Thursday’s Minnesota Twins home opener will sound a little different this year. Longtime broadcaster Dick Bremer stepped down at the end of last season after 40 years as the TV voice of the Twins.

Now in a special assistant role in the organization’s front office, Bremer threw out the first pitch Thursday. Before that, he got behind an MPR News microphone to talk baseball with Minnesota Now host Cathy Wurzer.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

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How strange has it been to not be on the air for spring training and for the home opener?

Yeah, it’s been strange in all the predictable places, I felt a little bit out of sorts, I guess, or unsure what to do with my time in January when I wasn’t on the Twins caravan, which is a uniquely Minnesota Twins thing for the first time in four decades.

And then like everybody else in the Upper Midwest, I dealt with a snowstorm at the end of March instead of being in Fort Myers. And now here we are an opening day and that’s all part of it right? When you retire you it’s an adjustment for everybody, regardless of his or her walk of life.

What’s your current role with twins?

I’m doing some special projects. I’ve actually been doing some writing for the Twins magazine, recording some things for the Twins radio broadcasts, making public appearances emceeing events and all that.

It’s an interesting role that I have with the Twins, and one that I’m very grateful for because of whenever the time was going to come, I still wanted to be connected to the team as someone who was really connected and intimately connected with the team for 40 years.

Describe the dance for folks done between the play by play person and the color analyst. What’s that like?

Well, for the longest time, it was just one guy for 25 years. It was Bert Blyleven, it was me and Harmon Killebrew for a few years and Jim Kaat. In recent years they have rotated Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter, LaTroy Hawkins, Glen Perkins, Roy Smalley, so on and so forth.

It’s a bit of an adjustment, I suppose. But it really hasn’t been that much of an adjustment because I’ve always taken the attitude that whether it was Bert Blyleven, or Paul Molitor, Jim Kaat, or, you know, whoever, that they really were the stars of the show, and I was just kind of a traffic cop and tried to draw out of them their baseball wisdom, and their baseball personality, if you will.

It is no reflection at all on my abilities or lack thereof as a broadcaster, but I am the answer to a trivia question, who is the only major league announcer who’s been privileged to work with five Hall of Fame players and that’s me

It’s been one of the great blessings of my 40 years. I won’t ask your listeners to name them all. I’ll try to do them all. Paul Molitor did games for a year Jack Morris, Jim Kaat, Herman Killebrew and of course Bert Blyleven, and they’re all in Cooperstown.

Who was the person to help you really move forward in broadcasting?

Well, I don’t know that any conversations were held or anything like that, but I, as you know, grew up in this area. So I was privileged to listen to Herb Carneal, Al Shaver, Ray Christensen, people like that. And when we lived in Missouri, listening to Jack Buck and Harry Caray do Cardinal games and the one thing they all had in common was they were very wearable if you will.

There wasn’t anything controversial about them. They did their job, night after night, year after year and as a result, they had long careers in one city, one region. And at least for me, that was always the goal to be able to say that you know what, I did a job. Hopefully I did it well, but I was able to have a long career with one team. And I guess 40 years later, you could say I guess that I succeeded.

Tell us about the players you’re gonna be watching for this season.

Well, the team is very good. And some of their better players are very young and unfortunately, injury prone. Byron Buxton is pretty healthy and we’ve already been reminded how impactful he can be in a game and on a team when he’s healthy. But the Twins have lost Royce Lewis for a while again, and hope to get him back.

I think this Twins lineup, even though in the first five games, they struggled to score runs, they’re going to be among the best offensive teams in the game. And we’ll find out — that’s part of the thrill of starting a new season, and we’re five games into 162 games but you never really know what your team is going to look like, how they’re going to play and page by page. It’s like a book you, you find out exactly what you’ve got as the season plays along.

So there’s gonna be the Dick Bremer broadcast booth?

I was very surprised when I found out about this weeks ago, and I’ve already kind of taken on the role of a landlord. I’ve already got a list of rules and regulations that have to be followed now in this booth. I might not reveal them all, I might just limit it to one or two. But I think that’s within my right, don’t you? If you’re gonna name the booth after me I think I have a right to dictate what’s going on in there.

I’m hoping the family is there to celebrate with you.

Yeah, they are. In fact, my son, Eric is a minor league broadcaster in Florida, he flew in yesterday, and my wife and daughter will be there as well. So that’s what makes it really special, the fact that whatever happens here today, and you know whether I throw the ceremonial first pitch on three hops to home plate, at least we’ll experience all that together.

What is the great love of baseball for you?

Oh, man. I was introduced to the game a long, long time ago, even before the Twins showed up here in 1961. Town team baseball is where my roots began with the game of baseball. I’ve been blessed to be around this Twins team in one capacity or another.

I just love the game, I love the challenges. You’ve got individual matchups, pitcher versus batter. It’s very much a team game, particularly when the team is out in the field. I just love everything about it and the game has changed, broadcasting has changed you know over the last few years as well, but there's still the beauty of the game that I enjoy and that will continue on regardless of what my role with the Twins is.