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
I did not attend the Twins season opener at Target Field yesterday but I did watch it from the comfort of my home where it was nice and warm and the game came in crystal clear on Fox Sports North in HD via Comcast. The folks at the ballpark had to endure a windy 35 degrees with a wind chill in the 20’s at game time (3:10 PM) as they watched the Detroit Tigers beat the Twins 4-2. I thought I would take a few minutes and share my observations of the game.
Vance Worley
Twins starter Vance Worley was out there in short sleeves while many players wore ski masks and winter hats to keep warm. Worley gave up 8 hits and a walk while striking out three in 6 innings. I have not seen Worley pitch very much prior to this game but I was impressed with his effort today. Yes, he gave up more hits than I would like but what I took away from this game was that Worley is fighter. He had a lot of guys on base early on but he kept pitching and kept his team in the game, which is more that most Twins starters have done in the last year or so. Take Francisco Liriano for example, as soon as he had a runner or two on base you could count on him folding like a $2 umbrella. The man could not pitch with runners on base. The weather was miserable and the Tigers are a top-notch team and it was the season opener with a lot of hype, I though Worley acquitted himself very well.
I felt bad for Aaron Hicks, a rookie that skipped AAA and in his major league debut he gets to face Jason Verlander on a 35 degree day at home. A tough task and those three strikeouts will hopefully just be a small speed bump in what promises to be a long and succesful career for Hicks. Hang in there Aaron.
The Twins lost but they had their chances multiple times but they let the Tigers off the hook by being over-anxious. The Tigers bullpen stinks and the Twins were just not patient enough and didn’t wait for good pitches. When you leave 12 on base you don’t deserve to win and the Twins didn’t. The Twins took 6 walks and they could have had several more in key situations but they swung at “balls” to often.
Although it is a game in the loss column we have to remember it is only one game, I am anxious to see the Twins next game.
Elias says: Justin Verlander improved his record to 7-0 with a 1.22 earned-run average over his last seven starts against the Twins. The last pitcher to win seven consecutive starts against the Twins was David Wells, who won nine in a row against them from 1996 to 2000.
The long cold winter still has a hold on the area as most of the grassy areas are still covered with snow, you can still walk across most of the lakes in Minnesota because ice still covers the shimmering blue waters, there is still snow and ice on the roof of our home and the wind blowing from Canada can still take your breath away but according to the calendar, spring arrived a week or so ago. We heard a robin the other day and until the recent cold spell the snow was starting to give way to the grass that is showing signs of turning green while puddles were forming in the yard and I had hopes of the ice actually leaving our backyard pond later in the week. All signs of spring but there is no better sign of spring than baseball.
The Minnesota Twins arrived at Target field yesterday and an umpire will officially announce that spring has arrived when he yells out “Play Ball” this afternoon about 3:10 P.M. at Target Field with Joe Mauer behind the plate and Vance Worley on the mound. Everyone is off to a fresh start, the memories of lost games and bad seasons have faded in our minds as we all look forward to the promises a new season of baseball can bring. You don’t believe that? You better check todays sports page and the baseball box scores because even the Houston Astros won last night. We are all excited to see players like Aaron Hicks begin what we all hope are All-Star careers in a Twins uniform and a sparkling new starting pitching staff that hopefully leads the Twins to more wins than they were able to muster last year or the year before for that matter. Some Minnesota Twins may be participating in their last Twins opening day while others that missed making the team look forward to having the opportunity to participate in a Target Field opening day. I won’t be at today’s opening day but I have attended a number of opening days over the years and no matter how many times you have witnessed it, it is always something special.
Even though I don’t expect the Twins to make the playoffs, heck, I don’t even think they can play .500 ball, but I am hoping that the team is competitive, fun to watch and keeps improving as the season progresses. Twins fans are a hardy bunch and they have supported the team when it good and when it was bad and so it begins one more time. Enjoy the good days and file the bad days away as learning experiences and cheer for your Minnesota Twins. April 1st has arrived and the cold weather is a cruel April Fool’s joke with the game time temperature expected to be about 33 degrees and the cold beer may be replaced with a hot cup of chocolate or coffee but it is time for the Minnesota Twins to play ball.
I will finish with a quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, the Field of Dreams.
