Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

A historical look at Twins players & their strike outs

Today’s baseball is so different than the baseball I grew up watching over the years. In the old days you had better be a big time slugger if you were strikeout prone or you would find yourself looking for work in the real world. Today’s baseball seems to have no issue with players with high strikeout rates.

In the short 60-game season in 2020 the Minnesota Twins were tenth in runs scored in the American League but thanks to their good pitching (ranked second in the league) they were able to win the division title on the last day when the Chicago White Sox choked coughing up a three game lead with just eight to play by losing seven out of their last eight games.

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Twins to welcome back fans to Target Field in 2021

The last time that Twins fans were able to watch their home-town team play ball in-person at Target Field was back on October 7, 2019. That was the day their beloved Bomba Squad was sent packing from the American League playoffs when they were swept by the New York Yankees three games to zip in the ALDS. Their starting pitcher that day was Jake Odorizzi. Sergio Romo and Trevor May pitched in relief and the only run they scored in the 5-1 loss was a home run hit by right-fielder Eddie Rosario. When Twins fans sadly filed out of Target Field that day little did they know that they would not be able to watch another game in person at Target Field for another 548 days. It will not be until April 8, 2021 when the Twins host the Seattle Mariners in their Home Opener that Twins fans will again be able to cheer on their Twins. All the players named above will be playing for other teams.

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Former Twins reliever Stan Williams gone at 84

Stan Williams

Stan Wilson Williams was born in Enfield, New Hampshire on September 14, 1936 and passed away at the age of 84 on February 20, 2021 at his Laughlin, Nevada home. Williams had been hospitalized on February 11 and in hospice care due to the effects of cardio-pulmonary illness.

In 1954 the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the big fire-balling right-hander straight out of high school at the age of 17 and sent him to Shawnee of the Class-D Sooner State League and gave him an invite to spring training, primarily because he could throw over 90 miles per hour, but as you might expect was a bit on the wild side. In 1955 he pitched in class B Newport News where he posted an 18-7 record striking out 301 batters and walking 158 in 242 innings. On the fast track to the big leagues, in 1956 he split his time between AA Ft. Worth and for the AAA St. Paul Saints. In 1957 he spent the entire season with the AAA St. Paul Saints going 19-7 with a 3.04 ERA but he still walked over five batters a game.

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Are Twins games and baseball games really too long?

How about some fun facts about the length of Twins games?

  • During the Met Stadium era (1961-1981) Twins home and away games averaged 2 hours and 36 minutes.
  • During the Metrodome era (1982-2009) Twins home and away games averaged 2 hours and 49 minutes.
  • During the Target Field era (2010-current) Twins home and away games average 3 hours and 3 minutes.

For additional information on the length of Twins games year by year and how the Minnesota Twins compare to the the AL, NL and MLB in general you need to stop by our Length of games including longest Twins games page. There you will also find the longest games played by the Minnesota Twins in terms of time and innings.

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What will Twins fans experience at Spring Training in 2021?

Front entrance sign

Twins pitchers and catchers are due to report to Ft. Myers on Friday, February 19 to start preparations for the 2021 season with position players reporting the following Tuesday. Normally I would have been in Ft. Myers for almost two months and I would have been out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex numerous times checking on the early arrivals and getting a few pictures but life is still not back to normal and I don’t see it happening in the near future.

Instead I find myself back home in Minnesota where the temperatures are colder than Mitch Garver’s bat as I wait for my second COVID vaccine and then with a bit of luck we might head south to enjoy what beautiful SW Florida has to offer. The question is what will fans get to see when and if they do go down to Ft. Myers? The Twins spring training complex has historically been one of the best spring training sites to get up close and personal and watch the players get ready for another baseball season. Don’t count on that this year.

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2021 MLB Season just around the corner

The temperatures might be below zero and there is about 8″ of snow on the ground here in Minnesota but the boys of summer will be reporting to spring training camps all across Florida and Arizona on February 17, just about a week away. But once again in 2021 things will not be like they always have been when it comes time for the pitchers and catchers to report, we are still battling COVID-19 and we have less than 10% of the United States vaccinated.

A few days ago MLB proposed that spring training and the regular season be delayed a month and that a 154 games schedule be played versus a 162 game schedule and that players would get their full pay but the MLBPA shot that down. So this morning MLB in agreement with the MLBPA came out with the following health and safety protocols for 2021 season.

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Life at Twinstrivia.com goes on

I have had some serious web site issues here at twinstrivia.com with my site provider the last six weeks or so that I hope have finally been resolved and life at twinstrivia.com goes on, at least I hope it does. It all started when my site provider decided they would go through some server migrations and my number so to speak, came up on December 16. After a two day outage they finally got my site up and running but it was slower than molasses in Minnesota in February.

After at least 16 calls and God knows how many hours on the phone over six weeks all I got from them was that they “might” have some server issues that they are working on but they had no idea when things would be resolved. They kept telling me to hire an engineer and redesign my web site, a site that was running fine until they decided to do a server migration. I was so frustrated I was ready to give it up and close down Twinstrivia.com after 15 years of blogging.

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Twins players that left us in 2020

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.

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Julio Becquer a member of 1961 Minnesota Twins team passes away

Julio Becquer

Julio (Villegas) Becquer was born in Havana, Cuba on December 20, 1931. The 88 year-old Becquer passed away in Hopkins, Minnesota on November 1, 2020.

Becquer batted and threw left handed and was 5’11” and about 178 lbs. Julio attended the University of Havana and was signed to play for the Washington Senators as a free agent prior to the 1952 season by super scout Joe Cambria who was famous for signing numerous Cuban players. After spending 1952-1954 in the minors, Julio got his first call to the big leagues in late 1955 but in 1956 he was back in the minors.

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