Joe Mauer will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame next Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y. The Pioneer Press, from the Hall of Fame Reference Library, has obtained comments from reports by several major league scouts on Mauer from May 2001, when they watched him as an 18-year-old senior catcher at Cretin-Derham Hall.

Cretin-Derham Hall catcher Joe Mauer keeps his eye on the ball during practice Monday, June 4, 2001 in St. Paul as he prepares for Cretin-Derham Hall’s Section 3AAA title game Tuesday – after the major league draft, where he is expected to go high. Mauer, considered one of the best athletes to come out of the Twin Cities in the last 30 years, could forgo baseball to play quarterback at Florida State. (Joe Rossi / Pioneer Press)

A month later, Mauer was selected No. 1 overall by the Twins in the major league amateur draft.
Among comments from scouts (other than those of the Twins) in their reports after observing the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Mauer: “Long, slender frame, narrow top half, rounded shoulders, big hands, plenty of room for physical development, potential excellent major leaguer, excellent hitting approach, balanced at plate, no known injuries, signed football tender with Florida State as QB, outstanding make-up and poise.”

Other comments: “Easy overall actions, pure stroke to all fields, stays inside ball, good at-bat as I’ve seen, exceptional arm, very fluid, proper mechanics.”
As for weaknesses, “Not many flaws, only speed and quickness; game will be enriched on both sides of the plate with time and experience.”

In summary, “Premium player ability, needs added strength for durability and demands of catching, potential to be a big run producer, one of the top position prospects in the country.”

In the “habits” scouting category, comments were rated “excellent,” as well as his “dedication, aptitude and emotional maturing.” Agility and physical maturity were rated “good.”

Now, 23 years later, Mauer, 41, has earned more than $220 million over 15 years in the major leagues with the Twins.

— If you’re a high school senior baseball player, your chances of making a college baseball roster are fewer than three in 50, roughly 5.6 percent. From college to the minor leagues, about 11 in 100 players (10.5 percent) get drafted.

From the minors to the major leagues? Fewer than one if five make it to the big leagues.

— In the 121-year history of major league baseball, just 20,623 players have made it to the majors. Among those, only 273 have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. And among those, just 60 have been elected in their first year of eligibility.

It’s 1,162 miles from St. Paul to Cooperstown. For Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and now Mauer, it has been a remarkable journey.

Molitor, Winfield and Mauer are among those 60 players elected on the first ballot. The trio, and Morris, who was elected by a veterans committee, grew up within a four-mile radius in St. Paul.

They will be with Mauer on hallowed ground when he’s inducted into their shrine in Cooperstown. That is extraordinary.

— Among treasured artifacts fans attending Mauer’s induction weekend can see is the actual bat that a frail Babe Ruth, age 53 and dying of throat cancer, used as a cane for support during his final public appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1948.

The bat, the hall points out, belonged to Bob Feller and was grabbed by Ruth for support en route to hobbling to home plate at the retirement of his iconic No. 3 jersey, as seen in the Pulitzer Prize photo by Nathaniel Fein.

— Next Saturday in Cooperstown, Mauer will partake in a 75-minute Parade of Legends beginning at 6 p.m. and streamed live at mlb.com. The July 21 hall induction ceremony will be at 12:30 p.m. CDT and televised nationally on MLB Network, with satellite radio coverage on Sirius XM.

— Some 40,000 spectators could attend Sunday’s inductions on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center, which is one mile south of the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Mauer’s plaque will be revealed just before his induction speech.

— On May 13 at his Mancini’s St. Paul Sports Hall of Fame induction speech, Mauer gave a glimpse of the speech he’ll give next Sunday in Cooperstown. He’ll thank his parents, brothers and former coaches among others.

“One of the lessons our parents instilled in us (his brothers) is that it’s OK to compete,” he said. “Competition is a good thing — don’t shy away from it. I’m proud to be from St. Paul.”

— The 2024 major league amateur draft is Sunday evening through Tuesday. Gophers with the best chances for selection are Connor Wietgrefe, Will Semb and Brady Counsell, son of Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell. Counsell is transferring to Kansas for his senior season.

