Remembering Random Twins: Exclusive Interview with Terry Tiffee

[William Malone]

Whether because of his alliterative name or his attention-grabbing MLB debut, Terry Tiffee left a memorable impression on Twins fans in a relatively short time. We caught up with him to see what's happening with the former infielder.

Before he was the “Ice Cream Man” mashing doubles in New Britain or winning an Olympic medal in Beijing, Terry Tiffee was a 26th-round draft pick just hoping someone would take a chance on him. The Twins did, and it paid off fast. Tiffee made an immediate impact in 2004 with a go-ahead double in his debut and a walk-off homer days later. Now, he’s coaching softball in Texas and passing on lessons learned from Gardy and Co. to the next generation.

We caught up with Tiffee to talk about milk-carton giveaways, getting called up in a playoff race, and why hitting in Vegas might be the most fun you can have with a bat.

Tiffee fell to round 26 of the 1999 MLB Draft due to concerns about his signability.

"I had an 85% scholarship to LSU coming out of junior college. There were a lot of scouts telling me I was going in the top five rounds… a lot of them were passing on me because they didn’t think I would sign. But I had an in with the Twins, because my junior college coach ended up becoming a Twins scout, Greg Miller. He knew I wanted to play. He knew I wanted to sign. He knew what I was looking for, money wise. So, they kind of had the inside track. After day one of the draft, he called me up and said ‘hey, do you still want to be drafted?’ and kind of went through the parameters of what it would be. I said ‘yeah man, just draft me and we’ll figure it out."

Despite drafting him in a lower round, Twins general manager Terry Ryan was always a fan of Tiffee.

"I went straight to instructional league after signing. [Terry Ryan] saw me play there. He was always on my side. I guess he always liked me. He liked how I hit. Defensively, I had to get a lot better. It’s always tough. When you’re from the lower levels of the draft, you get very few opportunities unless you’ve got somebody who likes you. And luckily, I did."

Tiffee led the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats with 93 RBI in 2003. It was a loaded offense that featured Joe Mauer (.341 average), Justin Morneau (1.004 OPS), Jason Bartlett (.296 average with 41 steals) and Josh Rabe (.303 average with 72 RBI).

"A lot of us had actually climbed the ranks together. Bartlett and Rabe were my roommates... It was fun playing [in New Britain]. We had a great team. Morneau was there, which was a surprise. A lot of people thought he was going to be in Triple-A, or maybe even the big leagues. Once the weather got better, the ball just flew there. Stan [Cliburn], our manager, a lot of us had him in Low-A [Quad Cities River Bandits] and it did not go great that year. That was my first year of pro ball, and I had a lot to learn. Just playing the day-to-day and how to do stuff off the field and all that good stuff that you learn in Low-A. We had him in instructional league a couple of years after that. A lot of us had come up together, so then we got stuck with him again in Double-A. Which kind of really helped us. We were all familiar with each other, and we knew what to expect. It was a good mix of guys that knew how to play, and a good mix of managers and coaches that understood what we could do. Understood our potential. Then we just kind of ran with it, and once it warmed up we all started hitting. You know, hitting is contagious. Stan was a hitting manager. He wanted you to hit the ball hard and hit it as far as you could. That was a fun summer."

Driving in all those runs for the Rock Cats helped Tiffee earn a fun nickname.

"They had a lot of giveaways that summer. You could hit the blow up milk carton thing they had, and win money. They had the ice cream inning, and they ended up calling me the ice cream man. After, I think it was seven runs, everyone in the stands got free ice cream. That was a big deal. It seemed like every stadium you went to, if you did something that was semi-not normal, you could win money. Like hit a grand slam, or hit the gas thing, or the milk carton. And so, we’re all broke Double-A players. Those are the things that motivate you as a broke Double-A player."

The Twins called up Tiffee in September 2004, and his first week in the big leagues featured a number of clutch hits. Tiffee had an eighth inning, go-ahead two run double in his Major League debut. He had the game’s only RBI the next night, which was a low scoring pitcher’s duel between Brad Radke and Kenny Rogers. Two days after that, he launched a walk-off home run to beat the Kansas City Royals.

"Man, it all flew by. It was a whirlwind, and it was going fast. I do remember my first hit against the Rangers. It was controversial. It bounced and went over the base, and ended up landing foul. They all thought it was foul, but it ended up being fair. And then, I don’t know if it was two or three days later, but I hit the walk-off right handed. It was just awesome being there. That’s what you dream of as a kid. Just getting there, and getting an opportunity to play. Man, it was a dream come true. That whole week was kind of a blur with highlights here and there."

