TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Déjà vu all over again in Baltimore
Adam Jones hit a walk off home run in the 11th inning off Twins reliever Fernando Rodney on yesterday, a year after his teammate Mark Trumbo hit an 11th-inning walk off homer in the Orioles season opener. The Orioles are the first team in major-league history to hit a first-game walk off home run in consecutive seasons, let alone one in extra innings.
The Twins open the 2018 season with 13 players on their 25-man roster who were not on the Twins 2017 Opening Day roster: pitchers (9) – Jose Berrios, Zach Duke, Trevor Hildenberger, Tyler Kinley, Lance Lynn, Gabriel Moya, Jake Odorizzi, Addison Reed, and Fernando Rodney; catcher (1) – Mitch Garver; infielders (2) – Ehire Adrianza and Logan Morrison; outfielder (1) – Ryan LaMarre.
Of the 25 players on the Twins active roster, 11 began their professional careers in the Twins organization. Tyler Kinley is the only player looking to make his major league debut. The oldest on the club is Fernando Rodney (41 years, 11 days) and the youngest is Gabriel Moya (23 years, 2 months, 20 days).
Zach Duke was signed to a one-year contract December 28, Tyler Kinley was selected in the Rule 5 Draft, Lance Lynn was signed to a one-year contract March 12, Jake Odorizzi was acquired via trade with Tampa Bay on February 17, Addison Reed was signed to a two-year contract January 15, Fernando Rodney was signed to a one-year contract (club option in ’19) December 15, Logan Morrison was signed to a one-year contract February 25, Ryan LaMarre was signed to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training November 22. The Twins had just five new players on their 2017 Opening Day roster.
The Twins are returning to their original radio home for the 2018 season in 830 WCCO. The Twins were broadcast on ‘CCO for the first 46 years of their existence from 1961-2006, since then they have been on ESPN 1500 from 2007-12 and Go 96.3 from 2013-17. It is about time!
Source: March 29, 2018 Minnesota Twins Game Notes
Today we are going to look at the Twins starting pitchers that went to the mound to pitch and they didn’t let pitch counts and innings pitched stop them. Here we have a list of Twins starting pitchers that started a game and pitched a minimum of 11 innings, Jim Merritt is the top man on the list and will probably remain there forever.
Since 1961 starting pitchers have stayed in a game 11 or more innings on 430 occasions but the last pitcher to do so was Dave Stewart who went 11 very efficient innings throwing just 129 pitches in his start and complete game 1-0 shutout of the Seattle Mariners in August 1, 1990. Can it happen again? Sure, but the chances are slim to none with today’s coddled and pampered pitchers.
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Merritt | 1967-07-26 (2) | MIN | NYY | W 3-2 | GS-13 | 13.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 2 | Camilo Pascual | 1963-07-23 | MIN | CLE | L 2-3 | CG(13), L | 12.2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 11 |
| 3 | Dave Boswell | 1969-07-14 | MIN | CHW | W 4-3 | GS-12 | 12.0 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| 4 | Jim Kaat | 1969-05-20 | MIN | BAL | W 3-2 | GS-13, W | 12.0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | Camilo Pascual | 1964-10-01 | MIN | KCA | L 4-5 | CG(12), L | 12.0 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 14 |
| 6 | Jim Roland | 1964-05-19 | MIN | NYY | W 7-2 | GS-12, W | 12.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 7 | Camilo Pascual | 1962-09-12 | MIN | CHW | L 1-2 | CG(12), L | 12.0 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 8 | Dave Goltz | 1977-07-25 | MIN | OAK | W 2-1 | CG(11), W | 11.0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| 9 | Bill Singer | 1976-09-01 | MIN | MIL | W 3-2 | GS-11 | 11.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 10 | Dave Goltz | 1976-05-18 | MIN | OAK | W 4-3 | CG(11), W | 11.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| 11 | Bert Blyleven | 1975-08-27 | MIN | MIL | W 1-0 | SHO(11), W | 11.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 12 | Jim Kaat | 1973-06-23 | MIN | CAL | L 1-3 | CG(11), L | 11.0 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 13 | Jim Kaat | 1972-05-24 | MIN | KCR | W 1-0 | GS-11, W | 11.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 14 | Jim Perry | 1970-08-07 | MIN | OAK | W 2-1 | CG(11), W | 11.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 15 | Jim Kaat | 1969-04-09 | MIN | KCR | L 3-4 | GS-12 | 11.0 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 16 | Jim Kaat | 1964-04-26 | MIN | DET | W 3-2 | CG(11), W | 11.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| 17 | Jim Kaat | 1962-08-01 | MIN | BAL | W 3-1 | CG(11), W | 11.0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 18 | Pedro Ramos | 1961-04-28 | MIN | LAA | L 5-6 | GS-11 | 11.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
Jim Kaat did it six times while wearing a Twins uniform and the all-time leader in these kinds of starts since 1961 is Gaylord Perry with 17 starts of 11 innings or more. Bill Singer (1973), Mickey Lolich (1971) and Mark Fidrych (1976) each did it four times in a single season.
