TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
In 1,013 games Twins second baseman Chuck Knoblauch stole a total of 276 bases and Rod Carew stole 271 bases in 1,635 games. On the other end of the spectrum we have the following heavy-footed plodding group who had no chance to steal a base although a few of them attempted to do so.
Twins leaders in games played with zero stolen bases
Even catcher Earl Battey who was as slow as they come and once was thrown out at first base on what appeared to be a clean single to right field had 13 career stolen bases.
The Minnesota Twins and catcher Jason Castro have apparently reached agreement on a 3-year $24.5 deal. The 29-year-old catcher was a first round selection (10th) overall of the Houston Astros in 2008. That same year the Twins selected outfielder Aaron Hicks as the 14th pick and the San Francisco Giants selected catcher Buster Posey with the fifth pick in round one. After being selected in 2008 Castro made his major league debut on June 22, 2010 and he has been in the big leagues ever since. Castro missed the entire 2011 season due to knee surgery and showed up on the Astros’s DL in 2012, 2013, and 2015. Castro was an All-Star in 2013, the first year Houston was in the American league and he has some playoff experience on his resume.
Castro is not known for his hitting skills but is deemed to be very good behind the plate in calling games and framing pitches. Castro has thrown out 26% of base thieves while with Houston and his mark in 2016 was 24%. His best season throwing out runners was in 2015 when he threw out 36%.
Castro has some pop with his bat having hit 62 career home runs over six seasons but you have to remember that Houston is not exactly Yellowstone Park so I would expect his home run count to drop slightly at Target Field. Prone to strike out (between 115-151 times the last four seasons), Castro, a left-handed hitter has career average of .232 but he has hit .210 and .211 the last two years. Castro had a .307 OBP in 2016, the first time it has been north of .300 in the last three years.
I like the addition of Jason Castro and I think he and John Ryan Murphy will make a nice platoon catching tandem for the 2017 Minnesota Twins.
For some reason this was one of my favorite Twins baseball cards back when I was a kid collecting baseball cards for a nickel a pack.
Russ Nixon was born in Cleves, Ohio on February 19, 1935 and passed away on November 9*, 2016 at the age of 81 in the same city that he was born. Nixon, a left-handed hitting catcher played in the big leagues for all or part of 12 seasons between 1957-1968 with the Indians, Red Sox, and the Minnesota Twins.
Russ Nixon attended Western Hills High School in Cleves and went on to attend the University of Cincinnati where he studied mechanical engineering. In 1952 Russ Nixon was selected as the American Legion ball “Player of the Year. Russ Nixon had a twin brother, Roy, a first baseman and each signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1953. Roy however; never played above class A ball and did not get to wear a major league uniform.
Russ Nixon in 1957
Russ Nixon made his major league debut with the Indians on April 20, 1957 at Briggs Stadium when he replaced starting catcher Hal Naragon in the seventh inning with the tribe trailing the Tigers 6-0. Nixon had one at bat in that game and he singled to right field off Tiger hurler Frank Lary and then was lifted for a pinch-runner. Russ was a good hitter and had a .268 average in 906 games but most of his career was spent as a back-up catcher and he only appeared on 100 or more games in 1958 and 1960 and never reached 400 at bats in any season.
The Minnesota Twins and Russ Nixon crossed paths when the Twins acquired Nixon and second baseman Chuck Schilling from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for pitcher Dick Stigman and minor league infielder Jose Calero on April 6, 1966. Calvin Griffith was hoping to strengthen his team by acquiring Schilling and Nixon but many wondered how acquiring two players from the ninth place Red Sox was going to help the defending American League champions. Both Nixon and Schilling were excited about being acquired by a club as good as Minnesota and looked forward to the 1966 season. Schilling was one of the final cuts before the 1966 final 25 man squad was finalized and refused his assignment to the minors and decided to quit pro ball at the age of 28 with five seasons in the big leagues under his belt rather than play in the minor leagues. Nixon, now at the tail end of his career played for the Twins in 1966 and 1967 and hit .244 in 125 games with one home run and that ironically was at Fenway Park off Red Sox starter Billy Rohr in a Twins 4-0 win. The Twins released Russ Nixon in April of 1968 and he signed with the Red Sox again and played one final season in the big leagues before hanging up his catching gear for the final time. But Russ Nixon couldn’t leave baseball, he went on to scout, coach and manage both in the minor leagues and the major leagues through 2008. Russ Nixon had a 231-347 record as a manager in the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds in 1982-1983 and the Atlanta Braves from 1988-1990. Nixon called it quits after the 2008 season which was year number 56 in pro ball. Russ Nixon has the distinction of being active in Major League Baseball for 56 consecutive years in various roles.
