Terry Ryan...stone squeezer

Well, it looks as if Terry Ryan, General Manager for the Minnesota Twins, is stepping down from his post this afternoon.   

The Twins have called a 2:00 pm CT press conference to announce "an announcement regarding the reorganization of the club's baseball department".

Speculation is that Ryan will be stepping down from his GM gig by that point.

I'm not really a Twins fan, but, as a baseball fan, how can one not admire what Terry Ryan and the Twins have done over the past six years? In case you don't know the story, the Twins, the team that used to be called "baseball's cheapskate", managed to win four of the last six Central Division titles with perhaps one of baseball's lowest payrolls. They developed a consistent, talent laden farm system and replenished their Major League roster with home grown talent (Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter ring a bell, anyone?) when their high priced talent left for greener pastures. They play the game the right way under the leadership of first Tom Kelly and now Ron Gardenhire. And all things considered, they are a first class operation on the field and off.

And they did it with half of the resources of a big market club like the ones from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

That, my friends, is called "squeezing blood from stone".

And it was Terry Ryan doing the squeezing.

Now, I certainly hope that the Twins have their reasons, if they are telling him to step down. He is staying on with the club as a Senior Adviser, but in all reality, he won't be very active at all. 

I really hope to know that Terry Ryan is just burned out after 12 years at the helm. That the wear and tear of the long season finishing before us, as well as the 11 previous, have just made him hit a wall and he has just decided to hang them up. I really hope that is the case. This "baseball man" has been affiliated with the Twins since they drafted him in 1972. To fire him for poor performance (third place, playing .500 baseball in perhaps the leagues toughest division, not necessarily "poor") would be a travesty and an insult to a General Manager that helped defy the odds, give hope to other small market clubs and perhaps change the game of baseball in this money grubbing and loyalty free player environment for the better.

A true baseball person can understand this, and a true baseball person has to respect Terry Ryan for what he has accomplished in Minnesota.