Ante Up

What Minnesota Twin first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz remembers most about the 1999 season, which he refers to as “the most miserable year of my life,” is the silence.

The Metrodome may be the loudest place on earth tonight, when the Twins and Angels open the American League championship series before a Homer Hanky-waving sellout crowd of 56,000, but three years ago the place was as lifeless as a morgue.

“You could hear someone buying a hot dog in the upper deck,” Mientkiewicz said. “If someone yawned in the stands, you heard it.”

Those yawns weren’t limited to the bleachers. The small-market Twins went to a total youth movement in 1999, paring their payroll to $15 million on orders from owner Carl Pohlad and carrying 16 rookies, their lineup filled with anonymous kids such as Mientkiewicz, outfielders Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones, infielders Corey Koskie and Cristian Guzman and pitcher Joe Mays.

Minnesota was overmatched from the start, going 63-97 and finishing 33 games out of first place in the AL Central. ESPN analyst Peter Gammons called the Twins “the best triple-A team in the big leagues,” and he was right; most of these guys had no business being here.

They had some skill, some athleticism, some potential. But they were force-fed into the big leagues, chewed up and spit out by opponents. They were outscored, 845-686. They hit 105 homers and allowed 208. They were, in a word, “boring.”

“To be honest with you,” said Rick Stelmaszek, the Twins’ longtime bullpen coach, “I fell asleep a few times during games.”

From those humble origins rose the core of a team that won the AL Central by 13 1/2 games this season, upset the Oakland Athletics in a five-game division series and is four wins from reaching the World Series.

You thought the 1969 Mets were Amazin’? From a leap of faith, the Twins are now a hop, skip and a jump away from the Fall Classic.

“We always said in 1999 that we’re going to take our lumps, but we’re eventually going to return the favor,” Mientkiewicz said. “My hat goes off to [Manager] Ron Gardenhire, [former manager] Tom Kelly and [General Manager] Terry Ryan. They kept the group together. They knew we could win. We just needed to learn how to win on the big-league level.”

The growing pains were sharp, the scars deep. Mientkiewicz hit .229 that season and was sent back to triple-A Salt Lake for most of 2000. Guzman hit .226 with one homer and 90 strikeouts in 1999. Hunter hit .255. Mays went 6-11. The group had won together in the minor leagues but crashed into a wall in the big leagues.

“It was just too much too soon for most of them,” Kelly said. “Most of them skipped triple A and went right to the big leagues. When you strap 16 rookies onto a roster and throw them against the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, you’re going to take your lumps, and we did.”

It wasn’t so much the physical aspects of the game that overwhelmed the Twins.

“Some of us were scared,” Mientkiewicz said. “T.K. kept putting us out there, and we all struggled. Geez, we must have put 25 years on T.K. in one year. There were too many guys trying to feel their way through the big leagues without worrying about whether we won or lost.”

The toughest part of that season?

“Every day at 7 p.m.,” Mientkiewicz said. “Not knowing what you’re gonna get.”

The volatile Twins were just as likely to blow a six-run lead in the seventh inning as they were to throw a no-hitter, which left-hander Eric Milton did against the equally woebegone Angels on Sept. 11 of that year, the highlight of Minnesota’s season and the lowlight of a 70-92 Angel season in which manager Terry Collins and general manager Bill Bavasi resigned under duress.

While the Angels rebuilt under a new regime with General Manager Bill Stoneman and Manager Mike Scioscia, the Twins injected some more youth in 2000, adding catcher A.J. Pierzynski, second baseman Luis Rivas and pitcher J.C. Romero to the mix.

Hunter, after a torrid 55-game stretch in triple A, where he hit .368 with 18 homers and 61 runs batted in, improved his major league average to .280. Guzman jumped to .247, Jones hit .289, and Pierzynski and Rivas each hit over .300.

“We knew we had a lot to learn, we had our ups and downs, and a lot of guys were sent out and brought back,” Hunter said. “After a while you start to figure out what pitchers are doing to you.”

The kids seemed to be maturing, and though their record (69-93) wasn’t much better in 2000, they began to come of age in the last week of the season, when they won two of four over the Indians to deny Cleveland a playoff spot.

“We didn’t know how to maintain leads, to finish games--we were waiting to lose rather than trying to win,” Jones said. “That changed at the end of 2000. We made that series against Cleveland our playoffs. If we weren’t going, they weren’t going either. That rolled into 2001 and set the tone. We started taking it to teams.”

