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LORNA BENSON: Good morning. I'm Lorna Benson with news from Minnesota Public Radio. The Minneapolis Police Department has started an internal investigation following a newspaper report suggesting some officers have received gifts and favors from a strip club. The Star Tribune says in exchange for favors, officers did not pursue violations at Deja Vu, including using underage dancers for sexual performances. The club's attorney says Deja Vu's operators do not have a close relationship with police.

A US Justice Department report says Minnesota had the country's second lowest incarceration rate last year. Minnesota Public Radio's Jon Gordon reports.

JON GORDON: Even though Minnesota's incarceration rate is low, it is among the fastest growing because of tougher sentencing laws. The same holds true for North Dakota, which has the fewest residents in prison per capita. The Justice Department says North Dakota had 85 people out of every 100,000 in prison. That was followed by Minnesota at 105. Nationwide, the incarceration rate was 409.

North Dakota and Minnesota also ranked first and second in 1994. But Minnesota's prison population has soared 53% since 1990, the sharpest increase in the nation behind Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Mississippi. North Dakota's prison population grew 26% from 1990 to '95, but it jumped 13.4% last year. Jon Gordon, Minnesota Public Radio.

LORNA BENSON: It's a wet day on tap for much of Minnesota. Some scattered showers and thunderstorms spreading from the South and West into the Northeast. Humid today with highs from the middle 70s to the middle 80s.

Currently Duluth reporting some light rain, 64 degrees. Cloudy in Saint Cloud, 66. Rochester, cloudy and 69. Sioux Falls, cloudy, 70. And in the Twin Cities, cloudy, 70 degrees. That's news. I'm Lorna Benson.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHRIS ROBERTS: You're listening to Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Chris Roberts, in for Paula Schroeder.

When you say geography, most people think of their elementary school days spent staring at maps and memorizing country's exports. David Lanegran takes it closer to home. He is a professor of geography at Macalester College and specializes in urban geography. His most recent book, Grand Avenue, examines how the Saint Paul Street was reborn and the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood revitalized.

He met Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith at Dunn Brothers, a coffee shop thriving on Grand Avenue.

[COFFEE SHOP NOISE]

DAVID LANEGRAN: We always say it's the oldest of the disciplines, even before history. People had to know where they were and where they were safe, where they could go find something to eat, where they could get water. So it's argued that along with animals, dogs, and baboons, and butterflies, we share this need to know where we are.

So that geography started out as a survival skill, and then as people began to write, they began to write about the Earth and where these things were. And then history, of course, developed along with it. But cultures first had to know where they were, and then they could write about where they had been.

STEPHEN SMITH: Your specialty really has been-- I mean, I know you've done a lot of things-- but your specialty has been the urban landscape.

DAVID LANEGRAN: That's correct.

STEPHEN SMITH: And the urban landscape in the Twin Cities--

DAVID LANEGRAN: That's correct.

STEPHEN SMITH: --primarily. Let's say I'm a Saint Paul dweller. I live in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood, which is--

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, you're a very lucky person, then.

STEPHEN SMITH: --sort of a middle class, upper middle class kind of region of bungalows and comfortable homes. And I work downtown in Saint Paul at a big insurance company, say. What am I going to find out about my life through geography that is going to surprise me or going to influence the way I live?

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, there are all kinds of things. If you live in this district, which is the area that I live in, we are connected to downtown Saint Paul, obviously, by your example's movement, going back and forth. Well, OK, now how is that person going to get there? Going to get there by driving, going to get there by taking the bus, is he going to bicycle, maybe he might even hitchhike, which is a very old-fashioned way of moving.

But the person who is going to study geography will understand how the relationship between the East Side and downtown is affecting the vibrancy of downtown, therefore affecting the nature of his workplace and then also the connections back to his own neighborhood. He'll understand, or she'll understand, how changes in the Midway are affecting the relationships between the population that lives in the Midway and the population in Macalester-Groveland. These are all the interconnections within the city that the study of geography will outline or lay out for this person.

If we go back in time, the resident can understand how that neighborhood has evolved from the forest open, so-called Oak Openings that was here, the savanna and oak forest, how that was developed by entrepreneurs, real estate promoters, institutions came in and filled in the places that were available, the sequence of housing. And then also what are the changes that are happening in that neighborhood that's going to make his life pleasant or unpleasant 20 years from now? I always tell people that change is natural in cities and in neighborhoods. The question that we have to determine is what is the direction of the change, how are places actually changing, and how will those changes affect us. And most importantly, how can we affect those changes?

So, again, this coming back to this notion of how an individual is connected is the essence of geography. And the more somebody studies urban geography or cultural geography, the more they're able to control those processes around them in their neighborhood or in their workplace.

STEPHEN SMITH: One of the things that you've been working on most recently is a new book about Grand Avenue, which we're situated on here at a coffee shop on Grand. The Renaissance of An Urban Street is the subtitle of the book, a book you co-wrote with a shop owner on Grand Avenue for many years.

You talk about change. One thing that Grand Avenue has clearly done is changed the whole face of Saint Paul. And in a way that people may not have expected, it changed the face of Saint Paul long before the automobiles that drove on Grand Avenue. It was the streetcar. And the fact that a streetcar line happened to come up this road as opposed to some other road that seemed to create one of the more vibrant urban streetscapes.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, let me take exception with one thing you said. The streetcar line just didn't happen to come up this road. This is a real difference between geography and economics and some of the other social sciences, at least the way I view geography. Individuals are making decisions based on their view of the future and their understanding of where they are.

