While the Twins were making over their front office on Monday, manager Ron Gardenhire was in surgery.
.
Gardenhire had surgery on Monday to remove bone chips from his right elbow and now is in full recovery mode. He's expected to be ready for spring training batting practice.
``I hurt it scratching my head," he joked in an e-mail.
Hey, maybe that's another reason the Twins struggled last season. Gardy couldn't throw b.p. like he used to, and the hitters suffered because of it. Was there anyone NOT broken down on this team?
When asked to comment on the Terry Ryan replacing Bill Smith as general manager, Gardenhire declined. ``Not now," he wrote.
As far as I can remember, Gardy had a really good relationship with Ryan. I'm not trying to assert that Gardy had a bad relationship with Smith, but the one he had with Ryan - based on my observations and talks with people in the organization - was better.
Ryan, after all, was the one who hired Gardenhire before the 2002 season. Ryan interviewed current Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, current Orioles third base coach Willie Randolph and Lynn Jones, who was a Marlins coach at the time but is being replaced as Atlanta's minor league baserunning coach. Paul Molitor and Scott Ullger were interviewed as well.
Gardy was handed a team that was highly motivated after starting 50-31 in 2001 but blew it in the second half. They also had to wait for contraction to get kicked to the curb. I'll never forget the season opener in Kansas City, when Denny Hocking told me before the game that Jacque Jones was going to lead off the season with a home run, and Jones went opposite field on the second pitch. Hocking looked up to the press box and struck the "told you so," pose.
