The Minnesota Twins first center fielder – Lenny Green passes away on his birthday

Lenny Green

Leonard Charles Green (born January 6, 1933, in Detroit) was the middle of three sons born to Eugene and Anna Green and passed away on his 86th birthday on January 6, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.

After graduating from Pershing High School, Lenny Green was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns late in 1952 to play for York of the Class B Inter-State League. But before he ever put on a York uniform or a Browns uniform for that matter the Army called and he spent 1953-1954 in the service of his country during the Korean War. Green was stationed stateside and ended up playing on a baseball team with and against players like Willie Mays, Don Newcombe, Billy Martin and Zach Monroe. After being discharged from the Army as a corporal, Green was free to resume his pro baseball career but thing had changed and Green experienced his first MLB franchise shift as the Browns became the Baltimore Orioles.

These guys beat up the Twins over the years

With the Minnesota Twins having 57 MLB seasons in the rear view mirror, the Houston Astros winning the World Series in 7 games, the temperatures in the mid 40’s and with no snow on the ground it is a good time to look back on and revisit the hitters that have found Twins pitching to their liking over the years. 

Today we are going to take a look at Twins opponents that have 200 or more hits against the Twins, there are 23 players who fit this criteria. 200 hits is a lot of hits. Six of the 23 hit from the left side, 13 were right-handed hitters and just four (Vizquel, Martinez, Wilson and Murray) of them were switch-hitters. Just missing out on this list were Frank Thomas with 194 hits, Al Kaline with 192 and Sal Bando with 190 hits.

200 or more hits against the Minnesota Twins

Carl Yastrzemski
Results
Rk Player #Matching AB H
?
HR RBI SO BA OPS Tm
1 Carl Yastrzemski 297 1094 321 43 158 121 .293 .855 BOS
2 George Brett 228 869 275 23 128 74 .316 .869 KCR
3 Paul Konerko 257 926 265 50 136 139 .286 .845 CHW
4 Cal Ripken 207 788 242 26 119 87 .307 .849 BAL
5 Magglio Ordonez 195 739 240 37 145 80 .325 .906 CHW,DET
6 Wade Boggs 179 687 234 6 84 50 .341 .869 BOS,NYY,TBD
7 Bert Campaneris 232 913 229 7 54 115 .251 .633 KCA,OAK,TEX,CAL,NYY
8 Omar Vizquel 212 783 228 5 68 79 .291 .732 SEA,CLE,SFG,TEX,CHW,TOR
9 Victor Martinez 205 764 226 29 121 90 .296 .823 CLE,BOS,DET
10 Reggie Jackson 252 902 225 51 142 243 .249 .818 KCA,OAK,BAL,NYY,CAL
11 Brooks Robinson 230 861 223 20 115 91 .259 .711 BAL
12 Amos Otis 195 740 223 16 100 102 .301 .818 KCR
13 Jim Thome 196 695 218 61 156 221 .314 1.049 CLE,CHW,PHI,BAL
14 Paul Molitor 176 716 217 16 93 76 .303 .825 MIL,TOR
15 Willie Wilson 185 693 216 3 64 113 .312 .752 KCR,OAK
16 Rickey Henderson 198 721 215 23 85 90 .298 .869 OAK,NYY,TOR,ANA,SEA,BOS
17 Robin Yount 208 794 211 18 93 92 .266 .715 MIL
18 Harold Baines 213 716 209 32 127 101 .292 .851 CHW,TEX,OAK,BAL
19 Ivan Rodriguez 178 678 208 29 94 104 .307 .835 TEX,DET,NYY,HOU
20 Luis Aparicio 195 774 205 8 51 60 .265 .649 BAL,CHW,BOS
21 Miguel Cabrera 175 653 205 41 139 109 .314 .960 FLA,DET
22 Frank White 214 704 202 13 73 70 .287 .751 KCR
23 Eddie Murray 168 658 201 44 133 94 .305 .922 BAL,CLE,ANA
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/29/2017.

One oddity that I noticed when looking over this data was that only two players got their 200 or more hits from one spot in the batting order. Ricky Henderson had 214 out of his 215 hits against Minnesota hitting lead-off while Carl Yastrzemski had 228 of his 321 hits out of the three-hole.

WOW! Look at the Hall of Famer’s on this list plus some of the others will be in shortly. Anyone on this list surprise you? How about players that you thought would be on the list but are not?

 

Twins all-opponent team right fielder

Right FieldMagglio Ordonez – Actually a pretty  easy pick even though there have been many good right fielders that have played against Minnesota. Here are just a few of them, Reggie Jackson, Dwight Evans, Al Kaline, Jermaine Dye, Jay Buhner, Ichiro Suzuki, Paul O’Neill, Tim Salmon, Danny Tartabull and of course Manny Ramirez just to name a few. These guys bring back some memories don’t they? Many of them bad ones.

