If the Twins don’t re-sign Torii Hunter for next season, they figure to miss more than his run producing bat and gold glove fielding. Tell-it-like-it-is Torii is a major presence in the locker room and sometimes his words of leadership make it into the press, too.
Hunter has been producing for the Twins who have won five straight games. In the team’s latest series, he homered twice and drove in seven runs to help the Twins sweep four games from Baltimore. The team is now four games over .500 and within 2.5 games of second place Detroit and 5.5 games of first place Cleveland.
It was in mid-August that the Twins were on a five game losing streak when Hunter good-naturedly but directly scorned the team’s lousy performance. “I said forget that,” Hunter told Sports Headliners. “You all suck. I suck. The manager sucks. Everybody sucks in this clubhouse. …We started winning. You kind of just joke around about it. It’s nothing serious. It’s just a little joke. At the same time just a little reverse psychology.”
Hunter talks directly, knowing the truth can hurt and some people don’t want to hear it, but he avoids publicly saying things that could be offensive. He’s confident about speaking the truth and said he doesn’t care what others think. Earlier this year he talked about often injured teammate Joe Mauer who missed about a month of this season with a quadriceps injury.
“All I was saying is that some people have to be 100 percent (to play) and that Joe Mauer might be one of those guys and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Hunter said. “You want to be 100 percent to perform, (then) I want you to be 100 percent to perform but I’ve just never been 100 percent. …”
Some people told Mauer that Hunter was saying he was soft. That wasn’t what Hunter said. “We talked about it,” Hunter explained. “We cleaned the air and it was all gravy. He understood. …”
Hunter, who made his major league debut 10 years ago this month, has long exemplified leadership qualities. “I was always ready for it,” Hunter said. “I’ve been the type player that tries to motivate the guys. Not trying to be a leader, just trying to motivate. … I am very competitive. I want to win. So when I get going I’ve got that football mentality. Going out there, getting guys pumped up and ready to go. …That’s probably how I became a leader because I was always getting guys pumped up.”
Although the major league season is long with 162 games, he tries to motivate himself and others for every game. His tactics range from drinking coffee to jumping up and down. Injuries are not to be an obstacle to leadership and performance.
“I get in the lineup every day, no matter if I am hurt or not…and just kind of lead by example,” Hunter said. “When you lead by example people tend to follow. If I can go out there every day hurt, no matter what, maybe the other guys will too.”
Manager Ron Gardenhire praised Hunter’s leadership when asked if the veteran centerfielder was the team leader. “He should be,” Gardenhire said. “He’s a guy that’s been here. He’s grown up in this organization. He understands what it takes to win and how hard it is to maintain any kind of consistency at this level. I think what people forget is that there’s a lot of good baseball players on all teams. When you’re facing good pitching, sometimes it makes it look like you can’t hit. So…you have to stay on the even keel and not get too high and too low and I think that’s one of the things Torii tries to make our younger players understand. …”
What’s wrong with the Twins compared to last season’s team that a year ago was 22 games over .500? Hunter said the weaknesses of some teammates have been identified by other teams and adjustments must be made to respond. “The league catches up with you,” Hunter said.