Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Keeping Gardy, Losing Vänskä

Some interesting comings and goings in recent days, as the Twins announced that they were going to stay with longtime manager Ron Gardenhire for another two years, even as they acknowledged that the product they put on the field over the past three seasons has been pretty abysmal. Meanwhile, on the other side of Nicollet Mall, the longtime conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä, has bailed out on the organization after musicians rejected another contract offer that follows a year-long lockout of the orchestra.

I'll admit to being a philistine, since I haven't been a regular orchestra-goer over the years. Having said that, it's always been great to have the option of going to see the Minnesota Orchestra, which has been a world-class organization under Vänskä. The larger issue for the orchestra is that its year-long absence hasn't seemed intolerable to the local citizenry. Life has gone on and those who have been the orchestra's patrons have found other uses for their entertainment dollars.

As for the Twins, they need to do something to change things up. We continue to hear reports of the great deeds of future phenoms, but there's never a guarantee, even with guys who are as talented as Byron Buxton or Miguel Sano. We somehow never made it to Target Field this season and no one in this baseball-crazy household seemed too sad about it. In fact, the only MLB game we saw this year was in Cincinnati, where we saw two playoff teams, the Reds and the Oakland Athletics, play a spirited game. We also left with Joey Votto bobbleheads and certificates from the Reds congratulating us on our first visit to the Great American Ballpark, all for significantly less than it typically costs to get into Target Field to see a listless team get their butts kicked. I'm not sure that firing Gardy would have helped, but the Twins had better put a little more effort into improving the product on the field.

3 comments:

jerrye92002 said...

I think the Minnesota Orchestra should just "go out of business" and kick those stupid, selfish musicians to the curb. If they won't take a 15% pay cut to keep the organization in business, let's see how they like a 100% pay cut. Without Vanska and the Carnegie Hall and next season's revenue, there's no chance they can get paid, anyway. What morons.

Gino said...

Orchestra. I remember back in grade school they kept teaching to like that stuff. Not aware that any of us ever bought in the concept... that might be their problem... its a skill set with little demand.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

I've attended MN Orchestra concerts 4 or 5 times over the years. I would have gone more often with my present income level. Oh well, sometimes you've got location; sometimes you've got disposable income. I don't know any of the details about this, but it's not a good thing.