Leslie Frazier – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Twins Shortstop Correa Impresses with High Character

Posted on September 12, 2023 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column.

Carlos Correa, with the richest contract on the team and a disappointing .228 batting average, has frustrated Twins fans during a difficult season but he has demonstrated leadership and high character. The club’s 28-year-old shortstop has experienced a painful summer playing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot but yet he has started 129 games for the Twins, a total no other teammate even comes close to.

In an era when fans complain about the constant injuries sidelining players, Correa’s will to play is admirable. He has shown a commitment to lead by example and an impact on teammates predicted by club president Dave St. Peter even before his first full season with the Twins in 2022. St. Peter told Sports Headliners in April of last year that he also expected the bilingual former Astros star to make an impact in the community.

Correa is the Twins’ nominee for the 2023 Roberto Clemente Award that annually recognizes the MLB player best representing the game with superb character, community involvement, philanthropy and other desirable behaviors on and off the field. On Correa’s resume of good deeds is a family foundation whose focus includes non-medical costs associated with pediatric cancer diagnosis.

For several years, considered one of baseball’s best shortstops, Correa has obviously struggled at the plate, but he does lead the team in RBI with 67. His hitting mechanics and balance have to be impacted by his sore foot. Known for producing in big moments in September and October, Correa is hitting .257 in his last 30 games as the Twins move toward clinching the AL Central Division title and playing in the postseason.

Although his running speed has slowed, Correa is having one of his best fielding seasons statistically. He has committed only six errors. His fielding average of .986 is near his MLB best for any season when he played in over 100 games.

Outfielder Walker Jenkins, the Twins’ first round draft selection this summer, is hitting a gaudy .362 for Single-A Fort Meyers. The 18-year-old has a .988 OPS, with three home runs and 22 RBI in 105 at bats.

With 333 career receptions Vikings WR Justin Jefferson can become the third player with at least 400 receptions in his first four career seasons and can surpass Michael Thomas (5,512) for the most receiving yards by a player in his first four career seasons in the NFL.

Justin Jefferson image courtesy of Minnesota Vikings

Jefferson had nine receptions for 150 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Bucs. He has at least 100 receiving yards in 25 of his first 51 career games. He has surpassed Lance Alworth as the fastest player in NFL history to reach 25 career games with at least 100 reception yards.

Jefferson, 24, also surpassed Randy Moss’s record as the youngest NFL player to reach 25 career games with at least 100 receiving yards. Moss was 25 when he set the record.

Leslie Frazier, the former Vikings head coach and now out of coaching, is appearing on various NFL Network studio shows, including NFL GameDay Live.

That was 84-year-old Owatonna native Tom Moore, who was a top assistant for the Gophers in the 1970s, on the sidelines in the Vikings-Bucs game on Sunday. Moore is in his fifth season as an assistant coach with the Bucs and 45^th in the NFL.

Former Viking Matt Birk is a partner in Heritage Gear, an Edina-based firm that creates only American made premium accessories in the licensed sports merchandise industry. Heritage Gear creates high end wool and leather duffels and totes, cashmere scarves, merino wool blankets and other crafted goods for 50 major colleges, the NFL and most recently expanded to Major League Baseball. https://www.heritagegear.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw6eWnBhAKEiwADpnw9sXpjrlO72SJf8tM6g07MFtOQvOLqFyAyqvE-MprOKoO9OUD5X1VohoCJIcQAvD_BwE

The 2-0 football Gophers are about a touchdown underdog at North Carolina Saturday, but my view is the game is tossup. The Carolina cornerbacks could be vulnerable to Minnesota’s passing game and the Gopher defense has allowed one touchdown in two games.

A win over the 2-0 Tar Heels, ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll, could put Minnesota into the national top 25.

Darius Taylor, who rushed for 193 yards last Saturday against Eastern Michigan, is the Big Ten Freshman of the Week. Taylor’s total is the second highest in school history for a true freshman, trailing only Darrell Thompson’s 205 against Bowling Green in 1986. Taylor has impressed with his maturity and attitude on and off the field.

Taylor is likely to be the Gophers’ lead running back this season. Minnesota’s quality and depth at running back was hurt after the 2021 season when major contributors Bucky Irving and Ky Thomas transferred. Irving is at Oregon and Thomas plays for Kent State after first transferring to Kansas.

Dinkytown Athletes, the Gophers’ official collective, has helped WR Daniel Jackson, who made an extraordinary toe-tapping TD catch against Nebraska, connect with Athlete’s Thread to sell clothing celebrating the extraordinary reception. https://athletesthread.com/collections/daniel-jackson

DA hosted over 100 guests at a tailgate party before the Minnesota-Eastern Michigan game, most of them members of the collective that started about a year ago to benefit Gopher athletes. Players from the Gopher men’s basketball team also attended the event.

