T
he Twins are believed to be talking about a four-year contract offer worth about $33 million for catcher Joe Mauer, whose .347 average led the major leagues in hitting last season. The fourth year of the guaranteed deal would bind Mauer, who doesn’t turn 24 until April, past his first season of free-agent eligibility.
The Twins have offered Mauer $3.3 million in salary arbitration; Mauer has requested $4.5 million. Usually, the Twins and arbitration players agree to a midpoint figure. But this case could be headed for a hearing.
) The Chicago Bears took former Eden Prairie lineman Mark Levoir, a practice squad player, to Miami for today’s Super Bowl.
) John “Hondo” Hughes of St. Paul accepted an invitation from Muhammad Ali to perform magic tricks at the former boxing champion’s home during a Super Bowl party today in Phoenix.
) Twins ticket prices, which range from $7 to $119 (dugout boxes) in the Metrodome, aren’t expected to increase significantly, relative to inflation, for many of the seats in the new ballpark when it opens in 2010.
) Among the stars on the DeLaSalle boys basketball team is 6-foot-8 sophomore Royce White, the son of former Gopher Kevin Smith.
) The Twins don’t want Francisco Liriano to pitch even one minor league inning this year while he continues therapy for his surgically repaired left arm.
) Billionaire Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor owns a chicken farm in northern Iowa that produces 4 million eggs a day.
) Jared Berggren, the 6-10 Princeton, Minn., junior who has committed to Wisconsin, had recent games of 22 points, 18 rebounds and nine blocked shots, and 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks despite being double- and triple-teamed by opponents.
) Defenseman A.J. Thelen of Savage, a former Wild first-round draft pick, has 17 points, including five power-play goals, and his Vancouver team has qualified for the Western Hockey League playoffs.
) Nearly 70 past and present NFL players are expected to appear at the Minnesota Chapter of NFL Alumni’s “Caring for Kids” dinner Feb. 24 at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton.
) A recent monster truck show in the Metrodome attracted nearly 50,000 spectators.
) Among the Twins’ 175 minor leaguers who will report to spring training next month are players from the United States, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Cuba, Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.
) One of the best basketball coaching jobs in Minnesota this season is being performed by Kelly Boe, who has the Concordia-St. Paul men’s team off to a 15-4 start.
) Former Gophers and NBA guard Trent Tucker will host a youth fund-raiser celebrity poker party Feb. 15 in Las Vegas that will include former NBA stars Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Charles Oakley. Entry fee is $10,000.
) Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman shot par-72 at Rush Creek last summer, his career-best golf score.
) Retired longtime NFL referee Bernie Kukar of Edina will speak at the Dunkers breakfast Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club.
) NFL official Ed Houculi will speak to Minnesota and western Wisconsin high school football coaches March 1 at Hamline University’s End Zone Club.
)The Twins have every player from their 1987 World Series championship team committed to attend their 20-year reunion Aug. 17-19 except pitcher Les Straker, whom they have been unable to locate, and designated hitter Don Baylor.
) Timberwolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg, who is expected to one day run the team’s basketball operation, is scheduled to scout three college games out east this week.
) Former Hill-Murray defenseman Mike Phillippi, who has committed to Nebraska-Omaha, and former Rochester Century goaltender Alex Kangas, who has committed to the Gophers, of the Indiana Ice were selected to the U.S. Hockey League all-star team.
) Former Minnesota Lynx star Andrea Lloyd Curry will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 9.
) Gophers football play-by-play voice Dave Lee of WCCO-AM has been voted Minnesota sportscaster of the year for the third consecutive year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and will be honored in April in Salisbury, N.C.
) Lease negotiations between the Twins and the new Minnesota Ballpark Authority are expected to conclude within a week or so.
) Ex-Gopher Danny Irmen is third in goal scoring for the Wild’s Houston Aeros team with 14 goals in 48 games.
) Former longtime Gophers men’s tennis coach Jerry Noyce is an executive with the Health Fitness corporation in Minneapolis.
) Former Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti is the new hitting coach for Tampa Bay’s Class AAA club in Durham, N.C.
) Hill-Murray graduate Craig Johnson, a former Gopher who played for the Los Angeles Kings, has been playing hockey for Dusseldorf in Germany.
) Former Minnesota Kicks and Strikers soccer goalie Tino Lettieri has opened a pizzeria in Minnetonka.
) Hastings’ Donny Lick, with victories in Michigan, West Virginia and Indiana, was honored in Cartersville, Ga., recently as the top powerboat racing performer in Formula 3 competition in 2006.
) Jerry “Scratch” Daniels, who broke racing records at the Minnesota State Fair during the 1960s, will be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on June 2 in Knoxville, Iowa.
Charley Walters’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com
