Sid Hartman: Wilf comes to camp expecting big things

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was watching the team's minicamp in Winter Park on Saturday when he was asked to appraise the job his coach, Brad Childress, has done.

"I think that you need a couple years to catch up to speed on all the different nuances of being a head coach," Wilf said. "I think he and his staff, and everyone around him, have grown. Just like how the players have gotten better.

"This is a team sport, and it starts from the bottom up and top down. I think we've got strength. ... I think the coaching staff and the players are ready to face this season with high expectations."

Wilf figures that the talent is so deep on the team now that it will very difficult to cut to the 53-player limit.

"It's going to be tough to get down to the final guys -- we have a tremendous amount of talent here, and I think it's going to be tougher and tougher to be able to get to the core guys, but we're going to have to," he said. "It's a good position to be at. Absolutely, absolutely, no question about it."

The 2005 draft, Wilf's first as owner, was a disaster. But Wilf believes that in the past two years, the roster has been strengthened at all of the positions that needed help.

"Every position that we felt we needed to get better at, we've brought the players in," he said. Both Childress and Rick Spielman, vice president of player personnel, deserve the credit. "Having Rick and having the coach work together to get the best players on the board and get those free agents that we need to strengthen our club. It's just going to make our team that much better, and I think everyone here has high expectations. And everyone has a very positive attitude."

"He's shown tremendous improvement, and I think it takes some time in the NFL to get a quarterback really on par," Wilf said. "I think he's starting to catch up to speed. I think we're going to see great things from him this year."

No doubt Wilf was very upset by the Love Boat incident, and he hasn't been happy with the trouble some of the players have gotten into. Some of those players are gone for that reason.

But he is convinced that things are going to change for the better.

He wouldn't comment on offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie's arrest in Florida after a brawl outside a nightclub, but no doubt Wilf was not expecting such an incident after he made clear to the entire organization that he won't tolerate embarrassments.

"Our policy since the beginning has been to bring in guys of character," Wilf said. "I think over the years, being able to bring those guys in that can be part of the community and make the community proud [has been our goal]. I think we're on the right track. I think it was a process that took several years, and I think right now we're on solid footing."

"Sure we can compete, we've seen everybody," he said. "We know we can compete with them. It's just a matter of going out and getting it done on the field."

The Twins' 45 errors are second-most in the AL.

"That's what I'm talking about: For us to stay in the division race we have to change that stat," he said. "We have to be in the middle to the top. That's where we're always at and that has to change."

One player Gardenhire isn't complaining about defensively is second baseman Alexi Casilla. "He's playing very well," Gardenhire said. "He's come up and changed his thinking a little bit, more under control and not getting out of whack and he looks real good, he's doing fine."

Casilla came to the Twins from the Angels in a deal for middle reliever J.C. Romero, who has since also played for the Red Sox and is now with the Phillies.

The NBA, in an attempt to help small-market teams like the Timberwolves and others who are near the bottom in revenue, has increased its revenue-sharing pool from $30 million to $49 million. Owner Glen Taylor said his team will get $7 million this season, up $3 million from last season.

Chicago is now one of four cities that have a chance to get the 2016 Olympics. And the word is, if the Windy City lands the event, the soccer competition would be played in the new Gophers football stadium.

Speaking of the great rivalry between the Lakers and the Celtics, there was a time in the early Minneapolis Lakers days that the team won 22 consecutive games over a Celtics team that included the great Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, two of the best guards to play in the league. It got so one-sided that Boston's late coach, Red Auerbach, hired a man with a ladder to measure the baskets at the old Minneapolis Auditorium to see if the Lakers were cheating with a lower basket so the great George Mikan could be more effective.

The Wolves will again have a team in the Las Vegas summer league, with play starting at the end of this month. ... Several former Gophers basketball players have been playing overseas, including Jerry Holman and Maurice Hargrow with the Qatar basketball team in the Arab Clubs championship in Amman, Jordan.

Gophersports.com recently showed a picture of all four basketball seniors in their caps and gowns at their graduation. Dan Coleman, Ryan Saunders, Spencer Tollackson and Lawrence McKenzie have all graduated.

Grant (Spike) Johnson, a member of the 1937-38 Gophers Big Ten basketball championship team, is one of the former maroon and gold athletes who will be inducted the school's Hall of Fame.

Last summer, the Twins sent second baseman Luis Castillo to the Mets for two players: Dustin Martin, who is hitting .316 for Class AA New Britain, and catcher Drew Butera, who is hitting under .200 for the same team. Butera is the son of former Twins catcher Sal Butera.