Trevor Mbakwe injured his left thigh in last night’s Howard Pulley ProCity championship game and didn’t play in the second half. He leaves for the USA’s world university games team training camp today and told Sports Headliners he hopes the injury won’t diminish his chances of making the team.
The Gophers senior, playing for the Errol Carlstrom team, lost last night to El-Amin’s Fish House team that included former Gopher Dan Coleman and was coached by Khalid El-Amin who was injured and couldn’t play. It was the fourth consecutive ProCity title for El-Amin’s Fish House team.
Bert Blyleven’s last season in the major leagues was 1992. The former Twins, California, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Texas pitcher, who won 287 games during his career, was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame this month. Former three time American League batting champion Tony Oliva, who had a .304 lifetime average playing his entire big league career for the Twins, retired after the 1976 season and is still awaiting a call from Cooperstown.
Oliva, 71, told Sports Headliners that according to Hall of Fame rules he will have to wait three more years for consideration if he doesn’t receive enshrinement in 2012. “I should have been there 20 years ago,” he said.
Oliva has no regrets about playing in Minnesota but admitted the more powerful New York and Boston media would have made his Hall of Fame selection likelier if he had been a Yankees or Red Sox outfielder. “My numbers are better than a lot of people in the Hall of Fame,” he said.
The Twins open a three game series in Oakland tonight with starting pitchers expected to be Francisco Liriano, Nick Blackburn and Carl Pavano. The Twins travel to Anaheim for games next Tuesday-Thursday before coming home to play the White Sox. The Twins are 10-9 against AL West Division teams this year.
Former Gopher All-Big Ten tight end Charlie Sanders has a son, Jordan Sanders, who is a redshirt freshman defensive lineman at Michigan State. The younger Sanders, 6-1, 288, wasn’t recruited by the Gophers two years ago when he was a high school senior, according to an email from a Sports Headliners source.
Charlie Sanders is assistant director of pro personnel for the NFL Lions. He and his wife Georgianna have nine children.
Former Gopher quarterback Adam Weber will try to make the Broncos roster as a free agent but if pro football doesn’t work out he has the background and intelligence to coach. Weber’s ex-teammate at Minnesota, receiver Eric Decker, enters his second season with the Broncos in search of a position and more playing time.
Fifty of the state’s top high school goalies are participating in the Minnesota Hockey Dave Peterson Reebok High Performance Goalie Camp now through Sunday at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine. The invite-only development program, now in its seventh year, is designed to improve the individual skills and techniques of goalies in the 15-to 17-year-old age group.