Joe Mauer – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Roster Purge May Indicate No New Twins Owner Soon

Posted on August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by David Shama

The Twins shocking moves this week to trade 10 players, or 38 percent of their 26-man roster, may indicate the unlikelihood of announcing a new buyer any time soon. The player transactions, in which the Twins have received mostly minor league prospects in return for their trading big league players, has enraged Minnesota fans while lightening the payroll for ownership.

The franchise reportedly is at least $425 million in debt, believed to be among the higher totals in MLB. The Pohlad family presumably now feels at least some comfort today after lessening their financial burden.

It’s unclear whether the Pohlads are financially viable to sustain Twins financial losses for a long time if they choose. The club has been for sale since last year.

A former sports executive, writing on condition of anonymity, offered this take via email: “I am told earlier in the week, a sale is NOT close, contrary to some recent reports. The Twins need a huge cash influx to contend. Some potential owners have backed off because of the debt in place. (Also,) heard through my MLB sources that there is infighting internally amongst the Pohlad family.”

If a Twins buyer were ready to sign the final papers soon, why would the person or group be so foolish as to associate themselves with the Pohlad PR disaster? The selloff of players, including stars Jhoan Duran and Carlos Correa, has eliminated any chance the club had of making the playoffs as a Wild Card entrant. More important, the gutting of the roster— particularly what was one of baseball’s best bullpens–appears to have set the Twins back for at least a couple of years on the field and with the fanbase.

If the new owners are tainted with the label of misers, they will be DOA in Minneapolis.

Thud.

New ownership should want to message to players and fans that their regime and operation will be in sharp contrast to the Pohlads who have long been disliked by the public. By words and through actions new owners should have a honeymoon period that can be nurtured into a favorable long-term relationship with their employees and the public.

Ownership showing up even several weeks from now taking bows, following the disaster of moves this week led by Twins president Derek Falvey, will make them look like carpetbaggers.

Following the legacy of the Pohlad family should not be challenging. It will be two years this fall that the team, having built a competitive club that won the franchise’s first playoff game in 19 years, announced payroll would drop by a reported $30 million.

Carl Pohlad bought the team in 1984 from the Griffith family. With a nucleus of players mostly from the Griffiths, Minnesota won the World Series in 1987 and 1991. In the 10 years that followed the last World Series title, Pohlad–long known for his fiscal restraint– tried contracting the franchise after alleged attempts to sell it to out-of-town buyers failed.

The Pohlads pressed for and got their new ballpark, Target Field which opened in 2010. The expectations of fans and politicos was the club would spend more money on payroll because of their new playland revenues. The Twins have spent big money on some deals like for the now retired Joe Mauer and now traded Correa but the feeling in the town square is ownership hasn’t delivered.

As of today, the franchise is in a deplorable state with its patrons. A long-time ticket buy wrote this to Sports Headliners; “…They cut payroll but they’re also going to lose close to 50 percent of their season ticket holder base which is already at an all-time low for Target Field. If they are businesspeople, at all, they would know that that does not make sense business wise.”

Another Sports Headliners reader, who has decades of marketing experience, said this via email: “Good luck moving tickets the rest of the season. There might be more fans at a local Little League game than any game at Target Field in September.”

The way it looks now, the Twins are going to lose a lot of ticket goers this year and beyond. The season base might drop to something like 4,000 and a franchise capable of drawing 2.5 million fans a year or more could be headed for half of that or less.

And Twins fans are left wondering if their 10 players were attractive enough to find takers, why didn’t the club headed by Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli have more success on the field. One fan asked via email: “Why aren’t they in first place?”

Another fan wrote: “It seems to me that Baldelli and his staff isn’t up to major league abilities.”

Lots of developments are coming down the road with the Twins. But as of today, not so many fans are that interested.

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Ready for a Top 25 List for The Last Six Months of 2025?

Posted on July 10, 2025July 10, 2025 by David Shama

The calendar shows we’re halfway through the year and I am listing 25 things I am hoping for in the next six months.

Alert: recognizing the varied tastes of readers regarding humor, please note the word “wink” will be used to indicate anticipated levity. Feel welcome to use this as a prompt to laugh (howl?), like in the TV studio when a sign says: “APPLAUSE!”

Well, it’s already July 10 so best get to these 25 gems whether they be well-intended, sarcastic or funny.

1. The Timberwolves are bringing back 36-year-old Joe Ingles for another season at a reported $3.6 million to provide karma in the locker room and cheerleading from the bench. How cool would it be for the seldom used Ingles to have a double-digit scoring game playing in front of his autistic young son Jacob?

2. New Wolves owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez could have a “wandering eye” when it comes to keeping the team in Minneapolis. Hoping the replacement for Target Center will stay in the city rather than be built in the ‘burbs. The city is the economic hub of the region, and a new arena is vital to its future as a place where Minnesotans want to be.

