David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wadkins Picks Lehman to Win 3M

Posted on August 3, 2012August 3, 2012 by David Shama

Lanny Wadkins, here to be the analyst on Golf Channel coverage Friday-Sunday for the 3M Championship, told Sports Headliners he is predicting a competitive tournament that could be decided on the last hole.

Pressed for a prediction on the champion, Wadkins said: “If I had to pick someone this week I would pick Tom Lehman. He’s local. I think he would love to win here in his hometown. I think the course suits him and he’s playing exceptionally well.”

Wadkins said Lehman is an exceptional ball-striker but his putting has often been troublesome. This year Wadkins said the Alexandria, Minnesota native is “putting with more authority.” Lehman has never won the 3M.

Wadkins is curious to see how Bernhard Langer plays at the 3M Championship on the TPC Twin Cities course. Langer has been unable to hold strong starts in the last two major senior tournaments including the Senior British Open last weekend “and spit the bit the last day,” Wadkins said.

“I want to see how he rebounds. He usually comes back strong. I would like to see him get in contention again and see how he handles it.”

Whoever wins the tournament might be fighting through the competition right to the end. “I think you will see an established player win and play well here this week,” Wadkins said. “The course is in immaculate condition. If the weather holds I think it’s going to be a great week out there. I think we’ll have another really, really close tournament. It’s going to come down to the last hole again, and the 18^th is about as exciting a finish as you will get.”

Wadkins, an eight-time player on the American Ryder Cup team and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has back problems and isn’t playing tournament golf regularly. He’s 62.

Worth Noting

Gophers coach Jerry Kill said yesterday he will try to “redshirt as many” players as he can this season. He didn’t say when he will make a decision on who to redshirt including his quarterback group that in addition to senior starter MarQueis Gray includes sophomore Max Shortell, and freshmen Mitch Leidner and Phillip Nelson.

Kill said Nelson has a strained hamstring and his staff is monitoring that injury. The Gophers open practice on Saturday morning and the public is welcome to attend.

Charlie Strong’s Louisville team is predicted to win the Big East Conference title, according to a media poll announced this week. Strong was a candidate for the Gophers coaching job in 2007 before Tim Brewster was hired. Strong was then an assistant coach at Florida and is about to begin his third season as head coach of Louisville.

Timberwolves full season tickets have increased from 6,600 in July of last year to 8,100 at the end of last month.

A representative at the Wolves and Lynx Pro Shop at Target Center said Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko jerseys are expected by State Fair time later this month. A Minneapolis Lakers cap selling for $28 is a new store item.

Timberwolves vice president Jeff Munneke is the longest tenured employee with the organization. He joined the expansion Wolves on June 20, 1988 as a ticket sales representative.

Wild broadcaster Tom Reid, who broke into the NHL as a player in 1967, said there are more personnel changes throughout the league than at any time he can remember. See nhl.com for a free agents tracking report.

The Sports Legends Foundation and Grand Casino Hinckley are sponsoring the Sports Legends Extravaganza Charity fundraising event in Hinckley September 14 -16. The event benefits the Page Education Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Family Pathways and the Sports Legends Foundation. Celebrities expected include former Vikings Jim Marshall, Gary Larsen, Carl Eller and Alan Page. Smokey Robinson will perform on September 14 in the Grand Casino Amphitheater. There will be a celebrity golf tournament on September 15 at the Grand National Golf Club. www.sports-legends.org.

Murray’s Restaurant is closed for renovations this month and will re-open in early September. Owner Tim Murray said private dining rooms and a larger bar area are in the plans. The famous steakhouse has been a prominent part of the Minneapolis dining scene since 1946.

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New Twins Radio Deal Not Set

Posted on August 3, 2012August 3, 2012 by David Shama

The Twins radio deal with Hubbard Broadcasting expires after this season. Team president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners the arrangement to have games heard in the metro area on 1500 ESPN has been a “wonderful collaboration” but a new agreement hasn’t been finalized.

“We’ve had multiple discussions,” he said. “There’s nothing to report at this time. I expect definitive word before the end of the season.”

The Twins made history after the 2006 season when they ended a radio partnership with WCCO that dated back to 1961, the franchise’s first season in Minnesota. A marketing source told Sports Headliners he believes WCCO is interested in carrying the games again. He said other stations likely interested are KFAN and KTWN (branded K-Twin), a station owned by the Pohlad family which has also owned the Twins franchise since 1984.

WCCO lost not only the Twins in recent years but also Gophers football and basketball. The station does broadcast Timberwolves games. KFAN specializes in sports programming but already is the local radio home of Vikings, Wild and Gophers football broadcasts. 1500 ESPN, in addition to the Twins, carries Gophers basketball and hockey. KTWN isn’t currently a radio home of Minnesota’s major league teams or the Gophers.

