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
The Minnesota Twins open their 2015 exhibition season by playing the Minnesota Gophers on March 4 and they will play their final spring training game on Saturday April 4th at Hammond Stadium against the Boston Red Sox. When early April rolls around we will all have a pretty good idea who will make this years opening day roster. Having said that, I don’t think that Twins fans should get too attached to the players on the opening day roster because I have a feeling that the “roster will be a-changing” and I can’t wait to see some of that new blood when it heads north to Minnesota and Target field.
The Minnesota Twins played their first ever exhibition game on March 11, 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando. Cookie Lavagetto and his boys took on the Detroit Tigers and their first game turned out to be a 4-1 loss. Paul Giel started the game for Minnesota and took the loss and Bob Bruce who started for the Tigers was credited with the victory. You will notice in the box score that although this was the first game of spring training and players were not in the shape that they are in today that a number of the pitchers that pitched in this game logged three innings not the one inning that you will probably see tomorrow.
Paul Giel (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
The box score below was provided courtesy of Stew Thornley, Thanks Stew, we appreciate it!
There was a special Hammond Stadium Commemorative Section in the Ft. Myers News-Press Sunday paper today and the headline was “Extreme Makeover”. David Dorsey did a number of the articles in the special section and he did a superb job. Maybe his best piece in the section has the following headline – “Ancient Rome inspires entrance.” It talks about the “grand vomitory” and how Dave St. Peter and the Twins had to be convinced to give up some of their best seats behind home plate that brought in about $5,400 in revenue per spring training game. Dorsey also discusses the “Witches Hat” towers with the Populous architect. I am not going to spoil the article for you by telling you what “grand vomitory” means and what “Witches Hat” towers have to do with the extreme makeover.
When I was out at the CenturyLink Sports Complex I picked a Minnesota Twins spring training schedule and I was also handed a brochure called “Spring Training Florida,” put out by the Florida Sports Foundation. Their web site can be found at www.floridagrapefruitleague.com and it is worth your time to check this site out before you head on down here to Florida to catch some spring baseball.
There are 15 teams that train in Florida (eight AL and seven NL) at this time and I thought that it would be fun to see how spring training ticket prices compare when you look at the best seat (most expensive) ticket in the house. Spring training tickets are priced all over the board and a number of teams break down their spring training games into various tiers like they do their regular season tickets. The Twins for example have two tiers and divide their games into “value” and “premium” pricing and this year they even have a lower price for their game against the Minnesota Gophers on March 4th.
It is difficult to try to use logic to explain baseball spring training ticket prices here in the Grapefruit League. Some of the teams that you might say are going to be or have been less competitive have some of the highest ticket prices. I am not sure how things work out in Arizona where the spring training sites are closer together but here in Florida visiting teams seldom send very many, sometimes you wonder if they sent any of their regulars to away games. Not counting the game against the Gophers and any “B” games, the Twins will play 32 exhibition games, 16 at home and 16 on the road but five of those road games are at JetBlue Park just a couple of miles away so you really can’t count those as real away games.
So if you wanted to really splurge and buy a ticket for the best seat in the stadium, what will it cost you this year if you come down here to warm and sunny Florida.
Average price for the best seat in the house is $38.33
I can’t really speak for the other teams but one of the benefits of coming to a Twins game at the CenturyLink Sports Complex around mid-March or later is that you can go to the back fields and catch a couple of minor league games going on. I believe that the minor league players are scheduled to report on March 10 so a few days after that you should be able to start to see them playing some games. Sometimes these games are against each other but most of the time they will play a team from the same level from another organization. Watching these future stars doesn’t cost you a dime and if you get to the park early enough you might not have to pay for parking. I believe the Twins charge about $10 for parking on days when the Twins play at Hammond Stadium and I think they start collecting money sometime between 9:30 AM and 10 AM. So if you are an early bird you can save a ten spot but don’t tell the Twins I told you to do that.
If can swing a trip to Florida to enjoy the sun and the wonderful weather you should try to take in a Grapefruit League game, it is a great way to enjoy an afternoon or evening.
I missed the Minnesota Twins open house this past Sunday because I was feeling under the weather but I was feeling fine again on Monday so I headed out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex to check out the Twins pitchers and catchers on their first day at training camp under new manager Paul Molitor.
I don’t know why but I was surprised to see the Twins wearing their red jerseys during their first 2015 workout. The workout was already underway when I arrived. I believe that the Twins workouts normally start about 08:30 AM and finish up around 11:30 AM.
It is great to see the Twins out on the field again and getting ready for their first season under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Paul Molitor but all in all it was a pretty quiet day. There were a number of fans but not as many as I might have expected checking out the action getting pictures and a few autographs when the players work for the day was over. The one observation I would make after watching the first day is that it seemed much quieter and more business-like then what I remember from previous sessions under the Gardenhire regime. I didn’t see any horsing around or players standing around laughing and telling tall tales from their off-season exploits. Maybe it was just day one jitters and everyone getting acclimated but it seemed different.
Molitor was kind of what I expected him to be, standing around and observing the action and now and then taking a player aside and talking with him one on one. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see Molitor smile once during the morning work outs. It might be just his personality or maybe it struck him exactly what he had stepped into during his first venture in managing. It will be interesting to see how the Twins players react to a manager that I think is much more of a distant old school Tom Kelly type than a players manager like Ron Gardenhire who seemed to be more interested in being part of the gang. Time will tell.
I haven’t seen TK down here yet so I am not sure if he will report when the position players show up or if his health concerns will prevent him from taking part in spring training this season. It was kind of odd not seeing the long time Twins coaching staff and instead seeing Eddie Guardado out on the field helping with pitchers fielding practice.
Your fun fact for the day, Twins pitchers are “a tall glass of water”, at least ten of them are 6’4″ or taller.
I did get a few pictures that you can check out on the right hand side of the page under “2015 Spring Training”.
The Minnesota Twins have a new pitching coach in Neil Allen this season. Heading into the 1965 season the Twins also had a new pitching coach and his name was Johnny Sain. It turns out that both Allen and Sain were right-handed and both pitched in the big leagues during all or parts of 11 seasons. Allen is getting his first shot as a big league pitching coach in 2015 while Sain had already served as a pitching coach for the Kansas City A’s in 1959 and the New York Yankees from 1961-1963 before he joined Minnesota in 1965 where he would last for two years before going on to serve as pitching coach for the Tigers from 1967-1969, the White Sox from 1971-1975 and the Atlanta Braves in 1977 and again from 1985-1986. Most pitchers loved Sain as their pitching coach and Twins pitcher Jim Kaat was one of those. Matter of fact, when owner Calvin Griffith and the Twins let Sain go, Kaat went public about how stupid he thought that move was but that is a another story for another time.
The Twins had switched to a five man rotation in 1962 but new Twins pitching coach Sain thought that he had the pitchers in Minnesota to go back to a four man starting rotation and it was not a hard sell. Here is a piece that appeared in the Sporting News on February 13, 1965. Feel free to click on the article a couple of times if your eyes are like mine and need a bit larger font.
Unless something unforeseen happens the Minnesota Twins will not be booking a lot of frequent flyer miles in 2015 as they will only have to fly 23,866 miles this coming season. Only seven teams, the Indians with 23,499, the Brewers with 23,429, the White Sox with 23,180, the Tigers with 22,508, the Cubs with 20,953, the Cardinals with 20,875 and the Reds with 20,612 will fly fewer miles than our home town boys. The Mariners on the other hand will be on the other end of the spectrum and will need to fly 43,281 miles to play out their schedule of games in 2015.
The site I used to look up this information has information going back to 2009. Based on their numbers the 2015 Minnesota Twins will fly fewer miles than any Twins team has flown from 2009 through 2014.
Miles flown by the Minnesota Twins
2014 – 29,532
2013 – 29,043
2012 – 25,546
2011 – 32,199
2010 – 27,398
2009 – 25,315
So when you hear those Minnesota Twins radio and television announcers talk about the teams grueling travel schedule you can say, “what a bunch of BS”, they got it easy.
I went out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex on Monday to see what Twins have reported early and are enjoying the beautiful weather here in Ft. Myers. Spring training hasn’t officially started yet but there are a couple dozen players here getting ready for the 2015 season. At this time of the year you see the players start their workouts about 8:30 AM and they are usually done between 11 AM and Noon. I was not willing to get up early and be at the park when the players first start working out so I left our condo in Cape Coral about 9:20 AM expecting to get to the park in 20-30 minutes. I don’t know what happened to the traffic but it took me 55 minutes to traverse the 12 miles. Traffic was just plain crazy, it has never taken me that long to get to the ballpark before. Then again traffic all over Cape Coral and Ft. Myers seems to be extra heavy this year, must be all those folks that are suffering from the cold and snow in the NE that must have decided they had enough and headed for SW Florida. When I finally arrived there were about 30 or so players spread over four fields. Two of the fields had batting practice taking place, a third had some infield drills going on and the fourth field was being used by some pitchers to get their running and stretching in. Since the players don’t wear uniforms it is hard to identify a lot of the players that are there. The big leaguers are easy to identify but the minor leaguers not so much. Torii Hunter was easily the most popular player out there on Monday and he had a group of fans following him and getting his autograph. Kennys Vargas was there and he appeared to be having fun both out on the field and with the fans that asked him for his autograph, the man always seems to have a smile on his face. It is amazing how much he reminds you of David Ortiz, now if he can just hit like Big Papi.
Miguel Sano
Even though has Miguel Sano has not played a game for the Twins he is well-known and loved here in Ft. Myers and everyone enjoys watching him take BP because you know he will park many a ball over the outfield fences. On this day I saw him hit one to dead center that hit the green batting out a long way out there. Sano is not getting any smaller and I really wonder how long he can stay at third base. I heard one of the coaches talking with Sano about running and Sano said he can’t run right now because he is having a problem with his foot. Hopefully that is not a serious issue because Sano needs to get as much playing time in spring training as possible. I saw Max Kepler and I almost didn’t recognize him, Max is a lot thinner this year but when I saw him in the batting cage he was hitting some nice line drives and even poked a few over the fence. I asked Max about his weight and he said that he had lost a few pounds and was eating healthier. Kepler looks ready for a big season.
There weren’t that many fans out at the ballpark but if you are hunting for an autograph and a chance to talk to some ball players then this is the place to be before the official grind of spring training begins. Hammond Stadium itself seems to have fewer and fewer construction workers around it and it is starting to take shape. The landscaping has a way to go but it is getting there. I think there is an open house slated for February 22 to show the fans the Twins updated new digs at Hammond Stadium.
I know that spring training is still a few days away but I want you to keep one player’s name in mind this spring. He might not make the Twins opening day roster but don’t forget the name Eddie Rosario.
I took a few pictures of what is going on down here and you can see them over on the right hand side of the page on the 2015 Spring Training link. They photo’s will make you wish you were down here in beautiful SW Florida in spite of the fact that by Friday morning the temps will be about 37 degrees when the sun appears over Hammond Stadium.
The below material came from a column that Sid Hartman wrote in the Star Tribune on August 19, 1990.
The payroll for the Twins, the American League West’s last-place team, is about $16 million, an average of more than $400,000 a player. In 1965, when the Twins won the pennant in a 10-team league with no playoffs, the payroll for 25 players was about $1.5 million, less than half what Kirby Puckett is paid per season. There wasn’t any free agency then and the reserve clause was in effect. There wasn’t any arbitration, either, and it was either take it or leave it.
How things have changed in favor of the player. Harmon Killebrew, a big star on the team, didn’t make $100,000 until 1967. And Bob Allison, another big star, earned about $35,000. The team drew 1,463,288 fans and sold only 3,318 season tickets. Owner Calvin Griffith made a lot of money.
And when members of the 1965 Twins World Series team, here to play in an old-timers game Saturday night, reminisced about winning the pennant and losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games, they had to recall that it wasn’t all peaches and cream in the clubhouse. Pitching coach Johnny Sain didn’t get along with third-base coach Billy Martin, and manager Sam Mele sided with Martin. Many times Martin and Sain almost came to blows.
The pitchers were on the side of Sain, who believed a pitcher never threw a bad pitch or lost a game. But they never would have won without Martin’s inspiration. Still, they won the pennant and might have won the World Series had Jim Gilliam not made a sensational fielding play on a hard ground ball hit to third in the fifth inning of Game 7. Gilliam handled shortstop Zoilo Versalles‘ shot toward third with Rich Rollins on first and Frank Quilici on second. The score was 2-0 at the time and that is how it ended, with Sandy Koufax winning for the Dodgers.
Yes, baseball has sure changed in the last 25 years.
To qualify for this Twins career OBP leaders list the player had to have a minimum of 1,000 plate appearances as a Minnesota Twin and have a OBP equal to or greater than .350 . The players above made the cut, anyone on this list surprise you? Joe Mauer is the Twins career OBP leader and yet he still takes a lot of abuse for his hitting. I think we need to appreciate Joe Mauer for the hitter he is. Just missing the cut, Lew Ford
To qualify for this Twins career OPS leaders list the player had to have a minimum of 1,000 plate appearances as a Minnesota Twin and have a OPS equal to or greater than .790 . AJ Pierzynski just missed the cut at .788 . Number three on this list is Joe Mauer and we continue to bash him for not hitting more home runs.
