A few years ago, I saw a Sports Illustrated chart that listed the professional sports coaches who had been with their teams the longest.

Saturday, October 13, 2001

A few years ago, I saw a Sports Illustrated chart that listed the professional sports coaches who had been with their teams the longest. Atop the list was Tom Kelly of the Minnesota Twins. Next to each name, there was a comment. By Kelly’s, it read: &uot;Like his Twinkies, he’s not going anywhere soon.&uot;

Wrong, and wrong.

The Twins went places in 2001, and now Kelly is going someplace. After a season in which the Twins returned to relevance in the baseball world, Kelly is turning in his key after 15 years as the manager. In that time, he brought Minnesota the only two professional sports championships it has ever seen, and after an excruciating period of rebuilding that lasted almost a decade, has finally put the pieces in place to restore hope.

When I read that comment in SI a few years back, I was more than a little annoyed. I have always been the kind of Twins fan who thought next year was going to be the year. It took little more than some faint glimmer of hope to get me excited again. It bothered me that nobody outside of Minnesota had faith in Kelly.

That’s because I was spoiled. I had seen success, and always had the feeling that it was just a matter of time until Kelly had the right pieces in place to do it again.

My first year as a fan was 1987, when my dad started getting interested in the team and took me with him. That season ended with 55,000 screaming, homer-hanky waving fans jumping up and down as Gary Gaetti threw the baseball to Kent Hrbek for the final out of game seven.

Five years later, the most dramatic sports moments in Minnesota history led up to another championship. In the bottom of the tenth in game seven, Dan Gladden jumped on home plate with both feet while his teammates mobbed him.

Here’s all you need to know about T.K.: During both of those post-game celebrations, he sat on the bench alone, watching as his players celebrated their success.

This sometimes brought him criticism. Why wasn’t he out there enjoying his triumph with the players? Was he cold and unfeeling? Did this guy even have a heartbeat?

Kelly explained it best when he started his news conference Friday. &uot;The game is about the players,&uot; he said. The game is not about the managers, or the coaches, or the umpires, or the trainers, he said – – it’s about the players. That’s why T.K. didn’t take credit for the team’s successes, and that’s why he sat in the dugout while his players celebrated after their world championships. He knew his place.

Kelly has always been known as a manager who demanded much of his players. He demanded that they respect the sport, that they play it right, and that they didn’t start to think they were above the game. He doesn’t like players who walk into the clubhouse with a chip on their shoulder, players who dog it down the first base line on routine grounders, or who snap their glove confidently as they catch a routine fly ball. Players who did these things in a Twins uniform either changed their ways or were gone.

In recent years, Kelly has been criticized for not being able to handle young players. I don’t think that’s true. Kelly doesn’t have trouble dealing with young players. He has trouble dealing with bad players. He knew Rich Becker and Pat Meares were never going to be Dan Gladden and Greg Gagne.

He was probably a little spoiled, too. After the talent he had in 1987 and 1991, he wasn’t happy about settling for the scraps he was left with through much of the ’90s, especially the last three years. The players he had were not major-league quality, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Now, though, things are looking up. By developing a team that has made Minnesota baseball exciting again, he has shown that he can build a team from scratch as well as he can take a talented one to the top.

He has given the fans one final gift. For that, and for all the other memories, I thank him.

Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor. His column appears Sundays.