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
Not drafted out of college, Kerry Ligtenberg landed with the Minneapolis Loons of the independent Prairie League, pitching for $650 a month. In 1996, he was one class away from graduating from the University of Minnesota with an engineering degree and likely leaving baseball behind. But the Atlanta Braves took an interest in him at the urging of Loons manager Greg Olson.
The Braves signed Ligtenberg, and assistant general manager Dean Taylor offered to compensate Olson for the find. Olson was practical enough to ask for what his club really needed — 12 dozen baseballs and two dozen bats. A steal of a deal for the Braves, for whom Ligtenberg went on to make 254 appearances over five seasons.
The franchise has a 3-3 record in World Series history
The start of a new baseball season is always a glorious time. Fans across the country all have high hopes and dreams that they will be celebrating a Fall Classic win later in the year. Obviously, most of those dreams will be dashed over the next few months but, just for a little while, all 30 teams are still in with a chance.
Five clubs have never tasted victory, of course, with the Seattle Mariners never even making it to the World Series. There may be a few Twins fans that can’t remember a victory of our own but we have come out on top on no less than three occasions – with another three agonizing finals defeats in franchise history.
After winning the AL Central last season, there will be some of the best MLB betting sites looking at the Twins as a long shot for a championship this year. But, while we settle into the new campaign, let’s take a look back at all the times the franchise made it to the World Series.
After snapping their 18 game postseason losing streak in the recent ALWC series against the Toronto Blue Jays and going on the sweep the Blue Jays two games to none the Twins find themselves in the Bayou City playing the defending champions.
Game 1 against Justin Verlander did not go well even though they had him on the ropes early in the game. They fell behind 5-0 but came back with four of their own in the seventh but that was as close as they would get before losing to the Astros 6-4.
Game 2 is a game the Twins need to win, no it is not an elimination game, but it is a game in which they have their ace pitcher Pablo Lopez pitching and they need to win a game on the road in Houston. This would be the ideal game to do so and go home for two games tied at 1-1. More importantly, this is a game that the Twins need to show what they are made of, they need to take a step forward and show that they don’t let a loss to the defending champs let the air out of their balloon. The Astros are not unbeatable, the Twins need to show that they have the gumption to come back from being down one game to none and make the flight back home a happy one. I fully expect the Twins to do so.
Game of the other three Division Series have not exactly gone as planned either, with the Orioles, Braves, and Dodgers all losing at home. An unusual start to the ALDS and NLDS.
YESTERDAY’S RECAP: The Twins fell to the Atlanta Braves yesterday, 7-5, in North Port. Louie Varland was the starter and took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits (2 HR), with one walk and three strikeouts in 2.0 innings of work; became the first Twins starter to work in the third inning this spring. The Twins’ bench came through for the club, recording five of the club’s eight hits on the afternoon – all during a five-run, eighth-inning rally. Chris Williams went 1-for-1 with a two-run double, while Yoyner Fajardo, Jose Salas and Jake Rucker all had RBI singles.
GLOBAL GAME: The 2023 World Baseball Classic starts this week, with pool play in Taichung, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; Phoenix, Arizona; and Miami, Florida. The Twins will be well-represented, with 16 players and staffers from across the organization partaking. Here’s the full list: José De León (Puerto Rico), Edouard Julien (Canada), Jorge López (Puerto Rico), Pablo López (Venezuela), Jovani Moran (Puerto Rico), Emilio Pagán (Puerto Rico), Dereck Rodríguez (Puerto Rico), Christian Vázquez (Puerto Rico), Bert Blyleven (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Julio Borbón (Dominican Republic), Ramon Borrego (Venezuela), Tony Diaz (Dominican Republic), Rudy Hernandez (Venezuela), Dustin Morse (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Luis Ramirez (Venezuela) and Martijn Verhoeven (Kingdom of the Netherlands).
THIS LAND IS VARLAND: Louie Varland is in his first career spring training, making his second start…tossed 2.0 scoreless inning with one hit allowed and one strikeout February 25 at Baltimore…went 8-5, 3.06 ERA (126.1 IP, 43 ER), 42 walks, 146 strikeouts, a 1.26 WHIP and a .242 (117-for-484) opponent batting average in 24 minor league games (23 starts)…named Jim Rantz Award winner as Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive season, joining José Berríos (2014-15) as the only pitcher to win the award in back-to-back seasons…led all Twins minor leaguers in strikeouts (146) and innings pitched (126.1), was tied for first in games started (23) and was second in ERA (3.06), second in winning percentage (.615), fourth in opponent batting average (.242) and WHIP (1.26), and tied for fifth in wins (8)…made major league debut on September 7 at New York-AL, striking out seven in 5.2 innings pitched, fanning Aaron Judge in the first inning for his first career strikeout…went 1-2, 3.81 ERA (26.0 IP, 11 ER) in 5 starts with the Twins.
