SB Nation Minnesota - Hooks, Lines & Sinkers

Jake Mauer Enjoys Managing In The Minors

2012-09-20T23:32:54Z

With his third season as a minor-league manager now behind him, Jake Mauer of the Fort Myers Miracle continues to work his way up the Minnesota Twins' organization in order to hopefully catch his brother one day.

Once an All-American second baseman who signed with the Twins in 2001, the 33-year-old Mauer originally managed Minnesota's rookie league club before taking on the organization's Single-A affiliate. And despite a 60-75 overall record in year three that left the Miracle short of the postseason, Mauer remains quite content with his current role.

"I'm trying to improve each year," Mauer told Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press. "[Twins minor league director Jim] Rantz will put us where he thinks we'll do a great job, and I'll be happy. As long as they'll have me, I'll keep doing it."

Aside from how young he is and the great start he's had to his managerial career, Mauer knows that he still faces an uphill battle in order to get to the majors one day. Although for a man who gets to watch his younger brother, Joe, take the field in front of millions on a daily basis, nothing should appear out of reach at this point.

"I'm still fairly young," Mauer said. "Without a doubt, that's the goal."

Be sure to visit Twinkie Town for more Twins coverage, and head over to Baseball Nation for more news from around the league.

New Minnesota Basketball Jerseys To Be Unveiled Soon

2012-09-20T16:46:05Z

The Minnesota Golden Gophers saw their football team debut new uniforms for the 2012 season, and it looks like the men's basketball team will sport some new threads come next season as well. Marcus Fuller of The Pioneer Press had a post talking about the new uniforms, though we weren't supposed to see them for awhile yet. But, as is often the case these days, a player happened to send out a tweet with an early picture.

This Tweet, from sophomore Joe Coleman, has been deleted (as is also often the case these days) since then, but like all things on the Internet, full deletion is never likely. Fuller posted the picture that was tweeted in his piece, and we have it embedded after the jump.

Coleman followed it up with a tweet that read "Dang guess I can't do that." The new jerseys from Nike are using a mesh design that the company refers to as their "Aerographics design," which allows an almost-subtle image on the jerseys. In this case, it's the likeness of Williams Arena, the "M" and the year the University was established, "1851." Make the jump for the picture.

Your Thursday Night Football Pick For Week Three

2012-09-20T16:17:45Z

A healthy dose of real life has prevented me from getting my entire NFL picks column up by now. . .and, when one considers that I had what was probably the worst week of picking games that I've had since I started doing this for our humble little website here, that might be for the best. But, I will soldier on in any event, and bring you the pick for tonight's NFL contest, with the number once again courtesy of our friends at OddsShark.

After the jump, of course.

New York Giants at Carolina Panthers (-2.5)

The Giants had a very interesting game last week against Tampa Bay, with Eli Manning throwing three first-half interceptions before recovering to throw three touchdown passes and racking up 510 passing yards for the afternoon. Manning's second-half turnaround led the Giants to a furious comeback over the Buccaneers, 41-34.

The Panthers remembered that they were pretty good at running the football, and a pretty decent offensive team overall, as they rushed for 219 yards in a 35-27 victory over the New Orleans Saints at home.

Both of these teams are 1-1. . .you know, like most of the rest of the National Football League. . .and this is a very intriguing match-up. Both of these teams have high-flying offenses. Eli Manning leads the defending Super Bowl Champions, while the Panthers are paced by Cam Newton, Steve Smith, and the two-headed rushing monster of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. Manning will be without a couple of key weapons in this one, however, as receiver Hakeem Nicks and running back Ahmad Bradshaw will miss this game with injuries.

That might just be the advantage that the Panthers need to win at home. With the injuries to Nicks and Bradshaw, coupled with the fact that this is the Giants. . .meaning they don't really kick into high gear until early November or so. . .look for Carolina to win a closely contested battle at Bank of America Stadium.

Straight-Up: Panthers, ATS: Panthers

Alcohol Sales Exceed Expectations For Gophers' Home Opener

2012-09-12T01:59:32Z

The Minnesota Golden Gophers won their home opener at TCF Bank Stadium last Saturday, cruising to a 44-7 victory over New Hampshire.

Gopher fans had plenty to celebrate during the big win and according to reports alcohol was the drink of choice to toast all of those points.

University of Minnesota officials said approximately 15,327 servings of beer and wine were sold at Saturday's game against New Hampshire - more than twice the University's goal of 7,000 sales set by Associate Athletics Director Scott Ellison last week.

By more than doubling the expected alcohol sales, the gross revenue for alcohol sales was around $111,000. The University gets a commission from all alcohol sales at the stadium this year, which based on these numbers should provide an additional revenue stream to help support the athletic department.