St.Peter declined to speculate about WCCO, KFAN or KTWN. The team’s radio deal with Hubbard is to broadcast games in the metro area, and the club has a separate arrangement with Minnesota News Network to distribute their radio broadcasts on a network of Upper Midwest affiliates. About 135,000 fans might typically be listening to a Twins game on 1500 this season.

The club’s agreement with Hubbard is believed to provide more than $1 million in annual rights fees and allows the Twins to sell the advertising on broadcasts and retain revenues. 1500 has used the Twins broadcasts to build brand awareness and its listening audience as the station has transitioned in recent years from a news-talk format to a sports station that includes affiliation with ESPN Radio.

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Low Expectations for U Opening Foe

Posted on August 1, 2012August 1, 2012 by David Shama

The UNLV team the Gophers open the season against on August 30 is predicted to finish ninth in the 10-team Mountain West Conference, according to a poll of media who cover the league’s football teams.

The Gophers’ second opponent, New Hampshire, will be a fourth place team in the 11-team Colonial Athletic Association, according to a poll of media and coaches. Reporters covering the Mid-American Conference predict Western Michigan will finish third in the six-team West Division. The Broncos are the third team on the Gophers nonconference schedule that concludes against Syracuse, a team that is forecast by the media to place seventh in the eight-team Big East. (All polls referenced here were announced last week or this week.)

UNLV has been 2-10 and 2-11 in two seasons under third-year coach Bobby Hauck. The Rebels have finished 2-6 and 1-6 in conference standings. Mountain West media, who picked Boise State to win the league title, didn’t include any UNLV players on the 25-player preseason all-conference team.

Asked about the predicted low finish for the Rebels, Gophers coach Jerry Kill said: “I can’t control the people that we play. I can control what we do and I am more concerned about the Gophers and us getting started and getting ready to play UNLV.”

Kill has known and respected Hauck for years. Hauck was a national championship coach at Montana before taking the UNLV job.

The Gophers are in no position to disregard UNLV when the teams play in Las Vegas, or the next three nonconference teams — all of whom come to TCF Bank Stadium. Big Ten media predict a last place finish for the Gophers in the Legends Division after Minnesota was 3-9 overall in 2010 and 2011.

Kill is establishing his program in year No. 2 including academics. The team’s cumulative GPA’s for the fall and spring semesters during the 2012-13 school year have been over 3.0. The GPA’s compare favorably with Northwestern football players, a school long known as among the best in the country academically.

Kill said the plus-3.0 results aren’t something that will happen every semester. “You take 115 students; it’s hard to do that good. …I’ve been coaching for 29 (years) and most of the time you get excited if you’re about a 2.55 or 2.6 overall in football because you deal with so many numbers. Those GPA’s (fall and spring) are exceptionally high.”

Gophers and other notes:

Condolences to family members on the passing Monday night of Murray’s Restaurant owner Pat Murray who was 72. Pat was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2011. He was a popular figure not only at the restaurant but as a civic leader in Minneapolis. “People knew what he was like. He was very dedicated professionally and personally,” his son Tim Murray said. “He loved everything about the restaurant business yet somehow juggled his time to do all he could for his kids.”

Visitation is scheduled tomorrow from 4 to 8 p.m. at Washburn-McReavy Edina Chapel. Memorial services Friday will be at St. Olaf Catholic Church downtown beginning at 10 a.m. and visitation will be one hour prior. Memorials of the donor’s choice are welcome.

Kill meets with the media tomorrow, and has several practices open to the public from August 4-8, all beginning at 10:25 a.m. at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex. The Gophers open practice on August 4.

The Big Ten Conference has a rule that athletes transferring from one member school to another can’t receive a scholarship from the new program. However, the NCAA will allow Penn State football players to transfer to Big Ten schools and receive scholarships.

Congratulations to Dick Larson, Rick Meyer, Mike Wilkinson and others who helped make possible the Murray Warmath conference room at the new fitness center at Friendship Village in Bloomington. A celebration at Friendship Village was held last week attended by former Gophers, including those from Warmath’s first team in 1954 to his last in 1971. The conference room is decorated with Warmath memorabilia including his national championship and Big Ten title teams.

The Vikings are not only an overwhelming favorite to finish last in the NFC North, but they have lost 11 consecutive division games.

Look for Charlie Johnson, moved since last season from left tackle to his more comfortable position of left guard, to possibly lead a resurgent and rebuilt offensive line that also includes rookie left tackle and No. 1 draft choice Matt Kalil.

New Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams worked several years for Tony Dungy. Williams said yesterday a lot of his philosophies and schemes “comes from coach Dungy.”

The Wild have sold over 3,000 new season tickets since July 4 when the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter were announced.

With a likely NHL labor dispute ahead, the 2012-13 season for the Minnesota Wild and other clubs probably won’t start as scheduled. The Wild are scheduled to open the season at home October 13 against the Avalanche. By early November the NHL schedule may resume.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, last night Francisco Liriano was the first White Sox starter to make his debut the same season against the same club he was acquired from since Marino Pieretti on June 19, 1948.

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