David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Don’t Let Taxes Bug You, Turn to Baseball

Posted on April 4, 2012April 4, 2012 by David Shama

Another MLB season is starting and it’s a feel-good time of year. Yup, you might still be wrestling with Uncle Sam over taxes and if your kids are on spring break they’re driving you nuts but come on, start humming “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Or at least whistle a couple lines from John Fogerty’s classic, “Centerfield.”

Now that we’re in the mood, here’s what I am feeling and thinking about baseball:

Baltimore’s Camden Yards, where the Twins open on Friday, is 20 years old in 2012. The park started the chain reaction of building retro ballparks and remains one of baseball’s best venues. The problem is the Orioles have stunk for years and moving a major league team into nearby Washington,D.C. has delivered a double-shot of attendance woes at Camden.

The best of stadiums built in the 1960s was Dodger Stadium. The home of the Los Angeles Dodgers turns 50 this year and new franchise ownership gives Dodgers fans reason to celebrate.

Baseball’s newest park is Miami’s Marlins Park, a retractable roof facility that opened this year. Speculation is that in sultry Miami the roof will be closed for all but a handful of games.

Target Field celebrates year three and right now not even last season’s 99 loss Twins season can dim enthusiasm for the home opener next Monday against the Angels. The charm of opening day is that the results of the game are secondary to the experience.

There will be plenty of time to scrutinize how the Twins play in April without getting too worked up by the results in Baltimore and on opening day in Minneapolis. Before the month is over the Twins will compete against some of baseball’s best clubs — the Angels, Yankees, Rays, Red Sox and Rangers. I don’t expect Twins Nation will be thumping its collective chests on May 1.

My guess is that after last season’s 63-99 record, Twins fans might get excited about a season of .500 baseball. Maybe I have consumed too much morning coffee, but I think the record could be 81-81 if the team’s best players stay on the field.

The Twins are likely to score more runs than any of us thought. If Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham, Denard Span, Trevor Plouffe, Ryan Doumit and Danny Valencia hit like they can, the Twins won’t be at the bottom in runs scored like last year.

Pitching? Yeah, you had to bring that up. But if Francisco Liriano is ever going to put together a full season that approaches his potential, this will likely be it and he could be the top of the rotation guy the club is looking for. Lirinao is 28 and in the last year of his contract and is pitching for a future big buck deal. It’s now or never for Frankie.

In the bullpen Glen Perkins may turn out to be the closer. That means failure for the guy fans love to hate, No. 1 closer Matt Capps. This much is for sure: the bullpen — long relievers, short relievers and closers — won’t be this team’s strength.

The season ahead looks like it could require a Chicago Cubs fan mentality. Soak up the experience of being at Target Field, or watch your boys of summer on TV. I am not worried about the starting pitching or the first time Morneau slides hard into second base. I am more concerned about how long the line will be for a Kramarczuk bratwurst, or whether I can purchase good seats for a game on Father’s Day weekend against the Brewers.

If the team can’t be expected to contend for a pennant, we’ll find other ways to entertain ourselves. That could even include reading up on Twins history. The other night I was digging through an old file and came across some favorite quotes from the book Holy Cow! The Life and Times of Halsey Hall. Hall was part of the Twins’ first broadcast team and he was among the most colorful characters this town has ever enjoyed. Hall hated to fly and once remarked to an airline clerk: “Give me one chance to Chicago.”

Before broadcasting Twins games, Hall was a sportswriter for the Minneapolis Star. A colleague remembered Hall’s less than tidy housekeeping at the newspaper: “A building move by the Star sports department forced him (Hall) to clean out his desk one day. Not since King Tut’s tomb was opened was there so much dust. In one drawer he found a pair of socks as good as new and in another a two-year-old sandwich that wasn’t.”

Years ago Twins fans looked forward to rain delays so that there would be more time for Halsey Hall storytelling. These days we’re all more likely to use any pause in the game to surf the web, and hard core Twins fans will no doubt direct searches to the organization’s minor league operations.

Down at Triple A Rochester the Tsuyoshi Nishioka saga will continue. Of this I am sure: the Japanese infielder is a lock to have a batting average to match his weight (175).

Brian Dozier is also in Rochester and with a spring training average of .277, three home runs and nine RBI for the Twins it seemed possible he would make the jump from Double A shortstop to big leaguer. He still might do that in 2012 and is on the short list to replace 38-year-old Jamey Carroll who will start the season as the Twins regular shortstop.

I am not planning a road trip to Rochester but could find myself on the way to Beloit some time this summer to see the Twins Class A farm team. I expect to find a lot of other cars with Minnesota license plates in the parking lot outside the Beloit Snappers stadium. Twins fans visiting Beloit will be taking pictures and tweeting comments about 18-year-old, 240-pound power hitting third baseman Miguel Sano.

Sano could be the best prospect in the Twins organization, a home run hitting talent bringing much needed power and excitement to Target Field. But his debut is for another time and 2012 is what we have right now.

Enjoy it.

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Twins Forecast Dim from National Media

Posted on April 2, 2012April 2, 2012 by David Shama

The Twins open their regular season in Baltimore on Friday and their doubters include the national media. Sports Illustrated and Sportingnews.com predict the Twins will finish fourth among the five teams in the American League Central Division while Bleacherreport.com projects fifth place for Minnesota in the final standings.

