Twins – Page 153 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Mixed Results on Vikings First Rounders

Posted on May 1, 2015May 1, 2015 by David Shama

There’s nothing wrong with being upbeat about the Vikings’ choice of cornerback Trae Waynes with the No. 11 selection in the first round of last night’s NFL Draft. But fans are advised to evaluate the success of the selection in a few years.

The Vikings have made 11 first round selections dating back to 2007, including last night. In addition to Waynes, those selections were for Adrian Peterson (2007), Percy Harvin (2009), Christian Ponder (2011), Matt Kalil (2012), Harrison Smith (2012), Sharrif Floyd (2013), Xavier Rhodes (2013), Cordarrelle Patterson (2013), Anthony Barr (2014) and Teddy Bridgewater (2014).

All 10 of the previous first rounders from past years became starters as rookies. Seven were All-Rookie selections and four made the Pro Bowl. Peterson and Harvin were both NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Peterson was also selected first team Associated Press All-Pro as a running back.

Honors are nice but performance over time is what matters most—individually and contributing to team success.

Peterson will one day be a Hall of Fame running back and was worthy of going even higher in the 2007 draft’s first round than his No. 7 selection. Harvin, despite his superb talents as a slot receiver and runner, became a “headache” specialist with the Vikings—both suffering from head pain and giving it to coaches and management before he was traded to the Seahawks.

Ponder was mostly ineffective and didn’t follow the script to become the quarterback savior. Kalil is supposed to be the team’s franchise left tackle but he’s been inconsistent and sometimes awful. Safety Smith and cornerback Rhodes form half of a talented and promising defensive secondary. Floyd, a defensive tackle, started one game as a rookie and 13 last season, and faces a prove-it season in 2015.

Patterson’s talents—he was All-Pro as a kick returner for 2013 and flashed promise as a receiver—reminds us of Harvin’s skills, but he seems unfocused and perhaps difficult to handle. Barr and Bridgewater teased with their abilities and promise last season as rookies, and left coaches and fans anticipating how much more they can contribute in future years.

The report card is mixed for the 10 players referenced above, and more importantly so are the team results on the field. The Vikings have had losing seasons three of the last four years, making the playoffs once and compiling an overall record of 25-38-1.

That record, of course, isn’t just the responsibility of the 10 first round draft choices. Other players—whether they were later rounds selections or veterans already on the club—are accountable too. Coaches and personnel decision makers are also part of the story. But what would the team record be the last couple years if Ponder had been a franchise quarterback? If Harvin had been All-Pro every year? Or if Patterson was the equal of Harvin in making explosive plays by catching passes and running for extra yardage? And if Kalil was mentioned in the same breath with the league’s best left tackles.

Get the idea? Let’s wait a few years and see what the impact really is of Waynes and past first round draft selections, and how the wins and losses are adding up for the Vikings.

Worth Noting

With their selection of Waynes in the first round last night, the Vikings tied the Bengals (1984-1987) for most NFL first round selections in a four-year period, with eight.

Last Sunday’s first round Game 6 between the Wild and Blues from Xcel Energy Center was the most watched hockey game ever on NBC in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. Late in the game 53 percent of all television households in this market with TV’s on were tuned to the Wild game.

The Wild will host a Playoff Pep Rally at the IDS Center Crystal Court in downtown Minneapolis today from noon to 1 p.m. The Wild face the Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight in Chicago. Fans are encouraged to wear Wild team colors on Friday and for future playoff game days. Team mascot Nordy will join former Wild captain Wes Walz, 1995 Stanley Cup Champion Tom Chorske, and others on stage at the rally.

Round 2 Rally Towels will be distributed to 500 fans beginning at noon. One lucky fan will win a Zach Parise autographed jersey. Complimentary raffle tickets will be distributed beginning at 11 a.m. There is a limit of one raffle ticket per person and the winner must be present when announced.

The new Capital Club featuring local sports figures as speakers meets on selected mornings at Town & Country Club in St. Paul. Gophers football coach Jerry Kill will speak next Tuesday. For more information contact, Patrick Klinger, patrickklinger@klingercompany.com.

Patrick Talty, the SMG executive working on attracting events to the new Minneapolis Vikings stadium, said a bid will be submitted by the end of May to host the college football national championship game. The downtown facility, opening in 2016, might be the site of the game in 2018, 2019 or 2020.

Among other attractions, the stadium could also host the WWE’s WrestleMania. Talty said the economic impact for a city having the event can be $100 million.

Condolences to family and friends of Verne Gagne who died earlier this week at age 89. Gagne played football for the Gophers and was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion. As a pro wrestling champion and promoter, he made the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association a household phrase in this marketplace. His zest for life and entertaining will long be remembered by Minnesotans.