Away from baseball in the off-season Nixon bred Arabian horses on his ranch. Here is a bit of baseball trivia that involves Russ Nixon that you may not know. Russ Nixon played in more (906) major leagues games than any other player and yet was never able to steal a single base, he did get caught stealing seven times.
The photo’s below are provided courtesy of Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.
Not sure who is Russ and who is Ray in this photoRuss Nixon
We at Twins Trivia would like to pass on our condolences to Russ Nixon’s family and friends and to thank them all for the great memories.
* = Some sources and obituary’s list date of death as 11/9/2016 while others had 11/8/2016, still doing some checking as I want to get it correct. UPDATE – I have confirmation from the family that Russ Nixon passed away on 11/9/2016.
Everyday is a good day to thank a Veteran for his service but Veterans Day is even more meaningful. With the national election behind us and a new President waiting his turn to sit in the Oval office we should all be thankful to the Veterans who have made this possible. It makes no difference if you voted for the President-elect or not, it is now time to respect the wishes of the people and the laws of this country and to roll up our sleeves and move on to make it even better than what is already is.
Here is a list of former Minnesota Twins players that have served their country. Please take a few moments to thank them for their service.
Halloween 2016 finds the Minnesota Twins in a waiting mode. After firing long-time GM Terry Ryan back in July and putting Rob Antony at the helm as the interim GM with his hands tied behind his back the good ship “Thelosingtwins” has been DIW and drifting aimlessly while they try to locate and bring on board the new captain they hired from the Cleveland Indians who are still playing baseball while many Twins players have already notched a couple dozen rounds of golf after putting their gloves and bats away for the winter.
Derek Falvey
The Minnesota Twins new Superman PBO is going to be Derek Falvey who will report to Minnesota as soon as The Indians beat the Cubbies in the 2016 World Series which could be as early as Tuesday night or the next day if they need game seven. There are probably going to be a lot of changes in the Twins front office prior to the MLB Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Maryland on December 4-6. The current rumor is that the Twins new GM will be Thad Levine for the Texas Ranger organization. After that hire who knows whats next but the Twins field staff should not get too comfortable or buy any green banana’s.
The Minnesota Twins went heavy on the tricks versus treats in 2016. The Twins treated their fans to only 59 wins this season while playing nasty tricks on their fans on 103 occasions. Some of the bad plays that Twins players made this season surely must have been on purpose by bad actors because major league players shouldn’t play that bad.
Who knows what the Minnesota Twins have in store for 2017 and beyond but we can only hope to see more treats and fewer tricks. I was lucky enough to get in touch with Jim Pohlad recently to discuss the current state of the Minnesota Twins organization and here is our conversation.
Well there you have it, your Halloween message from the Minnesota Twins.
My previous post was about Twins position players that were born in the 1920’s and played for the home town team, today’s post will cover the pitchers.
Al Worthington, nicknamed “Red”, was a right-hander who is credited with being baseball’s first born-again Christian. Worthington started his big league career by pitching complete game shutouts in his first two games in 1953 for the New York Giants. However; it turned out that starting was not his forte and he eventually migrated to the bullpen where he earned 111 career saves. Worthington pitched for the Twins between 1964-1969 notching 37 wins and 88 saves with a 2.62 ERA before hanging up his spikes for good. Al Worthington SABR Bio.
Ray Moore
Ray Moore was a right hander who started his major league career in 1952 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. “Farmer” or “Old Blue” as he was called had an 11 year big league career that started as a starter and ended as a reliever. Credited with the Twins first ever save. Ray Moore SABR Bio.
Johnny Klippstein pitched in Minnesota from 1964-1966. Klippstein had an 18 year big league career in which he was used as a starter for the first eight years and as a reliever for the last 10 years and he earned 101 wins and 65 saves. Hung up his player cleats after five games for the Tigers in 1967. Johnny Klippstein SABR Bio.
Chuck Stobbs was a lefty that received a $50,000 bonus to sign from the Boston Red Sox prior to the 1947 season Stobbs won over 100 big league games and is probably best noted for giving up “that 565 foot home run to Mickey Mantle that left Griffith Stadium” in 1953. Stobbs played in Minnesota in 1961, his 15th and final season as a player. Chuck Stobbs SABR Bio.
Jackie Collum was height challenged standing only 5’7″ but yet he pitched in the big leagues for nine season between 1951-1962. The Iowa lefty pitched briefly for the Twins in 8 games going 0-2 and posting a 11.15 ERA before the Twins traded him to the Indians along with a PTBNL for pitcher Ruben Gomez.