Ordonez played in the bigs for all or parts of 15 seasons splitting his time with the White Sox (8 years) and Tigers (7 years) before retiring after the 2011 season. In 2007 while playing for the Detroit Tigers, Ordonez hit a league leading 54 doubles and his .363 average was the best in the league earning him runner-up (to A-Rod) in the AL MVP voting. Magglio Ordonez was a six-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger award winner.

Ordonez played 181 games against Minnesota and hit .326 with an OPS of .919 in 746 PA’s. Throw in his 44 doubles, 36 home runs and 136 RBI and you have one tough hombre.

 

Our previous selections for the Twins all-opponent team

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez

First Baseman – Paul Konerko

Second Baseman – Lou Whitaker

Third Baseman – Wade Boggs

Shortstop – Cal Ripken

Left Field – Jim Rice

Center Field – Fred Lynn

Major League debuts as Minnesota Twins – Ron Keller

Only the one player made his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on July the 9th. This debut is extra special however; because Ron Keller was the first player to be drafted and signed by the Minnesota Twins and make his big league debut wearing the colors of the Minnesota Twins.

 

Ron Keller

Ron Keller (P) – July 9, 1966 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 8th round of the 1965 amateur draft. The Twins were already down 5-0 when Ron Keller was called upon by Sam Mele to relieve Jim Merritt. Keller had a clean first inning on the Met Stadium mound but then allowed 3 runs in the next inning including a home run by future Hall of Famer Al Kaline and kept the Tigers off the board in his third inning of relief. 

To see other Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins

Is this the year that Oliva and Kaat finally get in to the Hall of Fame?

Nine former players and one executive are up for consideration by this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame Golden Era Committee. These candidates either played or contributed to the National Pastime between 1947 and 1972.

The 10-person ballot for consideration by this year’s Golden Era Committee consists of Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Bob Howsam, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Billy Pierce, Luis Tiant and Maury Wills. Pitcher Jim Kaat and outfielder/DH Tony Oliva had long careers with the Minnesota Twins and Luis Tiant also has ties to Minnesota when he was a Twins pitcher in 1970 but only appeared in 18 games due to injury.

RF Tony Oliva played for the  Twins from 1962-1976
RF Tony Oliva played for the Twins from 1962-1976

Kaat (10 votes in 2011), Hodges (9 votes), Minoso (9 votes), Oliva (8 votes), Boyer (less than 3 votes) and Tiant (less than three votes) return to the ballot after appearing in the fall in 2011 in the first vote of the Golden Era Committee. Allen, Howsam, Pierce and Wills will be considered by the Golden Era Committee for the first time. Ron Santo was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Golden Era Committee in 2011, the last time a Golden Era ballot was considered.

The 16-person Golden Era Committee consists of SABR members Pat Gillick, Roland Hemond, Steve Hirdt, and Tracy Ringolsby, along with Hall of Famers Jim Bunning, Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Ozzie Smith and Don Sutton; baseball executives Jim Frey, David Glass, and Bob Watson; and veteran media members Dick Kaegel and Phil Pepe.

Any candidate receiving votes on 75 percent of all ballots cast will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2015 on July 26. Voting will take place on December 8th at the MLB Winter Meetings in San Diego.

Jim Kaat
Jim Kaat pitched in the big leagues for 25 years and pitched for the Senators/Twins from 1959-1973.

You can make an argument for each of these guys being elected to the Hall of Fame but as a long time Twins fan I obviously would love to see Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat elected. It is a crying shame some of these guys that deserve Hall of Fame election have had to wait so long and it some cases like Ken Boyer and Gil Hodges, it is too late for them to enjoy the fruits of their labors as they have passed away. That is just plain wrong!

Blast from the Past

The Minnesota Twins have had some power hitters over the years and Harmon Killebrew was the greatest of them all. The Twins called Met Stadium home when Harmon played and he hit 262 home runs as a Twin at the Met and added two more when he was a Kansas City Royal.

But I want to test your memory here, I want to see if you can complete the list of the top 10 visiting player home run hitters at Met Stadium. You don’t have to tell me how many home runs the player hit at Met Stadium, all you need to do is give me his name and I will add the player to the correct spot on the list and fill in how many home runs he hit at the Met and how many games he played there. I will tell you this to get you started, the most home runs hit by a visiting player is 20. I will also start you out by telling you that Sal Bando is number 10 on the list. There are no prizes, this is just a memory exercise. Send me your guesses at jjswol@twinstrivia.com. Have fun!

Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Player Home Runs Games
Reggie Jackson  20  81
 Carl Yastrzemski  18 131
 Norm Cash  17 87
 Al Kaline  16 85
Boog Powell  15  88
 Frank Howard  15 54
 Elston Howard  14  53
 Mickey Mantle  14  49
Willie Horton  13  91
Sal Bando 13 99

Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision

Great job everyone, thank you!