Sid Hartman: Reasons numerous for Mauer to stay put

Looking for reasons why Joe Mauer won't leave the Twins, and for reasons why the MVP catcher will sign a contract in the area of 10 years for $200 million with them in the near future? Here are a few.

First, Mauer doesn't have Scott Boras for an agent. Boras runs the show in baseball. He tells his clients what to do, and they listen.

Mauer's agent is Ron Shapiro, who has a history of keeping players with their original teams, two good examples being Kirby Puckett with the Twins and Cal Ripken Jr. with the Orioles.

Mauer has made it clear that he will decide where he will play and that his agent will do the financial planning.

Then you have the value of the franchise.

Carl Pohlad paid about $40 million for the franchise when he bought it in 1984. Today, with a new stadium and Mauer as one of the members of the roster, it is worth at least the $600 million that the Wilf family paid for the Vikings in 2005.

The Pohlad family has good business sense. With Mauer as a member of a winning team, the revenue certainly will be a lot higher than it would be if Mauer were with the Yankees or Red Sox, as the Twins fan base will be less likely to follow the team if it were without its great hometown catcher.

USA Today carried a big story on Mauer last week, and in it he didn't offer any hints that he is ready to leave.

He and Justin Morneau have a great relationship. Just another reason why I don't believe Mauer will leave.

And last but not least, the Twins ownership and management will make the biggest mistake ever if they don't meet his asking price and sign this great athlete, who will go down as the greatest player to ever play for the Twins.

Lucia solid with Maturi Hockey fans are the most rabid fans of all sports, and Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said he is getting a lot of e-mails from people critical of men's hockey coach Don Lucia. But Lucia isn't going anywhere.

"I really do respect the passion of our fans," Maturi said. "We've got the greatest fans in the world, and we have a great hockey tradition at the University of Minnesota, and the expectations are for the Gophers to be competing for WCHA championships and quite frankly national championships each and every year. That's obviously not the case this year, and it wasn't the case last year. I know that makes people unhappy, and I don't think anybody's more unhappy than our coaches and, quite frankly, even our athletes."

"The great thing about being an athletic director is I do get to be in the locker room before games, sometimes between periods, and obviously after the game and I really judge a lot by their effort, by their emotion, by their preparation, by their attitude, and Don hasn't lost these kids," Maturi said. "These kids continue to play hard, they want to win for the Gophers, and for lots of reasons, we just haven't had the success that we would like to. This is the time that I tell him and others that it's important to stay the course, be true to your values, be consistent with who you are and hopefully things will change."

So Lucia doesn't have any concern about his job? "I've said it very publicly that a lot of things go into the evaluations of all coaches and Don Lucia is our hockey coach, he's going to be our hockey coach, and I'm confident that there are better days ahead," Maturi said.

Jottings Though Shapiro is his agent for baseball, Mauer is now represented by IMG for marketing work. The USA Today story reported he endorses Sony, Anytime Fitness and Rawlings and is negotiating with five other companies. IMG Vice President Alan Zucker told the newspaper, "We feel he is the next big baseball superstar off the field."

Brad Salem, the son of former Gophers football coach Joe Salem, has been named the running backs coach at Michigan State. The younger Salem was 31-26 in five seasons as the coach at Division II Augustana (S.D.), his alma mater. The departure was reportedly somewhat of a surprise at Augustana, which then named Burnsville native Mike Aldrich to replace Salem. Aldrich, who graduated from St. Olaf, has spent the past six seasons on Augustana's staff, the past four as defensive coordinator.

Despite the fact they have only two years left on their Metrodome lease, the Vikings are working on a plan that will move their present ticket office to the former Twins ticket office, extend the present lounge with space from the present Vikings ticket office and build some type of big fan lounge in the second floor above the Twins ticket office.

Minnesotan Jeff Seeman, son of former NFL senior director of officials Jerry Seeman, was the line judge in the Super Bowl and could be headed for referee status in the future.

Wrestling recruiting services report that the Gophers have received a verbal commitment from three-time Alaska state champion Randy Hanson. He won at 103 pounds in 2008, 119 pounds in 2009 and 125 pounds this year.

The only member of Kevin McHale's Timberwolves front-office staff who remains with the team on more than a one-year deal is scout Dean Cooper, who is under contract for two years. He is a former assistant coach under Randy Wittman. All others are in the final year of their contracts, and it will be up to Wolves President David Kahn to determine whether they are retained. This group includes Fred Hoiberg, Jim Stack, Rob Babcock, Zarko Durisic and Jerry Sichting. The person most likely to remain is Hoiberg, vice president of basketball operations.