Media – Page 28 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Cancer or Not, ‘Polish Eagle’ Tells Tales

Posted on May 3, 2021May 3, 2021 by David Shama

I was in a Bloomington restaurant last Thursday awaiting two long time friends. Anticipating their arrival had me smiling in the nearly empty and quiet restaurant. I knew having lunch with Dick Jonckowski and John Justice would be a two hour “parade” of story telling and jokes.

To my surprise, they walked in with gifts. Dick loaned me a book celebrating the triumphs of the Boston Celtics, the storied NBA franchise boasting so many legendary players we admire. John owns Iron Horse Products and gifted a four-pack of root beer, cream soda and two bottles of black cherry.

Dick announced he and wife Arlene would celebrate their 55th anniversary on Friday. They planned dinner out at an Italian restaurant with son Jeff and daughter Jennifer. Ironically, Dick would have a PET scan that day, and then receive the results on Tuesday (tomorrow) whether he is cancer free.

This is his second fight with lymphoma and he requested a late lunch time Thursday because of a morning chemo session. He feels healthy and seems full of life. Short diagnosis is also this: the 77-year-old is still happy as a kid celebrating a birthday. Cancer can’t suck the happy-go-lucky out of him, and neither can diabetes. Despite a life long aversion to needles, he injects insulin into his body every morning.

John and Dick have been pals for almost 60 years. They met as ushers at old Metropolitan Stadium, working both Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings games. At the restaurant the stories and memories started with those Met Stadium days of long ago.

At the Met both drove cars to transport relief pitchers from the bullpen located in back of the outfield fence to the pitching mound. A challenge with the assignment was the Twins’ Vic Power delighted in throwing small stones at the car from the dugout. “Me like to throw stones,” the Puerto Rican first baseman said in broken English.

Power was a smooth fielding, skilled hitter who belongs in the “MLB Characters Hall of Fame.” Power was also a flashy dresser and Dick recalled an encounter Vic had with co-Twins owner Thelma Griffith Haynes.

“Vic, you look so cool today,” Thelma said.

“You don’t look so hot yourself,” Vic responded.

John became friends with Power despite his fondness for chipping paint off the bullpen car. The two once sat in Power’s car in the Met Stadium parking lot waiting out a bomb scare that interrupted the game. Power used to pick up John at his house and drive them to Met Stadium.

There was no friendship, though, between Dick and Chicago White Sox reliever Dave DeBusschere. The two had an encounter during a season when a golf cart, not a car, transported pitchers. When DeBusschere was summoned out of the bullpen, Dick realized the golf cart engine was flooded and didn’t start.

“You dumb ass,” an angry DeBusschere said to Dick.

DeBusschere had to walk from the bullpen to the mound and then pitched poorly. He complained after the game he was tired and blamed the golf cart driver for his performance. “I had to walk in from the bullpen,” lamented DeBusschere, who gained fame as a starting forward on two New York Knicks NBA championship teams in the early 1970s.

John has called Dick “Jongo” for a long time. He derived the nickname from the character Mongo in the movie Blazing Saddles. Just seemed right. Call him “Jongo” or the “Polish Eagle” (longtime Philadelphia Eagles fan), or whatever, he has been making friends and making audiences laugh in Minnesota and other parts of the country since LBJ was in the White House.

John has developed a lot of relationships through the decades with Twin Cities career stops at places like the old Decathlon Club in Bloomington and Pepsi in Burnsville, but “Jongo” is special to him. Any friends as funny? “I can’t think of anybody even close,” John said.

Dick was the longtime public address voice of Gophers baseball and basketball but paying the bills more through the years has been his public speaking and emcee work. The events gig started in 1965 in Ladysmith, Wisconsin where he emceed a beauty pageant. Years later he emceed a Carver County princess contest. Dick announced that instead of interviewing the contestants, they were to ask him questions.

The first young lady had a doozy, “Are you wearing any underwear, Mr. Jonckowski?”

In Dick’s early years he was befriended by the late Halsey Hall who was a master storyteller gifted with a gregarious laugh for the ages. Halsey was a sportswriter for the Minneapolis Star, broadcaster for the Twins and in his spare time worked the banquet circuit. He also enjoyed a cocktail or two or three, almost any day or time.

At a Monday night gathering for Minnesota sports fans years ago, Dick noticed Halsey was wearing a black shoe and a brown. He pointed this out to his mentor. Halsey was unfazed and replied, “I’ve got another pair like them at home.”

