I Bet You Didn’t Know This About Former Twin Randy Hundley

 

I recently checked out a book out of the local library called “The 34-Ton Bat” written by one of my favorite writers, Steve Rushin. Rushin was born in Elmhurst, Ill. and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota.

According to Rushin, he had a great-great uncle Jack Boyle who played for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, St.Louis Browns, Chicago Pirates, New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies between 1886 and 1898 and in 1892 was signed by the Giants for $5,500 and was the highest paid player in baseball history. Boyle was primarily a catcher and first baseman but could and did play every other position but pitcher.

Steve Rushin wanted to get into baseball and was hired by the Minnesota Twins at the age of 13 in 1979 to be a vendor at Met Stadium and did so until the early 80’s when he along with the Twins moved to the Metrodome. After graduating from Bloomington Kennedy High School in 1984 and Marquette University in 1988, Rushin joined the staff of Sports Illustrated. 

Randy Hundley

But on with our story, it is not about Steve Rushin, it is about what he wrote about former Twins catcher Randy Hundley. Hundley was acquired by the Minnesota Twins on December 6, 1973 when they sent catcher George Mitterwald over to the Chicago Cubs.

Who was this Twins player?

“The Golden Glove” sculpture sits outside Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.  (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

What Twins player holds the Minnesota Twins record for committing the most errors in a single season? How many errors did he have and what year did this happen?

Know your Twins numbers

0 – The lowest number worn by a Twins player or field staff is 0 (zero), worn by catcher Junior Ortiz back in 1990 and 1991.

3 – Worn only by Hall of Fame Twins player Harmon Killebrew and retired on May 4, 1975.

4 – Hall of Famer Paul Molitor wore the number 4 as a Twins player in 1996-1998 and as a coach in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2014 and as a manager from 2015-2018. 

6 – Worn by four former Twins players, Billy Consolo, Ted Lepcio, Jim Snyder, and Vic Wertz before Tony Oliva. Tony-O had his number 6 retired on July 14, 1991.

10 – Nine different Twins players wore the number 10 before manager Tom Kelly strapped it on his back from 1987-2001 as the Twins skipper. The Twins retired TK’s number 10 on September 8, 2012.

13 – Ten different Twins players and field staff have worn unlucky number 13, the first player being Bill Tuttle back in 1961 and the last player being Jason Kubel in 2014.

14 – Worn by four players and a manager before Kent Hrbek took the number 14 to glory. Twins retired the number on August 13, 1995.

25 – Hall of Fame and one time Twins player Jim Thome wore the number 25 on his back in 2010-2011.

28 – Worn by 14 different players including Bert Blyleven. The first player to wear the number 28 was Pedro Ramos and the last was Jesse Crain 2004-2010. Bert’s number 28 was retired on July 16, 2011.

29 – The seventh and final player to wear the number 29 was Rod Carew. The Twins retired this number 29 on July 19, 1987.

32 – MLB Hall of Famer and one time Twins player Dave Winfield wore the number 32 in 1993-1994.

34 – Nine players wore the number 34 before Kirby Puckett put it on in 1984 and no one has worn the number since Kirby took it off for the last time in 1995. The number was retired on May 25, 1997.

38 – MLB Hall of Famer and one time Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wore the number 38 in 1987-1988.

42 – Only three Twins players (Gerry Arrigo, Jim Manning and Buzz Stephen) wore the number 42 before the number was retired across MLB in 1997.

47 – Hall of Fame pitcher and one time Twins pitcher Jack Morris wore the number 47 in 1991.

73 – The lowest number that has never been worn by a Twins player or field staff.

83 – In the Minnesota Twins 58 year history Twins players and field staff have worn 83 different numbers.

99 – The highest number worn by a Twins player was 99 and it was worn by Logan Morrison.

Three players were on the active roster for the Twins but never played in a game for the team: Chuck Schilling, who wore number 18, in 1966; Maurice Ogier, who wore number 17, in 1968; and Dave May, who wore number 20, in 1977. Ogier and May never played in the majors.

Information is courtesy of historian and Minnesota Twins official scorer Stew Thornley’s website

Did You Know?

Johan Santana – Credit Craig Jones/Getty Images

Regulars that stop by this site know that I am a fan of La Vida Baseball. There is a new post out the site called THE LEGACY OF A JEWELER ON LATIN AMERICAN BASEBALL. One of the players that Andres Reiner signed was Johan Santana. The posting includes a short video called “Johan Santana 1995 scouting report“. It is very interesting and talks about how Reiner had the vision to see a pitcher in Johan Santana when he was a first baseman/outfielder with no power. Check out the story and the video. 

Did you know?

The 2017 Minnesota Twins became the 13th team — and the first since the 2009 Mariners — to go from losing 100 games to posting a winning record the next season.

Did you know?

Tim Melville pitching for the Long Island Ducks

Did you know that Tim Melville whose nickname is “Smellville” attended Wentzville (Holt) High school in Wentzville, MO and goes with a Twitter handle of “timelville”? Melville is expected to join the Twins today and start one of two games of their double-header against the Chicago White Sox. Melville who started two games for the Cincinnati Reds in 2016 has not gone more than four innings in either of his previous big league starts. Hopefully Tim will not live up to his nickname today!

