Twins’ Brunansky can’t walk away from baseball

Grocery store blues: Bruno mars career by being minor league thief.

OUT OF CASH

It was a perfect fit. Bill Springman, Twins minor league hitting instructor, played with Brunansky from 1978 to ’80 in the Angels farm system, and the two have remained close.

The former minor league teammates revel in tales from their youth. In 1978, when the two were at Idaho Falls, Springman and some other roommates were hungry and out of money. They sent Brunansky to a local grocery store wearing a large coat. They stuffed the coat with food as Brunansky walked the aisles.

“He was packed like a mule,” Springman says. “He went up to the counter and bought a stick of gum.”

Springman and Brunansky say they all returned to the store and paid the bill once they received their checks from the Angels. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

...Brunansky has been successful in a Twins uniform before, being selected as an All-Star and helping them win a World Series, and manager Ron Gardenhire believes that being in that uniform once again will do wonders for a Twins team expecting a lot from its offense in 2013.

“There was never a doubt about his ability to teach,” Gardenhire says. “He loves the game, always loved the game. Loved talking about the game. Players that love talking baseball, staying around after games, he was one of them. Those are guys that are good teachers because they love to talk baseball and they think about the game. It is easy to see why he is successful.”