Timberwolves – Page 95 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Mauer’s Grandpa Not Blaming Booing Fans

Posted on July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 by David Shama

Jake Mauer predicts his grandson Joe Mauer will hit over .300 before the season ends but told Sports Headliners he understands the frustration Twins fans have with their $23 million per season first baseman.

“He’s getting a big salary, he should produce,” Jake said. “That’s what the fans think and that’s what the fans want. He’s trying but it just don’t happen (yet). But I don’t blame the people.”

Jake said Joe has mentioned the possibility of being benched, and grandpa has thought too the former American League batting champion should come out of the lineup. “But they can’t bench him because he’s making so much money. They gotta have him in the lineup,” the older Mauer said.

Mauer is on the 15-day disabled list with a right oblique strain suffered several days ago. The injury to his side and its timing have added to the frustration for Mauer who was hitting a career low .260 on June 24 but raised his average to .271 on July 1. In the last 10 games before being sidelined he was hitting .359 and had 10 RBI (only 28 for the season). Jake predicts his grandson will not play again until July 18.

“He couldn’t understand the (poor hitting) stretch that he went through,” Jake said. “He’s never had it in his life. He starts coming out of it and then he gets hurt.

“He says, ‘What the heavens are going to happen next? Here I suffer for two months and then I start a string of going good and then I get hurt. It’s just terrible.’ ”

Jake said Joe’s struggles have at times caused his grandson’s spirits to be low. “He feels he’s letting the team down. He just can’t get the hits that bring in the runs.”

Jake, a former baseball player himself, mentored Joe as a child growing up in Saint Paul. What’s the problem with his grandson’s hitting this year?

Jake believes the concussion Mauer suffered last August and caused him to miss the remainder of the season is a factor. “I think it has hampered him. I really do.”

Mauer learned last summer and during the fall months the ongoing aftereffects of a concussion. He also could look at the history of close friend Justin Morneau who suffered a concussion in 2010. It has only been this season that Morneau, now with the Rockies, returned to being one of baseball’s more productive hitters.

A winner of three batting titles and .330 lifetime hitter going into this season, Mauer has not only produced minimal offensive numbers including only two home runs but has been striking out more than normal. Jake said Joe has told him his timing isn’t right.

Joe also critiqued himself by saying, according to Jake, that “sometimes I have a lazy swing. Sometimes I have a good swing but I am never consistent.”

Not only do fans wonder about the concussion but there is speculation Mauer is an old 31 after 10 seasons of absorbing the physical toll of catching. This season he was moved to first base but no one would argue the change has helped Mauer who hit .324 and .319 the last two seasons as a catcher.

Still, Jake said his grandson “definitely” will hit over .300 before the season ends. “He’s on his way and then he got hurt.”

Mauer’s contract runs through the 2018 season. Although the Twins have lost close to 100 games each of the last three seasons and appear destined for the same results in 2014, Jake said Joe doesn’t want to play for another team now or ever. “Oh, no. The Twins are his home and there is no other team that he would play for. …If the Twins won’t have him back (after the contract expires), he won’t come back with any other team except the Twins.”

At next week’s MLB All-Star Game in Minneapolis Jake and Joe could do something neither would have predicted. The two will probably watch the game together in the Target Field suite Mauer owns. A six-time All-Star, including last year, Mauer will have to watch from some place other than the field or the dugout.

“He doesn’t believe he belongs,” Jake said.

It’s been that kind of season so far.

Worth Noting

Mid-July is typically a time of minimal rain in Minneapolis and long range forecasts indicate dry weather for next Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game here.

Jim Kaat, 75 and among the former Twins who will be in town for All-Star activities, is an ambidextrous golfer who has shot his age both right and left handed. Kaat won 25 games in 1966, the most in Twins franchise history for a single season.

The Twins, who play on the road at Seattle and Colorado before the All-Star break in scheduling starts next Monday, have lost four consecutive series. Last night’s loss against the Mariners left the Twins with a 3-11 record since June 23.