So in fact, Archbishop Ireland and Thomas Cochrane, the chairman of the Macalester board of trustees, paid the streetcar a bonus to run its electric streetcar out Grand Avenue. And that gets back to what I was talking about earlier. If you understand where you are and the direction of changes, you can manipulate those changes to enhance your location.

And that's exactly what those guys did. They created a special place, the first electric streetcars in the Twin Cities. They took a big risk because they thought that by doing that, they would make their colleges accessible to the students they needed to make the institutions successful.

And I like to tell people that get the landscape you deserve, particularly in our city, where the system, the political system, the economic system is quite open. But the future is there for you to read in the landscape. And if you act according to your vision, you will create the desired future for your place. If you choose not to act, then I'll act, and we'll get my desired future rather than your desired future.

So we're in an informed competition with each other, based on our views of the future and our understanding of how we're connected in this place. Now we're in Dunn Brothers. These guys knew exactly where they were when they opened this restaurant. They knew that they were close to a population that was young, that had some money to spend, but not a lot.

STEPHEN SMITH: Macalester College.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Macalester College. And more importantly, the people who had been at Macalester College, but still lived in the neighborhood in these apartment houses, in these duplexes, in this safe, moderately priced neighborhood. And they understood that the spaces, the geography of Grand Avenue contained shops where you could go buy things and bars.

So they understood that there was a gap. They also understood that coffee is addictive. But they understood that they could create a kind of space that was needed in this urban community that was evolving in the late 20th century.

STEPHEN SMITH: What Grand Avenue doesn't have is a high density of strip malls, of franchised stores. In some ways, Grand Avenue represents the kind of urban landscape, not a pedestrian street, but a street of small shops, a destination where people want to go for sort of social interchange. It represents the kind of urban landscape that a lot of cities would like to duplicate, get back to. They view it as sort of a renewal of some old idea in a nostalgic way.

DAVID LANEGRAN: That's right.

STEPHEN SMITH: Is it really that?

DAVID LANEGRAN: It really is that I was talking to a developer friend of mine who commented that when they made Grand Avenue, they threw away the mold. Well, I don't think that's literally true, but what we have on Grand Avenue is a space that's, to use the computer jargon, user friendly.

STEPHEN SMITH: Why is this street, this avenue, more friendly to human beings than some other commercial center?

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, I've thought about that quite a bit, and I don't honestly know the answer. My thoughts are that it's more friendly than downtown because you don't have to shop to be here. That is, residents are along here. And so you can be walking down the sidewalk to go into a house or go into a store. It's not like going downtown, where you basically have to buy. And it's definitely not like going to a mall, where you're actually in somebody's private space.

So you can come onto the street without making a commitment. The large numbers of houses, I also think, give people a sense of security, that you know that there's people around you all the time. So you can come on this street late at night, where you really can't go downtown Minneapolis, Saint Paul, New York, anyplace and feel secure because there's so few people on the street. So there's a sense of safety that comes from the mixture of commercial and residential structures along the Avenue.

Also, the last 25 years, people have worked very hard to make the street look more friendly. They've worked very hard at not making it look like the post-modern suburbs, the so-called commodification. Worked very, very hard at the design to give it texture, different colors, different patterns, make it more interesting to walk along than, say, walking along 494, or South Robert, or North Snelling, or some of those other places.

There was a time in the '70s when the fish and chip shops opened and the fried chicken places opened. People were really afraid that it was going to become a suburban strip. So the alternative was worked out incrementally to bring it back to the way-- it didn't really look like this in the 1920s, but to give it a feel that it might have looked like this in the 1920s.

CHRIS ROBERTS: David Lanegran, speaking to Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith. He is a professor of geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul. His latest book, co-written with Billy Young, is Grand Avenue, The Renaissance of An Urban Street. You're listening to our voices of Minnesota interview on Midmorning. Let's return to the conversation.

STEPHEN SMITH: You talk about Grand Avenue not being a centrally planned, sort of a Soviet-style, you said, space. It makes me think of a community that's being built in Florida by the Disney Company called Celebration, which is very much a planned community. It's a community that is designed to resemble, if you will, the classic American Midwestern town, Southern town, small town. It's going to have something like 40,000 plus people in it, being built by one of the largest corporations, certainly in the US and in the world. It's very centrally planned. And it's and its whole aim is to return us to some notion of what American-built landscapes were at their best.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Mhm.

STEPHEN SMITH: Anything ironic about the fact that or anything almost impossible, do you think, about trying to grasp at a spirit from a big megacorporate sort of plan?

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, I there are probably three things to say about that. One is the Disney corporation has a history of excellent planning. And in fact, we, the city of Saint Paul, hired some Disney planners to come in and basically give us some ideas on how to redo downtown. So if you think about downtown Saint Paul, there are distinct regions in it like there are in Disneyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, and so on. And Disney is very big on signage, and getting people to where they want to go. So we never want to underestimate the intelligence of the Disney corporation.

