Twins – Page 85 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

MLB Missed All-American Opener

Posted on June 18, 2020June 18, 2020 by David Shama

The decision makers of Major League Baseball may yet salvage a season this summer but for sure they have messed up the possibility of its 30 teams playing opening day on July 4. Contentious negotiations between the ruling powers of baseball and the players association have soured the public on MLB, and the window has closed on a best practice public relations move that would have scheduled the Minnesota Twins and other clubs playing for the first time in 2020 on Independence Day.

Imagine the Twins on the Fourth of July playing at Target Field against one of their American League Central Division rivals. No fans in the seats but a six-figure Upper Midwest TV audience watching from homes in Minneapolis-St. Paul and small towns across the region. America’s pastime showcasing the “boys of summer” on the nation’s 244th birthday of independence.

The diversion of baseball is always welcome by the game’s fans but it would be more so than usual this summer. COVID-19 and social unrest have hit this region hard in recent months. Washing down a hot dog with a beer (or two) while watching the home town team sounds like a brief prescription to feeling better.

How interesting it would be to see the long-awaited debut of the Twins’ newest star, slugging third baseman Josh Donaldson. Opening day starter José Berríos could take another step toward becoming one of MLB’s more dominant pitchers. Might a healthy Byron Buxton save the game for the Twins with a spectacular catch in center field? How about a perfect day at the plate for Luis Arráez, the terrific rookie who last year showed he might become Minnesota’s best second baseman since Hall of Famer Rod Carew.

MLB is embarrassed and should be, that there is still no final plan to have a 2020 season. It’s definitely too late to have a few weeks of training as a prelude to a July 4 opener—as cool as that would be. Summer time is baseball’s annual window but instead it’s looking like basketball, football, hockey and soccer could be center stage.

Perhaps there will yet be a MLB 2020 season, but the game has struck out on an Independence Day opener, missing a crackerjack opportunity to kiss and make up with its fans.

Worth Noting

This is supposed to be the Twins’ 60th season in Minnesota. The Washington Senators relocated here for the 1961 season and became the Twins. That year the Twins opened the season in New York, playing their first game in Minnesota franchise history. A mediocre Twins team defeated the mighty Yankees of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and other stars, 6-0.

With economics threatening the existence of minor league baseball, have to wonder if 69-year-old St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck could be interested in selling. A baseball source thinks the Saints might fetch $20 million in a sale.

Vikings offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak indicated yesterday in a Zoom call with media that Justin Jefferson, the team’s No. 1 draft choice this spring, is likely to play regular minutes at the slot position versus outside receiver. The slot was a primary position for Jefferson with national champion LSU last year.

Special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf raised the possibility of Jefferson returning punts as he did for the Tigers. The Vikings may use two punt returners at times to improve returns, an assignment Maalouf indentified as a special teams priority. “He (Jefferson) could possibly be one of those guys,” Maalouf said.

The Vikings rotated multiple players in the punt return role last year without much impact. Fifth round draft choice and wide receiver K.J. Osborn is a definite candidate to return punts. Maalouf praised the rookie’s explosiveness, vision and skill in catching the football. He said veteran corner Mike Hughes is a possibility, too.

Kubiak said quarterback Kirk Cousins has shown his leadership in the offseason, despite COVID-19 preventing players gathering in team workouts. “…I think Kirk came out of last year with a lot of confidence as a person and a player,” Kubiak said.

Kubiak talking about how communications with players and others has been mandated by technology because of the pandemic: “I know a hell of a lot more about computers than I did six months ago.”

When the Minnesota Wild begins playing there will be a focus on 23-year-old wing Kevin Fiala, who might emerge as the most exciting young talent on any professional sports team in the Twin Cities. His offensive skill set is so impressive he draws comparisons to Marian Gaborik and Dino Ciccarelli—two of the most gifted scorers in Minnesota pro hockey history.

Fiala had a fast close to the 2019-2020 season that ended early because of the pandemic, but he created a big impression. “He made everybody in the league look bad,” a longtime NHL observer told Sports Headliners.

Fiala tied his NHL career high of 23 goals last season. In the last five games he had seven points including four goals. He was acquired from Nashville during the 2018-19 season in what now can only be described as a smart move by former and much criticized Wild general manager Paul Fenton. Fiala now must show his skills consistently over a full season.

