The Twins finished spring training with a record of 9-16-3, their fewest spring wins since 1995 when they went 8-6. Aaron Hicks led the club in hits (17) for the second straight spring. The Twins drew 107,806 in attendance in 16 home dates surpassing the 100,000 mark for the 13th consecutive year. Two additional home dates were rained out. The team averaged 6,738 fans per game as compared to 6,697 fans per game in 2013.
The Twins have opened the season on March 31st twice before, once against the Tigers in 2003 and once against the Angels in 2008 and the Twins won both games. Yesterday’s 5-3 loss in Chicago to the mighty whities makes the team 2-1 on March 31. The team has never played a regular season game in March in Minnesota.
Paul Konerko didn’t play for the White Sox as Chicago began its season by beating the Twins 5-3 yesterday. Konerko had started his team’s season opener in each of the past 16 years (1998 through 2013); he and Todd Helton were the only major-league players to do that. With Konerko on the bench and Helton retired, the longest streak of consecutive opening-day starts now belongs to Torii Hunter, who extended his streak to 16 consecutive seasons (1999 through 2014) in the Tigers’ victory over the Royals.
Ron Gardenhire is just two wins away from becoming the fifth active manager to reach 1,000 victories and 60th all-time. The other four active managers with more wins are Bruce Bochy (1,530), Mike Scioscia (1,233), Buck Showalter (1,163) and Terry Francona with (1,121).