30 September 2023
The Minnesota Twins have enough pitching to finally end their ignominious 18-game postseason losing streak.
Thirteen of those losses were to the New York Yankees, who this season did not make the playoffs.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – AUGUST 06: Matt Wallner #38 of the Minnesota Twins celebrates his walk-off two-run home run with teammates after the 5-3 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Target Field on August 06, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
During a chat with the Pioneer Press outside the Twins’ clubhouse at Target Field last week, chief baseball executive Derek Falvey pointed to the clubhouse.
In reference to a question about the 18 straight losses, Falvey said, “That room, very few of those guys played a role in a lot of those games. There might be only three players from 2019 in that room.
“Everyone’s heard it, everyone knows it — the facts are facts. But I think what this group does really well is every night when they come to the ballpark, they play ‘that’ game. If that game goes poorly, they show up the next day and they play the next game. That’s just the way our group has navigated all year, and I think it’s led to where we are now. Our guys don’t think about it.”
—Considering their nucleus of talented, young players this season, the Twins’ playoff experience this year should greatly benefit the club for next year.
—The scouting report on Royce Lewis (four grand slams in 58 games this season), when he was in high school seven years ago in California, was that he embraced big moments.
—Sign of the times: Several police officers, armed with AR-15 rifles, are stationed outside Target Field during Twins games.
—On Thursday at a Capital Club breakfast at Mendakota Country Club, St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara and Eagan Police Chief Roger New will discuss how they interact with sports teams in their cities.
—The Twins finished the regular season with an average of 24,372 ticket buyers per game, 19th among baseball’s 30 teams. Last season, the Twins averaged 22,514 per game.
—Happy birthday: It was seven years ago that hall of fame former Twin Rod Carew received a heart and kidney transplant. On Sunday, Carew, who is doing well in southern California, turns 78.
—Hall of fame former Twin Tony Oliva, 85, on Friday will get back four of his cherished batting title trophy bats (one from the minor leagues) that he had Clyde Doepner, the tireless Twins curator, send for display the past year at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
—Al Shaver, the hall of fame hockey broadcaster after whom the Xcel Energy Center press box is named, turns 96 in three weeks and is doing fine living on Vancouver Island.
—Cory Provus, the peerless Twins radio play-by-play voice, already has broadcast four Big Ten football games this season. But he will put football on hold until after the Twins’ postseason. Then he’ll add Big Ten men’s basketball.
—Justin Morneau, the 2006 American League Most Valuable Player with the Twins now in his fifth year as a Twins TV broadcast analyst, has become especially insightful and comfortable behind the microphone.
“It’s not something that’s really natural when you start, not an easy thing to do,” Morneau said. “It helps having someone who’s so experienced and good at the job next to me. Dick (Bremer) is able to steer the ship in the right direction.”
—Justin Jefferson’s one-of-one 2020 Panini Prizm Black Vikings rookie card sold for $57,600 the other day, the top-selling trading card for any active non-QB in the NFL, per pwccmarketplace.com. Meanwhile, Kirk Cousins’ one-of-one 2012 Panini Prizm Orange Pylon Washington rookie card sold for $3,780.
Randy Moss’ Vikings card sold for $24,000.
—After three victories to start this season, Colorado football coach Deion Sanders became the biggest college sports story in the country. Steve Rosga, the former Cretin-Derham Hall star, was a star defensive back for College Football Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney at Colorado.
“When Deion was hired, Kordell Stewart, one of my teammates, said it best, that he reminded him a lot of coach Mac,” Rosga said. “He’s a 2023 version of coach Mac, which probably is a pretty accurate description of what (Sanders) stands for, which is being genuine, being real, being honest, being a man of integrity and character.
“The 2023 version means having a social media presence, being outspoken, being able to relate to kids. It’s so different from what it was 30 years ago.”
Rosga started for Colorado 1994-1996, after which he played for three different NFL teams in training camps until injuries ended his career.
“From my standpoint, I think (Sanders) is a breath of fresh air to, as I’ll call it, youth athletics,” he said. “Deion said it during the “60 Minutes” (TV) piece, we’re heavy on everyone wins and everyone gets a trophy, and that’s not how life is.”
