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
This is a general blogging category.
April 18, 2011 – Brian Duensing defeated Tampa Bay’s Jeremy Hellickson on Sunday to snap Minnesota’s four-game losing streak. The Twins entered the game win-less in eight games this season in which they had faced a right-handed starting pitcher. That was the longest such losing streak to begin a season for the franchise since the Washington Senators began the 1904 season by losing their first 10 decisions in games against right-handed starters. Source: Elias
April 15, 2011 – The 31 year old Steve Holm was called up when Joe Mauer was put on the 15 DL after Thursday’s game against the Tampa Rays. Holm was originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 17th round of the June 2001 free agent draft. Steve made his major league debut in 2008 when he played in 42 games with the Giants. In 2009 Holm was with the Giants for just four games and at the end of the 2010 season Holm became a free agent and signed with the Minnesota Twins in December of 2010. In his 46 big league games, Steve has .264 batting average in 91 at bats with 1 home run (off of JC Romero) and 6 RBI’s.
A conference on the mound during a Twins – Red Sox game between Twins pitcher Dave Boswell in one of his early career starts, manager Sam Mele and catcher Earl Battey after Boswell’s first three pitches were hit for two doubles and a home run.
Manager Sam Mele: What’s he got?
Catcher Earl Battey: I don’t know, I haven’t caught a pitch yet.
April 9, 2011 – Carl Pavano allowed one run on four hits in 8 innings of work in the Twins’ 2-1 victory over the A’s in the team’s home opener at Target Field on Friday. Since the Twins moved to Minnesota in 1961, only two other pitchers have pitched at least 8 innings while allowing four-or-fewer hits and one-or-fewer runs in the team’s home opener: Tom Hall in 1969 (9 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs against the Angels) and Kevin Tapani in 1990 (8 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs against the Angels).
March 31, 2011 – I received my 2011 season tickets the other day and as I was going through the package, I thought I noticed that something was missing. One of the benefits of being a Twins season ticket holder was that you always received a voucher for a free copy of the current years Twins Media Guide. I have a nice collection of these media guides now and I always look forward to getting a new one. Low and behold when I checked through the season ticket package, there was nothing about the Twins media guide mentioned, I found a voucher for the Twins Yearbook and the various Twins Magazines but no media guide so I e-mailed the Twins and was told that the Twins Media Guide is no longer a part of the season ticket holder package. What a disappointment! I can’t believe that the Twins have cut the media guide out of their season ticket holder package. Sure, I can go out and buy one but it just frustrates me that the Twins have dropped this from the package when their revenue is up and almost every home game is sold out. What? They have too many season ticket holders now to give everyone a free Twins Media Guide? As I said earlier, very disappointing.
March 31, 2011 – I thought that it would be fun to look over the Twins 50 year history of Opening Days and see who has started the most games at each position. Through their first fifty years, the Twins record on Opening Day is 24-26 and they are currently on a two game losing streak.
The Minnesota Twins first Opening Day was at Yankee Stadium on April 11, 1961 in front of only 14,607 fans and the Twins played and won their first ever game by a score of 6-0. Their Opening Day line-up that day had Earl Battey catching, Harmon Killebrew at first, Billy Gardner at second, Zoilo Versalles was at short, Reno Bertoia played third, Jim Lemon was in left, Lenny Green was in center, Bob Allison was in right, and Pedro Ramos was the starting pitcher. Little did anyone know at the time that the Twins second baseman that day, Billy Gardner, would become the Twins manager twenty years later. The Twins have only fielded the same opening day line-up from one year to the next on one occasion in 50 years and that was in 1970 (won 12-0) and 1971 (lost 7-2) when the Twins had George Mitterwald catching, Rich Reese at first, Rod Carew at second, Leo Cardenas was at short, Harmon Killebrew was at third, Brant Alyea was in left, Cesar Tovar was the centerfielder, Tony Oliva was in right and Jim Perry was the starting pitcher. This goes to show how much things change from year to year.
I told you earlier that I was going to find out what Twins have started the most Opening Day games by position and here is what I have found.
| Total # of players that have played this position on opening day | Started most opening days at this position | |
|---|---|---|
| Catcher | 20 | Earl Battey, Butch Wynegar, Joe Mauer – 6 |
| 1B | 19 | Kent Hrbek – 12 |
| 2B | 20 | Rod Carew – 9 |
| SS | 16 | Zoilo Versalles, Roy Smalley, Greg Gagne – 7 |
| 3B | 23 | Gary Gaetti – 9 |
| LF | 25 | Mickey Hatcher, Dan Gladden, Marty Cordova, Jacques Jones – 4 |
| CF | 20 | Torii Hunter – 9 |
| RF | 19 | Tony Oliva – 8 |
| DH | 25 | Paul Molitor, Randy Bush, Glenn Adams – 3 |
| P | 25 | Brad Radke – 9 |
March 31, 2011 – Elmer Valo played in 1,806 games in the major leagues between for the A’s, Phillies, Dodgers, Indians, Yankees, and the Senators/Twins between 1940 and 1961 sandwiched around his military service in 1944-1945. Oddly enough, while he was with the Philadelphia A’s they moved and became the Kansas City A’s, when he was with the Brooklyn Dodgers they moved and became the Los Angeles Dodgers, and when he was with the Washington Senators they moved and became the Minnesota Twins, no other major league player can say that.