The opportunity to reap the benefits from alcohol sales after opening up TCF Bank Stadium is a no-brainer from a financial point of view for the University. As long as the school can keep the negative side effects of alcohol sales under control, Minnesota may set the standard for other "dry" Big Ten schools to explore allowing alcohol sales to the general public.

Minnesota Vikings Change Their Name, Or At Least CBS Thought They Did

2012-09-11T01:07:01Z

The Minnesota Vikings have been named the Minnesota Vikings since 1960, but that didn't stop someone in CBS production from instead calling them the Minneapolis Vikings in an on-screen graphic.

via @TomPelissero

The graphic came while the Vikings were hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. CBS doesn't broadcast a lot of Viking games, as they hold the broadcast rights for the AFC, but that is still a pretty careless error. To make matters worse, no professional sports team in Minnesota goes by Minneapolis. The Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings and Wild all go by Minnesota.

North Dakota State Football Players In Very Odd Legal Trouble

2012-09-06T02:24:38Z

Recruiting violation? Nope.

Arrested after a skirmish at a night club? Not a chance.

Kicked off the team for breaking team rules? Think again.

No, eight North Dakota State University football players got into trouble for a crime that people usually don't associate with the normal shenanigans of college athletes: election fraud.

Yes, you read that right. Election fraud.

The NDSU players were part of a group of eleven people that were paid to circulate petitions proposed on the upcoming November ballot. The group is accused of falsifying signatures that would have helped approve measures for a state conservation fund and a medical marijuana initiative. (Feel free to insert a pot joke here. I'll take the high road. Oh crap, I just made a pot joke, didn't I?)

Of the eight Bison players charged with election fraud, four of them are starters. Coach Craig Bohl has explained that all the players will be eligible for the upcoming game at Colorado State on Saturday and the school would wait to make any punishments until after the legal system has run its course.

The Bison are the defending FCS football champion, coming off a 14-1 campaign where they defeated Sam Houston State in the national championship last January.

NASL Goes To Split Season For 2013

2012-09-05T15:32:10Z

The North American Soccer League, the home of the Minnesota Stars, has announced that the league will play a split schedule in 2013. The league will crown a first-half champion based on a late March-to-July 4 season, then reset and play an August-to-October second half, with the winners of each half meeting to determine the league champion.

"The new format takes into consideration a variety of factors including fan and player comfort in our many warm-weather cities," said NASL commissioner David Downs, which I'm sure is exciting news for the fans and players in traditional warm-weather locales like Edmonton and Minnesota.

The Stars have not played an outdoor home game before April 30 since the formation of the NASL in 2011. One assumes that Minnesota would have to begin the year with a six- or seven-game road trip to make this schedule work.

NFL Changes Trade Deadline, Injured Reserve Rules

2012-08-30T16:28:38Z

The latest changes that the NFLPA and the league have agreed upon aren't Earth-shattering, but they could have some impact to the NFL season.

There has been a lot of momentum in recent years to try to get the NFL's trade deadline pushed back. While the other major American sports leagues have a trading deadline that comes well after the halfway point of the season, the NFL has traditionally cut off all trades after Week 6. The early deadline date has meant that there are no real "buyers" and "sellers" because most teams are still theoretically in the playoff hunt after only six weeks. Mid-season trades are much less frequent in the NFL than in baseball, basketball, or hockey. The theory is that moving the trading deadline back would make for a busier and more exciting period of NFL trades.

The time to test that theory is now.

The change isn't as drastic as some would prefer, but Adam Schefter is reporting that the NFL trading deadline has been pushed back to the Tuesday after the eighth week of the season. The two week change may not make a huge difference to deadline trade action, but it might be interesting to see if bottom-dwelling teams are more willing to sell off assets to contenders for future draft picks.

But wait--there's more!

Schefter is reporting that the Injured Reserve rules have been tweaked as well. Until today, if a team put a player on the IR, he was ineligible to play for the entire season. Now teams can re-activate one player during the season if certain conditions apply:

Only players with a "major injury" who are placed on Reserve/Injured after 4:00 p.m., New York time, on Tuesday, September 4, or thereafter during the season, will be eligible to be reactivated at a later time.

So for example, if a player suffers a major injury in the first game of the season, they can put the player on IR to free up a roster spot for a healthy player. If the injured player can come back before the end of the season, the team can re-activate him. It gives teams a little more flexibility, especially with injuries to star players with uncertain return times.

The changes may not be revolutionary, but they could still have an impact to how certain teams are built at the end of the 2012 season.