Anyone doubting the star power of Favre and the popularity of the Vikings in this town received a jolt of realty on Tuesday when his arrival at Winter Park received live news coverage (breaking into regular programming) on KARE 11, KSTP, Fox 9 and WCCO.

Lurtsema said some players come to training camp acting arrogant and not in shape, but he’s been impressed with rookie running back Toby Gerhart and second year cornerback Asher Allen.  He loves Gerhart’s “old school” attitude of extra effort and said the former Heisman Trophy runner-up has “great acceleration.”

Lurtsema said Allen’s “heart is as big as Antoine Winfield’s,” the veteran cornerback known for his fearless attitude.  He admires Allen’s love of the game, speed and aggressiveness for his size (5-9, 194 pounds).

The Vikings, who began play in 1961, are celebrating 50 seasons and a commemorative patch will be worn on uniforms this year.  Recognition of the anniversary will also include fan balloting for the 50 greatest players in franchise history.

Twins vice president of marketing Patrick Klinger said he has watched Justin Morneau “slugging the ball” while taking batting practice and the organization anticipates the All-Star first baseman will receive clearance about concussion concerns and resume playing for the Twins in 2010.

Carl Pavano, who has already won two games this season against Chicago, pitches tonight’s series finale against the White Sox.  He pitched seven innings and allowed two runs to win against Chicago in May.  Then last month went nine innings and again gave up just two runs.

The Twins, with sponsorship by Treasure Island Resort & Casino, are promoting their annual diversity celebration before tonight’s game at Target Field.  Fans attending will receive 10,000 “Chief” Bender baseball cards.

Charles Albert Bender, a Chippewa Indian, was from the Brainerd area and an accomplished major league pitcher during the first quarter of the last century.  Klinger said Bender led the American League in winning percentage three times with records of 23-5, 17-5 and 17-3.

Klinger also said no decisions have been made regarding an increase in ticket prices for games at Target Field next season.  “Any increase will be surprisingly modest,” he said. “There aren’t going to be radical changes in ticket prices.”

The average ticket cost went up by about $12 this season, an increase Klinger attributed to the change in stadiums for the Twins.  He said the majority of seats at the Metrodome were in the upper level (more modest pricing) while the majority of seats at Target Field are in the lower level (more expensive pricing).  

After last night’s victory over Chicago the Twins have won nine consecutive games at Target Field.  Minnesota has 24 wins since the All-Star break (July 12-14), the most in baseball.

Joe Mauer is batting .446 (50-for-112) since the All-Star break, the best average in baseball (minimum of 100 plate appearances).  Fourteen of Mauer’s 28 games since the All-Star break have been multi-hit games.  Eight have been three hits or more and three have been four hits or more.  He hit his first home run at Target Field last night.

Three of the most prominent sports publications in the country are pessimistic about Gophers football.  Sports Illustrated, Sporting News and ESPN The Magazine circulated their college football issues last week and made forecasts that included the Big Ten Conference race.

Sports Illustrated predicts the Gophers will finish last in the Big Ten with a 1-7 record (2-10 overall).  Sporting News forecasts the same conference and overall records as S.I. and believes Minnesota coach Tim Brewster won’t be brought back for 2011. ESPN has the Gophers ninth in the 11 team Big Ten but makes no prediction about records.

Michigan State senior linebacker Greg Jones, who is one of the most publicized preseason players in the country, changed his commitment while in high school from Minnesota to the Spartans after Gophers coach Glen Mason was fired.  The Gophers, though, might have a linebacker who becomes the equal of Jones in Florida transfer Brendan Beal who will be eligible to play for Minnesota next year.

Randy Shaver’s preseason all-metro football team includes two players who reportedly have made verbal commitments to the Gophers, offensive tackle Tommy Olson (Mahtomedi) and Peter Westerhaus (Holy Family).  www.kare11.com

Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners he expects the Big Ten Conference to announce its realignment within “30 days” of football schools.  New schedules need to come ASAP because all schools must remake their home and away dates with Nebraska joining the league in 2011 as a 12^th member.

Maturi won’t speculate on the specific grouping of schools into two six-team divisions but did acknowledge that Big Ten officials will value both competitive balance and historic rivalries in making a final decision.  Led by commissioner Jim Delany, league officials have comprehensively researched performances by Big Ten teams and Nebraska dating back to 1993 when Penn State joined the conference.

Maturi said the results show Ohio State is No. 1 during that period, while Michigan and Nebraska come next.  Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa are also performance leaders.  Purdue, Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana have been less successful.

Sports Headliners suggests this grouping:  Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana in an “East Division.”  The “West Division” members would be Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois and Minnesota.

Maturi acknowledged the likelihood that traditional rivals Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin won’t all be in the same division.  Each Big Ten team is expected to play five games against division rivals and three more conference games against teams from the opposite division.

One of the three conference games is likely to be designated a cross division rivalry game but even that might not assure the Gophers, Wisconsin and Iowa playing each other annually, Maturi said.  In the Sports Headliners grouping of teams Iowa is in the opposite division of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Following this example, some seasons the Hawkeyes might not play both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

League teams may eventually play nine conference games, not eight.  The addition of a ninth game likely figures to boost TV ratings for the conference including on the Big Ten Network.  However, the addition of a ninth game isn’t expected for at least a few years and if it does happen schools will during alternate years have either four or five home conference games.  A ninth league game also means one less nonconference game which may result in less revenue for a school.