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
Another day and another major league debut as a Minnesota Twin, but this was not your run of the mill Twins star that debuted on June 6
Frank Viola
Frank Viola (P) – June 6, 1982 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 1981 amateur draft. Viola’s debut was not exactly vintage “sweet music” on June 6 when he first stepped on the Metrodome mound to face the Baltimore Orioles and Dennis Martinez and he ended up taking the loss in the 7-5 O’s win but his good days were just on the horizon. Just in case you wanted to know, the Twins selected Bryan Oelkers as their first round pick and fourth overall just ahead of the Mets pick of Dwight Gooden.
A big day for major league debuts as Minnesota Twins, one was drafted and went on to be a hall of famer and two were acquired in trades.
Greg Gagne
Greg Gagne (SS) – June 5, 1983 – Traded by the New York Yankees with Paul Boris and Ron Davis to the Minnesota Twins for Roy Smalley on April 10, 1982. Gagne struck out in his first two at bats before doubling in the sixth and then scoring. Gagne ended up 1 for 4 in a Twins 10-4 win over the Red Sox at the Dome.
Brad Havens
Brad Havens (P) – June 5, 1981 – Traded by the California Angels to the Minnesota Twins in February 1979. In his big league debut Havens faced off against Jack Morris at Tiger Stadium and pitched 6 innings allowing just 2 hits, a single and a home run by Alan Trammell and left the game down 1 to nothing. Unfortunately, Morris pitched a complete game 3-hit shutout and the Twins and Havens lost 2-0 in a 2 hour game.
Bert Blyleven
Bert Blyleven (P) – June 5, 1970 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1969 amateur draft and became the 69th player to make his big league debut as a Twins player. As Blyleven has stated on many occasions, he did indeed give up a home run to the first Senators batter he faced in his debut at RFK Stadium and that batter was Lee Maye and that tied the score at one apiece. Blyleven gave up another single in the first but then held Washington to 3 hits the rest of the way and was pulled after seven innings after having allowed the one run on 5 hits and a walk while striking out seven and the future hall of fame right-hander was on his way. The Twins selected OF Paul Powell in round 1 that year and he played 30 big league games, 20 with Minny. In round 2 they selected Ron McDonald a high school 3B but he never got above AA ball. They selected shortstop Rick Burleson in round 7 but couldn’t sign him…The Red Sox did after taking him in the January secondary draft.
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) right-handed pitcher Sean Poppen has been named Twins minor league Player of the Week. The 6’4″ Poppen made two starts for the Kernels, going 2-0, with one unearned run allowed on eight hits, one walk and 11 strikeouts in 13.1 innings pitched; he beat Kane County on Saturday and Quad Cities on Thursday. Poppen has been used exclusively as a starter in 2017 and is 4-1 with a 2.12 ERA and a nice 1.03 WHIP. In the 63+ innings he has pitched he has allowed only 54 hits and struck out 60 batters. In his 10 starts he has allowed as many as 3 earned runs just twice and has pitched at least 5 innings in each start.
Poppen
The 23-year old Virginia native was drafted by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Harvard University. Sean Poppen looks like a prospect to watch regardless what round he was selected in.
Albert Pujols hit his 600th major-league home run in the Angels’ 7-2 win over the Twins, a long grand slam off Ervin Santana. The only player in major-league history who hit a “100th” home run of 400-or-higher that was a grand slam was Carlos Delgado, whose 400th home run was a grand slam, for the Mets at home off Jeff Weaver of the Cardinals on August 22, 2006. Delgado hit number 399 off Weaver earlier in the game and also homering twice in that game was Pujols himself: the 238th and 239th of his career off of John Maine.
Pujols is the ninth player to join the 600 home run club, and he had 1,223 extra-base hits leading up to his 600th homer. That’s the second-most for a player at the time of his 600th homer, behind Hank Aaron (1,233). Willie Mays had the next-most (1,193). Pujols was batting .308 entering the 600th home run, third-highest at the time of accomplishing the feat, below Babe Ruth (.349) and Hank Aaron (.312). Ruth started his career before RBIs became in official statistic in 1920. Among the 8 members of the 600 home run club who debuted since 1920, Pujols’s 1,855 RBIs at the time of number 600 rank second to only Aaron, who had one more (1,856).
Ervin Santana is a former teammate of Pujols; they played together for the Angels in 2012. Pujols is the third player to hit a “100th” home run of 500-or-higher off a former teammate. Jimmie Foxx hit number 500 while playing for the Red Sox in Philadelphia in 1940, off his former A’s teammate George Caster, and Manny Ramirez hit number 500 while playing for the Red Sox in 2008 in Baltimore off his former Red Sox teammate Chad Bradford.
