David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Griffen Looks Forward to Hits on A.P.

Posted on April 25, 2017April 25, 2017 by David Shama

A notes column starting with reporting from Winter Park, the Vikings training facility.

Defensive end Everson Griffen spoke light-heartedly about playing against former teammate Adrian Peterson when the Vikings and Saints meet September 11 at U.S. Bank Stadium in the opening regular season game for both teams. “I can’t wait to hit him, it’s going to be fun,” Griffen said this morning.

Griffen had reporters laughing when he made that remark, and also when recalling how during practices he and other defensive players were never allowed to hit Peterson, the future Hall of Fame running back.

Last week it was announced the Vikings-Saints matchup will be one of two NFL ESPN televised Monday night games on September 11. Then today reports confirmed that Peterson, who played for the Vikings from 2007-2016, was signing on with the Saints. Griffen wondered if the NFL office has known for awhile that Peterson was New Orleans-bound and that A.P. playing against his old team would create high drama in the Minneapolis Monday night game.

There’s no doubt it will be an electric atmosphere in the stadium that night with the game generating high TV ratings. Look for the Purple faithful to give Peterson a standing ovation. StubHub.com listed 6,764 tickets available for the game as of early afternoon today.

Apparently Peterson’s days as a part-time Minnesota resident are also over. Mike Max reported on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” show on Sunday that movers were at Peterson’s suburban Minneapolis home last Saturday.

Veteran Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, per earlier media reports this spring, is likely to retire after the 2018. But Robison told Sports Headliners today he might play longer if the Vikings offer him another contract. “I think the only chance for me would be if I got brought back here to Minnesota. I am not going to move my family across the country. It’s just something that I don’t really want to do.

“To me there’s more important things than just making money in this business. There’s always been the other things that are important to me. The respect of my peers. Being in the right place.

“Minnesota is definitely the place that I want to be. If that opportunity arises where I am able to come back here another year, or two, then yea, I might stick around…but otherwise…I am pretty much positive I am going to hang it up.”

Robison’s wife Jayme Miller has an ongoing career as an accomplished rodeo barrel racer. Robison said barrel racers may compete even into their 70’s.

Drew Wolitarsky, a senior last fall for the Gophers and now hoping to sign on with an NFL team, is reportedly excelling in workouts against pro defensive backs. A source said the Vikings may have interest in signing the California native as a free agent.

The same source also said Mitch Leidner, another senior for the Gophers last season, is impressive working out under the direction of ex-Vikings quarterback Rich Gannon. An NFL team may use a late round draft pick on the Minnesota quarterback and Lakeville native.

Condolences to Gophers linebacker Jonathan Celestin after the unexpected death last week of his father in Georgia. Donations are being accepted to assist with funeral and burial arrangements for Frederick Celestin. More information about donations is available by contacting Eric Raines at 229-435-4813.

The Minnesota Football Coaches Association’s clinic March 30-April 1 drew record attendance of 1,700, according to an email from MFCA executive director Ron Stolski. Speakers at the clinic in St. Louis Park included Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, Duke’s David Cutcliffe, North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman and Dartmouth’s Buddy Teevens.

The MFCA Recruit Combine takes place Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Rockford Community Center in Rockford. For a cost of $50 per participant, athletes from the high school classes of 2018, 2019 and 2020 can be tested in speed, strength and agility in front of Midwest college football coaches. More information is available at Preptree.com.

Jim Dutcher expects son Brian Dutcher, 57, to include the state of Minnesota in his recruiting territory now that the former Bloomington resident is head coach at San Diego State. Brian, who earned his undergraduate degree at Minnesota in 1982, succeeded Steve Fisher as head coach earlier this month after being an assistant at San Diego State for 18 seasons.

Twins authority Roy Smalley told Sports Headliners before the season his old team could win a dozen or so more games this season than last year’s win total of 59 but it won’t happen without improvement from veteran starters Kyle Gibson and Phil Hughes. How are the two pitchers doing for the 9-10 Twins who have lost seven of their last 10 games?

After four starts Gibson is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA. In his last start on Sunday he lasted 2.2 innings, giving up eight hits and six earned runs. Hughes is 3-1 with a 4.71 ERA and was the winning pitcher Monday night against the Rangers, giving up two runs in six innings.

Former Chaska High School baseball coach Dale Welter emailed that three former Chaska youth players are playing professionally as pitchers. Jake Esch and Brad Hand are with the San Diego Padres organization, while John Straka is on the Saint Paul Saints roster.

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Paul Molitor: Twins Playing ‘Okay’

Posted on April 21, 2017April 21, 2017 by David Shama

The Twins are 7-8 so far this season after losing to the Indians yesterday at Target Field. What does manager Paul Molitor think of the club that is coming off a 59-102 record in 2016?

“We’re playing okay,” he told Sports Headliners yesterday morning.

