The one significant remark by Minnesota Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf at the team’s Eagan facility last week was that ownership will wait until the end of the season to determine whether GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell will receive contract extensions.
That makes sense. The pair was hired two years ago with four-year contracts. In their two seasons, the Vikings are 20-14, but 7-10 last year with no playoff.
Coach Mike Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman each had two years remaining on their Vikings contracts when they were fired in 2022. The Wilfs fired coach Brad Childress in 2010 with two years left on his contract.
It would seem the Vikings would be more inclined to give O’Connell an extension than Adofo-Mensah. It would also be awkward to give O’Connell an extension now and not Adofo-Mensah.
O’Connell is a former NFL quarterback. Adofo-Mensah does not have a football-playing background. Before this month is over, the Vikings were expected to cut both safety Lewis Cine and cornerback Andrew Booth, the first two picks in Adofo-Mensah’s first draft two years ago.
Cine is still expected to be released. On Friday, Booth was dumped on the Cowboys.
That’s been costly.
If Adofo-Mensah isn’t retained, a successor would be expected to have a strong scouting background.
** On Friday, the Twins got critical news on disabling shoulders of Twins pitchers Joe Ryan and Brock Stewart. Shoulder-arm injuries have become rampant among major league pitchers.
Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, a Hall of Fame broadcaster who spent a year as GM of the White Sox and was in organized baseball for six decades, has a theory regarding pitching injuries.
“You go back 20, 30 years and in those days the seams on the baseball were much higher,” Harrelson said from his home in South Bend, Ind., last week. “Today, the seams are so tight and these kids are having to work so hard to throw a good curveball or a good slider. That’s what’s causing all these Tommy John (surgeries).”
** Max Johnson, 23, a 6-6, 230-pound quarterback for the North Carolina football team the Gophers host on Aug. 29, is son of former Vikings QB Brad Johnson. The Tar Heels are the third school for Johnson, who left LSU to transfer to Texas A&M before ending up in Chapel Hill.
** For the first time since 1962, the Gophers are headed to the Rose Bowl on Oct. 12, but that’s only because the Rose Bowl is home stadium for UCLA.
By the way, the Gophers were only able to play in the 1962 Rose Bowl, defeating UCLA 21-3, because faculty at Big Ten champion Ohio State voted to turn down the invitation, fearing the Buckeyes would be viewed as more a football factory than an academic institution.
Minnesota, which had lost 17-7 to Washington in the Rose Bowl the previous season, finished runner-up to Ohio State in 1961 but was chosen as an at-large team because the Big Ten then had a no-repeat rule for the Rose Bowl.
Ohio State professors voted 28-25 against accepting the Rose Bowl invitation. Minnesota faculty voted 108-33 in favor.
** There were 4,970 entries from 37 countries who tried to qualify for the U.S. Amateur men’s golf championship that begins Monday at Hazeltine National and nearby Chaska Town Course. Among those, 312 qualified at 45 sites. Required were registered handicaps not exceeding 0.4.
Minnesotans who qualified include Sam Udovich, 17, the incoming Cretin-Derham Hall senior; Shorewood’s Gunnar Brown, 22, who’ll be a fifth-year senior at the University of Kansas this fall; East Grand Forks’ Nate Deziel, 24, who plans to turn professional after the tournament; Stillwater’s Ben Warren, 22, the former Gopher, and Minnetonka grad Jacob Pedersen, 24.
Average age of the field is 22.5.
Udovich is the fourth-youngest golfer in the field. His father Mike owns the popular Fireside Lounge in West St. Paul. Among Sam’s favorite movies is “Miracle,” the inspirational story of Herb Brooks’ amateur-laden 1980 USA Olympic men’s hockey gold medal champions that upset the professional Soviet Union.
For motivation, Sam has watched “Miracle” more than 50 times.
** John Daly II, son of the two-time major winner and a junior at the University of Arkansas, has qualified. He’s compiled a 71.78 scoring average in competition this summer.
** Tiger Woods’ son Charlie, 15, isn’t among the field. In July at Oakland Hills in Michigan, Charlie missed the cut in the U.S. Junior Amateur, finishing 240th in the 264-player field.
** Hazeltine will play at 7,552 yards with rough at least four inches off the fairways and as high as eight inches on fringes of greens.