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. “
The Minnesota Twins are playing their final spring training game today and I am sure they are hoping for a quick non extra inning game so they can grab a quick shower and board the plane for their flight to Minneapolis where they look to get settled in before they open the season against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, April 1. It seems that the baseball gods are having a good laugh and are playing an April Fool’s joke on both the Twins and the Tigers by making them play ball on day that the weather prognosticators say will be a windy 31 degrees at game time with wind chills in the 20’s.
When the Twins first moved here from Washington they played outdoors in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 through the 1981 season. In-door baseball was just at the starting gate about this time as Roy Hofheinz was in the process of building the “Eighth Wonder of the World” in Houston in what would open in April 1965 as the Harris County Domed Stadium but was later called simply as the Astrodome.
Let’s take a look at some of the interesting facts about the Twins home openers.
The Twins called the “Met” home for 21 years and their record in their Met Stadium home openers was 21-9 including winning 10 out of 11 between 1964-1974.
The first Twins pitcher to get credited with a win in a Twins home opener was Bill Pleis in 1964.
Of those 21 Met home openers, only 5 of the games were actual season openers as the Twins started their season on the road most of the time. The Twins were 2-3 in season openers at the Met.
During the Met Stadium years the Twins opened the season 6 times against the A’s, five times as Oakland and once as Kansas City and they won four and lost two.
Between 1961 and 1981 they opened the home season as early as April 6 (1971) and as late as April 23 (1972).
The average temperature at the start of a Twins home opener at Met Stadium was 56.48 degrees.
The coldest start to a Twins home opener occurred on April 14, 1962 when it was 33 degrees at game time and the Twins ended up losing to the Los Angeles Angels 12-5 in front of 8,363 hardcore Twins fans. The coldest start ever to a game at Met Stadium took place against the New York Yankees in May 2, 1967 when the temperature stood at 32 degrees and the Twins trounced the Yankees 13-4.
The warmest start to a Twins home opener took place on April 22, 1980 when the California Angels and Rod Carew were in town to take a 8-1 pasting at the hands of the Twins who were as hot as the 89 degree temperature that day. Geoff Zahn pitched a complete game and Hosken Powell, Ron Jackson and Roy Smalley all hit home runs.
The Twins moved indoors in 1982 and played in the HHH Metrodome through the 2009 season so the out-door temperatures mattered little as it was always between about 66-72 degrees inside.
Of the 28 seasons that the Twins played dome ball, they opened the season at home 15 times and their record in these season opening games was 7-8.
The Twins were 9-4 when their first game of the season at the Dome was not a season opener.
Many of the Twins openers at the Dome were night games, something not done at any out-door venue in Minnesota.
Between 1982 and 2009 they opened the home season as early as March 31 (2008) and as late as April 27 (1995).
Since the Twins have called Target Field home in 2010 they have never played a season opening game there until this year. The earliest game they have played there was April 8, 2011. The Twins are 2-1 in Target Field home openers. The average temperature at a Target field home opener so far has been 57.67 degrees but even if the temperature is only 31 degrees on Monday, the average temperature for a Target field home opener will still be about 51 degrees.
Here is a chart showing the Twins outdoor home openers.
YEAR
Date
Temperature
Result
Season opener
1961
4/21
63
lost 5-3
no
1962
*4/14
33
lost 12-5
no
1963
4/9
49
lost 5-4
yes
1964
*4/22
56
won 7-6
no
1965
4/12
44
won 5-4
yes
1966
4/12
52
won 2-1
yes
1967
4/14
51
won 5-3
no
1968
4/17
62
won 13-1
no
1969
4/18
59
won 6-0
no
1970
4/11
49
won 8-2
no
1971
4/6
53
lost 7-2
yes
1972
*4/23
44
won 8-4
no
1973
4/13
51
won 8-4
no
1974
4/9
53
won 3-1
no
1975
4/15
48
lost 7-3
no
1976
4/13
75
lost 4-1
no
1977
4/15
77
lost 3-2
no
1978
4/14
50
won 14-5
no
1979
4/17
63
lost 6-0
no
1980
4/22
89
won 8-1
no
1981
4/9
65
lost 5-1
yes
2010
4/12
65
won 5-2
no
2011
4/8
63
won 2-1
no
2012
4/9
45
lost 5-1
no
2013
4/1
35
lost 4-2
yes
* = The Twins had home openers postponed in 1962 (April 13), 1964 (April 21), and 1972 (April 22).
