Terry Ryan has decided to end his tenure as Minnesota Twins General Manager. Good for him. He is leaving on his terms and few general managers can say that. Terry Ryan has definitely earned the right to do so.
Terry Ryan became the Twins G.M. in 1994 replacing Andy MacPhail who had guided the Twins to two World Series Titles. Ryan watched as the Twins minor leagues failed to produce enough talent to supplement his fading major league roster. Forced to basically start over, Ryan fell back on his natural gift to evaluate young talent.
Under Ryan’s leadership the Twins rebuilt their minor league system which would go on to produce Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones, Joe Mauer, and Justin Mourneau amongst others. Ryan was able to make the one of greatest Rule 5 acquisition of all-time in Johan Santana. Don’t forget all the great trades he made.
Has everything Ryan done work out? No, but without Terry Ryan there might not be baseball in Minnesota. Many Twins fans, me included, were worn down by the losing in mid to late 90’s. If the Twins had not started winning in 2000, would the outcry over contraction been as loud? Would the Twins have a new stadium on the way? I think not, and Terry Ryan can take a good deal of credit for this by turning the Twins into winners again.
Thank you Terry Ryan for bringing back competitive baseball to Minnesota, and I hope you enjoy this new phase of your life.
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I created this blog in response to an assignment given to me for one of my graduate school classes. I named my blog the Minnesota Twins, Country Music, and Random Thoughts, because I have a passion for Twins baseball and Country Music. The Random Thoughts part comes in, because I know there will be others things I will want to write about that do not involve Twins baseball or Country Music.
