My thoughts on Terry Ryan….
Posted on September 14th, 2007 – 2:07 AMBy La Velle
When you cover a team for 10 years, you get to know people. And I’ve seen several sides of Terry Ryan since I’ve been on the beat here.
The first week on the beat in 1997, I arranged a meeting with Ryan in his office. He leaned back in his chair and looked at me like I was an accountant about to tell him that he was being audited for the rest of his life.
But then he said, “I got a call from Herk Robinson about you,” Ryan said. “He said you were a good guy and I should be able to deal with you.”
Herk, the former K.C. GM and one of the finer gentlemen in the game, took it upon himself to, `warn,’ Terry about my arrival after covering the Kansas City Royals for a few years. That would be the first several things Terry would surprise me with over the years.
There’s no one in baseball who has this man’s work ethic. I wrote in today’s editions about how Terry would scout other teams when other GM’s can’t be found. I can’t stress to you how true that is. “Who’s this guy?” Ryan would ask about a team’s 25th player. “Oh yeah, that’s so-and-so. Saw him in the Appalachian League when he played against E-Town. Not on him…”
I’ve had numerous beat writers from other teams come to me and say, “I wish I had your GM.” Their GM’s would be highly visible when things are going well but would dive for cover when the going got tough. Everyone saw Terry around, and respected him for that.
There are many GM’s in the game - Billy Beane, Mark Shapiro, Kenny Williams, Wayne Krivsky included - who think Ryan is truly great for what he does with what he has to work with. ESPN had a chart Thursday night that showed the Twins winning 90 games a year with a payroll ranked in the bottom half of the league. Trust me, people in baseball want to live Terry Ryan’s life. After all, he is a two-time Sporting News Executive of the Year award winner.
Terry takes things head on. He’s honest. He’s polite. Most importantly, he’s prepared.
I can’t tell you how many times over the years Terry would evaluate me. He would list all the things I do well - being prepared, on time, respectful, polite - but that was the meat in the compliment sandwich. Ryan would get into me about things I wrote or how I tried to dig up controversy or how I didn’t watch every little thing that happened on the field. That was cool. I respected Terry’s opinion. I just valued the fact that he thought I was prepared.
The first few years on the beat, the Twins staff played spring training pickup basketball games on a court near Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla. Terry was right in the middle of everything. If he was within 15 feet, he could stick a jumper. And he kept everyone involved with nifty passes. Kirby Puckett showed up a few times, and he was the black hole. If you threw the ball into him, the ball wasn’t coming out. That’s another story.
What else? When the Twins were being threatened with Carl Pohlad-induced contraction, Ryan, Bill Smith and Wayne Krivsky made the death march to the GM meetings in Chicago and were treated like the plague. They hopped in a car after the meetings and drove back to the Twin Cities.
It was about that time that the Toronto Blue Jays called about their gig. Terry wasn’t interested. He was loyal to the Twins and knew there would be a mass exodus if he left. Still, he, Smith and Krivsky poured over the entire Blue Jays organization during the drive back to the Twin Cities. They studied the 40-man roster, contracts, deferred money, stadium lease, affiliates, overseas scouting, the scouting department, revenue, everything. Krivsky told me that they came up with such a complete assessment of the Blue Jays organization that he was going to duplicate the process if he got a chance to interview somewhere. I can’t help but think that Krivsky was over-prepared for his interview with the Reds.
What else? I used to live in Eagan, which is where Terry and his family lives. Sure enough, they were big Eagan High School supporters and would show up at the popular Al Baker’s bar after football games. I used to live right down the street from the joint, so I was able to get to know his great family. His wife Karilyn, is a GM’s dream. She gets it. She may have to shovel snow in February while Terry is putting sunscreen on during spring training, but she helped move the chains.
How focused was Terry on his job? I once saw Karilyn at a Twins game and said, “Hey, you’ve changed your hair style.” She replied, “Thank you. Terry hasn’t noticed.” Was Terry ticked off at me…
That reminds me… Karilyn would cut out negative stories in the papers about Ryan before the kids would read them. She forgot to cut out the story I wrote about Ryan possibly going to Toronto, and she hasn’t forgotten when young Tim Ryan exclaimed, “TORONTO!?” when he read the paper that morning.
