GENEVA, Ill. — Nine months removed from receiving the most devastating news of his career, George Tsamis has begun the healing process.
The pain of losing his position as the general manager/manager of the St. Paul Saints remains visible. Persistent as the rumors were that the Saints would eventually join affiliated baseball, it was difficult to truly prepare for the reality of losing the only job he’d ever wanted, one at which he’d been superb. Though he’d been released several times during his playing career, Tsamis said nothing has ever stung quite like this.
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Five months into a similar role with the Kane County Cougars, Tsamis is once again in familiar surroundings. He’s back in the dugout and directing the team’s personnel. Even though the Cougars — who are in their first season in the independent American Association after 30 years of affiliated baseball as part of the Midwest League — haven’t been as successful as he’d like, Tsamis is thrilled to be in the manager’s chair for a 23rd-straight season.
“It’s the greatest thing ever,” Tsamis said. “I’m so lucky to be able to do this. To be a manager and be able to put the roster together, I have it as good as anybody and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I love doing this. … I always joked around in St. Paul that I always wanted to be the manager there as long as they let me be the manager. I said it like 10 years ago. I love being in this league and managing and being able to put the roster together and I want to do it as long as I can.”
For four long months, Tsamis didn’t know if he’d have this opportunity in 2021.
After years of speculation, the Saints became an official minor-league partner of the Twins last December, but well before that it was a poorly kept secret that the Saints would be affiliating with the Twins. Tsamis, who won two titles with St. Paul and took the Saints to six championship series overall in 18 years, learned he wouldn’t be retained on Nov. 13.
Organizations and front offices always have their own personnel in mind for their minor-league coaching staffs. Change is inevitable and Toby Gardenhire was tabbed to be the Twins’ Triple-A manager.
“It was one of the most difficult conversations I’ve ever had,” said St. Paul executive vice president and general manager Derek Sharrer. “When we finally did let him know, it was just really hard. There were 100 things to think about with this transition. Ninety-nine of them were incredible and one was horrible and that was losing George.”
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Tsamis had the same conversation twice that day. The first call came from Saints co-owner Marv Goldklang. Both Goldklang and Sharrer shared the same feelings of heartbreak for Tsamis. As much as Tsamis hurt, he felt worse for his friends that they had to apologize for a positive development for the organization.
“It was probably the worst conversation I ever had because Marv Goldklang hurt so bad for me,” Tsamis said. “I hated that he had to tell me. He took care of me. He’s been great to me. It was a horrible thing, but it was great for the Saints and you don’t blame them at all. … I felt bad for him because he was so hurt by it.
“It was brutal. It was horrible. Then an hour later was the second-worst (call) because Derek called and had the same conversation with me.”
But then the phone stopped ringing.
Despite loads of success — he’s taken his teams to league championship series eight times and won four titles — Tsamis had no job prospects.
“Four painful months,” Tsamis said. “There were a couple calls but no offers, nothing.”
The Saints were devastated for their friend. If there were any way to keep Tsamis, they would have. He immediately was offered a position to direct the organization’s youth programs and clinics, which he eventually accepted. Still, Saints play-by-play man and Tsamis’ close friend Sean Aronson knew it wouldn’t be the same.
“He is a manager,” Aronson said. “That’s what he wants to do. During the season it would have killed him to be here working on other things while baseball is going on and he’s not managing.”
The St. Paul Saints aren’t an easy gig for a manager. This is not your typical baseball team. They were the darlings of independent league baseball for a reason. While the team and CHS Field are the main draw for fans, the atmosphere created by public address announcer Lee Adams and the team’s ushertainers singing karaoke are just as responsible for the Saints’ popularity. The outrageous promotions are, too.
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It’s why the Saints have always drawn large crowds (in 2019 they averaged 8,100 fans per game, outdrawing all but seven minor-league teams).
Rather than fight the perception that his team wasn’t the show, Tsamis embraced the culture.
“He just knew how to roll with the punches,” Aronson said. “He knew all this craziness was going to go on, but he didn’t let any of it affect him.”
Coupled with the team’s success, Tsamis became a local legend.
Long ago, Tsamis determined he preferred independent-league baseball to coaching in the minor leagues. After he won two straight Northern League titles with the New Jersey Jackals (2001-02), Tsamis was contacted by Jim Rantz about becoming the Twins’ Gulf Coast league pitching coach. Tsamis declined because he enjoyed being the GM/manager and has never looked back. He joined the Saints for the 2003 season, and over the next 18 years, he led the Saints to six championships series appearances, winning two. But it was his ability to deflect the little things that made him become the right person for St. Paul.
Whether it’s Adams telling the crowd there was a mistake made with the start time when the Saints immediately fell behind and the game would be starting over — “Everybody laughs, including me when we’re getting our ass kicked,” he said — or enduring a 30-minute delay when a drunken fan who’d been velcroed to the outfield wall fell onto the field and wouldn’t leave, Tsamis knew how to handle it all.
