Twins' pace in hiring Molitor better than average

The Twins had a week-long homestand to end the 1998 season. Paul Molitor had turned 42 that August and it was anticipated that he was going to retire after 21 seasons in the big leagues.

There had been official announcement. Molitor wanted to reflect at season's end and make sure retirement was actually what he wanted.

"Decisions that are spontaneous can be the right decisions,'' Molitor said during that homestand. "But I think that's the exception.''

Carl Pohlad became the owner of the Twins in 1984. A year later, in June, Pohlad was convinced by team president Howard Fox to fire Billy Gardner and replace him as manager with Ray Miller, Baltimore's pitching coach.

Miller lasted for 239 games, before being fired at the urging of Andy MacPhail, the vice president for baseball operations. Third-base coach Tom Kelly was named interim manager for the final 23 games (12-11) of the 1986 season.

Pohlad's reputation as a businessman was to be methodical, so these managerial moves surely were spontaneous by his standards. You would have to say that Pohlad and now his heirs returned to the family tradition when it came to decision-making.

The 1986 season ended on Oct. 5 and took to Nov. 25 (51) days for Carl Pohlad to go along with MacPhail's determination to bring back Kelly as the full-time manager. For over a month, there were calls almost nightly to Kelly's then-New Jersey home and his answer was the same:

Kelly stayed for 15 seasons. He resigned out of nowhere on Oct. 12, 2001. The media was quick to suggest that third-base coach would be Kelly's replacement.

That was the case, although it took until Jan. 4, 2002 (84 days) for General Manager Terry Ryan and Carl Pohlad to complete the process and make it official. A major reason for that was the contraction issue still was hanging over the Twins during Ryan's search process.

"It probably would have taken about the same time to decide on Gardy as manager as it did for this hire, without the contraction situation,'' Ryan said Tuesday at the news conference introducing Molitor as the 13^th manager in Twins history.

Gardenhire had a successful nine-year run, followed by four bad seasons, and he was fired on Sept. 29. The assumption was that Molitor, long associated with the organization, would be replacement.

It wound up taking 36 days from Gardenhire's firing to Molitor's introduction as manager. Ryan specifically thanked in-house candidates Doug Mientkiewicz and Gene Glynn, and outside candidates Torey Lovullo and Sandy Alomar Jr. for their involvement in the interview process.

Thirty-six days. I'd call this better-than-average speed when it comes to Pohlad-style decision-making. And remember what the guy getting the job said 16 years ago, before walking away as a player: