Twins Video
I remember it vividly. The year was 2004 and I was a freshman in college. I had come back to the dorms after a night class, and I parked on a couch in the common room to watch the end of an ALDS game against the Yankees.
As was typical of playoff games during that era, the Twins had squandered an early lead and they wilted in the late innings. In this case the management from Gardenhire was especially baffling.
You might remember this particular game. A plainly overmatched rookie named Jason Kubel went 0-for-6 while Lew Ford (who was in prime "LEWWW!" form) sat on the bench. Joe Nathan was sent out to pitch a third inning of relief after the Twins had taken a 12th-inning lead, and he coughed up the game while running on fumes.
I was so mad at the decision-making that I went back to my dorm and typed out some angry post full of vitriol about Gardy on whatever Blogspot thing I had at the time. I found it cathartic, and some friends seemed to get a kick out reading of it.
I was 18 then. It was a decade ago, damn near exactly.
The next spring I started an actual blog with a friend, and over the years I stuck with it, continuing to cover the team on a platform that continually evolved into what you read here today.
Through all those seasons, the manager of the team I covered was always the same guy. Gardenhire held the position for 13 years. That's pretty crazy. His was the second-longest active tenure in the majors. Across the rest of baseball, only five current managers have had their jobs for more than five years.
As I grew from dumb teenager into slightly-less-dumb adult, and developed from amateur blogger dude into occasionally-credentialed pseudo-media member, the lens through which I viewed Gardenhire changed dramatically.
Reading his quotes on a screen, I would often perceive an air of smugness, small-mindedness and maybe even pettiness. His snide comments about digital media, in particular, sometimes struck me that way.
But when you sit in a room with the man, and you hear him playfully bash "dot-com" along with anything else he can set his sights on, you see it in a different light. He's folksy. He's sarcastic. He's a master of deadpanning.
And yeah, he's old school. But while he might not always understand the changing dynamics of the way the game is covered and analyzed, at the end of the day, he gets it.
That's the thing that stuck with me on Monday afternoon as I watched the press conference held by the organization to announce Gardenhire's dismissal. He gets it.
Despite all the good arguments I've read over the past couple weeks explaining why Gardy might be on the way out, I had a hard time taking them seriously. I just couldn't picture this particular press conference playing out.
And how could anyone have pictured what actually ended up transpiring? Here you had Gardenhire, sitting next to the man who had just fired him, cracking jokes and pleasantly answering questions about his termination. It was bizarre.
It shouldn't have been bizarre, though. In fact, as I watched it unfold, I found myself wondering why more teams and managers can't part so amiably. Usually the firing of an executive or coach is an awkward and drama-filled affair, but there wasn't a shred of contention in the room Monday.
Gardy confessed that he would like to keep managing and would have preferred to do it here, but said he understands the situation and the need to move on. He acknowledged that "sometimes people need to hear a different voice." That's a rare level of self-awareness.
People can justifiably complain about the culture of the Twins being overly chummy, and loyal to a fault; in many ways Gardenhire's tenure -- and certainly his departure -- embodied that. But when the team on the other side of downtown is holding bumbling press conferences about child abuse, it's refreshing to watch a strangely amicable presser like the one that took place at Target Field this week.
At the end of the day, I think this was the right move, and I agree with Gardy. A different voice is probably needed -- hopefully one that is a little more in-tune with analytics and modern game strategy theory.
But I will miss the guy. He's been the skipper ever since I truly started paying attention to the Twins, and it's going to be weird analyzing decisions and dissecting quotes from someone different.
Gardenhire represented a longstanding continuity in the organization, one which will be shaken to the very core in the likely event that most of the coaching staff is replaced.
I tend to think that a manager's impact on game outcomes is generally overstated, but certainly, the identity of this club is going to change. Maybe for the better. That's intriguing -- not just to me and the hardcores, but to the general public.
This is what the Twins needed right now. We'll see where they take it from here.
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