Jim Souhan: Gardenhire insists it's no time to let expectations slip

FORT MYERS, FLA. — Friends long ago nicknamed Twins manager Ron Gardenhire "The Barroom Olympian," for his prowess in darts and bowling. He's won a lot of money off them in golf, too.

When his son, Toby, now a Twins minor leaguer, would compete with him, the father would dominate and receive a chiding from his wife.

"She said, 'You have to let him win sometimes,'" Gardenhire said the other day in his office at Hammond Stadium. "I said, 'No, I don't.' And when he did win, I didn't feel good about it. Losing is a hard thing for me to do."

Gardenhire knows that now more than ever. He built winning records in his three seasons as a minor league manager. He was on the Twins' staff when the team won the World Series in 1991. He built winning records in each of his first five seasons as Twins manager, compiling a record of 455-354 before last season and making the playoffs four times. His record as a minor league manager was 245-183.

Then came 2007, and a team that finished 79-83 despite the presence of a two-time Cy Young winner (Johan Santana), a Gold Glove All-Star center fielder (Torii Hunter), a reigning batting champ (Joe Mauer), reigning MVP (Justin Morneau) and All-Star-caliber closer (Joe Nathan).

"I didn't like that," Gardenhire said. "It bugged me. A lot. In all honesty, I probably put too much stock in that, if putting too much stock in winning is possible.

"I remember telling [coach] Jerry White when we first got this job, 'We aren't going to lose.' And after about three years of winning and making the playoffs, Jerry looked at me and said, 'Damn, Gardy!'"

"I know a lot of great managers have had losing seasons, but it was one of my goals not to. I don't like losing, and I don't see any need for it."

Gardenhire's first losing season as a manager came in a season of high expectations. He didn't take it well. "People say it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game," he said, chuckling. "There's some validity to that, but still, at night, I'm laying there thinking, 'How the bleep did we lose that game?'

"I don't sleep well when we lose, if at all. My wife talks about hot flashes, but I think it's me that's getting them. Sometimes I go home and cannot get it out of my head and I just lay there, and that's not fun."

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It can also be dangerous. Gardenhire has had a few health scares since he replaced Tom Kelly as manager after the 2001 season. His doctors monitor his blood pressure and urge him to eat healthier and exercise more, and this winter his bullpen coach, the venerable Rick Stelmaszek, almost died of a stroke attributed to an unhealthy diet and drinking, the most accessible of baseball vices.

"Luckily for me, I've got doctors who are after me pretty hard, trying to help me along."

Pitching coach Rick Anderson, one of Gardenhire's best friends, said the staff plans to take precautions this season. "We've all talked about it," Anderson said. "I'm hoping that instead of us sitting in that office worrying and planning, we can get to the ballpark early and walk together and drink water and have some of our meetings that way.

"Gardy cares so much on a daily basis that it's almost scary for him. I do worry about him. It's easy with our schedule to get into a lot of bad habits."

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For the health of the manager if not the franchise, this season could offer a reprieve. This might be the first season during his tenure that the Twins are not expected to contend. They lost Santana, Hunter and Carlos Silva and added Livan Hernandez, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett, Brendan Harris and Carlos Gomez.

Baseball is a wonderfully inscrutable game, but it's hard to see a team that won 79 games with star power in 2007 winning a lot more without those players in 2008.

Maybe that's why Gardenhire has been so cheerful this spring -- he's in the enviable position of knowing that if he wins, the manager will deserve a lot of credit, and that if he loses, he won't disappoint many realists.

Right? "No, to be honest, that gets me even more fired up," Gardenhire said. "I love to use that stuff, low expectations, as a motivational tactic. I know what people are saying, and I don't knock them for saying it when you look at us on paper and at the other ballclubs in the division and how they loaded up.

"I understand it. That doesn't mean I have to give in to it. I'm not doing my job if I give into it. It's my job to find a way to get these guys better than those guys, to get them into a frame of mind where it doesn't matter what anybody else does.

"I think we've got some good players here and some hungry people here, and I'm excited about that. I think we can win."