3. Let’s hope when the 2025-2026 schedules come out, there are fewer same night home conflicts involving the Wolves, Wild and Golden Gophers men’s basketball than ever before. Also, we can do without those Gopher basketball games on the same Sundays the Vikings play.

4. A longshot, but how inspiring it would be to see all the NHL Russian hockey players join with North American-based past and present Ukrainian amateurs and pros in leading a public peace vigil to encourage an end to the brutal war that has saddened the world for years.

5. Wink: Wondering if Wild GM and woodworking enthusiast Bill Guerin might send me a table for outside grilling. Por favor, have the table on wheels, with a butcher block top, hooks and a beer bottle opener.

6. Wink 2: Hoping our area can attract an American Cornhole League franchise so we can move a step closer to having every kind of sports franchise under the sun.

7. Any chance Twins shortstop Carlos Correa, among the highest paid at his position in MLB, can hit like a $33 million player?

8. Fingers crossed that center fielder Byron Buxton plays a career high 140-plus games this season.

9. It will be a classy union if anticipated new Twins franchise buyers include Joe Mauer in the ownership and he becomes a prominent face of the franchise for decades to come.

10. Hoping for more games where the Twins use former manager Paul Molitor as the analyst on broadcasts. His insights are among the best in Twins broadcast history.

11. Get ready to applaud if the Vikings announce plans for statues outside U.S. Bank Stadium including one for legendary coach Harry Peter Grant. At the same time also commit to honoring the famed “Purple People Eaters” with a statue. That defensive line scared the deuce out of opposing offenses for about a decade and consisted mostly of Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen.

12. The Gophers need to get into the statue-erecting business too outside of Huntington Bank Stadium. There are a lot of ultra worthy names to choose from starting with Bobby Bell, Bernie Bierman, Greg Eslinger, Paul Giel, Bronko Nagurski and Bruce Smith.

13. Shocking: 2016 Vikings No. 1 draft pick Laquon Treadwell, considered a consensus bust in Minnesota, has stayed in the NFL playing for five other teams including in two games with the Colts last season. But, no, he isn’t returning here in 2025.

14. Fingers crossed Jordan Addison doesn’t have a three-peat of summer driving incidents.

15. More fingers crossed: Quarterback Max Brosmer makes the Vikings’ 53-man roster or at least the practice squad.

16. Miracle: Vikings fans choose not to boo the snot out of first-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy when he screws up. And he will.

17. Miracle 2: the football Gophers win either at Oregon or Ohio State.

18. Happy Birthday, Reusse: Coach P.J. Fleck and the Gophers defeat Nebraska on Patrick Reusse’s 80^th birthday, October 17. (For the unaware: Google Reusse on Fleck.)

19. Networking: let’s get new Golden Gophers basketball coach Niko Medved together with Jim Dutcher, the 92-year-old wise man who was head coach of the 1982 Big Ten title team.

20. Bulletin board locker-room material: In the last 20 men’s basketball seasons the Gophers have one winning season in conference games, while neighboring rivals Wisconsin and Iowa have 17 and nine respectively.

21. Wink 3: Potential speaking invitations for yours truly? Nope. Don’t like speaking and no good at it. (Available, though, for a five-figure fee!)

22. Appropriate: The Lynx win the WNBA championship against the Liberty on a controversial call by the refs.

23. Appropriate 2: The Lynx acquire Minnesota native Paige Bueckers prior to next season.

24. Canterbury Park and Running Aces get dealt in on sports wagering when state legislation is finally approved.

25. And we all need to remember this quote from Samuel Johnson in the next six months and beyond: “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

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Guess Who Tops Favorites List of the Twins Last 25 Seasons

Posted on June 10, 2025June 10, 2025 by David Shama

The Twins are 25 years into the new millennium. It’s been a historic period in franchise history with the opening of Target Field, division titles and ending that infamous streak of 18 consecutive post-season losses.

To honor the 25 years, I am selecting two personal favorites from the era. One choice will be about as surprising as the sunrise tomorrow. The other might have you guessing for 10 minutes.

No one put his fingerprints on Twins history over the last 25 years like Joe Mauer. My other selection, Francisco Liriano, only teased at sustained superstardom for a brief time but he captured my favor forever.

Both players played major roles in the Twins extraordinary 2006 season. The Central Division champions had the American League MVP in Justin Morneau, batting champion in Mauer, Cy Young Award winning in Johan Santana, a sixth consecutive Gold Glove Award winner in Tori Hunter, and Liriano a lights out pitcher who might have been both the Cy Young winner and Rookie of the Year if not for late season arm trouble.

Liriano photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins

In one of the best trades in Twins’ history, general manager Terry Ryan had brought Liriano to the organization in a 2003 deal with the Giants that also obtained pitchers Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser for catcher A.J. Pierzynski. After the trade Ryan remembered “everybody raving about him (Liriano)” in the farm system.

