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
There is a very interesting story written yesterday by Jim Mandelaro of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about former Twin 3B and now Rochester Red Wing player Sean Burroughs. I urge you take a few minutes and read the article that you can find right here. Burroughs has led an interesting life to be sure.
New Britain outfielder Evan Bigley is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week for June 16-22. The 25 year old right-handed hitting Bigley, 25, batted .550 (11-for-20) with one double, two home runs, six RBI and six runs scored in five games for the Rock Cats. Bigley was the Twins 10th round pick in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of Dallas Baptist University. In his 5-year minor league career Bigley had appeared in 497 minor league games playing all three outfield spots while hitting .273 with 43 home runs and 15 stolen bases in 36 attempts.
UPDATE – Evan Bigley was named Eastern League Player of the Week for the period of June 18-24.
June 24th has been an interesting day in Minnesota Twins history over the years, here are some of the events that occurred on this day.
1955– Harmon Killebrew hit his first major league homer, off lefty Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators 18-7. Killebrew would later say that, of all the home runs he hit at Griffith Stadium, the home run off Hoeft was the longest he ever hit in Griffith. Twenty years later, on September 18, 1975 Harmon, wearing a KC Royals uniform hit his last career home run, a blast to left field off Twins hurler Eddie Bane in a Royals 4-3 victory at Met Stadium over the home town Minnesota Twins. In his career, Killebrew smashed 246 home runs at Met Stadium.
1968 – In a one game series, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game called after 5 innings due to rain. The reason the game was played in Milwaukee was that in 1968, Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves who had been unable to stop the relocation of his team three years earlier, contracted with the Allyn brothers who owned the White Sox to host nine home games (one against each of the other American League clubs) at Milwaukee County Stadium as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1977 – Ralph Garr of the White Sox homered off Minnesota’s Paul Thormodsgard in Minneapolis. It came in the third inning with two men on and no one out. Jim Essian, the runner on first, thought the ball might be caught by the Twins’ right fielder, Dan Ford, so he retreated towards first base. Garr was watching the flight of the ball and passed Essian after rounding the bag. He was credited with a single and two runs batted in.
1984 – 2B Tim Teufel gives the Twins a 3-2 win over the White Sox with a three-run inside-the-park walk off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth at the Metrodome.
1989 – Twins outfielder John Moses is asked to pitch at Fenway Park in an 11-2 loss to the Red Sox. John threw one scoreless inning giving up a walk but only faced 3 batters with the team turned a double play behind him. John is the fourth Twins position player to pitch and this is the fifth occurrence of a Twins position player pitching for the Twins.
Don’t forget to check out This Day in Twins History each and every day.
Located on the winding banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the GABP (Great American Ball Park) serves as the home of the Cincinnati Reds, baseball’s first professional franchise. The ballpark officially opened for the 2003 season, making 2010 its eighth big-league season.
At least 1 home run has been hit in each of the last 59 games at Great American Ball Park, dating back to a homer less game vs the Giants on July 29, 2011, making it the longest active ballpark homer streak in the major leagues and the longest home run streak in GABP history. There have only been 60 homer less contests in the ballpark’s 764 games. Only twice in the park’s 10-year existence has there been a streak of 2 straight games without a home run by either team and there never has been a 3-game homer less stretch at GABP. Earlier this season, there were 29 home runs hit during the home stand from May 21 – May 27 (Reds 17, Braves 6, Rockies 6), a new GABP record for HR during a home stand of 7 games or fewer and including a single-game record 9 homers in the finale (Rockies 5, Reds 4).
The GABP is a bandbox and in 2012 it ranks second to Arizona’s Chase Field (1.84) in home runs allowed at 1.80 per game. Safeco Field in Seattle is the toughest place to hit a home run with on 0.45 long balls per game. This year Target Field ranks 18 out of 30 as far as home runs hit is concerned and their ratio stands at 0.90 . With Twins pitchers having given up a major league leading 93 home runs this season it could be a long week-end for Rick Anderson’s chuckers. The Twins physical therapists better be ready to massage some of those Twins pitchers neck muscles as they might suffer from whip-lash before this 3-game series comes to an end.
1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium, Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time, underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.
1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.
The Minnesota Twins’ 2-1 victory over the Pirates on last night was their first win this season when they scored two or fewer runs. That leaves the Detroit Tigers as the only team in the major leagues that has not won a game in which it scored either one or two runs.
The Minnesota Twins have signed a 30 year lease extension to continue to use the Lee County Sports complex as their spring training home on the assumption that Lee County will get $15 million from a state grant to help finance the expected $25 to $30 million in improvements. Lee County Commissioners voted 4 -1 yesterday to sign the 30-year conditional lease with the Twins. Lee County and the Twins needed to sign this conditional lease prior to the exact details of the improvements being agreed upon because the $15 million state grant can only be used to retain a current baseball team and the county has to apply for the state grant before July 6.
When Twins president Dave St. Peter was asked what improvements the team was looking for, he said “We are focused on general improvements surrounding fan amenities, player development and amateur sports.” When pressed for more details, St. Peter said he could not be more specific at this time. Rumor has it that the Twins are looking to add about a 1,000 seats, add some ballpark elevators, add a team dormitory and a player-development academy. When I asked the Twins president what the chances were that the county would get the state funds and when these improvements were expected to be completed, he replied that “he is optimistic that the county would get the state funds and that some improvements would be completed for 2014 and the balance in 2015.” Dave St. Peter went on to say that “we have eight (8) years remaining our current lease with two five-year team options. When asked about his thoughts about the rumored move of the Washington Nationals to Ft. Myers where they would use the old Boston Red Sox spring training complex, he had “no comment”.