Gagne impacted the development and livelihoods of many athletes who made careers out of pro wrestling. Among them is former Gophers football player Jim Brunzell who became part of the famous “High Flyers” tag team along with Gagne’s son Greg Gagne. “Verne played a major part of my early wrestling career,” Brunzell wrote via e-mail. “He trained me, booked me, and enabled me to learn my trade from some of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. …

“He was a tremendous competitor, no matter what the activity—wrestling, racquetball, or tennis. He’d just as soon knock your teeth out, than lose! He loved the outdoors, fishing and hunting, and probably would have preferred to live in the early Wild West! He loved his family, and the University of Minnesota, and was truly a modern day icon!”

A sold out crowd of more than 800 is expected Sunday when The Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame hosts its 8th Annual Minnesota Football Honors event at the Hilton Minneapolis. See the April 16 issue of Sports Headliners for a listing of individuals being honored.

Twins marketers like this year’s home schedule that has the club playing 48 dates at Target Field between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

New Twins manager Paul Molitor told Sports Headliners the first month of the season and 22 games played isn’t a large enough sampling to know what he’s got for a team including decisions on who deserves to stay on the roster. “I think probably 30-40 games is a little better gauge…so let’s see how it plays out a little bit longer.”

Molitor said on Wednesday morning first baseman Joe Mauer is achieving more “quality at bats” than anyone else on his roster. Mauer, who entered this year with a career batting average of .319, hit just .277 last season. Molitor wouldn’t predict what Mauer’s average will be this season, but as of today he is at .318. Mauer is hitting .366 in his last 10 games, while driving in 12 runs in the past 14 games. “I do have confidence he’s going to have a good year,” Molitor said. “I am just not going to put a number on it.”

Jessie Aney, who won the MSHSL girls singles tennis title as an eight grader in 2011, has joined the Rochester Century High School boys team. Now a junior in eligibility, she is ranked No. 8 among Class AA players in the state by the boys tennis coaches association. A senior academically, Aney will be attending North Carolina on a tennis scholarship next fall.

1 comment

Trivia Therapy for Twins’ Slow Start

Posted on April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 by David Shama

The Twins are off to a slow start this season and might be on their way to another 90-plus loss season—but, hey, cheer up! Today is the club’s home opener at Target Field and the weather forecast encourages fans to leave their parkas at home. To perk you up even more, Sports Headliners is serving up a 20-questions Twins trivia column.

Answer 15 to 20 questions correctly and you can draft the next trivia column. Anyone answering only a couple of questions correctly needs to sign up for Twins Trivia School at my house (free tuition but lodging costs are exorbitant).

Here are the questions, with answers at the bottom of the column. No peeking or cheating of any kind. Fines are double for transgressions involving more difficult questions.

1. What was the first season the Twins played at Target Field?

2. The Twins haven’t won a regular season opener for awhile. How many consecutive opening season games have the Twins lost? Be sure to count last week’s opener in Detroit.

3. Who was the Twins designated hitter on opening day in 2014? (Hint: he was in the minors before summer officially began.)

4. The coldest temperature ever for a Twins opener was 33 degrees on April 14, 1962. Who was the opponent?

5. In Twins history the franchise has been owned by two families including the Pohlads. Name the other family. (No hints on this gimme.)

6. Before Joe Mauer earned a $184 million contract from the Twins he was the American League’s Most Valuable Player. What year did he win the award?

7. Much has been written about Torii Hunter rejoining the Twins—the franchise he played for regularly from 1999-2007. Who are the two teams Hunter played with before returning to the Twins?

8. Who was the Twins general manager before Terry Ryan took the job for a second time in 2011? (Note: this is a “lay-up” so don’t mess it up.)

9. The Twins coaching staff includes a former Minnesota high school basketball player who long ago won the state’s Mr. Basketball Award. What is his name?

10. This Twins regular is a Mississippi native just like Elvis Presley and Brett Favre. Who is he? (If you never heard of Elvis and Brett, proceed to the next question.)

11. The Twins track their franchise records back to 1901 when the club was in Washington, D.C. before moving to Minneapolis-St. Paul after the 1960 season. What was the nickname of the Senators Hall of Fame pitcher who won 36 games in a single season?

12. In 2014 the Twins hosted the MLB All-Star Game at Target Field. What other years have the Twins hosted the game?

13. This Twins great was on the cover of Time Magazine in the 1970s. Who was the cover boy?

14. Who was the Twins pitcher who started and won the final game of the 1991 World Series? (No, it wasn’t Bert Blyleven—or Pedro Ramos.)

