Gophers Basketball – Page 41 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

‘Great Game’ Predicted for Dalvin Cook

Posted on September 18, 2022September 18, 2022 by David Shama

It could be a spotlight evening Monday for Dalvin Cook when the Vikings play in Philadelphia against the Eagles. The leaky Philly defense allowed 181 rushing yards on 28 carries in a 38-35 win over the Lions last weekend.

The Eagles were inefficient on defense and sloppy in their tackling Sunday while allowing 6.5 yards per carry. The Lions and many other NFL teams don’t have anyone as talented as Cook who at age 27 is coming off three consecutive seasons of rushing for over 1,000 yards.

The Eagles’ defense will for sure focus on controlling wide receiver Justin Jefferson who made headlines with a spectacular season debut last Sunday catching nine passes for 184 yards and two scores in Minnesota’s 23-7 win over the Packers. “We’ll just see what the defense gives us and we’ll try to take advantage of it,” Viking tight end Johnny Mundt told Sports Headliners.

Dalvin Cook photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings

Cook, who rushed for 90 yards against the Packers on 20 rushes, could see big holes to run through Monday night. Even if Cook doesn’t the former All-Pro, has a way of finding daylight. Mundt said Cook seems to know where defenders will be and what they will do, allowing him to be a step ahead of tacklers.

“I think we’re going to spread the ball around really well (Monday night),” Mundt said. “I think Dalvin’s going to have a great game. Our O-line is very locked in so there’s holes to be there and we’ll move people off the spot.”

The Vikings’ run defense will be challenged, including by one of the most effective running quarterbacks in the league. Jalen Hurts ran for a touchdown and 90 total yards on 17 rushing attempts against the Lions. Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell is impressed with the physicality and elusiveness of the 6-1, 223-pound Hurts.

“There’s times you could tell by the scheme that they’re…blocking up (on) everybody but the corner(back),” O’Connell said. “And leaving the corner for the quarterback, which is pretty rare for a guy to then be able to make that guy miss, go get the first down and line up and do it again.

“His consistency to be able to do that on early downs, second-and-10, run the rock, get tackled, get up on a third-and-three and be precise in the pass game, that’s really what’s impressive. His consistency.”

Vikings’ veteran safety Harrison Smith knows what the defense must do against the 24-year-old Hurts. “Everybody’s gotta take care of their assignment,” Smith told Sports Headliners. “He can make a lot of plays on the ground and if you give him the opportunity in the pass game he can make those as well. So it’s really trusting what your job is and not getting outside of that.”

Worth Noting

Smith, 33, is in his 11th NFL season. How much longer does he want to play? “I am just playing and letting it unfold,” he said.

Former Gophers linebacker Nick Rallis is in his second season as the Eagles linebacker coach. The Edina native was a defensive quality control/assistant linebackers coach with the Vikings from 2018-2020.

Darren Wolfson said on SKOR North that KSTP TV (along with the NFL Network) will televise the Vikings-Saints game from London beginning at 8:30 a.m. October 2.

The Eagle game Monday night is on ABC-KSTP with announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Buck is married to sports reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck, the niece of former Gophers basketball public address announcer Dick Jonckowski.

Jonckowski received the best of news when his doctor told him Tuesday his cancer is gone. He was battling non-Hodgkins Lymphoma for the third time. “Hopefully this time it will stay away,” he told Sports Headliners.

Jonckowski will play the kazoo and trombone, and tell jokes, while performing with the Midas Touch Band at Mancini’s Char House in St. Paul next Saturday evening.

On NFL opening weekend there were 19 players each from Houston and Miami high schools on league rosters, tied for the most of any city. Detroit had the third-most players with 16, followed by Tampa with 15 players.

Not only are the 3-0 Gophers the only undefeated football team in the Big Ten West but three of the division’s seven teams have two or more losses.

Among the many reserves who played yesterday in the 49-7 rout of Colorado was redshirt freshman defensive end Austin Booker who made his Gopher debut and has the potential to be a superb pass rusher.

