Ron Gardenhire- I Would Have Your Babies, 'Junior' Style

Sorry to the sports disinclined. Today's entry is about the one and true love of my life, baseball.

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You have to give it to Joe Maddon. The culture of losing in Tampa was practically woven into the uniforms, practically a built into the roof of the ridiculous stadium they play in, practically smeared on the hot dogs served at the games. They had never failed to lose at least 90 games in a season. To describe the (D)Rays as doormats in the AL East for the entirety of their history is probably unfairly disparaging the good name of doormats. Yet, in 2008 the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League East. They did it by refusing to fold down the stretch despite going toe to toe with the defending World Series champs, the Boston Red Sox . The Rays also beat out the Yankees, who have a payroll larger than a third world nation's yearly budget, and the Toronto Blue Jays, a team that had legitimate playoff aspirations before the season and began to play like it under Cito Gaston.

How good was the East? Toronto finished fourth and lost one game to the White Sox and Twins... combined.

I suppose you could say that all Joe Maddon did was win with one of the most talented teams in the American League. That's true. Picking at the top of the draft for the past ten years has created a glut of young talent in Tampa.

Still, those kids didn't have any idea what it's like to win. They hadn't been involved in a September scrap with a team like the Red Sox.

What does all that mean? It means Joe Maddon ought to be the 2008 American League Manager of the Year, hands down.

Unfortunately, that means that Ron Gardenhire is once again on the outside looking in. That is a real shame. It is my belief that this season represents the best work of Gardy's career.

I was fully expecting the Twins to be bad this year. I had prepared myself for them to be REALLY bad, like 70 wins bad. I wasn't sure they'd sink quite that low, but, I was prepared for it to happen. THEN, after the season started...

- Delmon Young failed to mature into the star the Twins no doubt were hoping for when they acquired him. He finished the season better than he started it, but, all in all, he was a disappointment.

- Michael Cuddyer, inked in the off-season to a nice extension, struggled to stay on the field and was ineffective when he was out there.

- Pat Neshek was lost for the season, Matt Guerrier remembered he is Matt Guerrier, Juan Rincon's never ending melt down finally came to a climax, Boof Bonser lost his spot in the rotation and struggled in the bullpen as well, and some guy named Brian Bass ended up logging entirely too many appearances. The bullpen was a disaster. Even Joe Nathan, who seemed invincible most of the year, sputtered down the stretch, most notably on that hellish road trip foisted on the Twins late in the season by the RNC.

- Livan Hernadez started out strong before he started pitching like a fat man with a rubber arm. Which he is.

- Carlos Gomez proved two things: he is a frighteningly talented athlete, and he is not even close to being a baseball player.

- The left side of the infield was an absolute cartoon. Not a funny cartoon, either. It was more like 'Family Circle.' Howie Clark was starting at third base briefly. Howie. Clark.

That's just what leaps to the top of my head. If you had told me, going into the season, that not just one, but ALL, of these things would happen, I would have thought that perhaps 70 wins was being generous.

Yet, the Twins won 88 games and were one game away from the postseason. Amazing. Credit is due to shockingly effective young starters, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau (both of whom deserve serious MVP consideration), and the coaching staff.

Going back to 2002, Gardenhire has built a stronger resume of doing more with less than any other manager in the league. It's not even close. Name one other manager who even deserves to be mentioned in the same breath when it comes to getting blood from a stone.
The Twins win. They win despite being saddled with an uninspired fan base, terrible facilities, a farm system short on positional prospects, and ownership that is, to say it nicely, among the worst in sports. The players change, but Gardenhire stays the same.

I'm sure that there would be a strong inclination to say that the best manager this decade has been Terry Francona, and that has merit. He has won two titles and it's not like the decade is over yet.

Let me ask you this... if you were starting a franchise, and could pick anyone to be your manager, who would you pick?

I'd pick Gardy.