Advice from one USGA official: Hit the ball in the fairway.
** Former Gopher John Harris, who won the U.S. Amateur in 1993 and is a member of Augusta National, is in Florida and was unable to attend last week’s tournament press outing, but on a pre-recorded video said winning the U.S. Amateur championship “changed my life.”
** Honorary co-chair for the U.S. Amateur is Hall of Fame former Twin Joe Mauer, who is a five-handicapper at Somerset Country Club and last Monday played a few holes at Hazeltine.
** That was Sean Lehman, son of former British Open champion Tom, winning the Resorters men’s championship the other day at Alexandria Golf Club. Tom, 65, still playing on the PGA Champions Tour, won the Resorters 44 years ago. Sean, from Scottsdale, Arizona., is a senior at Cal-Poly University, and Tom said Sean hits drives at least 50 yards farther than he did in his prime.
** The Marlins’ recent trade with the Padres for Adam Mazur means Woodbury High School has had two graduates pitching in the major leagues this season. Max Meyer is 2-2 with the Marlins this season.
** Marshall High grad Trey Lance, 24, who’ll quarterback the Cowboys against the Rams in Sunday’s exhibition opener, has a contract guaranteed for $34.1 million over four years. That’s $12 million more than Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy, 21, who’ll play Sunday against the Raiders.
** Former Twins marketing whiz Patrick Klinger put together a group of ex-colleagues, including Terry Ryan, Paul Molitor, John Anderson, Billy Smith, Ron Gardenhire, Mark Weber, Gene Glynn, Jim Rantz and Joe Vavra, for a golf outing tribute to new Twins Hall of Famer Ryan at Northfield last Wednesday. Molitor made three birdies.
** Gary Dotter, who pitched for the Twins at age 19 in 1961, died last week at age 81 from Parkinson’s disease.
** How Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels expects his players to play: “With their hair on fire.”
** After more than 70 years playing golf, former Pioneer Press-Minneapolis Star sports newsman Mike Lamey finally got his first hole-in-one, a 162-yard, three-wood shot last week at North Oaks’ No. 15. Hindered by macular degeneration and a seven-minute search around the green for the ball, Lamey’s playing partner found it in the hole.
** Happy birthday: Lifelong lover of golf Jim Ekman, who plays in a Monday league at Bunker Hills and in the 1951-52 hockey season led Wilson High in St. Paul in goals, turns 90 this month.
** Admirers of Lou Cotroneo have raised $22,000 to commemorate the legacy of the late Johnson High hockey coaching legend with a bronze plaque and a representation by acclaimed artist Terry Fogarty.
** An autobiography of former Gophers assistant Tom Moore, considered by Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy “the greatest assistant football coach in NFL history,” will be released next month.
** Condolences to the family of Don Giesen, the Union Hall, Minn., amateur baseball icon who died the other day at age 84.
Don’t print that
** It will be interesting whether the Vikings can find a way to push back a court date, scheduled for Oct. 7, until after the season for Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison, charged with two misdemeanors after an arrest in Los Angeles last month. Addison is expected to receive a three-game suspension from the NFL.
If Addison is suspended, the remainder of his $13.8 million, four-year contract is expected to go from guaranteed to non-guaranteed. He was the Vikings’ first-round draft pick in 2023.
There is little doubt the Vikings, after the season, will seek, via free agency, trade or draft, another top wide receiver because Addison has proven unreliable.
** Ex-Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, 28, after last season with the Jets and Ravens, remains unsigned. He was paid $7 million last year but will be fortunate to make $2 million this year.
** Rocco Baldelli played baseball virtually every day as a youngster in Woonsocket, R.I., with his dad, brother and neighbors.
“My dad (Rocky) always said, ‘Catch the ball with two hands,’ ” Baldelli told the Pioneer Press.
Today, it’s rare to see a major leaguer use two hands to make a catch. Twins outfielders Byron Buxton and Max Kepler use one hand to make catches.
That doesn’t bother Rocco, the Twins manager, because today’s players are so skilled.
“They catch everything,” Baldelli said.
** In Friday evening’s important victory over Cleveland, North St. Paul grad Louie Varland’s four-seam fastball reached 98.5-mph, his fastest pitch for the Twins right-hander in seven outings this season.