Former Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino turned 40 on Friday. His dad, Rick Pitino, is 70 today. Pops brings his Iona Gaels to Albuquerque December 18 to play Richard’s New Mexico Lobos.

Carson Hansen, the running back from Lakeville South who has verbally committed to Iowa State, also had offers from many other programs including Air Force, Army, Kansas State and Northwestern but not Minnesota, per 247Sports.

Comments Welcome

Fidel Castro Part of Local Baseball Lore

Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 2022 by David Shama

Minor Treasures is a new book from Nodin Press in Minneapolis that will provide any Minnesotan interested in Millers and Saints history a detailed account of Twin Cities minor league baseball history. Authors Stew Thornley, Taylor Simons and Dave Kaplan write about the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints from their origins, offering an array of interesting names and tales with a background of vintage photos and illustrations.

Now is a nostalgic time to peruse the soft-cover book because for decades an annual ritual of summer was watching the Saints and Millers play a double header on the Fourth of July. It was known as a street car series, with fans attending games in each city on Independence Day. For more than six decades there was a cross-river rivalry between the two franchises, with much of it focused on the street car matchups of doubleheaders played on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.

Legendary players wore the uniforms of the Millers and Saints including many who are honored in baseball’s shrine at Cooperstown, New York. Willie Mays, arguably the game’s greatest player ever, played in Minneapolis for part of a season in 1951. Minor Treasures profiles the “Say Hey Kid” and includes a photo of the home on Fourth Avenue that Mays rented and still stands near the Hosmer Library.

For many readers a surprising name on the book’s pages will be Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who seized power in the late 1950s. Castro was a baseball player in his youth and to say he took an interest in Havana’s Junior World Series against the Millers is an understatement.

The Junior World Series was a Triple-A showdown between teams from the American Association and International League. In the postseason playoffs of 1959 the AA Millers and IL Havana Sugar Canes advanced to the Junior World Series. Castro attended all the games in Havana and so did his henchmen. Minor Treasures described the atmosphere: “Nearly 3,000 soldiers were present, many lining the field, while others stationed themselves in the dugouts, their rifles and bayonets clearly evident.”

The book makes clear that this was a series about more than competition on the field. Politically motivated intimidation was a dark presence as described in Minor Treasures: “As Millers centerfielder Tom Umphlett entered the dugout after making a catch to end an inning, a soldier made a slicing motion across his throat. Umphlett and the other players clearly understood the message.”

The Millers forced a series deciding game seven in Havana. Minor Treasures writes that Castro walked by the Minneapolis bullpen before the game, patted a large revolver on his hip and declared: “Tonight, we win.” And that’s what the Sugar Canes did, scoring the final run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 3-2.

Minneapolis manager Gene Mauch offered the postmortem with this quote in the book: “Our players were truly fearful of what might happen if we won. But we still tried our hardest, figuring we’d take our chances if we did win.”

Worth Noting

Twins front office boss Derek Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli are in communication before and after each game. Falvey told Sports Headliners the conversations are part of their routine “because that’s the way our partnership works here.”

Falvey said he thinks outside perceptions about those conversations might be of “some secret vault meeting,” or involve lineup meddling by him. “…I will say this to the end of my career. I’ve never written a lineup in my life and I don’t really want to, and I don’t plan to,” he said.

Pregame meetings (10 or 15 minutes) between Falvey and Baldelli include medical updates about players. Falvey said Baldelli likes to “bounce ideas off” him and others in the clubhouse about personnel but the manager makes the final call on details like “where he is going to hit guys” in the lineup. The pregame chats, Falvey, added, don’t even merit “formal meeting” status and may include non-baseball subjects like European football, a Baldelli favorite interest.

