Souhan: Rocco Baldelli has learned from last year, which gives him faith for this year

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Rocco Baldelli, sitting behind his desk in the Twins spring training clubhouse, is smiling.

Why?

His team collapsed last season. The franchise for which he works, the Minnesota Twins, is being sold, and he has no idea what the new owners will think of current employees. And he occupies the most second-guessed position in Minnesota.

That’s not hyperbole. Minnesotans love second-guessing Baldelli. What they might not realize is that Minnesota second-guessed Tom Kelly the same way when he was winning two World Series.

Despite the circumstances, Baldelli has been remarkably chipper this spring.

So when I spent the better part of an hour in Baldelli’s spring training office in early March, it wasn’t surprising to hear that most of his answers tended toward the appreciative and philosophic.

He became the Twins manager despite having zero managing experience at any level. He won 101 games his first year and has made the postseason three times in seven years.

At 43, what’s he learned?

“There is no textbook way to do this job,” he said. “I was told by many people, early on, to make this job whatever it is you think it should be. Imagine that for advice. What does that even mean? But that is what is unique about this job. No matter who you’re talking to, they’re going to tell you something very different.

“A lot of our game comes down to dignity, and what you’re actually walking away with once your career is over, regardless of your role. As a manager, you feel a great responsibility to the people you’re surrounded by, and if you don’t feel low sometimes, you’re probably not doing this job with everything you have.

“Having done this job, I feel older, but I still feel good, and I still have a deep love for this game and for the people I get the opportunity to work with. I get to be around great players and great teachers. I get to operate our ballclub, and as long as I think I can keep the ship moving in the direction that I want, I’d love to keep doing it. I don’t know what else I would do, either.”

What does “dignity” mean to him?

“What do you have at the end of your time in this game,” he said. “Dignity is all you’ve got. The money you make is paper. What lasts is the respect you have for one another for having given everything you’ve got.”

Fatherhood has had a dramatic effect on him.

“It has motivated and changed me,” he said. “For the better, I think. I think I’ve always been a reasonably mature human being, but having a young family and doing this job requires a different kind of maturity.”

Which might be why Baldelli can enjoy Minnesota even while taking slings and arrows.

“At some point along the way, you just have to believe in yourself,” he said. “It’s easy to lose your confidence in this game. At some point, you either claim it or you don’t. I think doing this job for the last seven years has allowed me to claim it, and I’m much more comfortable sitting in my seat right now than I was the day I took the job. Anything can change, but baseball is something that I consider a gift. I cherish being here, and I still like the fight.”

He likes the fight on the field. If he runs into you at a coffee shop in Edina, he might not want to argue with you about last night’s decisions.

“That part is a challenge to me,” he said. “There were probably points in my life where dealing with last year would have just been like, `I don’t need this.’ Maybe I could still say that, but the truth is, I still want this. Things are not always going to work out in this job or in this game. I understand that, and I’m comfortable with that, and along with that come those incredible experiences of seeing what our city looks like when we’re playing great, and playing late.

“And then we watched our team implode last year and we’re trying a dozen things, and none of them work. The toughest part is walking around town afterwards. There were many supportive people, and many not. And that hurts, because you put so much into it, and you feel you’re doing everything you possibly can.

“I’ve had career-ending injuries, and I’ve dealt with being with probably the worst team in professional sports, in my early years with the Devil Rays. I know what it’s like to lose and to be terrible, but last year was so … hard."

Baseball requires tolerance for losing. Kelly’s 1987 team lost 77 games in the regular season and still won the World Series.

“This fan base wants to win and has every right to be disappointed when we don’t succeed,” Baldelli said. “My approach is to shoot them straight. If I’ve learned anything through the ups and downs through seven years, it’s that if you tell them what’s going on point-blank, at least you’ll get some level of respect in return. So that’s what I try to do.”