— Highest projected Gopher for the 20-round draft is left-handed pitcher Wietgrefe, who could go near the 10th round. Highest projected Minnesota prep is Mounds View pitcher Tyler Guerin, who has committed to Iowa. He also could be in the 10th-round range, depending on his signing bonus demand.

The challenge now for major league organizations signing players to minor league contracts is that colleges can offer, in some cases through NIL, similar deals.

— George Klassen, 22, the former Gophers pitcher with a 99-mph fastball, who was a sixth-round draft pick by Philadelphia last year, this season has 84 strikeouts in 55 innings with a 1.95 earned-run average for two Class A minor league teams. He signed for a $297,500 bonus.

— Scouting remains an imperfect science. Some Baseball Hall of Famers and the rounds in which they were drafted: Mike Piazza, 62nd round; John Smoltz, 22nd; Ryan Sandberg, 20th; Jim Thome, 13th; Nolan Ryan, 12th; Andre Dawson, 11th and Trevor Hoffman, 11th.

— In baseball’s 2012 draft, the Houston Astros, with the No. 1 overall pick, took shortstop Carlos Correa. The Twins, with the No. 2 pick, took center fielder Byron Buxton. Now they’re on the same Twins team.

Correa, 29, has a career .275 batting average. Buxton’s career average is .244. Correa is making $33 million a season; Buxton, 30, is making $15 million a season.

— Hall of Fame former Twin Tony Oliva will turn 86 on Saturday.

— Ex-Gophers guard Cam Christie, who doesn’t turn 19 until July 24, hit three field goals and finished with eight points during 27 minutes in his professional debut for the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday against Denver in the Las Vegas summer league.

The Clippers gave the second-round draft pick a $7.9 million, four- year contract, with $3.1 million guaranteed. When Christie declared for the NCAA portal last May, there was buzz that some other college programs were willing to pay $750,000 a year via NIL. Christie will wear jersey No. 12, the same number brother Max, 21, wears with the Los Angeles Lakers.

— Deephaven’s Tim Herron, 54, a four-time PGA Tour winner, was in Akron, Ohio, playing in the Champions Tour tournament at Firestone when son Carson, 21, won the Minnesota State Open at Rush Creek.

“I’m a very proud dad that he had self belief to do that,” Tim said.

Carson, a junior at his father’s alma mater New Mexico, is 6-4, 200 pounds and flies his drives some 50 yards past Tim, who is a long hitter. During a practice round the other day at Wayzata Country Club, Carson hit driver, then flew over the 526-yard No. 2 hole with a 9-iron. Last week at Wayzata CC, Carson was repeatedly flying 5-irons 230 yards.

Because he’s an amateur, Carson couldn’t accept the $13,500 first prize. That went to low professional Caleb VanArragon. Herron will play in this week’s Minnesota Amateur tournament at Minnesota Valley.

— Former officials Kenny Mauer (NBA), Tim Tschida (MLB) and Fred Bryan (NFL) headline a discussion panel at a Capital Club breakfast on Wednesday at Mendakota Country Club.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell speaks at a Dunkers breakfast on Thursday at Interlachen Country Club.

— Brittany Viola, a 2012 Olympic diver and daughter of former Twins Cy Young Award winner Frank, has developed a delightful eating disorder card game tool, Ferret Flush on Kickstarter, for parents, coaches, teachers and others to deal with mental health communication.

— Murray Rudisill, 61, the sports marketing promotional whiz from North Oaks Country Club, will realize a major bucket list wish this week when he caddies a couple of British Open practice rounds at Royal Troon in Scotland for friend Todd Hamilton, the 2004 Open champion.

“Walking down the Open championship fairways — a dream come true for me,” said Rudisill, a 4.5 handicapper.

— Janel McCarville, the former Gophers basketball star, last season coached her alma mater Stevens Point Area Senior High to the Wisconsin Valley Conference championship and was named the league’s coach of the year.

Don’t print that

— It wouldn’t be surprising if the NBA, in an effort to avoid an arbitration hearing over Timberwolves-Lynx ownership with Glen Taylor, offers the Alex Rodriguez-Mark Lore tandem that initially agreed to buy the teams for $1.5 billion, first chance at an expansion team in Seattle, where Rodriguez was a popular player with the Mariners.

