David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Several Twins Deserve All-Star Look

Posted on May 28, 2019May 28, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column leading off with the Minnesota Twins, a club that seems certain to have multiple representatives in July’s MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland.

Twins starters Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi and Martin Perez have all won seven games, a total exceeded by only two pitchers in the American League, per stats from Baseball-reference.com. Odorizzi leads the AL in ERA at 2.16 ERA. Berrios was the team’s lone All-Star a year ago and that won’t hurt his chances of being on the AL team in 2019. Perez won only two games last season pitching for the Texas Rangers and is a Comeback Player of the Year candidate.

Minnesota shortstop Jorge Polanco and outfielder Eddie Rosario have compiled All-Star credentials this spring, too. Polanco’s .332 batting average is second best in the American League. He is tied for third in Wins About Replacement. Rosario leads the league in RBI with 45 and his 16 home runs are tied for second.

The Twins haven’t had more than three players in the All-Star Game since 1991 when Rick Aguilera, Scott Erickson, Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett represented Minnesota.

The Twins announced this morning that pitcher Michael Pineda is on the 10-day Injured List with right knee tendinitis. Pineda has started 11 games, with a 4-3 record and 5.34 ERA. To replace Pineda on the roster, the Twins selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer from Triple-A Rochester. Smeltzer made four starts for the Red Wings, going 0-1 with a 1.82 ERA. He was acquired last season as part of a trade with the Dodgers.

The Twins have three more games remaining in May and have won 19 games this month. The club record for wins in May is 21. The most Minnesota has won in any month since 2017 is 20 in August of that year.

Minnesota’s 36-17 record remains the best in MLB after last night’s 5-4 loss to Milwaukee.

As the Minnesota Vikings go through Organized Team Activities this spring it appears No. 1 draft choice Garrett Bradbury will be the center, although he is learning the guard positions, too. The presence of Bradbury is prompting the move of last year’s starting center, Pat Elflein, to left guard.

What was Elflein’s reaction on draft night to the Vikings selecting the talented Bradbury who played at North Carolina State? Excited, he said, to add another “great lineman” to the roster.

Elflein is taking a team first approach about moving to guard, a position he played in college at Ohio State. “I think we have really athletic offensive linemen all across the board, so however we can utilize that best is what we want to do,” he said.

Elflein likes what he has seen so far of Bradbury. “He’s smart. He’s learning the offense very quickly.”

Rookie tight end and No. 2 draft choice Irv Smith Jr. is impressed with the Vikings’ offense. “It’s going to be a scary (good) offense,” he said.

Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen is a two-handicapper in golf. After his pro football career might he consider a run at pro golf? Probably not, he told Sports Headliners. “I wish I was good enough,” he said. “I love the game of golf and it would be really cool to be able to do something like that, but I am not even thinking about that right now.”

Football fans in Minnesota will like the 2019 Division II and III preseason national rankings by Street & Smith’s College Football magazine on newsstands now. Minnesota State is No. 3 and Minnesota-Duluth No. 11 in the D-II rankings. Three MIAC teams are in the D-III top 10 with No. 3 Saint John’s, No. 6 St. Thomas and No. 10 Bethel.

St. Thomas games will again be broadcast on WCCO Radio. Sources believe the school will continue to buy the air time for the broadcasts.

Deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mignette Najarian who passed away last week. The Najarians, including Mignette’s husband Dr. John Najarian of the University of Minnesota, have for decades been one of the great families in Minneapolis and Minnesota. They have inspired people through medicine, business and philanthropy.

The “Cinderella” Golden Gophers softball team, in the program’s first ever Women’s College World Series, are seeded No. 7 among eight teams and play No. 2 UCLA starting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in a game to be televised by ESPN. Names to watch on the Bruins include pitcher Rachel Garcia with a 1.01 ERA, third lowest in the country, and Kelli Goodwin hitting .446, ninth best.

No. 1 seeded Oklahoma should be the crowd favorite with the May 30-June 5 tournament being played in Oklahoma City, located about 20 miles from the OU campus in Norman. The talented Sooners lead the nation’s D-I teams in batting average at .355 and also ERA at 1:06. The Gophers rank No. 7 in ERA at 1.63 but aren’t in the top 10 for batting average.

Season tickets are sold out for Gopher softball 2020 home games and the athletic department has started a waitlist.

The Gophers baseball team finished the year with a 29-27 overall record, the 36th time in 38 years that head coach John Anderson has led Minnesota to a winning record. Anderson’s 64th birthday was earlier this month and he has one year remaining on his contract. He should be given a contract extension to continue leading the program indefinitely.

Earlier this month on CBS an estimated 10,000 TV households in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market watched golf’s Nick Faldo, along with Minneapolis philanthropist Wayne Kostroski, announce the first-ever Taste Fore The Tour. The Tour’s first stop will be July 1 at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, and is part of a national charity culinary series created to raise awareness and donations for hunger relief causes. The Minnesota culinary event will precede the PGA’s 3M Open that starts July 4 in Blaine.

Comments Welcome

National Football Magazine: U ‘Dangerous’

Posted on May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 by David Shama

When it comes to offseason college football predictions, some things never seem to change like forecasts Alabama and Clemson will play for the national championship, or Ohio State will again wear the Big Ten crown. But there is variable and contrary chatter during the winter and spring including about the Golden Gophers program.

In early January Sporting News placed Minnesota No. 25 in a (how could you be earlier?) rankings of America’s best college teams for 2019. This week a few web searches of more recent top 25 national rankings produced no such good news for Gophers fans.

Sporting News’ post-spring practice listing of April 29 had Nebraska No. 25, Northwestern 24th and Wisconsin 21st but didn’t include the Gophers in the rankings. Pro Football Focus and Athlon came out with top 25 rankings Tuesday, but again Goldy was absent.

My research did discover a “nugget” that will please Gopher optimists. Athlon’s college football magazine, now on newsstands, includes an article by algorithm specialist Bill Connelly. He includes Minnesota among six national “Teams on the Rise” after deciphering data such as efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives and turnovers. He references the Gophers’ lack of consistency last season (Minnesota played in only two of 13 games decided by a touchdown or less) but concludes his write-up with these words: “This team will be dangerous.”

Read most anybody who offers a detailed preview on the Gophers, including Connelly, and be prepared to hear about inconsistency, including at the quarterback position last season. The Gophers played two freshmen there last year, Zack Annexstad and Tanner Morgan. Athlon includes Minnesota in a two-page spread titled “QB Battles” and predicts Annexstad will win the job because he is “the better pure passer.”

Both Athlon and Street & Smith’s college football magazines forecast the Gophers will finish fifth in the Big Ten’s seven-team West Division—perhaps the most unpredictable division in the country. The two publications say Nebraska will win what is expected to be a close race to play for the Big Ten championship against Ohio State from the East Division.

Street & Smith’s predicts Purdue will finish second in the West, while Athlon has the Boilermakers sixth behind Minnesota. S&M sees Iowa finishing sixth, while Athlon projects the Hawkeyes placing second in the Big Ten. (More evidence of how crystal balling varies and changes during the offseason.)

The Gophers, after an awful early season Big Ten performance, closed fast in 2018 by impressively winning two of their final three league games. Then they soundly defeated (34-10) a capable Georgia Tech team in the Quick Lane Bowl to finish 7-6 overall, 3-6 in conference games.

Among the most inexperienced teams in the country last year, the Gophers are loaded with key returnees on both offense and defense. There is also more talent to work with than Minnesota coaches have been accustomed to having. The quality of the finish last season is countered, though, by the poor performance earlier in the season, and the contrasting results have forced college football authorities to be a bit inconsistent and cautious in their outlooks about the Gophers.

Both magazines have Minnesota senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson on their regionally produced covers. S&M tabs JD Spielman, the Eden Prairie alum, former lacrosse player, and speedy receiver and returner for Nebraska, as the Big Ten’s best athlete. Athlon includes the Gophers’ Carter Coughlin, another Eden Prairie alum, on the line of its third-team All-American defense.

Worth Noting

Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck likes to recruit players with ties to the program like Coughlin whose dad and grandfather played for Minnesota. Maybe he will take a look at Gracen Bell, a tight end at Lee’s Summit North in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. He is the grandson of legendary Gophers lineman Bobby Bell, a two-time All-American and perhaps the greatest player in University of Minnesota history.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and Texans defensive end J.J. Watt are drawing praise this month for commencement speeches at their alma maters, Michigan State and Wisconsin respectively.

If new Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas wants the inside word on Ricky Rubio, he can probably get it from Jazz boss Dennis Lindsey. Rosas and Lindsey worked together with the Rockets before being hired to work for the Wolves and Jazz respectively.

Rubio is a free agent who the Wolves traded to the Jazz in 2017 and it seems possible he could end up back in Minneapolis. His name is being conjectured with multiple NBA destinations, and the Wolves might like to replace the point guard he was traded for, Jeff Teague.

It doesn’t hurt the fan popularity of the successful Gophers softball team that 10 of the 14 players on the roster are Minnesota natives. Among the Minnesotans is pitcher Sydney Smith, who joined the Gophers after transferring from LSU, Minnesota’s opponent starting Friday at 4 p.m. in Minneapolis for a NCAA Super Regional matchup. Smith, who while pitching at Maple Grove High School was 54-1, figures to offer some insights to her coaches about the Tigers who will be in a town for the best of three series.

All-session chair backs for the Super Regional at Sage Cowles Stadium are priced at $40, with bench seating at $35 and $30. Standing room is also $30. ESPN2 televises Friday’s game.

