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
Thaddeus Stanley Lepcio was born in Utica, New York on July 28, 1929 and passed away on December 5, 2019 at his home in Dedham, Massachusetts. The right-handed hitting Ted Lepcio was not a baseball superstar but he loved baseball and always wanted to be a big league player. He achieved that goal and played in the major leagues for 10 years playing second base, third base and shortstop for five different big league teams.
Happy New Year!!
Baseball is a fun and interesting game and 2019 was no exception. Jayson Stark wrote a cool article in The Athletic today called “Strange But True Feats of the Year, 2019 Edition” and the Twins were mentioned a couple of times. If you don’t subscribe to The Athletic (and you really should), you won’t be able to read it but I will steal his Twins mentions and put them here for you to see the kind of writing you are missing by not subscribing.
On August 5 at Target Field, Miguel Sano did something very cool. He didn’t just hit a walk-off homer. He hit the Twins’ first walk-off homer against the Braves since the Kirby Puckett Game 6 We’ll See You Tomorrow Night shot that set up the epic Jack Morris–John Smoltz Game 7 in the 1991 World Series. But then … guess what Ronald Acuña Jr. did on the first pitch of their next game? Yessir. Hit a leadoff homer. It’s the only time in any of the past 13 seasons when one game ended on a last-pitch homer and the next game started with a first-pitch homer.
The Twins’ Ryne Harper had a July 7 outing in which he faced four hitters, struck out all four of them and still managed to record a total of … five outs — thanks to a little miracle we like to call the old strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out inherited-runner double play.
Four Orioles did manage to hit two homers in a game at Camden Yards. Which sounds encouraging until you remember that four Twins did that in one day (April 20). All right, so they played a doubleheader that day. But still …
The Yankees blew away the all-time record for home runs in one season — but didn’t even lead their league, because the Twins hit 307 of them. Five different Twins hit at least 30 home runs in 2019. Which was kind of notable because only five different Twins had had a 30-homer season in the previous 30 seasons put together!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
When the Minnesota Twins take on the Oakland A’s on March 26 in the 2020 season opener it will be the beginning of a new decade, their third this century. From 2000-2009 the Twins posted a record 863-758 for a winning percentage of .532 as they played out their final years in-doors at the HHH Metrodome.
In the current decade from 2010-2019 the Twins have played outdoors in their new digs at Target Field but their play has not matched their new outdoor surroundings as they have played at a winning percentage of .472 as they won 765 games and lost 855.
In spite of the Twins mediocre play in a decade in which they managed just four winning seasons they still averaged 2,438,495 fans per year but most of that can probably be attributed to the new ballpark they opened in 2010. So who were the best Twins players that fans got to see over the last ten seasons? Let’s take a look at who I have as the best player at each position with a strong assist from the WAR numbers from https://www.baseball-reference.com/ .
The players listed below had just one hit while wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform. Most had more than one big league hit in their big league careers but for our purposes we are just looking for those players that had just one hit while wearing Minnesota Twins colors.
As you might suspect, since this list covers players that played for the Minnesota Twins from 1961 (when pitchers still batted) through 2019 the list has a lot of pitchers on it. The right-hand column on the list shows you the positions played by that player.
I ran across a newspaper special insert that the Star Tribune had put out with their Sunday edition on April 16, 1961 that was over 100 pages long and was intended to introduce professional baseball to folks in Minnesota and the upper Midwest. The 100+ pages of course included a lot of advertisements but they in themselves are cool to look at and see how prices have changed over the years.
I hope to work on it in the near future and see if I can put together a PDF and share it with you long time Twins fans who I am sure will really enjoy it and I think you younger Twins fans will enjoy it too for all the Twins history it has back in the days when life was a lot simpler and baseball was more fun.
I have no idea what the Minnesota Twins spend on outfitting a major league player now days, but back in 1961 when the club first moved to Minnesota from Washington D.C. the cost for getting a player ready to take the field was $113 according to the Twins equipment manager Ray Crump. The PDF below will show you the specifics.
Star_Tribune_Sun__Apr_16__1961_ (25)
Twinstrivia.com would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful time with your family and friends and stay safe if you need to travel.
Welcome to our second decade of Twins Turkey of the year awards. I sure hope you are all enjoying the snow that we were blessed with over the last few days as you made your way to enjoy Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Let’s get right down to business of naming this years Twins Turkey of the Year.
As part of the celebration of the 60th season of Major League Baseball in Minnesota, the Twins on Monday unveiled a throwback baby blue alternate uniform for the 2020 season. The uniform features baby blue tops and pants with “Twins” written in scarlet red cursive lettering as a replica of the club’s road uniform worn during the 1973-86 seasons.
“No uniform in the history of Minnesota Twins baseball drives more fan engagement than the old-school baby blues,” Twins President and CEO Dave St. Peter said. “With that popularity in mind, we are excited to bring this uniform back as part of our 60th Season Celebration. It’s going to be fun to watch the 2020 Twins wearing the same look as Twins legends from the 1970s and 1980s.”