Reusse: Rocco Baldelli second-guessers, beware when you get what you want

Complaining about managers and head coaches is a time-honored tradition in all sports. This is particularly true in Major League Baseball, where a 162-game schedule allows opportunity for unhappiness on nearly a daily basis from the end of March to early October — and then perhaps into the playoffs.

The outlets to express those complaints have become endless in this digital-driven 21st century. It was more challenging when the Twins first arrived in 1961. A huge percentage of games were not televised, meaning your outrage had to be determined by what you heard on the radio, read in a newspaper or detected in a boxscore.

Feel free to insert your own one-liner on the TV situation with the Twins then not being much different than it was for much of this season, while we head off here to a bit of nostalgia for the creativity that went into managerial disdain in the 1960s.

Sam Mele took over as manager for Cookie Lavagetto twice during our initial 1961 season — first when owner/general manager Calvin Griffith decided Cookie needed a rest, then when he fired Cookie and installed Mele as full-time manager.

That rest part … even as a 15-year-old kid, I took that as a strong early indication that Calvin, the man who brought big-league baseball to the Bloomington prairie, might be an odd duck.

Here’s what I recall from 1964, after the Twins were following a pair of solid seasons with a tumble back into the American League’s second division. There was a guy named Karl who was married to my cousin, and there was a very young kid around and he had been taught this:

Karl would say to the kid, “Give it to Sam,” and the kid immediately would let out a loud “raspberry” flutter of his lips, often spraying food.

One year later, Mele’s team went 102-60 to unseat the Yankees, win the American League pennant and play a seven-game World Series vs. the Dodgers, so that let Sam off the hook for a time.

The current baseball administration headed by Derek Falvey was at the end of its second season in 2018 when it made the surprising decision to fire Paul Molitor and replace him with Rocco Baldelli.

Rocco’s team immediately used the nuclear baseball to set a big-league record with 307 home runs and went 101-61 (followed, surprise, by 0-3 in the playoffs vs. the Yankees).

Ripping Rocco didn’t become a fully popular activity until 2022, as the Twins collapsed with an 11-22 record starting on Sept. 1. I probably offered a few raspberries over the quick hook for a starter that season, but really, it was tough to go to the mat for Dylan Bundy or Chris Archer.

But this year — “Doc Roc,” as we call him for the way he bursts from the dugout to check on well-being if a player is seen slapping a mosquito, sent me off the deep end a couple of times during the current late-season collapse.

On Aug. 20, Bailey Ober went into the seventh with a 3-1 lead and having retired 13 in a row vs. the red-hot Padres in San Diego, He allowed a bloop double and hung a pitch to Manny Machado for tying home run.

That can happen with Machado, but Rocco panicked, brought in Griffin Jax, and he retired three batters on 10 pitches.

The Twins scored two in the top of the eighth. Rather than another inning for Jax, in came Steven (Oh-No) Okert: Four runs and a 7-5 loss, after a Baldelli exacta of quick hooks, Ober and Jax.

Then, last weekend at Kansas City, Ober had given up one hit and retired 15 consecutive Royals through seven innings. He was leading 2-0, cruising with 83 pitches, and with an extra day before his next start.

Out comes the hook. Jhoan Duran, who is no longer automatic, arrives and gives up four runs in the eighth. Terrible loss.

On Friday night, Ober was starting against Cincinnati at Target Field. Rocco was effusive in praise when asked pregame about Ober.

Then, the 6-foot-9 master of the strike zone and fly ball outs gets sent out for the seventh with a 1-1 tie. The first four batters reach, reliever Jorge Alcala tosses an accelerant on the fire by allowing a grand slam, and the Twins lose 8-4.

Dang it, Bailey.

We complainers about Baldelli’s quick hook have been sent into hiding, with two weeks remaining in his team’s desperate attempt at survival.

Sent there temporarily, of course.