I want to share a few Carl Pohlad stories that couldn’t make today’s ink-on-paper edition:

4:28 update: Justin Morneau has asked to release the following statement on the passing of Mr. Pohlad.

“He was known as the man who saved baseball in Minnesota and a great fan of the game who gave so much back to the community. I’m sure his legacy will live on and he’ll be remembered not only by the Twins front office staff, but the great fans of Minnesota and the Twins players proud to wear the uniform under his leadership. His contributions and commitment to sports and the Minnesota community will never be forgotten. It’s a sad day when we lose a teammate and member of the Twins family. The players’ condolences go out to the Pohlad family.” – Justin Morneau on passing of Twins Owner Carl Pohlad.”

Now for a personal story. About eight years ago, I went to Carl’s office to a story on the state of the organization. Dennis Brackin and I were seated in meeting room at Pohlad’s spacious 40th floor office. Carl walks in with his notes, looks at me and says, “I heard you just bought a new home. Why didn’t you finance it through us?”

I had just moved into my townhome, so I was baffled how he found that out. At the time, I thought it was pretty funny.

Clark Griffith, son of the former Twins owner, has always been impressed with Carl Pohlad. I got a kick out of his line in today’s story about how Carl and his father ran the team the same way but one was the richest owner in baseball and   the other the poorest.

“Carl was the only owner George Steinbrenner looked up to,” Griffith said. “He was a business colossus.”

Griffith remembered one time he tried to help someone buy a few of Pohlad’s banks.

“A banker in North Carolina hired me to represent him in the purchase of several banks from Carl. I went to great lengths to draft a letter to Carl to propose the purchase of these banks.

“It came back two days later,  my letter with Carl’s writing across the face of it. `Clark, we buy banks. We don’t sell them.’ My great enterprise for my new Carolina client was dashed on the rocks.”

Former Twins manager Tom Kelly got his break during Pohlad’s tenure and hasn’t forgotten that.

“One of those people come up in your life, you never figure out how this happens,” Kelly said. “He gave me a chance and, boy and boy, that certainly had a big role in my life and my family’s life.”
“He treated me wonderfully. I would hear these stories with other managers, about the problems they might be having with an owner, and I’d say, ‘Wow, that never has happened to me.’
“I was very fortunate to be able to work with a man like that – to get to know him.’’

There was a belief that 2000 was going to be Kelly’s last year as manager. Kelly even pulled me into his office during a late September road trip to Cleveland to get my take of the situation.

Kelly confirmed the meeting with Pohlad after the 2000 season, when short-term CEO Chris Clouser had suggested to Carl there was a need for change.
“We had that sit down in Mr. Pohlad’s office,’’ Kelly said. “I wouldn’t call it a clearing of the air; it was me telling Carl what I felt. I don’t know all that went into it, but after that, I still was the manager and a while later that other fellow [clouser] was gone.’’

Kent Hrbek had a great relationship with Pohlad.    “They called him cheap beause he wouldn’t pay the big dollar for anyone. That was the wrong impression of Carl. He was the kindest, caringest man I knew.”

Carl Pohlad was moving around pretty good when I first got on the beat in 1998. In recent years, he was confined to a wheelchair.

But he still made regular visits to the manager’s office about a half-hour before the first pitch of home games. I remember numerous times walking from the dining room to the pressbox and seeing manager Ron Gardenhire in the hallway, bent over Carl and giving him updates about the team. 

Pohlad’s visits go back to the Tom Kelly era.

“That first year, ’87, he came down in the middle of summer and asked me, ‘Do you think Berenguer could be a starter?’ Kelly said. “I said, ‘He’s doing pretty well where he is, Carl, so I think we’ll keep him there.’ And then in early September he came in and asked the same thing. My answer was the same: ‘We’re a couple of games ahead, so I’ll think we’ll stay the way we are Carl.’
“Somebody was putting a bug in his first year, obviously. But Juan helped us win the World Series out of the bullpen, and never again did Carl say anything you could consider offering advice on a player. Not once in my next 14 years as a manager.’’

There should be no worrying about the future of the Twins’ ownership. As I pointed out today Carl’s three sons - Jim. Bill and Bob - want to continue the ownership legacy. Jim will run the day-to-day aspects of the club but will bring in Bill, a film industry whiz, and Bob, who runs PepsiAmericas, Inc., when big decisions need to be made.

But it goes farther than that. Two of Carl’s grandsons Tom and Joe - have held baseball jobs.

Tom spent a year working at Major League Baseball headquarters in New York. “He’s probably more knowledgeable than most owners in the workings of baseball,” Jerry Bell, president of Twins Sports, Inc. said.

Joe, who is well-liked, works in the baseball operations department and is a fixture in the press box.

I’ve been told a a third grandson, Charlie, is an up-and-comer. Charlie is in college. Tom and Joe are a little older. But it looks like there will be another generation to run the club down the road.�

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