The second thing is that there is a movement in the United States called the New Urbanism. And their attempt is to recreate the suburban pattern, to have more diversity in it, to make smaller scale developments, to rebuild shopping centers, and so on. Disney is really flying in the face of what they're trying to do. Because in the 1920s, the cities were being developed, really, without plans. And the landscape that was emerging was guided somewhat by zoning, but clearly not centrally planned.

So the notion that a large corporation like Disney can create this spontaneity of the past is, I think, really misguided. They may produce a landscape that is very wonderful to be in. But I can't see how they'll create the social linkages and communications and equity that go into this.

This landscape that we're in now works because people work very hard at making it work. They don't get paid by the hour. I mean, they've got some kind of social stake in it or personal or emotional stake in it. And that's what makes it work.

We talk a lot about the commodification of our culture. And Disney is really big into that. Disney sells history, even if it's not really true history. And it sells geography, even if it's not really true geography.

STEPHEN SMITH: What does that say about what we, as human beings, as Americans, as people who live in environments that we've created, what does this-- I think it's not just Disney. There is a larger sort of feeling or movement back towards a built landscape that is not the suburban strip mall, that is not the suburban shopping mall.

You mentioned that Grand Avenue is an environment where people live mixed with the retail.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Right.

STEPHEN SMITH: What does it say about the kind of built environment we want if we are trying to return to something that happened spontaneously, 30, 50 years ago, or whatever, and we're turning our backs on yet another landscape that's suburban landscape that also, in a certain way, happens spontaneously.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Well, the suburban landscape happened much less spontaneously. Here in Saint Paul in Minneapolis, a handful of developers built the suburbs. Large-- you know, they'd buy farms and redevelop farms according to almost templates.

And that landscape worked as long as women were home and could ferry the kids around. Because the time geography in the suburbs is very different than the time geography for people who live in the inner city. In those homogeneous communities, you had to go a long way to school, had to go a long way to work, had to go a long way to shop. And you always were moving in the car.

And people are reacting against that. People are saying we either got to redesign the suburbs to make them more humane because women are not home to do all this sort of thing. And secondly, the people, the children who grow up in those landscapes reject the homogeneity of them, the blandness of the architecture, and really are looking for a more diverse thing. Now I see this as a gradual change in the culture, but I think it's picking up momentum.

STEPHEN SMITH: In an odd way, though, I mean, the people who designed the neighborhoods around here, which are some of the neighborhoods that people view as being a return to the good values of a city community, these neighborhoods were themselves the suburbs originally--

DAVID LANEGRAN: Absolutely.

STEPHEN SMITH: --built by developers.

DAVID LANEGRAN: They still are basically a suburban density.

STEPHEN SMITH: So what did those guys know about building a suburb that people who came along, what, 50 years later--

DAVID LANEGRAN: The people who built these suburbs did not build all the houses at once. No, they couldn't afford to, essentially. So they built them in small groups, groups of five, groups of seven. And then individuals came in and built on the frame that they were working.

The economy of the '50s and '60s allowed swaths of houses to be built, which broke apart this fabric. And then as long as gas was cheap and people's time was cheap, they could drive around. But now people's time has gotten very expensive. And so the driving time in the suburbs is becoming more costly.

And there are some tensions always here between the value of your time and the landscape that you want to live in. And now if you look in the suburbs, they're redesigning their shopping malls. They're breaking down some of these big patterns.

I don't think they're ever going to get a landscape that's as interesting as Macalester-Groveland. I mean, this is really an extraordinary landscape. But they will get a landscape that's more diverse, has more texture in it than the ones that were built in the '50s and '60s

Now, the other thing that's happening, of course, is they're not building middle class suburbs anymore. They're building high income suburbs. So we'll have to see how all this plays itself out.

But I'm optimistic. I think that people are learning lessons about how urban life functions best. And they're listening to people now.

STEPHEN SMITH: One of the things you say in the introduction to your book on Grand Avenue interested me. "A useful street is perceived as one that is straight, has no distractions or interruptions, and allows traffic to move along it as rapidly as possible. Our words for streets imply movement. We call our big thoroughfares arteries, and professional disciplines are devoted to the science of keeping those arteries unobstructed and free flowing." But Grand is an avenue, not a street, and I'm wondering what the difference between a street and an avenue is.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Oh, God. Well, literally, avenues were more grand than streets. It was a nice French word that moved into English and streets were more humdrum. So if you want to do a little upscale, you called your street an avenue. So you have Summit Avenue and Grand Avenue.

But if you think about this, Grand Avenue is a terrible street. I mean, I drove to this interview, and I was late because traffic was so terrible. People were pulling out in front of me and stopping in front of me and doing all those things that people used to do when they moved more slowly. And if you go over on University or I-94, everybody is going as fast as they possibly can.

I don't know that the words are so significant, but clearly the attitudes. I mean, people on Grand Avenue have an attitude. And if you want to go fast on Grand Avenue, you're on the wrong street.

And the businessmen used to complain about this all the time, because they wanted more traffic by their street. And they finally learned that the numbers aren't important. It's do they want to buy.

STEPHEN SMITH: Grand Avenue, as you pointed out, runs through the middle of a very not rich necessarily, but certainly an affluent--

DAVID LANEGRAN: Exactly.

STEPHEN SMITH: --community. Are there successful avenues, if you will? I guess what I'm trying to get at is are these notions of a successful contemporary urban landscape--

DAVID LANEGRAN: Are they elitist?

