Jack Hannahan is batting just .214 for the Cleveland Indians. But he has hit five home runs and driven in 23 runs in 86 of their 117 games and has dazzled at third base.

Plus, he’s a terrific teammate.

So the other day, immediately after the Indians played the Red Sox at night in Boston, the Cretin-Derham Hall grad and former Gopher from St. Paul received an urgent telephone call. It was from his wife, Jenny, a former St. Mark’s School kindergarten teacher who was back in Cleveland.

The couple’s first baby was due any moment, Jenny told Jack, and if he wanted to be there for the birth, he had better get on a flight. Soon.

Jack tried desperately, but no flights were available from Boston to Cleveland late that night.

While Hannahan sat alone at his locker, worried about his plight, teammate Justin Masterson walked by. The pitcher asked Hannahan how he was doing. Jack told him about the baby.

Masterson told him he should take a private jet to Cleveland. Cost: $35,000. Hannahan said he couldn’t afford that.

“Book it,” Masterson told Hannahan.

“I can’t. It costs too much,” Hannahan replied.

“Book it!” Masterson said.

Then Masterson passed a hat around the clubhouse. Teammates immediately contributed $35,000.

Hannahan zoomed off to Cleveland in a private jet. When he arrived, a limousine was waiting for him at the airport. It rushed Jack to the hospital, where he greeted Jenny at 3 a.m.

John Joseph V, with Jack by Jenny’s side, was born 15 minutes later. All is well.

Last week, Jeff Sorenson was hitting balls on the practice range at posh Atlanta Athletic Club alongside Nick Watney, Ian Poulter, K.J. Choi and some of the other top golfers in the world. Friday, in the first round of the PGA Championship there, Sorenson shot 75 – two strokes better than Tiger Woods.

Monday, the 1997 Champlin Park High School grad will be back at the public Columbia Golf Club in Northeast Minneapolis, giving lessons. He missed the cut in Atlanta, shooting a second-day 83.

“It was neat to see some of those guys – I talked to (first-day leader) Steve Stricker, who is a real nice guy, for a while – but this confirmed to me that I can play out there,” Sorenson said Saturday, chatting from a boat on Lake Lanier just north of Atlanta.

Regardless of Sorenson’s golf future, the 32-year-old reigning three-time Minnesota PGA player of the year – and the only Minnesotan to qualify for the PGA Championship – will always be able to say he bettered Woods’ score on the first day of a major championship.

“That’s just a little side note,” an unfazed Sorenson said. “I had five (putting) lip-outs that first day and a couple bad bounces. I could easily have shot even par (70) or 1 or 2 under that day. I know my good golf is PGA Tour quality.”

Sorenson, who will play in the North Dakota Open in two weeks, then the Minnesota PGA Championship at Medina a couple days later, said his 83 on Friday wasn’t representative of his outing.

“I had a little fizzle after I realized I was going to miss the cut,” he said. “With five holes to go, if I would have birdied out, I would have made it. But as soon as I realized I wasn’t going to make birdie, mentally I think I shut down a little bit and went 9 over (par) in four holes.

“It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying – it’s just hard to concentrate once you know you’re not going to make (the cut).”

Atlanta Athletic Club is playing at 7,463 yards this weekend.

“Extremely long – there are a lot of long iron shots,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson will try PGA Tour qualifying school in Florida in November. But Monday at Columbia, it will be back to normal, outside the ropes.

“I’ve got to make a living, you know,” he said.

Gophers senior Trevor Mbakwe had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the U.S. basketball team in a 108-67 World University Games victory over Mexico in Shenzhen, China, on Friday.

“We’re like a family,” Mbakwe said. “We have 12 guys who can play, and at some point, each of us could win the game for us.”

The Twins, who are ready to host concerts at Target Field, had staffers scouting the recent U2 and Paul McCartney shows at the Gophers’ TCF Bank Stadium and Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, respectively.

A major fundraiser for the Herb Brooks Foundation, called “Herbstock” and featuring several noted performers at an evening outdoor concert at the National Sports Center in Blaine, will be held Sept. 9.

Among performers will be Jimi Jamison, former singer for the band Survivor, which recorded “Eye of the Tiger.” Brooks used to play that song for his players before they took the ice when he coached the New York Rangers.

