The Twins were shutout 2-0 on only one hit by the Kansas City Royals last night and found themselves dropping out of a first place tie with the Royals in the AL Central. The Twins record is now 33-25 and they are one game out of first place.
Back in 1965 on this date the Twins had lost two games in a row to the Cleveland Indians and reliever ‘Ding Dong” Bell (whose real name was Gary Bell) and their record was 32-18 and the team has a 1.5 game lead in the AL standings. Although the team was 16-8 at Met Stadium the team was not drawing well at the gate where in 24 games the attendance stood at 266,365 for an average of 11,099 fans per game. The Twins biggest crowd of the season showed up on Sunday, June 6 to see the Twins beat the Washington Senators 11-2 at the Met, I am not sure if there was a give-away that day or not but it sure appears to be a “Bat Day” crowd.
On June 8th Camilo Pascual beat the Indians 6-2 at the Met and ran his record to 8-0. Bothered by a bad back which caused him to miss all of August, Pascual would only win one more game in 1965 and finished the season with a 9-3 record.
The very first June free agent draft started on June 8 and the Twins selected Eddie Leon in round one and ninth overall and outfielder Del Unser in round two and 29th overall but both players passed on Minnesota offers and did not sign. The best player the Twins drafted in 1965 was 3B Graig Nettles but the Twins traded him to the Indians after Nettles played sparingly for the Twins from 1967-1969. The Twins expect to spend up to a total of $300,000 in bonuses to their 50 draftees…….
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P7
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P8
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P9
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P10
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P16
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P38
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P44
Zoilo Versalles is in the midst of a MVP season and the Twins have a tough month coming up in July with six double-headers coming up in 23 days.
Sporting News June 12, 1965 P10
Back in 1965 just like in 2015 the Twins took a long reliever out of the bullpen and turned him into a starter. Find out who it was and how he did.
Sporting News June 19, 1965 P11