Since May 21, 2009 the White Sox are 3-10 in games with the Twins that have been decided by two runs or less.  The White Sox lost to the Twins 3-2 on Wednesday and are eight games back of first place Minnesota in the Central Division.

Former Twins pitcher Glen Perkins is 0-4 with an 10.72 ERA pitching for AAA Rochester.

Local sports writer and announcer Dave Wright will be in Las Vegas next Wednesday signing copies of his new book, 162-0.  The book is about the greatest wins in Twins history and came out six weeks ago.  About 760 books have been sold so far.

The Gophers announced earlier this week that football season ticket holders can purchase tickets for the team’s five away games.  It’s easy to spot the bargain with Middle Tennessee State tickets priced at $25 each.  Wisconsin and Michigan State tickets are $49 each, Purdue $46 and Illinois $45.

Lynx point guard Lindsay Whalen and teammate Seimone Augustus are two of the top paid players in the WNBA earning about $110,000 each per season, the league maximum.  Many players play in Europe during the WNBA off-season but salaries are about half what they earn in America.

Whalen, 28, is one of the WNBA’s best point guards and figures to help the Lynx compete with the better teams in the league.  Her impact goes beyond the court, though, and franchise officials are crediting the former Gopher for more interest among ticket buyers.  Season ticket sales are expected to reach about 2,000, several hundred more than last year, according to Lynx chief operating officer Conrad Smith.

Single game and group ticket sales will increase in 2010.  WNBA teams rely on game day ticket buyers and the club hopes to sometimes sell 1,000 walk-up tickets.

The Lynx open the regular season tomorrow in Tulsa against former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson.  The Lynx home opener is Sunday against Washington with a 6 p.m. start at Target Center.  Attendance could exceed 10,000 for the opener.

The Timberwolves are interested in re-signing 7-foot center Darko Milicic who ended the last weeks of the season in Minneapolis after coming here from the Knicks. That interest will be contingent on Milicic accepting a salary for less money than this past season, according to an NBA source.

Milicic was treated much better by Wolves fans than in previous NBA stops, according to the same source who spoke anonymously.  That could be a factor in Milicic re-signing with the Wolves rather than playing in Europe.

The Wolves might have a new European center in Nikola Pekovic who was chosen in the second round of the 2008 draft, but so far has remained overseas.   He’s contractually available to play for the Wolves next season.  At 6-11, he’s a low post player and not Milicic’s equal as a shot blocker.  Because he was a second round pick, Pekovic can command open market money on a contract with the Wolves.

If former Wolves executive Fred Hoiberg doesn’t make it as a successful head coach in his new assignment at Iowa State he might try Hollywood.  He looks like a young Harrison Ford.  See photo at right.

Minnesota Wild prospect Kris Foucault had 16 points in 23 playoff games to help the Calgary Hitmen win the Ed Chynoweth Cup and become Western Hockey League champions. The Hitmen will open play Saturday in the MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament, the top competition in Canadian junior hockey.

Fans can enter a contest at Wild.com to have this summer’s Wild Road Tour kick off at their house. The Wild will have players and broadcasters on a state road tour visiting various communities.  This summer’s road tour will stop in 18 cities from June 21-24.

Comments Welcome

The Fighting Irish football team hasn’t played the Gophers in Minneapolis since 1937 but that could change within several years.  Athletic departments and media throughout the country are speculating about what the Big Ten Conference membership will look like in the near future.

Conference commissioner Jim Delany and others in the Big Ten are considering  expanding the 11 team league.  Nothing is expected to be announced for awhile but Sports Headliners believes Delany wants an expansion that establishes his conference as by far the most watched and wealthy in the country.

That goal is best achieved with an expansion that increases membership not by two or three schools but with five.  Key to expansion and a five team addition is inclusion of storied Notre Dame, still a football independent but a member of the Big East Conference in other sports.

Delany is likely to use all his intelligence and charm to bring Notre Dame into the Big Ten family.  He’s probably willing to wait awhile longer on completing the expansion project if it means delivering the grand prize, the Fighting Irish football program along with the school’s other sports teams.  Notre Dame brings a national following including its “subway alumni” in New York.

It’s a good guess, though, that Delany won’t wait more than three years for the Irish who have a deep and historic commitment as an independent that schedules a cross section of the nation’s better football teams.  It will be Delany’s task to convince Notre Dame leaders that the Fighting Irish is better off in the Big Ten for reasons that include TV revenues.

A 16 team Big Ten will presumably command record TV revenues for a college conference.  The league’s huge TV audiences, expected to include New York, Chicago and numerous other top 50 TV markets, could generate so much revenue that Notre Dame might well receive more as a member of the Big Ten than with its own TV football deal.

A Big Ten expansion is a big boost to the Big Ten Network, ABC/ESPN and CBS, the TV entities the league relies on for television exposure and revenues.  More eyeballs watching conference games, particularly football and men’s basketball, means increased cable fees for the Big Ten Network, and more advertising revenues in the future for the Big Ten Network and other TV partners.

The Gophers and other members of the Big Ten receive about $22 million each per year from TV revenues and conference monies from sources such as bowl games, according to Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi.  Without that $22 million (much of it TV money), the Gophers wouldn’t be able to maintain a total of 25 men’s and women’s sports, nearly all of them financial losers.

Maturi and others who head up athletic departments in the league will want assurances that conference expansion will increase their share of the revenue pie, not lessen it.  There doesn’t seem much doubt, though, that Delany, who was visionary enough to help develop the already powerful Big Ten Network, will have the dollars figured out, along with the other details needed to accomplish a successful expansion.

Comments Welcome

Who are the five schools that may expand the conference to 16 teams?  In addition to Notre Dame, Nebraska and Missouri might leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten where the TV revenues will be richer.  The Midwest seems like a better fit geographically for Nebraska and Missouri than the Big 12 with its Texas roots.

The other two expansion teams may well be Rutgers and either Syracuse or Pittsburgh.  Rutgers has academic swagger and a much improved football product, and most importantly commands attention in nearby New York City with the area’s 19 to 20 million people.

Syracuse, particularly its men’s basketball team, is a college favorite in the state including New York City.  Rutgers and the Orange could make the Big Ten powerful in the New York-New Jersey TV market that is so important to advertisers.  Pittsburgh is an alternative, although the state of Pennsylvania already is pretty much Big Ten football territory because of Penn State.

Rutgers, Syracuse and Pitt, like Notre Dame, are all members of the Big East Conference.  It seems likely that the Big 12 and Big East must now consider major strategic planning in reaction to the Big Ten.

As for Notre Dame and Minnesota, the two schools could be aligned in the same division after expansion.  A West Division might look like this:  Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.  The East Division could be:  Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Ohio State, Rutgers and Syracuse/Pitt.

The expansion will set up a much anticipated conference championship game in football between the winners of the West and East Divisions.  The event will potentially put the conference even or ahead in popularity of any other similar games including the SEC title game.

There might be another benefit in football, too, and that is expansion of league games.  Instead of eight conference games per school each year the number might become nine or 10.  League games result in increased attendance, more TV viewership.  Translation: increased interest, more money.

Expanding to 16 teams perhaps could stir talk of a Big Ten hockey league.  With Notre Dame, the league hockey schools would also include Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan Sate, Ohio State and Wisconsin.  A six team league may seem small, but the National Hockey League once thrived with the same number of teams.

Whatever changes come out of Big Ten expansion, this much is probable: the league and other parts of American college athletics will look dramatically different.  And don’t count out a return of the Fighting Irish to the Gophers’ schedule.

Comments Welcome