Today, Rosga, 49, is strength coach at St. Thomas Academy.
—Average Gophers football ticket price: $153. Average Colorado football ticket price: $517.
—Among parents who admired Brooks Robinson are Rob and Lisa Bollinger, so much that they named their son after Robinson, the classy Baltimore Oriole who died on Tuesday at age 86. Brooks Bollinger, 43, is the former University of Wisconsin and Vikings QB who resides in the St. Paul area.
“My dad wanted to either name me Willie after Willie Mays or Brooks after Brooks Robinson — he gave my mom the option. She said Brooks,” Bollinger said. “I wrote (Robinson) a couple of times when I was younger and he sent me back a couple of 8 by 10 glossies with nice notes. I always thought that was pretty cool.”
—Coaches say this year’s Minnesota freshmen and sophomore boys high school basketball classes (2026-27) possess the most overall talent in the state in many years. Meanwhile, Creighton-bound 6-foot-9 Wayzata senior Jackson McAndrew is favored to become this season’s Minnesota Mr. Basketball.
—One of the Gophers’ greatest quarterbacks in history, Rickey Foggie, has decided to pass on high school coaching this season for the first time in four years. He was QB coach for St. Thomas Academy for three seasons before taking the offensive coordinator job at DeLaSalle last year. Now he’s focusing on his QB training school at Life Time in Eagan.
Foggie, 57, who is from Laurens, S.C. and now lives in Burnsville, ended up at Minnesota after Michael Jordan left North Carolina for the NBA draft in 1984.
“Michael Jordan was my childhood hero, and after he left North Carolina, I called my mom and told her to call coach (Lou) Holtz to see if I could go to Minnesota,” Foggie said. “When (Jordan) left, I left.”
Of Holtz, now 86, Foggie said, “this guy knew everything about football,.”
—Average Timberwolves ticket price this season is $221. Highest in the NBA is Golden State at $624, lowest Utah at $58, per research by Betway.
—Cleveland Guardians pitcher Sam Hentges from Mounds View had a stretch during which he didn’t give up an earned run in 25 games dating back to July 23 this season. The 6-6, 245-pound lefty with a 97-mph fastball didn’t allow any of the 12 runners he inherited to score.
Hentges, 27, who is pitching for $730,200 this season, is salary arbitration eligible for the first time next winter and should at least double his salary for 2024.
—Sam Udovich, the Cretin-Derham Hall junior who recently won the American Junior Golf Association Championship at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, has committed to Texas Christian University for golf.
—Thirteen Minnesotans, known as the American Marshals, are in Rome patriotically cheering on Team USA against the Europeans in the Ryder Cup. This is the eighth Ryder Cup for the Marshals, who are wearing USA jerseys inscribed with “We Love Italy.”
Don’t print that
—In the 62-year history of the franchise, the Vikings (0-3) just once started a season 0-5. That was in 1962, when they finished 2-11-1. They face the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in a week.
Entering Sunday, there are four winless teams left in the NFL: the Vikings (0-3) play the Carolina Panthers (0-3), and the Chicago Bears (0-3) play the Denver Broncos (0-3) on Sunday. After Sunday, there will be just two.
—In the 2022 Vikings draft, in the first three rounds, the Vikings took four players, three of whom are defensive players: Lewis Cine (first round) , Andrew Booth (second round) and Brian Asamoah (round three). None of the trio played a defensive snap last Sunday in the loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Meanwhile, the Vikings probably have the worst defensive line in the NFL, and their best player, Harrison Phillips, rates as average. Now, it turns out, the Vikings wasted $13 million on oft-hurt free agent pass rusher Marcus Davenport.
—A little birdie says people on behalf of ex-Western Michigan football coach P.J. Fleck of the Gophers the past couple of weeks have been promoting him for the Michigan State job to clean up the athletic program. The Gophers host Michigan State on Oct. 28.
Frontrunners for the Michigan State job reportedly are Washington State’s Jake Dickert and Kansas’ Lance Leipold, per The Athletic.
—Insiders say the Gophers have a $300,000 name, image and likeness (NIL) budget to retain and recruit athletes. The department might try defeating Northwestern in football before publicly begging for money to pay players while their coach is paid $6 million a year.
