Baseball Journal: Newly separated Twins laugh,
reminisce, vent

Jim Souhan, Star Tribune

Published January 21, 2004 INSI21

LAS VEGAS -- This weekend, the Twins organization will
hold TwinsFest at the Metrodome and introduce new
players to Minnesota.

Last weekend, the players who brought the Twins from
penury to prominence held an informal reunion amid the
neon of the Las Vegas strip, where they lamented the
breakup of an unusually cohesive and successful group
of teammates.

"It's like we're a victim of our own success," first
baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "You get good, and now
everybody's too expensive. One day you're all
together; the next you're all apart.

"I think it's probably easier to move on than to be
the one left behind. I'm going to need a nametag on my
chest this spring."

Mientkiewicz and a bunch of his current and former
teammates traveled to Vegas to be rewarded for their
work on behalf of the Garth Brooks Touch 'Em All
Foundation.

Mientkiewicz, former Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski and
former outfielder Brian Buchanan sipped beer in a
Treasure Island bar and bemoaned the breakup of the
Twins before dining with former pitcher Eric Milton,
current pitcher Kyle Lohse, former infielder Denny
Hocking and their wives.

Add in reliever Eddie Guardado, and there were seven
players, once teammates, in Vegas, suddenly
representing six teams -- the Twins, Mariners, Giants,
Padres, Rockies and Phillies. They still think of
themselves as baseball blood brothers.

"There's no secret why, the last couple of years, we
beat Chicago," Mientkiewicz said. "We knew how to be
loose, we knew how to have fun together, and we knew
how to focus.

"You can argue that the Yankees have the best team on
paper they've ever had, but they haven't won jack with
this new group. You look at their teams with Paul
O'Neill and Knobby [Chuck Knoblauch], and they had
chemistry. Now they're better at every position on
paper, and they haven't figured out how to win yet.

"You never hear the words 'together' and 'White Sox'
in the same sentence, and that's why we beat them.
Maybe now, with Ozzie Guillen managing, that will
change. They were better, 1-through-25, than we've
ever been. I'm not an idiot -- I'd take Paul Konerko
over Doug Mientkiewicz any day."

Said Buchanan: "So would I."

Said Pierzynski: "Me, too."

Mientkiewicz laughed, then said, "There is something
in Chicago that just doesn't work. And there was
something in Minnesota that did work, and now it's
gone."

Breakup remedies

Twins owner Carl Pohlad ordered General Manager Terry
Ryan to keep his payroll stable at a franchise-record
$56 million. That prompted Ryan to trade Milton and
his $9 million 2004 salary, Pierzynski and what is
expected to be a $2.3 million salary, and allow
relievers Guardado and LaTroy Hawkins to leave in free
agency.

After signing outfielder Shannon Stewart to a
three-year, $18 million contract, Ryan found himself
close to his payroll limit. By next winter, the Twins
likely will have lost starting pitcher Brad Radke,
shortstop Cristian Guzman, third baseman Corey Koskie,
outfielder Jacque Jones and possibly Mientkiewicz.
Most of the players who resurrected a failing
franchise will be gone.

"That's when this group will get its due,"
Mientkiewicz said.

It's difficult to see how Ryan could have kept the
team intact without surpassing the payroll limit, but
Mientkiewicz and Pierzynski offered a few suggestions:

• Communicate more with players. "This would have been
a lot easier to take if we had had some sense of what
the plans were," Mientkiewicz said. "If anybody
deserved to be treated with the utmost respect it was
Eddie. We all feel, as players, that he wasn't given
the respect he deserves. That's what makes me sick to
my stomach."

• Sign key players before they price themselves out of
the Twins' plans. "You see Oakland do it," Pierzynski
said. "With the Twins, it's almost like they don't
want you to do too well, or you'll be out of their
price range."

• Invest more in the team's infrastructure, providing
better batting cages and weight rooms in spring
training and the Metrodome. "Our weight room in the
Metrodome is in the batting cage," Pierzynski said.
"Guys were afraid to go down there."