The Eastern Illinois team the Gophers open their season with at home on August 28 is ranked No. 24 nationally among FCS teams by Athlon magazine’s college football issue. The Panthers were 12-2 last season but lost their star quarterback to the NFL and coach to Bowling Green.

North Dakota State, a program using Minnesota high school players for a foundation, will be chasing a record fourth consecutive FCS national title. The Bison are ranked No. 2 in the country by Athlon.

The magazine selected former Eagan High School player Zach Zenner, now at South Dakota State, as one of two running backs on its All-America first team.

New WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson recently was at Bemidji State and plans to visit all 10 of his schools before Christmas. Robertson, a Saint Paul native, became WCHA commissioner this spring succeeding Bruce McLeod.

Players from the Timberwolves NBA Summer League roster will scrimmage tomorrow night at Target Center starting at 7 p.m. The scrimmage is open to the public and admission is free. Timberwolves fan memberships are required to obtain autographs after the scrimmage. More details are available by contacting a Timberwolves membership sales rep at 612- 673-1234. The Timberwolves begin their NBA Summer League schedule on Saturday night in Las Vegas against the Mavericks.

The most recognizable names on the summer league roster are Gorgui Dieng, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Glenn Robinson III and Alexey Shved.

Registration for the 2015 Grandma’s Marathon opened last week. The annual Two Harbors-to-Duluth race is the 16th largest in the country and in 2014 had 7,964 participants.

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Jones Works on Gaining U Admission

Posted on June 18, 2014June 18, 2014 by David Shama

Jeff Jones is focusing on earning admission to the University of Minnesota by attending Minneapolis Public Schools summer classes, and recently took the ACT test for a fourth time hoping to improve his score.

A source told Sports Headliners Jones is working to raise his overall high school GPA and hopes that improvement along with a higher ACT score will allow him to gain admission to Minnesota and join the Gophers in time for August workouts and preparation for the 2014 season. Jones took the ACT test last Saturday and the results are expected later this month.

A combination of ACT result and GPA determines admission at Minnesota and other colleges. Jones signed a letter of intent last February to become a scholarship player for the Gophers but has known for awhile he faced academic challenges.

Jones is the only Rivals.com four-star recruit in the Gophers’ 2014 recruiting class. He drew national attention in the prestigious Under Armour All-America Game in Florida last January, gaining 72 yards and being named Team Nitro MVP.

Other members of the freshman class have started summer school classes at Minnesota and are becoming acclimated to the football program through conditioning and on the field drills. This is Gophers coach Jerry Kill’s fourth freshman group at Minnesota and potentially the best. The coaches have been impressed with the physical size of the players and wait with optimism to see what the freshmen can do during the coming months.

Preseason college football publications rank Jones as Minnesota’s top recruit. Lindy’s Sports rates Jones the No. 10 incoming freshman in the Big Ten Conference but many other Gophers newcomers are intriguing too. Kill and his staff have developed a reputation for identifying talent that is better than advertised.

That intriguing group could include tight end Gaelin Elmore, wide receiver Melvin Holland Jr., center Connor Mayes, quarterback Dimonic Roden–McKinzy and defensive lineman Andrew Stelter. Lindy’s identifies wide receiver Isaiah Gentry as its “sleeper” among the Minnesota freshmen. “Isaiah Gentry out of Cincinnati Moeller was one of the most overlooked players in the Buckeye State, and Minnesota is getting a steal in the speedy 6-4, 185-pound pass catcher,” the magazine wrote.

Worth Noting

The Gophers players and coaches received their Texas Bowl rings on Monday. Minnesota lost to Syracuse in the Houston-based game last December.

Prior Lake linebacker Blake Weber, who was the South Suburban Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, has decided to play football at Rochester Community and Technical College.

Gophers football coach Jerry Kill said on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” program on Sunday that earlier this month the great grandson of the legendary Bronko Nagurski attended Kill’s camp. Nagurski is one of five former Gophers to have his jersey number (72) retired.