In any deal, it would expected that Taylor buys out Rodriguez-Lore’s 40 percent investment at nearly double what the pair initially paid because of the dramatically increased value of the franchises the past three years, especially after the NBA’s new media deal last week, apparently worth $76 billion (that’s billion, not million) over 11 years.

The reason the value of NBA teams has exploded is because basketball has become a popular international sport. More than a fifth of the league’s recent first-round draft picks were international players; the same for the second round.

— Vikings training camp begins in two weeks. The way it looks now, it will be a redshirt year for rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, with Sam Darnold the starter and Nick Mullens the backup. It appears the transition plan will be to turn the starting job over to McCarthy in 2025.

— Rookie Khyree Jackson’s death in a car accident last week recalls other tragic Vikings events: 1964, Terry Dillon dies in a drowning accident; 1973, Karl Kassulke becomes paralyzed from a motorcycle accident; 1978, coach Jocko Nelson dies of heart attack; 1999, coach Chip Myers dies of heart attack; 2001, Korey Stringer dies of heat stroke in training camp; 2018, coach Tony Sparano dies of heart attack.

— People who know say former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas star Sean Sweeney was the Pistons’ backup plan if Detroit couldn’t reach agreement with ex-Gopher J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach.

— In the history of major league baseball, only once has an umpire ejected a player from a game, then allowed him to re-enter the game. The episode belongs to Tschida.

It happened in Anaheim, the Angels against the Texas Rangers. Tschida called Orlando Palmeiro of the Angels out on strikes. Palmeiro subsequently laid his bat on home plate and started walking to the dugout.

“I said ‘come back and get that thing or you can just keep on going,’ ” Tschida told Palmeiro. “He turned his shoulder and said, ‘I’m leaving it for the next guy.’ I went, yeah, right, nice line. And I ran him.”

The next batter, Gary DiSarcina, came to home plate with no bat in his hands.

“He goes, ‘Tim, he’s telling the truth. We’re all using the same bat.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘what?’ ”

Because the Angels weren’t hitting well, they had decided to actually use the same bat once throughout the lineup in an effort to break their slump.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tschida said.

Angels manager Terry Collins and Tschida had known each other since their days working in Class A minor league ball.

“Terry looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think to tell you about this.’ I looked at (Angels hitting coach Carew) Rod and he put his hand on his heart and said, ‘that’s on me, Tim.’ ”

Tschida walked over to Rangers manager Bobby Valentine and said, ‘you’re not going to believe this.’ And he goes, ‘I already know what you’re going to do.’ ”

Tschida told Valentine he was putting Palmeiro back in the game.

“Bobby said, ‘if (Angels) they all do with that bat what Orlando just did with that bat, I’m OK with it.’ ”

— The Gophers have had several players offered at least $40,000 to leave via the NCAA transfer portal. Currently, there are 2,411 college baseball players in the transfer portal. The Gophers have eight players in the portal.

— Due to NIL, throughout college baseball there are some players paid more than their head coaches. More than a few players in the recent College World Series were said to be paid more than $1 million.

— Wally Wescott, who coached hall of famer Paul Molitor as a seventh grader at St. Luke’s grade school and has a sharp eye for talent, said Twins rookie Brooks Lee reminds him of Molitor in terms of ability and poise.

— The Angels have demoted ex-Twin Miguel Sano, who was batting .205 with two home runs and 36 strikeouts in 83 at-bats. Sano, 31, has a $1 million guaranteed contract for this season. During his nine-year career, Sano was paid $36.3 million.

— Tickets for Sunday afternoon’s Indiana Fever (Caitlin Clark) game against the Lynx at Target Center range from $26 to $1,098 on StubHub.

— If the NHL salary cap increases as expected the next two years, it could cost the Wild at least $15 million a season to retain Kirill Kaprizov, 27, who has two seasons remaining on his five-year, $45 million million contract.

— Woodbury’s Jake Guentzel, 29, received a $12 million first-year signing bonus with his recent seven-year, $63 million contract with Tampa Bay.

— If streaming Twins TV games the last two months of this season results from a July 29 Diamond Sports bankruptcy hearing, viewers can expect to pay about $19.95 a month. Platform remains unknown.

— Dennis Evans, the 7-1 center from Riverside, Calif. who initially committed to the Gophers, then left for Louisville, has transferred again, this time to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

Overheard

— The PGA Tour’s Lee Hodges, the reigning 3M Open champion, asked the other day in Blaine what he would consider a fair distance for a gimme putt for an amateur golfer: “I think you should give anything within the leather (length of grip on putter) — unless you don’t like the guy.”

Minnesota Timberwolves co-owner Glen Taylor answers questions during a news conference to introduce Tim Connelly the team’s new President of Basketball Operations at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Umpire Tim Tschida during a baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday, May 12, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
BLAINE, MINNESOTA – JULY 29: (L-R) Lee Hodges of the United States and Tyler Duncan of the United States shake hands on the 18th green during the third round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities on July 29, 2023 in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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“The crime of the century!”

So screamed headlines with relative frequency in the century immediately preceding this one. And if you measure impact by number of fictional adaptations, Chicago’s “Leopold and Loeb” case was certainly among the top handful.

In 1924, two prodigious Chicago teenagers who’d recently graduated from college — Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb — murdered a young neighbor in a test of Loeb’s theory that those of their intellectual level were immune to the average human’s issues of morality and conscience.

Five years after the murder, Patrick Hamilton’s play, “Rope,” premiered in London, built upon a Leopold-and-Loeb-like scenario, Alfred Hitchcock later adapting it into a film. “Compulsion” followed in 1959, based upon one of the multiple novels the case inspired.

Gremlin Theatre allows you to crack open the amber and see how the tale was spun in 1929 with a very impressive production, one propelled by intriguing characterizations and imaginative technical elements. It’s by no means a light summer murder mystery, but instead a grippingly tense battle of wits.

Jeffrey Nolan and Jeremy Bode in Gremlin Theatre’s production of “Rope,” a play about two college students who have committed a murder and host a dinner party in a room in which the corpse is hidden, which runs through Aug. 4, 2024 at the St. Paul theater. (Alyssa Kristine / Gremlin Theatre)

Director Peter Christian Hansen has cast mostly college-aged actors, all very talented and all save one adopting a naturalistic approach that makes you feel as if eavesdropping on a casual gathering of old friends.

But Hansen and technical director, set and lighting designer Carl Schoenborn make a fascinating choice that plunges the audience into the tension immediately: The production’s first 15 minutes are performed in virtual darkness, leaving only your ears to ascertain that a murder is being committed and the body locked in a chest.

When curtains are pulled back to reveal the London nightscape, the two young murderers, Brandon and Granillo, are processing what they’ve done and preparing to host a dinner party for five guests, among them the victim’s father, the food served atop the chest.

The production feels remarkably faithful to what London audiences might have experienced in 1929, traditional aristocratic manners feeling the tug of American influences suggested by the effervescent Mira Davis’ flapper dress (among the first-rate costumes of A. Emily Heaney). Sarah Bauer has filled the room with props that place us precisely in the period, while Aaron Newman’s sound design brings us some great vintage jazz and a daunting thunderstorm.

Coleson Eldredge is particularly compelling as Brandon, who clearly seems the brains behind the murder plot. Yes, he’s cocky, but also subtly vulnerable, and the cracks in his calm exterior are believably exposed. Jeremy Bode has the tougher task as Granillo, who’s barely holding himself together and seems to age before our eyes as the play progresses.

It took some time for me to warm to what Jeffrey Nolan does with Rupert, an older poet friend who seems from the get-go the most likely to expose their crime. In a room full of naturalism, his stagy, affected manner feels out of place for much of the first act before his guard is lowered a bit in an engaging second-act monologue.

While it’s an expertly executed production, you may wish that Hansen had found a way to accelerate or cut some of the play’s slower-moving sections, particularly in Rupert’s silent ruminations or a climactic standoff that grows repetitious. But it’s nevertheless the kind of excellent work we’ve come to expect from Gremlin, one of our great little Twin Cities theater companies.