Condolences to the family and friends of former Gophers All-American and Minneapolis Lakers star Dick Garmaker, who recently passed away. Garmaker was one of the many natives of Hibbing, Minnesota who earned fame in sports, entertainment and politics. (Personal note: his wife Darlene was my seventh grade art teacher at Ramsey Junior High School in Minneapolis.)

Legendary Gopher football tackle Bobby Bell turned 80 yesterday.

1 comment

Gophers’ Meyer Ranks with Glen Perkins

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column…

The Minnesota Twins, selecting at No. 27 in next week’s MLB Draft, aren’t positioned to acquire University of Minnesota pitcher Max Meyer from Woodbury. Speculation this spring is the sophomore right-hander will be selected among the first 10 picks, and Gophers coach John Anderson told Sports Headliners Meyer “may be top five.”

Anderson, the Gopher coach since 1981, ranks Meyer and Glen Perkins his two best pitchers ever. The St. Paul-born Perkins was selected No. 22 in the first round by the Twins in June of 2004, and later became a big time reliever for Minnesota.

Anderson said Meyer has a superb work ethic and trained hard to achieve his success as both a reliever and starter for the Gophers. Meyer caught the attention of scouts this spring with a slider moving at an impressive spin rate. His other top pitches are a changeup and fast ball that has reached 100 miles per hour, Anderson added.

Meyer finished his Gopher career with a lifetime 2.07 ERA (fourth best all-time in the program), with 187 strikeouts in 148 innings pitched. His 18 saves are the third-most in 132 seasons of the program’s history.

Jerry Kline Jr. told Sports Headliners yesterday there have been “no conversations” with Treyton Thompson or his family this spring about transferring to Cretin-Derham Hall. Conjecture in recent weeks has Thompson, a top 100 prep player for the class of 2021 and a verbal commit to the Gophers, playing his senior season for coach Kline.

Thompson, a native of Alexandria, Minnesota and a power forward, played as a junior at La Lumiere School in Indiana last year. He and his family inquired more than 12 months ago about a transfer to CDH but that wasn’t possible because metro area residence is required. It’s not known if Thompson is looking at other options than La Lumiere for his senior season.

The Raiders lose four starters from last season’s team but return Trejuan Holloman, a junior point guard drawing national attention from recruiters. He is an unselfish playmaker who consistently gets others involved. “He’s a fun player to play with, and he’s a fun kid to coach, and he’s all about team,” Kline said.

No high school player from the state will be the object of more attention next winter than Minnehaha Academy 7-footer Chet Holmgren, who both ESPN and 247Sports rank as the No. 2 prep player nationally in the class of 2021. Despite his size, he has extraordinary versatility including ball handling. Holmgren’s shooting and shot blocking are also among his most noticeable skills.

Kline refers to him as unique. “He’s just a phenomenal player and he’s only going to get better,” Kline said.

Chet weighs less than 200 pounds and is similar in size to his father David Holmgren who played four seasons as a reserve for the Gophers from 1984-1988. “He hadn’t really filled out yet when I had him,” said Jim Dutcher, who coached David his first two seasons.

A scholarship player, David played in 57 games, starting three times during his Gopher career. He averaged 1 point and .08 rebounds per game in limited minutes during at Minnesota after being a standout center at Prior Lake High School.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) was originally supposed to be the last day college basketball players could withdraw their names from the NBA Draft and still be eligible for next season. The NCAA nixed the June 3 date awhile ago and has yet to announce a new deadline. That gives Marcus Carr, Minnesota’s best player if he returns to the team, more time to contemplate whether his immediate future is with the Gophers or pros.

My guess as to Carr’s draft appeal to NBA clubs? At best, mid to late second round.

Happy birthday to Minnesota hockey legend Lou Nanne who turns 79 today.

It was eight years ago yesterday that media icon Dark Star (real name George Chapple) died at his home in Minnetonka. A character among characters, Dark loved sports including horse racing and is a member of Canterbury Park’s Hall of Fame.

The current issue of Sports Illustrated devotes its cover and 10 inside pages to the financial “crisis” facing minor league baseball. The article begins with this: “In response to an SI survey on the effects of the pandemic, three-quarters of teams express serious concerns over either their survival or that of fellow clubs.”