It wouldn’t be surprising if former Gophers guard Andre Hollins is the new analyst on University of Minnesota basketball radio broadcasts next season, working with play-by-play voice Mike Grimm.

Signaling plays on the sidelines for Eastern Michigan Saturday was Jeremiah Salem, grandson of former Gophers’ head coach Joe Salem. Jeremiah, a sophomore quarterback, is the son of Brad Salem, tight ends coach at Memphis.

Minneapolis native and longtime college basketball coach Jay Pivec (most recently a men’s assistant at St. Thomas) is working on his autobiography, The Book of Piv. It’s a delightful collection of stories from a colorful and high character coach who made his coaching mark in the five-state area. “All the stories are as true as they need to be,” Pivec writes. “With the exception of my own, some names have been changed to protect the stupid.”

Armstrong High School alum Cameron Hodges, who played for Pivec at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, has joined the NBA Houston Rockets as an assistant coach after previous positions in the league including with the Clippers, Sixers and Spurs.

Edina native Anders Nelson, who played collegiately at St. Thomas and most recently for William & Mary, signed a professional basketball contract last month to play in Switzerland. Playing as a grad student in 2022-2023, the 6-foot-1 guard led William & Mary with an 11.2 points per game average.

It looks like sophomore Mason West, already a hockey star and now throwing touchdown passes as Edina High’s quarterback, is on his way to a place among the Hornets’ greatest athletes.

Abbey Murphy, who scored 29 goals last season for the Gopher women’s hockey team, has been named to the All-WCHA preseason team.

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Vikings Spielman Shows the Skeptics

Posted on December 5, 2017December 5, 2017 by David Shama

It looks like Rick Spielman’s critics will have to rethink their second-guessing of the Vikings general manager. Skeptics said this summer the 2017 Vikings might struggle to make the playoffs, but with a 10-2 record the club is one of the NFL’s elite teams and headed toward a postseason run that could end in the Minneapolis Super Bowl.

The Vikings rank third in the NFL in yards given up per game at 289.1 and have made a statement offensively ranking fifth and averaging 370.4 yards. Mike Zimmer, in his fourth season leading the Vikings, is an advanced defensive teacher and strategist. In his first full season as offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur has impressed with varied schemes, play calls and tempos. But without gifted players the Vikings wouldn’t be on an eight-game win streak and in the company of the NFC’s best teams.

Before the season there was speculation Spielman’s job could be on the line this fall. General managers, like coaches, are subject to constant scrutiny—especially those who have been making personnel decisions with the same organization for a long time. Spielman has been out front on Viking scouting, drafting and trading since 2006. During that time the Vikings have won three division titles and advanced to the playoffs four times.

The Vikings have one playoff win in the Spielman era and from season-to-season often struggled to maintain success. The 2015 team’s record was 11-5 and the club won the NFC North title. Last season was a disappointment with an 8-8 record and no playoff appearance. A major source of misery was the offensive line and the Spielman critics faulted him for not drafting an o-lineman in the first round for five years, 2013-2017.

The line is part of the success story this fall, though. During the offseason Spielman signed free agent tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers. He drafted center Pat Elflien who as a rookie moved into the starting lineup joining Reiff and Remmers. As of late Remmers has been injured but Rashod Hill has been an effective sub. The Vikings added Hill to their practice squad about a year ago when the Jaguars let him go.

It was a great 2017 offseason for Spielman who also signed Case Keenum as a backup quarterback to Sam Bradford. Keenum has emerged as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, with both observation and analytics testifying to his high level of play. Bradford, acquired by Spielman before the 2016 season after future franchise quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was sidelined for the year, turned in a career season for the Vikings despite the awful performance of the offensive line. Bradford, though, has a history of knee injuries, and has only played in two games this season. Keenum was a journeyman quarterback until this season but Speilman looks prophetic in acquiring the five-year veteran who was named NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November.

Keenum is one of several players on the roster worthy of NFL postseason honors, including Pro Bowl consideration. Spielman and his staff found wide receiver Adam Thielen as an undrafted free agent in 2013 and the Minnesota native heads any list of offensive players along with Keenum. Other names include these Spielman draft choices: linebacker Anthony Barr, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, defensive end Everson Griffen, safety Harrison Smith and cornerback Xavier Rhodes. There is also defensive tackle Linval Joseph who Spielman acquired as a free agent in 2014.

The presence of Keenum, 29, is particularly significant for Spielman and the Vikings. Criticism has been targeted at the general manger for years regarding the quarterback position. Brett Favre was a short-term fix in 2009 and Spielman hoped he had a long-term solution with 2011 No. 1 draft choice Christian Ponder. The Ponder experiment didn’t succeed and the Vikings started over with the drafting of Bridgewater in 2014, only to see him sustain a career threatening knee injury last year.