STEPHEN SMITH: --well, seems to only exist in places where there's a lot of money.

DAVID LANEGRAN: No, I don't think so. What makes a street, an avenue successful is its people are on it. And it's always intriguing for me when I drive around the city to see where you see pedestrians and where you don't. You see pedestrians on low income streets enjoying each other, doing their thing, shopping. And you see them on Grand Avenue.

Now the income levels aren't the same. But the basic human interactions are the same. People know each other, talk to each other, greet each other. That's not dependent upon income.

Now the look of the landscape is. This is an expensively well-maintained street. Some of these others aren't so. But they're successful in that they serve the population. So yeah, I think I can show you lots of successful streets in low income neighborhoods.

STEPHEN SMITH: Is a successful street, one that moves slowly?

DAVID LANEGRAN: I think so, very definitely. I think the slower people go through the landscape, the more they see, the more they sense. There's almost a direct relationship to how much you see and how fast you go. And if the street is so dull that you want to speed along through it, then it's not a successful street.

STEPHEN SMITH: What's your favorite street in Minnesota?

DAVID LANEGRAN: Grand Avenue.

STEPHEN SMITH: And is it your favorite street in the US?

DAVID LANEGRAN: Probably. I often ask myself why have I stayed here so long. And when I go to other cities, look for places that will attract me. And I really come back to this place over and over again, thinking this is as good as it gets.

We live in a suburban density. I said that before, but I want to reiterate that. We still live at a suburban density. But we're in the middle of a metropolitan area. We're in almost the geographic center of the Twin Cities.

We have a street that has basically all the conveniences a person can dream of on the street, as well as recreation facilities. This is a busy neighborhood street, but it's not downtown. And it's not the mega mall.

It's really still our street. And I think that's what makes it so comfortable for people. They feel that even if they've only lived on it for six months, it's their street. And they just have that sense of ownership and equity, which builds confidence. And that makes a successful neighborhood.

STEPHEN SMITH: Will we plan ourselves our way out of the emptiness that many people perceive exists in the suburbs? There's been so much investment in malls and in suburbs and in highways and in developments. Is it possible to plan your way out of that? Or to think your way out of it as a geographer?

DAVID LANEGRAN: I think so. Whether there's a will to do it is the real issue. Because the suburbs make a lot of money for people. I mean, they're a successful landscape in that sense. So that the question is will the public rise up the way they did in Shoreview, for example, and create the Shoreview Community Center, which was a really nice response to the community, or put in these bike paths, or hiking paths, walking paths that some of the suburbs are putting in? There's a lot of good planning going into the suburban landscape that's creating a more friendly space.

And I suppose the real acid test here is where will the children that are born in those suburbs want to live. Right now, they want to come into this landscape, into the inner city. Yeah. They like the whatever you want to call it.

STEPHEN SMITH: What passes for the inner city.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Right, what passes for the inner city. They like this. They turn their back on the standard suburban landscape. They tell you it's dull and boring and all that sort of stuff.

STEPHEN SMITH: So the test is the kids.

DAVID LANEGRAN: Yeah. Well, what kind of a landscape will they design? Because right now they're living in a landscape designed by their older generations. And we just have to see.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHRIS ROBERTS: Macalester College Professor David Lanegran, speaking to Minnesota Public Radio's Stephen Smith.

28 minutes now before 11 o'clock. You're listening to Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Chris Roberts.

Minnesota Public Radio operates in association with the following institutions, Saint John's Abbey and University, Collegeville; Concordia College, Moorhead; Luther College. Decorah; the College of Saint Scholastica, Duluth; Michigan Technological University, Houghton; Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter; the College of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph; and Bethany Lutheran College of Mankato.

Today's programming is made possible in part by the advocates of Minnesota Public Radio. Contributors include The McKnight Foundation, working to strengthen families and communities. Today's programming is sponsored in part by Martha and Walter Cleveland, in recognition of the Greyhound Pets of America and all its wonderful and dedicated volunteer workers.

["IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A BALLGAME" PLAYING]

(SINGING)

It's a beautiful day for a ballgame, for a ball game today. The fans are out to get a ticket or two From Mala Mala Washington to Kalamazoo. It's a beautiful day--

CHRIS ROBERTS: It's fair to say the Minnesota Twins have exceeded expectations at this point in the baseball season, given all that plagues them. Think about it. Kirby Puckett has retired. Chuck Knoblauch may be playing his last season. There are no bona fide power hitters in the lineup, and the pitching is, well, weak might be one word to describe it.

And yet the Twins are in a position, perhaps, to claim a wild card berth in the playoffs. So how come the Twins still have life in them almost 2/3 of the way through the season? With us now to answer those and other questions about our home team is our resident Twins expert, Midmorning's baseball commentator, Robin Gehl. Good morning, Robin.

ROBIN GEHL: Hi, Chris.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Well, how come the Twins are doing relatively well at this point.

ROBIN GEHL: Isn't that something? Despite all you've said, they've won 11 of their last 14 games. And this is the first time in four seasons, since 1992, that they're above the 500 mark after the All-Star break at this time, meaning they've won more games than they've lost.

And a number of things have come together for them. It's really mind-boggling. They're simply playing pretty good baseball. Their batting is very good. I think the last few weeks, their average is about 300 for a team average.