15. Everybody (?) knows Harmon Killebrew hit the most career home runs for the Twins. Some trivia experts even know Kent Hrbek hit the second most. Who is No. 3 on the all-time list?

16. Name the Twins player who led the team in home runs and RBI during spring training this year. (Hint: he was acquired in a 2012 trade involving Francisco Liriano.)

17. What was the name of the Twins message board at the old Met Stadium? (No, it wasn’t the “Jumbotron.”)

18. Who is the Twins player that holds the franchise record for scoring the most runs in a single season? (Need help? He played in the 1990s.)

19. Name the only person to “play” for the Twins and Vikings? (Hint: this is a trick question. Honest.)

20. Who was the Twins losing pitcher in yesterday’s game against the White Sox? (How much easier can I make these questions?)

And the Answers to Today’s Trivia Questions Are…

1. Target Field opened to rave reviews locally and nationally in 2010, and has been a hit with fans and media ever since.

2. After losing last week’s season opener to the Tigers in Detroit, the Twins have now dropped seven consecutive openers. If you’re counting, that’s the longest streak in club history dating back to 1961.

3. Chris Colabello terrorized American League pitchers in the early days of the 2014 season but was playing in Triple A Rochester before Minnesota schools adjourned for summer.

4. It must have been a shock to the Los Angeles-based Angels to play baseball in 33 degree football weather at Met Stadium on April 14, 1962.

5. The Griffith family moved the Senators from Washington, D.C. to Minneapolis-St. Paul after the 1960 season and the club became known as the Minnesota Twins. Franchise president Calvin Griffith was a character and sometimes more entertaining than his team.

6. The stars aligned for Mauer in 2009 when he had career highs in batting average (.365), home runs (28) and RBI (96), and was voted American League MVP. The next year he received a new $184 million contract.

7. Hunter played five seasons for the Angels after leaving the Twins, and then joined the Tigers for two more seasons before coming back to Minnesota this year. Although he is 39 years old, Hunter has played in 140 or more games the last five seasons.

8. Bill Smith was the Twins general manager from 2008-2011. Ryan, who had been the GM from 1994-2007, agreed to a second round of duty in succeeding Smith.

9. Twins third base coach Gene Glynn, the pride of Waseca, Minnesota, won the 1975 Mr. Basketball Award. He was the first person to win the award.

10. Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who was second in the American League last season with 112 runs scored, grew up in Mississippi and was drafted by the Twins out of the University of Southern Mississippi.

11. Walter “Big Train” Johnson was one of the most dominating pitchers ever—hence his nickname. He won 417 games for the Senators from 1907-1927.

12. The Twins hosted All-Star Games in 1965, 1985 and 2014. The American League lost the first two games in Minnesota but won last year when Twins reliever Glen Perkins earned the save in the 5-3 win.

13. In 1977 Rod Carew was making a run at becoming baseball’s first .400 hitter since Ted Williams in 1941. Carew graced the cover of Time Magazine and went on to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award. His final batting average that season was .388.

14. Jack Morris pitched a 10-inning, seven-hit 1-0 shutout against the Braves in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series to give the Twins their second world championship in five years. The game is remembered as one of the most exciting in World Series history.

15. Bob Allison, the Twins left fielder in the franchise’s early years in Minnesota, hit 256 home runs in his career with Minnesota. That ranks third behind Killebrew with 559 and Hrbek at 293.

16. Eduardo Escobar, acquired by the Twins from the White Sox in 2012, hit four home runs and drove in 20 runs to lead the club in those categories during spring training.

17. The Twins-O-Gram seemed high tech back in the day at Met Stadium when it delivered brief messages to liven up the ballpark experience. (Sorry, no visuals on the Twins-O-Gram).

18. Chuck Knoblauch set a single season franchise record for runs scored in 1996 with 140. Knoblauch, who played seven seasons with the Twins from 1991-1997, was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

19. Okay, I have used this question in the past and it’s a tricky one, but a few readers might recall the answer is the organist who “played” and pepped up the crowds at Twins and Vikings games at Met Stadium. Get it?

20. The Twins’ season record dived to 1-5 with a loss to the White Sox yesterday, and Minnesota’s Phil Hughes was the losing pitcher in the game.

1 comment

Coach to Watch: Twins Neil Allen

Posted on April 8, 2015April 8, 2015 by David Shama

The Twins opened their 162-game regular season Monday at Detroit and among the storylines to follow in 2015 will be the impact of new pitching coach Neil Allen from the Rays organization. If the Twins are going to improve on last season’s 70-92 record, the step forward has to start with pitching.