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was always willing to play September call-ups, even in a tight playoff race.

"That was a huge deal with the Twins. It was one of the reasons I signed with them, instead of going to LSU. They do promote from within. Gardy did a good job. He gave us plenty of opportunities in spring training. The coaches were always around us in the minor leagues. They knew we could play, and they trusted us. And one of the big things was that they didn’t call you up unless they knew you could help. They didn’t just call you up to sit there and watch. They knew you could play, and they knew you could help the team. That’s all I really tried to do. I knew I wasn’t there to be the star, or to have a spot every day. I just wanted to do whatever I could to help the team."

Team USA won bronze at the 2008 Olympics. It was a diverse roster that featured players with Major League experience like Tiffee, top big league prospects such as Brian Duensing, and even college players such as Stephen Strasburg. Current Major League players aren’t eligible for Olympic rosters, but Tiffee got selected while having a great year for the Las Vegas 51s, a Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

"I signed with the Dodgers. They gave me an opportunity. We ended up going to Vegas. And, man, hitting in Vegas is unbelievable. I’ll say that was a perfect spot for me. I could hit the ball in the air and hit the ball on the ground, and I just tried to wear the wall out. That whole league, you know, it was awesome.

Ironically, that spring training, we went over to China to play the Padres in a three game series. I was in camp with them and they sent a bunch of their guys that had some experience over there to Beijing. We got to play on the Olympic field. I didn’t really think a lot about it. But once I got into Triple-A in Vegas and was having a really good year… I knew I might have a chance to potentially make that team. We really didn’t know until we got selected. We knew they were going to take some minor league guys with some experience, because we were going to be playing other professional players from leagues. But we really didn’t know who they were going to take. I was at the All-Star Game in Louisville when we got selected.

I just got extremely lucky on that deal, I’ll be honest. I had a great year at the right time. It happened to be an Olympic year. At no point in my life did I ever think I’d play in the Olympics. But man, it was one of the best experiences of my life. It was awesome."

Tiffee is currently the head softball coach at Legacy High School in Texas.

"Getting into softball was just something that happened. I wanted to do baseball. And in order to coach down here, even with big league experience, very rarely can you get a head coaching job down here in baseball. There just isn’t a lot available. Usually, they have guys that have been here a long time. They know the administration, the hiring process, all that good stuff. All the political stuff that goes on... But once I got into softball, I kind of enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the speed of it. It was a lot faster than baseball. So I ended up really liking coaching it."

He talked about the differences between baseball and his new sport.

"It’s very similar. The only difference is the pitching aspect and the bunting/slapping type aspect. And some of the bunting aspects, you can do it in baseball, but the slapping you don’t see a lot of…It all starts on the mound, or in the circle. The pitcher is what matters. It matters even more so in softball. If you have a good one, you can win a lot of games with just a good pitcher and a little bit of hitting."

Tiffee is able to take things he learned with the Twins, and apply it to softball. 

"The crazy thing is that I do take a lot of the stuff we did with the Twins. I take a lot of the things we did in spring training, and I make our girls do it. I translate all that stuff into softball, and we do all the same stuff. It’s all at a fast pace. It’s all about not making mistakes and picking your teammates up. All that stuff that Gardy and everybody used to do day in and day out in spring training. I implement all that stuff here in softball."

His main goal is getting his girls ready to succeed at the next level.

"I’m just trying to work as hard as I can to get these girls as good as they can get. It’s not about me anymore. I’ve done everything I wanted to do…I like to see them have success. It’s my third year [at Legacy High School]. The really good group is a senior this year and juniors next year. But we had some really good players at Lake Ridge [his last school]. One of them, Tia Warsop, is leading Oklahoma State in hitting. She’s a sophomore right now. She was a stud for us. We had a catcher [Raigan Brannon] who is at Lamar. We had a lot of speed [at Lake Ridge]. Right now, I have a tenth grader who is going to be a power five commit. She’s already got ten bombs. Hit 14 last year, and was All-State as a freshman. LSU has already been here watching her at practice. I have a senior pitcher that’s going to end up with over 700 strikeouts. She’s going to Northwestern State in Louisiana. I have a couple other girls committed to D2’s, and three or four other girls that will be committed eventually to at least D2’s and above."

Big thanks to Terry Tiffee for taking the time to chat with us! If you have memories from his time with the Twins, feel free to share them in the comments!

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[Nick Nelson]

This was fun, thanks William! Tiffee gives me a lot of nostalgia for those mid-aughts teams that really cemented my fanhood. His debut was unforgettable! 

[nclahammer]

Excellent write-up, I really enjoy finding out "Where they are now?" when it comes to former players.