The pitching has been decent. The starters have done their part. Their earned run average is about four, which is decent, especially for the Twins, in the last few weeks. And the fielding is good. They've only had a couple of errors. So all the way around, they're playing good baseball.

CHRIS ROBERTS: My sense is they hustle pretty well.

ROBIN GEHL: Exactly right. I think with all the adversity, likewise. Earlier in the season, and this is one of the worst seasons ever for the Twins, there have been so many injuries, with Aguilera out for the first few weeks, and so and so getting injured, and all kinds of different things, the people who are left are just playing well and playing hard. And that's one thing that Tom Kelly is known for, getting the most out of each player, whether they're a roll player or a superstar, getting everybody a chance to play, teaching them the basics and helping them succeed.

CHRIS ROBERTS: I was wondering if there would be a leadership vacuum on the team with Kirby Puckett retiring. Who has taken the leadership reins, as far as the players are concerned?

ROBIN GEHL: Well, it's certainly Paul Molitor. He's really stepped in and filled that void. And he's a good leader for the younger players. Knoblauch kind of waxes and wanes. Sometimes he is and sometimes he isn't. But it's definitely Molitor.

CHRIS ROBERTS: He's still a young guy, that Knoblauch.

[LAUGHS]

ROBIN GEHL: That's right.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Who are the Twins starting pitchers as of late? And how are they doing? It's kind of been hard for me to keep track of them.

ROBIN GEHL: That's right. It's basically the three R's, Brad Radke, Rich Robertson, and Frank Rodriguez, and then Rick Aguilera now that he's doing better. Rick, for instance, has won four of his five last starts.

Frank Rodriguez is going to go tonight. Technically, he's got the most wins on the team. He had a little stint in the bullpen just because of some of the injuries. He had a [? misstep ?] in there.

And he's been doing pretty well. I talked with him a little bit. I asked him about his performance and his pitching record.

FRANK RODRIGUEZ: Well, you can get lost in that win and loss column. Because there's a lot of guys in the league right now that don't have good records, but they've pitched extremely well. So I've just been fortunate enough, sometimes I get a win and sometimes I don't. But just being able to be consistent every day is what I'm trying to do.

ROBIN GEHL: What do you feel is your strength?

FRANK RODRIGUEZ: When I'm going good, just being able to throw strikes. That's the most important part of the game. If you can throw strikes, then you can get guys to swing at bad pitches. So that's the important part of the game, just being able to throw strikes.

ROBIN GEHL: What do you think has gone well for the team these last couple of weeks? It's been a fabulous record for the club.

FRANK RODRIGUEZ: We're not changing much. We're just going out there, being aggressive, just doing the things we've been doing while we were winning. So when you're in a little winning streak like that, you try not to change anything. And that's superstition, baseball, that's hand-in-hand. You try not to change anything.

ROBIN GEHL: Do you have any personal goals for the last few weeks of the season for yourself?

FRANK RODRIGUEZ: To end on a good note, you know, that's important. You can take that into next year's spring training and the beginning of next season. End it on a good note and maybe try to do some things consistently.

ROBIN GEHL: That was Frank Rodriguez. He's kind of a colorful character. He's a nice addition to the team. I hope he continues to do well.

CHRIS ROBERTS: In a personal one-on-one interview with Robin Gehl, I might add, pretty impressive. Well, we were talking about Paul Molitor before, and he's a veteran player. Who are the up and coming members of the team who have significant roles to play?

ROBIN GEHL: Yeah. Basically, it's quite a few young folks who've just finally gotten a year or two under their belt now in the big leagues, Pat Meares is really improving with leaps and bounds at shortstop.

We've got kind of a platoon situation in outfield. Roberto Kelly's out there. A number of folks rotate through the outfield.

We've got a good up and coming first baseman, Scott Stahoviak. He platoons there. Occasionally, Paul Molitor comes in to play first base. But Stahoviak is really coming around. He played with the Twins a little bit last year.

And it's kind of a big void there at first base with no Kent Hrbek. Kent Hrbek was really known for being a good defensive first baseman. And Stahoviak is showing some glimmers of being a good defensive first baseman as well. His batting average is 303. He's really hanging in there. I asked him to talk a little bit about his season.

SCOTT STAHOVIAK: You know, I think I've improved from last year. I think that my main goal, that and being healthy this year. And luckily, knock on wood, I've been healthy all year. And hopefully, it'll continue and hopefully I'll continue to improve.

I've been able to work with Terry Crowley now for a couple of years, and I think that's been my biggest help. And being able to watch Molitor and Knoblauch and Hollins and being able to play with Puck for a while and those guys, I think that's been a tremendous help, too, being around those guys and watching them play and watch how they approach the game.

ROBIN GEHL: Well, what do you think has been working so well for the Twins the last few weeks?

SCOTT STAHOVIAK: Well, I think the pitching has been great. I think our pitchers are keeping us in the games. I mean, they're giving us a chance to win the game. And that's all you can ask for. I think we're playing good defense all year. And we've been doing well hitting and with runners in scoring position, timely hitting, things like that.

And I think the biggest thing about this team is we don't give up. We play the whole nine innings. And we keep plugging away, and we keep going at the teams. And I think we're getting a reputation in this league as a team that never gives up. I think when you do that, you to always give yourself a chance to win.

