Reconciliation is a key to the Twins' unlikely rise.(Minnesota Twins baseball team)

They're not quite baseball's version of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson. The generational divide isn't as pronounced. The racial divide doesn't exist. In fact, Twins manager Tom Kelly and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz share many of the same values. Play hard. Be accountable. Respect the game.

Yet, only a year ago, Mientkiewicz publicly expressed concerns about the game's longest-tenured manager, saying that playing for Kelly was like "walking on eggshells."

Mientkiewicz's comment raised disturbing questions about the Twins' direction: Was Kelly incapable of relating to young players? Would Mientkiewicz, a former batting champion in the Class AA Eastern League, require a fresh start with another team?

The resolution, while less dramatic than the Brown-Iverson reconciliation, certainly qualifies as a worthy subplot to the feel-good story of the season--the unlikely rise of Mientkiewicz and the Twins.

Kelly, 50, molded a team of young players into an A.L. Central contender, restoring his reputation as one of the game's top managers. Mientkiewicz, 26, emerged as one of the league's leading hitters--and a player who takes full responsibility for his past struggles.

"It wasn't anything I was going through with (Kelly). I was going through it with myself," Mientkiewicz says, reflecting upon his torturous 1999 season at the major league level. "I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. And when I did, I didn't like what I saw."

It took an encouraging winter-ball stint in Venezuela, a welcome demotion to Class AAA Salt Lake City in 2000 and a heroic Olympic performance, but Mientkiewicz regained his confidence. And with help from veteran teammates Eddie Guardado and Denny Hocking, he grew to understand that Kelly--blunt and impassive, seemingly impossible to please--was indeed on his side.