Also singing will be former Santana vocalist Alex Ligertwood, as well as Derek St. Holmes, who performs with Ted Nugent‘s band. Brooks’ son Danny, who played hockey at the University of Denver, will play the guitar.

If Twins minor league pitcher Anthony Slama’s elbow recovers from rehabilitation, he said he could pitch in Venezuela this winter.

The Minnesota Lynx have played 22 games this season. They have won 17. That’s as many as their Target Center partners, the Timberwolves, had in 82 games last season.

“I’m really happy with them,” Lynx owner Glen Taylor said. “It’s just so fun to see things are going so well.”

Taylor also owns the Timberwolves. That hasn’t been as fun.

“I see a lot of the same abilities in the Lynx and the Timberwolves, but you see how these ladies play together,” Taylor said. “Without a doubt, (the Lynx) do some wonderful things, but when they start winning, it’s defense. We can shut teams down.”

Taylor can’t say that about his Timberwolves.

Of the Lynx’s defense, Taylor said, “They go along, go along, go along, and it gets to the fourth quarter, and all of a sudden our team just shuts them down. It’s so obvious that they trust each other on defense. The other team just gets frustrated.

“That’s a quality we were not able to get out of our men this year. When it got to the end, it was just the opposite. The other teams just shut us down.”

Taylor and Wolves basketball president David Kahn are still seeking a coach for the Timberwolves.

“Hopefully we can find a coach and assistant coaches who somehow can pull that (defense) out of our men,” Taylor said.

Taylor likes his Lynx this season for another reason. After previously losing about $1 million annually, the Lynx could end up breaking even for the first time in their 13-year history, thanks to increased attendance of 625 per game (to 8,311) plus the upcoming playoffs.

“That would be my goal; I would be happy with that,” Taylor said.

Former Wolves assistant Eric Musselman, who went on to coach two NBA teams and is preparing the Venezuelan national team (5-1) for the 2012 Olympics, on how Venezuela can improve its development of players, on liderendeportes.com: “The same as I tell my two children Ã¢â‚¬’– if you want to be a good player, you have to spend much time at work. You can be born without ability, but the biggest thing in basketball is discipline.”

Brothers Tommy and Ed Olson, offensive linemen for the Gophers from Mahtomedi, are grandchildren of the late Pat Egan, who dug up the money to get the Minnesota Fighting Saints started and became their president.

Hall of famer Paul Molitor of St. Paul gave the welcome speech at the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series at Target Field last week, and Saturday night, hall of famer Dave Winfield of St. Paul was in town to give the closing speech.

The St. Paul Hi-Tower baseball team that leaves Wednesday for the Babe Ruth World Series in Glen Allen, Va., is composed of 15 Highland Park and Mac-Groveland neighborhood players, all 14 years old. Nine are headed to Cretin-Derham Hall as freshmen this fall, five to Highland Park High and one to St. Thomas Academy.

Baseball Hall of Fame candidate Jack Morris, the MVP of the 1991 World Series champion Twins team that last weekend celebrated its 20th anniversary, pitched for Hi-Tower in 1970, as did his brother Tom.

“I think the year after I was done, Tom’s team did quite well,” Morris said. “I think they went down to Albuquerque (N.M.).”

Hi-Tower, the Midwest Plains champion, plays its first game in the 10-team series next Sunday against host Glen Allen.

FILO Productions Inc. of St. Paul, featuring Cretin-Derham Hall grads Joe Gallagher, Kevin Weinhandl and Brian Buron, will host a free RBI World Series Fan Festival outside Target Field today.

Hall of famer Bert Blyleven is as meticulous at keeping a scorebook for Twins games he broadcasts as he was on the mound. One of his scorebooks, with detailed notations, is on display at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

New University of St. Thomas men’s basketball coach Johnny Tauer has hired former Tommie Mike Keating as an assistant.

Legendary St. John’s football coach John Gagliardi has 188 players, including 80 freshmen or transfers, set for the team’s opening practice today. Among the 80 are 18 who are 6-foot-2, 220 pounds or bigger.

Whitney Taney, who finished her Edina High tennis career 166-0 and won 200 singles and doubles matches at the University of Michigan, will become a volunteer Gophers women’s assistant tennis coach.

