Measuring a manager's greatness is difficult when you don't have many World Series trophies in your possession to tip the scales. Tom Kelly is the only Twins manager to carry those trophies, but he also has a losing record as manager at 1,140-1,248. So who will it be? Yes, the Twins have had many managers, but really the debate about who is the best in team history comes down to Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. Sorry Sam Mele and Billy Martin, you just didn't have enough time in the manager position to enter the debate. I put together a rough point system that graded out each manager based on team record and post season success. The points were awarded like this:
- -2 points for a season below .500
- 0 points for a .500 season
- +2 points for a season above .500
- +4 points for winning division
- +6 points for winning ALDS
- +8 points for winning ALCS
- +12 points for winning World Series.
When comparing the years that Kelly and Gardenhire have managed there is a problem in that Kelly never had the opportunity to manage a team in the ALDS. This is problematic and may have given him enough points to top Gardenhire . Tom Kelly ended up with 38 points and Ron Gardenhire has also accumulated 38 points thus far. I guess they are equal, right? Maybe not. Kelly had 10 losing seasons in the 15 years he managed the Twins. He did win the World Series twice which obviously is where most of his 38 points came from. Ron Gardenhire on the other hand has had only 1 losing season in the 8 years he's managed, but he's only won 1 playoff series and that was in his first year. What do fans want? Continued competitive teams or 2 World Series championships along with many 90+ loss seasons? It is fairly clear that if Gardenhire continues to manage he will pass Kelly in my silly point system (probably next year), but without a World Series championship by Gardenhire many Twins fans will always consider Tom Kelly as the greatest Twins manager.
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