What else? There was the time I gave Ryan a ride to the Dome when his car was in the shop. There was the time in spring training when Doug Mientkiewicz had a collision at home plate in St. Petersburg and the trainers borrowed my rental car because it was a mini-SUV to take laid-out Dougie back to Fort Myers, leaving Terry to wait for me to get my stories done so he could give me a lift back to home base. He wasn’t happy. That was an entertaining trip.
It’s going to be strange not talking to Ryan on a daily basis. I have a job to do, he didn’t like it sometimes and we sparred. But I’m going to make two statements about my 10 years interviewing him.
One, you want Terry Ryan to be your next door neighbor.
Two, my career is better off for dealing with him.
73 Responses to "My thoughts on Terry Ryan…."
“Two, may [sic] career…”
Time to get some sleep, La Velle. Go to bed.
Nice write-up LaVelle! Thanks for sharing your personal thoughts and experiences.
I know I’ll miss Terry Ryan. I liked listening to him talk about the Twins, honest, straight forward, never ducked a question. I feel like I felt when Bud Grant left, bummed and kind of empty.
Thanks La Velle. It’s easy to see from your description of him why Terry Ryan might be feeling burned out. This man embodies integrity, like so many people in Minnesota. (You see these things more clearly once you’re gone - I grew up in MN but now live in Connecticut). I’m glad the Twins still have him in some capacity.
Wonderful stories LaVelle. Sounds like Ryan is a wonderful family man and works hard for his team and his family. Great write-up. Makes you feel bad for the last couple of months of “Terry Ryan sucks!” posts on this blog.
Now, onto a related topic, what are the odds that Bill Smith can get Torii, Johan and Morneau signed?
Talk about Terry Ryan, my wife and I were in Detroit a couple of years back to see a Twins game. Dressed in our Twins jackets, watching batting practice we were walking around the stadium when we noticed Ryan. He then immediately approached us (yes, instead of us going up to him) he started with a big smile on his face and said something to the affect of “hey, big Twins fans, all right!”
He seemed like just any other fan and we had a nice chat. I bet a lot other major league GM’s might give their fans on the road a brief head nod and then move on…but Ryan didn’t do that. Good Guy!
I saw the press conference last night. It makes sense to me. You need to take people at their word.
La Velle,
I sure hope this doesn’t turn the Twins into Pittsburgh!! I am actually nervous that after the tax payer gave the old man all the money for HIS stadium they don’t decide to foot the bill for a quality team! I am tired of hearing that we are a small market team. the only reason they say that is because we have a junk stadium that people do not want to go to and the Old man is unable to write a check for more than 20 cents.
Terry will be greatly missed and i am sure he just got tired of all the BS he had to deal with. From the change of player representation to listening to to the old man say NO all the time!
Thanks again Terry and Good LUCK!!!
Great insight LVEN3; thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the stories LaVelle. Doesn’t surprise me. When our bat company was trying to get off the ground, Major League Baseball was making it quite difficult for us to get our bats into the hands of the players or on the field. A number of new regulations were put in place, etc. etc.
One February evening, I was at the Dome watching the Gopher Alumni game with my 2 year old son. I spot Terry Ryan and Jim Rantz sitting several rows above me. I approached them and introduced myself and explained the roadblocks that we were encountering. Mind you, I wasn’t there to seek out Terry Ryan. I had ratty jeans on, untied work boots, and an old fleece jacket. He could’ve told me to get lost or that he was busy, but he took the time to listen to what was happening and said something like “if there’s anything I can do, let me know and I’ll gladly do it”.
Fast forward one year. Our company is dead set on gaining MLB approval, but we need a GM to nominate us and submit a letter to the MLB powers that be. So I reluctantly call down to the Twins front office and ask to speak to Terry Ryan. I’m figuring this is a complete long shot. The receptionist asked a number of questions of course, and then was put on hold. It wasn’t 1 minute later when Terry Ryan picked up the phone and asked how I was, how my son was, how goes the bat business, etc. I mean the only image he has of me is what he saw at the Gopher Alumni game in the span of 3 minutes.