Twins Opening Day in 2018 is just a couple of days away as the Minnesota Twins prepare to open season number 58 and take on the Baltimore Orioles. I can’t wait for the Twins and all the other teams to start playing baseball games that count for something.
Spring Training is fun after a long and cold off-season but the exhibition games start to wear on you and I am tired of hearing about all the complaining about the free agents and their problems getting contracts.
I think the Twins made some nice off-season moves that look good on paper but now we have to see if those moves translate into more wins, after all, wins are the only way to measure if the team is better than it was last year. You can say whatever you want but the bottom line is all about wins and losses and how deep the team goes in the playoffs.
The Twins have already suffered a couple set-backs and the season hasn’t even started. Their starting pitcher Ervin Santana, a 16 game winner in 2017 had surgery on a finger on his pitching hand and is out until probably sometime in May. Recently MLB suspended starting shortstop Jorge Polanco for 80 games after he tested positive for Stanozolol. Not exactly how the Minnesota Twins would like to start 2018 but it is what it is and we will have to see if Paul Molitor can get his team off to a good start, something I thing that is crucial to a young team.
I have put together a Twins Opening Day quiz to test your knowledge of the past 57 Opening Days so go ahead and give it a try over at my Twins Trivia Questions page and see how you do.
Japanese star Shohei Ohtani was the talk of this off-season before he agreed to sign as a free agent with the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani is supposedly a very good hitter and a very good pitcher and he wants to do both in MLB. Since he has not played in a regular season game in the majors yet we still have to wait and see if he can pull it off or if he can play in the majors at all for that matter. For all the talk of Shohei Ohtani being the best two-way prospect ever, Ken Brett came first. He was a phenom on the mound and in center field before he became a journeyman.
Ken Brett, the older brother of Hall of Fame Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett was at one time a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins and nine other big league teams including the team that drafted him number one and fourth overall in the 1966 June amateur draft. The California Angels drafted and signed Ken Brett to pitch, almost every other team had they drafted Ken Brett would have made him a center fielder. The Twins took a chance on the free agent Ken Brett when he was released by the Angels and signed him on April 30, 1979, Brett appeared in just nine games as a Twins pitcher, all in relief and he was released on June 4, 1979 and his Twins career was over with no wins or losses and a 4.97 ERA. “Kemer” as Ken Brett was known to his friends was off to join his next team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This all leads into a great piece that Joe Posnanski wrote yesterday about Ken Brett called Before Ohtani, there was Ken Brett and I will let you read it for yourself. Posnanski is a wonderful writer and storyteller so don’t pass this one by. It will also help you to remember a one time Twins player who passed away from brain cancer just like his father before him. You can also read the SABR Bio on Ken Brett here.
MLB announced yesterday that Minnesota Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco has received an 80-game suspension from Major League Baseball for a performance-enhancing substance. Polanco tested positive for Stanozolol, per MLB, which is a violation of the league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. His suspension will begin at the start of the regular season.
“We were disappointed to learn of the suspension of Jorge Polanco for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” the Twins said in a statement. “We fully support Major League Baseball’s policy and its efforts to eliminate performance-enhancing substances from our game. Per the protocol outlined in the Joint Drug Program, the Minnesota Twins will not comment further on this matter.”
“Today, I have regretfully accepted my 80-game suspension for testing positive for Stanozolol,” Polanco said in a statement. “To be clear, I did not intentionally consume this steroid. I now know, however, that my intention alone is not a good enough excuse, and I will pay the price for my error in judgment. The substance that I requested from my athletic trainer in the Dominican Republic and consented to take was a combination of
vitamin B12 and an iron supplement, something that is not unusual or illegal for professional athletes to take. Unfortunately, what I was given was not that supplement, and I take full responsibility for what is in my body.”
Another March and more bad news for the Minnesota Twins. Polanco came on strong at the tail-end of last season and the Twins will miss him for a variety of reasons. You hate to lose a middle-infielder because of the impact it has on your double-play partner and how cut-offs are handled. Players learn each others habits, the sound of their voice, etc. and losing Polanco will hurt the Twins defense.
The other problem with losing Polanco is the impact it will have on Miguel Sano who is facing his own possible suspension from MLB for some legal issues. Sano and Polanco go back a long ways and have been almost like family to each other since they were 12 years old. If you watch Sano and Polanco you will almost always find them together and in BP most days they are in the same group and often have their own home run derby. Not having Polanco in the clubhouse for 80 games could hurt Miguel Sano’s performance this season. Hopefully that will not be the case.
