A Secret to Success: Avoiding Walks

The Twins coach Rick Anderson discourages his pitchers from nibbling at the strike zone’s corners.

By TYLER KEPNER
NYT

CHICAGO — The news clipping came to Ron Gardenhire this season, yellowed and creased, sent by a fan to his home in Minnesota, where he manages the Twins. It was a feature on Gardenhire from a local paper in Virginia, written in the 1980s while he played for the Tidewater Tides, then the Mets’ Class AAA affiliate.

The article delighted Gardenhire because of the bold prediction he made to the reporter, who asked about his postcareer plans. Gardenhire, not even 30 years old, proclaimed that he would be a major league manager and that his teammate Rick Anderson would be his pitching coach.

“Who knows something like that’s going to happen?” he said. “But I do remember saying that.”

Gardenhire said he always knew Anderson would be a pitching coach. He noticed how teammates sought him out for advice — pitchers asking what to throw, hitters asking what to look for at the plate. Anderson noticed the details, and Gardenhire never forgot.

(More here.)