Mientkiewicz returned in 2001, motivated to prove he belonged, and a pitching staff that included starters Brad Radke, Milton and Mays and reliever Eddie Guardado lowered its earned-run average from 5.14 in 2000 to 4.51 in 2001.

Mientkiewicz, who helped the U.S. win an Olympic gold medal in 2000, hit .306 with 15 homers and 74 RBIs in 2001. Hunter hit .261 with 27 homers and 92 RBIs and won a Gold Glove. Koskie hit .276 with 26 homers and 103 RBIs, Guzman hit .302. To athletic ability and potential, the Twins added heart, character, some personality.

The Twins were 64-51 and led the division on Aug. 10 before an eight-game losing streak dropped them 4 1/2 games back. They finished 85-77, six games out, and Kelly, who guided Minnesota to World Series titles in 1987 and ‘91, retired.

After surviving a brutal winter, in which Commissioner Bud Selig tried to eliminate the franchise, the Twins roared back behind Gardenhire in 2002, going 94-67, running away with the division and becoming a model for small-market teams who want to build from within.

Hunter emerged as an MVP candidate, and Koskie is considered one of baseball’s best third basemen. Guardado made a successful transition from setup man to closer, and Romero, who struggled as a starter, developed into one of the nastiest left-handed relievers in the league.

Ryan made several shrewd moves along the way, acquiring Guzman and Milton from the Yankees for Chuck Knoblauch, pitcher Kyle Lohse from the Cubs for Rick Aguilera, Mays from Seattle for Roberto Kelly, designated hitter David Ortiz from Seattle for Dave Hollins, and reliever Johan Santana from the Marlins for Jared Camp. All but one starter--Ortiz--was drafted and developed by the Twins.

“Terry Ryan and Tom Kelly took a lot of hits for this team in 1999 and 2000,” Pierzynski said. “The organization did a great job teaching us how to win games. We were on the low end of the payroll, but they never took money away from development.”

The question now is, will the Twins spend what it takes to keep this group together? Minnesota still has the third-lowest payroll in baseball ($40 million), but the team is for sale, and the future of the franchise is still in doubt.

“If they keep us together ... we should win for a long time,” Jones said. “It’s hard to mix and match, get a guy from this team and another from that team. When you have a winning chemistry, you have to keep it together, even if that means spending money. We’ve put up. Now someone has to put up for us.”

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Home Sweet Home

The Twins have been dominant at the Metrodome in postseason games, going 12-2. A look at those games, which occurred in World Series championship seasons of 1987 and 1991 (in which they enjoyed Series home-field advantage) and this year:

1987 ALCS VS. DETROIT (4-1)

GAME 1: 8-5 win; Gary Gaetti becomes first player to homer in first two postseason at-bats.

GAME 2: 6-3 win; Twins triumph over St. Paul native Jack Morris.

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1987 WORLD SERIES VS. ST. LOUIS (4-3)

GAME 1: 10-1 win; Dan Gladden’s grand slam in seven-run fourth inning keys 11-hit attack.

GAME 2: 8-4 win; another big fourth inning (six runs) boosted by Gaetti and Tim Laudner homers.

GAME 6: 11-5 win; Kent Hrbek hits grand slam off Ken Dayley to force Game 7.

GAME 7: 4-2 win; Series MVP Frank Viola outduels rookie Joe Magrane.

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1991 ALCS VS. TORONTO (4-1)

GAME 1: 5-4 win; hometown hero Morris gets 5-0 lead after three innings.

GAME 2: 5-2 loss; Juan Guzman limits Twins to five hits in their first postseason loss at Metrodome.

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1991 WORLD SERIES VS. ATLANTA (4-3)

GAME 1: 5-2 win; Homer Hankies flying as Greg Gagne and Hrbek hit home runs in win for Morris.

GAME 2: 3-2 win; Scott Leius hero as his eighth-inning solo home run makes winner of Kevin Tapani.

GAME 6: 4-3 win; Kirby Puckett’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the 11th forces Game 7.

GAME 7: 1-0 win; Gene Larkin’s pinch single scores Gladden in fifth game decided in last at-bat.

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2002 ALDS VS. OAKLAND (3-2)

GAME 3: 6-3 loss; 55,932 watch as the A’s send it back to Oakland with three home runs.

GAME 4: 11-2 win; Twins stave off elimination as Doug Mientkiewicz homers and drives in three.