Back in December 2010 I did a post about Twins player ejections and determined that the Twins all time leader in player ejections was Torii Hunter with five. I mentioned in that article that I would look at manager ejections in the future and I have finally gotten around to doing it. Torii was ejected for the sixth time as a Twin on June 10, 2015 (updated 6/11/2015).
The Twins have had 12 managers since 1961 with some serving in that role for as little as 66 games but in the last 16 seasons they have had just two managers, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. According to the Twins, each player or manager ejected has to pay their own fines but I personally have my doubts about that. So let’s take a closer look at these managers and see how many times they ran afoul of an umpire. We will start at the bottom and work our way up the list of Twins managers career ejections.
0 – Cookie Lavagetto managed in the majors for all or parts of five different seasons with the Washington Senators and the Twins managing a total of 657 games and during that time he was never ejected. Cookie was ejected once as a player (10 seasons) and twice as a coach (12 seasons).
1 – Johnny Goryl managed the Twins for just 73 games in the latter part of 1980 and early portion of 1981 and got the “out” sign from the umps just once as the Twins manager but he was ejected once as a player (6 seasons) and three times as a coach (13 seasons).
2 – You wouldn’t expect to find the fiery Billy Martin this low on the ejection list but he only stayed around for one season as the Twins skipper and the umpires gave him the heave-ho just twice as the Twins manager but he was ejected a total of 46 times in his 16 seasons as a major league manager but he doesn’t even make the top 10 list. Billy also had 6 ejections during his 11 years as a player but as a coach (4 seasons) he never had to leave the game early.
3 – The mild-mannered players manager Sam Mele took the Twins to the 1965 World Series and was the Twins manager for all or parts of seven seasons. Mele hit the showers early just three times as the Twins manager and he did not have any run-ins with the umps during his 10 seasons as a player or two years as a coach.
4 – The only managing gig that Cal Ermer ever had was with the Twins for part of 1967 and all of 1968 and he had disagreements with umpires on four occasions that called for an early dismissal. Ermer spent 7 seasons in the minors as a player but never got the call to the big leagues as a player. Ermer coached for four seasons and was asked to leave the premises early in two games.
4 – Ray Miller was another Twins manager that didn’t last a full season, managing part of 1985 and most of 1986 but during that time he managed to find himself in the umpires cross-hairs four times and he clocked a total of 10 career ejections during his four seasons as a big league manager. Since he never played in the big leagues he had no ejections as a player but did get thrown out of one game while serving as a coach.
4 – Bill Rigney was a big league manager for 18 season between 1956-1976 and has notched 49 manager ejections, four of them were with the Minnesota Twins. Rigney was in the big leagues as a player for eight seasons and the umpires had him end his day early five more times. (SABR now has Rigney with 51 career ejections.)
5 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected. Last ejection April 20, 2017.
5 – Tom Kelly was named the Twins skipper late in 1986 and hung on to that role through the 2001 season before resigning. TK ended up winning two World Series and winning 1,140 of the 2,385 games he managed. During this stretch TK was booted out of only 5 games, once each in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, and in 2000. He was sent packing for disagreeing on calls at first base twice and arguing balls and strikes three times. Kelly played in the big leagues during one season and coached for four more but he didn’t have any issues with the umpires that called for his dismissal.
5 – Frank Quilici took over from Bill Rigney as the manager about midway in 1972 and had that role through 1975. During Frank’s managing career the umpires asked him to head for an early shower five times. Frank played in the bigs during five different seasons and coached for two more without irritating any of the umpires, at least to the point of ejection.
7 – Gene Mauch managed for 26 seasons winning 1,901 of the 3,940 games with stops in Philadelphia, Montreal, Minnesota and California. The umpires saw fit to send Mauch packing a total of 43 times, seven of these early exits came as the Twins skipper. Mauch played in the majors for nine seasons and had a number of disagreements and the men in blue saw to it that Mauch was neither seen nor heard five times.
10 – Who would have thought that Billy Gardner would be so disagreeable that in his six seasons as a big league manager (five in Minnesota and one in KC) that umpires would send him home early 10 times (all as a Twins manager). I guess it was the fact that Gardner managed some pretty bad teams including the 1982 60-102 bunch that maybe drove him over the edge at times. It is Gardner however that is credited with molding these youngsters into ball players that would help the Twins win it all in 87 and 91. Gardner played big league ball in 10 different seasons and coached in five more but he never was ejected from a game until he became a manager.
Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.
63 – That bring us to the current Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy is a player and fan friendly manager that has had more than his share of disagreements with major league umpires, so many in fact that he has now moved up to a tie for 10th on the list of all-time MLB career manager ejections list. With just four more “your outta here” by the umpires Gardy will pass Joe Torre and have 9th place all to himself. The only active manager ahead of Gardenhire is Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland with 68 and you have to figure he will keep adding to his ejection total. As Gardy prepares for his 12th season as the Twins manager he already had 63 ejections on his resume as a manager plus one additional early exit as a coach back in 1998. One of Gardy’s 63 ejections was during game 2 of the 2010 ALDS against the New York Yankees at Target field. The Twins have played in Minnesota for 52 seasons and had eleven managers prior to Gardenhire and when you add up all those manager ejections you get a total of 45. Gardy has managed a total of 1,773 Twins games so that means he gets ejected once every 28.14 games and averages just under 6 early showers a season. Gardenhire has a high of 8 ejections in a season twice and his low was just 3 ejections and that was in 2012, maybe Gardy is starting to mellow or he just realized he had a bad team last year and didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with the umpires.
Hunter Wendelstedt III
So who is the man who has sent Gardy to the showers the most frequently over the years? The one and only Hunter Wendelstedt III has called for an early exit by Gardy on five occasions and he only has 63 career ejections so Gardy has 12.6% of Wendelstedt’s ejections. Isn’t it strange that Gardy has been ejected 63 times and Wendelstedt has 63 ejections on his career resume too. Next on the list are Chris Guccione and Gerry Davis with four Gardenhire ejections each. The first time that Gardy was run by Wendelstedt was on July 18, 2005 in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome. Gardy was not pleased and had this to say after the game but I should warn you that if you have young children near by you might want to “eject them from the room” before you hit the play button. If you are listening to this at work you might want to turn the volume down.
By the way, the umpire with the most career ejections is Bill Klem with 256 but he umpired 5,369 games between 1905-1941 and is in the Hall of Fame. The active umpire with the most career ejections is Bob Davidson with 156.
If you look back in franchise history the Washington Senators had 18 different managers from 1901 -1960 (Bucky Harris served in that capacity three different times) and these managers were ejected a grand total of 43 times with Bucky Harris leading the pack with 12 heave-ho’s but he managed the Senators for 18 seasons and 2,776 games.
The best manager meltdown I think I have ever seen has to be Phillip Wellman on June 1, 2007 when he was the skipper for the AA Mississippi Braves. Here is a video clip of the epic ejection, Wellman ended up with a 3 game suspension for his efforts.
Looking through various MLB record and stats and getting some help from David Vincent at SABR I was able to get a list of MLB managers that have been thrown out of a game at least 50 times during their career’s. I added in the number of games they managed and came up with a ratio of how often they get ejected. The lower the “games per ejection” the more often the manager has been ejected. You can see that Ron Gardenhire is in some pretty select company.
Managers with 50 or more ejections (through 2014 season)
Ejections
Manager
Games Managed
Games per Ejection
1.
161
Bobby Cox#
4,501
27.96
2.
118
John McGraw#
4,768
40.41
3.
94
Earl Weaver#
2,541
27.03
3.
94
Leo Durocher#
3,738
39.77
5.
86
Tony LaRussa#
5,094
59.23
6.
80
Paul Richards
1,837
22.96
6.
80
Frankie Frisch#
2,246
28.08
8.
72
Jim Leyland
3,496
48.56
8.
72
Ron Gardenhire
2,107
29.26
10.
66
Joe Torre#
4,292
65.03
11.
63
Lou Piniella
3,544
56.25
12.
63
Bruce Bochy*
3,222
51.14
13.
58
Clark Griffith#
2,917
50.29
14.
52
Charlie Manual
1,794
34.50
15.
51
Bill Rigney
2,561
50.22
16.
50
Mike Hargrove
2,350
47.00
* = active managers
# = in Baseball Hall of Fame as managers except for Frisch who is in as a player and Griffith who is in as an Executive
Let’s take a look at each baseball franchise and see which of their managers has the most ejections to his credit. You might note that some of these managers made the list more than once. Data is current through the 2013 season.
