Category: Did You Know?

Did you know?

November 26, 2010 – That in the 1989 Amateur draft the Minnesota Twins drafted two AL Rookie of Year winners in Chuck Knoblauch (first round) and Marty Cordova (tenth round) as well as two 20-game winners in Denny Neagle, albeit not with Minnesota (third round) and Scott Erickson (fourth round). And then, in round 52 they drafted Denny Hocking as a catcher and he went on to become one of the lowest-drafted players to ever reach the majors. Hocking had a 13 year big league career and was a Minnesota Twin between 1993-2003. In 1997 Hocking played games at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, RF, CF, LF and DH. Though he was drafted as a catcher, Denny never donned the “tools of ignorance” in a big league game.

 

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Aerial view shows a jam-packed Dodger Stadium--record crowd of 55,934--at third game of World Series. Photograph dated: October 11, 1965.

 November 7, 2010 – That prior to the advent of interleague play, the Twins were the only team in MLB history to play a regular season game and a World Series road game in the same ballpark. The American League Los Angeles Angels/California Angels played in Dodger Stadium from 1962 through 1965. In 1965, the Twins were 4-5 against the Angels at Dodgers Stadium but when they played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers stadium in the 1965 World Series they lost all three games in that same stadium.

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October 11, 2010 – Don’t tell anybody but Minnesota’s home town hero Twins catcher Joe Mauer has lost each of the nine postseason games he’s played in his major-league career. Three other men have played on the losing team in at least nine postseason games without ever playing in a postseason win: Jody Reed (0-11), Don McMahon (0-10) and Leo Cardenas (0-9). Source: Elias

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1985 All-Star game logo

July 16, 2010 – That the first All-Star game Home Run Derby was held at the HHH Metrodome in 1985? The rules were way different back then. When the derby first began in 1985 each player received two turns at bat with five outs per turn at bat. Any swing that was not a home run was an out. This format allowed for the possibility of ties. The derby started out as a contest between the two leagues, with each league having an equal number of players. At the first derby there were ten players (five per league). The NL was represented by Dave Parker of the Reds, Dale Murphy of the Braves, Steve Garvey of the Dodgers, Ryne Sandberg of the Cubs, and Jack Clark of the Cards. The NL had 16 home runs with Parker leading the pack with 6. The AL was represented by Jim Rice of the Red Sox, Eddie Murray of the Orioles, Carlton Fisk of the White Sox, Tom Brunansky of the Twins, and Cal Ripken Jr, of the Orioles. The AL had 17 home runs with Rice, Murray, Fisk, and Bruno each hitting 4 and Ripken added 1.

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May 12, 2010 – In 2004, while with the Marlins, Pavano started the final game at Olympic Stadium in Montreal prior to Expos moving to Washington D.C. On October 4, 2009, Pavano was slated to start the final regular season game in Metrodome history. Subsequently, the Twins forced a tie-breaking 163rd game to be played on October 6 vs. Detroit, made the postseason and faced the Yankees in three games. Pavano started the third and deciding game at the Dome vs. New York on October 11 (Yankees swept, winning the final game 4-1). Pavano closed down the Metrodome after 28 MLB seasons and closed down Olympic Stadium from Major League Baseball after 27 seasons. Source – Twins MLB Presspass

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April 12, 2010 – The average ticket price for a major league baseball game in 2010 is $26.74, an increase of 1.5% from last season. In Minnesota however; where the Twins are moving in to their new ballpark at Target Field, the average ticket price has jumped 45% to $31.47. The highest average ticket price is in Chicago where the going rate for a Cubs ticket is $52.56. On the other end of the spectrum the lowest average ticket price is the Arizona Diamondbacks $14.31. By the way, with the Twins moving into Target Field, the value of the team has jumped 14% to $405 million according to estimates by Forbes magazine.

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March 12, 2010 – The Minnesota Twins/Washington Senators have held spring training in the following locations: Phoebus, Va. (1901); Washington, D.C. (1902-1904); Hampton, Va. (1905); Charlottesville, Va. (1906); Galveston, Texas (1907); Norfolk, Va. (1910); Atlanta (1911); Charlottesville, Va. (1912-1916); Atlanta (1917); Augusta, Ga. (1918-1919); Tampa (1920-1929); Biloxi, Miss. (1930-1935); Orlando (1936-1942); College Park, Md. (1943-1945); Orlando (1946-1990); Ft. Myers (1991-present).

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March 6, 2010 – That the year 1977 marked the first time in their 17 year history that the Twins wore their names on the backs of their uniforms.

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October 29, 2009 – That the Minnesota Twins were the first team in history to start measuring the distance of home runs? The practice started at Met Stadium in 1963.

or that

Harmon Killbrew hit his first major league home run in a Washington Senator uniform off Detroit Tiger pitcher Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium on June 24, 1955 in front of 4,188 fans and hit his last home run off Minnesota Twins pitcher Eddie Bane in a Kansas City Royal uniform at Met Stadium on September 18, 1975 in front on only 3,201 fans.

or that

Harmon Killebrew hit more home runs off former Red Sox and Tigers pitcher Earl Wilson than any other pitcher? The Killer hit 9 out of the park against against Wilson.

or that

Harmon hit 4 walk-off home runs in his career and that 3 of them were against the New York Yankees?

or that

Harmon blasted more home runs (393) in the 1960’s than any other player. He led the American League in home runs 5 times during the decade, and almost certainly would have been the 4th player in major league history to hit 400 or more home runs in a single decade had an injury not cost him more than 50 games in 1968. (The 3 players who have hit 400 home runs in a decade are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Mark McGwire.) Killebrew ranked second in RBIs for the decade (1,013) and fifth in slugging percentage (.546).

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June 20, 2009 – That in 1961 the Minnesota Twins became the first team to use the name of their state to identify their team? The Twins, who were the original Washington Senators wanted to appease the fans from both St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Twin Cities. The Twins played their home games in a newly refined Metropolitan Stadium which was located in Bloomington near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and was originally built for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.