Former Gopher Tom Mee Jr.’s book “Cutting The Game: Inside Television Baseball From The Director’s Chair” by the St. Louis Cardinals’ TV producer has become available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook (cuttingthegame.com).

Frank Sanders, a former U.S. Olympic hockey player from North St. Paul who has pancreatic cancer, is chronicling his life and hockey career through high school, the Gophers, the Olympics and the Fighting Saints, then his decision to enter the ministry.

Gophers junior strong-side linebacker Mike Rallis popped open some eyes at Interlachen Country Club the other day when the 6-3, 235-pounder’s drive on the par-4 No. 2 carried 335 yards, landing pin high, seven feet from the hole. He lipped out the eagle putt. On the 320-yard, par-4 10th hole, Rallis’ drive landed over the green.

Rallis isn’t ready for the tour qualifying school, though – he finished with a 12-over-par 85.

Holy Angels grad John Stocco, a former University of Wisconsin QB standout, will work for an athletic recruiting network in Chicago.

Ex-Vikings QB Brooks Bollinger begins his football coaching career Monday at Hill-Murray.

A huge picture of ex-Vikings QB Brett Favre still remains on an outside wall of the Metrodome.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Pssst: More than a few Japanese scouts, before the Twins invested $14.3 million in Tsoyoshi Nishioka, predicted that the 27-year-old infielder would struggle this season in the field because of his lack of arm and glove and at bat because of a lack of power.

Nishioka is hitting .226 with no home runs, five doubles and 18 RBIs in 54 games. He has made 10 errors. The shortstop Nishioka replaced, J.J. Hardy, is hitting .274 with 23 home runs, 19 doubles and 58 RBIs for the Baltimore Orioles. Hardy has five errors.

The Twins still have to sign four of their top 10 picks from June’s draft by 11 p.m. Monday or lose their rights, but the club is confident it will reach agreements with all.

Top pick shortstop Levi Michael, a switch hitter from the University of North Carolina who was No. 30 overall, can expect a bonus of about $1 million.

The next two picks – California high school third baseman Travis Harrison and Florida high school pitcher Hudson Boyd – were Nos. 50 and 55 overall, respectively. The Twins also hope to sign their eighth-rounder, pitcher Jason Wheeler, out of Loyola Marymount.

Champions Tour golfers and VIPs drank 96 bottles of Silver Oak wine, at $100 a bottle, at executive director Hollis Cavner‘s recent 3M Championship pre-tournament party at his home on the TPC course in Blaine.

Said one prominent senior tour player, “Silver Oak is hard to pass up.”

The Twins won’t say whether they intend to pick up the $12.5 million, 2012 option on their all-time saves leader, Joe Nathan, 36.

Thursday, the day former heavyweight boxer Scott LeDoux died at age 62, was the eighth anniversary of the death of former U.S. Olympic gold-medal men’s hockey coach Herb Brooks at age 66.

Cretin-Derham Hall grad Seantrel Henderson underwent back surgery last week, according to multiple media reports, and it’s uncertain whether the 6-8, 345-pound University of Miami sophomore offensive lineman will be able to play this season.

Meanwhile, the Vikings had a scout at Miami’s practice last week.

Williams Arena spectators should be able to stay dry during the coming Gophers basketball seasons. At a cost of $1.2 million, plans are to repair the 83-year-old venue’s roof this fall. Funding will come from the University of Minnesota’s overall budget, not the athletics budget.

Chaska’s Hazeltine National, site of the 2016 Ryder Cup, has had to shut down after the recent heat and humidity nearly burned out some greens.

The Gophers are picked to finish last in the six-team Legends division of the Big Ten by Bleacher Report and Athlon Sports.

Harvard basketball coaches attended virtually all of the Howard Pulley summer league games played by Hopkins’ Siyani Chambers. Meanwhile, Wake Forest and Arizona have been showing the most interest in former Benilde-St. Margaret’s forward Kyle Washington.

OVERHEARD

Gophers basketball senior Trevor Mbakwe, playing for the USA in the World University Games in China, asked if he has been able to trade souvenir pins with teams from other countries: “I just found out we had pins a couple of days ago. I’m definitely going to trade pins before I leave.”