Twins getting close on settlement
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MINNEAPOLIS -- In these uncertain times, professional baseball in Minnesota is sometimes measured not only in runs and hits and men left on base, but also in weeks and months.
So, when it appears that the Minnesota Twins are on the verge of gaining another year of life, this is not only a major development, but a major victory.
A settlement is very close in the suit filed against the Twins and Major League Baseball by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. The Commission originally sued to force the Twins to honor their lease for 2002 at the Metrodome.
At the time it appeared the Minnesota franchise could be contracted by MLB. The suit was later expanded, but under a proposed settlement, which awaits only official action by the Commission, the suit would be dropped and the Twins would play, at least through the 2003 season. This is a good thing on several different levels.
"We've read so much about it, we've seen so much about it, it's a positive story and we're looking for positive things around here," Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire said Thursday. "It's a positive twist. The final outcome of that story is yet to be determined. But it's a positive thing that the Twins are maybe going to get to play again in 2003. That's positive and we look for the positive."
If the settlement is approved, the Twins would gain additional time for a new stadium deal that could save the franchise for the longer term. A stadium funding proposal has been enacted by the Minnesota legislature, signed by the governor, but that is just the first round of this political bout.
Other teams talk about "distractions," and often the distraction is something along the lines of an outfielder being unhappy with his contract, or a pitcher being mentioned in trade rumors. Compared to this sort of thing, the Twins have a real, live distraction, a world-class distraction. This distraction would be: Are we going to be around after this season?
On the one hand, the Twins have been surrounded by speculation since last November. On the other hand, nobody can play baseball while simultaneously trying to answer the major questions of life and death, or at least, franchise life and death.
The Twins get asked these questions day after day. But at some point, the game begins and the uncertainty isn't supposed to bother them. The fact that they lead the American League Central is a tribute not only to their determination, but their concentration.
"We've said all along that the only thing we can control is what we do on the baseball field," Gardenhire said. "All the other stuff -- the contraction, the stadium issue -- we really don't have much say-so in that. All we can do is play. If we go out and play good baseball, people come out to the games, that makes it easier for people to want to build a stadium."
The Twins did their part Thursday night, staging a come-from-behind, 7-6, 10-inning victory over the otherwise red-hot Anaheim Angels. It was like a microcosm of the Twins' overall situation; hopeless early, filled with possibilities later. The Twins were down five runs. They lost starting pitcher Brad Radke who re-injured a pulled groin muscle and will re-enter the disabled list. It was gloom and doom, but only for a while.
"For a couple of innings we were down," centerfielder Torii Hunter said. "You know, Radke popped his groin again. That's a sad situation, but we just got to keep chuckin' on, and hopefully he has a speedy recovery."
"These guys are really resilient," Gardenhire said. "They just keep playing."
The Twins battled. They tied the game. They did the right things and they kept their eyes on the ball. Eventual winning pitcher Eddie Guardado pulled off an astounding, only-in-the-Metrodome catch in the ninth. Tim Salmon hit a towering foul ball that was obviously going way back into the stands on the first base side. Until it hit a speaker. Guardado, following the flight of the baseball and knowing the house rules, ran over into foul territory and made a diving catch on the redirected baseball.
"People start screaming: 'Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!' Eddie's going to have do something more spectacular than get a save," Gardenhire said. "So now he decides he's got to dive around on the field. That was pretty good. I'll be damned if it didn't hit a speaker and he caught it."
In the end, it is a romantic notion to say that the Twins are playing to stave off contraction. As the manager says, their play can attract more customers, and create a better feeling about a new stadium project, but the building of a new stadium is not their call. They led the Central almost all of the first four months of last season, but faded down the stretch. They are playing now to take the next step up the ladder.
"That's it," Gardenhire said. "That's our goal for the year. It's not about anything other than being in a pennant race in September, where we were at last year and hopefully we learned something from last year. We were there, we had a taste of it, and we want to try to get back to that September pennant race. That's our goal and we're trying. We're trying hard. We started out in Spring Training with that as our goal and we won't stop."
And apparently, they may not be stopping at the end of the 2002 season, either.
Mike Bauman is the national columnist for MLB.com. This story was not subject to approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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