WALLY LANGFELLOW: You said the Gophers and the National Championship in the same sentence?
CATHY WURZER: Excuse me. I think PJ Fleck was talking about it. That’s not my view, Wally Longfellow.
Eric Nelson: Kathy Sunshine. he loves
CATHY WURZER: Yes. Well, if that actually happened, wouldn’t that be something?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Let’s go to the Rose Bowl first.
CATHY WURZER: Yes. Good point of view. how about a viking? Let’s start with the Vikings. all right. The 3 of us have been waiting for this for weeks. Wally, they started Wednesday.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: In the words of Allen Iverson, we are talking about practice. yes. know. A training camp is being held. The big news in camp yesterday was rookie Andrew Booth’s interception of Kirk Cousins in what looked like a pass-scrimmage. And that’s the big news.
yes. they are in progress. A new administration, of course, with Kevin O’Connell and his new coaching staff. People are optimistic. I’m Egan. All neatly packaged at the Viking training facility in Eagan. It’s not Mankato anymore.
I miss the days when I go to Mankato. I think a lot of people do. It’s much more homogenized if you want it. you have to buy a ticket. you have to pay for parking. So if you want to go to a training camp, there are all sorts of tripwires now. It’s very scheduled and not as freewheeling as it used to be. I miss those days. I probably won’t be going to Egan’s any time soon.
CATHY WURZER: But Eric will.
Wally Ranfellow: Oh, I doubt it.
Eric Nelson: Yeah. TBD, Cathy.
Kathy Werzer: Oh.
ERIC NELSON: I agree with Wally on this one. NFL training camps aren’t what they used to be. Here in the Midwest, once upon a time there was the Cheese League, the cactus and grapefruit league, a smaller version of the spring training held in Arizona and Florida.
The Minnesota Vikings have been training for decades in Mankato, Minnesota. They were really a Minnesota team or the Upper Midwest, if you will. Green Bay is still in northeastern Wisconsin. The tradition remained. Kansas City brought the Chiefs to your alma mater, He UW River Falls. I remember meeting Joe Montana and Marcus Allen there. The New Orleans Saints have come upstream in lacrosse. The Chicago Bears were in Prattville, Wisconsin.
This was special. Teams like Kansas City and New Orleans were able to escape the sauna-like heat in those areas. And it was like doing air conditioning practice in Wisconsin. So I remember going to see Vikings one day, then Chief, then Saints, then Bear. had a very good time. But the NFL doesn’t have it anymore. It’s all packaged.
Most teams practice at the facility, including the Vikings at Egan’s TCO Performance Center. But there is a group – I call them the Elite Eight, Kathy, but actually still practice in a college setting. And they try to build friendships. Training north of Los Angeles are Buffalo, Carolina and Dallas.
Believe it or not, the UC Irvine LA Rams train in Kansas City’s Orange County is in St. Joseph, Missouri. For nearly 50 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have trained at St. He’s Trove at Vincent College in Pennsylvania. The Indianapolis Colts, like Jacksonville, are far from the property. But those teams are swimming upstream. everyone else is at home.
Kathy Werzer: Okay. Hey. Let’s talk about Twins. Should we be a little nervous about where we are in terms of how they are leading the division? Wally, they have a shaky league.
Wally Lanfellow: Yes. they do. They are now just a game and a half in Cleveland. Lost to the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee last week. They are in San Diego now. They will face the Padres in a three-game set starting tomorrow night.
And as a tipping point or interesting point in this they got to see former twin Taylor Rodgers who was the backbone of the back end of the bullpen. It was definitely a financial move, as Rodgers’ contract was expiring at the end of the year. They didn’t want to lose him, so they figured he could get something out of the deal.
Well, what they’ve gotten out of the deal so far is a handful of pitchers they haven’t produced. Emilio Pagan is one of them. He is less than stellar. And Paddack was on injured reserve, so those two didn’t get along.Rogers, who has been one of the National League’s leading relief pitchers so far, was knocked out yesterday. Haga. He lost to Detroit.
However, the Twins struggled. Their bullpen was terrible. And yesterday was no exception. Jarrell Cotton came in. And he was shaken yesterday. Their bullpen has hit more home runs than any team in the American league. And that’s not a good sign.
They gave up more than Tampa Bay. And the Tampa bullpen tends to be used more than anyone else. They’re scoring more innings, much like they did in Tampa. So, do you think the big news here is if the Twins make a move before the Aug. 2 trade deadline and pitch here to try and help their hopes a bit? If you’re going to do that, you’re going to need more pitching. And they need to act.
Kathy Werzer: Eric.
ERIC NELSON: Kathy, the good news is that unlike Wally, I’m always looking for the bright side of things. The Twins vacation in San Diego, the self-proclaimed most livable city in America. right. He also cherishes his off-season days in Major League Baseball. 162 games, spring training will play around 30-40 games. So these are the things players crave.
SoCal offers a free day. Kathy, consider your twin options. they can surf they can hike. They can eat fish tacos. They can go to the San Diego Zoo. They can go to Coronado Island. They can go to the border if they want. Mexico is 24 km away from her. This is better than a free day of her in Detroit, St. Louis, or Wally’s hometown of Cleveland.
Wally Lanfellow: Hey. Hey. Hey.
ERIC NELSON: I hope the Twins are charging in San Diego. A perfect place to spend your holidays.
Kathy Werzer: Yes. I wouldn’t mind spending the holidays in San Diego myself. Before we go, I have to talk about Larry McKenzie, Minneapolis North High’s Mackenzie coach, one of the most winning high school basketball coaches in state history. he is retired Wally and Eric had the chance to speak with him on his edition of Morning. And he said some very interesting things about why he’s leaving. He’s not happy with some of the new rules in the Minnesota State High School League.
Wally Lanfellow: Yes. One of them is NIL, Name, Image, and License. It’s the same thing that’s happening in college sports right now. That is one of the changes, and I think that the high school basketball environment alone is changing overall. Larry and I are best friends. And he’s told me these things over the past few years. We are broadcasting together.
And I’ve been doing state high school tournaments on radio for the last 15-20 years. And Larry just… If you can’t do things your way, I think it’s time to move on. And I think social media has a lot to do with that, Kathy, a lot of these kids knows what they do in high school basketball, so it’s all about them, not necessarily the team. I know that
Kathy Werzer: Hmm. Look, we have about a minute left here, Eric. Tell us about the Gophers going to the national championship.
ERIC NELSON: This week we had the Big Ten Football Media Day. Here’s his two-day event in Indianapolis, Indiana. Let the manure fly. right. The Big Ten currently has 14 teams, and will soon have 16 teams, and possibly 20. The Big Ten want to conquer the world.
But yeah, all the teams are optimistic. All are undefeated. Everyone thinks they will win a national title, including the Minnesota Gophers. But I’ll throw the gauntlet here in the last seconds. If they don’t win the Big Ten West this year or next year and go to the Big Ten title game they’ve never done in the history of the school, it never happens because USC and UCLA are elephants in the room. There is a possibility.
Kathy Werzer: Okay.
ERIC NELSON: They will be attending the conference soon. Notre Dame, perhaps Stanford. Minnesota better do it now.
CATHY WURZER: Okay. I’ve heard of it. Wally Langfellow, Eric Nelson. Thank you guys. talk to you later. Have a nice week.
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