Baseball and baseball owners have changed over the years. When Calvin Griffith was the owner of the Minnesota Twins he truly ran his own team. Griffith was the owner, President, and General Manager. Today we have an owner, we have a President, a Head of Baseball Operation and a General Manager and too many other executives to count. The business of baseball in current times is truly a business with layer upon layer of management.
This off-season the free agent players got their butts kicked by the owners who have refused to pay longer term contracts and the big money deals of years gone by. The owners in essence have instituted a salary cap with their luxury tax and the players union stood by and said “what just happened”.
Historically the Minnesota Twins have not had a lot of pitchers that were strikeout pitchers. I was curious as to just how many times a Twins pitcher has struck out 15 or more in a single game. Turns out that a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat just six times in 9,095 games from 1961-2017 and no Twins pitcher has done it more than once.
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | SO | Pit | Str |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Santana | 2007-08-19 | MIN | TEX | W 1-0 | GS-8, W | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 112 | 83 |
| 2 | Francisco Liriano | 2012-07-13 | MIN | OAK | L 3-6 | GS-8, L | 8.0 | 4 | 4 | 15 | 112 | 75 |
| 3 | Bert Blyleven | 1986-08-01 | MIN | OAK | W 10-1 | CG, W | 9.0 | 2 | 1 | 15 | ||
| 4 | Jerry Koosman | 1980-06-23 | MIN | KCR | W 4-1 | CG, W | 9.0 | 10 | 1 | 15 | ||
| 5 | Joe Decker | 1973-06-26 | MIN | CHW | W 4-0 | SHO, W | 9.0 | 4 | 0 | 15 | ||
| 6 | Camilo Pascual | 1961-07-19 (1) | MIN | LAA | W 6-0 | SHO, W | 9.0 | 5 | 0 | 15 |
If you look at the entire American League during the time period of 1961 to current the leaders are Nolan Ryan with 23 such games, Randy Johnson with 17, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens with 10 and Sam McDowell with 6, no one else had done it more than three times.
Today we are going to take a look at former Twins third baseman Ron Clark. This Texas cowboy was born Ft. Worth, Texas back in 1943, a few years before me but not many. In high school he did it all, played football, basketball, track and of course baseball, unlike today when young kids focus and specialize in one sport and play it year around.
Toughness was one of the hallmarks of the young Texan. As a youth he spent a lot of time around the rodeo circuit, and was well acquainted with riding the horses himself. He notched 104 victories in 111 bouts as a Golden Gloves boxer. He wore cowboy boots, Stetsons, and Western clothes, and spoke with a Texas drawl.
Clark was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in the spring of 1961 as an amateur free agent (the draft didn’t begin until 1965) after graduating from high school and started out with the Class C Bakersfield Bears working his way up the big league ladder. Apparently his .202 average in just 39 games didn’t impress his organization because according to today’s baseball Bible which is the B-R website, Clark was sent to the Los Angeles Angels in some unknown transaction prior to the 1962 season and then a year later the Angels sent him to the Minnesota Twins before the 1963 season. Clark played for the class A Wilson Tobs in 1963 and hit .301 earning him a short stay with the AA Charlotte team. Clark spent 1964 and 1965 with AA Charlotte. In 1966 Clark moved up another rung to AAA Denver which was managed by Cal Ermer and played well enough to earn a September call-up to the Twins.
Ron Clark’s big league debut took place at Met Stadium on September 11, 1966 as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning for Harmon Killebrew but that didn’t end well as he was thrown out at the plate. The Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles that day 11-6 so all is well that ends well. It wasn’t until his fourth game for Minnesota that Clark was able to step to the plate with bat in hand and that took place at Yankee Stadium I against Fritz Peterson as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Jim Ollom. With the Twins down 2-0 and runners on first and third, Clark hit a deep sac fly to center that scored the Twins first run in a game that the Twins would eventually win 5-3. In his fifth and final big league game in 1966 Clark entered the game as a replacement for Killebrew at third base with the hometown Twins beating the Tigers 12-1 and singled off George Korince.
Clark was never able to win a big league job full-time with Minnesota and was sold to the Seattle Pilots in July 1969. Clark was mentioned in Ball Four, Jim Bouton’s classic memoir. Commenting on a game in which Clark collided with Boston slugger George Scott and needed 13 stitches in his lip to repair the damage, Bouton called Clark a “tough, gutty ballplayer” and wrote that he “has a baby face, two tattoos on his arm, smokes big cigars — and when he has thirteen stitches in his lip he drinks beer out of the side of his mouth.”
The Pilots became the Brewers in 1970 and Clark was traded to Oakland and then moved on to Milwaukee and Philadelphia before making his last big league appearance in September of 1975. Ron Clark coached, managed and scouted for numerous teams until 2014 when this baseball lifer decided to retire.
Make sure that you read Frank Quilici‘s account of a near tragedy while Clark was with Charlote 1964 andwas hit with a batted ball in the Sporting News below.