Elmer Valo was born on March 5, 1921 in Rybnik, Czechoslovakia and passed away on July 19, 1998 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. Valo, an outfielder by trade only played for the Twins in 33 games in 1961 getting 36 plate appearances and hitting only .156, primarily as a pinch-hitter before the Twins released him on June 17 and he signed with the Phillies for 50 more big league games in his final major league season.
Although his Minnesota Twins career was very short, Elmer Valo had a most interesting baseball career and life and I wanted to share it with you. I am not going to rewrite a lot of what has already been written about the Wall Crusher but I will point you to a number of articles about him that I know you will enjoy if you enjoy reading about baseball going back to the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s.
SABR Biography – Elmer Valo
John Brattain wrote a piece called “Pinch Me I’m Elmer Valo” for The Hardball Times in February 2005.
Elmer Valo: Baseball Digest’s First “Cover Boy”
Baseball in Wartime – Elmer Valo
TheDeadballEra.com – Elmer Valo Obituary
Did you know that among players with at least 100 bases on ball in a season, the best walks-to-strikouts ratio, 6.31, belongs to Elmer Valo of the 1952 Philadelphia A’s who had 101 walks to just 16 strikeouts?
March 31, 2011 – I know the season started today and I am a bit slow with my predictions for this year but here is how I see things playing out. Sorry to say, but I don’t see the Twins winning the AL Central this year, the new champs of the Central will be those “dag nabbit” Mighty Whitey’s. I see the Chicago White Sox as just beating out the Twins by 1 ½ games in a season long battle for supremacy. But things aren’t all bad, as the Twins will be the American league wild card winners for the first time in their history. Here is how I see the Division races ending up.
| Finish | AL East | AL Central | AL West |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Sox | White Sox | Rangers |
| 2 | Yankees | Twins * | A’s |
| 3 | Rays | Tigers | Angels |
| 4 | Orioles | Royals | Mariners |
| 5 | Blue Jays | Indians | |
| Finish | NL East | NL Central | NL West |
| 1 | Braves | Reds | Rockies |
| 2 | Phillies * | Cardinals | Giants |
| 3 | Marlins | Brewers | Padres |
| 4 | Nationals | Cubs | Dodgers |
| 5 | Mets | Pirates | D-Backs |
| Astros |
* – Wild Card Winner
The Twins will make some progress in the playoffs this year but they will only win one series and get beat out in the ALCS by the Boston Red Sox who will face the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. The Boston Red Sox will become the World Champions in 5 games.
March 29, 2011 – This year Opening Day for our Minnesota Twins will take place on Friday, April 1st at the Rogers Centre (formally called the SkyDome) in Toronto, Ontario next to the CNN Tower and the shores of Lake Ontario. The once proud Toronto Blue Jay team is coming off an 85-77 season and a third consecutive fourth place finish in the tough as nails American league Eastern Division.
Opening day is always a special day, no one has lost a game as yet, everyone is still in the pennant race and visions of the playoffs are on everyone’s mind. The Twins and Jays are no different and both teams will send their Ace’s to the mound hoping to get off to a fast start. As things stand today, I think it will be Carl Pavano for the Twins and Ricky Romero for the Jays, but I wouldn’t expect to see either pitcher around at the end of the game. Since the 1998 season started 13 years ago, the only complete games on Opening Day were by Jeff Weaver when his Tigers lost to the Twins 3-2 in 2001 in a 9 inning effort, In 2002 both Bartolo Colon then a Cleveland Indian beat the Angels 6-0 in 9 innings and Randy Johnson (130 pitches) as an Arizona D-Back beat the Padres 2-0 in 9 innings, in 2003 Hideo Nomo as a Dodger beat Arizona 8-0 in 9 innings, in 2005 Jake Westbrook of the Indians lost a complete 8 inning 1-0 effort to the Chicago White Sox. The last pitcher to chuck a complete game on Opening Day was the often injured Ben Sheets in 2007 when he pitched his Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-1 win over the Dodgers. That makes 6 complete games on Opening Day in the past 13 seasons.
