Posted June 13, 2011    

•Phil Jackson

•Justin Morneau

•Brett Favre

•Bronko Nagurski

•Herb Brooks

When Profiling is Okay… 

Sporting News Magazine offers a “My Profile” in each issue.  A sports celebrity shares trivia about himself ranging from values he admires in others to a favorite car or meal. Although many candidates applied for today’s Sports Headliners version of “My Profile,” I selected the person I know best.   

Me.  

Name: David John Shama, although family and childhood friends often call me Mik (don’t ask).  A pal from grade school days calls me Rock (a reference to my muscles, not my head).  

Best advice: My mom told me “mind your own business and you will have plenty to do.”  

Favorite coach: Phil Jackson.  

Childhood sports heroes: Mickey Mantle and Jerry West.  

First job: selling TV Guide subscriptions door-to-door.  

My heroes today: the men and women past and present who gave their lives in service to America.  

Pet peeve: Slow moving motorists who hog the left lane. 

What I can’t figure out: Why investment advisors know so much about making money but have to work for a living.  

Must see TV: “60 Minutes” (journalism lives!). 

Best movies: “Midnight in Paris” and “Animal House.” 

Dream date: My wife (she edits my column). 

How to recognize a tough week: A bird poops on my writing tablet while sitting on the deck at home.  Two days later I am playing golf and victimized again.  (Same bird? Nah.) 

Greatest love: My family, and college football.

 

Jack Buck: ‘And We’ll See You Tomorrow Night’  

Classless super stars: LeBron James and Dwayne Wade mocking Dirk Nowitzki for being sick with a 101 degree temperature. 

Favorite restaurant: Are you kidding? Murray’s. 

Best meal at home: Anything followed by large quantities of Peanut M&M’s.  

Best way to start the morning: Watching Dan Patrick on TV, or reading his column in Sports Illustrated.  

Best way to end the day: With a margarita on the deck.  

Worst habit: Paying too much attention to both the past and future.  

What I love about Canadian native Justin Morneau: He drinks maple syrup and hangs out with bears.  

Things I don’t get about the Twins: What is Bert Blyleven’s “California math?”  How come the team caps say TC?  Are they the Twin Cities Twins? 

Joe Mauer’s chances of being booed upon his return to Target Field: Slim but I won’t say none. 

Most unforgettable call from a World Series: Jack Buck’s famous words following Kirby Puckett’s winning home run for the Twins in game six, “And we’ll see you tomorrow night.” 

Best quarterback I ever saw: Brett Favre, 2009 vintage playing for the Vikings. 

Stats I can't forget: Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a single game.  Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak. 

Appalling statistics:  America’s big city school systems graduate less than 50 percent of their students.  It's not just the systems that need to improve, the parents and kids need to step up, too.

 

The Big Lie I Admit to Now 

The lie I can’t shake: Telling myself every spring my golf game is improved.  

Best coaching experience ever: Going undefeated in basketball for two years with Washburn area junior high kids. 

Best song: The Minnesota Rouser.  When the Gophers are special (and I emphasize special), the school fight song sends shivers up my back.  

Best trick trivia question from the old days at Met Stadium:  Who is the only person to play for the Twins and Vikings?  (Answer: the organist).  

What I can live without but won’t: Twitter.  Follow me: David Shama @Minn_Sports. 

On my nightstand: The Book of Basketball  by Bill Simmons, and A New Earth by  Eckhart Tolle.  

Nostalgic shopping: Remember when USDA Prime Beef was commonplace at the grocery store?  

Unforgettable Gophers football advertisement from long ago: Bronko Nagurski saying, “When the Vikings lose I get mad.  When the Gophers lose I could cry.”  

I lie awake at night wondering: Is white goateed Twins manager Ron Gardenhire really Santa Claus?  

Question for Vikings owner Zygi Wilf: Would you play Groucho Marx in a remake of the movie “Horse Feathers?” 

Favorite winter getaway: Little Cayman Island, Point of Sand.  (Don’t tell.)  

Biggest worry and hope: This country has a lot of problems, but many amazing people are doing great things for themselves and others.  

People I miss: My mom, dad, uncles and aunts, and favorites from the sports world including Herb Brooks, Paul Giel and Harmon Killebrew.

 

Ron Gardenhire
Photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins

 

 Zygi Wilf