ROBIN GEHL: Scott Stahoviak, first baseman, one of the new group of Twins. He came up through the minor leagues with Marty Cordova. Marty Cordova and he are good friends.

Marty was Rookie of the Year last year. And Marty's continuing to have a good season. So those are two nice additions for the club.

CHRIS ROBERTS: It seems like the team has quite a bit of spirit, given the fact that a number of people in the Twin Cities have kind of forsaken the Twins as being under the god awful dome and have gone instead to the Saint Paul Saints games in record numbers. It seems like they have some guts, some backbone.

ROBIN GEHL: Absolutely. Because of the low expectations for the club and the no name nature of many of the players, they've got nothing to lose. Rather than just give up, they're naturally being paid a Major League contract. They want to go and improve and do the best they can and work on their career. And they've been playing hard.

CHRIS ROBERTS: What kind of leadership does Paul Molitor provide the Twins? How does he lead compared to, maybe, some other former leaders of the Twins?

ROBIN GEHL: Paul leads by example. This is a career year for him. I talked with him a little bit. He's observing his 40th birthday this year. It's a rarity for a Major League player to be playing in their 40th year.

He just works hard. He keeps himself healthy. He comes to the game. He's cordial and helps everybody from players, to reporters, to coaches, to managers. He's got a good attitude.

And sometimes Knoblauch is moody. If he's feeling crappy and moody, he won't talk, even to his own teammates, or definitely not to the media. But Molitor keeps an even keel. He's always there, and he's willing to talk and help people in whatever fashion.

As I said, it's a career season for Molitor. Here he is, he's only 42 hits shy of the 3,000 career hit mark, which is a landmark in anyone's career and will virtually guarantee him a spot in the Hall of Fame. He leads the majors with 169 hits. And he's got 56 multi-hit games. That also leads the American League.

His batting average for the Twins is 335. He leads the team with 93 RBIs. I asked him to comment a little bit about his season and his landmark year and his 40th birthday approaching this week.

PAUL MOLITOR: I'm very thankful that coming back to the Twin Cities and playing for the Twins has worked out as well as it has. Because there's no question, no matter how long you've played or how much success you've been able to enjoy at this level, you still go through some doubts as you get older. And I had some concerns about coming back here and maybe not performing well or being a disappointment to the organization or fans or whatever. And to have things go as well as they have has really made it the return that much more enjoyable.

And as I close in on 40, I guess the irony being, as a kid, you dream about getting to the major leagues. But I don't think anywhere in that dream do you imagine playing 19 years and turning 40 still with a uniform on as a player, so something to be thankful for.

ROBIN GEHL: Definitely. Congratulations. What has gone so well for the club this last couple of weeks? You've certainly led them with your hit and RBI production.

PAUL MOLITOR: Well, I sure have been pleased with the way our team has persevered through really what has kind of been an up and down season, hence being so close to the 500 mark. When we lost that series at home to the Orioles getting swept and then going to Boston and have a couple very tough and disappointing losses in games we probably should have won, for us to rebound the way that we have just shows that Tom Kelly has planted the seed in these young players' minds that no matter the situation, the day, the standings, if a tough loss is the day before a great win, you come out to play the next day. And we've been able to get through those tough times and, as of late, been playing much better.

So it's good to see the development of the team, the confidence that has been built by this recent stretch. And we just hope that that continues, which will enable us to have a very enjoyable last six weeks of the season.

ROBIN GEHL: Any predictions on when the magic 3,000 will come, perhaps this year?

PAUL MOLITOR: Well, as I've gotten closer, naturally I can't help but think about it more often. I've really tried to focus on separating the personal opportunity with what I'm trying to do as a member of the Minnesota Twins. But it gets tough some days because there's no question it looms a little larger as you get closer.

I take Kirby's words verbatim when he says there's no guarantees in this game. So each day, I just come out here and work and play. And it's fun to imagine the day, if and when it will happen.

I hope it's this year, to tell you the truth, because I'd love to get it over with. As exciting as it will be, it'll be nice to be able to move forward. So let's just hope things keep going well.

ROBIN GEHL: And finally, what do you and the team need to do and focus on to continue to increase your record these last six weeks and see what happens?

PAUL MOLITOR: Well, it's kind of strange that we've been a better road team than home team to this point. And I think we have to take advantage of the home stands that we do have remaining. Win series, two out of three here, maybe a sweep against certain clubs if we can. And then go out and try to continue that play that we have on the road.

Consistency will be very important from here on out, whether it's starting pitching, whether it's our defense, whether it's executing at the plate, moving runners, or whatever. Because we know we're not going to hit home runs. We've proven that over 120 some ballgames. But just doing the little things, sacrificing yourself, and hopefully it'll show up in the win column as we finish out the season.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Well, that was Paul Molitor talking to Robin Gehl, Midmorning's baseball commentator. Interesting little chat with him. What do you think, Robin, are the chances that the Twins will get some kind of wild card berth?

ROBIN GEHL: It definitely is a long shot. But it's miraculous that we're even talking about it and considering it. RIght now, they're five games out from the little leader of the wild card race.

The other teams the Twins may have to contend with are the Chicago White Sox, who right now are in a position to capture that wild card berth. Also, the Baltimore Orioles are in the hunt and the Seattle Mariners. A lot of baseball yet to happen in the next six weeks.

