Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor from St. Paul will be in Cooperstown, N.Y., in three weeks when Ichiro Suzuki from Japan will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Molitor, the former Twins American League Manager of the Year in 2017, was Suzuki’s hitting coach with the Mariners in 2004, the season he set MLB’s single-season hits record of 262.
“The funny thing is that during spring training, the Mariners wanted me to talk to him about being more patient, taking more pitches and trying to get on base more,” Molitor told the Pioneer Press. “After trying that in spring trading, and two or three weeks of the season, I could tell he was getting frustrated, and I told him that everything we talked about in spring training, just forget about it. Just go back to who you were.”
Molitor, who had 3,319 hits during a 21-year career, never had a 50-hit month in a season. Ichiro, who 3,089 hits during a major league 19-year career, had three 50-hit seasons.
“Think about that,” Molitor said. “It was remarkable to watch him find a way to get 262 hits in a 162-game schedule. I’m looking forward in particular to welcoming Ichiro to the Club.”
>> Suzuki will be one of just seven Hall of Famers with at least 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases. Among others is Molitor, who also missed nearly 500 games because of injuries. Molitor and Suzuki, by the way, are the only players to get triples for their 3,000th hits.
>> Pro Football Hall of Fame former Viking Randall McDaniel is a big fan of St. Paul’s Dennis Ryan, the Vikings’ recently retired equipment manager who last week was honored in Canton, Ohio, by the Hall of Fame after 47 years with the Vikings.
“My rookie year, being from Arizona, in the first cold game I ever played in — at Lambeau Field in Green Bay — I was warming my feet up on the sideline with the old butane heaters and literally set my shoes on fire, melted the rubber around my feet, and had to run out on the field with this melted rubber on my feet,” the former offensive lineman told the Pioneer Press.
“I come off the field, and I can’t believe I did this and hopefully no one saw it, and there’s Dennis standing there on the sideline holding up my backup pair of shoes. He already knew. With Dennis you never had to ask for anything — he already knew what you needed. He was the best in the game.”
>> The first-place Cubs come to Target Field on Tuesday to play the Twins with Simley High grad Michael Busch hitting .288 with 17 home runs — three homers hit Friday against the Cardinals — and 55 RBIs in 82 games.
Busch, 27, traded by the Dodgers last year, is playing first base for $780,500 this season and warrants NL All-Star selection. He’ll be in for a big payday next season.
>> The hip surgery former Gopher Max Meyer, 26, had this month is season-ending. The Miami Marlins pitcher from Woodbury had Tommy John surgery in 2022 that caused him to miss the entire 2023 season.
>> Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Housley, 61, from South St. Paul is back in town after his dismissal as associate coach of the New York Rangers. He’ll still be paid for next season while he contemplates the next phase of his hockey career.
>> Former Gopher-NHL center Thomas Vanek’s son Blake, 17, a right wing who played at Stillwater, was the 93rd overall pick by the Ottawa Senators in the recent NHL entry draft.
>> Oklahoma Thunder’s 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren, asked whether he considered the Gophers out of Minnehaha Academy: “Obviously, yeah, hometown school. I just felt it came down to the relationships I built at Gonzaga. It was the perfect situation for myself at the time.”
>> This season’s baseball All-Star Game is July 15 in Atlanta. Only Hall of Famer Tony Oliva, who turns 87 in two months, and Jimmie Hall, 87, remain from a group of six Twins on the 1965 American League All-Star team. Deceased are Harmon Killebrew, Earl Battey, Mudcat Grant and Zoilo Versalles.
Oliva said last week he’s slowly recovering from a “mild stroke” last spring and hopes to return to Target field before the end of this season.
>> Condolences to the family of former Gophers baseball Hall of Famer Mike Walseth, who passed away Friday at 77 from cancer.
>> Jim Christopherson, 87, the former Vikings square-toe kicker and Concordia-Moorhead football coach for 32 years, was a teammate of late Viking Jim Marshall. “I don’t know if people know that Jim ran track at Ohio State,” Christopherson said.
>> Happy birthday: Former longtime Gophers football trainer Jim Marshall, residing at the Minnesota Veterans Home, turned 95 last week.
>> Champions PGA Tour golfer Tim “Lumpy” Herron’s son Carson III of Deephaven — 22 and already nicknamed “Little Lumpy” — made his professional debut Thursday in the John Deere tournament in Silvis, Ill., but missed the cut after rounds of 76 and 73.
