Sid Hartman: Gardy deserves Manager of Year

With the Twins' sweep of the White Sox, their 42-16 record since the All-Star break was good for a .724 winning percentage, the highest in the 50-season history of the team. They have lost only two series since the break, losing two of three at home to Cleveland July 19-21 and losing three of four at Texas Aug. 23-26. They have won 15 series, including five sweeps, and split one.

In fact, the Twins have posted their best three second-half records under manager Ron Gardenhire. The top record is .667 (46-23) in 2003, when they came from 7 1/2 games down at the break to win the American League Central by four games. The second-best percentage is .645 (66-27) in 2006, when the Twins clinched a playoff berth with a week to go and won the division on the final day of the season.

The Twins have a .579 winning percentage (372-270) overall in the second half since Gardenhire took over as manager in the 2002 season.

With a record like this year's, though, you wonder if Gardy will finally get the votes to be named AL Manager of the Year, an award he really deserves but has yet to win despite all his success.

There was a lot of concern about the performance of catcher Joe Mauer before the break, when he hit only .293 with four homers and 35 RBI in 77 games. But after going 2-for-5 in Thursday's 8-5 victory over Chicago, he is hitting .386 after the break with five homers and 39 RBI in only 53 games, and his average went from 57th in the majors to fourth.

Another player whose performance improved after the All-Star break is lefthander Francisco Liriano, who was 6-7 with a 3.86 ERA in the first half but 8-0 with a 2.41 ERA in the second.

The 2001 Oakland Athletics have the major league record for best second-half winning percentage at .773 (58-17).

Ryan Cook, in his fifth year with the Vikings, got back to his old position of right tackle in the fourth quarter of the opener against the Saints when left tackle Bryant McKinnie dislocated a finger. Regular right tackle Phil Loadholt moved over to McKinnie's spot. "During the preseason this year I've mainly played center and guard, but obviously three years ago I was the starting right tackle here for two years," said Cook, who started every game in 2007 and 14 games in 2008 before becoming a backup last year. "I've had experience with it, so it's not too much of a surprise." Cook can play all five positions on the line. "I think I have a pretty good grasp of all the positions," he said. "I'm just trying to stay up to date on those week to week with the changes that we have."

Weber optimistic Well, Southern California is only an 11 1/2-point favorite to beat the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday, and quarterback Adam Weber is optimistic the Gophers can win despite being upset at home by South Dakota last week.

"Well you can either go two ways: you can get worse or you can get better," the senior said. "Knowing the character on this team, the leadership that we have, this week is going to be an important week where we're going to get better. We're going to get focused in, get back, get back on the horse, and prepare and get ready for USC."

Weber has a lot of respect for the 18th-ranked Trojans.

"You know about the history, obviously in the past decade they've had great success," Weber said. "But you know, it's an opportunity for us to play a great team and I look forward to the challenge and I can't wait to get out there and play against a great team and give them our best shot. Hopefully when the game's over, we're victorious."

"No, I'm not concerned at all. ... But it's something I'm going to focus on and obviously I've got to play smarter," Weber said of the fumbles. "Those fumbles were critical, and I have to be a smarter football player out there knowing that protecting the football is the most important thing."

USC didn't look that good Saturday night at home, beating Virginia 17-14, and coach Lane Kiffin told reporters after the game that he was outcoached. "I kind of feel like we lost," Kiffin said. "They outcoached us today ... I would say we were outcoached. I hope you can tell the disappointment. We're not getting it done. It's the most miserable 2-0 locker room I've been in, which is good. We need to get better. All of a sudden we might lose a game like this."

In that game, the Trojans ran for only 127 yards, with quarterback Matt Barkley's 20-yard run their longest from scrimmage. He also completed 20 of 35 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns, and he hasn't thrown an interception in two games.

The Trojans have been penalized a nation-high 24 times for 240 yards in two games.

Jottings Dan Johnson, the Coon Rapids native who first came to the majors with the A's, hit two home runs and drove in all four runs for the Rays as they beat the Yankees 4-3 on Wednesday night. Johnson also hit a walk-off homer against the Red Sox on Aug. 28. Johnson has five homers since being called up from Class AAA Durham, where he was named International League MVP with 30 homers and 95 RBI.

Ben McDaniels was a member of the Gophers football coaching staff in 2004 and '05 when Laurence Maroney was ranked as one of the great running backs in the country, before he was drafted by the Patriots in the first round of the 2006 NFL draft. So the fact that McDaniels is on brother Josh McDaniels' coaching staff with the Broncos might have had something to do with Denver trading for Maroney from New England this week. The Patriots really didn't get anything for Maroney, as they are also giving up a sixth-round pick while Denver is sending them a fourth-round pick.