The last few years, St. Cloud State baseball coach Pat Dolan has been able to bring in speakers for the Husky Dugout Club’s First Pitch Banquet with connections to the Minnesota Twins.

This year is no different with former Twins utility infielder Al Newman coming in to speak for the Feb. 4 event at the Territory Golf Club.

The banquet begins at 5:30 p.m.

Former speakers have included St. Cloud native and former Twin Jim Eisenreich, Twins broadcaster and St. Cloud State alum Dick Bremer and former Twins general manager Terry Ryan.

Newman has previously spoken at banquets at Gustavus and Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D. Newman, who still lives in the Twin Cities, runs baseball camps throughout the year and also coaches Legion baseball.

“I like to be there for these college coaches if I can,” Newman said. “I ran into Pat and he talked to me about it and I’m glad to come and help out. It’s not like I don’t have time.”

Newman was named the Apple Valley High School baseball coach for a brief stint last year before he had to resign.

Newman was looking to interview for third-base coaching jobs with the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles and he didn’t want to put Apple Valley in a tough spot if he had gotten one of those jobs.

“I was in a situation there where I didn’t want to leave them hanging,” said Newman, who was one of seven Twins to play for both the 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams.

“I didn’t get those jobs, but I’m still going to work with the Apple Valley Legion team and will see those kids in the summer. A couple of buddies had called me to interview for those other jobs. I’m glad to have had the opportunity.”

Newman was the third-base coach for the Twins from 2002-06. He still is involved with the Twins through various community functions and has done work with the My 29 network after Sunday game broadcasts.

“The main thing I’m doing is the Newman camps that I run five days a week in Burnsville,” Newman said. “I’m helping prepare young men for their upcoming seasons.

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“I like what I’m doing now. The television stuff, I really enjoy. I don’t miss the travel in baseball. That’s a tough gig. If I don’t have to travel, I won’t. I did it enough as a player and coach. But it’s not that I wouldn’t take another job if an opportunity arose.”

Newman, who stresses the importance of getting an education when he speaks, gets asked about being on both World Series teams just about every day. He doesn’t mind reliving those glory days.

“I can’t deny that every time a sports championship game is going on, I relieve those World Series memories,” Newman said. “The football playoffs are going on right now and I think about what it took for us to win it. I don’t mind people asking me about it because it always brings a smile to my face.”

Newman still stays in touch with Dan Gladden and Chili Davis from the World Series teams and also keeps in close contact with his former pupils in Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones.

Newman played in the Twins alumni game at Target Field last summer. He made a sparkling catch in the outfield where he robbed Gladden of a hit.

“I told Gladden I was going to do that,” Newman said. “But I ended up pulling a hamstring catching the ball. That was a blast, though. At least it finally healed. It took a while.”

Newman likes the Twins’ chances to win the American League Central again this year.

He thinks fans worrying about the team’s bullpen issues this offseason are a bit overboard.

“They’re going to be formidable,” Newman said. “The bullpen will be fine. (Pitching coach) Rick Anderson has gotten the most out of his pitchers for years. He and (Ron) Gardenhire do a nice job with that staff.

“You have to have trust in a man who was named manager of the year.”

This is the opinion of Times sports writer Andy Rennecke. Contact him at 255-8735 or arennecke@stcloudtimes.com. Read his blog at sctimes.com/Andy.

Nick Punto is excited to play for the St. Louis Cardinals, and especially manager Tony LaRussa, who uses his bench the way an artist uses his palette. It’s an ideal situation for a fast, switch-hitting player with a great glove.

Still, Punto isn’t entirely happy.

“You’re definitely torn,” the longtime Twins infielder said Sunday from his home in California. “I mean, both my kids were born in Minnesota, and the people in Minnesota are unbelievable. It’s definitely the right place to play baseball.”

Punto was among the notable faces missing from TwinsFest this weekend in Blaine. The Twins had a club option on Punto for $5 million but instead bought him out for $500,000, and last week Punto agreed to a one-year, $750,000 deal to play for LaRussa and the Cardinals this season, ending a seven-year stint with the Twins.

It was a decision Punto made only when he knew for certain the Twins would not bring him back.

“I was holding out hope. I waited a long time before I signed, hoping (general manager) Bill Smith would call,” he said. “He finally did. It was a good conversation, but it was difficult, on both ends. It’s tough to hear your services are no longer wanted. It’s tough to leave.”

Punto was never going to be a star in Minnesota. He didn’t hit for power and sometimes didn’t hit for average. But manager Ron Gardenhire loved him for what he did bring — speed, switch-hitting and a glove that could dig out balls at third, second and short.