So where do the Twins stand on opening day complete games? The Twins have taken part in 50 Opening Days and have a 24-26 record to show for their efforts and Twins Opening Day starters have pitched a total of six complete games and the last one was in 1978 but that was an 8 inning effort. The Twins have won 5 of the 6 times their pitcher pitched a complete game on the Opener.
The very first game the Minnesota Twins ever played was Opening Day effort against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium I on April 11, 1961 and Twins hurler Pedro Ramos pitched a complete 9 inning complete game and the Twins were victorious by a 6-0 score over Whitey Ford and his gang. Pistol Pete Ramos finished the season with an 11-20 record while pitching 264.1 innings in his only season as a Minnesota Twin. 14,607 fans saw the game. (Box score)
The second Twins complete Opening Day game took place in 1966 at Met Stadium on April 12 when both starters pitched complete games and the Twins Mudcat (Jim Grant) bested the Catfish (Jim Hunter) and his merry band of Kansas City A’s 2-1 in 9 innings in 1 hour and 45 minutes in front of only 21,658 fans. (Box score)
Opening Day complete game number three took place in D.C. Stadium on April 10, 1968 when Dean Chance went 9 innings and the Twins beat the Washington Senators and former Twins pitcher Camilo Pascual 2-0. Minnesota native Vice-President Hubert Humphrey threw out the first ball. (Box score)
The fourth complete Opening Day game took place on April 7, 1970 at Chicago White Sox Park when Jim Perry pitched a complete game and won the first of his 24 games during his Cy Young award season as the Twins pounded the Might Whitey’s by a 12-0 score. The White Sox starter that day was non other than Tommy John, just a pup then as he was just in his 8th big league season and he would end up pitching in the big leagues for 26 seasons. (Box score)
The fifth complete game and the last time a Minnesota Twins hurler pitched a complete 9 inning Twins win on Opening Day was by Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, then a 22 year old peach faced kid when he pitched the Twins to a 8-3 win over the Oakland A’s in Oakland-Alameda County Stadium on April 6, 1973. April 6? What is special about April 6? Everybody knows that, it is Bert Blyleven’s Birthday! The loser that day was Jim “Catfish” Hunter. A nice Birthday present indeed! (Box score)
The sixth and final Twins complete game on Opening Day was an 8 inning 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners in the KingDome by Minnesota native Dave Goltz on April 5, 1978. (Box score)
That is it, six complete games in 50 tries and none since 1978. One additional bit of trivia since this is of course Twinstrivia.com. Did you know that Camilo Pascual, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Jack Morris have “toed the rubber” as starters on Opening Day for both the Minnesota Twins and also against the Minnesota Twins?
March 16, 2011 – I headed out to the Hammond Stadium today hoping to meet up with JC of Knuckleballs who just got into town the other day. Since we had not met before I had no idea who I was looking for and I had no cell number to reach JC but I did give JC my cell number and I was hoping he would call me. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up in a nice conversation with former GM Terry Ryan and during that conversation someone else joined us but we never introduced ourselves. After the conversation we each ended up going our separate ways and when I got back to the house I sent JC an e-mail saying it was too bad we did not hook up. This evening I checked my e-mail and I have a note from JC with a picture attached, the picture was of Ryan and I talking and JC was the guy that had joined us. What a small world indeed.
The conversation with Terry Ryan was very interesting, the man has been on the road all spring and today was the first day that he had really spent any time at Hammond Stadium at all. He said he is doing way more traveling than he did when he was the GM. I asked him a number of questions about numerous players but since I did not tell him up front that I was a blogger I do not think it is fair to write what he had to say in detail. But I think it is fair for me to say that he feels that Revere needs to keep playing and not sit on a Twins bench. Ryan mentioned that the Twins are not looking to trade a starting pitcher unless a need develops that needs to be corrected at some position because the chance of injury to starters is always there. Ryan reemphasized that the Twins like Diamond and that you need to be patient with Rule 5 pick-ups, using Johan Santana as an example. Terry also went into detail explaining that Alexi Casilla has all the tools to do the job at short, he just needs to grab the bull by the horns and get it done (my words). I really enjoy talking to Terry Ryan whenever I get the chance, he will always tell you what he thinks and he will challenge you if he thinks you are off base.
Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on since the Twins were playing the Mets at home today. I spent some time watching TK and Rick Anderson hold some pitcher fielding drills but other than that most of my time was spent watching the minor leaguers. We are getting to a point in spring training now where the open position battles are going full tilt and the Twins walking wounded are starting to see some game action, the only non participant so far continues to be Michael Cuddyer but hopefully he will be in action soon too.