Rubén Gómez pitched for the Twins very briefly in 1962 getting two starts and pitching one complete game in his only win for Minnesota. Gomez pitched in the big leagues on and off for 10 years but he pitched an amazing 29 seasons in the Puerto Rican Winter League from 1947 to 1977 and by the time he hung it up he had over 400 wins. Gomez got his nickname of “El Divino Loco” from friends and Santurce teammates for two reasons: his highway speeding habits and crazy driving off the field; and, he could not be intimidated on the mound. Ruben Gomez SABR Bio.
The Minnesota Twins started play in 1961 after leaving Washington D.C. where they were known as the Washington Senators. Even though Calvin Griffith’s team started playing in Met Stadium in 1961 the team had a player on the roster that made his major league debut in game one of a doubleheader on September 22, 1940 in Shibe Park as the starting left fielder for the Philadelphia Athletics in a 5-4 loss to the Washington Senators. Valo went on to play for the Kansas City A’s, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and the Washington Senators in 1960 before playing for the Twins. When Valo appeared in his first game in a Twins uniform on April 21, 1961 at Met Stadium against who else but the Washington Senators he was playing in his 1,724th game. Elmer Valo appeared in just 33 games for Minnesota and only had 36 plate appearances. Valo was used strictly as a pinch-hitter except for one blow out game in which he pinch-hit and then stayed in the game as a left fielder and had four PA’s. The Twins released Valo on June 17, 1961 and he signed on with the Phillies again where he played out the 1961 season and then retired from baseball. An oddity about Elmer Valo is that he played for Philly when the Athletics moved to Kansas City, he was a Brooklyn Dodger when they moved to Los Angeles and he was with the Washington Senators when they moved to Minnesota to become our Twins. Elmer Valo SABR Bio.
“Harmon Killebrew joins the 200 Home Run club on Sept. 15, 1963. He is joined by teammates Wally Post, left and Vic Wertz. (Pioneer Press file)”
Vic Wertz who debuted for the Detroit Tigers on April 15, 1947 against the St. Louis Browns played 35 games for the Twins in 1963 before retiring from the game. Vic Wertz SABR Bio.
Wally Post also played briefly for Minnesota in 1963 appearing in just 21 games after being purchased by the Twins from the Cincinnati Reds. The Twins released Post after the 1963 season and Post went on to play one more year, this time in Cleveland. Wally Post SABR Bio.
All three of these players were born in the 1920’s which is just around the corner. It is hard to believe that in the next few years we will have future Twins players born 100 or more years after the “old time” Twins were born. Elmer Valo, Vic Wertz and Wally Post are all deceased and though they were not All-Stars in Minnesota they each had long baseball careers and played a part in the history of the Minnesota Twins and deserve to be remembered for their contributions to Twins lore.
When Target Field opened in 2010, Minnesota Twins fans were hungry for out-door baseball after having spent the previous 28 seasons watching the Twins play their home games indoors at the H.H.H. Metrodome and over 3.2 million fans poured through the Target Field turnstiles to watch the playoff bound Twins play ball. The 2010 AL Central champs were swept by the New York Yankees 3 games to zip in the ALDS but it turns out that was the least of the Twins problems.
In baseball, a pickoff is an act by a pitcher, throwing a live ball to a fielder so that the fielder can tag out a baserunner who is either leading off or about to begin stealing the next base.
Four time Cy Young award winner and Hall of Famer Steve Carlton pitched for the Minnesota Twins in a total of just eight games in his short stint in Minnesota in 1987-1988 and he had one pickoff and that was the last one in his illustrious career in which he picked off a MLB career leading 144 runners.
Tippy Martinez pitched for Minnesota in his final season in the big leagues in 1988 after pitching for the Yankees in 1974-1976 and the Orioles in 1976-1986. According to Wikipedia:
“Martinez may be best known for picking off three Toronto Blue Jays at first base in one inning during an August 24, 1983 game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The Orioles, having replaced both their starting catcher and his backup while rallying to tie the game in the ninth inning, entered the tenth with reserve infielder Lenn Sakata in the game at catcher. Three consecutive Blue Jays hitters reached first base and each one, thinking it would be easy to steal a base on Sakata, took a big lead. Martinez picked off all three baserunners, then became the winning pitcher when the Orioles won the game on Sakata’s home run in the bottom of the tenth.”
In 2014 Jon Lester of the Red Sox finishes his year having faced 346 batters with at least one runner on base, yet without having attempted a single pickoff throw.
