In the parity-happy world of major league baseball, local fans should rejoice that Ronald Clyde Gardenhire is the Twins’ leader.

The 2008 big league season has so far showcased surprise bottom feeders Tampa Bay and Florida rising to the top of their divisions, and a whole lot of mediocre teams camping out at winning percentages near .500. The talent load on most rosters isn’t overwhelming enough to run away from rivals.

In the American League Central, Detroit and its high priced talent has been a flop while the budget conscious Twins have been flirting with the lead despite playing .500 baseball.  With the talent wealth distributed almost like socialism, the Twins have an edge because of Gardenhire who is among the game’s best managers.

Since taking over here in 2002, Gardenhire has managed teams that have won four division titles and finished third twice.  Admittedly, the division opposition often wasn’t the American League’s best but then again the Twins didn’t set the gold standard for talent either.

Yes, Gardenhire had some highly skilled players on his teams but he usually managed the best out of that talent, too.  Same this year with a team that has a completely rebuilt starting pitching staff and minimal power, but does have a solid bullpen led by perhaps baseball’s best closer in Joe Nathan, plus extraordinary hitting from Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, and new found speed on the bases with center fielder Carlos Gomez and second baseman Alexi Casilla.

This team has been error prone in the field even though Gardenhire reveres dominant defense.  Already the 2008 Twins have made 43 errors in 56 games, the second most in the American League.  Two years ago the Twins had only 84 errors all season.

Gardenhire is a teacher who values fundamentals, so this team has frustrated him at times in the field and at-bat.  Yet he shows patience such as last week when 22-year-old left fielder Delmon Young misplayed a fly ball into an inside the park home run.  The easy move would have been to bench Young the next night, but instead he was back in the lineup.  Only after Young committed two errors in that game did he go to the bench.

Put simply, Gardenhire knows baseball and how to handle players.  In the often “even-Steven” world of major league baseball that’s an edge for the Twins.

Vikings placekicker Ryan Longwell saw the greatness of Brett Favre for nine seasons in Green Bay when the two were Packer teammates.  What does Favre’s retirement mean to the Vikings’ fate in the NFC North?

“Well, obviously when you take a hall of famer out of the division, everybody moves up a notch,” Longwell told Sports Headliners recently.  “I am very good friends with Aaron Rogers (Favre’s successor) and I know he will do a very great job over there.  So it’s not like you don’t have to show up and play them.

“They’ll still have a great team and they’ll still have a good guy playing quarterback, but you know the logical equation, anytime you take a hall of famer away…there’s a void there for sure.”

Rogers, who is a California alum like Longwell, has been in the NFL three seasons.  He has no career starts and played in a total of seven games.  He was impressive last season replacing an injured Favre in a Packer loss to Dallas and threw his first touchdown pass.

Longwell has high expectations of Rogers.  “He has very high standards for himself,” Longwell said.  “He will play well. There’s no doubt.”

Was Longwell surprised that Favre, 38, retired?  “You know, not really,” Longwell said.  “I know he had been toying with it the last couple years on whether to step away or not.  It gets to a point in this game where you’ve got nothing else to prove on the field. You feel like you’ve given it everything you possibly can, and he wants normalcy, some time with your children and your wife and your house. …I wasn’t shocked.  He had a good year last year and he went out that way.”

Fargo native Chris Coste (pronounced Coast) has become a fan favorite in Philadelphia.  Coste, 35, has been catching regularly for the Phillies and is hitting .330 with five home runs and 16 RBI.  Fans have saluted him with a “Coste Guard” sign, Gene Allen said via e-mail.  Allen, now a TCF Bank executive, is the former founder and owner of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the Northern League, a team that Coste once played for.  Coste has a book about his 11 year struggle to make the major leagues, “The 33-Year-Old Rookie.”  He made his major league debut with Philadelphia in May of 2006 and hit .328 for the season.  Last spring he was injured and played in the minors before joining the Phillies in May, hitting .279 for the season.

Newly acquired Twins left-handed pitcher Craig Breslow has only pitched in eight games and 10 innings this season.  He was picked up by the Twins off waivers from Cleveland last week to provide another left handed arm in the bullpen.  In his one appearance for the Twins so far he pitched one and two-thirds innings on Saturday night against the Yankees, giving up no hits and striking out three batters.  The former Yale student majored in biophysics and biochemistry.

Cristie Kerr will draw attention at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open coming to Interlachen Country Club June 23-29, and not just because she’s the defending champion. A Google search lists her among the “sexy women of sports.”  Kerr, 30, is admired, too, for her work in raising funds to fight breast cancer, a disease that struck her mother.

Kids 17 and under are admitted free to the Open with a ticketed adult.  An adult may bring up to nine children free of charge.  More information about the Open is available at www.2008uswomensopen.com.

For the second time in franchise history the Timberwolves will have the third pick in the NBA draft.  With that position in 1992, the Wolves chose Christian Laettner.  Minnesota hasn’t had a top-five draft pick since selecting Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen with the fifth picks in the 1995 and 1996 drafts.

Among the most famous all-time NBA selections is Michael Jordan who was the third overall pick in 1984.  Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich, Kevin McHale and Dominique Wilkins were also No. 3 selections.  This year’s runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting, Al Horford, was a third overall draft pick, as were current stars Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol and Deron Williams.

St. Thomas senior outfielder Chris Bullis and senior pitcher Lonnie Robinson were recently included on the ABCA/Rawlings All-America team.  Bullis was joined by teammate Matt Pexa (senior catcher) and Hamline’s Dan Kacrowski (junior shortstop) on the D3baseball.com All-America team named earlier this spring.

Three Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference athletes recently won national championships at the 2008 NCAA DII National Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Walnut, Calif.  Bemidji State’s Joe Remitz and Wayne State’s Katie Wilson won their first national titles, both in the shot put, while MSU Moorhead’s Jennifer Hensel repeated as national champion in the pole vault.