During the Spielman era there have admittedly been personnel moves that didn’t work out. The Leslie Frazier hire as head coach in 2011 didn’t succeed either but it’s difficult to know how much authority Vikings ownership played in that decision—and perhaps even the hiring of Zimmer.

What is known is that without assembling a talented roster and winning on the field, general managers can’t maintain job security. It looks like Spielman will be around for awhile.

Worth Noting

Bobbleheads of Vikings legends Jerry Burns and Bob Lurtsema, costing $40 each, will be on sale this weekend at Southtown Shopping Center as part of Triple Crown’s Sports Card & Bobble Show. Lurtsema will be at the show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, while Burns is there from 1 to 4 p.m. Show hours Saturday are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. More information is available from Joe Florenzano, vikingstwinsman@gmail.com.

Mary Hardin-Baylor, the school that defeated St. Thomas 24-10 last Saturday in a Division III quarterfinal playoff game, started its football program in 1998. Until playing the Tommies, the Crusaders had never been held under 150 yards of total offense, or less than 10 yards rushing. St. Thomas limited MHB to 143 yards on 55 plays, including minus 16 rushing yards on 30 carries.

St. Thomas graduated four defensive All-Americans from the 2016 team but this season still achieved historic statistics. The Tommie defense allowed only 21.6 rushing yards per game—something no NCAA team in Division I, II and III has done in the last 16 seasons. St. Thomas gave up 0.7 yards per rushing attempt, ranking with the best seasons by an NCAA defense. Eight of 13 opponents were held under 15 net rushing yards (six gained one or less total yards).

Darrell Thompson, the Gophers all-time career leading rusher and now head of the Bolder Options nonprofit, hosted a thank you event for his youth mentoring organization last night at Cambria Gallery in downtown Minneapolis. Bolder Options celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018.

The No. 14 ranked Gophers basketball team will be 2-0 in the Big Ten Conference for the first time since 2013 with a win tonight in Lincoln against the Cornhuskers. Minnesota is 8-1 overall and 1-0 in league games, while Nebraska is 6-3 and 0-1.

Statistics as of yesterday showed Gophers forward Jordan Murphy leading the conference in scoring at 21 points per game and rebounding at 12.9. Center Reggie Lynch led the nation in blocks per game with 4.8.

Sunday’s home attendance of 11,097 for the Rutgers game was disappointing after last week’s sellout crowd of 14,625 for nationally ranked Miami. The Scarlet Knights aren’t a strong draw, plus the Vikings and Timberwolves had games on Sunday.

Jim Bruton, who has authored books with Jerry Kill, Lou Nanne and Fran Tarkenton, is working on a book coming out next year about Dick Jonckowski, the former public address announcer for Gophers basketball and funny man storyteller who has made a career of emceeing and speaking at events.

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WR Johnson Finds a Home with Vikings

Posted on December 19, 2014December 19, 2014 by David Shama

Charles Johnson has travelled a varied route to Minneapolis, but he sure looks at home with the Vikings. The 25-year-old wide receiver was signed off the Browns’ practice squad on September 20 and despite not playing a snap for the Vikings until October 2 he has become one of the team’s most productive offensive players.

Johnson totaled 103 and 72 yards in receptions the last two Sundays. His 415 yards for the season ranks third on the team and his 16 yards per catch is best on the Vikings. He has become a big play receiver, taking over as a starter and pushing high potential-inconsistent Cordarrelle Patterson to the bench. Last Sunday his 72 yards on five catches against the Lions were better than Detroit’s All-World wide receiver Calvin Johnson who totaled four receptions and 53 yards.

“I’ve known I can do this my whole time,” Johnson told Sports Headliners. “It’s just that you’ve got to have opportunity. You wouldn’t know (Hall of Famer) Jerry Rice was the best receiver in the league until he got out there and played that day.”

Nobody is saying Johnson will have a career like Rice—perhaps the greatest wide receiver of all-time—but it’s interesting that the two played collegiately at small schools. While the 49ers chose Rice in the first round out of Mississippi Valley State, the Packers drafted Johnson on the seventh round in 2013 from Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan.

Johnson, who also attended two other colleges before Grand Valley, believes he was worthy of being selected higher. The 6-2, 220-pound native of Kentucky mentioned his 31 touchdowns in Division II, 40-inch vertical jump and 4.3 time in the 40-yard dash. “I know I am a D-II guy; they’re not going to give too much credit for that,” he said.

Johnson, though, isn’t focused week to week on statistics. He didn’t have much to say about his numbers being better than Johnson’s last Sunday. “Stats don’t really mean too much to me. I just like to win.”