Rank
Team
Manager
Ejections
Games managed that team
1
Braves
Bobby Cox
140
3,860
2
Giants
John McGraw
105
4,424
3
Orioles
Earl Weaver
94
2,541
4
Twins
Ron Gardenhire
72
2,107
5
Pirates
Frankie Frisch
47
1,085
6
Dodgers
Tom Lasorda
43
3,040
7
Cardinals
Tony LaRussa
39
2,591
8
Phillies
Charlie Manual
41
1,415
9
Angels
Mike Scioscia
36
2,430
10
Padres
Bruce Bochy
33
1,926
11
Indians
Mike Hargrove
29
1,312
12
White Sox
Jimmy Dykes
28
1,850
12
White Sox
Paul Richards
28
774
12
Mariners
Lou Piniella
28
1,551
12
Blue Jays
Cito Gaston
28
1,731
16
Rays
Joe Maddon
27
1,134
17
Tigers
Jim Leyland
30
1,294
18
Red Sox
Terry Francona
25
1,296
18
Brewers
Phil Garner
25
1,180
18
Brewers
Ned Yost
25
959
21
Yankees
Ralph Houk
23
1,757
21
Reds
Sparky Anderson
23
1,450
21
Mets
Joe Torre
23
709
24
A’s
Tony LaRussa
22
1,471
24
Rockies
Clint Hurdle
22
1,159
26
Rangers
Bobby Valentine
20
1,186
27
Nationals/Expos
Buck Rodgers
18
1,020
28
Cubs
Leo Durocher
17
1,065
29
Diamondbacks
Bob Melvin
15
677
29
Royals
Buddy Bell
15
436
31
Astros
Phil Garner
13
530
32
Marlins
Fredi Gonzalez
11
555
I need to thank David Vincent from SABR and retrosheet.org for providing material for this article.
UPDATE April 28, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Rangers game earlier today giving him 64 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 63.
UPDATE May 25, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game earlier today giving him 65 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 64.
UPDATE July 13, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Yankees game earlier today giving him 66 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 65.
UPDATE August 29, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Royals game earlier today giving him 67 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 66.
UPDATE September 12, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/A’s game last night giving him 68 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 67.
UPDATE May 11, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game today giving him 68 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 69.
UPDATE June 22, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/White Sox game at Target Field giving him 69 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 70.
UPDATE July 5, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/Yankees game at Target Field giving him 70 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 71.
UPDATE July 30, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Kauffman Stadium giving him 71 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 72.
UPDATE August 19, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Target Field giving him 72 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 73. This ejection moved Gardy into a tie with Jim Leyland for 8th place on the all-time manager ejection list
Update June 11, 2015 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected.
Update July 26, 2015 – Paul Molitor earned his second managerial career ejection at Target Field yesterday when he was ejected by umpire Jeff Nelson for arguing an Aaron Hicks checked swing that was called strike three.
Update August 23, 2015 – Paul Molitor was ejected for the third time in his managerial career, this time in Camden Yards in a Twins win against the Orioles. Molitor loss his cool when Miguel Sano was called out on a check swing. Funny thing was that Molitor was sent packing twice because the home plate umpire ejected him when Molly came out to argue and the home plate umpire was not aware that the first base umpire had already ejected him.
Update May 4, 2016 – Paul Molitor ejected by Scott Barry for arguing balls and strikes at Minute Maid Park in a 16-4 loss to the Astros.
Update April 20, 2017 – Paul Molitor ejected by Alan Porter in the ninth inning for arguing balls and strikes at Target Field in a 6-2 loss to the Indians.
Cookie Lavagetto was the Washington Senators manager when they became the Minnesota Twins but he lasted just 66 games and finished with a 25-41 record in 1961.
Harry Arthur “Cookie” Lavagetto was born December 1, 1912 in Oakland, California and died in his sleep on August 10, 1990 in Orinda, California at the age of 77. He acquired his nickname from his Oakland Oaks teammates, who called him “Cookie’s boy,” because he had been hired by Oaks’ president Victor “Cookie” Devincenzi. Lavagetto played 3B and 2B in the major leagues for 10 seasons and played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1934-1936 and was a four-time All-Star while with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1937 -1947. Cookie did not play ball in the majors from 1942-1945 due to serving his country in the military during World War II. Cookie enlisted in the US Navy in February 1942 even though he was classified 3-A and was sworn in as Aviation Machinist Mate 1st class. He is most widely known as the pinch hitter whose double with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth inning ruined Bill Bevens’ bid for the first World Series no-hitter in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series and gave his Brooklyn Dodgers a breathtaking victory over the New York Yankees, a game known as The Cookie Game. You can listen to a broadcast clip of that play here. The Dodgers went on to lose the 1947 World Series to the New York Yankees 4 games to 3.
