As we start a new year in 2021 and hope to get the COVID-19 pandemic behind us and head out to Target Field to watch the Twins play ball I wanted to share a list of former Minnesota Twins players and people associated with the Twins that passed away in 2020. We lost some great ones.
Pinch-hitter extraordinaire Julio Becquer was born in La Habana, Cuba on December 20, 1931 and passed away on November 1 at the age of 88. Originally signed by the Washington Senators he appeared in 419 games for them between 1955-1960 before playing in 57 games for the Twins in 1961 and in one game in 1963. Becquer goes down in Twins history for hitting the Twins first pinch-hit grand slam home run and as the first “position” player to pitch in a Twins game.
Carroll Hardy was born in Sturgis, South Dakota on May 18, 1933 and passed away at the age of 87 on August 9th. An amazing athlete, he earned ten letters as a Colorado Buffalo in football, baseball and track. While in the Cleveland Indians farm system he played in the NFL with the San Francisco 49’ers in 1955. He played major league baseball as an outfielder with the Indians, Red Sox, Colt .45s and finished his career with the Twins in 1967 primarily as a pinch hitter appearing in eleven games. In 1960 he became a trivia question for the ages when he became the only player to ever pinch-hit for Ted Williams.
Pitcher Jim Manning was born in L’Anse, Michigan on July 21, 1943 and went on to become a legendary high school basketball player. Manning passed away at the age of 76 on January 1st of this past year. Manning’s big league career consisted of just 5 games, all with the Minnesota Twins. The amazing part is that he did it at the age of 18 after appearing in just 12 games in the Appalachian League a year earlier.
Pitcher Ron Perranoski was born April 1, 1936 in Peterson, New Jersey and passed away on October 2nd at the age of 84. Perranoski had a long 13 year big league career as a reliever (with just one big league start) with the Dodgers, Twins, Tigers, and the Angels accumulating 178 career Saves. Back in his day relievers pitched more than one inning and in over half of his big league seasons he pitched more than 100 innings. Perranoski pitched for the Twins from 1968-1971 and led the league in Saves in 1969-1970.
Legendary Sports Columnist and Radio Personality Sid Hartman died October 18, 2020 at the age of 100 writing his last column for the Star Tribune just a day earlier. Hartman was born March 15, 1920 in North Minneapolis. From a humble start selling newspapers on the street in 1928, he wrote about sports for the Star Tribune for the ensuing decades. If Minnesotans referred to “Sid,” there was no doubt who they were talking about, much the same as the first-name status of the greatest of those he covered, men like “Kirby” and “Harmon” and “Bud.”
Baseball lifer Wayne Hattaway and one of my favorite people passed away on April 30th. Wayne was born in Mobile, Alabama on February 24, 1940 and always called Mobile home even though he spent most of his life on the road living and working in baseball for 60+ years. Although baseball was his life, he was a huge Alabama football fan, one thing you never wanted to do was to interrupt Wayne when he was watching an Alabama game. Hattaway started in baseball at he age of 12 when he was offered the batboy job for the Mobile Bears in 1952. I only knew Wayne Hattaway for about three years but it was as if I has known him my entire life, he was fun to be around and he told you exactly what he thought. We talked on the phone regularly. The “Big Fella” was obviously “old school” and not a fan of all the changes that had occurred in baseball over the years. It was always important to Wayne that he be remembered as a person and for his long career in baseball. That is why we did a lot of recordings of his life in baseball. He wanted people to hear how baseball used to be and he wanted you to hear it in his own words.
RIP gentlemen and thank you for the great memories, you are a part of Minnesota Twins history forever.
A complete list of deceased former Minnesota Twins players can be found on our “Deceased Twins” page.