The Twins third-year manager believes the team record in 2017 can be “significantly” better than last season. He knows there are no guarantees the team can move to about a .500 record by early fall, but in the first three weeks of the schedule the pitching and defense have impressed. Molitor also sees a Central Division that has a kingpin in defending AL champ Cleveland but also has a membership of clubs Minnesota can compete with.

Despite a difficult day yesterday giving up 11 hits and six runs against the Indians, the Twins pitching staff’s ERA of 3.18 ranks as the sixth best among 30 major league teams. A surprise showing this spring by Twins pitchers includes lights-out performances by No. 1 starter Ervin Santana who is 3-0 with a 0.64 ERA. Closer Brandon Kintzler has three saves in six games with a 0.00 ERA.

Minnesota is tied with two other clubs for fewest errors in the big leagues, with four. Shortstop Jorge Polanco and third baseman Miguel Sano were hardly Gold Glove candidates coming into the season but their work in the field this spring has been professional. The outfield defense pretty much lets nothing drop except rain, with center fielder Byron Buxton perhaps having more range than anyone in baseball.

The Twins, though, have lost seven of their last nine games this season. Five of the team’s seven defeats have been by one or two runs. Of those five games, the club scored only a single run four times. Minnesota has a total of 60 runs this season, with just nine other big league teams scoring fewer.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

Maybe the Twins will pick up the offensive production when the weather warms and more bats find their rhythms. Maybe. Truth is the Twins have several inexperienced hitters in their everyday lineup including Buxton, right fielder Max Kepler, left fielder Eddie Rosario and Polanco. None of them can say they don’t have a lot to prove as hitters.

Sano had a news-making rookie season two years ago, then slipped in 2016 when he learned feasting on big league pitching was no given. This season will show if his work ethic and commitment are improved. Can he return to more consistency in 2017?

Outside the Twins organization, fans and media have all but given up on Joe Mauer leading the offense and the locker room. Coming off of seasons when he hit .277, .265 and .261 with a total of 25 home runs, he is off to a .218 start this spring with no home runs and six RBI. At age 34, Mauer shows no sign of producing the kind of numbers that years ago made him a batting champion and one of baseball’s best hitters.

With a glitzy career resume, $23 million salary, and a lifelong commitment to the Twins, you might think Mauer would be a clubhouse leader. But neither today, nor in the past, are there consistent reports about the quiet Minnesotan being a voice in the locker room. The Twins found that voice two years ago when outspoken veteran outfielder Torii Hunter helped lead the Twins to a surprise 83-79 record in Molitor’s first year of managing. Brian Dozier, the 29-year-old second baseman, hit 42 home runs last season and he has tried to be a club leader.

Molitor’s hopes of at least turning the Twins into a .500 or better team this year partially rest on new baseball boss Derek Falvey not trading Dozier away. Ditto Santana. The idea of both going away in return for prospects looks legit if the Twins are struggling in July.

Falvey, 34, was named the franchise’s chief baseball officer last fall. Known as one of the game’s more astute young minds, Falvey and new general manager Thad Levine place an emphasis on obtaining the best information possible on everything baseball related and place a high reliance on analytics. Under Falvey’s watch, the Twins are expanding their information gatherers and number crunchers.

Some early results are already in on the Falvey influence. His offseason signing of free agent catcher Jason Castro looks like a winner. Castro is one of baseball’s best at framing pitches—the term for positioning the catching glove so umpires are more likely to call strikes. The team’s pitching staff does seem improved and Castro is deserving of praise.

Veteran reliever Matt Belisle signed with the Twins as a free agent in February. He has helped the bullpen and his numbers show that with seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings and a 2.84 ERA. Both Belisle and Castro are potential locker room leaders all season.

Since the 2011 season the Twins have lost more than 90 games five times. Because of their dismal records the club has been given high draft choices but Minnesota doesn’t have a lot to show for its opportunities. There is a talent-gap on the roster that could have been assisted by better draft results.

Starting with the 2011 MLB June drafts, the Twins have selected the following players with first round picks: shortstop Levi Michael (2011), outfielder Byron Buxton (2012), pitcher Kohl Stewart (2013), infielder Nick Gordon (2014), pitcher Tyler Jay (2015) and outfielder Alex Kirilloff (2016). Buxton, who is hitting .082, is the only player currently on the major league roster. If you go back to the 2009 draft, the Twins used their No. 1 choice on Kyle Gibson, who is one of their starters but he is coming off a 6-11 record with a 5.07 ERA season last year.

This June the Twins will have the overall first selection in the MLB draft. How Falvey and his associates ultimately do with that opportunity will be another evaluation of their progress in rebuilding a franchise that won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, and division titles in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010.

For right now, though, the Twins need to just end a four game losing streak starting tonight at home against the Tigers. They want to avoid the kind of spring that last year stopped the season before it even started—losing 53 games in April, May and June. At a minimum this club needs to live up to the manager’s evaluation yesterday of playing “okay” while crossing collective fingers for a .500 year.