Cookie Lavagetto
After being released by the Dodgers following the 1947 Series, Lavagetto returned to Oakland to finish his playing career with the Oaks (1948–50). When Oakland manager Chuck Dressen was named leader of the Dodgers in 1951, Lavagetto accompanied him as one of his coaches. He was a loyal aide to Dressen with Brooklyn (1951–53) and the PCL Oaks (1954) and followed him to the Washington Senators when Dressen became their manager in 1955.
But on May 7, 1957, with the Senators languishing in last place, Dressen was fired and Lavagetto was named his successor. Little changed under Lavagetto’s reign and the Senators finished last in 1957, 1958 and 1959. Finally, in 1960, Lavagetto’s Senators rose to fifth place in the eight-team American League, but the Senators’ promising 1960 season was too little and too late to keep the franchise in Washington; owner Calvin Griffith moved the club to Minnesota where it became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.
Yankee manager Ralph Houk inspects the jacket of Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto prior to the Twins first ever game, played April 11, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. Twins win 6-0. Courtesy of the Minnesota Twins
Lavagetto was the first manager in Twins’ history, but he did not finish the 1961 season. With the Twins mired in ninth place having lost 11 in a row and 16 out of their last 17 games in the new ten-team AL, owner Calvin Griffith asked Lavagetto to take a vacation and go fishing to get away from the everyday pressure of major league baseball. Cookie took a seven-game leave of absence starting on June 6th while coach Sam Mele took over as the Twins skipper and then returned to the helm on June 13th but he was fired June 23 with the club still in ninth place. He was replaced by Sam Mele, under whom the Twins became pennant contenders the following season. Lavagetto’s major league managing record was 271 wins and 384 defeats (.414) and he was 25-41 as the Twins first skipper.
Cookie Lavagetto then returned to the coaching ranks with the New York Mets form 1962-1963 and then back home in the Bay area with the San Francisco Giants from 1964-1967 before stepping away from baseball.
There are a couple of nice stories about Cookie Lavagetto in the Baseball in Wartime Blog and you can read the stories by clicking here and here.
There are some nice photo’s of Lavagetto at this New York Mets blog called Centerfield Maz.
Tom Verducci wrote a piece called A Game for Unlikely Heroes for Sports Illustrated back on November 29, 1999 that you might enjoy reading.
Lavagetto made the cover of Sports Illustrated as the Twins skipper on May 15, 1961 and Walter Bingham did a nice article about Cookie in that issue he called “Not Such a Tough Cookie.”
As I sit here looking out the window over-looking the back yard I see nothing but white. We have received about 9″ of snow in the last day or so and it is still snowing. Hard to fathom that the Twins will be playing baseball at Target Field which is just about 10 miles away in less than a month.
Time go by so quickly, you don’t realize how quickly until you get up in age and look back on things. When you are young, a week can seem like an eternity, when you get longer in the tooth you understand how quickly time passes. It has already been six years since Kirby Puckett suffered that massive strike on March 5, 2006 and passed away a day later. Boy, it doesn’t seem like it can be seven years that Kirby has been gone.
The minor leaguers have reported and will soon start to play games in Ft. Myers so the Twins will be in position to start cutting players and sending them to the back fields at the Hammond complex. Disappointment? Yes, but most of these guys can continue to play and hone their skills for a shot at the big money in the big leagues. On the other hand it also presents opportunities for some up-and-comers to get the call to come over to the big league side and strut their stuff for a game or two here and there, a rare opportunity to show the Twins management that they belong with the big boys. On the down side there are some players in the minor league complex today that will be cut before camp ends and their baseball careers may be over, a lifetime of dreams will come to and end for some and the reality of getting a real job will be staring them in the face. But that is the reality of baseball and life. As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, these things take place year after year in spring training camps all over Florida and Arizona.
