Month: September 2015

This Day in Twins History – September 19, 2002

Mike RyanSeptember 19, 2002 – Twins rookie outfielder Mike Ryan gets 2 hits in the first inning of his major league debut in Comerica Park against the Detroit Tigers. In what was a nine-run first inning for Minnesota, Ryan singled in his first two big league at-bats, and drove in two runs. But the glow of the feat was short-lived when his hits and Minnesota’s 9-0 lead were wiped out when rain forced the game to be called before the top of the third inning. In his official debut the next day Ryan goes 0 for 4.

This is the kind of situation where a player could play in a major league game and if his career ended at that point he would never go down in baseball history as having played in a big league game, this doesn’t seem right to me. You have to wonder how many other times this has happened. You could tell your grand kids you played in the majors and their might be no proof.

Don’t forget to check out our Today in Twins History page daily to learn more about Twins history.

 

The Twins longest games in terms of innings played

The Minnesota Twins have played a lot of games in the 55 years that they have called Minnesota home but only 33 of those games have gone 15 innings or longer. In those 33 games they have a 17-16 record. The three longest games that have lasted 20 inning or more have all been played at home, either at the Met or the Metrodome. I am sure you got your money’s worth if you attended any of those games.

The Twins longest road game was at Yankee Stadium back in 1976 and this might shock you I know but the Twins lost 5-4 on a walk-off single by Mickey Rivers. Just hearing the name Mickey Rivers brings back all kinds of memories, what a character he was.

Twins longest games by innings played

(The right-hand column tell you how long the game lasted in terms of minutes)

Rk Date Opp Rslt IP H R d I might ER BB SO HR UER Pit BF AB min.
1 1993-08-31 CLE W 5-4 22.0 16 4 2 7 8 0 2 288 85 76 377
2 1972-05-12 MIL L 3-4 22.0 13 4 4 8 13 0 0   86 76 347
3 1967-08-09 WSA L 7-9 20.0 14 9 9 6 16 2 0   79 69 340
4 1976-08-25 NYY L 4-5 18.2 16 5 5 7 5 1 0   73 64 326
5 2004-08-08 OAK L 5-6 18.0 16 6 6 3 13 0 0 251 71 67 297
6 1969-09-06 OAK W 8-6 18.0 16 6 2 6 12 1 4   78 69 317
7 1969-07-19 SEP W 11-7 18.0 20 7 6 4 9 1 1   82 76 341
8 1967-07-26 (2) NYY W 3-2 18.0 10 2 2 2 7 0 0   65 62 264
9 1976-08-28 CLE L 3-4 16.2 13 4 4 2 6 0 0   62 59 295
10 1969-04-09 KCR L 3-4 16.2 11 4 3 9 8 0 1   64 54 272
11 1995-05-07 CLE L 9-10 16.1 26 10 8 8 9 3 2 322 82 71 396
12 2009-07-03 DET L 9-11 16.0 17 11 11 2 12 2 0 218 69 63 307
13 2005-08-16 CHW W 9-4 16.0 12 4 4 4 12 1 0 204 63 58 309
14 1986-06-11 TEX L 2-6 16.0 16 6 6 8 7 1 0   66 57 272
15 1977-09-17 TEX L 4-5 16.0 12 5 3 6 10 2 2   65 55 312
16 1969-07-25 CLE W 4-2 16.0 8 2 2 2 14 1 0   57 55 266
17 1982-04-20 OAK L 3-4 15.2 14 4 4 6 10 0 0   66 57 303
18 1975-07-12 NYY L 7-8 15.2 18 8 8 7 7 1 0   70 61 311
19 2012-06-17 MIL W 5-4 15.0 15 4 4 5 7 1 0 250 66 61 290
20 2004-06-10 NYM W 3-2 15.0 8 2 2 5 13 1 0 231 59 51 246
21 2004-05-04 SEA L 3-4 15.0 13 4 4 7 14 1 0 245 65 55 288
22 2004-04-06 CLE W 7-6 15.0 12 6 6 4 10 1 0 223 59 55 300
23 2002-06-10 ATL W 6-5 15.0 11 5 5 5 6 1 0 209 58 52 263
24 1999-05-21 OAK W 2-1 15.0 8 1 1 8 9 0 0 225 59 51 295
25 1992-07-04 BAL W 3-2 15.0 12 2 2 8 8 0 0 250 64 54 280
26 1980-08-28 TOR W 7-5 15.0 13 5 5 7 9 1 0   60 51 264
27 1980-06-20 CLE L 3-4 15.0 14 4 4 8 6 1 0   63 55 268
28 1974-09-10 CHW W 8-7 15.0 19 7 6 1 9 1 1   62 60 247
29 1973-06-06 (1) CLE W 7-3 15.0 10 3 1 8 8 1 2   66 56 254
30 1972-06-06 BAL W 5-4 15.0 11 4 3 9 14 0 1   63 53 265
31 1972-05-13 MIL W 5-4 15.0 10 4 4 2 12 2 0   54 50 216
32 1964-09-29 KCA L 6-7 15.0 10 7 7 8 13 3 0   61 53 290
33 1961-05-22 CLE L 5-7 15.0 17 7 7 3 7 2 0   63 58 248
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/17/2015.

