A new exhibit paying tribute to African-American baseball history in Minnesota opens tomorrow at the Landmark Center in St. Paul and continues through August 20. The public is invited to hear opening remarks at 6 p.m. by exhibit curator Frank White who is also a manager for Richfield Recreation Services. Although Minnesota never had a Negro League team, the state has an interesting African-American baseball history that includes such baseball pioneers as the great Willie Mays who played for the Minneapolis Millers in 1951 before going to the big leagues to star for the New York Giants. There is no admission charge to see the exhibit.
This is Black History month and a significant time to recall that almost 50 years ago Sandy Stephens helped lead the 1960 Gophers to a national championship. He was among college football’s first black quarterbacks. In 1961 he became the first major college African-American All-American quarterback.
Harvey Mackay, the New York Times bestselling author and former Gopher golfer, will have a book signing from 3 to 8 p.m. tomorrow night at Barnes & Noble located at 801 Nicollet Mall. His newest business book is Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You. Not only will Mackay be autographing books, he will offer some wisdom during a talk from 7 to 7:15 p.m. Mackay said all royalties for the books sold at the event will be donated to the Salvation Army.
The St. Thomas men’s basketball team, which won a fifth straight MIAC regular season championship, plays in the semifinals of the conference playoffs tomorrow night against Carleton. Tommies coach Steve Fritz told Sports Headliners he will wait until the playoffs are over before comparing this team with others he has coached during his 30 years as head coach at St. Thomas. Fritz, who has been the school’s athletic director for 18 years, expects to return in both roles next school year.
Fritz said senior guard Joe Scott, who was a third team All-American last year, would like to play professional basketball, perhaps overseas, after graduation. Scott, who attended DeLaSalle High School, averaged 11.3 points in conference games and is a solid all around player.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will continue to receive plenty of comment about allowing his league to shut down for the Olympics. The lost playing time costs the NHL a marketing window between the Super Bowl and baseball spring training, and compacting the league schedule can be stressful physically and mentally on players.