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U Looks for Top Opponent at Dome

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by David Shama

Notes on the Gophers, Twins, Vikings and Wild:

John Cunningham, the athletic department administrator who oversees University of Minnesota basketball, said the Gophers don’t know the opponent they will be able to schedule for their December of 2018 game at U.S. Bank Stadium, but he is aiming high. “We’re going to get the best opponent that we can get,” he told Sports Headliners.

Coach Richard Pitino’s team is participating in the trial run game for the April 2019 Final Four scheduled for the new stadium. Minnesota is the host school for the 2019 Final Four and in December of next year they will play the first college game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Local and out of town NCAA representatives will observe and critique the setup for the U.S. Bank Stadium game that will preview by only a few months the 2019 Final Four to determine the men’s national champion.

For awhile the plan was to stage the Gophers game in December of 2017 but Cunningham said it became apparent the timeline for scheduling was too tight. “We felt like we could get a better opponent by moving it back one year,” he said.

U.S. Bank Stadium will also be the site of the 2020 NCAA wrestling championship, the first time the event has ever been staged at a non-arena venue.

Cunningham reported via email today the Gophers have sold over 400 new season tickets for men’s basketball. “Well above where we were last year at this time,” he wrote.

There are various basketball top 25 rankings for next season and they are paying attention to the Gophers. Athlonsports.com put out a top 25 and among Big Ten schools, only Michigan State at No. 13 was ahead of No. 17 Minnesota in the website’s rankings last Wednesday.

Lou Nanne endorses the evaluations of other authorities regarding former Eden Prairie star Casey Mittelstadt who is the state’s 2017 Mr. Hockey and will play for the Gophers next season. Nanne believes the talented forward will be selected among the first 22 players in the June NHL Draft, perhaps going in the top 15. He projects Mittelstadt as some day being an “excellent pro” but sees him maturing in college for a couple of seasons.

Dick Jonckowski, who finished his 31st and final season last month as Gopher basketball public address announcer, will be roasted by the Minnesota Minute Men starting at noon Friday, May 5 at Jax Café. Scheduled roasters include Vikings executive Lester Bagley, former Gophers football star Jim Carter and WCHA men’s commissioner Bill Robertson. More information is available by calling Terry Sullivan, 952-451-2104, or at Minnesotaminutemen.com.

Gene Taylor’s name was mentioned over a year ago as a possible candidate for the Gophers athletic director vacancy. Taylor, the former North Dakota State AD who was deputy athletics director at Iowa, has been hired to run Kansas State’s athletic department at a starting salary of $450,000 per year, according to an online story Monday by the Topeka Capital-Journal. That’s $400,000 less than Gophers AD Mark Coyle earns.

Word is fundraising for the Gophers Athletes Village now under construction is over $100 million. The projected cost is $166 million.

Don’t bet the title to your lake home but it’s difficult to believe the Wild won’t win tonight’s Game 4 against the Blues in St. Louis. Coach Bruce Boudreau’s Minnesota team trails 0-3 in the best of seven series but could have won any of three close games. Odds now seem to favor the Wild.

Home ice is no guarantee of victory in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Wild is 0-2 at home in the Blues series and last season lost two of three games at Xcel Energy Center in a playoff series the Stars won 4-2.

Three of the 20 highest paid NHL players are in the Wild-Blues series, according to Spotrac.com. Ryan Suter and Zach Parise from the Wild each earn $7,538,642 and are tied for the 17th highest salaries this season. Vladimir Tarasenko of the Blues, who earns $7,500,000, is tied for 19th with two other players.

Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, who turns 34 on April 27 and is saying he may retire after the 2018 season, is married to Jayme Miller, an accomplished rodeo barrel racer. She attended college on a rodeo scholarship.

J.D. Spielman, son of Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, caught a touchdown pass in the Nebraska spring game last weekend and could be an impact player as a receiver for the Cornhuskers next fall after redshirting as a freshman in 2016.

The Vikings Miller Lite DraftFest will be at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, April 29. The tailgate-themed event is from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will provide fans the opportunity to meet Vikings players and alumni, while watching rounds four through six of the NFL Draft.

Vikings scheduled to appear throughout the day are linebacker Kentrell Brothers, wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Isaac Fruechte, defensive end Everson Griffen and tight end David Morgan. Ex-Vikings running back Chuck Foreman and safety Paul Krause also plan to attend. A complete schedule of player appearances can be found at Vikings.com closer to the event, which requires paid admissions for adults and teens.

After last night’s win by the Indians over the Twins, Minnesota has now lost three consecutive games for the first time this season. The Twins, 7-7, have lost six of their last eight and are mostly drawing crowds of under 20,000 at Target Field.

Twins third baseman Miguel Sano hit his fourth home run of the season last night. He hasn’t gone more than four games this year without homering.

Malagacy, whose sister Classy Shackles is a Minnesota bred racehorse, has qualified for the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby May 7. Advance wagering on the Derby at Canterbury Park starts May 4.

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