Twins – Page 96 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

City Fighter Seeks Bigger Spotlight

Posted on June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 by David Shama

Jamal James of Minneapolis is the No. 5 ranked middleweight by the WBC and is positioned for more notoriety. He headlines the July 13 pro boxing card at the historic Minneapolis Armory that will include nationally-televised bouts.

James, 25-1, fights Mexico’s Antonio DeMarco, 33-7-1, in a 10-round bout that will be seen on FS1. James has 12 career knockouts, DeMarco, 24. DeMarco is a former world lightweight champion.

James fights in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions. His bout with DeMarco is listed as a welterweight matchup, but middleweight is where he could make an even bigger name for himself. A local boxing insider emailed this prediction about James: “…Definitely in the global conversation for a title fight.”

The middleweight division is loaded with talent including WBA title holder Manny Pacquiao, 61-7-2. He fights Keith Thurman, 29-0, next month. IBF, WBO and WBC are other organizations where James might have a path to title opportunities.

Professional boxing has found a home at the Armory and continues to generate awareness in this marketplace. The building was once the site of Minneapolis Lakers and city high school basketball games. Renovated now and being used for corporate events and entertainment, three previous boxing cards have attracted announced attendances of 3,149, 3,320 and 3,417.

Attendance of more than 3,000 is expected again in July and as of late last week 1,678 tickets had been sold. Ticket prices range from $25 to $250, with the average at $115.

Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions is the promoter for the July 13 card. PBC fights are seen on Fox and FS1, with recent cards being watched in approximately 1.5 million homes.

Boxing has been struggling for decades to regain its foothold with the American public. In the first half of the 20th century boxing was one of the most popular sports along with baseball, horse racing and college football.

Worth Noting

The Minnesota Wild’s 2019-20 regular season schedule was released today. The Wild opens the season in Nashville on October 3, the first of three straight road games. Minnesota has its home opener on October12, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild plays 17 of its first 26 games of the season on the road (October 3 thru November 30). The nine home games in October and November are the fewest in franchise history.

Charlie Danielson, the 25-year-old Osceola, Wisconsin native accepted a sponsor exemption into the 3M Open today. The Illinois alum and 2016 Big Ten Player of the Year recently qualified for the U.S. Open. The new PGA Tournament begins next week at TCP Twin Cities in Blaine.

The Twins, who split four games on the road with the Royals in their most recent series, hold the No. 3 spot in yesterday’s Yahoo.com power rankings of MLB teams, trailing the No. 1 ranked Dodgers and No. 2 Yankees.

Cbssports.com dropped the Twins from No. 2 to No. 3 in its rankings that came out yesterday. The Yankees are first, the Dodgers second.

The Twins, who start a home series tonight against the Rays, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing by displaying a full-sized statue of Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit at Target Field. The statue is accessible to all fans, and is located outside the Bat & Barrel entrance on the Delta SKY360° Club level.

A Forbes.com June 11 article lists the top 100 wealthiest athletes in the world, with $25 million the cutoff figure to be ranked. Lionel Messi, with $127 million in earnings in the last 12 months, leads the list. He is followed in the top 10 by Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Canelo Alvarez, Roger Federer, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. The top three in earnings are all soccer players, followed by boxer Alvarez.

The Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins is No. 91 with a reported $26.1 million in pay. He is the only Minnesota athlete to make the list.

Romain Metanire, the Minnesota United defender who will play in the July 31 MLS All-Star Game in Orlando, reportedly earns $305,000 in base salary, according to multiple news sources.

The United has seven of its next 10 matches in St. Paul at the much acclaimed Allianz Field that includes the Brew Hall with its many local beers. Unlike soccer venues in Europe, fans fan consume beer in the seating areas at Allianz.

Ex-Gophers Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy will have tryouts respectively with the NBA’s Clippers and Timberwolves. They could eventually play in the NBA’s development league. During the 2018-19 season, players with G League contracts earned base salaries of $7,000, or $35,000 for five months.

Prior Lake five-star forward Dawson Garcia continues to attract impressive scholarship offers, with news yesterday Kansas hopes he will be part of its 2020 recruiting class.

Gophers’ football marketers are trying to improve ticket sales in 2019 after last season’s announced average attendance of 37,914 for seven home games. That figure was reportedly the lowest since 1992. Season tickets in 2019 are offered for as low as $35 per game. Mini-plans starting at $60 (three games) went on sale yesterday.

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Twins Didn’t Consider Trading Joe Mauer

Posted on June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 by David Shama

Joe Mauer played his entire big league career with his hometown Minnesota Twins. He had a spectacular run, and Saturday the Twins organization and adoring fans will honor him at Target Field with Joe Mauer Day and retire his No. 7 uniform number.

But more than once during his 15-year career it was fair to wonder if he might play for another club. After his 2009 American League MVP season, he was within a year of free agency. Mauer watchers speculated the big budget Boston Red Sox, with a home hitting paradise in Fenway Park, could be the next stop for the Minnesota native, who already was a three-time batting champion at age 26. However, Mauer accepted a $23 million per season, eight-year deal in 2010 from the Twins that carried him through the end of his career.

