Watching World Series not easy for Falvey after October fun

The morning after his team was eliminated from the playoffs, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent a text expressing his amazement at the atmosphere of Postseason Target Field:

“Postseason Target Field is an absolute beast. It’s one of the most vibrant and consequential sports arenas out there. We have a responsibility to revive this electric atmosphere every Fall. Being a part of it was truly awe-inspiring.”

For the past seven seasons, the current Twins front office, led by President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey, has been in charge. In that time, they have reached the playoffs four times. As manager, Baldelli has taken his team to the playoffs three times over his five-year tenure.

In 2017, under the leadership of manager Paul Molitor, the Twins lost a one-game playoff at Yankee Stadium.

In 2019, they faced a 2-0 deficit against the Yankees in the playoffs at Target Field, which ultimately led to a Yankees sweep.

In 2020, due to the pandemic, they played in an empty ballpark despite having home-field advantage against the Astros.

It wasn’t until 2023 that Falvey and Baldelli experienced what Andy MacPhail and Tom Kelly did in 1987 and 1991 – a Minnesota ballpark filled with optimistic, intense, and incredibly loud fans. Fans who had the power to influence the game and energize their team, even without a dome to contain the noise.

“That was the only experience like that since I’ve been here,” Falvey said on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Rangers claimed the World Series title in 2023. “Every time we’ve made the playoffs has been a unique experience. At the beginning of our home game in 2019, the fans showed a lot of energy, even though we were down two games.

“This year, we expected the crowd to show up and be into it, but they surpassed all expectations right from the start. Our players – everyone in the organization, really – were, not to say surprised, but genuinely excited by what they witnessed. It went beyond what they had imagined.”

This made watching the rest of the postseason both painful and hopeful.

In a World Series that lacked powerhouse coastal franchises, a 90-win Texas team defeated an 84-win Arizona team. With their 87 victories and late-season surge, the Twins didn’t look much different from the final four playoff teams.

“It’s hard for me to watch the next round after we get eliminated,” Falvey admitted. “I’m still hurting a bit. If I’m being honest.

“But because I’m obsessed with baseball, I’ll end up turning on the game, maybe on mute, while doing other things, and then I’ll find myself watching it and eventually giving in to watch the entire thing. And then I’ll start thinking, ‘How can we make sure we can get there? What steps do we need to take?’

“What was different for me this year, as I watched those games, was that I thought, ‘We had a team that could do what those teams are doing.’ It’s not a slight against the teams that went further than us, it’s just that I believe we were capable of competing with any of those teams, and we proved it at different points during the season.”

The 2023 Twins gave us their most impressive postseason performance since 2002. The fans responded, creating an atmosphere at one of baseball’s finest ballparks that everyone should strive to replicate.

“When I look at this team, I think about all the young players who played such pivotal roles,” Falvey remarked. “Then I think about the established players in their prime, like Carlos Correa and Pablo López, and it fills me with energy.”

In October, the Twins had what we now refer to as “a moment.”

This type of deafening atmosphere has occurred before, but not for a long time, and never at Target Field.

The current Twins regime experienced the joy of baseball at its finest.

And they all had the same thought: Yeah, let’s do this again, real soon.