The Twins have called Ft. Myers as their spring training home since 1991. The only other city that the Twins have used as a spring training facility was Orlando, Florida where they trained from 1961 through 1990. The Twins supposedly generate at least $25 million to $30 million per year from tourists traveling to Lee County, using the hotels, eating at the restaurants and going to games.
Matthew Lovick Walbeck was born on October 2, 1969 in Sacramento, California and grew up playing a variety of sports but baseball was his passion. Walbeck was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 8th round of the 1987 amateur free agent draft out of Sacramento High School as a catcher and signed his first pro contract just a few days later fulfilling a lifetime dream to play professional baseball. Matt worked his way up the Cubs minor league ladder playing and ended up making the Cubs big league club out of spring training in 1993 as the teams 3rd catcher. Walbeck stayed with the Cubs for about a month before being sent down to AAA Iowa where he spent most of 1993 before being called up to the big club again in September.
In November of 1993 Walbeck was traded by the Cubs to the Minnesota Twins along with pitcher Dave Stevens for the Twins 1987 first round pick (3rd overall) pitcher Willie Banks. Walbeck was the Twins primary catcher in the Twins strike shortened 1994 season but the highlight of Matt’s big league career occurred on April 27th at the Metrodome when Matt caught Scott Erickson’s no-hitter, a 6-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. In 1995 Walbeck played in a career high of 115 games and hit for a .257 average. In spring training of 1996 Matt had a sore wrist and a couple of days before the season started, Walbeck was diagnosed with a broken Hamate bone and had to undergo surgery. The recovery from the surgery was slower than expected and Walbeck did not play his first game in 1996 until June 18th. Former Oakland A’s catcher and Minnesota native Terry Steinbach signed with the Twins as a free agent in December of 1996 and just a few days later Walbeck was traded to the Detroit Tigers for minor league pitcher Brian Stentz. Stentz as it turned out never appeared in a big league ball game. Walbeck ended his Twins career having played in Minnesota for 3 years. During his time in Minnesota, Walbeck better known for his catching skills then his bat, caught in 275 games and had 1,008 plate appearances in which he hit 8 home runs, knocked in 103, stole 7 bases and posted a .230 batting average.
Walbeck played for the Detroit Tigers in 1997 before being traded to the Anaheim Angels where he played from 1998-2000. Walbeck then played in the minors for the Reds and the Phillies getting only one big league at bat with the Phillies in 2001 before finishing his career in Detroit in 2002-2003 at the age of 33 and 11 years of big league baseball.
Immediately after ending his playing career, Matt move into a manager role in the Tigers system in 2004 and managed their A ball team to two championships between 2004 and 2006. Walbeck then moved up to manage in AA ball where he again took the team to the playoffs and was rewarded by getting the 3rd base coaching job for the Texas Rangers and manager Ron Washington in 2008. Walbeck was let go after one season and returned to managing in the Pirates system in 2009 and by 2010 he had led his team to yet another championship season and was named manager of the year in the Eastern League but was let go by the Pirates. In 2011 Walbeck took over as manager for the A ball Rome Braves in the Atlanta organization but the team played poorly and Walbeck was fired mid season for philosophical differences.
Since then, Matt has started the Walbeck Baseball Academy in Sacramento, California where he gets to work with youngsters and their parents teaching some life skills and baseball while spending time at home with his wife and 3 children. I think that Matt is enjoying his life at home right now but who knows what the future may hold for this former catcher and proven minor league winning manager if another big league opportunity should present itself. In his free time, Matt enjoys coaching his son’s baseball team, exercising and doing some fly fishing.
Want to know how and why Matt became a switch-hitter? You can listen to Matt tell you by clicking here. Be sure to check out our other interviews with former Twins players by going to the Interview Archives page, there are 36 different interviews you can check out.
Twins Minor League Player of the Week is Beloit pitcher Michael Tonkin. The 22 year-old 6’7″ Tonkin made three relief appearances for the Snappers, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings, with no hits allowed, no walks, 12 strikeouts and two saves. The right-hander is in his fifth season in the Twins organization after being the Twins’ 30th round pick in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of Palmdale High School in California.
In his minor league career, Tonkin has pitched in 100 games starting 25 and has a 14-14 record, 9 saves with a 3.28 ERA, a 8.5 SO/9 ratio and a 1.24 WHIP.
What are the chances that the National league Major League Player of the Week for three weeks in a row turns out to be a former Minnesota Twin? Apparently pretty good.
Week of June 11th (tie between two players)
Jason Kubel, Arizona D-Backs (.409, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 5 R, .818 SLG)
Ryan Dempster, Chicago Cubs (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 15.0 IP, 9 SO)
To make the odds even longer, the American League Player of the for the Week of June 11th was, you guessed it, another tie and another former Minnesota Twin.
Torii Hunter, LA Angels (.500, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 10 R, 1.045 SLG)
Mike Trout, LA Angels (.520, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 10 R, 4 SB, .567 OBP)
Week of June 4th
Johan Santana, New York Mets (First no-hitter in NYM history on 6/1)
Week of May 29th
R.A. Dickey, New York Mets (2-0, 0.63 ERA, 14.1 IP, 1 BB, 21 SO)