HAPPY NEW YEAR
Month: December 2011
Did you know?
Most Twins fans know that current Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire played for the New York Mets between 1981 – 1985 playing in 285 games, mostly at short but he also played some second and third base. Hitting was not Gardy’s strong suit as he posted a career average of .232 with 4 home runs, walking 46 times and struck out 122 times in 777 plate appearances. But did you know that Gardy “owned” the Hall of Famer that everyone called “Lefty”? You better believe it, the right-handed hitting Gardenhire had 30 at bats against Carlton over the years and had 11 hits including a home run and put up a cool .367 batting average and .387 OBP against the hall of famer. Lefty did manage to strike out Gardy 8 times. On the other hand, Fernando Valenzuela faced Gardenhire 12 times and all Gardy got for his efforts was one base on balls.
Twins Tickets – Value, Select and Premium
Like many other baseball teams, the Twins have categorized their tickets the last few years into value home games, select home games, and premium home games or categories similar to this. The value games are the lowest price and then the select games are usually about $2 more and finally on the high-end we have the premium games that are about$3 more than the select and $5 more than the value games. I thought it would be interesting to see how the Twins designated their tickets since 2009 so here is what I found.
| YEAR | Value games | Select games | Premium games |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 60 (74%) | 14 (17%) | 7 (9%) |
| 2010 | 27 (33%) | 39 (48%) | 15 (19%) |
| 2011 | 22 (27%) | 36 (44%) | 23 (28%) |
| 2012 | 20 (25%) | 38 (47%) | 23 (28%) |
It appears to be getting tougher and tougher to find “value” games year after year. These so-called “value” games were once upon a time the going price for attending a baseball game. In 2012 only 25% of the Minnesota Twins home games will be “value” games, the remaining 75% of the tickets are marked up as “select” or “premium games”. Like many other businesses, baseball is looking to raise revenue but doesn’t want to irritate the fan base by raising ticket prices so they just pick certain games that they categorize differently and charge a higher price for them. This is just a fee that is not called a fee. Baseball assumes that the general public is too dumb to realize what is going on. Who or how games are determined to be “value”, “select”, or “premium” at the beginning of each season would be interesting to know. These higher fees for “select” and “premium” games do not apply to season ticket holders here in Minnesota. Let’s do some math for the fun of it and let’s start with a couple of assumptions, first that the Twins have about 25,000 season tickets sold for each game and that the capacity of Target Field is 39,000 as a nice round number. That means you have about 14,000 tickets sold to the general public for each home game. So, if you have 38 “select” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $2 premium over a “value” game would bring in an extra ($2 x 14,000 x 38) $1,064,000. If you look at the 23 “premium” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $5 premium over a “value” game will bring in an extra ($5 x 14,000 x 23) $1,610,000. The numbers I am using I think are very conservative so the total extra dollars brought in through this ticket categorization are very likely higher that what I have here. These kinds of things just frustrate me to no end, ticket prices are already based on seat location meaning that better seats cost more and I understand that but why should I have to pay more to see the Yankees or the Cubs play or why should I pay more because the game is being played on a Saturday night? The Twins are no better and no worse at this than the other MLB teams but in my mind this is just not right. It is these kinds of things that cause baseball fans to jump off the home team bandwagons and stay off until the team is a winner. The bad part is that the teams don’t want to spend money to get good players unless they have the fans support and the fans don’t want to spend their hard earned money watching a crappy team. So it becomes a “what should happen first scenario”.
So what happens over the next few years to the “value” games? They are already down to just 25% of the home games. I guess when the “value” games drop to next to nothing, the “value” category will be eliminated, and the “select” category become the lowest price category and a new category for the high-end will be invented and called something like “platinum” and the game goes on. MLB best be careful, their ticket prices in all these new stadiums are getting out of hand. In most cases the taxpayers are footing a huge chunk of these ballpark costs and it will be sad when the fans get priced out of going to watch their home team play in a ballpark that they paid for to begin with.
I understand that baseball is entertainment and that salaries are extraordinary in the entertainment industry but when does it reach a point of no return? The average salary for a Twins player according to USA Today in 2011 was $4,509,480 and we are talking about a team that lost 99 games. The Kansas City Royals had the lowest average in 2011 and that was still at $1,338,000 and the Yankees were of course the highest with a $6,756,300 average.
I know this blog won’t change anything but writing it does make me fell somewhat better knowing that I have gotten it off my chest. I just hope that Twins fans in 2032 will still be able to attend a Twins game in person at Target Field and get to enjoy baseball the way it should be enjoyed, outdoors at your local ballpark in person. Hell, by then everyone will probably have some kind of igadget that puts everyone out in the field of play so we all get the same view as the players do.