The Packers—among the savviest of organizations in judging personnel—knew what they were doing in drafting Johnson. Problem was Johnson injured a knee and it slowed down his progress last year. That led to being placed on the Packers practice squad and then the Browns signed him. In Cleveland he was told of an ACL tear and didn’t play in any games during 2013. Norv Turner, the Vikings offensive coordinator, had the same role with the Browns last year so he became familiar with Johnson and thought he could help the Vikings.

Teammates like offensive tackle Mike Harris are happy to have Johnson on their side. He and Johnson room together in hotels on Saturday nights before Sunday games. Harris described Johnson’s journey to the Vikings as an “underdog story.”

“The guy is a beast,” Harris said. “He’s a playmaker.”

Whatever success Johnson has achieved so far doesn’t surprise him. “If you’re willing to work hard you can do anything you want. Like I always say, ‘When hard work meets opportunity, you create your own success.’ ”

Worth Noting

Turner, who likes the ability of Johnson to get separation from defenders and thinks he has “very good upside,” also talked yesterday about how despite all the changes on the team’s offense including Adrian Peterson’s suspension and injuries to linemen, rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has demonstrated considerable promise. “We’ve kind of had an interesting group and the people we’ve played on offense have been wide ranging and to do the things he’s done (Bridgewater), it just tells you something about the type of person he is. …

“The thing that excites me is he can make any throw you need to make. He does it with people around him. He does it with people hitting him. He does it when he has to slide in the pocket. He knows how to play football and that’s the starting point of the quarterback position. He’s got the intangibles you need and he’s going to continue to get better and better.”

If the Vikings defeat the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday and win their last game at home on December 28 against the Bears, Mike Zimmer will finish the season 8-8. The franchise has never had a first-year coach with a .500 record. Jerry Burns and Dennis Green had winning first seasons while Norm Van Brocklin, Bud Grant, Brad Childress, Leslie Frazier, Les Steckel and Mike Tice all had losing records.

Before the season Bob Lurtsema predicted his ex-team would finish at 8-8, as reported previously in Sports Headliners.

The Twins announced today 18 players on minor league contracts have been invited to major league spring training camp. The players are right-handed pitchers Jose Berrios, Tyler Duffey, Mark Hamburger and Adrian Salcedo; left-handers Ryan O’Rourke and Taylor Rogers; catchers Mitch Garver, Tyler Grimes, Dan Rohfling and Stuart Turner; infielders James Beresford, Doug Bernier, Argenis Diaz and Heiker Meneses; outfielders Byron Buxton, Eric Farris, Danny Ortiz and Shane Robinson.

The Gophers’ offense had little success against TCU’s fast defense when the Horned Frogs defeated Minnesota 30-7 last September. The Gophers will face a similarly fast defense against Missouri in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on January 1 in Orlando. The Tigers tied Alabama with seven selections each on the coaches All-SEC first and second offensive, defensive and special teams. Among those honored were defensive linemen Shane Ray, a first team choice; and second team selection Markus Golden.

Sun Country Airlines sent e-mails to potential customers earlier this week notifying them the Minnesota-based airline has added flights to Orlando from Minneapolis that depart December 31 and January 1, and return January 1, 3 and 4.

It appears the Gophers Athletic Department will sell all of its 9,000 tickets allotment for the Citrus Bowl. Figuring in other ticket sources, the Gophers might have between 12,000 and 15,000 fans cheering for them at the game. That would be the largest bowl game number for the Gophers since they played in the Rose Bowl more than 50 years ago.

Among the speculated reasons Gary Andersen left Wisconsin for the Oregon State job is the Badgers don’t competitively pay assistant coaches. The Badgers rank ninth in total salaries for assistants at $2,368,600 among 12 (of 14) Big Ten schools that disclosed information, according to data released by USA Today on December 10. The Gophers rank fifth in the Big Ten at $2,757,000 and just ahead of Nebraska.

The top paid assistant coach in college football is believed to be newly hired Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp at $1.6 million. According to USA Today, MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi is the highest paid assistant in the Big Ten at $905,033. Gophers defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys ranked No. 33 in USA Today‘s listings at $600,000 while offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover ranked No. 47 at $550,000. Former Gophers head coach Tim Brewster, now tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida State, makes $340,000 and is ranked No 159.

Last minute Christmas shoppers looking for an entertaining and inspiring true story about dog ownership and spiritual faith will want to consider David Wheaton’s new book, “My Boy, Ben.” The Minnesota native and former professional tennis star writes with passion and provoking thought about his daily journey with Ben, an extraordinary yellow lab. More at Davidwheaton.com.

Twins outfielder Torii Hunter, and ex-Twins Dave Winfield and LaTroy Hawkins, are among the scheduled baseball celebrities to be in Las Vegas in January for a poker tournament and golf tournament to benefit the Players Trust, a charitable foundation.

When the Star Tribune relocates its offices to the Capella Tower complex, the company may have an exterior news ticker similar to that in Times Square in New York.

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