Gardenhire on hiatus
Gardenhire steps away to fight prostate cancer
The beloved former manager faces his toughest foe, Bob Nightengale writes,
PHOENIX The Arizona Diamond-backs, off to their best start in franchise history, packed their bags Sunday and were scheduled to board a plane to San Francisco for their first trip of the season.
But one man will be left behind.
Ron Gardenhire, their bench coach.
Gardenhire is flying out, also, but he’s going the other direction, to Minnesota, where he has a different fight on his hands. Cancer. Gardenhire, 59, must begin preparation this week for surgery April 18 at the Mayo Clinic for prostate cancer.
He will be gone for at least a month, perhaps longer, as cancer doesn’t offer timetables.
Veteran Jerry Narron is the Diamondbacks’ interim bench coach as they’ve raced out to a 6-1 start after Sunday’s 3-2 victory against the Cleveland Indians. When Gardenhire is healthy and ready, manager Torey Lovullo says, Gardenhire will get his job back.
“Hey, if we’re still winning while I’m gone,” Gardenhire says, “I’ll just go back into the clubhouse and stay out of everyone’s way. I don’t want to mess anything up.”
That’s Gardenhire, the beloved former Minnesota Twins manager who won 1,068 games and six division titles in 13 years.
He might be fighting his own battle against cancer, but after the Diamondbacks’ opening-day game, he flew to Minneapolis to be at the Twins’ season opener. Gardenhire wanted to honor his former longtime bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek, who’s undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Twins bullpen coach Eddie Guardado says. “Gardy’s going through stuff, but his older coach is going through a little bit tougher time, so that’s what he thinks about.
“Gardy is old school. Go get it done. Get it over with. And let’s see what happens.”
So there they were at the Minnesota opener, with nearly 15 former Twins players on hand, watching Stelmaszek throw out the first pitch to Guardado, Gardenhire wrapping his arms around his close friend, and not a dry eye in the house.
“I’ve never seen an openingday celebration that was as emotionally tied to the fans and the organization,” said Derek Falvey, Twins president of baseball operations, “as that one was.”
Certainly, cancer has a rotten sense of timing, invading Gardenhire’s life just at a time when he was back in uniform for the first time in 2½ years.
He was fired as the Twins manager after the 2014 season and hired in 2016 as a Twins special assistant, awaiting another crack at a managerial gig.
When Lovullo was hired in November to replace Chip Hale in Arizona, he barely knew Gardenhire personally but was certainly aware of his qualifications. He asked Gardenhire if he would be interested in becoming his bench coach, knowing it might help his chances to become a manager again, too.
“I just always appreciated the way the Minnesota Twins had gone about their business,” Lovullo said. “It started with Tom Kelly, and I knew that Gardy had that DNA all over him. I always thought that if I get a chance to manage, I’d love for him to be on my staff.
“When I interviewed him on the phone, it was as casual and easy as two guys talking over a beer, watching a football game. I felt that connected to him, and I’ve been as comfortable with my interaction with him as I have with anybody in baseball.
“So when I decided to hire him, I called him up and asked him, and he said, ‘ Oh my God. Let me talk to my wife.’ He must have called me back 20 seconds later and said, ‘My wife said I’m crazy. I’m taking his job.’ ”
Two months later on Lovullo’s drive to Arizona for spring training, his cellphone rang. It was Gardenhire. The routine physical he took as a prerequisite for spring training showed elevated PSA readings. The follow-up and biopsy revealed cancer.
“That physical was a blessing in disguise,” Twins catcher Joe Mauer said. “If he wasn’t on their staff, maybe he puts it off and doesn’t have that physical right away. It’s ... scary to think about.”
Gardenhire told Lovullo on the call that he could come to spring training but surgery couldn’t wait until after the season. He needed to have surgery in mid-April. He would be sidelined for at least a month to six weeks.
“You’re never ready to hear anything like that,” said Lovullo, the Boston Red Sox’s interim manager for six weeks in 2015 when John Farrell had chemotherapy for lymphoma. “I said, ‘Look, we’re going to support you through this. We’re going to let you do whatever you want.’ ”
Said Gardenhire: “You don’t ever want to come to camp, take a new job, and on the first day say, ‘OK, I have cancer.’ I told him, ‘If it’s all right with you, I’d love to join you guys and be part of spring training. It will take my mind off it.’
“And really, that’s what’s happened. My best therapy is being on the field. When I’m at the ballpark, I don’t even think about it.
“And being on the baseball field is great for my wife, because if I had stayed home, she said I would have driven her crazy.”
Sure, there have been times when Gardenhire didn’t have the same energy. Never did a day go by when he didn’t think about the cancer.
He got to know the players, studied videos and took a crash course in learning the intricacies of the National League after spending his entire career in the American League.
“It’s been an awkward situation,” Lovullo said, “but just having Gardy by my side for all this time and mentoring me is everything I could ask. He’s as normal and mischievous as normal. I think at times he forgets where he is health-wise, chasing balls out there like he’s 35 years old.
“We know that he has to step away and take care of himself, but he’ll be back. “And we’ll be waiting.” Gardenhire, who has been staying in former Twins first baseman Justin Morneau’s Phoenix-area townhouse, will be home in Minnesota this week until having his surgery. He’ll watch the Diamondbacks games on TV, stay in close contact with Lovullo and try to keep up with all the messages and phone calls he receives from those offering support.
“Cancer is a big word, you know, but it’s been pretty special having so many people reach out,” Gardenhire said. “Baseball people all over the country have called me. Twins fans have sent me letters. I’ve gotten a lot of funny calls, people coming out of the woodwork reaching out, saying they’re praying for me.
“I’ll get through this, lose a 5-pound prostate, and then it’s back to business.
“And I can’t wait to sit in that dugout again.”