This Day in Twins History – December 26, 2005
Four-Time All-Star relief pitcher Jeff Reardon is arrested on robbery charges after holding up a jewelry store in Palm Springs Gardens‚ Florida‚ a town he has lived in without incident for 20 years. “He said it was the medication that made him do it and that he was sorry‚” said policeman David O’Neill. Reardon had a son who died of a drug overdose several years ago. In late August 2006, Reardon was found not guilt by reason of insanity. Two court-appointed psychiatrists, along with two defense psychiatrists, will testify that Reardon was under the influence of a dozen prescription medications and that there was no reasonable explanation for the robbery. You can read a story that ESPN wrote about the incident by going here.
This Day in Twins History – December 25, 1989
Popular former Minnesota Twins player and manager Billy Martin dies in an automobile accident in Binghamton, New York at the age of 61. Billy served as the Twins fourth skipper during the 1969 season and led the Twins to a first place finish only to lose to the Baltimore Orioles 3 games to none.
Alfred Manual Martin played in the major leagues with the Yankees from 1950-1957, Kansas City A’s in 1957, the Detroit Tigers in 1958, the Cleveland Indians in 1959, the Cincinnati Reds in 1960, and the Milwaukee Braves and Minnesota Twins in 1961. Martin, 33 at the time, only played in 108 games hitting .246 for the Twins before retiring as an active player. The feisty Martin managed the Twins in 1969, the Detroit Tigers in 1971-1973, the Texas Rangers in 1973-1975, the New York Yankees from 1975-1979, the Oakland A’s from 1980-1982 and the Yankees again in 1983, 1985, and 1988. In sixteen years and 2,267 games as a manager, Martin had a 1,253 and 1,013 won-lost record while winning two pennants and one World Series title.
I had written an earlier article about Billy that you can see here.
Merry Christmas everyone
We at Twins Trivia wish each and every one of you and your families a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Some old newspaper clips about the Twins
The Minnesota Twins have had their ups and downs over the years and I ran across a variety of press clippings that pertained to the home-town nine and I thought that I would share them with you. Some are sad, some stupid, some funny and some historical but they are all part of Twins lore and history. Some will bring back some bad memories and other will cause you to to say, oh yes, I remember that. The clipping come from a variety of newspapers including the Boston Globe, Orlando Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
April 12, 1985 – There will be no more spitting on the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse floor. Nor will there be any more gum wrappers lying around or cramped dressing areas. The Twins Thursday unveiled the remodeled Metrodome clubhouse, done in the team’s colors of red, white and blue, with ash wood trim — the same color as baseball bats.”Some of these players make $800,000 a year, and they come in five or six hours before a game,” said architect David Shea, who was the principal designer for the remodeling.
June 30, 1985 (Peter Gammons – Boston Globe) – Billy Gardner got fired because (1) the Twins’ pitching fell apart, and (2) he simply is not in the mold of owner Carl Pohlad and GM Howard Fox. What can one say about a staff on which the only pitcher with an ERA under 4.20 was Frank Euefemia? Or when Ron Davis became so afraid of pitching that he hyperventilated in the bullpen and created excuses to beg out of games? Ray Miller was brought in to straighten out the pitching, and he is a man who deserves the chance. He needed to leave Baltimore, where his rapport with writers and his ambition had turned off pitchers and alienated fellow coaches.
September 20, 1985 – Baseball, as a business, is not for those with weak stomachs, says Carl Pohlad, who is completing his first full season as owner of the Minnesota Twins. Pohlad: ”I live and die every game. When I bought the team, I knew sports had more ups and downs than other businesses, and I thought I could cope. In my other enterprises, I can cope. But I have difficulty coping with a tough loss on the ball field.” Pohlad bought the Twins from long-time owner Calvin Griffith a little over a year ago. ”I used to think I was pretty good at managing stress,” the 69-year-old banking magnate told the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.
July 29, 1986 – Amid rumors of his firing, Minnesota Twins Manager Ray Miller met Monday with top club officials to discuss the team’s poor performance and how to solve the problem. ”I’m not satisfied with the way the team’s been playing,” Twins President Howard Fox said in New York, where Minnesota faced the Yankees. ”I thought we’d be better than we’ve been. We’re re-evaluating the whole thing.” Fox said Twins owner Carl Pohlad has given him the authority to make any managerial change.