Eventually, as his skills diminished, it seemed plausible either Mauer or the Twins might initiate discussions about moving on to another club. Joining a contender could put Mauer in the first World Series of his career. The Twins could create payroll flexibility by unloading his huge salary.

Did the baseball department ever come to club president Dave St. Peter and suggest a trade? “No, that was never part of the dialogue with Joe,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners this week. “We knew Joe wanted to be in a Minnesota Twins uniform and we wanted Joe to be in a Minnesota Twins uniform.”

St. Peter has been the team president since 2002, and Mauer arrived in the majors in 2004 after Minnesota made him baseball’s overall No. 1 draft pick in 1999. St. Peter and others in the organization have never looked back on the big contract that started in 2011 and helped fill Target Field in its opening years.

“The reality of it is Joe earned that contract,” St. Peter said. “People don’t talk about what Joe earned the first several years in a Twins uniform…(when) he wasn’t making $23 million. I am one that believed that over the course of time we got our value out of Joe Mauer. And Joe earned every penny that he made.”

In addition to Mauer’s three batting titles and MVP Award, he was named to six American League All-Star teams, earned five Louisville Slugger Awards and three Rawlings Golden Glove Awards. He is also the only American League catcher ever to win a batting title. But in four of his last five seasons, he hit under .300 and that brought down his career average to .306.

Mauer photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins.

At 6-foot-5, Mauer was tall by catcher standards, the position he played for most of his Twins career before switching to first base. When Twins historian Dave Mona was asked this week about a favorite Mauer memory he recalled a game when Mauer was behind the plate and the baseball bounced off the backstop. “Without essentially looking,” Mona said, the Twins’ catcher reached back with his glove and caught the ball on the fly.

“I watched that replay a hundred times, and still I don’t understand how an individual can do what he did,” said the longtime WCCO Radio sports talk host. “I think we lose sight of how athletic he was. Look at some of the catches he made on foul tips in the first couple of years, the diving catches. …He brought athleticism to a new height among catchers, for sure.”

Minnesotans saw Mauer’s athletic prowess in high school at Cretin-Derham Hall. He was so accomplished as a baseball, football and basketball player, his name comes up on anyone’s short list of the state’s greatest prep athletes ever.

Call it luck or divine intervention, Mauer was drafted by the Twins, the team that played in the Metrodome—just a long bicycle ride away from his St. Paul home. In Mauer’s first several years with the Twins he became the ultimate hero with his extraordinary play on the field and the national acclaim (including Sports Illustrated cover boy) that it earned. The Twins won division titles and club promoters even staged Joe Mauer Sideburns Night when fans received fake sideburns to emulate the look of their “Baby Jesus,” as KFAN talk show host Dan Barreiro called him.

Still, the critics often wanted more from Joe through much of his career. Could he be more of an outspoken leader in the clubhouse? How badly did he want to win? Should he be more involved with the fans and more active the community?

“I know the passion he has for winning,” St. Peter said. “I know the passion he has for playing. I know Joe gave the Twins every single ounce that he had. …I didn’t ever question whether or not he was giving us his best. Joe is just a pro’s pro and somebody we were really blessed to have as part of our organization.”

Mauer’s friends and teammates know him for what he is, a humble and somewhat reserved guy. He is Minnesota Nice, a label that fits him and countless other residents of this state. Yes, it’s a stereotype, but appropriate for our Joe.

“He’s been everything that we could have asked for as a player and I am really proud of how he has emerged as a father,” St. Peter said. “He’s got a beautiful, wonderful family.”

Mauer and wife Maddie have three young children. Certainly family played a role in his decision to retire after last season at age 35. He had his share of injuries and miseries during his career, including concussion struggles. Stepping away from baseball to devote much of his future to family made sense.

What will be Mauer’s legacy? He will be remembered as the Twins’ best catcher and easily included on the top 10 list of the franchise’s greatest players. Mona and others know his legacy will also be impacted by whether he is voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

This is a subject of debate among baseball media and passionate fans. Being voted into the Hall is no easy task, and Mauer’s career was somewhat brief, with his production declining fast toward the end. Playing his last four seasons exclusively at first base doesn’t help the cause, but the Mauer resume has many highlights including his career on-base percentage of .388.

MLB.com pointed out in a November, 2018 article that even if Mauer made a comeback and went hitless in 1,050 at bats, he would still have a higher career OBP than Hall of Fame catchers Johnny Bench, Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk.

Mona believes the Hall of Fame awaits Mauer, just not right away. “He will need some backing, but that happens,” Mona said. “People get out there and start to make a case for people (candidates), and you’ve seen people make the Hall of Fame because of that. I think there is a case to be made for Joe, but I don’t think it will happen the first three to five years (he is eligible).”

No need to fuss about Hall of Fame possibilities now, though. Saturday night will be a time of celebration and tears. A time of adulation as fans receive a No. 7 commemorative cap and witness the eighth player in franchise history to have his jersey number retired.

