FORT MYERS -- Bud Selig hasn't done Ron Gardenhire's career any favors.

Consider 1995. That's when Bud -- the "acting commissioner" -- and his fellow owners decided it would be a good idea to disgrace the game with replacement players, figuring fans wouldn't know the difference between Ken Griffey Jr.'s home-run swing and a Home Depot swingshift worker.

	Ron Gardenhire has served as a coach with the Twins since 1991.

Gardenhire was the Minnesota Twins' third-base coach then and just one of the many coaches who wasted an entire spring training with the replacement players. He wound up wasting more time than anyone, though, when a replacement player stepped on his leg, ripping his Achilles tendon. He missed much of the season in rehab and temporarily lost his job as third-base coach because of the injury.

This winter Gardenhire was poised for the job he's worked toward almost half his life: major-league manager. After 15 years, Tom Kelly had finally retired as the Twins manager and Gardenhire was the leading candidate. The only problem was Bud kept insisting he was going to murder the Twins.

Gardenhire has been in professional baseball for 22 years, had been coaching in the Twins organization for 14 years and had interviewed for managerial jobs four times with other teams. And just when he was one press conference away from his dream job, the game's commissioner's was about to downsize his job out of existence.

It must have been like waiting to hear about that big promotion at Enron.

"It was like, 'Will I finally get the chance to do what I've always wanted to do, or will I be toast?'" Gardenhire said. "Because I wasn't going anywhere else. If the team went, we were all going down with the ship."

At one point, general manager Terry Ryan told Gardenhire it could be Februrary before there would be a decision. If there even was a decision.

Waiting for directions from Bud is never good advice for a business, so eventually the Twins gave up waiting for the commissioner to admit that the team would play in 2002, and announced that Gardenhire would join Kelly, Billy Martin and Gene Mauch in the team's long line of managers.

I'm happy for Gardenhire, who is one of the most likeable, accessible and respected people in the Twins organization, especially among the players. Kelly could often be a difficult manager for younger players -- and older players for that matter -- and they quickly learned to confide in Gardenhire, who was always there to lend an ear or a needed pat on the back.

"He was the one guy we felt we could go to and say, 'This is how I'm feeling,'" first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "And he could give you a response from having been a player and from having been a coach and he could tell you what position TK was coming from."

Gardnehire will do well. He won in the minors and he spent 10 years learning from Kelly, who in addition to being one of the best game strategists, ran a very organized team. He and the players have a good relationship. Most importantly, he has a talented roster with one of the league's best starting rotations.

He worked hard and long for this job. And if he didn't take it under ideal circumstances, he's not complaining in the least. He didn't even badmouth Bud. He's just excited about finally managing at the big-league level.

"I feel like I'm really ready to manage now," Gardenhire said. "I always wanted to manage in the past. But I honestly believe I can do it now, because of all the things that I've learned here."

Gardenhire has a long and promising career ahead of him. If only Bud will stay out of the way this time.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.