Ex-Pioneer Press sportswriter Gregg Wong and former Washburn High School three-sports star Gerry Clark play in the Tzatskees band Saturday night June 1 at the Eagles Club in southeast Minneapolis.

Comments Welcome

U at 858 New Football Season Tickets

Posted on May 21, 2019 by David Shama

With more than three months until the University of Minnesota’s first 2019 home football game, it’s uncertain whether the sale of public season tickets will surpass last year’s total of 21,663.

Based on a request made by Sports Headliners, the University reported 20,297 season tickets had been sold as of May 13. Included in the total are 858 new sales. Two years ago the U sold 817 new season tickets through May 1.

The Golden Gophers’ impressive 2019 late season results on the field has prompted some increased interest in the program. Playing against four quality opponents, Minnesota went 3-1 while averaging 31.5 points per game and giving up 14.75 points. Among the wins was the program’s first since 2003 over Wisconsin. U marketers have used the reclaiming of Paul Bunyan’s Axe as a centerpiece in promoting the team during the offseason.

The U also reported that 89.73 percent of last year’s season tickets have been renewed. Tickets have been available for renewal since late November of last year.

Interest in Gophers football has declined since popular and successful head coach Jerry Kill resigned during the 2015 season. The Gophers sold 27,885 public season tickets in 2015, a year when Kill resigned after seven games because of health issues. He was succeeded by defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys who was fired after the team’s surprising bowl win in December of 2016. The public season ticket totals in 2016 and 2017 were 22,785 and 22,131 respectively.

Head coach P.J. Fleck arrived in Minneapolis in January of 2017 gushing with enthusiasm and bubbling with expectations including one day winning Big Ten championships. So far he has an overall record of 12-13 and is 5-13 in conference games, but optimism is higher now for a successful season than at any time since 2015. Minnesota is getting hyped this spring as a possible top 25 team nationally and a serious contender to win the Big Ten West.

A step forward with an elite 2019 season will juice future ticket sales and that’s a high priority for athletic director Mark Coyle. Football is the big cheese in producing revenue in the 23-sports athletic department, with men’s basketball and men’s hockey the only other sports that are profitable at the U. Even Fleck isn’t immune to department revenue concerns with the coach saying this spring his program had to reduce its budget by five percent.

There are seven home games this season starting with the August 29 opener against South Dakota State. Marquee games will be against Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin. A season ticket, of course, guarantees the same seat location for all seven games, with prices ranging from $249 to $1,500. All but two of the eight season ticket locations in TCF Bank Stadium require a per seat contribution, in addition to the ticket price. A monthly payment option is offered to buyers.

Despite a flexible selling approach by the U, there are many challenges in season ticket sales. Team performance over the years has often been disappointing and Fleck’s personality resonates with some followers but not others. Game parking and traffic near the stadium is a common consumer complaint. Those facts discourage some fans from investing a lot of money and time in the purchase of season tickets and attending games.

Then, too, potential customers, whether serious or casual followers of the program, know that in a 50,805 seat capacity TCF Bank Stadium there will be single game ticket availability. And another option is to watch all games at home on HDTV and avoid the expense and hassle of going to campus.

The Gophers also have a challenge with the weather for about half of their home season. At the Purdue game last November, temps were frigid and the actual turnstile count at TCF Bank Stadium was 14,950. Rain, snow, wind and cold are problematic for ticket sales at Minnesota’s outdoor stadium. For almost 30 years fans were weather-proofed inside the Metrodome. Now the Gophers don’t offer that comfort, while their football ticket selling rival, the Vikings, play indoors at a stadium within walking distance of the U’s West Bank.

Part of the anticipation in moving from the Metrodome to TCF Bank Stadium was that student support at games would be strong at the on-campus facility. But annual totals for student season ticket sales have been mixed and sometimes less than best totals at the dome. Instead of pushing on an allotment of 10,000, student season sales last year were 4,730.

There might not be anything like the on-campus atmosphere of college football to many adult and student fans but there are not enough right now in a marketplace overwhelmed with sports and entertainment options. Box office rivals to Gophers football include the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, Wild and Loons.

College football administrators are concerned about attendance nationally. Cbssports.com reported in a March article (citing preliminary numbers) that in 2018 attendance was the lowest in 22 years. The average college football attendance last season was 41,856 for the 129 FBS programs. Minnesota averaged 37,914 in announced attendance, reportedly the lowest figure since 1992.

Schools are looking at options to enhance revenues including sale of alcohol. With alcohol being sold at TCF Bank Stadium since 2012, the Gophers are already ahead of many programs with that fan amenity.

As for 2019, there is still a lot of ticket selling time remaining for Gophers promoters. Season ticket sales are ongoing, and June 24 mini-plans and group sales begin. Single game tickets–excluding Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin—are available for purchase starting July 15. Single game tickets for all games go on sale August 12.

Here is a bright note to end on: Minnesota has won 15 of its last 21 games at home.

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