Gopher fans might have thought they had seen the last of dome stadiums when Minnesota played its final game in the Metrodome but not so.  The Gophers open their schedule on Saturday in Syracuse’s Carrier Dome, named for the air conditioning company.  Interestingly, the Carrier Dome isn’t air conditioned.

Tony Dungy, the former Gopher quarterback and assistant coach who won the 2007 Super Bowl as head coach of Indianapolis, has taped a message to be shown on the video board for the opening game at TCF Bank Stadium on September 12.

Sports Illustrated pro football writer Peter King is picking the Bears, not the Vikings, to win the NFC North.

Former Vikings assistant coach Dean Dalton will host Tim Brewster’s weekly TV show that is starting this week on Fox Sports North and the Big Ten Network.  Dalton and Brewster are friends.

Last week Dalton was inducted into the Burlington High School Athletic Hall of Fame in Burlington, Wisconsin.  Dalton said he won nine letters in high school including football where he made all-state before attending the Air Force Academy.  His father Don was the athletic director and football coach at Burlington.  The two are the only father-son combo in the school’s hall of fame, Dalton said.  He also said Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo attended the high school and was inducted into the hall of fame last year.

An NHL source told Sports Headliners Marian Gaborik will have three major adjustments going from the Wild to the New York Rangers.  The high profile Gaborik must deal with the abundant and aggressive New York media.  The source rates the star forward a 3.5 on a scale of five for his media relations.  Second, the Madison Square Garden ice sheet is far from the NHL’s best because of the arena’s busy schedule. Third, the Rangers’ practice facility is about an hour from Manhattan, not exactly like zipping from Gaborik’s downtown Minneapolis residence to Parade Ice Gardens.

Wild single-game tickets go on sale beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 12 at the Xcel Energy Center box office and 10 a.m. at all other Ticketmaster locations. The Wild have sold out every regular season and Stanley Cup home game in club history – 341 consecutive games over nine years.

In two years the Timberwolves roster could include Spanish guard Ricky Rubio and Cole Aldrich, the Bloomington Jefferson grad now at Kansas.  The Wolves need a center and might be positioned in next year’s draft to take Aldrich who is likely to skip his senior year.  Rubio, a 20-year-old in two years, will probably be ready to leave home in 2011.

Here’s more evidence of how the Twins have struggled to piece together a starting rotation this season.  On Tuesday night Jeff Manship became the fourth Twins pitcher to make his first career start in 2009, joining Anthony Swarzak, Brian Duensing and Armando Gabino.

Duensing, who gave up no runs during seven innings in yesterday’s 4-2 Twins loss to Chicago, has an ERA of 1.42 in his last three starts.

The Twins Justin Morneau has four hits in his last 34 at-bats and has slipped to third for most RBI’s in the American League.

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The Twins’ surge, winning five of their last six games, has moved them up in the Central Division standings.  They are one half game behind second place Chicago and 4.5 games back of first place Detroit.

The remaining 2009 schedule, starting tonight at home against Texas, has the Twins playing 18 games in Minneapolis and 17 on the road.  The Twins are seven games over .500 at home so far and eight games under on the road.

The teams remaining on the schedule, in addition to Texas, are Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City, all home and away, plus Oakland at home and on the road at Toronto.  Only two of those teams, the Rangers and Tigers, are playing over .500 baseball.  Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland and Toronto are a combined 66 games under .500.

All of this reminds us of a sports truism: it’s not just how good your team is, it’s also about the ability of the opposition and how that team is playing right now.  The Twins won five of their last six against two of the worst teams in the American League, Kansas City and Baltimore.

While Texas is 71-55, Chicago and Detroit also have challenging weekend assignments.  The White Sox are at New York (79-48) and Detroit is home against Tampa Bay (69-57).  The Tigers have to play Tampa Bay again in September while the White Sox’s schedule includes Los Angeles (75-51).

To their credit, the Twins have been receiving improved performances from players like outfielder Delmon Young, second baseman Alexi Casilla and pitcher Scott Baker during their surge.  Those are contributions that haven’t always been there this season when the Twins wanted to roll with a win streak like the five gamer that ended with a loss to Baltimore Wednesday night.

More contributors, assisting the team’s core players, have enabled this group to not only win more as of late, but sometimes rally in games when needed.  That says something about the team’s leadership which includes manager Ron Gardenhire, pitching coach Rick Anderson, relief pitcher Joe Nathan, catcher Joe Mauer, first baseman Justin Morneau and outfielder Michael Cuddyer.  There’s no panic or give up in their DNA.

The Twins have winning records against division rivals Chicago (7-5) and Detroit (7-4).  Also, in their last 10 games neither the White Sox (4-6) nor Tigers (5-5) have been delighting observers with their performances.

If there was no divisional play in the American League, the Twins would be 16 games behind league-leading New York in the loss column and watching from far behind as the season moves toward an early October close.  Whoever created the idea of splitting the league into three divisions and creating more competition is smiling today.  Twins fans can be happy knowing the team is playing better and facing mediocre opposition between now and season’s end.

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NBA teams are allowed to place corporate names on their practice uniforms and the Timberwolves have added this to their sales offerings. Team business executive Chris Wright said the Wolves will offer a package that not only includes their practice jerseys, but also other practice site signage.

The Minnesota Lynx and other WNBA teams are allowed to place corporate names on both game and practice jerseys.  Wright, who is also involved with the Lynx, said separate sponsors for the two local pro teams makes the most sense because of differing demographics.  He said 82 percent of Lynx fans are female, with about 63 percent of Wolves patrons being male.

WCCO Radio Sports Huddle host Dave Mona read Wednesday’s Sports Headliners story about the “devastating” changeup of Twins pitching prospect Deolis Guerra.  Mona then emailed with an anecdote about his high school pitching days at Roosevelt.  Several years after graduating from Roosevelt he encountered an umpire who recalled Mona’s pitching skills. “I remember it very well,” the umpire said, “because for the first two innings I thought you had one of the best changeups I’d ever seen in a high school pitcher…until I figured out it was your fast ball.”

The Wild’s Brent Burns is at Hockey Canada’s National Men’s Team orientation camp in Calgary.  Burns is one of only 16 defensemen trying for a spot on Canada’s Olympic roster.

Former Minnesota North Star Mike Modano, 39, is hoping to make the U.S. Olympic team.  The Olympic team’s general manager is Edina native and Toronto general manager Brian Burke.  The winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver next February.

New Jersey forward and Faribault native Zach Parise took batting practice from Twins manager Ron Gardenhire on Tuesday.

Former Minnesota North Star Gord Dineen was recently named an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Canterbury Park’s summer race season ends Sunday with the 16th Minnesota Festival of Champions, a day of racing dedicated to horses bred in Minnesota.  Post time on Sunday is 1:30 pm.

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