Redmond gets Twins to smell like team spirit

Of all the signs and good wishes dotting the bleachers of the Metrodome on Sunday, one came special delivery from Spokane.

Karen Helma’s kindergarten class at Chester Elementary made it their project last week – a “Go Twins” missive for their classmate Ryan Redmond to take on his weekend trip to Minneapolis, the cheer spelled out in the handprints of 22 5-year-olds.

In much the same way that Ryan’s dad had his fingerprints all over the most remarkable story in baseball this year.

It got even better on Sunday. With an unlikely assist from the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins became champions of the American League Central with a 5-1 victory over the no-longer-defending-world-champion Chicago White Sox – completing a comeback that fell somewhere on the credulity scale between whoda-thunk-it and sign-the-commitment-papers.

But Mike Redmond and the Twins believed in the only way that really works in baseball: they didn’t let themselves think about it.

“At one time, we were 12-and-a-half games back – not just in back of one team, but two,” said the Twins’ backup catcher. “Who would have thought after the way we started that we’d ever make it to first place?”

And by themselves, at that. The Twins didn’t pull even with the Detroit Tigers until Thursday night, after the 159th of the season’s 162 games. To win the division outright, they needed the Royals – losers of 100 games this season – to give them an opening, which they did by sweeping Detroit, rallying from six runs down to win in 12 innings on Sunday.

The Twins watched that unfold on the Metrodome’s big screen, a half hour after their own game concluded. More than 30,000 fans stuck around to hang on every pitch from Detroit and share in the celebration – the second in the space of a week, as the Twins were unable to contain themselves after clinching at least a wild-card berth in the playoffs.

It was during that hubbub that Mike Redmond drank in the full appreciation of accomplishment.

“I realized how satisfied I was as a player,” he said. “I truly felt I contributed to this team, and I know there are lots of guys – not just the stars – in this clubhouse who feel the same way.”

Funny, but it may be the first time he’s felt that way. Redmond brought a World Series ring back to his home in Spokane in 2003, when he played for the Florida Marlins, but this was something different altogether.

“I think maybe it’s more gratifying,” he said. “Just for the simple fact that I feel like I’ve contributed more to this team. When I played behind Pudge (Rodriguez), I didn’t really play that much – (manager) Jack McKeon pretty much ran the same lineup out there every day. But when we were celebrating here, I felt like I did something – like I made a difference, and not just when I was playing.”

As he has his entire nine-year major league career, Redmond backs up an institution in Minnesota – albeit a young one. Joe Mauer, from right across the river in St. Paul, won the AL batting title Sunday – the first catcher to do so. As a result, Redmond played in just 47 games – but when the Twins did rest Mauer, Redmond made sure they didn’t feel a void. He hit a career-high .341 – .443 against lefties – and threw out 38 percent of opposing base stealers. Indeed, when Mauer sits, Redmond hits in his No. 3 hole.

“I think Joe, having the type of year he’s having, made me step my game up,” Redmond said. “Plus, I’m the oldest guy on the team. These guys have energized me.”

Hmm. It may be the other way around. Redmond isn’t a human whoopee cushion, but he does have a way of keeping a clubhouse loose – starting with his ritual “Naked Walk” for pre-game coffee to a curious baseball vocabulary that has taken root in the Twins dugout. For example, it is Redmond’s notion that a player must “smell” an RBI, and so now the Twins swipe a finger by their noses each time they knock home a run.

Mauer stood in the dugout Sunday watching the big screen while wearing a “Smell ‘em” T-shirt.

But Redmond has also been instrumental in handling a starting rotation which wouldn’t seem to have any business being in the post-season. Yes, the Twins have a dead-lock Cy Young winner in Johan Santana. But three other starters began the year in Triple-A – or lower – and steady veteran Brad Radke is simply a miracle of modern medicine, pitching with a torn labrum and a stress fracture in his shoulder.

Somehow, the Twins won 71 of 104 games since June 8 – and made up 10 games on Detroit in the season’s last six weeks – and the catcher they call Red Dog was deemed to be so valuable that the Twins signed him to a two-year contract extension in July.

He couldn’t be happier, being the guy behind The Guy.

“I tell Joe all the time, ‘You’re setting the bar awfully high,’ ” Redmond laughed. “You don’t know how much pressure you’re putting on yourself – people will expect you to hit .350 every year.”

Of course, they may expect more of this madness from the Twins – even if they’ve never smelled anything quite like this.