Post game is a short meeting and can focus on the bullpen and whether there is a need for a call up. Injuries, illness or tired arms can prompt roster changes including help from the Triple-A St. Paul Saints. “We usually check in for a short five-10 minutes postgame just to make sure we didn’t miss anything on the roster,” Falvey said. “We rarely break down (for example) what happened in the seventh inning unless it’s something meaningful and he wants to talk about it. …

“It’s truly a partnership (with Baldelli, including their meetings). He makes the decisions on the team. Who plays, where they play, what pitching moves they make. That’s all the manager. It’s always been that way for me and everywhere I’ve been in my career. My job is to try and help support him and thinking through those things. …”

Assistant coach Dave Thorson told Sports Headliners his background with head coach Ben Johnson gives him a special understanding about his younger boss. Thorson, going into his second season as a Johnson assistant coach on the Gophers men’s basketball team, has known Johnson since he was in sixth grade.

Then, of course, Thorson coached Johnson at DeLaSalle High School. “I think the neat thing for me is because I understand him, I can help him in a way that may be different than anybody else.” Thorson said.

With a remade roster assembled on the fly, the Gophers struggled last season with a 4-16 Big Ten record, but Thorson describes Johnson as a “star in the making.” More observers could feel that way if Minnesota, with better talent now, improves significantly next season and earns its way into the NCAA Tournament.

The latest issue of Sports Illustrated includes a feature on Chet Holmgren whose 7-foot versatile skills are earning him the “Unicorn” nickname and a nation-wide following after the Oklahoma City Thunder made him the No. 2 selection in last month’s NBA Draft. The former Minnehaha Academy prep All-American was coached by Larry Suggs in AAU basketball. “I wanted to make Chet the best American-born white basketball player since Larry Bird,” Suggs told Sports Illustrated.

Comments Welcome

Twins Clarify Buxton 100 Games Target

Posted on June 14, 2022June 14, 2022 by David Shama

Reports this spring left fans with the impression the Twins want to limit star center fielder Byron Buxton to 100 games this year. Derek Falvey told Sports Headliners yesterday there is no “stop light” at 100.

Buxton, a do-it-all talent capable of becoming the American League’s best player, is invaluable to the Twins, but an unusual number of injuries have prevented him from playing 100 games each season dating back to 2018. The club wants to proceed with caution, while maximizing Buxton’s availability to help produce a Central Division title and playoff run.

“We’re not shooting just for 100 games,” said Falvey, the Twins’ baseball operations boss. “I think we’re trying to eclipse what he has yet to eclipse over the last five years. Playing him the way we had in prior years didn’t get us there. We would like to try a more sophisticated way to keep him on the field as much as possible….”

Falvey also said the 28-year-old Buxton is on pace to play in 115 to 120 games. He acknowledged the player who “can put us on his back” and carry the team has low-level inflammation in his right knee. The knee became news in April and Buxton was briefly sidelined. He was also diagnosed with a low-level hip strain this spring.

Falvey indicated Buxton is able to manage his health issues—and no differently than teammates who face challenges. Buxton played a MLB career high 140 games in 2017, his third season with the big league club. This year in 45 games for the 36-27 Twins he has hit a team leading 18 home runs and driven in 32 runs.

Fans grumbled over the weekend that neither Buxton nor shortstop Carlos Correa played in Saturday’s Minnesota’s home game against the Rays. Ticket buyers wanted to see the club’s two marquee players and box office attractions.

“Hey, we want both of those guys out there as much as possible,” Falvey said good-naturedly. “That wasn’t pre-planned or designed by Rocco or me or otherwise.”

The Twins played the Rays Friday night and then Saturday afternoon. Falvey said sometimes in that situation manager Rocco Baldelli will go to players and talk about the possibility of not playing in the afternoon game.

Correa, the All-Star the Twins signed as a free agent during spring training, has missed time with an injury and more recently with COVID. He was absent from 11 games with a right finger contusion and then eight because of COVID, returning to the active roster last Wednesday.

Falvey said there are no lingering health issues with the 27-year-old Correa but it can require time for players to recover their muscle strength after COVID. “We’re trying to bring him back thoughtfully,” Falvey said.

With the pandemic, a shortened spring training and the normal physical demands on players in today’s modern game, teams in Major League Baseball have dealt with a lot of roster disruptions. Among the more serious for the Twins was placing first baseman Miguel Sano on the 60-day Injured List in mid-May following knee surgery.