College football is second only to the NFL in “core fans,” per a news release last week from the National Football Foundation. The release cited a Gallup poll that reported college football’s popularity surpassed the American professional sports of baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer.

The Gophers had the third largest jump in attendance among FBS schools in 2019, with an average of 8,275 more in average announced attendance for seven home games. Minnesota’s average for the season was 46,190 versus 37,915 in 2018.

Comments Welcome

Rod Carew Overcame Abusive Father

Posted on May 14, 2020May 14, 2020 by David Shama

Rod Carew’s new book is on sale and it’s no ordinary tale about a sports hero. In One Tough Out: Fighting Off Life’s Curveballs (Triumph Books), the former Minnesota Twins second baseman describes his remarkable life and the obstacles he overcame to become one of the greatest hitters of the last century and a Cooperstown Hall of Famer.

Early in the book Carew, now 74, talks about his negligent and abusive father Eric. Living in poverty in Panama, Carew’s mother Olga earned $1 per day as a housekeeper. Eric spent much of his modest paycheck on booze.

“Most of my clothes were hand-me-downs,” Carew writes in the book with co-contributor Jaime Aron. “Previous owners wore them for as long as they could. By the time I got them, there wasn’t much left. At one point, my only pair of shoes had soles that flapped against the bottom of my feet when I walked. At school, I walked alongside a wall in hopes that no one would notice. I had to make do until my mother could find me a replacement.”

Eric worked on a tug boat and was a big man at 6-foot-3. Rod was often sick and weak so his father belittled him, calling the child “Sissy.” Carew speculates his father decided in his twisted view of parenting that physically abusing his son would toughen him up.

“Early on, he would shove me into a broom closet and keep me trapped inside for hours,” Carew recalled in the book. “His next step toward making a man out of me involved his fists. Nights when he drank heavily, his fists weren’t enough. His arsenal grew to include a rope, a strip of wood, the knotted cord from an iron, and the wide leather belt around his waist. These weren’t isolated incidents.”

Those beatings and rejections by Carew’s father were traumatic but his mother saved his self-esteem and at an early age put thoughts of success in his head. Olga and Eric had other children but she favored the boy and told him he was special.

“Long before Earl Woods prophesized greatness for the boy he named Tiger, my mother was infusing me with the confidence that I would grow up to make a mark on the world,” Carew said.

Olga, too, was physically abused by Eric. She eventually escaped to New York City and earned enough money in a factory to bring Rod to a new life as a 15-year-old in 1961. It was the beginning of a journey that would document success experienced by few ballplayers. First playing for the Twins and later the Angels, Carew won seven batting titles, played in 18 consecutive All-Star Games and collected 3,053 hits.

During Carew’s life, he has not only overcame a difficult childhood, but endured the tragic loss of a daughter to leukemia. In 2015 Carew fought his own health battle when his heart stopped, but remarkably he received a heart transplant from a 29-year-old he had met years before.

Carew’s life more than earns the title of his autobiography. “There’s no quit in this man,” Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson says on the book’s cover.

Worth Noting

Ross Bernstein, the Golden Gopher hockey mascot from 1989-1991, is a prolific speaker to business groups and has averaged about 120 keynote addresses per year but because of the COVID-19 epidemic is doing virtual presentations this spring. The Twin Cities-based Bernstein has spoken on seven continents and also authored 50 sports books.

Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle describes second-year men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko as “low ego, high output.” The Big Ten Conference announced Motzko as its men’s hockey Coach of the Year this week.

Motzko has an impressive 11 Academic All-Big Ten honorees this winter, although none has a perfect GPA like Lindsey Kozelsky from the Gopher swimming and diving team. Kozelsky, an elementary education major, is one of 23 Big Ten student-athletes to have such a distinction.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer joking from home in Kentucky about how he is coping with the disruption of leading his team: “We’re just hoping it’s not my other eye that goes.”

The Gophers’ 37-year-old Richard Pitino ranks No. 7 in a listing of the 40 best under 40 college basketball coaches in the country, per an Espn.com story yesterday.

Zack Johnson, a 2015 Spring Lake Park grad, could play against his hometown Vikings later this year if he can make the Green Bay Packers roster. The 6-6, 301-pound guard signed with the Packers as a rookie free agent this spring after an All-America career at North Dakota State.

1 comment