He proceeded to write a very nice letter to MLB nominating our company in an effort to help us gain approval status with the league (meaning that players could use our bats in games). It was an incredible gesture, I felt.
Terry Ryan was really instrumental in getting us in the door with MLB, and he always took a genuine interest in our company when we crossed paths. “How’s the bat business? How’s your boy?” he would say.
Thank you Terry.
TR, we wish you the best for whatever you plan to do!
It’s been sad that this season’s moves have not turned out the way you wish and we as Twins fans feel so much frustration. But your level of frustration must be more than 10 times more than ours. We appreciate your dedication over the yrs and one thing we can’t dispute is your heart for the Twins. You will be missed! Thank you!
You can look at Terry Ryan this year and say, “boy he had a bad year”. But when you look at his work as a whole, he really made this team into what it is. A hard working group of guys you can root for. Did they frustrate us all year? Hell yes! That may continue into the next couple years. But I think he has left this team in a much better place than when he received it.
Now that he can focus on his strengths, (scouting and evaluation) who is to say the Twins aren’t in better shape for years to come.
Good luck Terry RYan. Thanks for giving us a team we can root for.
Nice story Maxbat.
One thing is for sure and that is that TR has and always will be a class act and very respected man here in Minnesota.
LEN
This is a great story about TR and I think TR did a pretty good job while he was here. This also shows why MN sports will never succeed. The media in this state can never step back and look at the big picture. This GM is leaving this team high and dry. He did assemble some good teams but he could not get them over the hump.
TR was lucky to be in MN if he was in a large market he wouldn’t have lasted this long. Up until this year people never even questioned his moves.
I am not trying to bash TR but the media is letting him off the hook here. He has put this team in a horrible position for the next several years and then he bails out. I thought TR was better then that.
jama, I don’t agree with you that TR is bailing. I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot over the past two days, but it seems reasonable to me that he just wants to do something else. Twelve years is a long time to be doing the same job, especially a high stress job.
Excellent work, LaVelle. I nominate this for your best blog post of the season.
Too bad some folks can’t show TR even the slightest respect and give him his due for even one day before they revert to criticism and negativity. These are the sort of circumstances when people reveal their true colors for all to see.
Thanks for the memories, Terry Ryan. I appreciate your hard work. Best wishes in your new role.
I share Joshs fear whether Ryan stayed or not, and of course it is well documented he may have left because of this fear.
I travel to Pittsburgh a lot for wokr and they always relate how once the new stadium was built, the ownership cut the budget and they have had a losing team ever since.
Great work LaVelle. Just from a market standpoint i don’t believe we will become another Pittsburg. The Twin Cities market is bigger, still growing, and has a better job base. The twins Cities are also not as football obsessed as Pittsburg, the Pirates are not big there when they do win. I do not agree with Reusse that next year is a lost cause either. Sure, there are challanges and no guarentee, but it is WAY too early to give up 2008.
Best blog of the year LEN3. Thank you.
I appreciate TR’s honesty and most of all his loyalty. Had he jumped ship and went to Toronto with most of his staff, would there even be baseball in Minnesota? It’s comforting to know he’s still working in the organization and I hope Bill Smith will find a way to get our core players to stay. I disagree with Reusse’s column this morning. I think with Torii and a few additions this team could be a big time contender in ‘08.
Thanks, LaVelle (and Max)… despite that some people seem insistent on seeing everything in as negative a light as possible, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Ryan is a class act and genuinely believes that stepping aside and changing his role with the team is in the best interests of everyone, especially the Twins organization.
Fun reading. Thanks for sharing.
Best blog of the year LEN3. Thank you.
I agree.
As for the Twins. They will survive. No one is really irreplaceable and it appears Ryan has created an organization where he is just one part of its success.
Good stuff today, La Velle. I like hearing the anecdotes you have to share.
jama - why do you think TR owes you anything? Because you are a fan and you pay money to watch the team? Right. Like anything in life, he needs to look out for his family and his well being. Not you, the fan.
TR was a master at making lemonade. He had some faults as a gm, who doesn’t. But are trying to say the Twins would be in a better position if someone like Brian Cashman had been the gm for the past 12 years?
JAMA
TR was considered by his peers as one of the bestGMs in baseball. I’m sure TR resigned because of the pressure by bloggers like you. GET A LIFE!