St. Peter remembered months ago when the Twins told Joe how they wanted to honor him on June 16. “He was blown away by it. He was obviously incredibly honored. I don’t think it was anything Joe ever took for granted that it would happen.“

No, Joe Mauer didn’t play to be idolized but the way he performed and the character with which he carried himself is deserving of the recognition coming his way on Saturday night. The hometown hero is no ordinary Joe.

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Falvey & Levine Nice Fit for Twins

Posted on June 2, 2019June 2, 2019 by David Shama

Falvey & Levine could be the names on the front door of a small law firm. Instead they are the baseball bosses of the Minnesota Twins, and the name of one is seldom mentioned without the other.

“They are a true partnership,” club president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners.

It was St. Peter and Twins owner Jim Pohlad who hired Derek Falvey as chief baseball officer and Thad Levine as general manager in the fall of 2016. Falvey came from the Cleveland Indians where he first began his baseball career in 2007 and rose to the level of assistant general manager (the club was in the 2016 World Series). Levine, by contrast, worked for multiple baseball organizations including the Texas Rangers where his title was assistant GM for 11 seasons prior to arriving in Minneapolis.

St. Peter said Falvey repeatedly emphasized during his interview process how important it was to hire the right general manager. While Falvey and Levine knew each other, they weren’t close before coming to the Twins, but there was potential chemistry between the two.

“I think from the very minute he and I got on the phone together, we realized we had a much stronger rapport than we would have ever expected,” Levine told Sports Headliners. “And I think we both walked in the door with pretty limited egos and with a real team-first mentality, and I think that’s allowed for us to co-exist in a very positive way.

“I also think we came from very different backgrounds. The way that the Cleveland Indians built a championship organization was different from the way the Texas Rangers built a championship organization.

“So I think at this stage of our careers we’re both very desirous of learning and contributing concurrently. I think being able to draw on each other’s respective backgrounds and experiences has allowed for us to learn a lot from one another, but also (provide) a forum for us to contribute.”

After last season’s 78-84 record, the Twins have turned a lot of heads this spring while playing some of the best baseball in either the American or National Leagues. Their .684 winning percentage today is the best in the majors and they hold a 10.5 game lead in the AL Central Division over the second place Indians. The Twins, 39-18, have been so consistent they have yet to lose more than two consecutive games.

Falvey and Levine have added impact players to the roster like DH Nelson Cruz, first baseman C. J. Cron, and second baseman Jonathan Schoop, and pitchers such as Jake Odorizzi and Martin Perez. The two executives have also changed managers and coaches who have positively impacted player development. Manager Rocco Baldelli, hitting coach James Rowson and pitching coach Wes Johnson (promoted from college coaching) look like A+ hires so far.

St. Peter, Falvey and Levine will be the first to say there are many contributors in the organization that have stirred such promise to this young season for the Twins. But Falvey and Levine are the organization’s baseball bosses so the leadership and decision making begins with them.

St. Peter said much of what Falvey and Levine do each day is working together on a sizeable list of the same responsibilities. Asked to be more specific, St. Peter offered that Falvey may spend more time on research and development, and analytics than his GM, with Levine looking more at scouting and player development than his colleague. “They work incredibly well together,” St. Peter said.

In any workplace it’s important that people not only have skills but also learn to work effectively with one another. St. Peter said Falvey and Levine have been just a “wonderful one-two punch” who collaborate, complement and challenge each other.

“I just love working with them,” St. Peter said. “They’re both just really fun individuals. Smart (and) they challenge me.

“They’ve been everything we could have hoped for from a character perspective in terms of the respect that they bring, the way they treat people, (and) just the way they interact with the organization. There’s a lot of Twins culture that’s rubbed off on them, and they’ve obviously impacted the Twins culture in other ways that’s made us a better organization.”

Observers who watch Falvey and Levine from a distance are impressed by what seems to be a genuine liking for one another. “It’s very authentic,” Levine said. “What you see in the public is what you see in private.”

Of course, two individuals as talented and driven as the two Twins baseball bosses don’t always agree on everything but their liking and respect for each other and the organization apparently sets a tone that keeps them on track.

“When I wake up in the morning, I am excited to get in my car to come to work,” Levine said. “…I feel blessed to be able to say that because I get to work with people I respect—who have my best interest at heart and who are trying to push me, and who are very close friends.

“And…I have a very great family life. So I feel very blessed to be in the position I am today.”

Falvey is only 36 years old. Levine, at 47, has a lot of his baseball career ahead, too. St. Peter knows it’s his job to keep them with the Minnesota organization as long as possible. That could definitely be a challenge with the success the franchise is having and the recognition that will be coming for Falvey and Levine. Other MLB owners could come knocking and soon, and perhaps targeting Levine since on the organizational chart he ranks No. 2 in the front office. But for now the two have a partnership in Minnesota, almost seemingly joined at the hip as “twins.”

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