‘Rope’

When: Through Aug. 4

Where: Gremlin Theatre, 550 Vandalia St., St. Paul

Tickets: $42-$19, available at gremlintheatre.org

Capsule: A well-executed drama of murder and hubris.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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By MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and bestselling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, has died. She was 96.

Westheimer died Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family, according to publicist and friend Pierre Lehu.

Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behavior. Instead, she encouraged open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was there was nothing to be ashamed of.

“I still hold old-fashioned values, and I’m a bit of a square,” she told students at Michigan City High School in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”

Westheimer’s giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her 4-foot-7 frame, made her an unlikely looking — and sounding — outlet for “sexual literacy.” The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.

But it was her extensive knowledge and training, coupled with her humorous, nonjudgmental manner, that catapulted her local radio program, “Sexually Speaking,” into the national spotlight in the early 1980s. She had an open approach to what two consenting adults did in the privacy of their home.

“Tell him you’re not going to initiate,” she told a concerned caller in June 1982. “Tell him that Dr. Westheimer said that you’re not going to die if he doesn’t have sex for one week.”

Her radio success opened new doors, and in 1983 she wrote the first of more than 40 books: “Dr. Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex,” demystifying sex with both rationality and humor. There was even a board game, Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex.

She soon became a regular on the late-night television talk-show circuit, bringing her personality to the national stage. Her rise coincided with the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when frank sexual talk became a necessity.

“If we could bring about talking about sexual activity the way we talk about diet — the way we talk about food — without it having this kind of connotation that there’s something not right about it, then we would be a step further. But we have to do it with good taste,” she told Johnny Carson in 1982.

She normalized the use of words like “penis” and “vagina” on radio and TV, aided by her Jewish grandmotherly accent, which The Wall Street Journal once said was “a cross between Henry Kissinger and Minnie Mouse.” People magazine included her in its list of “The Most Intriguing People of the Century.” She even made it into a Shania Twain song: “No, I don’t need proof to show me the truth/Not even Dr. Ruth is gonna tell me how I feel.”

Westheimer defended abortion rights, suggested older people have sex after a good night’s sleep, and was an outspoken advocate of condom use. She believed in monogamy.

In the 1980s, she stood up for gay men at the height of the AIDS epidemic and spoke out loudly for the LGBTQ+ community. She said she defended people deemed by some far-right Christians to be “subhuman” because of her own past.

Born Karola Ruth Siegel in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1928, she was an only child. At 10, she was sent by her parents to Switzerland to escape Kristallnacht — the Nazis’ 1938 pogrom that served as a precursor to the Holocaust. She never saw her parents again; Westheimer believed they were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

At age 16, she moved to Palestine and joined the Haganah, the underground movement for Israeli independence. She was trained as a sniper, although she said she never shot at anyone.

Her legs were severely wounded when a bomb exploded in her dormitory, killing many of her friends. She said it was only through the work of a “superb” surgeon that she could walk and ski again.

In 1961, after a second divorce, she finally met her life partner: Manfred Westheimer, a fellow refugee from Nazi Germany. The couple married and had a son, Joel. They remained wed for 36 years until Fred, as she called him, died of heart failure in 1997.

In 1984, her radio program was nationally syndicated. A year later, she debuted in her own television program, “The Dr. Ruth Show,” which went on to win an Ace Award for excellence in cable television.

She also wrote a nationally syndicated advice column and later appeared in a line of videos produced by Playboy, preaching the virtues of open sexual discourse and good sex. She even had a series of calendars.

Her rise was noteworthy for the culture of the time, when President Ronald Reagan’s administration was hostile to Planned Parenthood and aligned with conservative voices.

Phyllis Schlafly, a staunch antifeminist, wrote in a 1999 piece called “The Dangers of Sex Education” that Westheimer, as well as Gloria Steinem, Anita Hill, Madonna, Ellen DeGeneres and others, were promoting “provocative sex chatter” and “rampant immorality.”

Westheimer’s books include “Sex for Dummies” and her autobiographical works “All in a Lifetime” (1987) and “Musically Speaking: A Life Through Song” (2003). The documentary “Ask Dr. Ruth” aired in 2019, and a new book, “The Joy of Connections,” is due in October.

