Tom Kelly used to mutter about Corey Koskie's defence, and sometimes he screamed about it. Ron Gardenhire has taken a different approach: He's worked to make it better.
"I had no choice. I was the guy T. K. [former manager Kelly]would yell at every time Corey didn't make a play," said Gardenhire, the Minnesota Twins' rookie manager. "Corey has a good feel for the game, to the point where he should be among the top two or three defensive third basemen in our league, right alongside [the Oakland Athletics']Eric Chavez and [the Seattle Mariners']Jeff Cirillo."
Baseball's postseason begins today on three fronts, and much of the attention will be focused on the Twins and Koskie, Minnesota's third baseman from Anola, Man. The Twins will open a best-of-five American League division series against the Oakland Athletics at Network Associates Coliseum.
The Twins and another AL qualifier, the Anaheim Angels, are the first teams since the 1969 New York Mets to reach the postseason without a position player with playoff experience. The odds are long against the Twins advancing as their record was the worst of the four AL qualifiers. They went only 44-42 outside their division and their team batting average against lefties is 30 points lower than righties, not a comforting thought facing the Athletics' Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.
In other words, after hearing about how they were going to be contracted out of existence last winter, they have the baseball world precisely where they want it.
These Twins fancy themselves masters of timing, and that carries through clubhouse antics, of which Koskie -- the first Manitoba-born and trained major-leaguer -- is often both target and perpetrator.
In interviews, Koskie is polite, yet reserved -- hardly living up to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz's description of "a complete goofball." Of course, Mientkiewicz loves firing barbs at all things Koskie, including the entry in Koskie's biography in the Twins' media guide about his claim to fame as one of the top young volleyball players in Canada. "I mean, volleyball?" Mientkiewicz asked with a laugh. "What's that all about?"
Imagine if Mientkiewicz knew that Koskie took Ukrainian dance lessons as a youngster.
Koskie is not completely self-deprecating, especially when the topic turns to his fielding.
"My first year they wouldn't play me because they didn't think my defence was good enough," the 26th-round draft choice said. "So I guess it's understandable I'd take pride in it."
There is a reason for Gardenhire's almost proprietary interest in Koskie's improvement. They would often work out in the off-season at an indoor training facility at the University of Minnesota.
Defence could be an issue in this series, because if the Twins do enjoy an edge it is that they are comfortable on the Metrodome's artificial surface, while the Athletics hit a league-low .236 in 12 games on artificial turf.
"Physically, there was no reason he shouldn't be good in the field," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said of Koskie. "He has long arms and he's quick to his feet if he dives for a ball. He's so nimble. Really, I think this is just a classic example of a guy finding his comfort level."
Offensively, Koskie's year was not a smashing success. It was good month-bad month stuff, and in the end he batted .267, with 15 home runs and 69 runs batted in. "He's had his moments, let's leave it at that," Gardenhire says tactfully.
Koskie's nimbleness in the field should not come as a surprise. He was a goaltender with the Selkirk Steelers of the Tier II Manitoba Junior Hockey League, and attracted the interest of the University of Minnesota-Duluth. As a volleyball player at Springfield Collegiate in Oakbank, Man., he was good enough to be recruited by the University of Manitoba's powerhouse men's team, coached by former national-team player and coach Garth Pischke.
A left-side hitter, he was most valuable player at the Canadian juvenile championships. Pischke said: "There's no doubt he was good enough to make the national team. To watch him play defence on the court was something unbelievable. He had these big hands. He was the type of kid who, as we say, just strapped it on."
Koskie attended the U of M in 1991-92, but red-shirted with Pischke's Bisons. "He practised with us a bit, but he really had a hankering to play hockey and get a scholarship to the U.S." Pischke said. "It just seemed as if hockey was going to be his sport."
But Koskie, who has another year worth $3.4-million (U.S.) on his contract, finally gave up on hockey and volleyball and attended Des Moines Area Junior College in Boone, Iowa, in 1992-93 before being scouted while playing for the National Baseball Institute team in Surrey, B.C.
"He visited us one time when we were playing at UBC, and you could tell by then that he knew baseball was his sport," Pischke said. "I'm not surprised he's come as far as he has, because he has a fearless attitude that matches his work ethic. He comes off as being laid back and all that. But beneath it all, he's very intelligent and very determined. He would have starred in any sport."