Star Tribune Columnist

La Velle is a longtime Minnesota Star Tribune baseball writer who transitioned into column writing in 2021. And, no, he did not replace Sid Hartman.

He was the Twins beat writer from 1998-2020, covering Tom Kelly, Ron Gardenhire, Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli as managers. During this time, he served as the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 2014 and was one of the official scorers for the 2014 All-Star Game held at Target Field. He continues to serve the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its Veterans Committee. He's also a regular on KFAN Radio.

As a columnist, he's already experienced the pinnacle of sportswriting, as he covered the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Too bad he was under partial quarantine during the first week of the games. You can ask him about that.

La Velle is an Illinois native and the WORST athlete the city of Chicago has ever produced. Sportswriting was the fallback plan.