I was at CoolToday Park as the Atlanta Braves beat the Minnesota Twins today by a score of 7-5 and it was not as close as the score indicates. The Braves took Varland behind the woodshed and put a serious beating on him right from the get-go. The Twins trailed 7-0 before they scored all five of their runs in the top of the eighth inning with little to no help from the big leaguers (Christian Vazquez & Ryan Jeffers) that were in attendance. The game lasted 2 hour and 33 minutes but it seemed like it went on for four hours. We were supposed to check out CoolToday Park last Spring but the game we were going to attend was called off due to the lockout. It is a beautiful ballpark with lots of parking available. It is about 75 miles north of Fort Myers in North Port. The only complaint I would have is that it kind of a pain getting from one level to another primarily because the signage is non-existent telling you where the stairs are.
David West was born on September 1, 1964, in Memphis, TN, to Eugene C. West and Vivian Womble West. David passed away in Palm City, Florida from brain cancer on May 14, 2022.
West fell in love with baseball at an early age. According to Ripbaseball.com, West excelled in American Legion ball, playing for Millington Telephone, but the big left-hander with the 90 mile-per-hour fastball had to wait a bit to play at Craigmont High School. He was declared scholastically ineligible and missed his first two seasons of high school ball. After his Senior season he was named to second team of American Baseball Coaches Association High School All-America squad.
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.
Twins pinch hitter Miguel Sano (22) celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk off home run in the ninth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Ben Ludeman-USA TODAY Sports
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!
We have three more players that made their major league debut as Twins on June 27.
Derek Lee – Courtesy of the Minnesota Twins
Derek Lee (OF) – June 27, 1993 – Selected off waivers by the Minnesota Twins from the Chicago White Sox on October 5, 1992. Debuted in left field at the Dome in a Twins 2-0 win over the California Angels but went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
Gladden and Olson in GM1 1991 WS
Greg Olson (C) – June 27, 1989 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on November 30, 1988. Debuted at the Dome but was 0 for 1. His entire Twins career lasted but 3 games and 2 PA’s before becoming a free agent and signing with Atlanta. Greg Olson was more famous in Twins history as the Atlanta Braves catcher in game 1 of the 1991 World Series and his big collision with Dan Gladden.
Steve Luebber (P) – June 27, 1971 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of the 1967 amateur draft. Debut was a tough one in game 2 of a DH at the Met in a 8-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Five innings pitched allowing 6 hits and 4 walks and 5 earned runs. Came within one out of pitching a no-hitter for the Twins against the Rangers in a 3-1 Twins victory on August 7, 1976.
Two teams start the season with 30 losses in their first 40 games.
The Minnesota Twins fell to 10-30 this season with their extra-inning loss to the Blue Jays, after the Atlanta Braves record dropped to 10-30 with their loss at Pittsburgh earlier on Thursday night. This is only the second season since 1900 in which two major-league teams each lost at least 30 of their first 40 decisions. That had not happened since 1904, when the Philadelphia Phillies started 9-31 and the Washington Senators (who would become the Minnesota Twins) began with a 7-33 mark.
Not to scare you but the 1904 Washington Senators finished the season with a 38-113 record while scoring 437 runs and giving up 743 runs.
The Braves and Twins both lost Thursday, dropping their records to 0-9. It’s only the third time in major-league history that two teams started 0-9 or worse in the same season. It also happened in 1884 when Detroit of the National League and Altoona of the Union Association did it; and in 1988 when Baltimore and Atlanta did it.
The Twins scored only one run in their loss to the White Sox yesterday and have scored only 14 runs in nine games this season. That matches the fewest runs scored over the first nine games of a season in Twins franchise history. The 1949 Washington Senators also scored only nine runs over the first nine games of the season. That team finished with a 50-104 record. The last major-league team to have that offensive futility over its first nine games of a season was the 2004 Expos (10 runs), the last American League team was the 2003 Tigers (14).
The Twins are the second team in major-league history to lose each of their first nine games, and score three or fewer runs in each. The other was the 1988 Orioles, who lost a record 21-straight games to start the season. Baltimore failed to score as many as four runs in any of the first 12 games that season.
