removed so the playing surface is closer to the grandstand, and other enhancements have been made too, according to the team’s Web site. The Thunder is winless in its last eight games, dating back to May 31.  It won’t be surprising if there are personnel changes before the season ends in September.  The Thunder, with 16 points, are near the bottom of the USL standings, only two points ahead of last place Rochester. Thunder goalie Nicolas Platter ranks third in the USL in total saves with 54.

The Timberwolves are in the most major roster reconstruction period in franchise history.  The era began last year with the trading of Kevin Garnett and probably continues for awhile as the franchise uses salary cap room to add a big name player or two.  The Wolves are also likely to have multiple first round draft choices in coming years.

Coach Tim Brewster said his players, including freshmen, report for pre-season practice on August 2.  The Gophers, like other college teams, are allowed 29 days of practice prior to their first game (August 30 at home against Northern Illinois).

Although the Gophers’ August practices will be on campus, Brewster said in the future he hopes to take the team back to St. John’s University in Collegeville.  Describing it as a “perfect training camp,” the Gophers had early practices there last year.  Summer school will still be in session this year when the Gophers begin practice, preventing a camp at St. John’s.

Turn on the applause soundtrack for the Pac 10 Conference schools whose non-conference football schedules are the most attractive in the country.  Pac 10 schools play nine conference games (are you listening Big Ten?) and avoid the no-name non-conference schools that fill the schedules of teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference.  In 2008 Pac 10 teams are playing schools like Brigham Young, Boise State, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, TCU and Virginia.  There’s hardly a cupcake in the Pac 10 pantry.

Former Gopher coach Jerry Noyce, who won three Big Ten Conference titles in the 1980s, was among those who attended the 34^th annual Baseline Club fundraiser for the men’s tennis program Wednesday night.  The club started in 1978 and has been vital to Gopher tennis success over the years.  Noyce was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s Hall of Fame in May and local tennis legend David Wheaton, whom Noyce tutored, was his presenter.