The Twins, who have won eight consecutive games and 10 of their last 11, begin a four-game series at  Tampa Bay tonight.  The Twins will start Carl Pavano who has won each of his last eight decisions since June 9 while Tampa Bay will start rookie Jeremy Hellickson, making his major league debut after going 12-3 with a 2.45 ERA for Triple-A Durham.

Minnesota sports historian Dana X Marshall finds irony in complaints about Target Field not being home run friendly.  He recalled in an email that years ago Nicollet Park was a place where too many home runs were hit and that led to “bad baseball.”  Marshall also wrote: “The second time I went to Nicollet in 1949, the (Minneapolis) Millers lost a doubleheader to the Indianapolis Indians by scores of 20-5 and 20-8.  The 20-8 game being seven innings, as scheduled.”

Courage Center has been chosen by the Twins and first baseman Michael Cuddyer to be their charity partner for a $200,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant.  The Twins are competing against 14 other major league teams to win a community improvement grant.  In partnering with Courage Center and the Jr. Rolling Twins softball team, the Twins hope to build Minnesota’s first accessible softball field for competitive wheelchair play.  Twins fans and Courage Center supporters can place their votes at www.mlb.com/PepsiRefresh or by texting T-W-I-N-S to 76462.  Voting is allowed up to 10 times per day.

Rookie second round draft choice Chris Cook is tall for a cornerback, 6-2, and definitely a player to watch while the Vikings make their way through training camp and four preseason games. Cook started 31 of 38 games at the University of Virginia.  He was a team captain in 2009 and All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team selection, starting all 12 games and making four interceptions. He is the highest cornerback draft choice by the Vikings since Dewayne Washington was the 18^th overall pick in 1994.

Entering their 50^th season in the NFL, the Vikings have had more players from the University of Minnesota play for them than any other college.  Twenty-eight former Gophers played for the Vikings, with Southern California providing the next highest number with 26.

Vikings defensive end Ray Edwards, who has been unhappy with his contract during the offseason, owns a T-shirt company and does some modeling.

For the second consecutive year, Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones and Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor were selected as the Big Ten’s Preseason Defensive and Offensive Players of the Year. Ohio State was chosen first in a conference preseason poll, followed by Iowa and Wisconsin. The players of the year and poll were voted on by media members attending the conference’s football media days.

Nikola Pekovic, 24, who played the past two seasons with Panathinaikos Athens, signed with the Timberwolves recently and has an admirer in team president David Kahn.  “…Nikola has been regarded as the best center in Europe for the past few seasons and will be a tremendous addition to our club,” Kahn said in a statement from the Wolves.  “He is a tough, hard-nosed player who brings an added dimension of physicality to our team. …”

Peckovic’s average of 3.5 rebounds per game last season in the Euroleague doesn’t look impressive until you consider he averaged only 16.8 minutes per game.  In Europe even the better players play limited minutes.  The 6-11 center averaged 14.8 points on 60.7 percent shooting.

Virginia, Minnesota native John Harrington, a member of the 1980 US Olympic hockey “Miracle on Ice” team, had a hole-in-one on the 200-yard No. 8 west hole at Bunker Hills last week.  The shot came during the Minnesota Hockey Benefit Golf Tournament and earned Harrington $10,000.

The Major League Soccer All-Star game last week attracted over 70,000 fans at Reliant Stadium in Houston and that crowd is the fourth largest all-star game attendance in professional sports history, according to an email from an MLS official.

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Conference realignment of schools will be discussed among Big Ten athletic directors early next week in Chicago, Gophers football coach Tim Brewster said.  Officials representing the league office and conference schools are expected to meet about how the Big Ten will position itself into two football divisions with the arrival of Nebraska as a 12^th member in 2011.  The gathering in Chicago will also include the conference’s annual media football kickoff with all 11 head coaches having news conferences on Monday.

Brewster said he’s firm about one expectation for scheduling starting in 2011.  He wants Wisconsin and Iowa on Minnesota’s schedule each season, even if all three schools aren’t in the same division.

Is he concerned that annually the Badgers and Hawkeyes won’t be on the Minnesota schedule?  “No, absolutely not, because that’s vital to our conference,” he told Sports Headliners.

Preserving historic football rivalries is expected to receive the highest of priorities when commissioner Jim Delany and others decide who to place where in two six team divisions.  What’s the timeline for a decision?

Brewster said he isn’t sure “but this has got to get in place because there’s a tremendous amount of time” involved with scheduling preparation and details.  He’s confident Delany will present a plan at the earliest date once things are in place.

Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners he will be surprised if he leaves Chicago on Tuesday without knowledge of a working model for realignment.  The model might not be a finished product but certainly a significant step in that direction.

Maturi said he doesn’t know how the Big Ten will ultimately group its 12 schools in various sports.  It’s presumed football will have two six-team divisions but basketball, for example, might have a single 12 team league.  The advantage for football having two divisions is to allow the conference to stage a lucrative and high profile conference championship game between the two winners.

Brewster will take three players to Chicago to participate in the media sessions, quarterback Adam Weber, defensive tackle Brandon Kirksey and safety Kim Royston.

Brewster plans to tell the media he believes his team, picked by most writers to finish near the bottom of the conference standings, has a “chance to be much better than most people think.”  Brewster has a lot of confidence in his fourth Gophers team, a group that is more athletic than in the past.

He has also been impressed with the summer workouts of his team.  “Guys are so much stronger, so much bigger,” he said.

A more physical, athletic and better conditioned team can provide a payoff during the season to the messages the Gophers had on their workout shirts this summer: “Finish.  Compete Forever.”

Brewster’s Gophers have sometimes been challenged to win games in the fourth quarter.  That’s been a reason the team finished around .500 each of the last two seasons, 7-6 in 2008 and 6-7 in 2009.

“We want to take games into the fourth quarter and win games in the fourth quarter,” Brewster said.

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The stats are eye-catching.  With about one-third of the schedule remaining, the Twins are often a different hitting ball club at their new home, Target Field, than on the road.

The Twins have the highest team batting average in major league baseball at .283.  At Target Field the team is hitting .292 while on the road the average is .275, according to https://espn.go.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/min/minnesota-twins.  But in their new home park the Twins have hit just 28 home runs in 50 games while on the road they have homered 63 times in 52 games.

Enough baseball has been played in different weather conditions at Target Field to know this is a pitcher’s ballpark.  Balls that initially seem destined to fly over the fence more often end up as long outs.  With the Twins so-so starting pitcher this seems more of an overall advantage to the team than having a home run happy ballpark.

But it has left Twins batters with some frustrations.  Joe Mauer has been the poster boy for drives hit to the power alley in left field that don’t quite make it into the seats.  He has six home runs this season, all on the road.

No Twins batter has more home runs at home than on the road.  Jim Thome has hit six at Target Field, six on the road.  Everyone else has hit fewer at home including Justin Morneau who has a team leading 18 home runs, with 14 on the road.

Twins president Dave St. Peter was asked by Sports Headliners if the club will consider changing outfield dimensions for next year.  “We haven’t even gone there yet,” he said.  “That’s not something that’s right now on our radar.  We’re more focused on different elements that will impact fan experience. …

“But we’ll review a number of issues over the course of the last couple months of the season and into the offseason with hopes of making Target Field better.  And certainly some of those issues will be playability issues.  I can’t speak to whether dimensions will even be part of that discussion.”

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