Minnesota Twins Eccentricity & Ephemera: A Twinkie Town Definitive List (Round 14)

02/11/2025 09:00 AM

Good guy Gardy

Rounds 1-13 Results:

1. Herb Carneal
2. Tom Kelly
3. The Metrodome
4. Jack Morris
5. Win Twins Theme
6. Dick Bremer
7. Bob Casey
8. Target Field
9. Metropolitan Stadium
10. Judge Harry Crump
11. Paul Molitor
12. Dan Gladden
13. Ron Gardenhire

In 2002, Ron Gardenhire was put in an almost impossible situation. After serving as a Twins coach from 1991-2001, Gardy was given a chance at the big chair—right as the team was maybe going to be contracted. Gardenhire could have easily interviewed for other more stable situations, but he chose loyalty. It paid off: Gardy immediately brought the Twins back to prominence and captured seven AL Central crowns from 2002-2014. It didn't hurt that he was also a guy as likely to run into at the local bowling alley. Though hailing from Oklahoma, he had a Minnesotan spirit through and through.

Next: A radio voice who goes "way back!"

The Star Tribune Sports Section

• Gather 'round, children, and let me tell you of a time before the internet. In the hardscrabble analog age of human existence, following your local sporting nine was not a moment-by-moment affair. Instead, a rolled-up newsprint assemblage that magically appeared on your doorstep to meet the rising sun was often your best bet for baseball news. No shade to east Twin Cities suburbanites who received the Pioneer Press, but the west-side's Star Tribune had unassailable sports coverage that provided beat opinions and box scores to pore over for hours.

Little Big League

• When the Baby Boomers starting getting nostalgic in the 1990s, baseball was on the tip of their cinematic tongues. In 1994, an art-imitating-life story of the woebegone Twins hit theaters. Filmed at the Metrodome and featuring the vocal talents of John Gordon's "Wally Holland", Little Big League and its adolescent Billy Heywood gave young Twins fans a dream scenario. Whether teaching us math or exploring baseball's brand of humor, Little Big League remains an all-time classic in these parts.

TC Bear

• When you attend a baseball game as a child, you aren't concerned with stats or standings (okay, maybe I was, but I digress). You simply marvel at the grandness—sights, smells, sounds—of it all. It is very possible your first Minnesota Twins memory (even if you have trouble accessing it in grey matter folds) is high-fiving TC Bear in the Dome/Target Field concourse or observing his silly antics on the pregame field or atop the home dugout.

Jim Thome

• For years, Jim Thome tormented the Twins—Rick Reed in particular—as a member of the Cleveland Guardians or Chicago White Sox. In 2010, Big Jim continued his AL Central tour and jumped onboard the Twins for Target Field's inaugural campaign. Providing power not seen in these parts since Harmon Killebrew was in the batter's box, Thome gave the new ballpark its first magical moment and starred in a legendary commercial. A year later, he belted home run #600 in MN duds.

John Gordon

• John Gordon wasn't down-home folksy like Herb Carneal. He didn't possess Dick Bremer's booming baritone. But what Gordo did bring to the table was unbridled enthusiasm—almost more of a football announcer style—on the radio mic. Who could forget Gordon's iconic "Way back!" or "Touch 'em All!" home run calls?! Through his final call and Twins Hall of Fame induction, Gordon was the consummate professional and as big a part of MN sports broadcast mythos as anyone.