James Blake, Michael Chang, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick are scheduled to play in the PowerShare Series Tennis Champions Shootout at Target Center on April 29. Minneapolis is part of a 12-city tour involving former ATP Tour stars. In each city there are three one-set matches (semifinals and finals) to determine a winner and accumulate points.
The tour has made only a couple of stops so far and Roddick is currently second in points with 400, trailing Mark Philippoussis who has 600. Blake is fifth in the rankings with 200 points.
At 56, McEnroe is the oldest of the foursome appearing here. Chang, who lived for awhile as a child in St. Paul, is 43 and the next oldest. “In my 20s if you told me I would be doing this, I would have said you’re crazy,” McEnroe said.
McEnroe won the PowerShare Series championship last year with 1,600 points and four event titles. His enthusiasm to compete and excel was evident during a telephone conference call with reporters last week. He credited playing tennis and having a consistent workout routine with helping him to remain active and competitive.
What about nutrition? “I am certainly aware of what I am eating but I don’t worry about that now,” McEnroe said. “Life is short. At this stage…there’s times I would indulge a little bit.”
The PowerShare series is using an electronic system for line calls. Players are allowed challenges and this is an innovation that McEnroe—who probably barked at more linesmen than anyone in tennis history—certainly welcomes. “I haven’t missed a call in 35 years,” he joked.
At Target Center there will only be Johnny Mac’s opponent, the umpire and the Hawk-Eye technology—no linesmen. There will be no disputing a human’s judgment, or McEnroe invoking his infamous “You cannot be serious” sarcasm to some cowering soul.
With Hawk-Eye in place years ago, McEnroe could have eliminated a lot of tirades. “I believe I would have been a better player and that my results would have been better because I would have spent far less time wasting energy on that and more time focusing on the actual match, and just doing what I needed to do, and that would have allowed me, I believe, to be 15 percent better than I was,” he said.
McEnroe has a tennis history in Minneapolis. His last year playing for the U.S. Davis Cup team was 1992 and Target Center hosted the semifinals against Sweden. The U.S. advanced to the finals and McEnroe’s appearance in Minneapolis was his second to last Davis Cup competition. “That was pretty emotional,” he said about playing here.
In the 1980s he played an exhibition match at Met Center against Bjorn Borg who felt the love from the state’s Scandinavian population. But McEnroe said the crowd was appreciative of him too and that energy helped him perform. He will welcome more of the same on April 29.
McEnroe has spent a lifetime playing, watching and commenting on tennis. Who does he regard as the game’s greatest players ever?
Roger Federer, Rod Laver, Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras are his top four but he has a lot of admiration for Novak Djokovic who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world. “He’s like a human backboard,” McEnroe said. “He’s like a machine almost now, he’s so well prepared.”
Minnesota started spring practice yesterday and will have 15 total sessions including the April 11 spring game at TCF Bank Stadium. The game and most practices (all at Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex) are open to the public. The first of the practices fans can attend is this Saturday starting at 9:50 a.m.
The coaching staff will evaluate candidates to replace David Cobb, last season’s senior running back who rushed for 2,893 career yards, seventh best in program history. Gophers authority Darrell Thompson believes Cobb, who was a 100 yard rusher in all 13 games as a senior, may not be replaced by one individual next fall, but instead the coaches will use a “committee approach.”
There are several candidates for playing time including senior RodrickWilliams, redshirt sophomore Berkley Edwards, and redshirt freshmen Jeff Jones and Rodney Smith. Then the crowd of hopefuls grows larger in a few months with the arrival of freshmen running backs Shannon Brooks, Jonathan Femi-Cole and JamesJohannesson.
The candidate group offers power, speed, quickness and athleticism. Some players like Williams (bull rushing power) and Edwards (sprinter speed) possess more defined attributes while others appear to have more of a skills mix. Thompson, the Gophers’ all-time leading career rusher and now an analyst on the team’s radio broadcasts, can foresee using multiple runners with different styles each game. “Quite honestly, that’s what you want,” he said.
Thompson anticipates seeing even two of the running backs in the game together, along with junior quarterback Mitch Leidner who is a physical rusher. Such a setup could, for example, have Leidner running a quarterback keeper, or Edwards on a jet sweep or Williams busting up the middle. “I would like the defense to be thinking about all three of those things, versus they’re just going to hand the ball off to someone on the inside,” Thompson said.
He predicted Cobb could be selected between the second and fifth rounds in this spring’s NFL Draft. As a senior Cobb set school single season records with 314 rushing attempts and 1,626 yards.
Cobb combines speed and power but perhaps his best attribute is his ability to anticipate and see openings to run. “I think he’s certainly an NFL back,” Thompson said. “He’s got the poise, he’s got the strength, he’s got the size (and) he’s got the speed. He (also) has the patience.”
Cobb and tight end Maxx Williams, a redshirt sophomore last fall who has opted for the 2015 NFL Draft, were the big play producers on offense in 2014. There will be a number of candidates to replace Williams including former Blaine High School player Duke Anyanwu who has yet to catch a pass for Minnesota in a game.