COVID has put a big dent in the emcee business but Dick’s phone is busy. Clients call and say, “We need a laugh, Dick. We gotta get you out here (to speak).”

And Dick can talk. He remembered an event in LaCrosse, Wisconsin where he told jokes nonstop for 90 minutes. That’s a lot of material and a lot of memory in his noggin, with some of it dating back to jokes told by classic comedians like Bob Hope, Red Skelton and Henny Youngman.

At our lunch Dick is giggling and telling one story after another including a joke that resonates with any parent whoever tried to persuade his son to get a haircut. The kid asks dad if he can use the car. Pops says okay, if the teenager will get his shoulder length hair trimmed. “But, dad, Jesus had long hair,” the son argues.

Then dad gets the final word, “Yes, he did and he walked everywhere.”

Nobody describes Dick as controversial but he has annoyed a few athletes over the years. At a golf outing Dick noticed a Minnesota sports hero (call him Tim) was completely inebriated. Dick told the crowd: “Here comes Tim’s foursome—him and his friends—Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and Johnny Walker.”

Dick has worked both sides of the media business as a radio host/sportscaster, and publicity man for the American Basketball Association Minnesota Muskies. High school teams could draw larger crowds than the Muskies who played at the old Met Center, home of the Minnesota North Stars.

The Muskies’ former publicity man loves to tell the story about a woman who called the box office inquiring about the starting time for that evening’s game. “What time can you be here?” replied the accommodating ticket seller.

ABA and NBA great Rick Barry first met Dick when playing with the Oakland Oaks. The two have remained friends and call each other on their birthdays. Dick’s b-day is October 22 and he refers to October as “the month of celebrities,” rattling off Mickey Mantle (October 20), Ricky Rubio and Vern Mikkelsen (October 21), and Johnny Carson (October 23).

If you haven’t caught on by now, Dick is not timid. Once he went to Milwaukee to watch his hero, Pete Maravich of the Atlanta Hawks, play against the Bucks. Dick was dressed in red, the Hawks colors, and he went on the court with no authorization or credential during team warm-ups. He greeted Maravich, who gave him a friendly hello. “He thought I was part of the front office,” Dick chuckled.

At a New Orleans Super Bowl he and Arlene crashed a Super Bowl victory party. “We’re walking down Bourbon Street and she said we can’t go in there. I said, sure we can.”

For about an hour the Jonckowskis mingled and enjoyed the hospitality. “Play like you belong and it works,” Dick said of his uninvited adventures. “Today (though) I might be arrested.”

As the pandemic eases, Dick will find his way back to a microphone more frequently. He is looking forward to entertaining at the annual Mancini’s St. Paul Sports Hall of Fame event June 14 where inductees will include Dave Winfield and Chris Weinke.

Count on Dick showing up with more stories than there is time for and filling the room with laughter. He is a believer in laugh and live longer.

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U Not Alone in Big Ten Rosters Shuffle

Posted on April 14, 2021 by David Shama

University of Minnesota basketball fans are alarmed to see eight players with remaining eligibility announce this winter and spring they won’t return for next season. While Minnesota’s total is worthy of headlines, other Big Ten schools have rosters in limbo, too.

Watching underclassmen opt for the NBA has for a long time changed the status of offseason rosters. More recently the NCAA has made it easier to transfer from one school to another, with this year even college seniors granted another season of eligibility. The transfer portal for men’s basketball has over 1,200 players interested in leaving their programs.

Alex Bozich, from Insidethehall.com, summarized the status of Big Ten rosters in a story Monday. He presented a long list of players who either could be or are in transition at the 14 Big Ten programs, including defending champion Michigan where stars Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner are undecided about the NBA. At Wisconsin Nate Reuvers, from Lakeville North, is in the transfer portal, while Brad Davison, from Maple Grove, is undecided about a return to Madison.

Bozich reports the Gophers, along with Penn State having seven players leaving that program, lead the conference in roster departures. Both Minnesota and Penn State have new coaches in Ben Johnson and Micah Shrewsberry. And that offers insight about the upheaval at their schools.

At Minnesota Johnson isn’t retaining the assistant coaches of his predecessor, Richard Pitino. Assistant coaches are counselors and mentors to players, establishing strong bonds with them. Gophers from last season’s roster are moving on for various reasons including the likelihood of more playing time elsewhere, but not knowing the new coaches has to factor in, too.

