Twins starters back in 1970

The Minnesota Twins had a pretty good team back in 1970, good enough to win 98 games and finish first in the AL West under skipper Bill Rigney. The team was either in first or second place all year long and was never more than a game out of the lead. The Twins were beaten (pretty badly) three games to none in the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles for the second year in a row.

L-R We have Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Jim Kaat and Luis Tiant posing for a photo during spring training 1970 in Orlando. Bert Blyleven was part of that starting rotation but for some reason is not in the picture. Credit: Getty Images – Bruce Bennett

The Twins top pitcher was Jim Perry who led the league with 40 starts completing 13 of them and won a league leading 24 games which earned him the American League Cy Young award after the season ended. In addition to the above pitchers, only two other Twins pitchers started games that season, Bill Zepp and Tommy Hall. The Twins pitching ranked second in 1970.

 

German born Navy vet 65-68 and served aboard the Shangri La CVA-38. I run https://Twinstrivia.com, best MN Twins historical web site there is. Stop by daily and check out OTD in Twins history and much more. Live in Minnesota and Florida depending on what time of the year it is.

2 comments

  1. Bert Blyleven became a starter when Luis Tiant was injured and lost for the season. The picture is probably from Spring Training that year and Blyleven was not yet pegged as a starter for the team.

  2. just a hair before I became a fan, remember getting the cards as a kid where the Orioles smoked them in the league playoff…Jims son Chris was a great golfer for Edina, where I went to HS…great team

Comments are closed.