“He’s

one of the best fielders I’ve seen around an infield,” Gardenhire said Friday.

In his best full season as a Twin, Punto hit .290 with 21 doubles and seven triples in 2006, the year the Twins rallied to win the American League Central on the last day of the season, and came to personify the aggressive hustle that compelled White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen to famously dub the Twins “piranhas.”

“He was always in the dirt,” pitcher Brian Duensing said. “He always played incredibly hard, would play through injuries, and he was great with the young guys. He’d put you in your place, but he was always the first guy to help.”

Punto also played left, center and right field during his stint in Minnesota, but his batting was generally erratic. He hit .228 in 2009, and .238 last season. This year, Smith decided to give his job to a younger, cheaper switch-hitting infielder, Matt Tolbert.

But if Punto’s batting was erratic, his glove was unimpeachable.

It saved the 2009 season when, in the 11th inning of Game 163, Punto — drawn in at second with one out and the bases loaded — fielded a chopper and threw home in one fluid motion to force out Detroit’s Don Kelly, who represented the go-ahead run.

In a game full of big plays, it was probably the biggest; the Twins won it in their half of the 11th.

“For me, he’s been one of my favorite players, just because he’s game on every day,” Gardenhire said. “Every day that he can get out there on the field, he gives you 150 percent, and he could play multiple positions.

“If you talk to all the players, if they’re going to miss one guy in the clubhouse more than any other, it’s Nick Punto. You can’t describe how much he means inside a clubhouse, to this team. You’ve been around enough to know how much respect Punto had in the clubhouse. So it’s going to be tough.

“But he’ll move on. He’ll be fine.”

He’ll likely be fine, but it won’t be easy.

“It was seven years for me,” Punto said, “and looking back, there’s no doubt it was the seven best years of my life.”

BLAINE, Minn. — Joe Mauer has been warning eager teammate Joe Nathan to avoid overexertion during spring training as the Minnesota Twins closer completes his comeback from elbow surgery that kept him off the mound last year.

“I’m trying to get in his ear, saying, ‘April 1st. April 1st,’ ” Mauer said this weekend, mentioning the date of the season opener. “It’s still January.”

That applies for a certain catcher, too, coming off a number of nagging injuries he played through in 2010 and minor surgery he had in December to alleviate some swelling in his left knee.

“My advice to Nathan, I’m taking that to heart, too,” Mauer said, looking ahead to his own plan for February and March. “I should be ready to go when we report. Just got to be smart about it and get ready for the season.”

After winning the American League MVP award the year before, Mauer’s production dropped while playing the sport’s most physically demanding position and dealing with aches and pains. His OPS decreased from 1.031 to .871, a mark still good for 23rd in the majors but a bit disappointing for fans anticipating more after he signed an eight-year, $184 million contract extension in March that has begun in 2011.

The problem for Mauer, as an All-Star catcher, is that there’s no way to lessen the wear and tear of the job short of switching positions. Neither he nor the Twins are ready to do that, with Mauer not yet 28. His impact as a designated hitter is limited for now, too, with at-bats wanted for Jason Kubel and Jim Thome.

“It’s part of the job,” Mauer said. “Last year, I got beat up pretty early, and when you have injuries and stuff like that early in the season you deal with it the whole year. Playing baseball, we don’t have six days to get healthy. We’re playing seven days a week. You start compensating, and that just leads to another thing.

“So coming into this year: Try to take care of yourself as much as you can, and I’m looking forward to getting out there,” he said.

Mauer bruised his left heel on April 30 when he lunged at first base legging out a grounder, forcing his foot hard on the bag. It was a fluke injury, but crouching behind the plate doesn’t help it heal. He only missed eight games, but he said he thinks the heel problem led to the soreness in his knee, the same one he hurt in 2004 that limited his rookie year to 35 games. Mauer was also bothered last season by pain in his throwing shoulder.

“It just kind of snowballed and kept going,” said Mauer, who appeared in 137 games and was the starting catcher 107 times. “Looking back, I was happy and proud to be out there as much as I was. That’s kind of my thing: I want to be out on the field as much as I can, and that’s what I’m planning on doing this year.”

In 2009, Mauer was slowed by a lower back problem and missed all of spring training, delaying his season debut to May 1. He wound up with career highs in home runs (28), batting average (.365) and RBIs (96) and the aforementioned MVP honor. Perhaps a lighter preseason load will keep Mauer fresher longer and lead to the same kind of result.

