Vikings’ single-game tickets and a two-game mini-pack for home games go on sale today (Wednesday) at 9 a.m. in person at the Metrodome Gate B ticket booth. All ticket sales at the Metrodome are cash or credit card only.  At 10 a.m. tickets will also be available in person at all Midwest Ticketmaster locations, and also by phone through Ticketmaster at (651) 989-5151, or via the internet at www.ticketmaster.com. Single-game ticket prices range from $30 to $135.  If available, tickets for the Vikings’ game versus the Green Bay Packers on November 9 will only be sold in a mini-pack that includes the pre-season Seattle game on August 8.  Ticket prices range from $96 to $176 per package.

The Gophers’ TCF Bank Stadium, scheduled to open next year, is impressive already with its arched entrances (like the old Memorial Stadium) and names of Minnesota’s counties on the exterior.

Sporting News College Football ’08 ranks St. John’s No. 3 and Bethel No. 8 in its top 25 listings of Division III football schools.

In this year’s July 15 all-star game the Twins will be represented by three players, catcher Joe Mauer, first baseman Justin Morneau and reliever Joe Nathan.  It’s the 19^th time in Twins’ history the franchise has had three players selected for the game.

Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez, 9-5 overall, is 7-1 at the Metrodome. He starts today against the Red Sox in Boston.

Former Twins shortstop Cristian Guzman, now with Washington, leads the National League in hits with 119.

In his last two starts for the Twins’ AAA Rochester farm team, Francisco Liriano has won twice, pitching 13 innings, striking out 16, walking two batters, giving up seven hits and no runs.

Anticipated date: Timberwolves’ rookie Kevin Love makes his debut next Monday in an NBA Summer League game against Dallas in Las Vegas.   Former Gophers Dan Coleman and Vincent Grier are on the Wolves’ team that will play five games over 10 days.

The Wild opened their seven-day development camp yesterday at Xcel Energy Center.  The camp focuses on the development of the organization’s top young prospects.

This week’s announcement that the NHL will hold another regular season game outdoors (Wrigley Field between Chicago and Detroit) is another indication that in the near future the Wild will play an outdoor game in Minneapolis, possibly in the new Twins’ stadium.

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Delmon Young, 22, has two home runs so far in his first season with the Twins even though he has almost 300 at-bats and the season is more than half over.  That’s the fewest home runs of any Twins regular since the start of the season, including shortstop Brendan Harris who has four.  However, Twins’ legend Tony Oliva told Sports Headliners he believes that in time Young will increase his home run frequency.

Expectations of many fans are more than even the 13 home runs Young hit in his first full season in the majors last season, playing for Tampa Bay.  The expectations are based on Young’s reputation in recent years as one of baseball’s best young prospects, plus his physical size, 6-3, 200 pounds, and power is expected from those who play the outfield and hit in the middle of the batting order.  Young was impressive last year leading all American League rookies in games (162), hits (186) and RBI (93).

Oliva, who is a part-time coach with the Twins and is frequently around the players, said eventually Young “will pull the ball” and hit more home runs.  How many will he hit?  “Who knows?” answered Oliva, who had a career .304 batting average, and although he hit the ball to all fields, he had 220 career home runs.

Young, a right-handed hitter, doesn’t try to pull the ball and hit home runs now, preferring to even hit the ball to the right of second base.  That style has produced a respectable average, .278, but not power.  He had a hot June including a second home run on Sunday and ended the month on a six game hitting streak.

The hope has to be that with maturity Young will develop a balance between power and average.  In the minor leagues he twice hit 20 home runs or more.

The Twins consistently lack for home run hitting.  They have 57 home runs, fewest in the American League.  Last season they hit 118, second lowest to Kansas City’s 102.

Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel lead the Twins in home runs with 12 each.  The last two seasons Morneau has hit 34 and 31 home runs.  Oliva said Morneau is capable of hitting “30 to 40 home runs.”

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The 2008 U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen Country Club attracted about twice the TV audience locally on the final day of the championship as compared with the last day in 2007.  Among the numbers were a 7.5 rating and 20 share in 2008 versus 3.6 and 10 in 2007.

Major League baseball is partially through an announcement process of the Hall of Famers who will be honored during a special pre-game on-field ceremony prior to the 79th All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 15from Yankee Stadium in New York.  It’s being billed as the largest gathering of baseball stars in history and the list includes former Twins Harmon Killebrew and Dave Winfield.

The Twins finished 2008 Interleague competition with a record of 14-4 after winning two of three games from Milwaukee over the weekend.  The Twins are 120-90 all-time in Interleague play.  Since the beginning of 2006, they are 41-13 while winning 15 of the 18 series.  The Twins have been winners of five straight series and have won five of their last seven series versus Milwaukee.

The Twins, who defeated Detroit last night, have won 14 of their last 17 games. Their starting pitchers are 11-2, with a 3.00 ERA in those 17 games.

Twins’ first baseman Justin Morneau has hit safely in 19 of his last 22 games since June 8. During that period he has hit .368 (32-for-87) with nine multi-hit games and the Twins are 14-7.

Canterbury Park’s Extreme Race Day is Sunday, July 20 and includes exhibitions of camel and ostrich racing.  The public can’t wager on the races.

Larry Fitzgerald, who covers local sports in print, radio and TV, recently did a one-on-one interview with David Stern, the NBA’s commissioner since 1984.  In an e-mail to Sports Headliners Fitzgerald described Stern as a “man very much in control of the NBA and proud of the league’s growth under his leadership.”

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