Anyanwu, a redshirt sophomore, missed last season because of a knee injury. Gophers coach Jerry Kill said on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle program Sunday that before Anyanwu was injured the plan was to have him on the field at times with Williams.
“You’re going to see Duke has his confidence back,” Williams said. “Duke is moving around great. I ran routes with him a few times. Duke looks great, probably the best he’s been here. He worked hard to get back.”
Nice guy Barry Mayer has former teammates with the Gophers rooting for the success of his son Adam Mayer. Adam will be a preferred walk-on for the Gophers this year after a prep career at De La Salle High School in Concord, California. The younger Mayer caught 27 passes for 486 yards and two touchdowns as a senior. Barry was a star running back for the Gophers from 1968-1970.
The Goal Line Club is having a membership drive and encourages Gophers football fans to learn more about club benefits at Goallineclub.com. Membership for one year costs $100 and runs from May 1, 2015-April 30, 2016.
Basketball Notes
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said in the months ahead FlipSaunders, the coach and president of basketball operations, will work to improve the roster’s defensive personnel. “…I think we can see some offensive skills but if he’s going to get deep into the playoffs he’s just got to have guys that can play defense.”
Targeted for defensive improvement will be the power forward position. Last month the Wolves added 20-year NBA vet KevinGarnett and rookie Adreian Payne to the roster in hopes of strengthening that spot. Garnett, 38, is one of the NBA’s all-time defensive greats but his body is wearing out, while Payne, 24, only played three games with the Hawks, his former team, and is learning the pro game.
Taylor said Saunders considered using a lottery pick to acquire Payne in last June’s NBA Draft. Instead, Saunders just couldn’t pass up drafting ultra athletic guard Zach LaVine at No. 13, while the Hawks chose Payne two picks later. Taylor said Payne’s potential is apparent including his ability to defend and rebound. At 6-10, 245, with long arms, Payne’s body resembles Garnett’s, 6-11, 253.
“He’s just beginning to play and the season is half over, and all the other guys have played…but he’s got the potential,” Taylor said. “You can just see that.”
Taylor said the Timberwolves aren’t for sale, although in the future he might allow limited partners to buy into the franchise he has controlled since 2005. “…We’re working on that (new) practice facility. We’re working on the (renovation of) Target Center. I want to get those projects done and see how it works. I am excited about our team’s future.”
Awhile ago he talked with Dr. Bill McGuire about Timberwolves ownership. Now the two men have had conversations about McGuire bringing an MLS franchise to Minneapolis. Taylor, however, hasn’t committed money yet to the franchise McGuire is hoping to acquire if the league expands into Minneapolis.
Taylor’s WNBA franchise, the Lynx, starts its regular season June 5. He said “the area of concern” is adding more height to the roster. Mercury star center Brittney Griner is 6-8 and she helped Phoenix to the WNBA title while averaging 15.5 points and six blocks per game in the finals. Her presence has WNBA teams on the lookout for tall players. Taylor said the Wolves need help for 6-2 starting center JanelMcCarville.
One possibility could be Amber Harris, 6-5, who was a reserve with the Lynx in 2013. She didn’t play for the Lynx last season but Taylor indicated her return is a possibility.
A year ago no one foresaw the major developments ahead for the Gophers women’s basketball program. Coach Pam Borton was fired in late March and replaced by Marlene Stollings, the former VCU women’s coach. Then in December guard Rachel Banham, the preseason choice for Big Ten Player of the Year, tore an ACL and was lost for the season. But Minnesota still had a successful season led by Stollings, sophomore center AmandaZahui B., senior forward Shae Kelley and freshman guard Carlie Wagner.
It was Zahui B. who won the media’s Big Ten Women’s Basketball Player of the Year award this week. She finished the regular season with averages of 18.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and 4 blocks per game, with a .553 (214-387) field goal percentage.
Her numbers are impressive, too, against teams ranked in the top 25—averaging 25.8 points, 16.8 rebounds, 4.3 blocks and 2 steals per game with a .548 field goal percentage.
Kelley wasn’t even on the roster a year ago. A transfer from Old Dominion, she was named first team All-Big Ten by the media after almost averaging a double-double with 17.1 points and 9.3 rebounds. Minnesota was 10-3 overall and 7-2 in Big Ten games when Kelley led the team in scoring.
Wagner, from New Richland, Minnesota, made the coaches’ Big Ten All-Freshman Team after averaging 11.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. She scored 10 or more points 21 times, including 11 straight games from January 18-February 21. She ranks second on the team in three-point field goals with 55.
The Gophers, 11-7 in conference games this year, play their Big Ten Tournament opening game tomorrow night in suburban Chicago against the winner of tonight’s Wisconsin-Purdue game. Minnesota is the No. 6 tournament seed.
It will be 75 years ago next month that Ted Williams arrived in spring training with the Boston Red Sox in Sarasota, Florida. Williams, only 20, came to the big league camp unsure if he belonged, despite a reputation as baseball’s next phenom.
