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
Truth be told, I have never played organized baseball but I have followed major league baseball since the mid 50’s and now sixty some years later I still follow and love the game. But baseball has changed and is changing at a faster pace than ever before. The so-called baseball experts say that baseball is better than ever, the players are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before.
I am not so sure. Oh, I agree that the players are probably more athletic and they have better equipment at their disposal but that doesn’t necessarily make baseball a better or more fun game to watch today than it was back in the day.
Earlier this week I was out at the CenturyLink Sports complex watching the Minnesota Twins and some of their minor league players work out and it got me to thinking how much the game has evolved since I started to follow America’s pastime.
Back in 1969 the Minnesota Twins were playing their ninth season of baseball in Minnesota after moving from Washington after the 1960 season where they were known as the Washington Senators. That 1969 team was a very good team and it was managed by Billy Martin who was getting his first shot as a big league manager. The team eventually won the AL West division title with a 97-65 record and went on to lose the ALCS to the 109-53 Baltimore Orioles three games to none. Billy Martin ended up getting fired shortly there after and the rest is history.
During that 1969 season at the request of baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Major League Baseball Promotions, Inc ran a contest to determine each MLB teams “Greatest Team” and “Greatest Player”. This would eventually lead to the naming of the “Greatest Player Ever” and the “Greatest Living Player” at the 100 year anniversary celebration of professional baseball at the All-Star game at Washington on July 22.
As a part of baseball’s 100 year anniversary festivities a special logo was designed to be worn on all uniform sleeves and that patriotic looking logo remains the MLB logo today – the batter who looks a lot like Harmon Killebrew, but isn’t. (That, according to the designer, Jerry Dior).
On June 3rd the Minnesota Twins announced their All-Time Twins team and to no ones surprise, Harmon Killebrew was voted as the Greatest Twins Player ever. Since there was no internet back then, the vote counts were much smaller.
The number of players in camp was different back then too, in their first camp the Twins had 33 big leaguers and 14 farmhands as they called their minor league invites back then. The PDF below will show you who was invited to the Twins first spring training at Tinker Field.
The Twins of course had a medical staff made up of Dr. William E. Proffitt Jr. and Trainer “Doc” George Lentz. Some of their techniques might be questioned today. The main tool trainers used back then was ethyl chloride, which had long been used by physicians as a local skin anesthetic to reduce pain when lancing boils and making small incisions. The numbness is produced by freezing the skin, however; the use of too much ethyl chloride results in frostbite.
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The Twins have 28 spring training games scheduled with the first game to be played at Tinker Field on March 11.
Eddie Lopat (credit Getty Images)Clyde McCulloughSam Mele
Between 1973-2018 there have been 275 players that have been the Twins DH in at least one game. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have been the DH in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. Tony Oliva is the Twins all-time leader in games played as the Twins DH with 406 and his is also the very first Twins DH but he was the Twins DH in only 24% of his games so he does not qualify for this list
Mark Buehrle started more games against the MN Twins than any other pitcher.
The Minnesota Twins have faced a lot of good pitchers since they started play as the Minnesota Twins in 1961. There are eight pitchers that have beaten the Twins 20 or more times during their careers and one of them is still pitching. One opposing pitcher has beaten the Twins 30 times. The Twins have beaten one pitcher 20 times but they have also lost to him on 19 occasions. Who are these guys? Follow the link below to see how the best opposing starting pitchers have fared against the Minnesota Twins over the last 58 seasons. Data courtesy of B-R Play Index.
Rob Bowen and Boedha, a Belgian Malinois-German Shepherd mix. The two serve together on the K-9 unit for the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia. (Courtesy of Rob Bowen) Click on image to make it larger
There is a great article in “The Athletic” ($ site) today by Dan Hayes about former Minnesota Twins catcher Rob Bowen and his post-baseball career in law enforcement. It is a great story that I know you will enjoy if you can get to it.
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and that means that the Minnesota Twins will win more games than they lose in 2019.
On Friday morning, Phil was yanked from his burrow by men in suits and top hats to make his forecast via his shadow. After seeing it, Phil’s handlers announced amid much hoopla that there will be a winning team playing at Target Field in 2019.
Spring Training is just around the corner and your favorite team is ready to start playing some baseball. Thank God I have not heard the Twins slogan from 2018 “This is how we baseball” for months now and if I never hear it again it will be too soon.
This is the year that Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton bust out and show Twins fans it was worth the wait because if they don’t it could be six more years of waiting. Phil has been doing this for 131 years and he has been right………… twice. All right, those aren’t the best odds but they are better than winning the Powerball or the Minnesota Vikings winning the Super Bowl.
Cookie Lavagetto was the Washington Senators manager when they became the Minnesota Twins but he lasted just 66 games and finished with a 25-41 record in 1961.
Harry Arthur “Cookie” Lavagetto was born December 1, 1912 in Oakland, California and died in his sleep on August 10, 1990 in Orinda, California at the age of 77. He acquired his nickname from his Oakland Oaks teammates, who called him “Cookie’s boy,” because he had been hired by Oaks’ president Victor “Cookie” Devincenzi. Lavagetto played third base and second base in the major leagues for 10 seasons and played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1934-1936 and was a four-time All-Star while with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1937 -1947. Cookie did not play ball in the majors from 1942-1945 due to serving his country in the military during World War II. Cookie enlisted in the US Navy in February 1942 even though he was classified 3-A and was sworn in as Aviation Machinist Mate 1st class. He is most widely known as the pinch hitter whose double with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth inning ruined Bill Bevens‘ bid for the first World Series no-hitter in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series and gave his Brooklyn Dodgers a breathtaking victory over the New York Yankees, a game known as “The Cookie Game”. You can listen to a broadcast clip of that play here and see a video clip here. The Dodgers went on to lose the 1947 World Series to the New York Yankees 4 games to 3.