July 4, 1986 – Former Minnesota Twins’ farm director George Brophy, who resigned last January because of illness, will become a special assistant scout for the Houston Astros Aug. 1, he said. Brophy, 59, was struck in June 1985 by aplastic anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder. When Brophy still wasn’t back to work in January, Twins president Howard Fox asked him to take early retirement as part of a program established by owner Carl Pohlad for longtime employees. Brophy said he began to respond to a new form of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
July 31, 1986 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad says he’s ”disappointed” with his struggling American League club but says he won’t comment on the future of Manager Ray Miller. Pohlad said ”we’re all disappointed” at the team’s record, which stood Wednesday morning at 43 and 57. ”I don’t like it, the fans don’t like it and neither does anybody else. We’re doing the best we can.”
September 13, 1986 – Tom Kelly, who guided the Orlando Twins to the Class AA Southern League pennant in 1981, was named manager of the Minnesota Twins on Friday for the remaining 23 games after Manager Ray Miller was fired. Kelly, 36, took over Friday night as interim manager after Minnesota President Howard Fox announced, ”It would be in the best interest of everyone concerned that the termination of Ray Miller’s position would take place at this time.””Our record games behind is exactly three games worse than it was last year at this time without a bullpen,” Miller said.
October 23, 1986 – The Minnesota Twins, who have said they hope to name a new manager by next week at the latest, have interviewed former Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs manager Jim Frey. Frey met for almost three hours Tuesday with Twins owner Carl Pohlad, said Pohlad’s son, Jim, a team director who was also in on the meeting. Jim Pohlad said the only candidates who have been recommended by Twins Vice President Andy MacPhail are Frey and Tom Kelly. Kelly, the Twins’ third-base coach for the last three years and former Orlando Twins manager, served as interim manager for the final three weeks of the 1986 season after Ray Miller was fired.
May 19, 1988 (Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel) – The way I understand it, the Minnesota Twins will honor Orlando with their presence each spring only if the city gives them some choice property, presumably a chunk with a lakefront view. The Twins want freebie land to develop for economic opportunities outside of baseball, and if they don’t get it they’ll leave for Fort Myers in 1990.To the Twins, I say so long, goodbye and don’t let the door hit you in your pinstriped behinds. Baseball fans, calm yourselves. City fathers want the Twins to stay.
November 1, 1988 (Tim Povtak, Orlando Sentinel) – The ”privatization” of Tinker Field, which would give the Minnesota Twins almost total control of the baseball complex, is key to an arrangement that has brought Orlando and the major-league team close to signing a 10-year contract for spring training.Twins owner Carl Pohlad and much of his administrative staff met for an hour with city officials Monday in Mayor Bill Frederick’s office, discussing major points in the agreement.The Twins, who have one more year on their contract, and the city have been negotiating for more than a year.
January 10, 1989 – The Minnesota Twins will continue making Orlando their spring training base, at least for the next 10 years, if the professional baseball team agrees to a settlement offered Monday by the Orlando City Council.The council offered to pay $3 million over the next three years for the Twins to build new major and minor-league clubhouses, batting tunnels and a grandstand at Tinker Field. The city also relinquished its rights to concession and parking revenues associated with Tinker Field and agreed to provide 6,000 square feet in office space for team officials at the Florida Citrus Bowl.
January 26, 1989 (Larry Guest, Orlando Sentinel) – Spring baseball long has been a time of charm and grace, a respite of innocence when reality gave way to fantasy. It was six weeks of green grass and a warming sun, a genteel preamble of wind sprints and good will before the hard competition and grim business of the regular season took over.It was a ritual for the romantics, a flashback to the simpler times.Never has the passing of that poppycock been made more crystal clear than by the hard capitalists in charge of today’s Minnesota Twins.
February 3, 1989 – Minnesota Twins General Manager Andy MacPhail says the Twins should not be portrayed as ”Northern carpetbaggers” in their negotiations with the city of Orlando. MacPhail says the Twins simply are keeping up with the business of modern baseball.Orlando has been the spring-training home of the Twins for 53 years, but that relationship is in jeopardy. The Twins want the city, which is asking for a 10-year commitment, to upgrade facilities at Tinker Field to accommodate both their minor and major-league players.
October 8, 1991 – He says his job is tougher because he works in one of the smallest baseball cities, but Vice President/General Manager Andy MacPhail has excelled, and Monday he was given a new 3-year contract that will carry through the 1994 season.The contract is the first MacPhail has had with the Twins, having worked the past six years on 1-year agreements.”I’m very grateful to owner Carl Pohlad,” MacPhail said. ”There is no one I would rather work for than Carl Pohlad or nowhere that I would rather live and work than where I am.’MacPhail, 38, said the difference between making decisions in Minnesota rather than in New York or Los Angeles is that ”we have to balance everything in terms of affordability”.