Said Mientkiewicz: "We're ready to pay out of our own
pockets for better weights in spring training. There
are small weights there, but we're not 12 anymore."

• Sacrifice more to win the World Series. "Yes, we
brought in Shannon, but if we could have added a power
pitcher and a power hitter, we would have had a chance
to win it all," Mientkiewicz said. "I know you have to
build the farm system, but the chance to win only
comes along so often."

Heart for Minnesota

Guardado signed a three-year contract with Seattle
that could be worth as much as $17 million, instead of
accepting the Twins' offer of three years at what
Twins officials say was a little more than $12
million.

The value of Guardado's contract probably received a
boost this week, when Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki
chose to pitch in Japan rather than return to Seattle.
That means Guardado will be the Mariners' closer, and
should be able to easily reach the incentives that
would drive up the value of his contract.

"It's a sad thing I'm not in Minnesota," Guardado
said. "What ticks me off is that they really didn't
try. I felt they just threw out a last-minute offer
just to put something out there, and if I didn't take
it, fine.

"I really appreciate the Minnesota people who
supported me through the years. I know it always looks
like the players are the bad people, just going for
the money, but that's not true. I wanted to stay. I'm
going to miss those guys over there. It's going to be
tough, but we've all got to turn the page."

Ryan declined to address specific issues or comments.
"I respect what the players have to say, but I also
have a job to do," he said. "Ultimately, somebody has
to make a decision, even if it's not an easy or
popular decision."

Several former players offered general praise of the
Twins.

Buchanan said he appreciated the Twins giving a bunch
of unheralded minor leaguers a chance to play in the
majors in 1999 and 2000. "I just wish we could have
stayed together longer," Buchanan said.

Pierzynski said he knew he eventually would be traded
to make way for top prospect Joe Mauer, and he
appreciated being sent to a good team, in the Giants.
"I'm happy with it," Pierzynski said. "I never had any
problem with Joe, and I knew this would happen.

"The only thing I'll say is that I didn't appreciate
it when coaches would put articles about Joe in my
locker when we were trying to win a division."

Looking into the future

Hawkins, speaking from the Cubs' version of TwinsFest,
said he was content with his decision to sign with
Chicago before receiving an offer from the Twins. The
native of Gary, Ind., said, "I'm realizing that this
is a dream come true for me. I grew up a Cubs fan, and
these fans are unbelievable. There's 100 years of
history here, and I'll get to pitch in Wrigley Field.
But there are a lot of things I'll miss in Minnesota."

Hawkins said Ryan called him for a "nice chat" before
Christmas, and said he'll miss manager Ron Gardenhire,
pitching coach Rick Anderson, his teammates, his fan
club, and the clubhouse and concession workers.

"I really want to thank Tom Kelly," he said of the
Twins' former manager. "He stuck with me through hard
times, and he raised his boys to be men."

Pierzynski and Buchanan said they thought the Twins
should still be favored to win the AL Central.
Mientkiewicz disagreed. "Not without Eddie and
LaTroy," he said. "Our bullpen was our biggest
strength, and now it's our biggest question mark. And
those guys were our leaders.

"I'm not saying we can't win. I am saying it won't be
the same."

Buchanan and Pierzynski know that to be true. "I've
never seen anything in baseball like the Twins
clubhouse," Buchanan said. "Anybody could say anything
to anybody, and everybody had their teammates' back."

Pierzynski recently went to a Giants minicamp in
Scottsdale, Ariz., with fellow former Twin Dustan
Mohr. "We were goofing around, like we always did with
the Twins, and we'd have to stop and say, 'Is this
OK?' " Pierzynski said. "Everything was first-class,
but it's a much more businesslike approach. I don't
think I'm going to be going up to Barry Bonds and
saying the kinds of things I said to Torii Hunter. No
way."

There could be happy endings to the story. The Twins,
their lineup virtually intact, could still win. The
departed Twins could thrive in new uniforms.

"But we had a chance to do something special together
here," Mientkiewicz said. "And I'll always wonder what
might have been."

Jim Souhan is at jsouhan@....


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