1/30/2009

What's an ex-GM to do?

Here's the answer if you're former Minnesota Twin General Manager Terry Ryan.
A “fancy title” hasn’t put Terry Ryan far out of the game of baseball.

“In essence, I go out and see games,” the senior advisor to the Minnesota Twins general manager said Wednesday night. “That’s about all I do now.”

The 55-year-old Janesville native was among the “fans” who attended the Winter Snappers Hot Stove Banquet at the Country Club of Beloit. Ryan was the Twins general manager from 1994 to 2007, before stepping down from the position.

Ryan still is a part of the Twins organization, the parent club of the Beloit Snappers, but is back to his roots of player evaluation. He no longer has to worry about signing players and dealing with agents and all the other head-banging aspects of being the No. 1 man on the organization food chain.
Terry Ryan, ex-head banger!
“We had an awful good year with the circumstances of losing all the guys that we did,” Ryan said of the Twins. “We had quite a transition, but we had a good year. We had a lot of things happen that were impressive.”

Minnesota finished 88-74 in the regular season and in a tie with Chicago for first in the AL Central. The White Sox then won the one-game playoff, 1-0, in Chicago to earn the playoff berth.

Without the year-round responsibilities the general manager has, Ryan is able to spend his spare time in a cabin he owns in the Wisconsin Dells area.

“I don’t hunt much, but I try,” Ryan said. “My wife likes it better than I do. My wife’s sister has a place right down the street.”

Ryan gets back down to baseball business Feb. 11. He expects to work through November. So he certainly isn’t retired.
At 55.

No comments:

Site Meter