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Former general manager Terry Ryan, longtime coach Rick Stelmaszek elected to Twins Hall of Fame

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·4 min read

Just days after Joe Mauer was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Twins announced that Terry Ryan, the general manager who drafted him, will be inducted to a Hall of Fame of his own this summer.

Ryan and longtime coach Rick Stelmaszek, who passed away in 2017, were voted into the team’s Hall of Fame by a Veterans Committee made up of Twins hall of famers, team executives and local baseball historians, and they will be inducted in a pregame ceremony on Aug. 10, becoming the 39th and 40th members of the exclusive club.

“We had good years here and we had bad years here. I experienced both. This was a tremendous place for me to have worked,” Ryan said. “… The Hall of Fame, those numbers out there in left field, I’m not sure I belong in that crop. It doesn’t feel like it. But I’m honored. I’m very humbled by this.”

Ryan’s time with the Twins began in 1972 when he was a player selected in the 35th round of the draft as a teenager. After pitching for four seasons in the minor leagues — the highest level he reached was Double-A — Ryan went back to school, earned his degree and eventually started his second career, this time in scouting.

After working as a Mets scout for six years, he was hired by the Twins, serving as their scouting director from 1986-91. The 1989 draft, he said, was the one he was most proud of, adding Chuck Knoblauch, Denny Neagle, Scott Erickson, Mike Trombley and Denny Hocking, among others, to the organization that year.

In 1994, the Twins promoted him from vice president of player personnel to general manager — a role he admitted he perhaps wasn’t quite ready for at the time. But Ryan ended up holding that job for nearly two decades, with a break in the midst of his tenure, and during that time, he returned the Twins to the top of the American League Central, bringing four division titles to Minnesota.

Among his best moves, he shipped catcher A.J. Pierzynski to San Francisco for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser, he was at the helm when the Twins grabbed star pitcher Johan Santana in the Rule 5 draft and, of course, he was in in charge when the Twins drafted Mauer, though he is quick to credit then-scouting director Mike Radcliff with making the ultimate call on the hometown kid.

“I’m (going) in the Twins Hall of Fame because we had some good people giving me some good advice,” Ryan said.

He’ll go in alongside Stelmaszek, who served as a Twins coach for 32 seasons from 1981-2012, making him the longest-tenured coach in Twins history. “Stelly” served as the Twins’ bullpen coach under four different managers, holding the job during both of the club’s World Series-winning seasons (1987 and 1991).

“Today’s announcement is bittersweet, understanding that Stelly passed away in 2017,” Twins president and CEO Dave St. Peter said. “I just wanted to relay that the Stelmaszek family is incredibly honored by this recognition and very much looking forward to joining Terry and the Ryan family on the field for our induction.”

Lewis makes touching gesture

Royce Lewis was hoping the idea that he and his fiancée, Samantha Hobert, concocted on the fly might raise a couple hundred dollars for neurological disease research. When their idea ended up generating $10,000 for charity, the couple was blown away.

As Lewis and Hobert listened to Dr. Jerry Vitek, the Head of the Neurology Department at the University of Minnesota, speak on Thursday night at the Diamond Awards about his research, they felt compelled to take action.

They quickly came up with an idea — the winning bidder would have a chance to share a meal with the infielder, watch batting practice on the field, receive tickets to a game and more ballpark perks — and with the help of Twins vice president of communications and content Dustin Morse, were able to get it set up and raise some money for a good cause.

“It turned into $10,000 and I thought that was very special. I couldn’t be more thankful for that,” Lewis said. “… The fact that we made it happen so quick and raised that much money was really special. We kind of looked back on it when we got to the hotel room like, ‘Did that really just happen?’ ”

Briefly

The Twins will hold Signature Saturday at Target Field between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. as part of TwinsFest and it and will feature appearances by more than 40 current and former players and coaching staff members. Carlos Correa, Pablo López, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis are among current players who will be on hand. … Mauer, who took a trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., after being elected on Tuesday, will also be back in town and will appear at TwinsFest. … The Twins also will hold a Futures Clinic on Saturday at Urban Ventures for young ballplayers.

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