In its March 26 baseball issue, S.I. questioned the Twins’ defense, pitching and lack of run production. The magazine believes Target Field (opened in 2010) isn’t working out because the team’s pitchers (minimal strikeouts) allow a lot of baseballs to be put in play and mediocre fielders, including outfielders, will be chasing those balls. Then, too, Twins batters can’t knock the ball over the fence at spacious Target Field.

S.I. quotes an anonymous rival scout about the Twins. He thinks Joe Mauer is no longer capable of winning batting championships and wonders if Justin Morneau is ever “going to be that scary middle-of-the-order hitter again.”

Pitching? The scout said the Twins don’t have a late inning reliever they can count on, and he wasn’t upbeat about the starters either. “None of their starters are great,” he said. “The rotation is full of 3s and 4s.”

The Twins lost 99 games last season and to improve that record a lot in 2012 the often injured “M&M Boys,” Mauer and Morneau, and starter Francisco Liriano will have to lead the way, Sportingnews.com said in its AL Central preview last week. “Not only must both (Mauer and Morneau) stay on the field, they must produce at their past MVP levels. Meanwhile, inconsistent but talented lefthander Francisco Liriano must emerge to fill the ace void.”

The Sporting News website said if Mauer and Morneau “spend more time in the trainer’s room than on the diamond, Minnesota won’t be relevant after May.”

Bleacherreport.com also expressed multiple and similar concerns about the Twins in its division preview last week. Included were Morneau’s health, starting pitching and the commitment to Matt Capps (4.25 ERA in 2011) as the team’s closer. “If all of these red flags turn out to be nothing, the Twins will finish much higher than last place in the Central,” the website said. “As of now, we haven’t seen anything from them, so there’s no reason to expect anything to be different.”

All three media sources predict Detroit will win the division. Sports Illustrated and Sportingnews.com project Kansas City and Cleveland to finish second and third, while Bleacherreport.com reverses the Royals and Indians. Chicago received a fifth place forecast from both S.I. and Sportingnews.com while Bleacherreport.com has the White Sox finishing fourth.

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Worth Noting

Posted on April 2, 2012April 2, 2012 by David Shama

Joe Mauer is ranked the 39^th best player in baseball by ESPN.com. Justin Morneau is the second highest ranked Twin at No. 196. ESPN.com has been counting down baseball’s top 500 players since March 20 with the top 25 to be announced today and tomorrow.

Wally McNeil (“Wally the Beer Man”) said he will again be a celebrity bartender at Sneaky Pete’s before and after Twins home games. He plans to work some St. Paul Saints games, too.

Ron Stolski said there were over 1,400 registrations for the Minnesota Football Coaches Clinic last week, a number that “quadrupled” the total four years ago. Stolski is executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, the organization administering the annual clinic.

The MFCA and the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund are partnering to promote “Tackle Cancer Month” in September. High school football programs are being asked to collect donations at their home games to benefit the fund.

Shaver, the KARE 11 sportscaster who is a cancer survivor, told the clinic audience less than 10 percent of the fund’s budget goes for operating costs, with the balance funding research and other programs such as cancer prevention. Through the years he’s helped raise over $4.5 million for the cancer cause, primarily through his annual celebrity golf event.

Among the clinic speakers was Gophers coach Jerry Kill who gave a rousing speech to the high school coaches in attendance. “We want to win for you,” Kill told them.

Kill said he and his staff try to understand all they can about their players. This includes how players learn and some have admitted it’s difficult to pay attention in meetings for more than about 20 minutes. The players have also said they want more team building and camaraderie activities during summer months.

Glenn Caruso was awarded the MFCA’s Tom Mahoney Man of the Year Award at the clinic. The St. Thomas coach has a 43-7 record during four years and his 2011 team was one victory from the Division III national championship game. Caruso told Sports Headliners he’s proud that 96 of his 125 players are from Minnesota schools and all eight assistants are natives of the state.

The Tommies will play a spring football game against a Canadian club team on May 20 in Winnipeg. That day will be Caruso’s 38^th birthday.

Among Division III programs nationally, St. Thomas athletics ranks No. 8 in the latest Leerfield Sports Director’s Cup standings. St.Olaf ranks No. 25. The final 2011-12 standings are expected to be released in early June.

Freshman point guard Andre Hollins scored 20 or more points in four of the Gophers last eight games. Hollins made 90.4 percent of his free throws this season and could have led the nation but didn’t have enough attempts to qualify.

Those close to new University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler are impressed with his attitude toward Gophers sports and his commitment to winning.

The 2012 Hobey Baker Award winner will be announced Friday from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa during the NCAA Frozen Four. The finalists for the award honoring college hockey’s best player are Spencer Abbott, senior forward from the University of Maine; Jack Connolly, senior forward from the University of Minnesota-Duluth; and Austin Smith, senior forward from Colgate University. The announcement will be aired live on the NHL Network and on the Hobey Baker website at 5 p.m. Minneapolis time.

The Minnesota Stars will play FC Edmonton today in an exhibition match at Parade Stadium. The event begins at 1 p.m. and admission is free. The Stars open their NASL regular season schedule at home on Saturday night (7:30 p.m.) against Carolina at the Metrodome.

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