The Major League Baseball definition of an error is: A fielder is given an error if, in the judgment of the official scorer, he fails to convert an out on a play that an average fielder should have made. Fielders can also be given errors if they make a poor play that allows one or more runners to advance on the bases. A batter does not necessarily need to reach base for a fielder to be given an error. If he drops a foul ball that extends an at-bat, that fielder can also be assessed an error.
Defensive errors are a vital tool in many statistical equations. For instance, batters do not receive RBIs for any runs that would not have scored without the help of an error and pitchers are not assessed any earned runs for runs that would not have scored without the error.
According to several sources the official scoring for MLB games was primarily done by home town newspaper writers that covered the games prior to 1979 when most major newspapers banned their writers from doing official scoring.
Since there are no official records kept of who official scorers have been for Minnesota Twins home games in the past I have put together a list as best I can by using the Sporting News and Star and Tribune archives. The best information I garnered though was by talking with Laurel Prieb from MLB and Stew Thornley and Howard Sinker who either have been official scorers or currently are performing that function.
- Prior to 1979 – BBWAA home town newspaper writers
- 1979 thru 1987 – Bob Beebe
- 1988 – Bob Beebe and Howard Sinker (Glenn Gostick did a game in 1988)
- 1989 – June 1991 – Howard Sinker and Tom Briere
- June 1991 to May 2007 – Tom Mee with Barry Fritz filling in when Mee was unavailable.
- Remainder of 2007 – Barry Fritz, Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Howard Sinker
- 2008 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
- 2009 thru 2012 – Gregg Wong, Stew Thornley and Kevin Hennessy did a few games each year
- 2013 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
- 2014 thru 2018 – Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Dr. Kyle Traynor
According to MLB the official scorer is permitted to change a judgment call for up to 24 hours after a game concludes or is suspended. A player or team can request that the executive vice president of baseball operations review a call in which said player or team participated. This request must come within 72 hours after the conclusion or suspension of that game, or 72 hours after the official scorer’s call in the event a post game change is made.
A Glimpse Into The Life Of An Official Scorer
It is time for us to take a look back in Minnesota Twins history with the help of Baseball-Reference.com and see how the Twins have fared in this important baseball statistic. Or are errors just another thing that happen during a game playing a minor role in terms of wins and losses? How often have you heard “that you have to be strong up the middle” to be a good team? Probably more often than you have heard that “liars figure and figures lie”. Take the 1965 Minnesota Twins for example, we all know that they played in the World Series that year and lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers but did you know that they led the American League with 172 errors that season?
Twins play-off teams and where they ranked in errors
- 1965 – ranked 10th out of 10 teams with 172 errors
- 1969 – ranked 9th out of 12 teams with 150 errors
- 1970 – ranked 3rd out of 12 teams with 123 errors
- 1987 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 98 errors
- 1991 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 95 errors
- 2002 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 74 errors
- 2003 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 87 errors
- 2004 – ranked 6th out of 14 teams with 101 errors
- 2006 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 84 errors
- 2009 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 76 errors
- 2010 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 78 errors
- 2017 – ranked 2nd out of 15 teams with 78 errors
So it appears that it helps to have a strong defense to be a play-off team but it there are no guarantees as five Twins teams over the years had the fewest or second fewest errors (82, 84, 88, 94 and 99 and still spent October at home. The most errors the Twins team committed was in their first season (1961) when they had 174 errors.
So what Minnesota Twins players had the most errors in a single season? That would be shortstop Zoilo Versalles with 39 errors in 1965, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award. Last Twins player to have 30 or more errors in a season? That would be Roy Smalley in 1977 with 33 boots. The Twin have committed 6,699 errors since they started play in 1961, that averages out to 114 per season. The first Twins error was made by outfielder Jim Lemon in the Twins first ever game.
