'Artie the Bartender' would sign off on Dozier

FORT MYERS, FLA. -- Rod Carew was 21 and had not played above the Class A Carolina League in the spring of 1967, when Calvin Griffith, the Twins owner and general manager, ordered manager Sam Mele to start the season with the rookie as his second baseman.

Legend has it, Mele called in the beat writers from the Twin Cities dailies for an off-the-record conversation to make this clear: It wasn't his decision to go with the kid at second base.

Carew started 1,071 games at second base for the Twins over nine seasons. The attraction of baseball then was the game – not drink rails and countless in-stadium food options – and the customers didn't need reporters to detect Carew's No. 1 flaw at second base:

Turning the double play.

We looked at that ability with such reverence in the 1970s that manager Frank Quilici, a former second baseman, was congratulated for his boldness when he convinced Carew to start giving first base a try late in the 1975 season.

Carew played both first and second in September, and then the move to first base became permanent in spring training of 1976. Sir Rodney played three more seasons in Minnesota, and eight for California, and never again started a game at second base.

At the end of his Hall of Fame career, Carew had more regular-season starts at first base (1153) than those 1,071 that he had started at second for the Twins.

Later, Artie became a security guard at Schmidt Brewery in St. Paul, which I once suggested in print was the equivalent of having a pyromaniac guarding an oil refinery.

We had a lot of fun with Artie, an old clubhouse man from the days of the American Association in Twin Cities. Artie was convinced of his genius as a baseball man, and there was nothing more important for a ballclub if it was going to win than a second baseman adept at turning a double play.

The most giddy I ever saw Artie was when the Twins opened the 1976 season with Carew, eventually the winner of seven batting titles in Minnesota, at first base, and the slap-hitting, slow-footed Bobby Randall at second base.

Randall was fantastic at turning the double play, one reason being that he would hang in there to make the pivot no matter what menace he was facing in the form of a base runner.

That was enough for Artie. He loved Randall.

Randall was the Twins' regular at second base in 1976 and 1977, shared the position with Rob Wilfong in 1978, and then was a backup to Wilfong for a couple of seasons.

I'm a bit crotchety in my baseball views – not as much so as was Artie, but crotchety – and it also gets on my nerves when a double-play bouncer is hit to third or shortstop and the second baseman doesn't "turn it.''

The Twins were in the second season of what I lovingly refer to as the Nishioka Era in 2012, and the middle of the infield was in disastrous condition. Brian Dozier was called up to play shortstop in early May.

"I always thought he was going to be a shortstop,'' General Manager Terry Ryan said. "That looked like a position that he was going to be handle for us in the big leagues for long time. He came up and it didn't go well.

"I give Ron Gardenhire a lot of credit. He said, 'He's a second baseman. That's where we have to play him.' ''

He's the best Twins' second baseman since Chuck Knoblauch insisted on a trade after the 1997 season.

The Opening Day starters at the position post-Knobby had been Brent Gates (1998), Todd Walker (1999-2000), Luis Rivas (2001-05), Luis Castillo (2006-07), Brendan Harris (2008), Alexi Casilla (2009, 2012), Orlando Hudson (2010) and, yes, the unforgettable, the amazing, the one, the only, Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2011).

Early on, it looked as though Rivas was going to be outstanding, but he flattened out considerably. Castillo still was a good player, but leg injuries had slowed Luis from what he had been in Miami.

Dozier is definitely an asset for what had been a troubled position for the Twins. He can steal a base. He can hit a home run. He can range into the second-base hole.

And you know what I like the most about Brian Dozier: