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
July 14, 2010 – I thought that it might be interesting for me to pick my all-time Twins starting 5 pitchers. It turned out to be more difficult than what I had imagined it would be. What do you rank them on? How important is durability versus intimidation for example. Were they the ace of the pitching staff that carried the team to the playoffs? The list would be different if I included pitchers that pitched for both the Senators and the Twins such as Camilo Pascual who had a stellar career and is one of my all time favorite pitchers. The first row of stats are stats with the Twins and the second row are career stats. The Twins stats for Jim Kaat do include a few games that Kaat pitched for the Senators in 1959 and 1960 and the numbers for Johan Santana include the first half of 2010.
1. Rik Aalbert (Bert) Blyleven – right handed
Seasons
GS/CG
Innings
Wins
SO
ERA
WHIP
11
345/141
2,566
149
2.035
3.28
1.19
22
685/242
4,970
287
3,701
3.31
1.20
2. James Lee (Kitty) Kaat – left handed
Jim Kaat - Twins pitcher from 1961 - 1973
Season
GS/CG
Innings
Wins
SO
ERA
WHIP
15
433/133
3,014
190
1,851
3.34
1.23
25
625/180
4,530
283
3,701
3.31
1.20
3. James Evan Perry – right handed (1970 Cy Young award winner)
Seasons
GS/CG
Innings
Wins
SO
ERA
WHIP
10
249/61
1,883
128
1,025
3.15
1.20
17
447/109
3,285
215
1,576
3.45
1.26
4. Frank John (Sweet Music) Viola – left handed (1988 Cy Young award winner)
Seasons
GS/CG
Innings
Wins
SO
ERA
WHIP
8
259/54
1,772
112
1,214
3.86
1.30
15
420/74
2,836
176
1,844
3.73
1.30
5. Johan Alexander Santana – left handed (2004 & 2006 Cy Young award winner) still active
June 21, 2010 – Hall of Famer Sam Rice is way ahead of everyone in franchise history with the best strike out per at bat ratio going down swinging just once in every 33.6 at bats in 9,879 plate appearances. It seems as though the players in the past had much bat control or were more patient then the players of today. As you can see, the Twins best in this category is Brian Harper and he struck out once in every 19.6 at bats in 2,691 plate appearances. Where do Joe Mauer and Rod Carew stand you ask? To this point in his career Joe has 3,253 plate appearances and he strikes out once in every 8.8 at bats. Carew struck out once in every 8.7 at bats in his 6,980 Twins plate appearances. What I think is kind of weird is that Tony Oliva was known as a free swinger and he struck out once every 9.8 at bats in 6,879 at bats. Just for comparison, Harmon Killebrew struck out once every 5.81 at bats in 9,462 Twins plate appearances while Justin Morneau is currently at a strike out every 6.71 at bats in 3,889 plate appearances.
June 4, 2010 – I have to wonder, what would happen if Andy MacPhail the Orioles president of baseball operations would offer the Orioles manager job to Tom Kelly. The history obviously goes back a long ways and MacPhail gave TK his first opportunity to manage in the big leagues. The word seems to be that the Orioles need a “kick-ass” manager; I think TK fits that role to a “T”. The team has some good young players but to date they have not performed. Maybe an old east coast guy like TK would take the helm once again to help an old friend in Baltimore.
Another rumor circulating now connects Minnesota and Baltimore and supposedly the Orioles are interested in a shortstop and rumor has it that Trevor Plouffe is one of their targets. The Orioles are looking to unload starting pitcher Kevin Millwood who is 0-6 I think but has not pitched that badly. Would the Twins pull the trigger on a deal like that? Then again, how serious is Hardy’s injury? I can’t help but be a bit worried about what is going on with Hardy.
June 2, 2010 – The Society for American Baseball Research is a great organization and one of the wonderful projects they have going on is the Baseball Biography Project. One of the biographies they have completed is about former Twins utility player Jerry Wayne Terrell. Jerry was born on July 13, 1946 in Waseca, Minnesota and played for the Twins between 1974 and 1977 before he was granted free agency and signed with the Kansas City Royals where he played from 1978 through 1980 before retiring from baseball. In April of 1980 the membership of the Major League Baseball Players Association voted 582-1 in favor of a strike. Jerry Terrell has long been assumed to be the only dissenting vote but to date he has never stated that this was true or false. Take a few minutes and read the bio about Jerry Terrell here.
Harvey Haddix - courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
May 24, 2010 – The game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959 at County Stadium in Milwaukee in front of 19,194 fans has often been called the greatest baseball game ever played. A pitching duel for the ages between the Pirates lefty Harvey Haddix and the Braves right hander Lew Burdette. This game had nothing to do with the Washington Senators or the Minnesota Twins who were not yet a twinkle in Calvin Griffith’s eye, but to me it is one of my favorite baseball memories.
Back in the summer of 1959 I was 11 years old and loved baseball, regardless if it was playing the game, collecting baseball cards, or listening to Milwaukee Braves games on my transistor radio. We had no TV at the time so it was radio or nothing for me. I grew up on a dairy farm outside of Taylors Falls, Minnesota and the Milwaukee Braves were the only games I could pick up so they became my favorite team. Add in the fact that they whipped the hated New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series and that Hammerin Hank Aaron was my favorite player and there was no better team than the Milwaukee Braves. I often went to bed with my radio under my pillow listening to Braves baseball games. I could rattle off the most recent stats of Spahn, Burdette, Buhl, McMahon, Crandall, Adcock, Mantilla, Logan, Mathews, Covington, Pafko, and of course Aaron, what wonderful teams the Braves had back in the late 50’s.
My favorite baseball memories are unique to me, they may not mean a thing to someone else but to me they are what baseball is all about. Some of my favorite baseball memories are listening to Minnesota Twins games on a radio in the barn when I was milking cows and listening to Halsey Hall spin another yarn and laugh like no one else, watching a nail file fall out of Joe Niekro’s back pocket as the umpire looks on, attending my first live baseball game, which happened to be the 1965 All-Star game, Getting to attend the 1987 and 1991 World Series games at the Metrodome, listening to Braves games on my transistor radio, watching Henry Aaron become the home run champion (still is in my book) and many more, I could go on and on. One of those memories however is this 1959 game between the Braves and the Pirates. I tuned in the game in the 8th inning and was amazed to hear that Harvey Haddix not only had no hit the Braves to that point but he had a perfect game going, I was in awe, I had only read about no hitters and had never heard one in progress. Perfect after nine, ten, eleven, twelve, my God, how long could this go on? Then in the 13th inning things started to unravel for the Pirates and Haddix and I will let Craig Muder tell you the rest of the story in his article for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, just click here to read it.
Lew Burdette
The ending was very confusing as I remember, listening to the Braves announcers explain what happened on the home run by Adcock that turned out not to be a homerun. Harvey (Kitten) Haddix lost the game and sadly, gets no credit for a no-hitter much less a perfect game for 12 innings. No one even mentions that the Braves Lew Burdette pitched a 13 inning 12 hit shutout that day and got the victory. I wonder how pitches were thrown that day! Both Haddix and Burdette are gone now but I bet you that on May 26 of each year they hook up again and take the mound in that big ballpark in the sky and see who the best is on that given day. Damn, I love baseball………
May 18, 2010 – The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame began to induct members in 1939. It continued to do so even with all the political turmoil that has befallen Cuban Baseball. The Federacion de Peloteros Profesionales Cubanos en el Exilio continued elections of members after the end of professionalism in Cuba. For a complete list of members inducted, please go to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame pages.
The following one time Twins players are in the Cuban Hall of Fame.
Inducted in 1979 – Leo Cardenas – SS
Inducted in 1980 = Zoilo Versalles – SS
Inducted in 1981 – Pedro Ramos – P
Inducted in 1982 – Tony Oliva – OF
Inducted in 1983 – Camilo Pascual – P
Inducted in 1985 – Mike Fornieles – P
Inducted in 1997 – Julio Becquer – 1B
Inducted in 1997 – Luis Tiant – P
May 15, 2010 – The Twins preach to their pitchers that the batter should earn his way on base via a hit, just throw the ball over the plate and take your chances that the batter will hit it to one of your fielders. In recent years, the Twins pitching staff has always been one of the league leaders in fewest bases on balls allowed.
