Left Fielder – Jim Rice is my choice here but it just as easily have been Carl Yastrzemski, Rickey Henderson, Alex Gordon or Joe Rudi. Rice, a Hall of Famer was a Boston first round selection in 1971 as a high school outfielder and debuted in 1974. Rice was the 1978 AL MVP, an eight-time All-Star and he won two silver slugger awards. Rice wasn’t known as the friendliest player around but we are not giving away any congeniality awards here, we are looking for the Twins all-opponent team and Rice fits that description well. Did I mention that he walked off the Twins twice during his career?
In 470 PA’s against Minnesota scored 83 times and hit .335 with an OPS of .975. Twenty seven of his home runs came off of Twins pitchers as he notched 94 RBI against Minnesota.
Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team
Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez
First Baseman – Paul Konerko
Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker
Third Baseman – Wade Boggs
Shortstop – Cal Ripken