“He’s our go-to guy,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He’s going to do most of the catching. That’s just the way it is. If it becomes an issue down the road then we make a move and put him somewhere else. But he wants to catch, and he’s our catcher. We need him in the lineup.”

Mauer’s teammate, right fielder Michael Cuddyer, is also coming off an offseason operation — two, actually. He played through right knee pain last year and had arthroscopic surgery shortly after the Twins were ousted from the playoffs. Then he felt a stomach ache less than two weeks later that led to an appendectomy.

Cuddyer, in town for the weekend with dozens of future, current and past Twins players for the team’s annual fan festival, said his leg is back to normal, perhaps stronger than before. While Nathan, Mauer and first baseman Justin Morneau, who’s coming back from a concussion, will be brought along slowly in spring training, that kind of approach is foreign to Cuddyer. That’s no knock on them. It’s just his nature.

“The first game starts, and I want to go 4 for 4,” said Cuddyer, the longest-tenured player on the team. “I can’t get on a baseball field and say, ‘I just want to fine-tune some things to get ready for April.’ Me, I can’t do that. I want to be ready to go day one of spring training.”

The Twins are being cautious with Morneau, who has been ramping up his workouts and reporting progress in his recovery. Nobody is concerned about how much baseball activity he’ll have in February or March. Just like with Nathan and Mauer, it’s all about April 1.

“We want the best for him,” Mauer said. “He’s obviously a great teammate, a great friend. We’re more worried about his health as a person. That’ll be nice to see No. 33 back on the field.”

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

Last September, a few days after the Rochester Red Wings completed their worst season in 90 years, manager Tom Nieto was invited to Minneapolis by Minnesota Twins officials.

“We spent five days there with scouts and everyone from player personnel, and we focused on minor-league free agents for 1½ days,” Nieto said Saturday at the Red Wings’ annual shareholders meeting at the Doubletree Hotel in Henrietta. “We made a list of players we wanted to bring to Rochester and (Double-A) New Britain out of the thousands available.”

The Wings finished 49-95. New Britain was worse, at 44-98.

“I know the Twins were embarrassed by that and wanted to do something about it,” Rochester Community Baseball chairman of the board Gary Larder said. “And they have done something about it.”

The Twins have acquired 17 minor-league free agents, including two by trade. Nieto said some free agents called him to ask about Rochester, Frontier Field and the fan support.

“I told them, ‘It’s a joy to manage here and to play here,’” he told about 100 shareholders. “We had a rough season, and you guys kept showing up and clapping.”

While the Wings were a horror show on the field in 2010, they held their own at the box office. Turnstile attendance was down only 1 percent from 2009, and the team showed a net profit of $129,689 after taxes.

The Wings’ profit was $273,215 before taxes, but a $91,997 loss operating the attendance-starved Batavia Muckdogs cut into that.

RCB will operate the short-season, Single-A Muckdogs for a fourth — and almost certainly final — season this summer.

“The team is for sale,” Larder said. “We don’t expect to be doing it again next year. We expect they will be sold.”

The Wings have lost $488,917 in three seasons running the Muckdogs, but they stand to make a profit if the team is sold. RCB receives 5 percent of the sale for every year it operates the club, meaning it would receive 20 percent after this season. The expected sale price is between $4 million and $6 million.

At $4 million, the Wings would receive $800,000. At $6 million, the figure would climb to $1.2 million.

The 2010 season was a nice rebound from a money standpoint for RCB, which recorded a $167,884 consolidated loss in 2009 — the only time in Frontier Field’s 14-season history the team has finished in the red.

“This was a return to profitability,” RCB treasurer Bob Hope said.

JMAND@DemocratandChronicle.com

BLAINE, Minn. — It’s the annual event that gives fans an early taste of spring.

The Minnesota Twins moved their annual fan festival north to the National Sports Center in Blaine for this weekend.

“The transition has been fairly smooth,” says Chris Iles, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Twins. “It’s not ideal with the collapse of the dome roof, but we’re very happy to be here.”

The Twins capped ticket sales at 25,000 for the three-day event for the first time in its 23-year history and sold out more than three weeks ago.

Highlighting this year’s Twins Fest will be interactive games, sports memorbilia, and a chance for kids to be a sports reporter during a unique ‘Kid’s Q&A’ event.

“Last year I heard one kid ask Joe Mauer ‘how did you get so big?’” chuckles Iles.

More than 60 current, former and future Twins players are scheduled to appear at autograph stations, radio interviews and other interactions with fans.

TwinsFest is a fundraiser for the team’s community fund. For more fan information check the official Twins Fest web page.

(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)