Falvey departed for Fort Myers yesterday and he will see Sano who is working out with the organization’s minor league players. Falvey said it will be awhile before a return date to the Twins active roster can be determined. “But hopefully he is a boost for us at some point during the course of the end of June and into July.”

NFL Films Visits Dick Jonckowski

NFL Films came to Dick Jonckowski’s home in Shakopee yesterday to relive moments from the famous 1975 Vikings-Cowboys game at Metropolitan Stadium. Jonckowski’s visitors included Drew Pearson who caught the famous “Hail Mary” touchdown pass in the final minute to give the Cowboys a 17-14 fourth quarter win in the NFC title game.

Jonckowski, known best by many Minnesota sports fans as the public address voice of Gophers basketball for decades, was a field usher at the stadium back in the 1970s. A passionate Vikings fan, the colorful Jonckowski had his name on the back of his usher jacket and drew attention throwing behind-the-back passes with the football.

Before the “Hail Mary” pass, the trailing Cowboys, trying to sustain what would be the winning drive, had a fourth and 16 situation. Quarterback Roger Staubach passed to Pearson who picked up 17 yards and a first down. The catch was controversial, though, with many observers insisting Pearson caught the ball out of bounds.

The reception was made near Jonckowski who wasn’t happy about it. “I was frustrated. I just kind of (gave) a sissy kick. I kicked the bottom of Drew Pearson’s shoe which really wasn’t much, but (Dallas coach) Tom Landry’s wife saw it from the stands. After the game was over, she called Pete Rozelle, who was then the commissioner.”

Rozelle phoned Bob Sims who ran the ushering operation and said Jonckowski had to be reprimanded. Sims decided Jonckowski could continue as an usher but not be on the field. He was banned as a field usher for two years.

“Somebody told me…if it (the incident) happened today you would probably go to jail,” Jonckowski said. “You know the way the world is, I probably would. Who knows?”

There was animosity between Pearson and Jonckowski prior to the 1975 encounter. “We didn’t like each other way before that. He was pretty cocky,” Jonckowski said. “I just didn’t like his attitude. So one day I yelled at him, ‘You couldn’t carry (NFL Hall of Famer) Charley Taylor’s jock.’ And he came running over to me and was going to pound me, but he let it go.”

After the 1975 run-in, Staubach told Jonckowski Pearson was a good guy and the two should patch things up. They did so before Pearson retired in 1983.

Several years ago Pearson was in town for an autograph appearance. “He remembered me right away and we had kind of a fun time,” Jonckowski said.

Arlene and Dick Jonckowski in their sports memorabilia-filled basement.

Things went well yesterday when Pearson spent about two hours talking with Jonckowski. Both are outgoing and enjoy humor (a Jonckowski calling card with his endless jokes and stories he uses while speaking to groups). Wife Arlene was also interviewed during the nine hours spent by NFL Films at the Jonckowski residence.

Before coming to Minnesota Pearson didn’t know much about his friend’s background. “He wants me to come to Dallas to sign autographs and speak,” Jonckowski said.

The game remains vivid in the minds of Jonckowski, Pearson and thousands of NFL fans, mostly because of its controversial finish. Staubach, who would later describe the play as a “Hail Mary” desperation heave, threw the winning 50-yard touchdown pass to Pearson who appeared to push Vikings’ defender Nate Wright on the play.

But no penalty.

Jonckowski saw the play and that evening newspaper columnist Sid Hartman called him at home to ask if there was a shove by Pearson. Jonckowski said he thought there was. “…Sid slammed the phone down. Didn’t even say thank you. But that’s typical Sid.”

The 1975 Vikings, 12-2 during the regular season, were led by NFL MVP Fran Tarkenton and might have been one of the best teams in franchise history. The team was a Super Bowl favorite but instead saw its playoff march end in bitter disappointment.

Jonckowski didn’t have details yesterday as to how the filming will be used and when it will air.

Comments Welcome