Survivors include two children, Joel and Miriam, and four grandchildren.

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Not everyone will be happy when the Federal Reserve begins lowering interest rates after it declares victory over inflation.

Remember, there is a large but low-profile flock of folks with money who like to profit in a very old-fashioned way – savings accounts.

For almost two years, these investors enjoyed the highest rates on these zero-risk bets since the turn of the century. But now it seems the “bull market” for no-brainer savings may be coming to an end.

So for fans of these less-than-sexy investments, it may be time to get busy locking in some longer-term deals with certificates of deposit. And I wish I could end this column right here and tell you to simply go to your neighborhood banking institution and load up on attractive CD rates.

But unfortunately, finding decent deals is not very simple. So let me walk you through the CD maze.

First a history lesson

Before the Fed’s war on inflation began in 2022 with rising rates, the post-Great Recession era was painful for savers. Yields crumbled to near zilch as the Fed used cheap money to ease the financial woes. Then they repeated the tactic to soothe the pandemic’s business challenges.

Think about rates on 1-year Treasury bills – a benchmark for typical savings rates. In the last 38 years of the 20th century, 1-year yields averaged almost 7%. But they paid barely 1% on average since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008 – until 2023.

So last year’s 5% rates – the highest 1-year yields since 2000 – made savers euphoric.

What’s your stash?

First, figure out how much money you can put away for a year or more. This sum can be split into buckets by years, and you can match any savings needs to the maturity length of the CD.

Please be realistic with your liquidity needs. Most banks and credit unions – but not all – charge significant fees if you have to exit your CD early.

Where to look

If you contact your bank or credit union, it’s unlikely they have the most exciting rates.

Get online. A simple search will offer you numerous lists detailing “best” CD rates. Sadly, you’ll have to wade through a half-dozen personal finance websites to find a CD or two that stands above the pack.

Be aware that many CD rankings promote partner institutions. So highlighted rates may not be the best available. Still, institutions paying for this kind of marketing often offer decent deals.

Online friendly?

You’ll increase your odds for a worthy rate if you are willing to bank remotely.

Still, my quick survey of recent high-rate CDs found several offerings from institutions with California branches for anyone who still needs to do face-to-face business.

Another geography factor is that certain must-have rates come with geographic or other limits.

There are banks that only do business in certain states. And many credit unions have odd membership requirements, where you live being one of them.

The caveats

There also are some too-good-to-be-true offers.

First, make sure you’re getting a certificate of deposit from a federally insured institution. Some “best rate” list are sprinkled with annuities – an insurance company product that looks and feels a lot like a CD.

Also, make sure an attractive account has a fixed rate. Some institutions sell variable-rate CDs with yields that will certainly change as rates go down as forecast in the coming years.

Don’t forget to check what size deposit qualifies for a high rate.

Some deals come with high-balance requirements. And believe it or not, some “wow!” rates are good only for modest amounts. Savings above the maximums often get paid mere pennies.

But there’s a but …

Allow me to note two twists on CDs worth considering — if your head isn’t already spinning from all the details required to get what is supposedly a boring investment.

No-penalty CDs: Fixed rates for an extended term with two catches: Savers can withdraw money from the account early without penalty, but rates run slightly below similar offerings that come with early withdrawal penalties.

Still, they provide comfort to the saver who is anxious about tying up money for an extended period.

Brokered CDs: These are bought on financial markets – just like stocks and bonds. Curiously, some of the giant banks that offer next to nothing on their branch CDs will be very competitive in the broker CD world.

The “but” is that these can be confusing to acquire.

For the do-it-yourself investor, online brokerage accounts don’t make it easy to find or buy these CDs.

And if you go to a financial adviser with your stash of cash, you’ll likely get a pitch about other investments – most containing some level of risk – that you may not want to listen to.

Bottom line

Locking in two to five years of near-5% yields doesn’t make for “financial genius” bragging rights.

But CDs are great for earning extra money on your spare cash – or folks who need to know economic gyrations or political hijinx won’t dent their nest egg.

And today’s CD rates look like a bargain that will evaporate soon.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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