Did You Know?

Found in today’s Twins Notes, How can you not love stuff like this?

DID YOU KNOW?

Former Twins reliever Travis Bowyer is celebrating his 36th birthday today. Bowyer, a Twins 20th round pick in 1999 appeared in eight career games for the Twins, all in 2005. Bowyer, along with left-handed pitcher Scott Tyler were traded to the Florida Marlins in 2005, in exchange for second baseman Luis Castillo . Castillo was traded to the New York Mets in 2007, in exchange for catcher Drew Butera and outfielder Dustin Martin. Drew Butera was traded to Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013 in exchange for left-handed pitcher Miguel Sulbaran. Sulbaran was traded to New York Yankees in 2014 in exchange for infielder Eduardo Nunez. Nunez was traded to San Francisco Giants in 2016 in exchange for tonight’s starter Adalberto Mejia.

Did you know?

At the 2017 All-Star break the Twins record from 1961 to current stands at 4,461 wins and 4,560 losses. The Twins have won a total of 410 games in walk-off fashion and lost 412 games via the walk-off. The means that 09.11% of the Twins games end via a walk-off in one fashion or another. 

The best season the Twins have ever had for walk-off wins was 1987 when they had 16 walk-off victories. The fewest walk-off wins occurred in 1982 when they had just two.  So far in 2017 they have also had just two walk-off wins.

Naturally there is the other side of the coin and the Minnesota Twins suffered 15 walk-off defeats in 1964 but only had three in 1993 and 2006. So far this season they have just one walk-off loss.

Twins walk-off King

So who is the Twins walk-off king? That would be non other than Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett who had 12 walk-off hits in his Twins career, Kent Hrbek was not far behind with 11. 

 

Did you know?

I recently bought a book called “Extra Innings Baseball” at an estate sale and it has some interesting facts and stories and I thought I would share a couple of items from the book even though I just started reading it.

Did you know that: Kirby Puckett was the first player born in the 1960s to be elected to the Hall of Fame?

Socks Seybold

Did you know that: One of the oddest home runs in history took place at American League Park which was the home of the Washington Senators from 1904 to 1910. In this ballpark there was a doghouse near the outfield flag pole. The groundskeeper stored the flag in the doghouse between games. One afternoon the doghouse door was left open, and a member of the Senators hit the ball inside of it. Philadelphia A’s center fielder Socks Seybold crawled to retrieve the ball and got stuck allowing the batter to circle the bases for an “inside the doghouse” home run.

Did you know that an outfielder is sometimes referred to as a “gardener”?

Did you know that: The great Hall of Famer Walter Johnson who pitched for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927 and who many consider the greatest pitcher ever won 417 games and yet had a 5.3 SO/9 rate? Still he had 3,509 career strikeouts, maybe it had something to do with a 2.17 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and a 0.1 HR/9 ratio.

I will let you know when I find more “cool” stuff. Have a wonderful Memorial Day week-end and don’t forget why you can celebrate Memorial Day!

 

Memorial Day history

Twins starting pitchers that never finished what they started

Do you know what pitcher has started the most games for the Minnesota Twins and hasn’t completed a single one of his starts?

Mike Pelfrey
Mike Pelfrey

The Minnesota Twins franchise leader in starts without a single complete game on his resume is Mike Pelfrey but Pelfrey does have a couple of complete games with the New York Mets. Ironically former Senators and Twins pitcher Jim Kaat holds the Washington Senators franchise record for most starts with 11 and zero complete games and he did that between 1959-1960. Oddly enough three of the ten pitchers on the list below pitched for the Twins in 2016.

Twins leaders in starts with zero complete games

Rk Player GS ? G GF W L W-L% SV IP SO ERA BF
1 Mike Pelfrey 64 64 0 11 27 .289 0 341.0 197 4.94 1513
2 Boof Bonser 60 96 9 18 25 .419 0 391.2 317 5.12 1723
3 Kevin Correia 54 54 0 14 26 .350 0 314.2 162 4.49 1364
4 Pat Mahomes 51 114 26 18 28 .391 3 366.2 217 5.82 1635
5 Willie Banks 45 52 5 16 17 .485 0 259.2 191 4.61 1163
6 Glen Perkins 44 401 225 35 25 .583 120 618.2 502 3.83 2601
7 Sam Deduno 41 63 8 16 18 .471 0 279.0 198 4.26 1216
8 Tommy Milone 40 49 5 12 11 .522 1 219.2 154 4.79 968
9 Mike Trombley 36 365 132 30 34 .469 34 645.2 528 4.53 2815
10 Tyler Duffey 36 36 0 14 13 .519 0 191.0 167 5.42 838
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/20/2016.

The MLB record holder in this category is still active and he is Bud Norris (a free agent I believe) with 185 starts and zero complete games in the books between 2009-2016 while pitching for five different teams.

The MLB leader by the way, in complete games is Cy Young with 749 and Bert Blyleven leads the Twins in complete games with 141 which comes out to 41% of his starts.