October 16, 1995 – Thelma Griffith Haynes, the former co-owner and executive of the Minnesota Twins baseball club, died Sunday, Oct. 15. She was 82. Haynes of Lexington Parkway, Orlando, who co-owned the team with her brother, Calvin Griffith of Melbourne, sold it to Carl Pohlad in 1984. Her father, Clark Griffith Sr., founded the Washington Senators in the early 1920s. The family moved the ball club to Minnesota in 1961. Orlando was the team’s spring training site from the 1930s until 1990. Born in Montreal, Canada, she moved to Central Florida in 1982.
May 28, 1997 – Angered that the Minnesota Legislature took no action on their stadium proposal during this year’s regular session, the Minnesota Twins reiterated Tuesday that they will ask for permission to sell or move the team.The club hopes to get that approval at the June 10-12 owners meetings in Philadelphia and immediately would begin taking offers. ”We set out to get an answer from the people of Minnesota. We were told that answer was to be given through the Legislature,” said Bob Pohlad, son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad.
October 7, 1997 – Major league baseball would allow the Twins to leave Minnesota, Gov. Arne Carlson said after meeting Monday in Milwaukee with acting commissioner Bud Selig. Carlson made the comment after he and a group of legislators flew to Milwaukee to ask Selig how Twins owner Carl Pohlad’s deal to sell the Twins to North Carolina businessman Don Beaver would fare with team owners. Pohlad has said he can’t afford to lose any more money in the Metrodome, and that the team must have a baseball-only stadium with revenue from suites, club seating, and other amenities.
November 19, 1997 – The Twins moved a step closer to North Carolina when baseball appointed a five-man committee Tuesday to guide the team through the sport’s relocation rules. The Minnesota Legislature last week defeated a proposal to finance a new ballpark, and Pohlad has an agreement with North Carolina businessman Don Beaver to negotiate a sale unless stadium financing is approved by Nov. 30. Beaver has said he would apply to move the team to North Carolina following the 1998 season.
December 4, 1997 – Paul Molitor, who returned home to the Twins in 1996 and became the 21st player in history to top 3,000 hits, is expected to play elsewhere in 1998, which could be his final season. Ron Simon, Molitor’s agent, said Molitor probably will sign with Toronto or Baltimore by Monday because he is unwilling to play for the Twins in what could be a lame-duck season in Minnesota. Owner Carl Pohlad has an agreement to sell the team to a North Carolina businessman, and the team could move after ’98 unless it gets a new stadium.
July 20, 1998 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad plans to work out a lease that will keep his team playing at the Metrodome for the next two years, according to a published report. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cited an unnamed source close to Pohlad, who said Pohlad would work out the lease in the hope of finding a way to build a new baseball stadium.The Twins and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission are scheduled for a settlement hearing today. The commission has filed a lawsuit trying to block the Twins from exercising an escape clause that would let them out of their Metrodome lease after this season.
November 7, 2001 (Phil Rogers) – In a move almost certain to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, Major League Baseball owners voted Tuesday to authorize Commissioner Bud Selig to fold two teams before the 2002 season. If the plan goes through, it will mark the first time since 1899 that Major League Baseball has closed an existing franchise. “We’re plowing historic ground here,” Selig said. Selig said the teams to be dissolved were not identified specifically during a meeting of owners and that there are more than two under consideration.
November 17, 2001 – JUDGE: TWINS MUST PLAY – Baseball was barred from eliminating the Minnesota Twins next season when a judge Friday ordered the team to play its 2002 home schedule in the Metrodome. Twins owner Carl Pohlad also was ordered not to sell the team unless the new owner agrees to have the team play its 2002 home schedule in the ballpark. The decision by Hennepin County District Judge Harry Seymour Crump throws into question last week’s vote by baseball owners to eliminate two major-league teams next season.
December 23, 2001 – Alabama businessman Donald Watkins, who wants to buy the Twins, shook hands with nearly 200 avid fans Saturday at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. “The weather may be cold up here, but the reception is warm,” said Watkins, who hopes to meet with officials of the commissioner’s office on Jan. 10 to discuss a possible purchase of the team. Current owner Carl Pohlad wants out after failing to gain approval of government financing for a new ballpark.
March 31, 2002 – An enjoyable summer could follow the lousy winter. After dealing with Commissioner Bud Selig, Carl Pohlad and other embarrassments to the grand old game during the offseason, it’s the fans who needed to hit the showers. They wanted to feel clean again. Along the way, the Twins became America’s Team, gamely fighting off contraction and vowing to contend. Everyone loves the underdog, so people from all over will be pulling for the plucky Twins. Pulling for the Minnesota ball club feels good because it’s like casting a vote against big, corrupt business — as represented by the owners who tried to make the franchise disappear.