>> North Oaks native Frankie Capan III, 25, who will play in the 3M Open July 24-27 at the TPC in Blaine, has earned $270,000 in his rookie PGA Tour season but has missed 12 cuts.
>> South Africa’s 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter, winner of the recent Rocket PGA Tour tournament in Detroit, is committed to the 3M Open. The 5-11, 211-pounder is averaging 327.4 yards with his driver, No. 1 on the tour.
>> Among celebrities the 3M Open is bringing in for pro-ams and assorted appearances is former Timberwolves forward Wally Szczerbiak.
>> Scheduled to play in the American Century celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe next weekend are Joe Mauer, Adam Thielen, Larry Fitzgerald, TJ Oshie and Aaron Rodgers.
>> Stillwater’s Matt Vandelac, 65, who has won the last two Minnesota Senior Open golf championships (66-66 this spring at Keller), still drives the ball 280 yards.
>> New Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved drew a large Twin Cities Dunkers audience for a recent appearance at Interlachen Country Club, where he spoke of the challenges of building a nearly brand new team quickly. To his credit, he did not advocate for a new arena. Medved appears July 23 at the Capital Club at Mendakota Country Club.
>> Just an hour after congratulating pal Mike Guentzel on a hole-in-one at StoneRidge Golf Club the other day, St. Paul insurance executive John Regal knocked an eight-iron 155 yards into the cup at StoneRidge’s No. 7 for an ace.
>> That was former Gopher-Fighting Saint Pat Westrum, a 20-handicapper, scoring a second-career ace on the 158-yard No. 7 hole at Emerald Greens with a five-iron.
>> Ex-Gopher Dawson Garcia’s free agent signing with the NBA Pistons unites the 6-11 Prior Lake grad with coach B.J. Bickerstaff, who is loyal to his alma mater.
>> Representing the Gophers at Big Ten football media day on July 23 in Las Vegas will be Koi Perich, Anthony Smith and Darius Taylor.
Don’t print that
>> Industry sources say the Twins, who began exploring a sale last October and have sought $1.7 billion for the team, have a deal on the table and that bidding to line up financing is underway. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is expected to guarantee the Twins’ debt, reportedly more than $400 million. After seeing financial books, some potential buyers backed off due to the team’s lack of cash flow.
>> For the last 21 years, buyers of professional sports franchises have been able to write off 100 percent of the cost amortized over a 15-year-period. With Congress’ passing of the mega tax bill last week in Washington, only 50 percent now can be written off. That potentially could affect the price of future franchise sales, including the Twins.
>> The corporate naming rights switch from the Wild’s Xcel Energy Center to Grand Casino Mille Lacs, first reported to happen by the Pioneer Press in May, could have repercussions for downtown St. Paul.
It’s complicated and sensitive, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Treasure Island casino in Welch ends up in a direct competing capacity with Grand Casino if legalized sports gambling is allowed in Minnesota.
>> Don’t think the Wild aren’t livid about the State Legislature’s recent rejection to fund a renovation of its 25-year-old arena. Meanwhile, there’s whispering that the team has considered a revamped entertainment center adjacent to Roy Wilkins Auditorium that would include a professional women’s volleyball franchise.
That would also include moving the parking ramp just south of Kellogg Boulevard to north of the arena, where a five-story parking ramp would be built. A hotel with between 400 and 600 rooms would replace the existing parking ramp.
The really sensitive issue would be the possibility of housing a 200,000-square foot casino adjacent to the hotel. Which tribe would operate it would be interesting, for sure.
>> The NHL wouldn’t allow owner Craig Leipold to move the Wild out of Minnesota, but probably wouldn’t oppose a move to Bloomington — former home of the North Stars — or Eagan. Don’t think a move isn’t a possibility if St. Paul doesn’t realize the value of the Wild enough to upgrade its arena.
“We’re definitely concerned about that possibility,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter told the Pioneer Press on Thursday. “We don’t take them for granted. So far, we’ve been working really closely with the team. It’s not something we see as an acute threat right now.”
>> Xcel Energy Center’s naming rights were worth $3 million a year to the Wild. Grand Casino naming rights are believed to be worth at least $10 million annually.