** The Angels the other day acquired former Gophers pitcher George Klassen, whose 99-mph fastball makes him a sleeper in a trade with the Phillies.
** The longer an arbitration hearing takes to determine ownership of the Timberwolves and Lynx seems to indicate the NBA is trying to broker a deal to make the dispute go away.
** Tommy Ahneman, the 6-11, 240-pound incoming basketball senior at Cretin-Derham Hall, is Minnesota’s top college prospect. He was North Dakota’s player of the year as a junior last season and currently ranks No. 48 among the country’s top 50 players. Ahneman is just 17 years old.
The way it looks now, Ahneman’s college commitment will be to either the Big Ten or Notre Dame in the ACC. His five finalists — currently there’s no favorite — are Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Irish. Academically, he has a 3.3 grade point average.
Besides Ahneman, the consensus Minnesota top-five incoming seniors are, in order: 6-10 Chase Thompson, Alexandria; 6-6 Nolan Groves, Orono; 6-2 Anthony Smith, Hopkins; 6-6 Jalen Wilson, Benilde-St. Margaret’s.
** Buzz about a remodel of Williams Arena could diminish now that the Gophers athletics department could end up having to budget some $22 million annually beginning next year to pay athletes via name, image and likeness deals.
** Good guesses: Joe Mauer’s Twins Target Field statue, to be completed next year, will represent him as a catcher even though he won three batting titles; Brock Faber someday will wear the Wild’s captain jersey.
** Besides a new guaranteed $68 million, eight-year contract that begins in 2025, Faber, 21, the other day received performance bonuses of $375,000 for last season. Included was $150,000 for being fifth overall in the NHL for total ice time and sixth overall in average ice time.
** In 1979, Jerry Koosman, born in Appleton, Minn., won 20 games for a Twins team that finished 82-80. Before that, the left-hander won three World Series games for the Mets, who three years ago in a ceremony in New York retired his No. 36 jersey.
These days, Koosman, 81, resides in Osceola, Wis. He hasn’t played his beloved golf — he was a five-handicapper when he lived in Florida — for a half-dozen years due to neuropathy affecting his feet and knees.
“I think about golf all the time,” Koosman said last week. “I just wish I could play again.”
He’s had two heart attacks “that slowed me up a little,” he said with a laugh.
He remains a delightful personality.
“They put me on more damn pills, and the pills caused more problems than anything,” he said. “Lost my taste buds for a couple months, but I’m starting to get back to normal.”
He has a pacemaker for his heart.
“It’s working fine,” he said. “I do all my yard work. My stamina isn’t there like it used to be — your chest kind of lets you know that. I can’t walk more than a block or two. I wish I could get out more.”
This summer, after 12 1/2 years, Koosman lost his border collie named Buddy after his beloved dog suffered two heart attacks.
Still, Kooz is fun and remains upbeat.
“I’m still enjoying every minute I’m above ground,” he said.
** Among the thousands of airline flights that were canceled a few weeks ago due to a massive national computer outage was Tony Oliva’s flight from his trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., for Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame induction on a Sunday.
Oliva, the Twins Hall of Famer, finally made it home nearly four days later by renting a car in Chicago.
“But if you’re going to be stuck in some place, it’s better to be stuck in Cooperstown,” Tony said.
The trek home to Bloomington from Cooperstown was taxing. Oliva is 86 years old.
“You know,” he said, “I’m no spring chicken.”
** Quietly, the NFL is pushing to go from a 17-game regular season to 18 games within two years, plus 16 international games played every year. That would mean every other year the Vikings would play one game internationally, with one game counted as a home game, the other year as an away game.
In the NFL’s labor agreement, players currently receive 48.8% of overall revenue. Look for players to seek 50%. That will be the bargaining focus for the next negotiation.
** Golden Valley Country Club has reopened after a one-year remodel and $12,000 assessment for corporate members. Meanwhile, Interlachen Country Club in Edina opened this weekend after a major remodel and $20,000 assessment per corporate members.
** Inexplicably absent from the Vikings Ring of Honor is St. Paul’s Matt Birk, a six-time Pro Bowl center.
Overheard
** Hall of Fame former Twin Joe Mauer, retired as a multi-millionaire at age 41, on his future: “When I was playing, my family gave me all their time. Now I’m giving them all my time.”
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