Great stuff LEN3.
It’s always nice to hear little stories and tidbits about a guy like Terry Ryan.
While I’m intrigued and excited to see what Bill Smith can do for this organization, I’m not allowing myself to forget and ignore the type of man and GM that Terry Ryan was with the Twins.
It’s a bit of a consolation prize to know that he’ll still be in the organization, except in a role that he prefers and loves to do.
I fully enjoy the contributions that TK makes since Gardy took over. I think I’m going to like TR’s new role too. Bill Smith will bring something new to the plate. All in all I think it’ll make it a much richer experience as a Twins fan. Change is unnerving but I think it’ll work out just fine for us as fans.
I can’t stand the thought of the Yankees getting to post season. So I’m hoping the Tigers sweep the Twins.
Sorry………..
Great blog LEN.
My neighbor kid would play buckets with at the court. Why oh why didn’t I go over and do the same?
I’m happy for Terry that he’s moving on, and grateful for the time he spent as GM. He’s a great guy.
Ya know romer - I was thinking the same thing over lunch. But, not a sweep. Santana needs to win to tomorrow.
IF he can have outstanding performances in his next 3 outings and win, I think Gardy should let him start the final game of the year so he can try to get 20 wins on the year. I’d like to see how he would end up in the Cy Young voting with 20 wins, sub 3 era and K king
B
If he’s top three in voting he has a no trade clause for next year. With this team we need options open. Down with the Yankees
Lavelle, thanks for sharing your thoughts and some stories about TR. It further reinforces what we have always heard about his honesty, integrity and work ethic. It’s no wonder there were many sad and misty-eyed faces at the press conference yesterday.
Long others, I predict a long drought for the Twins, until a few years after new stadium is open. The Pohlads are so miserly, that they have sold us a bill of good with the stadium, and are tone deaf that the public expects our contribution to help result in a good team. This is probably what made Ryan not have the heart in the job.
They have hteir stadium, the team is worth more, people will come to the news stadium the first couple years anyway, why should he spend money.
Pohlad is a miser. Which would be OK if he did not expect us to contribute to himn, but we have done just that.
Kevin
What is your def of a long drought. I think like many posters, you are inclined towards extremes. There is plenty that needs to be done to put this team over the top. But too much talent to drop off the face of the earth. I don’t care who is hitting next year (we still will have MVP, Maeur, Kubel, Bart, Cuddy). If our bullpen comes back healthy, with Santana, Liriano, Garza, Baker, Slowey, Boof, Manchild, etc we will be competitive.
Why does everyone stay the stadium is getting built for the Pohlads? The stadium is for me and my children so that we may enjoy a baseball in a real baseball venue.
Does Santana’s potential no trade clause really matter that much? The only teams that would trade for him would be contenders, so he may be more than willing to be traded.
Santana will not get traded. The handful of teams that can afford him can just wait until he is a free agent and get him for nothing.
I think you are probably right, B. The only advantage to trading for him is that the team would get exclusive rights to negotiate before he hit the open market. If the Twins are out of it next July, the BoSox or Yankees might make a play for him.
That was a great “from the heart” write up, LaVelle. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I miss listening to you on PA & Dubay
Hell, i even miss PA & Dubay
B
You’re crazy if you think there wouldn’t be a bidding war for Santana with one year left on his contract at 13 million. Look at what the Red Sox put in on Dice K, a guy who’s never even pitched in the bigs. Read Neyer’s article from ESPN, he puts his thoughts on what the trade propects would be.
Once again, Jama, you are an idiot. Your posts are ridiculous, and you obviously have no idea what has made the Twins a successful franchise.
Are you listening Bill Smith? You, too, Jama, you moron. Try this on for size: 1. Sign Hunter for $60 million for 4 years with an option for a fifth year. 2. Bite my tongue, but trade Santana & Buscher to Boston for Buchholz, Youkilis and Ellsbury. Youkilis plays third base. I can then extend Morneau & Cuddyer & Nathan. I can bring this team in for a budget under $80 million easy.
DIAMONDT, please back off the insults.
My bad. I apologize. Prolonged posts in the blog finally got the best of me.
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