Sid's Jottings

• Former Vikings defensive end Jared Allen talked this week about what he saw when he decided to sign with the Bears. "When I looked at the total equation, this was a place where I can be a part of something great," he said. Allen participated in his first workout with his new team last week.

• Forbes Magazine ranked the Twins 19th in its valuations of major league baseball teams coming into this season, with an estimated value of $605 million and a 2013 operating income of $30.2 million. The Twins' attendance was down 23 percent in 2013 from their opening season in 2010, and attendance has continued to fall in 2014.

• Gophers football coach Jerry Kill on how many recruits the team can sign for the 2015 class. "We have quite a few seniors, so we're going to be probably right about 23, which is a good thing," he said. "We're trying to get those classes balanced out. This next recruiting class will be our fourth, and we try to get them balanced out to where we don't have too many numbers in one position. We're one year away from that, but 23 is a good number to work with."

• Flip Saunders will be anxious to see how Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad do at the NBA Summer League from July 11-21 in Las Vegas. The Wolves will be one of 24 teams competing in the league, and Saunders also recently confirmed that Alexey Shved would join the squad.

• In all the preseason media hype for the Twins, it was predicted that both Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano could be in a Twins uniform in the middle of this season, but as it turns out Sano won't play an inning in the minor leagues this year, and Buxton has appeared in just five games while dealing with a wrist injury. The absence of action this season might even keep them from getting to the big leagues next year.