David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Worth Noting

Posted on February 22, 2012February 22, 2012 by David Shama

Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners he wouldn’t grade his overall work including accomplishments as Gophers athletic director. “I will give myself ‘A’ for effort,” he said.

Maturi and University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler announced earlier this month that Maturi, the school’s A.D. since 2002, will leave his position in June when his contract expires. Although his tenure has been controversial, Maturi said he’s recently received over 500 emails and 99 percent have been “positive.”

“I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low,” Maturi said.

Maturi, 67, won’t be a member of the search committee announced yesterday to find his successor. “Gosh, absolutely not,” he said. “That wouldn’t be right. I wouldn’t accept it (an appointment).”

Media birthdays this week: KARE TV’s Dave Schwartz, 33; FSN’s Kevin Gorg, 45; Lynx assistant coach and Wolves broadcaster Jim Petersen, 50.

The Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman turns 92 on March 15.

Although it’s the offseason, Hartman has Gophers football coach Jerry Kill on WCCO Radio every Sunday from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Co-host Dave Mona said last Sunday that Kill’s weekly comments are transcribed and posted on Gopherhole.com.

C.O.R.E.S. members have a March 5 deadline for attending the March 8 program with Kill in Bloomington. Ron Stolski, Brainerd High football coach and executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, will introduce Kill. Members can contact Jim Dotseth for more information, dotsethj@comcast.net. C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.

The Gophers basketball team, 5-9 in the Big Ten, plays 11-3 MichiganState at Williams Arena tonight and Minnesota will try to end a three game losing streak. In five seasons Minnesota coach Tubby Smith is 0-9 against Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. Smith’s conference record as Gophers coach is 37-49.

As a high school player, MSU’s Draymond Green committed to Kentucky when Smith was coaching the Wildcats, but then changed his college choice. The senior forward, who might be the Big Ten’s best player, leads the conference in rebounding at 10.5 per game and is MSU’s leading scorer, 15.4 points per game.

Gophers senior center Ralph Sampson, described earlier this season as one of Minnesota’s star players by the Star Tribune, has scored four points in each of his last three games (all losses). Sampson is averaging 7.9 points per game, the lowest since his freshman season (6.4).

Although former Gophers forward Royce White is second in Big 12 Conference rebounding at 9.1 and is 14^th in scoring, 12.9, the Iowa State sophomore isn’t listed by nbadraft.net among its projected 60 NBA draft picks next June. Look for White to return to the Cyclones next season.

Former Star Tribune Gophers basketball beat writer Myron Medcalf still lives in the metro area and works seven days per week in his new college basketball writing assignment for ESPN.com.

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson was in the news last week because his league is merging with ConferenceUSA. Thompson, who used to work in the Gophers sports information department, is from Redwood Falls, Minnesota and could be a candidate for the athletic director job at Minnesota.

Alexandria, Minnesota native Tom Lehman tied for third in last weekend’s ACE Group Classic in Naples, Florida. Kentucky native Kenny Perry won the Champions Tour event and earned $240,000. Lehman, 52, was the tour leader last year earning over $2 million.

The Twins, on March 3, will be the first major league team to play the Red Sox in the team’s new Fort Myers ballpark that includes a replica of the famed Green Monster wall in left field. Lee County spent $77.8 million on the new ballpark and expects an annual economic impact of $24 million from Red Sox generated spring training monies, according to a February 18 article in the Naples Daily News.

Comments Welcome

Farm Team Beckons Twins Fans

Posted on February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by David Shama

Minnesota baseball fans are known for their road trips to watch the Twins in cities like Milwaukee and Kansas City but no doubt some are bound for Beloit, Wisconsin next summer.

The Beloit Snappers, the Twins Class A farm team, has much publicized prospects Miguel Sano (third base), Levi Michael (shortstop) and Eddie Rosario (second base) on the roster. Jim Rantz, Twins senior director for minor league operations, has heard the talk about Beloit road trips by fans. “I’ve had people stop me and say, ‘Sounds like we need to make a trip to Beloit this year,’ ” Rantz told Sports Headliners.

Mlb.com’s top 2012 prospects has Sano ranked No. 23 in a top 100 listing. That’s better than any other player in the Twins organization but Rantz was “surprised” the 18-year-old Dominican Republic native didn’t receive even a higher ranking.

