ARLINGTON, Texas _ Neil Allen returned to the Twins on Thursday, embarrassed and humiliated, he said, by his drunken driving arrest in late May _ but mostly thankful, too.
The Twins, the team's pitching coach said, "probably saved my life."
That's because the team, rather than firing him, enrolled Allen in an outpatient treatment program at Hazelden Betty Ford, a program that allowed him to halt, he said, a descent back into the alcoholism he thought he had conquered 22 years ago.
"Alcoholism is something you think, after 22 years, 'Not me,'?" an emotional Allen said shortly after addressing the Twins in the team's clubhouse. "Well, it happened. Unfortunately, it doesn't just go away because you've been dry 22 years."
Allen was arrested on suspicion of DWI early in the morning of May 25, pulled over, he said, after drinking again for the first time since giving up alcohol in 1994. He was placed on indefinite suspension until completing the Hazelden program, which he did on Tuesday. Eric Rasmussen, the franchise's minor-league pitching coordinator, filled in for six weeks, and returned to that job on Thursday.
Allen said in retrospect, he could see several red flags over the past six months which culminated in the incident, and they had nothing to do with baseball or the Twins' difficult season. The arrest and suspension was "one of the worst nights of my life. One of the toughest things I've had to do was talk to my son [Bobby] and talk to [Twins players] today," he said, briefly choking up at the thought. "It was a humiliating time, it was an embarrassing time, but I realize who I am 22 years ago doesn't just leave you because you've been 22 years dry. It can happen and it did."
Allen has not yet faced charges stemming from the incident, but said his case "is in the hands of the lawyers now."
