TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
October 29, 2009 – That the Minnesota Twins were the first team in history to start measuring the distance of home runs? The practice started at Met Stadium in 1963.
or that
Harmon Killbrew hit his first major league home run in a Washington Senator uniform off Detroit Tiger pitcher Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium on June 24, 1955 in front of 4,188 fans and hit his last home run off Minnesota Twins pitcher Eddie Bane in a Kansas City Royal uniform at Met Stadium on September 18, 1975 in front on only 3,201 fans.
or that
Harmon Killebrew hit more home runs off former Red Sox and Tigers pitcher Earl Wilson than any other pitcher? The Killer hit 9 out of the park against against Wilson.
or that
Harmon hit 4 walk-off home runs in his career and that 3 of them were against the New York Yankees?
or that
Harmon blasted more home runs (393) in the 1960’s than any other player. He led the American League in home runs 5 times during the decade, and almost certainly would have been the 4th player in major league history to hit 400 or more home runs in a single decade had an injury not cost him more than 50 games in 1968. (The 3 players who have hit 400 home runs in a decade are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Mark McGwire.) Killebrew ranked second in RBIs for the decade (1,013) and fifth in slugging percentage (.546).
October 21, 2009 – I thought that it would be fun to take a look back over the Twins history just to see who the Twins leaders are in home runs at each position. Some of the numbers that I found from the Twins 49 seasons in Minnesota were really a surprise to me and I have followed the Twins since their inception in 1961.
POSITION
PLAYER
HOME RUNS
AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher
Tim Laudner
77
26.46
1B
Kent Hrbek
293
21.13
2B
Rod Carew
46
96.74
SS
Zoilo Versalles
86
48.23
3B
Gary Gaetti
201
24.82
OF
Kirby Puckett
207
35.00
DH
Matt LeCroy
53
21.40
P
Jim Kaat
14
71.00
You have to be thinking, this can’t be right, where is Twins all-time home run slugger Harmon Killebrew? But when you look at the numbers you will see that Harmon played 14 seasons with the Twins but he split his time playing four positions, he played 881 games at 1B, 481 games at 3B, 455 games in the OF, and 122 games as a DH. Killebrew smashed 191 home runs as a first baseman, 142 as an outfielder, 129 while playing the hot corner, and 13 more when he was the DH. The Twins currently have some players on the roster like Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Joe Mauer that could be slugging their way on to this list very soon.
When you look at the Washington Sentaors/Nationals numbers from 1901 to 1960 to get a franchise perspective you see how much different baseball is today from its earlier years. I think the one interesting number that jumped out at me here was Roy Sievers and the fact that he hit a home run in every 16.95 at bats when he played the outfield.It is always fun to look at historical numbers and to do comparisons.
October 6, 2009 – Alexi Casilla became the unlikely hero for the Twins when he delivered a walk-off RBI single in the 12th inning off Tiger closer Fernando Rodney to lift the Twins to a 6-5 victory that gave the club its fifth division title this decade and earned Minnesota a trip to New York to face the Yankees in the AL Division Series which starts on Wednesday afternoon.
The game went back and forth and was an exciting a baseball game as I have ever seen. I wasn’t one of the lucky 54,088 or so fans that witnessed the game in person at the Metrodome but watching the game at home was just as stressful. It turns out that the Homer Hanky waving crowd was the largest regular season crowd ever in Metrodome history and it took place on the final regular season game to ever be played at the Metrodome.
The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead off starter Scott Baker before the Twins chipped away and finally took a 4-3 lead on a homerun by Orlando Cabrera in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Tigers tied the game in the next inning on a Magglio Ordonez long ball. The teams traded runs in the 10th inning before Casilla came up with the game winner in the 12th. Earlier in the game Miguel Cabrera homered for Detroit and Jason Kubel hit one out for the Twins. Five Tigers pitchers threw 193 pitches and eight Twins pitchers threw 198 pitches in the 12 inning affair.
The Twins celebration will have to be a short one as they need to fly to New York and take on those hated New York Yankees starting tomorrow afternoon. But for now, all you can say is WOW! What a ballgame!
