Sports with Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson June 30, 2022

CATHY WURZER: Well, it's summertime, and the Boys of Summer, the Twins, find themselves in first place. The Vikes are getting ready for training camp. And there are a lot of other things happening in the Minnesota sports scene. We're going to run them down with our sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of "Minnesota Score Magazine" and the co-host of "10,000 Takes" sports talk show on radio and TV. Eric is the other co-host of said show and is the Vikings reporter for CBS radio's "Eye on the NFL."

All right, guys. We've got to talk about the Twins. Right? So they are wrapping up the series in Cleveland. Wally, weren't you a big fan of Cleveland's baseball team at one point? So it must be hard for you to watch this series.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, it's kind of a no win, no lose situation. And yes, I grew up in Cleveland, so I have been following them closely for years, and they're the youngest team in baseball. And they're hanging in. I mean, I don't think people expected them to be in second place right now, but they are. So they've given the twins--

They came into Minnesota last week and won two out of three here, and actually went into first place for a day. So I think that they've given people reason to keep an eye on them. They're very young, as I mentioned. And we'll see how it shakes out. You don't win the pennant or a division race in June, but you certainly can lose it. And so that was the significance of this five game series.

But the big news, of course, earlier this week, is what's going to happen at the end of the day today for the Twins, and that's pitching coach Wes Johnson stepping away. He took a job with LSU. So he'll become their pitching coach. So he's going from the majors to Division I college baseball, which is kind of ironic, because you always think, well, Major League Baseball has got to be paying the best. Right?

Well, no. He'll make about $750,000 a year at LSU where he was making about 380 for the Minnesota Twins. So he gets a pay raise, and he goes from 162 games a year, which is Major League Baseball, to about 60, which is college baseball. So all good for Wes. I know that he really enjoyed working with the Twins pitchers and they loved him. But at the same time, I think it was a personal move, and it's good for his family, and it's good for Wes, and that's what the Twins players and management is saying right now. Good for Wes.

ERIC NELSON: Well, and the other thing, Cathy, it's extremely rare for a coach to leave midseason on his own. Getting fired is one thing, but he's walking away because he's got a better offer, but he's also leaving a first place team. The Minnesota Twins are on top.

Now the AL Central, it's fairly mediocre. As they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location. Same thing in baseball. The Twins play in a division that does not have a lot of stud teams. The Chicago White Sox were expected to win the AL Central, and they really have bottomed out so far. They may make a run, but right now, they are basically right around 500.

But there are a lot of bright spots for the Twins. The all-star game is next month at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Byron Buxton, will he make his first ever trip to the Midsummer Classic? I think it could happen. He slugged his 20th home run, a personal high, the other night against Cleveland. So a lot of people want to see Byron in the all-star game. He's an electric player with so much ability, and he's exciting to watch.

And Minnesota also has, Cathy, Luis Arraez, the leading hitter in the American League. He's so good that guys like Rod Carew and Ichiro like watching him play. So I think you might see Buxton and Arraez, two guys from Minnesota, part of that galaxy of stars at the all-star game, in SoCal next month.

CATHY WURZER: OK. We got to talk about the Vikings. Our favorite topic, the Vikings training camps. Plural. But when we think about Vikings training camp, I always think about the summer camps in Mankato. So is this the actual summer training camp they're going to have?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yes. And now, of course, it's all in Eagan at the TCL Performance Center. Obviously the Mankato thing is gone, and so are fans ability to go and watch practice for free. Now they announce their training camp schedule on Tuesday. And here you go. It starts on Saturday, July 30. It will feature eight padded practices fans can attend for $5 for adults, free for children. So it's a nominal fee, but it is a fee.

For non padded practices, which will be free for everyone, and hold your hat, two premiere practices, which you'll have to pay $10 for adults, $5 for kids ages 17 and under, the other premiere session is the annual night practice at TCO stadium. That's on Monday, August 8. The team will make available 4,000 digital ticket it's per practice and 7,000 available for that night practice. And you have to go to their website to do it. You know what? To go to pay to watch practice, I don't know. I think you really got to be a die hard to do that. But there are people who do it and who enjoy it. Count me as not one of them.

ERIC NELSON: [LAUGHS] Yeah. And oh my, Kathy. How things have changed from the days of Mankato, where the Vikings trained for over 40 years. And once upon a time, there was a thing known as the Cheese League. It was the upper Midwest version of spring training. You had the Green Bay Packers training over in Wisconsin. You had the New Orleans Saints down in La Crosse. The Kansas City Chiefs were at UW River Falls, that fine institution that produced you and Wally. And the Chicago Bears were in Platteville. So if you were a football freak like I am, you could drive around the upper Midwest and see five teams in five days.

That's long gone. Most NFL teams now train at their facility. And the practices that used to be free, well, as Wally laid that out, that's a day that is long gone by. And for those of us, the media, our access is not the same. We used to eat lunch and dinner with these guys. I can remember Wally walking out of training camp in Mankato with a pie.

[LAUGHTER]

WALLY LANGFELLOW: You had one too.

[LAUGHTER]

CATHY WURZER: Wow. Talk about getting up close and personal with your sources.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Very true.

ERIC NELSON: Well, speaking of the Vikings, a former Viking is in the headlines. And hold your hats on this one, if you haven't seen the note on this one, earlier this week it was announced that Adrian Peterson, the former Viking great running back, you can make the argument one of the top two or three running backs in Vikings history, signed a contract to fight fellow NFL former running back Le'Veon Bell in an exhibition heavyweight boxing match at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on July 30.

My guess, and I think it's an educated guess based on some folks that I've talked to, AP needs the money. He's got lots of bills to pay off, and instead of borrowing it from some of his former teammates and friends around the NFL, he's going to go earn it by stepping into the ring and maybe getting his block knocked off.

CATHY WURZER: Oh my goodness. And he's-- isn't he like what, 37, 38 years old or something like that?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Oh that's too bad. Let's end on a high note, shall we? I think Gable Steveson is such an interesting guy. And Eric, he has now been awarded yet another big honor.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah. And we're talking about a guy who's one of the greatest athletes in the history of the U of M. Just name the Big Ten Athlete of the Year, Gable won Olympic gold. He was 18 and 0 last season for the Gophers, winning another national title. He finished 85 and 2 at Minnesota. He won his last 52 matches. And he's the fifth gopher to win this award. The last guy to do it was Cole Conrad, another wrestler back in 2007.

But Gable Steveson is on his way to pro wrestling and a lot of other things that will garner him a ton of money. And he may even come back with the Gophers this season and grapple again. He's got another year of eligibility. This is one of your Mount Rushmore athletes, I think, in the history of sports in Dinkytown. He is that good.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. He is. He is. And he was I think at WrestleMania earlier this year, April.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Made his debut. What they ought to do is put Gable in that match with Le'Veon and AP and make it a trifecta, a cage match. Last man standing in Los Angeles.

CATHY WURZER: No. Yikes. Oh you guys. All right. It's been a pleasure as always. I hope you have a good 4th of July weekend.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Same to you.

ERIC NELSON: Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, our sports guys. Their "10,000 Takes" sports show's on radio and TV.