>> Pssst: Eagan, as part of the Vikings complex, and Bloomington, adjacent to Mall of America on the southeast side, are considered favored sites for an NBA arena that would replace Target Center under new Timberwolves-Lynx owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore.
>> Buzz continues that Lore and Rodriguez intend to bring Kevin Garnett to the Wolves-Lynx in an advisory role, then retire his No. 21 jersey and perhaps even erect a statue.
>> Ohio State is saying publicly it plans to spend $18 million on athletes for the coming academic year. The Gophers aren’t saying, but are expected to spend about $13 million on football and $5 million on men’s and women’s basketball.
>> For an eight-year, 33-36 Big Ten won-loss record — the record that counts — Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck is up for a one-year contract extension that this year includes a new $1 million retention bonus.
>> Iowa alum and former Viking Chad Greenway’s Gray Duck Spirits company has a deal with the University of Minnesota to donate 25 percent of local vodka purchases up to $1 million to the Gophers name, image and likeness (NIL) collective. Also, purchases of Gray Duck at Twin Cities golf courses will be directed to the Gophers men’s and women’s golf programs.
>> Odds are less than 50-50 that there will be an agreement even by 2026 allowing LIV golfers to compete in the 3M Open, which will continue to be held at the TPC in Blaine the week after the British Open.
>> While the Knicks ate $30 million by firing ex-Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau in June, the Suns ate $40 million by firing coach Mike Budenholzer in April.
>> Dwane Casey, the ex-Wolves coach who coached new San Antonio Spurs associate head coach Sean Sweeney in Detroit, on the fiery coaching demeanor of the Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas grad, in a profile by Substack’s David Chabot: “You look at him, he looks like a choir boy, then he opens his mouth and it’s Lucifer all over again.”
A little birdie says Sweeney is getting a $1.5 million pay increase to leave the Mavericks as top assistant for the Spurs. He also was very close in the hunt for the Suns’ head job.
>> The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold for $10 billion. Minneapolis businessman Bob Short and two dozen investors purchased the Lakers for $200,000 in 1957, then in 1965 sold the team to Jack Kent Cooke for $5.2 million.
>> No doubt if the Wilf family, which bought the Vikings for $600 million in 2005, put the Vikings on the market today, they would receive a minimum of $8 billion.
>> There’s a decent chance that Major League Baseball will implement robot umpires for 2026.
“The problem I see is twofold,” retired 30-year umpire Tim Tschida, 65, from St. Paul said. “No. 1, once you bring it in, and if it doesn’t produce the result you had hoped, how are you going to get it out? And it’s not going to totally clean up the strike zone because it’s a challenge system. I really hope it doesn’t happen.”
>> The Timberwolves’ average ticket price this season of $163 was the second-largest increase in the NBA from the season before, when their tickets averaged $98, per TickPick.
>> In 1991, an average ticket, beer, soft drink, hot dog, parking and team hat for a Vikings game cost $142.50, sixth-highest in the NFL, per Hard Rock International research. This year, cost is $641.53, an increase of 350 percent.
The 1991 average per-game cost for the publicly-owned Packers was $128. Now it’s $718.57, an increase of 461 percent, highest in the NFL.
>> “Rescue: Hi Surf,” the Fox drama in which Cretin-Derham Hall grad Ian Anthony Dale had recurring roles, has been cancelled.
>> Longtime Twins Ballpark Operations VP Matt Hoy is transitioning to Senior Advisor, Operations. Ryan Tanke, out as Timberwolves-Lynx COO with the Rodriguez-Lore purchase, is new COO of the Houston Rockets. And John Penfellow is leaving as executive VP and chief revenue officer of the Vikings to become president of business operations for the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Overheard
Twin Cities native Chet Holmgren, who helped the Oklahoma Thunder win the NBA championship in June 2025, answers a question during a news conference at the Oxford Community Center in St. Paul on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
>> While at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center on Thursday on behalf of youngsters, Oklahoma Thunder standout Chet Holmgren was asked by the Pioneer Press his opinion on MVP teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s new guaranteed $285 million, four-year contract: “He’s more than earned that. Players of his caliber can’t be paid what they’re worth, just the way the structure of salary cap and everything is set up. He got paid the absolutely most he could get paid, and rightfully so. He’s earned every dollar. He’s the type of person you want to see get paid, too — great person off the floor, great family man.”