Interestingly enough, the twins end the season with the Chicago White Sox. Also in September, they go to Chicago. So they've got two series with the White Sox. They also play the Cleveland Indians, right now, the leader in the Central Division.

So the Twins will end up facing some of those top teams. And in a way, their destiny is in their own hands Anything's possible within a series. If you win two out of three, or the other team is having a down week, a lot of things are possible.

And as some of the players alluded to, they just have to keep on an even keel and win two out of three and not get into a slump where they maybe lose four or five in a row. It definitely is within the realm of possibility. So it'll be fun to see what happens.

CHRIS ROBERTS: What about Chuck Knoblauch's future with the Twins? Is he adios?

ROBIN GEHL: Well, he's certainly the topic of conversation. It's to the point now when I was there this weekend that he's not talking about his contract right now. He's going to wait till the end of the season.

There were a lot of rumors that were out that the Twins offered him a $22 million contract for four years and he turned it down. I guess Terry Ryan said, no, that's a rumor. That didn't happen. We haven't been necessarily talking contract with him.

So I think the Twins truly need to sign him and have a cornerstone on their team for next year. But they'll really have to open the pocketbooks and pay, because he's one of the leading players in all of Major League Baseball. He's led, for the last couple of months, the batting title race. Now he slipped a little bit, but he certainly will qualify for a huge contract.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Very briefly, I guess if anybody deserves credit for where the Twins are at this point, it's Tom Kelly.

ROBIN GEHL: Certainly. It's mind-boggling. Tom Kelly has been known for working well with talent. But he hasn't necessarily been known for developing talent. But he certainly has done that this year, working with all these up and coming people who quite haven't been where they need to be. He really deserves the credit.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Robin, thank you so much for joining us.

ROBIN GEHL: Thanks, Chris.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Midmorning's baseball commentator, Robin Gehl. It's about 12 minutes now before 11 o'clock. This is Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio.

Biologist Heidi Dunn looks out for a group of animals most people don't pay much attention to, clams, or as they're more properly known, freshwater mussels. Dunn figures out ways to reduce the harm new bridges and highway projects will have on mussels. As a last resort, her company sometimes relocates whole populations to keep them from being destroyed. Dunn is currently moving some 60,000 mussels out of the way of a massive new bridge across the Saint Croix River. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Lozier caught up with her for this installment of our Odd Jobs series.

[ENGINE NOISE]

HEIDI DUNN: Most people kind think of them as boring little rocks, but they're not. They're animals. So you kind of have to treat them like animals. When the divers collect them, they don't just rip them out of the substrate. They've got their foot that's extended down into the substrate. So you kind of got to wiggle them out a little, you know.

They are probably one of the most endangered group of animals of anything in the world. We've got 16 species that have already gone extinct. There's probably 60 species on the Endangered Species list. And there ought to be about 70% of them on the Endangered Species list.

So anything that we can do to, you know, protect them is good. The best thing to do is to protect their habitat. But if we can't do that, then relocating them is an option.

Yesterday, we got about 4,400 mussels out of here. We think they'll probably be about 60,000 by the time we're finished.

MARY LOZIER: That you have to move?

HEIDI DUNN: Yeah.

[RATTLING]

[WATER GURGLING]

Give them some water so they're happy.

MARY LOZIER: So what have you got there?

HEIDI DUNN: This is called a round pig toe. These are Wabash pig toes. These are pimplebacks. These are three-horned wartybacks.

MARY LOZIER: They're a great names.

HEIDI DUNN: Yeah, they are. This is a pocketbook. This is a musket. And that's a pink heelsplitter.

MARY LOZIER: What do you like about the work?

HEIDI DUNN: Well, you're outside. And you get to travel a lot. So you see, especially with these animals, every river you go to, they look different. The same species looks a lot different.

So you'll see different species and see different morphs of the same species. And right now we have, probably, 29 projects going on. So, you're always hopping from one thing to the next, which is kind of fun.

One second here. I'm going to have to maneuver around this buoy. OK.

[SPLASHES]

MARY LOZIER: Now you just drop them over the side of the boat?

HEIDI DUNN: Yeah.

MARY LOZIER: That's it?

HEIDI DUNN: Drop them out. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, the Endangered Species will actually take them up, and we'll have a diver, actually, put them in the substrate upstream.

And we've got a couple of experimental things going on in a couple of these relocations to see whether just tossing them out like this, whether there's any less survival than it is hand, placing them in or for that. So, it's kind of a mixed feeling kind of thing. Everybody has their opinion, but nobody has any data that proves anything one way or the other.

MARY LOZIER: So what do you think, they'll just sink to the bottom? What do they do next?

HEIDI DUNN: They sink to the bottom. They'll lay there for a little while. And some of them, if you're in a small stream, you can almost watch some of them. They'll stick their foot out, and they'll pull themselves up, slide down. It's kind of fun.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Biologist Heidi Dunn speaking with reporter Mary Lozier for this week's installment of our Odd Jobs series.

Well, let's check the weather forecast, shall we? For the state, scattered showers and thunderstorms in the Northwest with a chance of late afternoon thunderstorms around Rochester. Highs will range from the mid-70s to mid-80s. Tonight, there's a chance of showers and thunderstorms mainly before midnight in the East. Then clearing skies expected, mostly clear in the West, Lows from the mid-50s to lower 60s.

