Paul Molitor still trying to make a difference in the game he loves

CEDAR RAPIDS - How many 66-year-old guys who are former major league managers intentionally would be in the dugout at Veterans Memorial Stadium for three minor league baseball games?

How many 66-year-old guys who are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame intentionally would be in the dugout at Veterans Memorial Stadium for three minor league baseball games?

How many 66-year-old guys who were fired by an organization would still want to be part of that organization, leading them to being in the dugout at Veterans Memorial Stadium for three minor league baseball games?

Paul Molitor would. He was in town recently to observe the Cedar Rapids Kernels as a Special Assistant, Baseball Operations for the parent Minnesota Twins.

“I still have a little baseball passion left in me,” Molitor said. “I can’t really do the day-to-day anymore. My last go-around was managing, and that was four and a half years ago. The Twins give me the opportunity to have some flexibility and go around and help with player development.

“I wouldn’t say there is any one particular area that I concentrate on. My demonstrating days are pretty much over. But to have conversations with the younger players and even some of the young coaching staffs, I’m just trying to help them develop their skills as players and help them teach as coaches.”

Molitor’s foray into professional baseball began in the Midwest League. A first-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, third overall, in 1977 out of the University of Minnesota, he began his career with the Burlington Bees that summer.

He went straight from Burlington to the big leagues, playing 21 years and accruing 3,319 hits. He won a World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays and was named World Series MVP in 1993.

Molitor did some coaching and instructing work in the Twins organization after retiring following the 1998 season with the Twins and ended up managing them from 2015 to 18. He was American League Manager of the Year in 2017.

Molitor was let go after the 2018 season by President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey and Senior Vice President, General Manager Thad Levine. Yet five years later, here he is still working for them.

“I don’t get long winded about that,” Molitor said. “The Pohlad family (which owns the Twins) has been good to me since I came back as a player over 25 years ago. I had some coaching experiences there, as well as player development. Derek and Thad came in, and I worked with them for a couple of years in that particular role.

“Them, along with Dave St. Peter, the president of the Twins, (this is) where I want to be, as far as having any connection to the game. Hopefully somewhere along the way I get to see another World Series for Minnesota before I’m done.”

Baseball has changed greatly since Molitor was a player and a lot since he stopped managing. It is such a meticulous game today with everything from the launch angle of a ball coming off the bat to specific bio-mechanical studying of pitcher’s motions analyzed.

The game has become about power: both hitting wise and pitching wise.

“I don’t know if I’m amazed. There has been a little bit of gradualness to the changes,” Molitor said. “Some things have happened a little more quickly, obviously. During my tenure managing, analytics were becoming a little more prevalent, just in what we use and how we applied it in constructing lineups and managing games and all those types of things.

“I think it self-corrects a little bit along the way. I think the attempt to try and increase action: the pitch clock, the removing of the shift, I think is all good for baseball. It’s starting to resemble the game back in the 80s and 90s and things like that. But, yeah, it’s always changing just because we have a better way to analyze pretty much everything we do on the field at a higher level.”

But there’s nothing like being able to talk baseball with a guy who was one of the best of his generation. That’s something Kernels players could take advantage of during Molitor’s recent visit.

“I still enjoy it,” he said. “I don’t have to be out as much as some of the other rovers in our organization. But there’s still something about minor league baseball. I think it’s great for our game, the communities that support the teams, whether it’s the other leagues or the Midwest League that I get a chance to see.

“I’m not sure how to value my input. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing any good anymore because there’s kind of a disconnect in how we’re teaching the game now. But players are receptive, they like to talk about the game. I don’t talk about myself, my era too much. It’s pretty much just what I can see, pass it on, be helpful and help these guys have a better chance to fulfill their dreams.”

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