Johnson should hire the assistants he wants just weeks into his first experience as a head coach. However, his roster development is being scrutinized as it should, and he only has two noteworthy players apparently returning from last season’s roster, guard Both Gach and forward Brandon Johnson. At Monday’s news conference he said the two have been “awesome from day one,” but he didn’t say with certainty they will be on the team in the fall.

Pitino’s recruiting for the freshman class of 2021 was set earlier this year with signings by centers Treyton Thompson (Alexandria, Minnesota) and Kenny Pohto (Sweden), but Johnson said Pohto’s status is now uncertain. Thompson is part of a developing roster that includes four transfers Johnson reportedly has commitments from.

Those four are Jamison Battle (George Washington); Luke Loewe (William & Mary); E.J. Stephens (Lafayette); and Sean Sutherlin (New Hampshire). Neither the players nor their former schools rouses the Gopher fan base, but their arrival may well indicate the program’s future.

Johnson’s vision for his program is to emphasize player development. His hiring of assistant coaches Jason Kemp and Dave Thorson is consistent with that goal. Both earned reputations at other schools as talented basketball instructors and mentors.

Kemp, most recently at William & Mary, has almost 15 years of assistant coaching experience. He is a native of Madison, Wisconsin and his coaching stops include Midwest assignments at North Dakota State and Minnesota State. He coached Wisconsin native and Gopher transfer Loewe at William & Mary. “There will be a lot of other new faces (coming to the roster),” Kemp said.

Thorson could have the most coaching influence on how the Gophers play defense. That’s been a Thorson specialty at his college assistant coaching assignments and before then as head coach at DeLaSalle where his teams won a record nine state titles. He left Colorado State to rejoin Johnson who played for him at DeLaSalle. Thorson has been following Johnson since he was a seventh grader and praises his former player’s character. “I have so much respect for him as a human being,” Thorson said.

While these are unsettling times for Gophers basketball and even the community, Thorson said Johnson’s “greatest strength” is his ability to address adversity. “He’s the right leader for Minnesota at this time,” Thorson said.

Worth Noting

Timberwolves and Lynx owner Glen Taylor is in a 30-day window to finish up negotiations with Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez to sell his franchises. Taylor told Sports Headliners things look pretty much settled. “We haven’t really left very much to do that we would argue about,” he said.

With the deal expected to go through, Lore and Rodriguez will come in as limited partners for two years before having complete control. During the two years Lore and Rodriguez will have the same access to information as Taylor, and input on decisions. As a member of the NBA Board of Governors, Taylor will continue to make decisions on behalf of the Timberwolves.

Taylor has already vetted ecommerce mogul Lore and baseball great turned businessman Rodriguez. Before any ownership agreement is finalized the NBA will also provide a thorough vetting.

Taylor talking about fired coach Ryan Saunders and possibly a future role with the Timberwolves organization: “I think it’s a lot more likely that we will help him get a job with another team.”

On Monday the Minnesota Twins were No. 4 in MLB.com’s first power rankings of the regular season, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees.

Winning both games of a double header is chancy, but it will be interesting to see how the Twins do today and tonight with their two best starters facing the Boston Red Sox. Kenta Maeda, 1-0 with a 2.61 ERA, starts the first game, with Jose Berrios, 2-0 and 1.54, pitching the second.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer talking about Xavier Woods, a newly acquired free agent safety and former Dallas Cowboy: “I like bringing guys when other people say they’re probably not good enough somewhere else.”

The Minnesota Football Showcase (the state’s annual prep all-star game) will be played Saturday, June 26 at US Bank Stadium. North and South rosters include 16 all-state players. Ten players are headed for Division I-AA (FCS) programs but none to Division I (FBS). The last 10 years (including 2021) the schools with the most player participation are Totino-Grace with 20, Lakeville North and Mankato West at 16 each, and Eden Prairie, 13.

No word from the football Gophers on open practices for the public, or the annual spring game.

ESPN’s college football power index out this week has Alabama No. 1 in the country, with Minnesota Big Ten West rivals Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern and Nebraska all higher ranked than the Gophers at No. 49. ESPN gives Minnesota a 3.1 percent chance to win the Big Ten West.