Only one player made his major league debut as a Minnesota Twins player on June 4th.
Brian Dinkelman
Brian Dinkelman (2B) – June 4, 2011 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 8th round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Dinkelman was officially 1 for 3 but here is how his debut transpired. In his first PA he was hit with a pitch by Luke Hochevar, in his second PA he hit a deep fly to center for an out, in his third PA he singled to left, in his fourth PA he was intentionally walked and in his fifth and final PA went down swinging. A nice debut in a Twins 7-2 win at Kauffman Stadium.
Harmon Killebrew hit the longest home run ever hit by a Twin, estimated at 522 feet. The Killer crushed this 3 run blast against Lew Burdette of the Angels on June 3, 1967 in front of just 12,337 Twins fans. The ball landed in the sixth row of the upper deck at Metropolitan Stadium and Killebrew becomes the first player to hit a ball into the second deck of the left field pavilion. The ball cracked the seat, which was later painted orange to commemorate the event and the seat eventually found its way to the Hall of Fame. Box Score
The ’67 summer was the most heartbreaking of that era for Twins fans. We were edged out for the pennant at the very end. Boston and Carl Yastrzemski prevailed. Historical annals show Harmon hitting tape measure blasts at his very best then. He came to bat on an early summer day, looking out to the mound and pitcher Lew Burdette of the Los Angeles Angels. It was early summer but the temperature felt like midsummer, making the atmosphere perfect at our beloved “Met.” The wind was gusting in the 25-35 MPH range. Legend has it Harmon may have caught a jet stream. Burdette vainly tried to fool “the Killer” with a knuckler. Killebrew launched the ball on a ride of 520 feet. The ball came down in the upper deck of the Met’s left field pavilion. Burdette was quoted saying “I threw him a knuckle ball that started out high. And all it did was get higher.”
The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.
The following players made their major league debuts in a Twins uniform.
Danny Valencia
Danny Valencia (3B) – June 3, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 19th round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Who can complain about a 1 for 3 debut in the big leagues?
J.T. Bruett
J.T. Bruett (OF) – June 3, 1992 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 1988 amateur draft. Born a Badger, then became a Gopher and a Minnesota Twin.
In the top of the ninth inning last night in La La land, Jason Castro delivered a two-run single that turned a Twins’ 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead; Minnesota went on to defeat the Angels, 4-2. Entering Thursday, Los Angeles was 28-0 when leading in the ninth inning or later and 13-0 at home when leading after eight innings this season. Since the start of the 2016 season, Minnesota had won only one other game in which the team trailed in the ninth inning or later and that was just last month (May 19 vs. Kansas City).
Miguel Sano
BONUS: Before Thursday’s game against the Angels, Twins third baseman Miguel Sano worked on his defense with third-base coach Gene Glynn with an emphasis on fielding grounders while positioned near the third-base bag.
Sano gleefully predicted to all that would listen that he would turn a triple play later in the night. And sure enough, just a few hours later, the Twins turned their first triple play in over a decade, as rookie left-hander Adalberto Mejia got the Angels’ Jefry Marte to ground into a 5-4-3 triple play that was started by Sano in a 4-2 win at Angel Stadium. Sano also hit a home run.
Third base is known as the “hot corner”, because the third baseman is relatively close to the batter and most right-handed hitters tend to hit the ball hard in this direction. Now days the third base position is expected to provide power. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than there are Hall of Famers’ of any other position.
The Twins have had their share of good players at that position and the list below shows Twins players that have played in at least 200 games and played at least 51% of their games at third base from 1961 through 2016. Current Twins third sacker Miguel Sano will be moving up this list very quickly.
Gary Gaetti has always been one of my all-time favorite Minnesota Twins. I enjoyed watching him play third base and the man got his uniform dirty, he went all out all the time. Plus, he was a very good hitter. If I was asked for my Twins top 10 list, he would be near the top.
Gaetti played in the Metrodome from 1982 – 1990. Gary took a “liking” to the Dome the first time he played there by going 4-4 and hitting 2 home runs. Gaetti was an All-Star in 1988 and 1989 and was the 3B on the 1987 World Championship team.
The Astros routed the Twins at Target Field yesterday, 17–6, completing a three-game sweep in which they scored 40 runs (16, 7 and 17). That is a franchise record for runs scored in a regular-season series of any length. Houston’s previous highest run total in a single series was 39–– in a four-game set at San Francisco in 1995 and a four-game matchup with the Pirates in 2000.
The Astros’ victory improved their record this season to 38–16, which is the most games over .500 for any major league team through the end of May since 2001, when the Mariners were 40–12 to that point.