—Billionaire Wild owner Craig Leipold has a Wild team flag on his gorgeous 221-foot yacht, which he named “Loon” and can accommodate 11 guests and is managed by a crew of 10. The vessel is valued at $24 million, per industry site SuperYachtFan, but people who know say it cost considerably more than $24 million. The Loon is available for rent for just $350,000 a week.
By the way, Leipold’s private jet has a Wild logo on it.
—Detroit Lakes native-former Viking Adam Thielen, who will play for the Carolina Panthers against the Vikings on Sunday, has bought a $2.19 million home at the posh Lake Nona golf club in Orlando, Fla.
—Vikings QB Kirk Cousins, who has made well over $200 million during his 12-year career, has bought Clearbrook golf course in Michigan.
—It looks now like it will take a deal worth more than $20 million a season for the Twins to retain free agent Cy Young contender Sonny Gray for 2024. Gray, 33, who will start on Tuesday in the postseason, will get a $1 million bonus if he finishes second or third in Cy Young voting, $750,000 for fourth or fifth.
—Baseball’s deal of the year might be the Twins’ signing of starter Pablo Lopez, 27, who will start Monday. Last spring he accepted an $18.5 million per season contract over four years.
—Getting to the first round of playoffs is worth about $10,000 per player for the Twins. Winning the World Series would be worth about $500,000 per player.
—Max Meyer, 24, the former Woodbury and Gophers pitching star who made his major league debut for the Miami Marlins before successful Tommy John surgery 13 months ago, is rehabbing in Woodbury. He was paid the major league minimum $721,500 this season and is expected to be ready for 2024 spring training.
–Finally, the Gophers athletics department is doing a feasibility study on how to improve the bathrooms in 95-year-old Williams Arena.
—Buzz continues that a retirement notice by the New York Islanders’ Zach Parise, 39, is expected soon, and that he’ll take an assistant Edina boys hockey job.
No, Parise won’t be returning to the Wild at a cost of just $1.5 million. Several former Wild players have asked management if they could return, but the team isn’t interested in players who have moved on.
This season, for the first time since Parise and Ryan Suter left the Wild two years ago, their jersey numbers (11 and 20, respectively) have been issued to Adam Beckman and Patrick Maroon.
—CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, who will assist in designing a short course as part of the Tepetonka mega-golf project near New London, Minn., is expected to stop by the project while in town next weekend to broadcast the Vikings-Chiefs game.
—Ex-Governor Jesse Ventura, a 1969 Minneapolis Roosevelt grad, a week ago at his alma mater gave a spirited pregame talk to football players, then made the honorary coin flip for their game against Richfield, which won 40-14.
—The Gophers baseball team’s 15 games that were scheduled for U.S. Bank Stadium early next year have to be rescheduled elsewhere because of new artificial turf to be installed after the Vikings season. That means the Gophers will have just 18 home games on their 56-game schedule. A legal challenge could be forthcoming.
—Ex-Twins first-round draft pick outfielder Brent Rooker, 28, has 29 home runs and 67 runs batted in for the lowly Oakland Atheltics. That would lead the Twins in both categories.
—The Twins’ Byron Buxton, 29, has a full no-trade contract clause through 2026.
—There have been rumblings about the financial viability of WCCO-AM’s parent company, Odyssey, but the Twins have been assured there won’t be a bankruptcy. AM radio nationally continues to face challenges, but Twins games also are available via a FM signal, WCCO-AM’s sister station, 102.9 FM.
The Twins’ contract with WCCO-AM runs through 2024.
Regarding future TV, though, look for the Twins to become a free agent after the season and to consider a variety of options for next year. Those include cable, satellite, over-the-air and direct to consumer.
—Among enhancements WCCO-AM offered the Timberwolves to remain with the station was taking on Lynx games beginning next year. The Wolves said no thanks and are moving to KFAN-FM. Timberwolves broadcasts provided WCCO-AM with little revenue and low ratings.
Overheard
—Among SportsBetting.ag odds as to Aaron Rodgers’ next career, the gambling site quips that it’s 6-1 that the injured New York Jets QB establishes a cannabis company.
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