August 17, 2002 – The axe is now hovering over Cinderella’s head, ready to ruin baseball’s best story. But for what it’s worth, sports fans, the executioners feel your pain. “It’s not the players who are hurting,” Denny Hocking said. “It’s not the owners who are hurting. It’s the fans.” If fans were paid by the lip service they receive, they’d all be Alex Rodriguez. For all the supposed angst, players started the Doomsday Clock. T-minus two weeks until the ninth work stoppage since 1972.
Twins to sign pitcher Jason Marquis?
According to a report by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Twins are nearing a deal with 33-year-old right-handed starting pitcher Jason Marquis. Marquis had signed a two-year $15 million deal with the Washington Nationals after declaring free agency after the 2009 season. In mid April of 2010 Marquis suffered a right elbow injury and missed 99 games before returning in August and finishing the 2010 season with a 2-9 record and a 6.60 ERA. Marquis started the season with the Washington Nationals in 2011 and was 8-5 with a 3.95 ERA before being traded at the trade deadline at the end of July to the Arizona D-Backs where he pitched in just 3 games and gave up 16 runs in 11+ innings before suffering a broken fibula in early August and ending his season.
Marquis was an Atlanta Braves 1st round pick in 1996 and made he big league debut with the Braves on June 6, 2000. Marquis pitched for the Braves between 2000-2003 before being involved in a big trade when the Braves sent Marquis, Adam Wainwright, and Ray King to the St. Louis Cardinals for JD Drew and Eli Marrero. Marquis pitched for the Cardinals from 2004-2006, the Cubs from 2007-2008 and the Colorado Rockies in 2009. Between 2004 and 2009 Marquis averaged 196 innings and 13 wins. Jason Marquis was an All-Star in 2009 and ranked second in the league in double-play grounders induced.
Jason Marquis is one of those “inning eaters” the Twins are apparently looking for and he fits the Twins mold of pitch to contact because in his 12 seasons in the majors he has given up 1,758 hits and 645 walks in 1,675+ innings while striking out 974. I am not sure what Terry Ryan and the Twins see in this guy and I sure hope that they don’t pay him very much but you have to figure he will get at least $5 million. Maybe Marquis will just be a placeholder in the rotation until they reach a point in the season when they can bring up a youngster and move Marquis along once again and hopefully get something in return. Then again, this is not a done deal, just a report of a possible deal so I can still hope it falls apart.
UPDATE December 22 – The Twins have announced that they have reached a one year $3 million deal with Jason Marquis.
Know your franchise history
Francis Joseph (Shag) Shaughnessy was born on April 8, 1883 in Amboy, Illinois and died on May 15, 1969 in Montreal, Quebec. Shaughnessy played football, baseball and ran track at the University of Notre Dame from 1901 to 1904, and served as football captain for the Fighting Irish in his senior year. Shaughnessy had a brief major league baseball career playing for the Washington Senators in 1905, all-be-it for only one game and for the Philadelphia A’s in 1908. He managed in the minor leagues from 1909 – 1936 and had a 1,148 – 1,012 record and he often served in a player/manager role. In 1928, he was also a coach for the Detroit Tigers. Shaughnessy was General Manager for the Montreal Royals from 1932 to 1934. As the Royals GM in 1933, Shaughnessy introduced night baseball to the city and a revised playoff system that saw the league’s top four teams advance to the post-season. This format became known as the “Shaughnessy Plan” and was quickly adopted by other minor leagues.
A respected and experienced baseball man, Shaughnessy was named president of the International League in 1936, a position he held until 1960. It was under his reign that baseball’s color barrier would finally be broken when the Montreal Royals signed Jackie Robinson in 1946. Shag was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1983. In addition to Shaughnessy, other inductees in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame with ties to the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise include Reno Bertoia (1988), Frank O’Rourke (1996), Dave McKay (2001), Sherry Robertson (2007), and Calvin Griffith (2010).
Shaughnessy was also a widely respected in football and his many innovations in that sport both in the United States and in Canada made him a Canadian Football Hall of Fame charter inductee in 1963.
This Day in Twins History – December 20, 1979
Construction began on what was to be the future HHH Metrodome and it was built by the state of Minnesota at a cost of approximately $68 million. The Metrodome became baseballs’ third domed facility.
The Twins started calling the Metrodome home in 1982 and played there final games their in 2009 before moving into Target Field in 2010. For more information on the Metrodome, please drop my Twins Stadiums page.