According to Elias, Alexi Casilla, who drove in the winning run for the Twins with a single that scored Carlos Gomez from second base, was an unlikely hero. When he came to the plate, Casilla was one of only two players in the majors with at least 200 at-bats and a sub-.200 batting average this season. Casilla’s game-winner raised his average to .202 from .198 and left San Diego’s Brian Giles (.191) with the unfortunate distinction of being the only player with 200-plus at-bats to finish this year with a batting average “on the interstate.”
September 29, 2009 – Former Minnesota Twins Rookie of the Year Chuck Knoblauch now faces a felony criminal charge in Texas for an alleged attack on his common-law wife outside their Memorial-area home. Knoblauch turned himself into authorities on Tuesday after investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest. He’s accused of beating, then choking his wife during a drunken rage early in the morning of Friday.
Knoblauch was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the first round (25th overall) of the 1989 amateur draft. Knoblauch won the starting 2B job in the spring of 1991 and was a key player in the Minnesota Twins World Championship season in which he also won the American league Rookie of the Year award. After a contract dispute, Chuck Knoblauch was traded by the Twins to the New York Yankees for Brian Buchanan, Cristian Guzman, Eric Milton, Danny Mota and cash on February 6, 1998. Not long after his arrival in New York, Knoblauch started having problems throwing to first base and that eventually led to the Yankees letting Knoblauch go via free agency in November of 2001. The Kansas City Royals signed Knoblauch in 2002 but he only played 80 games there before he announced his retirement.
Chuck Knoblauch was one of more than 100 players who were accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in the 2007 Mitchell Report on baseball’s steroids era. Knoblauch later acknowledged using performance enhancers.
September 13, 2009 – Paul Robert Giel was born on September 29, 1932 in Winona, Minnesota. Giel attended the University of Minnesota where he was a star in both baseball and football. For the Gopher baseball team, he was a three-time all-American pitcher and still holds the school record with 243 strikeouts in his three seasons. Football however; may have been Giel’s best sport. As a single-wing tailback, he also played quarterback on offense, punted, returned kicks, and played in the defensive backfield. Giel was selected as the Big Ten’s MVP in 1952 and again in 1953. Giel was selected twice as a football All-American and after his senior year in 1953 the Minnesota Gophers captain finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Notre Dame QB Johnny Lattner. Giel was also selected as the UPI player of the year and AP back of the year as a senior. Many years later, Paul Giel was elected as a member of the National Football Foundation Football College Hall of Fame.
The Canadian Football League offered Giel $75,000 over three years, and the Chicago Bears held his National Football League rights. Seven or eight baseball teams, including all three in New York, the Giants, the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers all wanted him. Giel signed with the Giants for a $60,000 bonus, their highest ever at the time. Paul had a “live” fastball, a good slider and an ordinary curveball and needed minor league seasoning, but the rules at the time required such so-called bonus babies to spend at least their first two years in the major leagues. In his major league debut on July 10, 1954 at the Polo Grounds against the Pirates, Giel pitched the ninth inning with the Giants trailing 10-7 and he struck out all three batters that he faced. He played sparingly, appearing in only 40 games in his first two seasons. Giel served as an Army officer in 1956 and 1957 before returning to baseball and the Giants in 1958 that by this time had moved to San Francisco. The Giants waived Giel in 1959 and he was picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates where he pitched for 2 seasons before being sold to Minnesota in February of 1961.
Paul Giel became the first Minnesota native to appear in a Twins uniform when he came in to pitch in relief on April 15, 1961 against the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial stadium. The Twins were losing to the Orioles 6-0 when Giel was called to the mound in the top of the 5th inning. Paul pitched 3 innings that day giving up 3 hits (one was a two run home run to future HOF manager Dick Williams), 2 runs, both earned, issued a walk while striking out two Orioles.