It is mid February, TwinsFest is behind us and spring training is just around the corner. Target Field is still snow covered and the temperatures still don’t allow shorts to be worn outside but baseball fans are getting that itch, the itch to see some baseball. Since Minnesota fans won’t be able to see their home town nine play ball at Target Field until April some fans have already made their plans to travel to the Twins spring training home in Ft. Myers, Florida. Make no mistake, spring training is not far away, every day the numbers of players at the CenturyLink Sports Complex increases and Twins fans are attracted to Hammond Stadium like moths are to a flame. Some would argue with the same results.
Current Minnesota Twins players and future Twins players have it pretty good in spring training now days, but that has not always been the case. Back in 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando, Florida when the former Washington Senators players put on their Minnesota Twins uniforms for the first time life was a lot different. Most of the teams that held spring training in Florida had segregated living and eating facilities and many of them even traveled in separate vehicles when their teams played an away game.
The Washington Senators had moved out of the Langford Hotel in Winter Park, Florida and into the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 1) prior to spring training in 1959 under pressure from the Orlando Chamber of Commerce because the team was training in Orlando but staying in a Orlando suburb. When the Twins reported to their first spring training in 1961 the team was headquartered at the Cherry Plaza Hotel. However; the Cherry Plaza was segregated so the African-American players were housed at the Sadler Hotel on West Church Street which was an African-American business owned by Henry Sadler. It is ironic that Twins owner Calvin Griffith had helped to provide Sadler with the financing for his hotel.
In their first year of spring training as the Twins, there was little controversy over the segregated facilities in Orlando and the Cherry Plaza. Most baseball teams training in Florida were still segregating their players that year, although this would quickly change. According to various sources, by 1962 only five teams in Florida still had segregated spring training facilities, with the Twins being one of those teams.
In January of 1962, Twins players Earl Battey and Lenny Green were sitting at the head table of the “Hot Stove League” baseball banquet back in Minnesota while a derogatory and highly inappropriate story was told by “Rosy” Ryan, the former general manager of the Minneapolis Millers minor league club. Upon hearing the story, which referred to black players as “blackbirds,” Battey and Green promptly stormed out of the banquet. It is unknown if this was the straw that broke the camels back or just a coincidence but Earl Battey got in touch with than Minnesota Governor Elmer Andersen and updated him on the spring training segregation policies in Orlando.
Then the fur started to fly as then Minnesota Governor Elmer Andersen, Attorney General Walter Mondale and others started meeting with Twins owner Calvin Griffith, Road Secretary Howard Fox, and PR Director Herb Hoeft. Later, Minnesota Governor Karl Rolvaag got involved. The state also started communicating with Frank Flynn the General Manager of the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 2).
Downtowner Motel – Aren’t the color panels on this motel similar to colored panels on Met Stadium?
Heading into 1964 the Minnesota Twins were the only team in baseball that had not yet integrated its spring training facilities and the pressure was building as constant pressure on Griffith and Fox from civil rights organizations, the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office and, unceasingly, from the State Commission Against Discrimination (SCAD), caused the Twins to finally wake up. For the spring of 1964 they signed a contract with the Downtowner Motel in Orlando and abandoned the Cherry Plaza Hotel although Twins owner Calvin Griffith and his executives continued to stay at the Cherry Plaza Hotel. Segregated housing was finally over! The Twins even started paying the players meal money and allowing them to eat where ever they wished versus having the players always eat at the hotel and sign for the meal. According to Howard Fox, other teams have been providing meal money for years but the Twins approach has been to have the players sign for the meals so that the team could monitor if they were eating balanced meals.
Prior to the 1965 season the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 3) became integrated and the Twins wasted no time moving back in and calling the Cherry Plaza Hotel as Twins headquarters once again.
There is a lot more detailed material to read about the Minnesota Twins and their early 1960’s segregation issues and you can check it out in some of these documents.
The Minnesota Twins played their first ever exhibition game on March 11, 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando. Cookie Lavagetto and his boys took on the Detroit Tigers and their first game turned out to be a 4-1 loss. Paul Giel started the game for Minnesota and took the loss and Bob Bruce who started for the Tigers was credited with the victory. You will notice in the box score that although this was the first game of spring training and players were not in the shape that they are in today that a number of the pitchers that pitched in this game logged three innings not the one inning that you will probably see tomorrow.
