Backtracking...

"After all, Mr. Pohlad will enjoy his new stadium revenue when he's six feet under by 2010."

Um, oops. Carl Pohlad died probably just as I was putting the finishing touches on my blog post from yesterday. It may have even happened as I was finishing that sentence. To put it bluntly, I feel like the biggest asshole in the universe. There have been other times where I've felt I've deserved this honor, but this one maybe tops them all. So, I'm going to try and make up for it and take a look at his life.

Pohlad was 93 years old when he died of what I assume to be natural causes (He surely didn't flip his Corvette over on I-94). Pohlad owned the Twins for 25 years and oversaw two World Series champions in 1987 and 1991. When he bought the Twins in 1984 from Calvin Griffith, he prumably saved the Twins from moving to Tampa. From there he hired a young general manager named Andy McPhail who went and hired a young manager named Tom Kelly. From there the rest is history. Pohlad had a big say in all baseball decisions which sometimes was a good thing and it was a bad thing.

Pohlad and his family convinced Kirby Puckett to stay in Minnesota in 1992 when Boston served Puck a mega deal. Puckett stayed here and became arguably the most lovable Minnesota sports figure of all time.

Pohlad also threatened to move the team to North Carolina in the late 90's because he was losing money on the team. He then offered them up as a sacrificial lamb in Bud Selig's contraction plan. From there, I don't think the Twins had any problem making a profit because the Twins rose from the ashes to become a model franchise in sports today.

Pohlad was a quiet leader for this team, and maybe that was a good thing. I'm sure a lot of you are just like me when I say that Hank Steinbrenner is incredibly annoying. I'm pretty sure the guy has a secretary to write down his thoughts. One of them was on ESPN the other day when he said that "grape jelly on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sucks!" We should probably be thankful that he was that quiet. He once returned a Rolls Royce because it gave him too much attention.

I guess the thing we can get from Pohlad's life story is that he enjoyed life. He never retired, he always went to the same restauraunt every morning for a light breakfast, and he lived to be 93 years old and was in good health for most of those 93 years. If we could all have lives like that, it would be wonderful. However, we never know what lies ahead so we have to take things one day at a time. It sounds cliche but life is way too short to worry about things. RIP Mr. Pohlad.