The Minnesota Twins were unable to defend their 1965 championship season and finished 1966 with a 89-73 record in second place behind the World Champion Baltimore Orioles. The team was out to make amends in 1967 and get back to the World Series.
In late March of 1967 the Minnesota Twins like every other team in the ten team American League was getting ready to wind down spring training at Tinker Field in Orlando, Florida and prepare for the long season ahead. The soon to be 1967 Minnesota Twins were a veteran team but they had high hopes for rookies like pitcher Jim Ollom, first baseman Rich Reese, third baseman Ron Clark and a 21 year-old Panamanian second baseman by the name of Rod Carew who spent 1966 in the class A Carolina League playing for the Wilson Tobs where he hit .292 with one home run and committed 21 errors.
Today you can read what Twins beat writer Max Nichols wrote about the Twins in the March 25, 1967 issue of the Sporting News which was the weekly baseball bible back in the days before the internet.
That was awesome, John.
The Sporting News was the baseball bible. And This Week in Baseball was the must-not-miss show to watch each week. TSN & TWIB were all you really needed (other than the daily box scores in the paper). I think TWIB is the only thing I really miss about watching television. Is it still on?
Interesting to see that the Twins were maybe going to pass the Yankees as having the highest payroll in baseball. The Yankees still had Mickey Mantle, Tom Tresh & Joe Pepitone as well as Stottlymeyer and Downing!
Fun stuff. Thank you.