CLOQUET LAKE… It was mid-evening last Wed It was mid-evening last Wednesday and I had the Twins on. They were playing the Oakland A’s who are on the path to the playoff’s and the Twins are on the path to another off season without playoffs. It was a 3-1 game with the A’s leading in the top of the 4th. The A’s began to tee off on Twin’s hurler Mike Pelfrey and were up 8-1 with bases loaded when Jed Lowrie scorched a hit right down the line that forced umpire Bill Miller to jump out of the way. The hit was ruled a foul ball originally. To be honest, Miller wasn’t in position to make the call and the replay showed it did hit chalk.

The A’s then challenged the call and the umpires had a conference about it and awarded Lowrie a double which then allowed two of the A’s base runners to jog in, touch home plate and score. Of course this brought Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire out of the dugout and he argued the ruling, but to no avail. At some point the debate became heated and Gardy got tossed from the game. It was his 67th career ejection. It remains to be seen if Gardy will ever match the colorful Earl Weavers 91 MLB ejections but he is making a respectable run at it. Bobby Cox leads MLB with 161 for some perspective.

After Gardy left Twins Bench and Catching Coach Terry Steinbach took over the managing duties for the remainder of the game. This got my gears spinning a bit. Gardy’s contract is up at the end of this season. He has been the clubs skipper for the past 12 seasons and the club has definitely struggled the past 2. Many fans have been restless about keeping him on with the club but I don’t have any problem with him. He has proven that when he has the talent to work with he can win. He has the respect of many of his peers in the game. This current Twins roster is just plain thin and that’s that.

Steinbach had a good amateur career out of New Ulm and played for the Gophers baseball team before a strong career in MLB most of which was with the A’s. He finished his distinguished playing days with the Twins. This is his first year as a coach. But I got to thinking, is the club going to reassign or dismiss Gardy at seasons end and possibly promote Steinbach to the manager position? For me, I wouldn’t discount his lack of coaching experience because having been a catcher, that’s basically the player that is running the game out on the field for his team.

He is a Minnesota guy and a former Gopher to boot. I could have a pretty good hunch or my brain is spinning out of control because of the lack of recent Twins success. But the team has been dead silent on an extension for Gardy and that speaks volumes to me….

NHL CAMPS OPENED UP on the 11th with players reporting for physicals and conditioning testing. The Minnesota Wild have welcomed 51 players to camp. They skated on the 12th at Ridder arena at the ‘U’ before taking it over to the Xcel Energy Center. Head Coach Mike Yeo has seemed to be pleased by the chance to have a full training camp to assess players and install systems as well as get in some real preseason tilts.

When the Stanley Cup tournament is over in June, I miss hockey, but I also know it is time for a break from it. I have been a lifelong fan and participant and I don’t ever want to get burnt out on that. In mid August I start looking over rosters and so forth and by Labor Day I’m ready to get it going again. And with the Olympic tourney also coming up, I am fairly revved up. So, how are the Wild shaping up? I will tell all in next weeks edition of the World Wide Duluth Reader and will follow that up with an NHL preview and predictions. Lets Play Hockey!!

THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL season is underway and it just wouldn’t seem right without some player arrests or scandals popping up would it?  Well, Voila’! Poof! Here is one that could get interesting because it might involve some of the biggest programs in the country. In a five part story being published in Sports Illustrated tales of money, sex, recruiting violations and dope is causing quite a stir. Oklahoma State is one of the programs receiving scrutiny along with Alabama, Mississippi State and Tennessee. Major parts of the story focus on recruiting visit violations and how money is given to some of the upper level players under the table.

College football has been tagged for decades as being rife with unethical behavior to gain advantage over opponents. Back when the NFL didn’t pay as well as it does currently, it used to be a joke that players would have to take a “pay cut” when going from college to the pro ranks. At any rate, I have found this article to be fascinating. Look for the coaches of the programs in question to be placed under some very hot lights facing some uncomfortable questioning about what they knew and how they may have been involved.

A lot of it will be hard to prove. I find it hard to fathom that a program, player or coach will have to pay much of a price in light of what are sure to be less then intense NCAA investigations of unscrupulous behavior. As is always the case with stories of this magnitude in a publication of this caliber, some of the reader commentary posted online is knocking the veracity of some of the story, challenging one of the writers as lazy and incompetent, and another as being nothing but a proofreader. I believe in time the dust will settle and the parts of the story that are true allegations will be ferreted out as such and those that aren’t will be duly noted. Time will tell if any punishment will be dealt out. I’ll be surprised if there is…. PEACE