sports

While the Vikings have been very quiet this offseason about their ticket sales, director of ticketing and hospitality Phil Huebner said: "We're still in the middle of our renewal process, which takes a long time due to the fact that we have over 14,000 accounts. However, we are seeing more attrition this year than we have in past years. The good news is that since February 1st, we've already sold over 2,000 new season tickets. This year, we'll give a lot of people who thought that there weren't season tickets available a chance to purchase them. So we're seeing interest there. As far as our single ticket sales, we haven't set a date, but it'll probably be the first or second week of July."

The late Herb Carneal's first game here involved a Vikings' preseason game in 1961 while he was still the baseball broadcaster with the Orioles.

The Gophers are short of wide receivers and GopherIllustrated.com reports that the football program will have a couple of visits this weekend from two late qualifiers for the 2007 class. They are: wide receiver Damien White of Culver City, Calif., who had 64 catches for 1,166 yards and 13 touchdowns last season; and Taylor Strainge from Delray Beach, Fla., who also is an all-conference track star.

Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight received another honor the other day when he won the Naismith Award, given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club for his outstanding contribution to the game of basketball. Kay Yow of North Carolina State won the women's award.

The Orioles have proved that a new ballpark is fine, but if you don't win, a new stadium doesn't mean much. The Orioles drew 3,567,819 in 1992, when Camden Yards opened, and then drew more than 3 million in eight of the next nine seasons. Last season, their attendance dropped to 2,153,139.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Podcast twice a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com