Please take some time to check out our Length of games including longest Twins game page.

Remebering 1965 – Part 22 – Versalles, World Series tickets, Mele

September 2 – Left Fielder Bob Allison strikes out five times in a 5-4 loss to the Tigers at Met Stadium. Allison is the only Twins batter to strike out five time in a nine inning game. Sandy Valdespino (1967), Bobby Darwin (1972), and Roy Smalley (1976) all struck out five times in extra inning games. Box score

September 14 – The Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics managed by Haywood Sullivan 4-3 at Met Stadium. Three KC pitchers walk eight Twins batters including five intentional walks, Tony Oliva (2), Don Mincher, Earl Battey and Jerry Kindall. Box score

As of September 15 the first place Twins are 94-54 after 148 games and 10 games up on the second place Baltimore Orioles and riding an eight game winning streak. Even though the Twins are just days away from clinching the AL pennant, their last two home games at the Met against the Kansas City Athletics have drawn a total of 19,105 fans.

Sporting News Sep 4, 1965 P12

Sporting News Sep 11, 1965 P9

 1965 twins 50th anniversary banner

According to ELIAS

Escobar has found his power stroke

Eduardo Escobar 2015Eduardo Escobar homered in the Twins’ win over the White Sox last night, giving him seven homers in his last 22 games, dating back to August 20. Escobar had hit only 13 homers in 346 games in the major-leagues before his current hot stretch began.

Hunter’s been on target lately

Torii Hunter 2015Torii Hunter drove in his 70th run of the season in the first inning of the Twins win over the Tigers yesterday. Hunter and Adrian Gonzalez are the only major-league players to drive in at least 70 runs in each season since 2006, although Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano could soon join that group.

According to ELIAS – David Ortiz hits number 500

David Ortiz joins 500 home run club

Ortiz, David 2015David Ortiz hit two home runs – the 499th and 500th of his major-league career – to lead the Red Sox to victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field yesterday. Ortiz became the 27th player in major-league history to hit 500 homers, and he’s the second of that group to hit his 499th and 500th home run in a single game. Albert Pujols did that on April 22, 2014 at Nationals Park, and just as Ortiz did on Saturday, Pujols hit his 499th in the top of the first inning and his 500th in the top of the fifth.

Ortiz is the fourth player to hit career home run #500 while wearing a Red Sox uniform, and like the previous three, Ortiz hit his milestone homer in a road game. The previous players to do so for Boston are Jimmie Foxx (at Philadelphia in 1940), Ted Williams (at Cleveland in 1960), and Manny Ramirez (at Baltimore in 2008).

David Ortiz David as David Arias 2Ortiz was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners as a free agent on November 28, 1992 and was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the PTBNL on September 13, 1996 to complete an earlier trade made on August 29, 1996 when the Twins sent Dave Hollins to Seattle. At the time David Ortiz was known as David Arias.Ortiz who became well-known as “Big Papi” spent six years in Minnesota playing in 455 games while hitting for a .266 average.

Ortiz had 1,693 plate appearances while in a Twins uniform and hit his first 58 of his 500 home runs as a Minnesota Twin. The Twins released the big first baseman on December 16, 2002 and Ortiz was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent on January 22, 2003 and the rest is history. Why did the Twins release him you ask? The Twins said he couldn’t play first base, was too much of a pull hitter and couldn’t hit to right field…….

Congratulations to David Ortiz from Twins Trivia!

Why the Minnesota Twins domain name is not twins.com

domainsI have often wondered why the Minnesota Twins domain name was not twins.com and up until a few weeks ago I had no idea. Then in late August Ben Lindbergh did a piece for www.grantland.com that answered all my questions. It turns out that all but three MLB teams have a domain name you can reach just by using the teams nickname and adding the .com. The Giants, Rays and Twins are exceptions because the NFL Giants have giants.com and rays.com is a long time business that is not about to give up their domain name. Twins.com however; sits there in essence vacant as you can see by going to www.twins.com .

According to the story the domain was registered in October of 1995 by its current owner’s Durland & Darvin Miller who themselves are real-time twins and have no interest in selling to MLB in spite of being offered some nice money. The article goes on to say that the owners reached out to the Twins but the team never really followed up and they would prefer to deal with the team directly rather than through MLB.

It is an interesting article and if you want to check it you can find it at The Website MLB Couldn’t Buy. Maybe I will see if I can acquire it.

twinsbaseball.com

twins.com

Remembering 1965 – Part 21 – Meet the Manager, Coaches & Players from 1965

The 1965 Minnesota Twins had 35 different players suit up and play ball wearing a Twins logo across their chest against the nine other members of the American league. Their manager, Sam Mele had four coaches at his disposal to help guide the team. Here are the images of the players and coaching staff that made up the 1965 American League champions. Team owner Calvin Griffith also served as the teams General Manager.