Liriano pitched briefly for the Twins in 2005 and then was more than ready in the spring of 2006 when manager Ron Gardenhire put the left-hander in the starting rotation. “He never really skipped a beat from Triple-A to the big leagues,” Ryan told Sports Headliners. “He had velocity. He had control. He had command.

“He had the slider that was an out pitch. He had an excellent change up. You know with he and Santana, they both had those changeups—difference makers. So, he had a complete mix.

“He was a good athlete. He had a good makeup about him; nothing seemed to faze him. ….”

Liriano’s dominance from May until early August when he injured his arm was breath taking to watch. During that short stretch he was the best Twins pitcher in franchise history this observer ever saw.

The Twins were almost certain to win when Liriano went to the mound. He put together a streak of eight quality starts (per MLB.com) and was named to the American League All-Star team. Ryan referred to that magical run of 2006 as “phenomenal.”

Liriano was a strike out pitching machine, partially because of a nasty slider that Ryan described as unhittable while also praising the then 22-year-old’s velocity. “I don’t care if you’re left-handed or right handed (hitter), you couldn’t hit it. Because it had power and it had severe bite, and he could locate it, and he wasn’t afraid to throw it in any count.

“Whether he was two and one; three and one; 0-2, he’d throw it. He didn’t have any problem with location, complete confidence in an out pitch, especially with left handers where they didn’t stand a chance against that pitch.”

Liriano had a 1.96 ERA into August of 2006 but then hurt his arm. He made only two starts in the last two months of the season. Still, his season numbers were gaudy: 12-3 record, 2.16 ERA, 144 strikeouts in 121 innings with opposing batters hitting .205. In a full season it might have been Liriano, not Santana who won the Cy Young Award.

“Liriano and Santana were about as impressive a tandem on a starting staff as you could ever hope for,” Ryan said. “And there was no chance that we were going to go on any extended losing streak with those two guys on the staff. Because each time either one of those guys took the mound you had a pretty good feeling you had a very good chance of winning that game that particular night.”

Before Liriano got hurt it looked like the Twins had the makings of a future World Series champion. Perhaps even in 2006. Ryan described the loss of Liriano as “devastating” to that team. “When he went down it really set us back,” Ryan said.

Liriano missed the entire 2007 season after having Tommy John surgery in late 2006. He stayed with the Twins into the 2012 season before being sent to the White Sox. He had a quality 2010 season with the Twins winning 14 games and later in his career won 16 for the Pirates. But injuries plagued his career before officially retiring in January of 2022.

It seems like Joseph Patrick Mauer, born and raised in St. Paul, has been in the spotlight forever. At Cretin-Derham Hall in the late 1990s he was a headline maker on the local sports pages. He was terrific on the basketball court, a five-star college quarterback prospect and so coveted in baseball he became the first overall selection in the 2001 MLB Draft. The Twins chose Mauer over pitcher Mark Prior and it was a wise decision because spurning the local kid for a guy who had an okay career on the mound would have been a disaster.

Ryan said the Twins might have scouted Mauer more than any prospect he knows of. “…I think we got a lot of things right on him. His make up was phenomenal. Tremendous athlete. He had a desire (to excel). He was a quiet leader.

“His demeanor was unbelievably calm. Those types of guys, they had that low pulse. They don’t get overreacting. They don’t get over excited. They just go about their business.”

By 2004 Mauer was the team’s starting catcher and taking the first steps of a legendary 15-year career in the majors, all with the Twins. The 6-foot-4, left-hand hitting Mauer won three American League batting titles, five Silver Slugger Awards and was the 2009 AL MVP Award. His production that year was the stuff of baseball immortals, hitting a career-high 28 home runs along with a .365 batting average and best-ever 96 RBI.

A Sports Illustrated cover boy, he is the only AL catcher ever to win a batting title. Six times he was named an AL all-star.

Mauer was a superb catcher superb catcher who showed off a quarterback’s arm in targeting base runners. His marvelous athleticism made him capable of even catching a foul ball behind his back or reaching behind the protective netting to snag a ball. He was a three-time Gold Glove winner as a catcher and probably deserved to win one after moving to first base late in his career.

“He was probably one of the greatest athletic catchers that came a long in the game,” Ryan said.

Mauer was voted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2023. The ultimate post-career honor came in 2024 when he was a first=ballot selection for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Ask Ryan how special Mauer was and you will hear about the man as well as the player. “Well, he’s a Hall of Famer for a reason. He’s got tools. He’s got makeup. He’s a great teammate.

“Great human being. He was raised well and. …And he hasn’t changed. I’ve been around him quite a bit since he retired, and he hasn’t changed at all”.

Mauer is a legend and he’s one of us. He put his stamp all over the first 25 years of the new millennium and we’re all the better for it.

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