Playing the game the "right way"
By Tom Grout
May 15, 2008
They play the game the right way, the way it is suppose to be played. How many times have you heard that over the years when the Minnesota Twins are talked about?
Former Twins manager Tom Kelly is the guy who started saying that and after a couple of World Series titles the media has latched on to that and have made it into something more than it really is.
Let’s take a look at what this all means, playing the game the right way. It means defensively you make the right plays, like hitting the cut off man, throwing to the right base, knowing what to do in a run down and many more basic plays. In hitting it means being able to lay down a bunt, hit behind the runner etc.
What playing the game the right way is; is being able to make the fundamental plays of the game of baseball. These are the same fundamentals that your little league coach was teaching you, in fact it started with your T-ball coach.
I scratch my head a little when I hear the media giving the Twins the most credit for playing the game right. “It all starts in the Twins farm system.” They say. “They stress the fundamentals in this organization.” Even other team owners, managers, and general managers have marveled a how the Twins play the game the “right way.”
I can see why they look to the Twins organization as they have, in recent years, been able to develop players through their minor leagues to replace the ones they lose to free agency. The Twins are very good at scouting and drafting players not only from the high schools and colleges, but other team’s minor leagues. They have a way of evaluating talent that some other teams don’t.
As far as playing the game the “right way”, shouldn’t all teams at the major league level be playing the game the “right way”? If the Twins are the only organization who is teaching their players to play the “right way”, then the league is in trouble and the rest of the teams should be ashamed.
Come on, every team in the league stresses the fundamentals, it’s just that some teams execute them better than others. Like Tom Kelly also used to point out, a manager is only as good as his players.
It’s easy to say a team plays the game the “right way” when they are winning. Sometimes you can win despite playing the game the “right way” like the Twins is doing. Right now this Twins team hasn’t played the game the “right way” very often and are still winning for now.
I suppose you could say that the Twins aren’t playing the game the “right way” now is because they have a lot of new players on the team and they didn’t come up through the organization so they don’t know how to play the game the “right way”. I think it’s because the Twins have so many new players that they haven’t gotten use to each other yet. They haven’t developed that cohesiveness that knowing how each teammate thinks and reacts. The Twins teams that have been the most successful have all played together since the early days of their minor league careers and that means a lot. Look at the current team, the second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, left fielder, and centerfielder are all new. It will take time for them to gel together; it has little to do with not knowing how to play the game the “right way”.
Knowing how to play the game the “right way” and then executing it is the problem and that’s what I don’t understand. Anyone who makes it to the major leagues should know how to play, yet we see some of the dumbest mistakes made. I mean, these guys are professionals who have played the game since they were very young kids. You would think they would all be fundamentally sound but obviously they aren’t or at least all the time.
Saying the Twins play the game the “right way” is really putting down the other teams in the league, and that’s ok with me especially when they put down the Yankees. What it comes down to is the media just doesn’t know what else to say and of course they have to say something and this is the label that has been put on the Twins.
The "media", as you put it, has always been on my blacklist. They constantly support wrong doing amongst elite athletes (from before the Babe), and then can't wait to cannibalize them when their antics become public.
Playing the game the right way was always a priority for Kelly. Not only in how the game was played, but also the responsibility of those athletes when the game is over! Look at Torii Hunter. What a wonderful athlete and person. You _never_ see a clip of the guy without a smile on his face!
The Twins not only develop smart ballplayers, but they also develop ballplayers to be smart!
Question -- In last night's game with a runner on first and Lamm at the plate, there was a hit and run called. The Rockies pitched out and Lamm threw his bat at the ball. Was that episode of zany over-zealousness properly characterizable as "playing the game the right way"? I was undecided and will remain so until I hear the word from Old Timer.
good question and I'm not sure I have an answer. Not even a good quick humorus come back. I suppose one could say he was doing his best to protect the runner so maybe that was the right thing to do. We didn't get much insight of the play from Dick and Bert but other than "dropping the barrel of the bat" and doing so at the "major league level" we don't get much insight. The play may have come down to a little frustration on Lamb's part I'm not sure, but if he would have hit the ball with his bat we would be calling him a genious who plays the game the "right way."
Lamb did the right thing. The hit-and-run (run-and-hit) was on. It is the batter's responsibility to protect the runner by putting the ball in play, even if he doesn't get a good pitch to hit... in this case, a pitch out. I didn't see any frustration at all, he was just doing what he was supposed to, the best (only) way he could.
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