Checking out some May 1962 articles about the Minnesota Twins written by Arno Goethel and Tom Briere about Rick Rollins, Don Mincher, Zoilo Versalles, Earl Battey and others. Baseball was different back then and these articles give you a look back at Twins players from a time when some of you were not yet born and a perspective on what the MLB was like back then.
Back then there was no internet and the best way to get major league baseball news was in your local newspaper (which I read in the Taylors Falls school library during study hall cause we couldn’t afford a daily subscription and my folks could not read English back then) or by signing up to get the Sporting News once a week in the mail. It wasn’t as timely as the internet but it sure was fun waiting and finally getting that weeks Sporting News in the mail. A one-year subscription to The Sporting News in 1962 cost $12.00, as a standard weekly issue was priced at $0.15 per copy on the newsstand.
Looking back at 1962, the Twins were a young club finally finding their stride. By season’s end they finished 91–71, good for second in the American League, and showed they could hang with the Yankees. Harmon Killebrew powered the lineup with 48 home runs, Bob Allison added 29 more, and Camilo Pascual broke out as a true ace with 20 wins and a league-leading 206 strikeouts. It was the first season where the Twins looked less like a relocated franchise and more like a rising contender with a real future.
You are obviously a Minnesota Twins or you probably wouldn’t be on this site so my tip for you today is to consider signing up for SABR. Here in Minnesota it is the Halsey Hall Chapter if you have some interest or want to learn more about it, you are always welcome to come to one of the various meetings or by going to the Halsey Hall Chapter website. Tell them John sent you.
One more thing, if this kind of Minnesota Twins coverage interests you, sign up for free in the upper right hand corner of the home page to be notified whenever something new is published here.
John,
Love the article and your TSN history.
I didn’t subscribe by mail, but waited patiently for Sunday. That was when the latest issue hit newsstands where. I lived.
Loved the selected clippings on the Twins. Many of those players were the nucleus of the 1965 AL pennant winning team. I have always been a Red Sox fan, but admired the Twins, especially the 1965 team and the WS that year. I consider one of the best along with the 1991 Series.
Thanks for the note Paul and have a great day. Good luck to those Red Sox.