Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer speaks with Star Tribune’s LaVelle Neal about the Minnesota Twins season ending loss to the Anaheim Angels in American League Championship Series. The Angels won the series, 4–1.
Despite not making it to the World Series, LaVelle comments on the many positives he recalls of team in the 2002 season.
CATHY WURZER: Good morning. It's Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio. Thanks for joining us. I'm Cathy Wurzer.
Several hundred Twins fans waited for hours in the cold at the airport last night to welcome their team back to the Twin Cities. The Twins returned after losing three straight games in Anaheim to the Angels, ending the Twins bid to return to the World Series.
Despite the way it ended, the Twins can look back with pride on an impressive run that started with avoiding contraction, and climaxed when they knocked the Oakland A's out of the playoffs in the first round. La Velle E. Neal of the Star Tribune has seen it all, and he joins us now on the phone. Good morning, La Velle.
LA VELLE E. NEAL: Good morning, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Well, did the Twins just run out of gas or were the Angels too tough to beat right now?
LA VELLE E. NEAL: Well, I think if you look at the two teams, they play similar styles. They scratch and they fight for runs. And I think that Anaheim just has a little bit better group of players playing that style of baseball. When the number nine hitter, Adam Kennedy, hits three home runs in a game, you just know it's not going to be your series.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, no kidding. Well, what weaknesses do you think were exposed during this series with the Angels?
LA VELLE E. NEAL: Well, I think the number one thing is that the offense, they really struggled to hit good pitching consistently. The Twins started the season with an unconventional lineup. They don't have a prototypical lead-off hitter. They have Jacque Jones, who likes to hit home runs. Usually, your number three hitter is supposed to be a very good contact hitter, who can give you that professional at bat and get on base. And Corey Koskie did not do that, and it kind of goes from there.
This club needs to take from this experience the importance of taking good at bats, judging draw balls and strikes, and knowing which pitches to swing at and what count, and taking advantage of mistakes. And those are the things that popped up during the series against the Angels that the Twins failed to do. They also need to calm down a little bit. This is a team that prided itself on defense, but I think they committed like eight errors in eight games. And that is very unTwins like.
CATHY WURZER: Some of the players were talking about keeping the team together next year and kind of sending some messages to Carl Pohlad to spend a little more money to keep them together. Do you think that's possible?
LA VELLE E. NEAL: The indications from ownership are that they're going to try to keep this team together, but it's unrealistic to think that everybody is going to be back. There's always some pruning. There's always some adding. The Twins may decide to go out and get a hitter, to try to help out the rest of the offense.
And to do that, they may have to pare some of that payroll down. Because if everybody comes back, the Twins payroll could be between $55 and $60 million. And that's just way too high for a club that really doesn't bring in that much money. So I would suggest-- I would expect to see some changes next year, not drastic, but just a little tinkering here and there.
CATHY WURZER: Now, while you look back on the season, as a journalist, what will you remember most about this season?
LA VELLE E. NEAL: The one thing I'm going to remember the most is the day they clinched the AL Central Championship. They were sitting in the circle in the clubhouse in Cleveland. Everybody had a hand up in the air singing Bob Marley's songs. That's the one thing I'm never going to forget for the rest of my life. You've got a Canadian in Corey Koskie. You got a Dominican in Dave Ortiz. And you got Floridians in Doug Mientkiewicz and AJ Pierzynski and a guy from Arkansas in Torii Hunter all singing everything's going to be all right. That was the one thing I won't forget.
CATHY WURZER: They seem to be a real cohesive team. Young, but cohesive.
LA VELLE E. NEAL: Yeah, well, they-- you talk to McCabe, and she says that they've been to hell and back. This team's been through a lot in the last year or so, just trying to get over the hump and wondering if they were going to get a chance to see each other again. But they were able to survive, and they won 94 games. But now, it's time to go to the next level.
CATHY WURZER: Do you think, in a sense, that's the most impressive thing about the whole season, staying together, even despite threats of contraction and that sort of thing?
LA VELLE E. NEAL: Well, that could be a rallying cry. I think when they came into spring training, just happy that they were there and happy that they had avoided the contraction acts. I think that helped them go to spring training and get focused on playing baseball, and I think they were able to take that into the regular season.
I think once the season started and the games started being played, I think they were able to just focus on winning baseball games. But I think the mindset was set in spring training about playing with each other, playing for each other, picking each other up. And it definitely was the case with the bullpen, because that ended up being one of the strongest parts of the team.
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