But the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to the Twins hitters where the coaching staff tries to teach patience at the plate, after all, a walk is just as good as a hit. Plus, the more pitches you see, the better the odds are of the batter getting a hit and the quicker the pitcher reaches their so called pitch limits. This year the Twins hitters have taken that advice to heart and after 32 games they have walked 147 times and are on pace for about 700 walks which would be the most not only in Twins history but in franchise history. The 1956 Senators walked 690 times and the most walks by a Twins team was the 1962 Twins when they walked to first base 649 times. Let’s take a look at the top 10 career Twins and Senators batters that believed that a walk was indeed as good as a hit.
Minnesota Twins
HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
May 2, 2010 – Catcher Wilson Ramos made an impressive debut in the big leagues when he played his first game as a Minnesota Twin in Cleveland where the Twins beat the Indians 8-3 behind an impressive pitching performance from Francisco Liriano. Ramos was 4 for 5 and was the first Twins rookie since Kirby Puckett (1984) to debut with 4 hits. Ramos hit three singles, a double, and scored a run. Ramos was called up yesterday because Joe Mauer suffered an injury when he landed awkwardly on first base in Friday’s game. It is unknown at this time how long Mauer may be out. It appears that the plan is for Ramos to be the main catcher while Drew Butera continues in the back-up role.
May 3, 2010 – Wilson Ramos, who started behind the plate in the eighth spot in the batting order, was the first catcher in modern MLB history (i.e., since 1900) to collect four or more hits in his big-league debut and he was the first to debut with a four-hit game from that low in the batting order since Yankees pitcher Russ Van Atta went 4-for-4 from the nine hole against the Senators on April 25, 1933.
May 4, 2010 – The story continues, Wilson Ramos, who had four hits in his major-league debut on Sunday, collected three more in the Twins’ win against the Tigers on Monday night. Ramos is the first major-league player in 68 years to record at least seven hits over his first two career games. The last player to do that was Nanny Fernandez for the 1942 Boston Braves.
April 29, 2010 – Luke Hughes hit a home run in his first major league at bat and in the process became the fifth Minnesota Twin to accomplish this feat. Hughes hit his home run to right field off Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer on a 2-2 count as he lead off the third inning. Actually Hughes was batting in the second inning when Delmon Young was caught stealing third base for the final out of the second inning so that at bat did not count. Hughes, who was born in Perth, Australia, is the eighth Aussie to hit a homer in the major leagues and the first to do so in his first at-bat in the bigs. Unfortunately for Hughes and the Twins, they lost the game to the Tigers by an 11-6 score.
A complete list of Twins to hit a home run in either their first at bat or their first major league game are listed below. Hal Haydel is the only pitcher in the group. Oddly enough, no Twins rookie ever accomplished this feat at the Metrodome.
April 20, 2010 – In the Twins 50th season they have their first Father-Son combo. Catcher Drew Butera made his major league debut this season and is serving as the back-up catcher to Joe Mauer. Back in 1980 Drew’s father Salvatore (Sal) Butera made his major league debut with Minnesota as the back-up catcher to Butch Wynegar. Drew is slightly bigger than his Dad and both are right handed batters. Both of the Butera’s are better known for their glove work then their stick work.
Drew’s career is just starting but his Dad played in the majors from 1980 through 1988 but never really attained a starter role and the most at bats he ever had in a single season was 194 in 1981. Sal played for the Minnesota Twins from 1980 to 1982 before being traded and again in 1987 where he had an opportunity for an at bat in the World Series. Sal also played for the Detroit Tigers, Montreal Expos, Cincinnati Reds, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Interestingly enough, yesterday Ike Davis made his major league debut for the New York Mets as a first baseman. Ike is the son of former Minnesota Twins closer Ron Davis.