Jim Thome
After two seasons they would like to forget, the Twins have lots to prove and many decisions to make. I think it is too early to waste a lot of time speculating on who is winning what position battles as yet but there are a number of good battles going on. What the player does on the field doesn’t even take into account how “service time” plays into things and how long the Twins have a player under their control. The Twins aren’t even a .500 team this year so do the Twins bring say an Aaron Hicks north in to start the season or do they wait for a month or two and control him a year longer? There are plusses and minuses on both sides but my opinion is that if the Twins are really serious about putting the best team on the field now and for the future they will not allow this to come in to play. If Hicks earns the job with his play and beats out everyone the Twins throw out there, give him the job. If you lose a year of control over Hicks so be it. You play the game of baseball to win, not to see how you can avoid arbitration and or free agency with your players. When the season ends the only valid measure of how any baseball team did is your wins and losses and if you won your final game. The bottom line is winning and you win with your best players. If you are more worried about the money then winning then you are in the wrong business. I am not advocating spending money foolishly, but how can you say that letting a young guy play if he earns it spending money foolishly. To me spending money foolishly is signing someone like Jim Thome to pinch hit for a team that will be lucky to win 75 games. If this is really what Gardy wants then I say fire Gardy because he is not thinking straight and I really like Grady as the Twins manager, but bringing Thome back would be the final straw. I know that Thome is a great guy, a future hall of famer and all that but it comes down to this, how many games will he add to the Twins win column? Everything has an opportunity cost, I think Thome’s opportunity cost is too high. It is not about the money, it is about the player that deserves to be on the roster more than Thome does at this stage of his career.
Anthony Swarzak
A player that I think does not deserve a roster spot on the Twins 25 man roster is long man Anthony Swarzak. I know you need a long man but Swarzak has done a less than stellar job in that role. Let’s look at what Swarzak has done in his 3 years with the Twins. He record is 10-20 with 5.03 ERA with a 1.44 WHIP. Opponents hit .287 off him (righties hit .302 and lefties hit .272) and he has a 1.96 ratio for SO/BB. I am not a huge fan of Cole DeVries as a starter but I would like to see him in the long man role for the Twins. In his one season in Minnesota, DeVries went 5-5 with a 4.11 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Opponents only hit him at a .252 clip and his SO/BB ratio was 3.22. If DeVries is not in the starting rotation, he deserves to be the long man more than Swarzak does.
Have you been watching the Twins attendance numbers at their spring training games? I have and if I were the Twins I would be very concerned. The Twins have played 6 exhibition games at Hammond Stadium and they are averaging 5,553 per game and their high is 6,591 with their seating capacity at about 8,000. In 2012 their average attendance in Ft. Myers was 7,344 so the drop from last year is about 24.39%. If you compare attendance drops in spring training games to regular season attendance drop in attendance in 2012 you could expect the Twins attendance to drop 25%-30% this season in Target Field meaning that the club will be lucky to have 2 million fans pass through the Target Field turnstiles. That is assuming the Twins don’t play worse than or better than is expected by the fan base. Hopefully the Twins can get off to a good start both on the field and with their attendance but with the number of home games the Twins have in April and the weather being what it is so far, there is reason for concern.
I watched Clubhouse Confidential on MLB TV yesterday and in one of the segments host Brian Kenny talked about the climbing rate of the strikeout per 9 innings ratio (K/9) over the years. It was a very interesting piece and Kenny pointed out how last year the leader was Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel who had an amazing 16.66 strikeouts for every nine innings pitched, that is a truly crazy number and he accomplished that while throwing 14.9 pitches per inning. The top starter K/9 ratio belonged to Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg who had a mark of 11.13 and he was followed closely by Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer who posted a 11.08 mark. The best K/9 ratio for a Twins pitcher in 2012? That honor goes to closer Glen Perkins at 9.98.
The Twins top ten career K/9 leaders with a minimum of 500 innings pitched are:
Johan Santana pitched for Minnesota from 2000 -2007. Santana is tied for third most wins in Dome history (46) and second-most strikeouts (754). Johan was a three-time All-Star and won Cy Young Awards in 2004 and 2006. Won 17 consecutive games in the Dome from 2005-2007.
Rank
Name
W/L
Innings
K/9
1.
Johan Santana
93-44
1,308.2
9.50
2.
Francisco Liriano
50-52
783.1
9.05
3.
Eddie Guardado
37-48
704.2
7.79
4.
Rick Aguilera
40-47
694
7.60
5.
Dick Stigman
37-37
643.2
7.52
6.
Dave Boswell
67-54
1,036.1
7.51
7.
Mike Trombley
30-34
645.2
7.36
8.
Scott Baker
63-48
958
7.23
9.
