Category: Twins

Jake Mauer told Sports Headliners that grandson Joe Mauer is “ashamed” of his 2011 season but determined to improve next season and help the Twins become a winner again.

Various injuries and ailments limited the all-star catcher to 82 games.  The stats were totally unlike past seasons for the former American League batting champion and MVP.  Mauer hit .287 with three home runs and 30 RBI.  The club finished the season on Wednesday night with a 63-99 record, the second most losses in Twins franchise history.

The older Mauer has been a mentor to Joe since he was a toddler.  He said his grandson’s spirits have been low. “He thinks he let everybody down because of his injuries,” Jake said by telephone this week.

On October 12 Joe will travel to Florida and begin working with a trainer, determined to build up his body including his legs for next season, according to Jake.   “He has to prove a lot next year, boy, and he knows that,” Jake said.  “He’s going to stay with the schedule with his trainer and himself, and going to build himself back up.

“He said, ‘Grandpa, I’ll go out there next year and I hope…God is with me to produce, that I can not be ashamed of what I did the year before.’  He wants to do good.”

Sports journalists have frequently written this season about Mauer being in the first year of a $184 million contract and producing so little for his ballclub.  “Joe don’t like that,” Jake said.  “It bothers the … out of him.  He knows that big salary he gets, he isn’t producing.  He just can’t help it.  But he wants to do it but he just can’t because of his health.”

Jake said the Twins have been supportive of his grandson this season, listening to Joe’s needs and referring him to the best doctors.  “He’s really pleased with the Twins,” Jake said.  “There’s no question about it.  But he thinks he let them down because of his health but he hopes to build them up next year and change everything and put the Twins back on top.”

Clyde Doepner, the only full-time curator employed by a major league baseball team, said there’s a possibility of opening a Twins museum.  Club management has discussed a possible museum and perhaps locating it in the Ford Centre, the historic office building located near Target Field.

Doepner has been collecting Twins memorabilia dating back to when the ball club played at Met Stadium.  He has more than 7,000 memorabilia items in his personal collection, including not only Twins items but also from the franchise’s days in Washington, D.C.

The former high school teacher and baseball coach was hired two years ago as the franchise prepared for its opening of Target Field in 2010.  He credits team president Dave St. Peter with his hiring.  St. Peter and other club leaders wanted Target Field to be a place that told the history of baseball in Minneapolis-St. Paul including the Twins.

Although Doepner has collected items ranging from the autographs of U.S. presidents to a Twins jersey that incorrectly spelled Minnesota, there is a memory he described as more special than anything else.  “The day Harmon Killebrew knew my name,” Doepner said.

Call them the “Smash Boys.”  Miguel Sano, 18, hit 20 home runs in 267 at bats for the Twins Elizabethton team in the Appalachian Rookie League.  Eddie Rosario, 19, hit 21 balls out of the park in 270 at bats for Elizabethton.

Since the July All-Star break Twins first baseman Justin Morneau is hitting .235 in 14 games with no home runs and nine RBI.  He has been unable to play since August 28.

The late Angelo Giuliani, a famous Twins scout, is among nine people being inducted into the Saint Thomas Academy Athletic Hall of Fame on September 30.

Glenn Caruso, football coach of nationally ranked St. Thomas, will be the featured speaker at the C.O.R.E.S luncheon on Thursday, November 10.  C.O.R.E.S is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.

Now what for the Minnesota Twins?

The embarrassing 2011 season is only weeks away from ending but how the offseason goes will tell the more passionate and savvy fans a lot about this organization’s future.

Ownership and management could take a “cosmetic” approach in the months ahead.  Make a few changes and rationalize 2011 as a tough luck season, mostly caused by an unusually high number of injuries.  But rather than take the victim approach, the decision makers at Target Field are advised to audit the entire organization and everyone in it.

Best business practices call for nothing less.  The process should include fact finding and opinion from not only the ownership and top management, but also the advice of consultants who can look more objectively at the organization and its people.

The Twins were 94-68 last season and have won six of the last nine Central Division titles, but even those ball clubs frustrated themselves and fans with their dismal playoff records.  The Twins weren’t built to play with baseball’s best teams, and this year’s club couldn’t compete very well against past Minnesota championship teams.

The 2011 Twins are stumbling to the season’s finish line.  The club has a 6-19 record in August and lost 15 of its last 18 home games.  Minnesota is 10-28 against the powerful East Division, the American League’s best grouping of teams.  The Twins have lost five straight series at home.

It’s time to look at everything and everybody involved with what the Twins do during the season, the offseason and spring training.  The scrutiny certainly needs to start with general manager Billy Smith and the organization’s other talent evaluators, but the organizational analysis needs to go beyond that and try to answer questions about coaching, conditioning and best use of player payroll.