Paul only pitched in 12 games for the Minnesota Twins before he was traded in a very unusual deal to the Kansas City Royals on June 1, 1961 in what is considered the Twins first ever trade. Giel’s career numbers with the Twins were not all that impressive, he only pitched 19.1 innings giving up 24 hits, 21 earned runs for an ERA of 9.78 while walking 17 and striking out 14. The unusual deal started on June 1, 1961 when the Minnesota Twins traded Paul Giel, Reno Bertoia, and a player to be named later to the Kansas City Athletics for outfielder Bill Tuttle and a player to be named later. He is where things get a little strange, on June 10, the Twins sent cash to Kansas City instead of a player to be named later, nothing special here yet, correct? Well, Kansas City still owed Minnesota a player to be named later and guess who that turned out to be, yup, it was Paul Giel. So in the end Giel was traded to the A’s but they shipped him back to the Twins as their player to be named later. In a manner of speaking, Giel was traded for himself after pitching in only one game for the A’s. Paul Giel never appeared in another major league game after being traded back to Minnesota.
After retiring from pro baseball, Giel served stints as a business manager for the Minnesota Vikings and sports director at WCCO radio. In 1972 Paul Giel became Athletic Director at the University of Minnesota. Giel served as the AD during some turbulent times at the U of M and in 1988 he was let go by the University of Minnesota after nearly three years of controversy that included rape allegations against basketball players visiting Madison, Wis., in 1986. Eventually the players were acquitted and many felt at that time and still feel today that Paul Giel was made the scapegoat and lost his job through no fault of his own. After he left the Gophers AD’s position, Giel spent 12 years as the U of M’s vice president of public affairs and chief fund raiser for the Minneapolis Heart Institution Foundation. Paul Giel was plagued by heart issues late in life and died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on May 22, 2002. It is fitting that a person of this caliber is credited as being the first Minnesota native to play for the Minnesota Twins.
September 6, 2009 – Seven years after Jackie Robinson made his major league debut, the Washington Senators played a black ballplayer for the first time on September 6, 1954 and his name was Carlos Paula.
September 6, 2009 – Sports Illustrated has some interesting Target Field construction photo’s that you can see by clicking here. They are a bit different then the ones I have seen in the past. It is a good thing that the Twins are getting ready to move into Target Field in 2010 because a recent poll by Sports Illustrated of 380 MLB players did not show the Metrodome in a good light. To see the poll, click here. I find it interesting that the top two ballparks are old and obsolete by todays standards.
September 4, 2009 – Garrett Jones was signed by the Twins on May 24, 2002 after being released by the Atlanta Braves who had drafted Jones in the 14th round of the 1999 amateur draft. Garrett toiled in the Twins minor league system from 2002 to 2007 before he finally got that call to join the Twins. Jones made several trips between Rochester and Minnesota in 2007 but appeared in only 31 games hitting .208 in 77 at bats. During his time in Minnesota Jones hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBI’s. Jones spent all of the 2008 season in Rochester and became a free agent after the season ended. The Pittsburgh Pirates took a chance on Garrett Jones, signing him in December of 2008 and the rest as they say “is history”. Now there is talk of Garrett Jones becoming the National League Rookie of the Year, I think it is unlikely, but it would make for a great story wouldn’t it? Chuck Finder, of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a nice piece on Garrett Jones recently and you can find it here.
August 26, 2009 – Elias reported today that the New York Mets announced on Tuesday that former Twins ace Johan Santana will undergo season-ending surgery on his left elbow. Only two pitchers have started more games than Santana since the 2003 All-Star break, when he joined the Twins’ rotation. The leaders during that time: Derek Lowe, 209; Barry Zito, 208; Johan Santana, 207; Livan Hernandez, 205; Mark Buehrle, 204.
To me it is always depressing when star pitchers go down, but for me, Johan Santana is something special, besides playing for the Twins at one time, I really enjoy watching Johan pitch. I think it is interesting to note too that most of the starts for the pitchers named above came in the American league where the DH exists. Coincidence? Maybe. Get well soon Johan!
August 24, 2009 – Michael Cuddyer hit a pair of home runs during an eight-run seventh inning for the Twins in their 10-3 win at Kansas City last night. Cuddyer is the only player to homer twice in an inning for Minnesota since the franchise left Washington, D.C. after the 1960 season. The only player to do that for the old Senators was Jim Lemon against the Red Sox at Griffith Stadium on Sept. 5, 1959. Source: Elias
