Add Northwestern football to the long list of victims of Bud Selig and Major League Baseball.
Impossible, you say? Think again.
With the Twins making their way into the baseball playoffs this October, Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi suddenly had a big problem on his hands. Two games, no stadium.
The folks at the baseball office on Park Avenue were kind enough to inform the Golden Gophers and the Big Ten that they’d be taking control of the big baggie known as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome whenever it became convenient.
(Memo from MLB to Minnesota: “Sorry, Golden Gophers. Homer Hankies will have to replace buck teeth for the time being. Thanks for helping.”)
While the Twins and Gophers have shared the dome on the same day before, baseball has the right to kick out all other tenants for the entire day of a playoff game — even if it’s not guaranteed that the game will take place in that stadium.
So the Wildcats are forced to go on four days’ rest — kind of like a starting pitcher, come to think of it — up in Minneapolis, even though, as it turns out, the Twinkies will be on the road all weekend.
Maturi and Minnesota had a real conundrum, as last week’s game against Illinois also got bumped. Two days of conference calls with the Big Ten office and the two visiting schools yielded a solution: move both games up to Thursday, an off day in the baseball playoff schedule.
Last week, it wasn’t that big a deal. Both Minnesota and Illinois had short weeks to prepare for one another. This week, it’s not quite the same. NU had to deal with conference bully Ohio State Saturday night before turning its attention up north. While licking the wounds from a 27-16 defeat, they had to get ready for the conference’s top defense.
Not that the Wildcats and Gophers didn’t seek other alternatives. But between Maturi and NU Director of Athletics Rick Taylor, none was acceptable:
? Move the game to the end of the season, two days after Thanksgiving. Said Taylor: “Most of our kids had non-refundable flights home. We would have been playing a game after facing Illinois and our season-ending banquet.”
? Move to a neutral site. Said Maturi: “I looked at that and there’s nothing. … There isn’t a facility near here that could hold 15,000, much less 50,000.” Since building the Mall of America over the old Metropolitan Stadium, Wisconsin’s Camp Randall is the nearest place they could play. (For the record, Maturi said the teams did not consider actually playing in the Mall of America. Worth a shot, right?)
? Move the displaced games to Champaign and Evanston. Said Taylor: “They would have lost all of their revenue. You’re talking 40,000 tickets times whatever they charge, plus travel expenses for them to come here. … (And) we would have had trouble printing up all the tickets in two weeks.”
Both Maturi and Taylor called the agreement the best solution from a bunch of really bad options. Fair enough. But understand, as both ADs do, that NU is putting itself at a potential competitive disadvantage by playing on short rest.
“Rick Taylor, Randy Walker — they stepped to the plate and saw a colleague in trouble,” said Maturi, who was the athletic director at Miami (Ohio) in Walker’s last year as head coach there. “Quite frankly, good for them and I’ll be forever indebted to it.
“(But) if we jump on them early, maybe it’ll be on the back of their minds.”
Taylor, in an attempt to even the playing field a bit, got Minnesota to agree not to practice until Sunday, the same time that NU could begin game preparation. So the Gophers got extra days of rest, but they haven’t had any more time to prepare for NU than vice versa.
Essentially, this is a case of a school, NU, doing its best to help a fellow member of the conference in a time of need, even if it means taking a potential hit.
Maturi’s gratitude after being bailed out when his hands were tied is encouraging, too. A little collegiate goodwill and sportsmanship never hurt. And who knows — this could mean a favor will be returned somewhere down the line.
“‘In a bind’ means that you have options. They didn’t,” Taylor said. “It would have been nice if Major League Baseball had worked with us.”
Of course, if Bud Selig and pals really wanted to help out, they’d imagine some scheme to keep the Twins out of the playoffs for the rest of eternity.
Ha. Like that’d ever happen.
Glenn Kasses is a Medill senior. He can be reached at [email protected].
