Month: October 2017

The Twins all-opponent team third baseman

Third Base – Wade Boggs is my pick today but when you have to choose among players like Brooks Robinson, George Brett, Sal Bando, Graig Nettles, Buddy Bell, Doug DeCinces, Carney Lansford, Adrian Beltre, and Josh Donaldson it is no easy task and on another day it might have been one of the others. It is tough to go wrong here.

Boggs who many knew as the chicken man played in the big leagues for 18 season with the Red Sox (1982-1992), the Yankees (1993-1997) and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998-1999). Boggs was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005, selected as an All-Star 12 times, won five batting titles, eight Silver Slugger awards, and was a two-time Gold Glove winner.

He showed the Minnesota Twins no mercy in the 162 games he played against them hitting .344 with an OPS of .870. In his 730 PA’s against Minnesota he had 220 hits of which 42 were doubles, 7 triples, 5 were home runs and he walked 82 times to boot. In his 162 games against the Twins he went hitless just 24 times and on May 20 and May 31 of 1986 he had five hits in each game.

Wade Boggs is an interesting person and was a very good baseball player, if you would like to learn more about him, check out his SABR Bio.

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

The Twins all-opponent team second baseman

Second Base – Lou Whitaker was the Tigers fifth round in the 1975 draft and went on to become the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year, a five-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger winner, and a three-time Gold Glove winner. Sweet Lou played in the big leagues for 19 years, all with the team that drafted him and in his 2,308 games, all but 32 (DH) were as a second baseman.

Whitaker played 162 games against the boys from Minnesota hitting .298 with an OPS of .832. His 172 hits included 34 doubles, seven triples and 14 home runs. Whitaker walked off the Twins twice, both times with singles off of closers Mike Marshall and Ron Davis. To show the respect that Twins managers had for Whitaker, you don’t need to look any further than the 10 IBB that Twins pitchers issued to Whitaker. Whitaker is one of only 15 players to have been given 10 or more IBB by Twins pitchers since 1961.

The runner-up for this spot is Roberto Alomar who put up similar numbers against the Twins over the years. I could have gone either way with these two players, one is a Hall of Famer and the other should be a Hall of Famer. Whitaker has a career WAR of 74.9 and Alomar has a WAR of 66.8. To be honest and fair, I see each player with a strike against them in the fact that one spit in an umpires face and the other didn’t stand for the national anthem. I know it has nothing to do with their play against the Twins but this Twins all-opponent team is strictly my opinion, my list and it is what it is. You are always welcome to express your opinion as well.

The unapproachable greatness of Sweet Lou

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

The Twins all-opponent team first baseman

First Base – Paul Konerko – He was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 13th pick in the first round of the 1994 amateur draft. In 1997, he was named the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America and Baseball Weekly and was named Pacific Coast League MVP .

This 6 time All-Star spent 18 seasons in the big leagues starting his career as a Dodger in 1997 (55 games) before being traded to the Redlegs (26 games) for a brief stay and then again being traded, this time to the White Sox where he menaced the Twins for 16 years before he hung up his spikes after the 2014 season. He played 212 games against Minnesota reaching base via a hit 222 times with 31 doubles and 5 triples and hit .286 (OPS of .850) with 43 home runs and 110 RBI. Runner-up is Miguel Cabrera in a very close call.

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

The Twins all-opponent team catcher

The Twins have called Minnesota home for the past 57 seasons of major league baseball. You might argue that during some of those years the home town bunch wasn’t of major league caliber but the same can be said of some of the opposing teams.

Regardless of how good or bad some of the Twins opponents  have played, every team has had players that enjoyed hitting against Twins. These were the guys that killed the Twins in one fashion or another season after season and we hated seeing them step into the batters box because we know the results were not going to be pretty. We hoped that they would retire or be traded to the National League but then inter-league play came into existence and that option went away. 

Having said all that, if you are a baseball fan you can look back and say that “he might have been a thorn in the Twins side but he was one hell of a baseball player”. So here is the Twinstrivia.com Minnesota Twins all-opponent team catcher. We are going to do this one position at a time over the next week or two. I am certainly interested in your thoughts and opinions or share a memory or two and thanks for stopping by.

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez – This Hall of Famer spent 21 years in the big leagues and was an All-Star 14 times, he won 13 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Slugger awards and was the American League MVP in 1999. His career caught stealing percentage was 46%. Rodriquez spent 13 years with the Texas Rangers but also played for the Tigers, Nationals, Yankees, Astros and Marlins. Rodriquez’s son Dereck was a Minnesota Twins sixth round selection in the 2011 draft as an outfielder but several years into his career the Twins persuaded Dereck Rodriguez to try pitching and this past season he pitched for AA Chattanooga.

So why did he make our Twins all-opponent team? Against Minnesota, “Pudge” played in 160 games, had 640 at bats and hit .313 with an OPS of .854. Rodriguez had 200 hits of which 28 were doubles, 5 triples, 29 home runs and 92 RBI. Runner-up is Carlton Fisk.

SABR article about Ivan Rodriguez by Steve West

 

Where did 2017 playoff teams get their players

There was an article written by Sam Dykstra on MiLB.com back on September 29th that I found really interesting that many of you may have missed titled “Toolshed: MLB contenders find help on the farm“. The article shows where and how 2017 playoff contending teams including the Minnesota Twins acquired their players. It might surprise you, check it out.

This Day in Twins History – 1969 – Manager Billy Martin Fired!

The Minnesota had just completed a 97-65 season winning the AL West Division but lost three games to zip in the 1969 ALCS to the Baltimore Orioles. On the morning of October 13th Twins owner Calvin Griffith called his manager and told him that he would not be returning to manage the club in 1970.

Twins fans loved Billy Martin and were very unhappy when Griffith fired Martin and I was one of those fans who didn’t attend any games for two season after Martin was sent packing.

The 1969 Minnesota Twins were the first major league team that Billy Martin managed but they would not be his last. Martin went on to manage the Detroit Tigers from 1971-1973, the Texas Rangers from 1973-1975, The New York Yankees in 1975 through 1978, again in 1979, before moving to Oakland from 1980-1982 and returned to manage the Yankees in 1983, 1985 and again in 1988.

When he hung up his spikes for the final time he had managed for 16 seasons winning 1,253 games and losing 1,013 and winning one World Series (1977) and winning two )1976 and 1977) pennants.

Star_Tribune_Tue__Oct_14__1969_

Star_Tribune_Tue__Oct_14__1969_ (1)

clipping_14381722

This Day in Twins History – Homer Hanky is 30 years old

1987 Homer Hanky

All of you that have the 1987 Minnesota Twins Home Hanky stashed away somewhere should check on its condition because that hanky is 30 years old. 30 years old, can you believe it? Most of us kept at least one as a souvenir and maybe, just maybe it would increase in value over time. Well, 30 years has passed and the hanky is worth about the same price a lot of us paid for it back then, a buck.

Hankies went out of style years ago but this is no regular hanky, it is the red and white hanky that everyone was waving back in the Metrodome as the Twins were beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1987 World Series.

Check out this first hand recollection by Tim McGuire who was managing editor of the Star Tribune at the time. The story is a fun read and worth a few minutes of your time and it may even surprise you as to how it all came about. Click here to see the story.

 

Who keeps a hanky for 30 years? Minnesota Twins fans do!

Minnesota Twins thank their fans

Here is a video put out by the Minnesota Twins thanking their fans for their support in 2017.

Watch Video

From all of us at the Minnesota Twins, we thank you, our fans, for your support throughout the 2017 season.

Thanks for being the greatest fans in the game!