Last fall Sporting News Magazine listed Sano and Washington’s Bryce Harper as its two top candidates for 2012 Minor League Player of the Year. Sano is known for his power and in just 267 at bats for Elizabethton hit 20 home runs last year. In an October interview with Sports Headliners Rantz said if Sano “does not get hurt and progresses like he has been, he is a can’t miss guy.”

Rosario impressed a lot last season, too, and he’s intriguing because the former center fielder is being moved to second base. The 20-year-old was a teammate of Sano and hit 21 home runs in 270 at-bats.

“He will play second base because of all the center fielders (in the organization) we have coming along,” Rantz said. “I know there’s a lot of buzz about both these guys (Sano and Rosario).”

Michael was the Twins first pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft. Michael, who turns 21 tomorrow, has Rantz and other Twins officials anxious to see him play at Beloit because injuries in 2011 limited their evaluation of the promising infielder.

The Mlb.com prospect listing had one other player from the Twins in the top 100, center fielder Aaron Hicks. The 2007 No. 1 draft choice was ranked No. 72. “He’s a heck of an athlete,” Rantz said. “He’s a scratch golfer and a lot of organizations took him as a pitcher.”

Mlb.com said the switch hitting Hicks batted only .258 hitting right-handers in the Arizona Fall League but hit .361 versus left-handers. Rantz said the 22-year-old will play for Class AA New Britain this season. “He’s got a chance to do it from both sides,” Rantz said.

Comments Welcome

Promotion Sparks Muskies Memories

Posted on February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by David Shama

Mention the Minnesota Muskies to Dick Jonckowski and the lively memories come back in a flash. The team played one season at Met Center as part of the start-up American Basketball Association in 1967-68. The Timberwolves are wearing Muskies jerseys for six games this season—including Friday night at Target Center against Dallas—for a promotion titled the “Hardwood Classic Series.”

The old Muskies were thought of as anything but classic before they moved to Florida because of fan apathy. They were replaced by the Minnesota Pipers, another ABA club that met with similar disinterest by the public and lasted only one season at the Met.

There is an old joke—true or not—associated with both teams that Jonckowski recalls and it goes like this: A potential ticket buyer telephones the Met Center and asks what time a Muskies or Pipers game starts? The phone operator replies: “What time can you be here?”

Jonckowski, known now to local basketball fans as the public address voice of the Gophers, was the Muskies’ assistant public relations director. He remembers “we couldn’t draw people no matter what we did.”

The team tried all kinds of promotions like free t-shirts, wristbands and basketballs without success. During an interview with Sports Headliners it didn’t take much effort to prompt Jonckowski to make jokes about the team’s lack of fans.

“We had three busloads pull up (to the Met) one afternoon,” he said. “Then we find out they only wanted to use the restroom.”

The team claimed to draw 6,000 fans for its opening game but even if accurate a more typical crowd was 2,000. There were thousands of empty green and gold seats in the building (capacity about 15,000 for basketball). Jonckowski recalled that general manager Eddie Holman didn’t like TV cameras showing all those empty seats.

“People would buy the cheap seats. He (Holman) would wave the people down to sit in the front row because we only drew 2,000—maybe 3,000 people— not many,” Jonckowski said.

The problem wasn’t the Muskies weren’t a good ballclub. The team finished second in its division and had several talented players but Minnesotans literally weren’t buying into a start-up league after having the five-time world champion Minneapolis Lakers a decade earlier.

The Muskies franchise had several owners and a general manager in Holman who Jonckowski said got the job because he was a neighbor of George Mikan, the former Laker great and ABA commissioner. Holman, who was in the restaurant and bar business, offered free food and drink to the media at the old Eddie Webster’s near the Met Center.

“It was crazy.” Jonckowski said. “It had to cost him a lot of money.”

Jonckowski, just beginning his career, would have liked some of that money sent his way. “I worked for $60 a week,” he remembered. “I just wanted to get my foot in the door in pro sports. I didn’t even have enough money to park my car. In those days I parked my car down on Glenwood Ave.(a long walk from the team’s offices downtown). …”

Comments Welcome