Dr. John Baumgartner, who passed away last week, was an outstanding Gophers football player who lettered four times, from 1951-54.

That was Minneapolis entrepreneur, best-selling business author, motivational speaker and former Gophers golfer Harvey Mackay sitting with wife Carol Ann near courtside at Sunday’s Game Five in San Antonio when the Spurs defeated the Heat to win the NBA championship. Carol Ann gave her husband the trip as a Father’s Day present.

“I go almost every year to a finals game,” Mackay said. “This was the loudest arena I’ve ever been in.”

Mackay said he didn’t meet one San Antonio native who wasn’t aware of Sunday’s game. “What was normally a 15 minute drive from our hotel to the arena took two hours. We got out and walked the last five blocks.”

It will be interesting to see how Flip Saunders fills in his Timberwolves coaching staff after already naming Sidney Lowe and Sam Mitchell assistants. Saunders’ son Ryan, with a reputation for statistical analysis expertise, has NBA coaching experience with the Wizards and seems likely sooner or later to join the Timberwolves organization. Don Zierden, a Minnesota native, was an assistant to Flip Saunders with the Timberwolves, Pistons and Wizards in the past, and is still with the Wizards. Former NBA head coach and assistant Eric Musselman is close to Saunders and resigned earlier this season from Arizona State.

Xavier Thames, a 6-3 senior guard from San Diego State, is a player to follow in next week’s NBA Draft. Thames isn’t a “brand name” but he impressed with his shooting at the NBA Combine last month. It would be ironic if the Spurs drafted Thames since their NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard is from San Diego State and was also underrated coming out of college.

The June 18 issue of Sports Illustrated refers to Nick Gordon, who the Twins selected No. 5 overall in baseball’s amateur draft this month, as the “best high school shortstop in America.” The Gordon article includes praise from former Reds shortstop great Barry Larkin. “The kid fields with the best angles of any young shortstop I’ve ever seen,” Larkin said of Gordon who was the first infielder taken in the draft.

The same issue includes a story about the infamous O.J. Simpson whose wife Nicole was murdered 20 years ago this month. Simpson later dated Nicole look-a-like Christie Prody, a Minnesota native who the magazine reported is serving time in a Minnesota prison “after a conviction for stealing prescription painkillers from an elderly couple.” Simpson is incarcerated in Nevada from a 2008 conviction on charges that included kidnapping.

Twins first baseman Joe Mauer went 18 games without an RBI before driving in the team’s lone run in a 2-1 loss last night to the Red Sox. The face of the franchise, Mauer is hitting .258 with 16 RBI and two home runs this season. Not surprisingly, he isn’t among the top five fan vote recipients for starting American League first baseman in the 2014 All-Star Game in Minneapolis.

StubHub.com is listing tickets starting at $13.77, $170.30 and $331.45 for the All-Star Futures Game, Home Run Derby and All-Star Game in Minneapolis. Top price listed for the July15 All-Star Game is $11,002.00.

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Wolves Coach Hire Stirs Big Question

Posted on June 5, 2014June 5, 2014 by David Shama

Timberwolves fans are entitled to view with skepticism the official announcement coming tomorrow that Flip Saunders will be the team’s new coach. Saunders is a proven NBA coach but is this the best decision for the organization?

The Wolves haven’t been to the playoffs since 2004. The team was 40-42 this past season, certainly an improvement over recent history but also an indictment of the talent. The roster is problematic from starters to bench players. There are too many weaknesses on this club including one-dimensional personnel.

The best indication right now is the Wolves are going backward regarding talented players who can turn them into a winner because second team All-NBA forward Kevin Love, according to numerous media reports, wants to be traded. After six seasons of no advancement to the playoffs, Love apparently wants out of Minneapolis to find the opportunity to play for a winner.

Saunders, as president of basketball operations for about a year, has worked at developing a relationship with Love. But that relationship isn’t likely to keep Love in a Timberwolves uniform next season when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, and neither is the extra money Minnesota can pay him under NBA rules.