Bert Blyleven
149-138
2,566.2
7.14
10.
Jim Merritt
37-41
686.2
6.91
The players on the above list that were originally drafted or signed by Minnesota are Guardado, Boswell, Trombley, Baker and Blyleven, the remainder were acquired in some fashion.
Former Minnesota Twins minor league pitcher and Minnesota native Mark Hamburger has been suspended without pay for 50 games without pay after a second violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program for a drug of abuse according to the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. The suspension of Hamburger who is currently a free agent will start immediately upon his signing with another Major League organization.
The Twins had signed Hamburger as an amateur free agent in 2007 after he attended one of their open tryout camps. Hamburger pitched in the Twins minor league system in 2007 and part of 2008 before the Twins traded him to the Texas Rangers for Eddie Guardado. Hamburger made his big league debut with the Rangers in August 2011 and pitched in 5 games for the Rangers and posted a 1-0 record with a 4.50 ERA in just 8 innings. In June of 2012 he was picked up by the San Diego Padres on waivers and then just a month later he was again waived and this time he was picked up by the Houston Astros only to be released by the Astros this month.
The Twins plan for an infield consisting of Justin Morneau, Brian Dozier, Pedro Florimon and Trevor Plouffe may not yet be set in concrete but the forms are in place and the Cemstone truck is coming up the street. Jamey Carroll has a tight grip on one of the utility spots and now Gardy is making noise that he wants more power on his bench then he had last year and that would not bode well for Drew Butera as a third catcher. But I have my doubts that Gardy will make his wish a reality because he is just too concerned about getting a catcher hurt and losing his DH for the rest of the game. I just don’t understand his hang-up about that, if he lost his DH for the rest of a particular game who cares, it is just one game, big deal.
Most of the media and blog buzz is about the Twins starting pitching or who will play centerfield and almost everyone on the 40 man roster seems to have been put through the shredder, analyzed and re-analyzed except for one guy, nobody ever talks about Eduardo Escobar. I think Escobar is an interesting player and I have not seen him play very much but he can play 2B, short, and 3B and I keep seeing reports that he can also play the outfield but all I have found is that he played the outfield once in his seven minor league seasons and once with the White Sox last season before being traded to Minnesota as part of the Francisco Liriano trade. Escobar is still only 24 but he has over 600 minor league games and 59 big league games on his resume. Hitting is not Escobar’s strength as his career average in the minors is .267, it is his glove and his flexibility that will make him a valuable tool in Gardy’s arsenal. Escobar can steal some bases, can hit it out of the park a couple of times a year and the man is a switch-hitter. Everything I heard and saw after the trade to Minnesota last year indicated that he was a popular presence in the White Sox clubhouse and all the players hated to see him go. I am not saying that Escobar should be a starter, I am just saying that we should not over look him, I think he can fit a role on this team. I have always liked the under-dog and Eduardo Escobar seems to fit that role for me. Getting a couple of hits in his first spring game today was nice to see.
It has been a long winter and it was good to be able to listen to a Twins baseball game again today. I will say however; that it didn’t take long for Dan Gladden to get on my nerves. the man is there to broadcast a baseball game and not to tell me about his personal life and where he likes to stop and have a cold drink and feed his face. Describe the baseball action Gladden and try to act like a professional announcer you are paid to be.
On August 23, 1965 the Twins were in their fifth season in Minnesota ready to take on the New York Yankees in a 3:10 start at Met Stadium in front of 37,787 fans that wanted another Twins win over the hated Yankees. The Twins had a 7.5 game lead and were well on their way to their first World Series. That same day Tony Oliva became the first Twins player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. I would urge you to take a few minutes and read a story about the Twins in that SI issue called “Everybody Pick up a Drum” by William Leggett. It is a nice piece of writing about the Minnesota Twins and it mentions a huge trade that owner Calvin Griffith had cooked up with the New York Mets that was all but signed sealed and delivered prior to the 1965 season but the Mets backed out at the last-minute and the rest is history as they say. Had that trade gone through, you can bet your bippy that the Twins history would show the Minnesota Twins appearing in only two World Series (1987 and 1991) versus three. It just goes to show that some of the best trades are the ones that you don’t make, I can attest to that with my experiences with trades in fantasy baseball over the years. If you care at all about Twins history you will check out this story.
By the way, you can read this issue of Sports Illustrated cover-to-cover by clicking on the SI magazine cover above.