Just click on any player image to see a larger image

1965 Twins team picture

1965 Twins team picture

According to ELIAS

Sano launches pinch-hit game-winning homer in 12th inning

Miguel Sanol 2015Miguel Sano is only the second rookie in the last 27 seasons (1989-2015) to hit a pinch-hit game-winning home run in the 12th inning or later. Prior to Sano, the most recent rookies to do that were Lyle Overbay (2003 Diamondbacks, 12th inning) and Mark Parent (1988 Padres, 16th inning), both against the Dodgers.

Sano’s manager, Hall-of-Famer Paul Molitor, had two-career game-winning RBI in the 12th inning–one on a single at Seattle in 1979, and one on a double off another Cooperstown inductee, Goose Gossage, in 1993–but he never had one later in a game than that.

Plouffe has shot at setting a franchise GIDP record

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

With two more GIDP’s (ground in to double play) on his resume after last night’s loss to Kansas City, Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe has the franchise record of 28 GIDP by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970 well in his sights. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett had 27 GIDP in 1991. With his pace of a GIDP once every five games, Plouffe should be able to set a new mark easily. Actually this list of Twins GIDP leaders has some pretty good hitters on it so Plouffe shouldn’t feel too bad. It is kind of an odd year for Plouffe from a GIDP perspective as he has 26 so far this season and in his five previous seasons combined be had only 38.

 Twins GIDP leaders

Rk Player GDP Year Age G PA AB R H HR RBI BA OBP
1 Harmon Killebrew 28 1970 34 157 665 527 96 143 41 113 .271 .411
2 Kirby Puckett 27 1991 31 152 661 611 92 195 15 89 .319 .352
3 Trevor Plouffe 26 2015 29 130 542 491 63 118 18 73 .240 .303
4 Michael Cuddyer 26 2010 31 157 675 609 93 165 14 81 .271 .336
5 Ron Coomer 25 2000 33 140 589 544 64 147 16 82 .270 .317
6 Gary Gaetti 25 1987 28 154 628 584 95 150 31 109 .257 .303
7 Joe Mauer 24 2006 23 140 608 521 86 181 13 84 .347 .429
8 Gary Ward 24 1983 29 157 676 623 76 173 19 88 .278 .326
9 Bobby Darwin 24 1972 29 145 562 513 48 137 22 80 .267 .326
10 Joe Mauer 23 2012 29 147 641 545 81 174 10 85 .319 .416
11 Torii Hunter 23 2004 28 138 569 520 79 141 23 81 .271 .330
12 Rod Carew 23 1971 25 147 632 577 88 177 2 48 .307 .356
13 Earl Battey 23 1964 29 131 471 405 33 110 12 52 .272 .348
14 Michael Cuddyer 22 2009 30 153 650 588 93 162 32 94 .276 .342
15 Marty Cordova 22 1999 29 124 488 425 62 121 14 70 .285 .365
16 Ron Coomer 22 1998 31 137 555 529 54 146 15 72 .276 .295
17 Gary Gaetti 22 1990 31 154 625 577 61 132 16 85 .229 .274
18 Bobby Darwin 22 1973 30 145 614 560 69 141 18 90 .252 .309
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2015.

UPDATE: By hitting into his 28th double play on October 1 against the Royals in his home park, Plouffe tied the Twins record which was held by Harmon Killebrew for 28 double plays in a season. Plouffe was the league leader in hitting into double plays in 2015.

Remembering 1965 – Part 20 – Kindall, Merritt, Boswell, Battey and the All-Star game

When the dog days of August ended the Twins had a 7 1/2 game lead on the Chicago White Sox, were winning at a .616 clip and had a record of 84-50, 34 games above the .500 mark. The team was marching towards their first pennant in spite of all the injuries the team had encountered.

Sporting News Aug 21, 1965 P13

Sporting News Aug 28, 1965 P8

I thought that I would share some images that pertain to the 1965 All-Star game that was placed in Met Stadium on July 13, 1965. Box score

1965 All-Star game logo
1965 All-Star game logo
1965 All-Star game patch
1965 All-Star game patch
1965 All-Star game ticket
1965 All-Star game ticket
1965 All-Star program
1965 All-Star program
1965 All-Star game - l-r is Felix Mantilla, Roberto Clemente, Tony Oliva, Cookie Rojas, Juan Marichal, Zoilo Versalles, Vic Davalillo and Leo Cardenas
Latino’s in 1965 All-Star game – l-r is Felix Mantilla, Roberto Clemente, Tony Oliva, Cookie Rojas, Juan Marichal, Zoilo Versalles, Vic Davalillo and Leo Cardenas

 

1965 All-Star Game: Oliva relives his double, just not with Gibson

Much has changed since the 1965 All-Star Game in Minnesota

Remember when: Recap of the 1965 All-Star Game at Metropolitan Stadium