For Tuesday, mostly sunny skies throughout the region with highs ranging in the mid-70s to lower-80s. Looking ahead on Wednesday, regional forecast calls for a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the West early on, then spreading into the East across the state during the day, lows from the mid-50s to mid-60s and highs from the mid-70s in the North to the mid-80s in the South. For Thursday, showers ending early in the East, otherwise clearing skies, lows from the mid-50s to mid-60s and highs on Thursday from the mid 70s to middle 80s.

For the Twin cities, mostly cloudy this morning. This afternoon and evening, scattered thunderstorms in the forecast, highs in the low 80s. Tonight, a few showers before midnight, then clearing skies, with a low around 60 degrees. For Tuesday, mostly sunny, a high approaching 80. And for Wednesday in the Twin Cities, a chance of showers and thunderstorms, lows in the mid 60s, highs ranging in the mid 80s.

Currently around the region, it's cloudy in Saint Cloud and 67 degrees. Under cloudy skies in Duluth, it's 66. Rochester has partly sunny skies and 71. Light rain falling in Fargo and 70.

Cloudy skies in Houghton and 68 degrees. And under cloudy skies in the Twin Cities, it's 72. Time now for Garrison Keillor and The Writer's Almanac.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARRISON KEILLOR: And here is The Writer's Almanac for Monday. It's the 19th of August, 1996. The Wyoming State Fair starts today in Douglas, Wyoming. And the 15th Annual Washington State International Kite Festival today in Long Beach, Washington, where they'll try to break the world record for duration of kite flying, which is 180 hours and 17 minutes, keeping a kite in the air.

Orville Wright would have liked to have attended that. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, on this day in 1871. Who, along with his brother Wilbur, made the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight in 1903 and then built and flew the first practical airplane two years later. The Wright brothers were mostly self-taught machinists, worked with printing equipment, then bicycles, and turned their minds to the problem of flight. Watching how buzzards fly, rolling to one side or the other to climb or descend, they saw that, in order to fly, an airplane would have to operate on three axes.

It's the birthday of actress Lynn Fontanne. Milwaukee, 1892. Teamed with her husband Alfred Lunt on stage. Noel Coward wrote Design for Living for them. They appeared together in more than two dozen plays over their 55 year marriage. There's a theater in New York City named for them.

It's the birthday of science fiction writer Gene Roddenberry, El Paso, Texas, 1921. The freelance television writer, in the early '50s, wrote scripts for Dragnet and Dr. kildare. And then in 1964, began trying to sell the idea of Star Trek to producers. Went on NBC television in 1966, the Starship Enterprise and its adventures in the 23rd century.

It's the birthday of writer Ogden Nash, Rye, New York, 1902, grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Wrote advertising in New York, then light verse for The New Yorker, and later, lyrics for musicals, including One Touch of Venus with Kurt Weill in 1943.

It was on this day in 1934, the German people went to the polls and voted by a huge margin to allow Adolf Hitler to take both titles of President and Chancellor, which set the stage for the Nazification of German society.

Today is the birthday of William Jefferson Clinton, in Hope, Arkansas, 1946, who became the first person born after World War II to be elected president. And it was on this day in 1989, Poland became the first country of Eastern Europe to topple Communist rule.

Here's a poem by William Stafford entitled "Allegiances."

It is time for all the heroes to go home

if they have any, time for all of us common ones

to locate ourselves by the real things

we live by.

Far to the north, or indeed in any direction,

strange mountains and creatures have always lurked--

elves, goblins, trolls and spiders: we

encounter them in dread and wonder.

But once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold,

found some limit beyond the waterfall,

a season changes, and we come back, changed

but safe, quiet, grateful.

Suppose an insane wind holds all the hills

while strange beliefs whine at the traveler's ears,

we ordinary beings can cling to the earth and love

where we are, sturdy for common things.

A poem by William Stafford, "Allegiances," from The Darkness Around Us, published by Harper Perennial Books and used by permission here on The Writer's Almanac, Monday, August 19th, made possible by Cole's History Group, publishers of Wild West and other magazines.

Be well. Do good work. And keep in touch.

CHRIS ROBERTS: That's Midmorning for this Monday, August 19. Thanks for listening, and thanks for your calls and questions, too.

A reminder, coming up tomorrow on Midmorning, Karal Ann Marling will be in the studios. As you know, she is a professor of Art History and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She's also one of the foremost experts in the country on Elvis Presley. And she's written a new book about Elvis called Graceland Going Home with Elvis. Karal Ann Marling will be in the studio tomorrow to take your comments and questions.

Thanks a lot for listening to Midmorning. I'm Chris Roberts. Stay tuned for Midday with Gary Eichten, which is coming up next.

JON GORDON: Wiring schools for the internet. I'm Jon Gordon. And on the next Future Tense, should schools spend their time getting kids on the net? Future Tense in one half hour on Minnesota Public Radio, KNOW-FM 91.1.

CHRIS ROBERTS: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio.

[BEEPS]

Cloudy and 72 degrees at KNOW-FM 91.1. Minneapolis, Saint Paul. Twin Cities weather for the rest of this morning, early this afternoon, good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some heavy rain possible. Later on this afternoon and evening, partial clearing but humid and more rain possible, with highs in the lower 80s.