Last season opponents hit .280 against the Twins, the highest batting average yielded by any team in Major League Baseball. The club’s 4.57 ERA was second only to the Rockies’ 4.84. Allen, 56, has never been a major league pitching coach but he comes from an organization renowned for developing pitchers and having success. Despite a miniscule payroll, the Rays have consistently been among baseball’s best pitching teams. Last season the Rays held opposing batters to a .234 batting average, third best among the 30 teams in MLB.

Allen, who joined the Tampa Bay organization in November of 2006, was the Rays Triple A coach at Durham last season. He wasn’t going to be promoted to the top job with the Rays because Jim Hickey is so revered. An informal poll last year of baseball authorities by the Boston Globe ranked Hickey as the No. 1 pitching coach in the majors.

Allen knows the Rays’ curriculum for pitchers that includes emphasis on throwing changeups to keep batters off balance. The Rays are big too on the importance of getting ahead of batters in the strike count, according to a lengthy April 1, 2013 Sports Illustrated article titled “The Rays Way.” That story talked about the organization’s success, too, in addressing the mental approach to pitching. Twins fans will learn this season how much of the Rays’ success can come north to Minneapolis.

Twins president Dave St. Peter was aware of Allen and the Rays’ reputation before Minnesota hired its new pitching coach last fall. “We were very impressed with Neil’s work and have great admiration for the Tampa Bay organization’s development of pitching,” he told Sports Headliners. “Beyond his ability to teach, his enthusiasm and passion are impressive.”

St. Peter cautions, though, instruction can only contribute so much to success on the field. “I am a believer that managers and coaches can have some impact but at the end of the day it’s up to the players (and their talents),” he said.

Allen replaces longtime Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson. St. Peter pointed out that Phil Hughes, who was so impressive in his debut season with the Twins last year, gives credit to Anderson for helping him experience a turnaround year and win 16 games.

St. Peter said he isn’t aware of Anderson working in baseball at this time. The former coach under ex-Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is living in Florida.

Worth Noting

The Gophers spring football game at TCF Bank Stadium starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday and admission is free. After the game fans can meet players and coaches and receive autographs. Coach Jerry Kill is expected to run an offense versus defense scrimmage on Saturday. The spring game will be telecast live on the Big Ten Network.

The Twins home opener next Monday against the Royals is sold out but tickets remain for the franchise’s other 80 dates at Target Field. “I always say I worry less about the home opener and more about the other 80,” Dave St. Peter said.

The Twins president also said 2015 season tickets will total between 13,000 and 14,000 after being at about 17,000 last year.

Joe Nathan, now 40, didn’t get much of an endorsement from an anonymous scout in Sports Illustrated’s March 30 preview of MLB teams including the Tigers. “Nathan is real hittable right now,” the scout said about the former Twins’ closer. “You lose your fastball when you get older, there’s not anything you can do about it. Now he can’t get away with the same pitches in the same area because he doesn’t have the velocity he used to.”

The Twins, who lost their opening regular season game on Monday to the Tigers, are winless in their last seven openers. The Tigers stole three bases and hit two home runs in the 4-0 win. Nathan, who was booed by Tigers fans in spring training, earned a ninth inning save.

Joe Mauer, who struck out a career high 96 times last season while batting .277, fanned once on Monday. The Twins first baseman, who turns 32 on April 19, had one hit—a ground ball up the middle—in four at bats.

Former Twins pitcher and now team TV analyst Bert Blyleven turned 64 on Monday.

The Gophers are recruiting Menomonie High School shortstop Terrin Vavra, the son of Twins bench coach Joe Vavra. Terrin’s brothers Tanner and Trey were drafted by the Twins in 2013 and 2014 and are in the organization’s minor league system.

How much do the struggling Gophers miss not having the Metrodome available for baseball? Well, eight of the first nine weekends the Gophers have been on the road. That doesn’t change this weekend with Minnesota playing at Nebraska Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Gophers, 10-17 in nonconference games and 2-7 in the Big Ten, have postponed today’s home nonleague game against St. Thomas.

Steve and Dorothy Erban’s Stillwater-based Creative Charters has openings for its annual Kentucky Derby Experience. The seven day, six night trip package to Kentucky includes farm tours, a visit to the Churchill Downs backside and box seats to the May 2 Kentucky Derby in Louisville. The Erbans are thoroughbred horse breeders. Steve is a former thoroughbred trainer. More about the Derby trip at Creativecharter.com.

The schedule for Round One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is expected to be announced on Sunday. Last night the Wild clinched a playoff spot for a franchise record third consecutive season.

St. Thomas senior goalie Drew Fielding was named the Sid Watson Memorial winner as Division III men’s hockey National Player of the Year. Fielding’s 52 career wins are the most in the MIAC during the last 12 years, and his 19 career shutouts are third most in Division III history.

Comments Welcome