New University of St. Thomas hockey coach Rico Blasi comes from Miami (Ohio) where he was hired by Joel Maturi, the athletic director at Miami before he took over as AD at Minnesota. Tommies AD Phil Esten worked for Maturi at Minnesota and they are long time friends.

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Shama’s Changes to Speed Up MLB

Posted on April 5, 2021 by David Shama

Before any MLB baseball loyalists become cranky reading this column, let me be clear: I like the sport. It’s just way overdue for MLB power brokers to shorten the duration of games.

The Minnesota Twins opened their 2021 regular season schedule last Thursday. The length of the game (including the 10th inning) was 4 hours, 14 minutes. The duration and lack of pace was annoying, despite the excitement of opening day. By 5:15 p.m. I was in an internal debate whether to postpone preparing dinner, or rub my weary eyes to better witness more of the marathon.

Three to four hour games long ago became the norm, a startling contrast to MLB’s golden age in the 1950s and 1960s when fans expected a game of two hours and 30 minutes, or less. It wasn’t even front page news when a game lasted less than two hours. Not only did we have Killebrew and Oliva, Mantle and Maris, Mays and Aaron, Koufax and Drysdale, but we had a game delighting us with the pace of play—with assurances there would be no conflict with dinner.

MLB has such a problem SI.com wondered recently if the game will become a niche sport within five years. Once America’s most popular spectator sport, baseball now moves at an agonizing pace while testing the patience of fans, including restless youth more interested in their phones than a parade of pitching changes on the diamond.

So it’s the start of the work week and I have ideas for change, even if they make Abner Doubleday and Calvin Griffith roll over in their graves. I am not the first—and sadly won’t be the last—to suggest revisions to bring America’s former pastime into the 21st century. MLB’s fuddy-duddy policy makers, along with the Players Association, should finally listen up and consider the following:

In a nine innings game, teams will be limited to three pitching changes. After removing the starter, a manager can make multiple changes in an inning but he will know only three total pitchers are allowed to come out of the bullpen for the entire game. (I know that’s a doozy, and yes, I am sober.)

Pitching changes eat up way too much time so in the future nobody lumbers from the bullpen to the mound. Walk briskly, jog, or have a golf cart available to expedite travel time. (Not to worry about pollution: use electric carts).

Upon arrival at the mound, more change: no warm-up pitches. A reliever has been throwing in the bullpen long enough to be ROA (Ready-on-Arrival).

Mound visits? The catcher and teammates can strategize with a pitcher for a maximum of 20 seconds, but just three times per game. The pitching coach or manager are allowed on the mound only for pitching changes and to offer a suggestion to the reliever (20 seconds max).

Twenty seconds has been the time allowed between pitches in the minor leagues. MLB should go with 15 seconds.

A pitch clock receives a yes vote here as do two other moves already made by MLB—second games of double headers are seven innings, and extra innings start with a runner on second base.

If rules changes are going to put zip back in the game time is precious. Once hitters step in the batting box they stay. No asking the umpire for “time,” and then step away from the plate to check a wristband, or contemplate dinner reservations. Maybe swat away an insect in between pitches, but no leaving the box.

Replays to review possible miscues by the umpires? The timeouts for replays are sometimes so long you can start and finish an argument with your spouse. And those replays, just like spousal arguments, don’t always get things right. Put baseball back in the hands of humans like in the golden age, and spurn technology except in the ninth inning or extra innings. Then each manager can have one appeal.

Close and controversial plays do stir debate, and make for grand theatre on the diamond. A manager will be allowed to jaw face-to-face with the umpire for two minutes max, and just one time per game.

TV ads during games? Advertising pays the bills but MLB should enforce this policy between half innings and innings: it’s exactly two minutes until the pitcher is on the mound and ready to throw his first pitch.

Now here is the mother of doozies. Hitters too often don’t put the ball in play, leading to extended stays at the plate. Batters foul off so many balls on three-two counts it seems like the Ground Hog Day movie sequel. Here’s what to do: each batter gets 12 pitches and if he fouls off the last one it’s a strikeout.

Rules need enforcement and MLB should not only institute serious reform but make sure policies are adhered to by assigning “law enforcement” at every game. A rules official sees to it that the new system is enforced including assessment of fines when appropriate.

So that’s about it, except for this: On Thursday the Twins play their home opener against the Seattle Mariners. With the likelihood of a long game, plus a possible rain delay, bring your knitting bag, and deep breathing manual.

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