Saunders had a 10-plus seasons run with the Wolves in his previous coaching life here that ended in 2005. He’s the only coach to ever take the franchise into the playoffs but except for 2004 the Wolves have never made a deep postseason appearance.

That 2004 team, unlike earlier Wolves teams led by Kevin Garnett, had additional star power in guard Sam Cassel and forward Latrell Sprewell. And that’s the point: To win there has to be talent and just who is it in the newly constructed basketball operation with Saunders coaching and retaining his front office position that is going to find the talent?

Saunders has a high basketball IQ but he can’t do everything. The Wolves will need productive personnel evaluators to make themselves a playoff club. They aren’t just Team Saunders and it’s up to Flip to surround himself with a capable staff.

Until the front office shows it can dramatically improve the talent on the floor the long-suffering Wolves fans can wear their skeptics’ hats about an organization that too often disappoints and seems without a plan. The decision of Saunders to become coach is the latest example of “What’s going on with this franchise?”

Owner Glen Taylor was on record that he wanted Saunders to have one job, not two. But apparently Saunders, who less than 18 months ago was chasing the Gophers coaching job, couldn’t resist the urge of returning to the bench. Maybe Saunders and Taylor couldn’t find a big name coach who was a fit but it’s hard to believe there aren’t some good candidates with low national profiles. That kind of hire might have better allowed Saunders to concentrate on improving the roster.

With his new role as coach, Saunders increases his grip on the franchise. His power also includes minority ownership in the team. It’s also believed Saunders wants to acquire a larger ownership stake in the future. Don’t dismiss the possibility, too, that Saunders could lead a group that one day will acquire the franchise from Taylor.

Last season the Wolves sometimes looked lethargic under 67-year-old coach Rick Adelman who resigned this spring. They also had trouble closing out games, not much of an endorsement for the coaching.

Saunders, filled with passion and persuasiveness, is likely to fix the energy problem. Maybe the record in close games, too. But moving toward becoming a top NBA team will require a lot more talent on the roster—and that ultimately will tell the story of Team Saunders.

Worth Noting

Mike Yeo’s new multi-year contract pays him about $1 million annually, a hockey source told Sports Headliners. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Wild coach’s new agreement pays him over $500,000 more each year than his old contract.

He said Yeo’s past compensation was “one of the lowest” among NHL head coaches. The new deal places Yeo among the “lower third in the league.”

The source also said Jacques Lemaire, the Wild’s first coach who left after the 2008-2009 season, was the NHL’s highest paid coach at $1.8 million or more.

Yeo, according to multiple reports, almost lost his job during the past season but rallied his team in the spring including the playoffs where the Wild advanced to the second round for just the second time in franchise history.

The NBA has ditched the annoying 2-3-2 seven game series championship format, replacing it with the more common 2-2-1-1-1 schedule. The NBA Finals between the Spurs and Heat starts tonight in San Antonio, with the series switching to Miami for games three and four. If needed, games five and seven will be in San Antonio, with game six in Miami.

Clash of the Classes boys and girls basketball games are tomorrow night starting at 5:30 p.m. at Concordia, St. Paul. Three games involve 2017 versus 2018 boys, and 2015 versus 2016 boys and girls. More at Northstarhoopsreport.com/clash-of-the-classes.

The 25th annual Bruce Smith Golf Classic and dinner at Faribault Golf Club will be Monday, June 16. Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague and former Gophers Randy Breuer, Mark Dusbabek and Darrell Thompson are among scheduled celebrities. Auction items will include a Gophers helmet autographed by coach Jerry Kill, tickets for a Gophers basketball game in a Williams Arena suite, a Kent Hrbek autographed bat, and a cap autographed by Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. The event benefits three Faribault schools and is named after former Faribault native and Gophers Heisman Trophy winner Bruce Smith. Golf information is available to the public by e-mailing Bruce Krinke, contact@fctv10.org.

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