The year was 1939 and the season before Williams had won the American Association’s Triple Crown, hitting .366 with 43 home runs and a 142 runs batted in. But the self-doubting slugger said: “I want to stay right here in Minneapolis with the Millers for another year at least. I’m not ready for the major leagues.”
Ben Bradlee, Jr.quoted Williams with those words in his 2013 biography The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams. The 855-page book is a must-read for not only Williams’ fans but all baseball lovers and even those who relish a biography that is so well researched the CIA might have collaborated.
Williams grew up in San Diego, played 19 seasons with the Red Sox and spent many decades in Florida after baseball but Minnesota was part of his life more than most places. He not only had that one glorious season 76 years ago with the Millers but his first wife, Doris Soule, was from Princeton, Minnesota and he once managed for Bob Short, a Minneapolis businessman who owned the Washington Senators in the 1970s. And during the early years of his baseball career Williams wintered in Minnesota, drawn by his passion to hunt and fish.
This writer’s dad idolized Williams, praising The Kid as baseball’s greatest hitter and a war hero who served in World War II and Korea. “Think about how many home runs he would have hit if he didn’t miss five years serving his country,” Dad said.
Williams, a Marine fighter pilot, finished with 521 home runs but he might have hit more than 700, breaking Babe Ruth’s 714 major league record. Despite missing the war years of 1943, 1944, 1945, and most of the 1952 and 1953 seasons, Williams played through 1960, retiring at age 42 with a lifetime average of .344.
Williams retired with a .482 on-base percentage, baseball’s best ever, and that meant he reached base nearly every other at-bat. His slugging percentage of .634 was second only to Ruth’s .690. His accomplishments included winning two Triple Crowns, six batting titles and 18 All-Star appearances.
Williams wanted to be remembered as the greatest hitter who ever lived. Now more than 11 years after his death, any discussion of who deserves that title has no credibility if Williams isn’t in the final mix.
The Kid was a genius who studied hitting all his life—like Einstein pursued physics or Edison produced inventions. Putting the ball in play with his bat, where no fielder could initially reach it, was what he lived for.
Teddy Ballgame was the show, occasionally at the expense of fielding, base running and the welfare of teammates. An immature Williams sometimes lost focus playing for the Millers. Bradlee wrote that Williams would go to the outfield with his glove in his back pocket, not on his hand.
There was a game when the Millers outfielder was even more out of sorts, probably daydreaming of his next at-bat. Where was his glove? “It was lying on the ground next to him, a useless appendage,” Bradlee wrote.
Bradlee tells of a Williams many of his admirers never knew. The Kid had demons including shame about his maternal Mexican heritage. In early 20th century America, ethnic prejudices ran deep.
Throughout Williams’ life he would almost be known as much for his emotions as his Hall of Fame hitting. He swore at sportswriters, cursed fans and bullied most anyone including his wives and children.
There was however both a bad Ted/good Ted. The Kid was devoted to visiting and helping sick children. He also raised millions of dollars for charity.
Williams tried to keep such deeds quiet but through the years his acts of kindness and fundraising became better known. It all became part of the Williams’ image which certainly didn’t hurt his relationship with Sears, Roebuck, the company that employed him as a high paid sporting goods consultant and spokesman.
Williams was a world class fisherman. Bradlee wrote that Williams’ expertise was so great he provided technical advice for Sears fishing equipment. He loved to pursue bonefish in the Florida Keys during the winter and catch Atlantic salmon in Canada in the summer. He became a spokesman for conservation of Atlantic salmon, frequently giving an earful of advice to Canadian authorities, according to Bradlee.
The great hitter, war hero, outdoor expert and conservationist was a real-life JohnWayne. Tall, handsome and outspoken he fit the stereotype definition of a man’s man.
Williams would discuss hitting with most anyone, even sharing information with rival hitters, Bradlee wrote. Williams pulled for others to hit .400, the holy ground that he reached in 1941 with his .406 average. He then approached that sacred level again in 1957 when at 39 he hit .388 even though he couldn’t run with much speed and was a poor bet to earn an infield hit.
When the Minnesota Twins’ Rod Carew flirted with a .400 average in 1977—and even made the cover of Time magazine—Williams was the subject of a feature story in Sports Illustrated, lending support to Carew and explaining why he hoped Carew would hit .400.
Seventy-three years after Williams’ remarkable achievement in 1941, no one still has made it to .400. The magic of that figure and all the other Williams accomplishments were why a nation was captivated when they saw Teddy Ballgame in 1999 riding across the sacred Fenway Park grounds on a golf cart, waving to a vast television audience at the All-Star game in Boston.
Not before or since can I remember my eyes becoming watery watching a tribute to an athlete. But that’s why The Kid was a god.
This year it will be 15 summers since that Fenway Park All-Star game. It will be 14 years since Williams passed away at age 83. The 2014 All-Star game will be in Minneapolis and MLB and the Twins should recognize Williams and the city where he took his last step to the major leagues and eventual immortality.