George Tsamis is family. He poured his heart into this organization for 18 years, bringing the Saints two championships. Tonight we honor him by retiring his jersey. Join us in congratulating George! pic.twitter.com/BhdVsVOEMm
— St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) August 6, 2021
“We wanted a manager that was going to put together a roster that could win,” Sharrer said. “But there obviously is a lot more about the Saints than just what’s happening between the white lines and George always understood that. If we ever came to George to say we need you to do this, we need a player for this, we want to put 56,000 Twister dots on the outfield, George’s response every time was: ‘Is it good for the team?’ He always understood the big picture and was willing. As long as we supported what he was trying to do between the lines, he was always going to be there for us when we were going to do something outside of the box.”
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It’s why Tsamis never wanted to leave. He was thrilled to have an organization that supported his desire to win and knew not to sweat the small stuff. Yet through no fault of his own, Tsamis was let go.
“It was crushing,” Tsamis said. “It’s just the way the world works. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you hoped. But I was the manager for the St. Paul Saints for 18 years. Luckiest guy ever to be able to do that.”
On Thursday, Tsamis and part of his 2019 American Association championship team had a chance to return to CHS Field to be honored. Two months earlier, the Saints called Tsamis to ask if he could use Kane County’s day off to participate in a celebration of a club that finished with a 17-3 run to win the division on the last day of the regular season. Tsamis immediately responded with a resounding yes.
Tsamis had his number 22 retired during a pregame ceremony and threw out the first pitch. But Tsamis said he was just as happy for his players.
“I called him and he was so excited,” Aronson said. “I know how excited he was that this is happening. He would never say he wants this, but I know he wants it.”
Similar to Tsamis, the Cougars are in new territory. In February, Kane County was one of 22 minor-league franchises to lose its affiliation as part of MLB’s reorganization of the minor leagues.
But it wasn’t until several weeks after the Cougars determined they’d join the American Association that they finally called Tsamis. Even then, he wasn’t sure what they wanted.
With an extensive know-how of the league’s transactions rules, Tsamis offered to procure the team’s roster while suggesting they might want a Ryne Sandberg or Ozzie Guillen to manage the club and be the draw. After a little more than a week, Tsamis was offered both the general manager and manager jobs with Kane County. He accepted the offers, while also maintaining a limited role in the Saints’ youth program.
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Back in the position he loved, Tsamis was faced with a new challenge in assembling his roster with the regular season beginning two months later. At a time when most independent-league teams had at least 20 players signed, Kane County had none.
Tsamis was able to field a starting lineup full of Double-A players by the team’s May 18 opener. But the Cougars went to spring camp with only eight pitchers on the roster. One of them — MLB veteran Vance Worley — was signed by the New York Mets. Tsamis says a lack of pitching is the main culprit behind the team’s 33-38 record.
“When we started the season, I had a Double-A lineup,” Tsamis said. “There are no excuses. We haven’t won games because I didn’t do a good enough job having more Triple-A, Double-A experienced guys in the bullpen. That has been a problem and I’m the one who hasn’t been able to land them, especially as hard as I’ve tried. We have a young bullpen that’s doing a decent job, but it’s on me to get more (experienced) guys and I haven’t.
“I’m still trying.”
Despite their sub-.500 record, the Cougars have done well at the box office. Kane County, which is located 38 miles from downtown Chicago in the western suburbs, leads the American Association in attendance, averaging 3,181 fans per game. Last weekend, Kane County drew more than 15,000 fans for its three games against Sioux Falls.
While the atmosphere isn’t quite the same, pitcher Eddie Medina, one of two former Saints on the Kane County roster, likes the new crowd.
“This is definitely the place to be in terms of crowd and atmosphere,” Medina said. “If there was a feel while you’re playing (that’s) closest to St. Paul in this league, it’s probably Kane County.”
The Saints celebrate clinching a division title in 2019. (Courtesy of Rob Thompson / St. Paul Saints)Tsamis knows it can be better. Though he’s pleased with where the franchise is, he also knows there’s room for growth.
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“Of course you miss all the fun things and the excitement, but there are some fun and exciting things here,” Tsamis said. “I went from one great organization to another great one that draws really well. … The crowd is so into the games and so loud.
“This is good here. It’s fine. But you win, it’ll be great. You don’t win and that’s not great and that would be the case in St. Paul or anywhere else.”
Despite a wound that is still fresh, Tsamis has found plenty of things to enjoy in Kane County. The crowd’s energy has been a pleasant surprise. Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens has spent enough time around the club this season in support of his son Kacy, the team’s first baseman, to have a locker stall in the coaches’ room. Tsamis even got a kick out of it when actor Anthony Michael Hall — “Farmer Ted from ‘Sixteen Candles’!” — took in a July 24 game from a suite.
Then, of course, there’s the baseball.
The former Twins pitcher — Tsamis proudly struck out Paul Molitor, gave up a bomb to Bo Jackson and played alongside Dave Winfield, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and a host of others during the 1993 season — knows exactly what he wants.
Even though it’s in a different location, infielder Josh Allen, who has played for Tsamis since 2018, sees his manager healing just fine.
“It’s an adjustment,” Allen said. “He was there for 18 years. He knew everybody there, everybody was kind of family.
“Nobody loves baseball more than George. You can put him in a coaching job anywhere. As long as he’s on the field, coaching, he’s happy.”
(Photo of Tsamis with Kane County: Brad Repplinger / Kane County Cougars)
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