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
Brant Alyea was born in Passiac, New Jersey on December 8, 1940 and passed away at the age of 83 in his Pennsylvania home on February 4, 2024. Alyea was a very athletic student lettering in three sports at Rutherford High School, playing quarterback for the Bulldogs and starring in basketball and baseball.
According to his SABR Bio, after graduating from high school Alyea accepted a scholarship to Hofstra College in Hempstead, New York, a seemingly perfect fit as the small Long Island institution was established on a campus bequeathed by a Dutch lumber magnate, William Hofstra, in the 1930s, and their athletic teams were known as the Flying Dutchmen. More significantly, Hofstra would give Alyea the opportunity to play basketball as well as baseball. The basketball team was then coached by another Dutchman originally from New Jersey, Butch van Breda Kolff. Alyea and the Dutchmen enjoyed significant basketball success in the NCAA College Division. In the 1959-60 season, they finished 23-1, losing only to Wagner College of Staten Island by two points in January, but that loss cost them the conference title and they were not selected for postseason play. The next year, Alyea led the Dutchmen in scoring and rebounding, and Hofstra was selected for the small-college tournament, in which the team was eliminated by Albright College.
But it was Alyea’s baseball skills, particularly his power that attracted baseball scouts and eventually led to his signing with the Cincinnati Reds in the Spring of 1962. The Reds assigned their 6’5″ prospect to Geneva (New York) of the Class D New York-Penn League, and he clubbed 32 home runs while hitting .319 in just 105 games. Those healthy numbers made Alyea a prime target in the Rule 5 draft, which at that time covered all first-year players who had not been placed on the 40-man roster, and Alyea was snatched up by the Washington Senators.
As you watch the 2021 MLB Opening Day games tomorrow one of the things that you are unlikely to see is a complete game win by a starting pitcher. Back in the day, it was normal to see starting pitchers throw complete games in their final one or two spring training exhibition starts and complete games on OD were a normal occurrence. Not so in todays baseball.
Last year Chicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks pitched a complete game throwing 103 pitches as he shutout the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 on July 24. It was the first complete game on OD (not counting a five inning effort by Gerrit Cole in 2020) since April 1, 2013 when Clayton Kershaw shutout the San Francisco Giants 4-0. The last complete game on OD in the American League goes back even farther, back to April 1, 2011 when Felix Hernandez got a CG 6-2 win against the Oakland A’s. The last pitcher to pitch a complete game against the Twins was Rick Rhoden when he was pitching for the New York Yankees on April 5, 1988 after the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series.
The Minnesota Twins OD complete games are documented below.
Joe Grzenda, a 31-year old right-handed pitcher was purchased from the New York Mets by the Minnesota Twins on November 29, 1967 and spent the 1968 season with the AAA Denver Bears who were managed by Billy Martin after he replaced the fired Johnny Goryl. Martin used Grzenda as a reliever and he used him often as Grzenda appeared in a team leading 56 games posting a 5-8 record and a 3.14 ERA. Grzenda threw 86 innings and struck out 60 batters.
When Billy Martin was named the Twins 1969 manager he obviously remembered Grzenda and Grzenda made the Twins team out of spring training. Strangely enough Grzenda was the losing pitcher in the 1969 season opener on April 8th as the Twins were walked off 4-3 by the new Kansas City Royals in 12 innings at Municipal Stadium and was the winning pitcher in the 1969 regular season finale on October 2nd when the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 6-5 at Met Stadium. Grzenda appeared in game 3 of the 1969 ALCS and retired Boog Powell and Frank Robinson, the only two batters he faced. On March 21, 1970 the Twins traded Grzenda along with pitcher Charlie Walters to the Washington Senators for outfielder Brant Alyea.
Between 1961-2018 there have been 70 players that have played at least 10 games in left field for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played left field in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison,Tony Oliva, Gary Gaetti, Torii Hunter and Cesar Tovar who played left field at different points in their careers. Dan Gladden is the Twins all-time leader in games played in left field.
As 2014 is coming to an end it is a good time to look back on another Twins season, their fourth in a row without post season play. But you have to be a winner to make post season play and the Twins have been anything but a winner the last few years. It has been a toss-up when you try to determine who has been more inept, the Twins players on the field or the ownership and Twins executives that sit behind their desks and make the decisions that determine the experience that Twins fans will have to live with during the up-coming season.
The Twins have had many losing seasons over the years and the real core Twins fans complained but they accepted the team they had and they looked forward to the next season with renewed hope for more wins “next year”. But it is seems different now, I am not sure why, maybe the fans are more passionate, maybe it is social media that allows Twins fans to better express their frustrations but today’s Twins fans are just plain mad and disgusted with the caliber of play their home team has displayed since the 2010 ended. Hopefully the Minnesota Twins organization feels some of the passion that Twins fans have and will start to look at the product from the fans perspective and see what they can do to make the fans experience a little more fun and and not so tough on the wallet.
Since the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins the team has played 8,617 regular season games, winning 4,274, losing 4,335 and playing to a tie on eight occasions in 54 seasons of play. Boy, how time flies by, I still remember that 1961 season.
Looking back at Twins history they have two World Series winners and a third World Series appearance in which they lost game seven to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In addition to the 8,617 regular season games the team has played a total of 64 post season games winning 25 and losing 39. Their last post season appearance was in 2010 and that brief playoff run lasted just three games when they were swept by the New York Yankees 3 games to zip. The teams last post season win was back in 2004 (if I am not mistaken that is about 10 years ago, YIKES!) when they beat the Yankees in game 1 of the ALDS series before losing the next three games.
So let’s take a look at the hitting and pitching statistics of the Minnesota Twins in post season play. Let’s see who stood out under the bright lights of post season play and who couldn’t or didn’t deliver when the pressure was on. The names you will see below will bring back many memories, some good, some bad, some sad and in some cases you will say “who in the hell is so and so, I don’t remember him”. But it is fun looking back.
Since the Twins started play in 1961 through the 2014 season a total of 751 players have put on a Minnesota Twins uniform and appeared in a game either as a hitter or a pitcher. Only 162 of them or 21.57% have appeared in a Twins post season game over the 54 seasons the Twins have called Minnesota home.
Minnesota Twins 1B and outfielder Chris Colabello had a month to remember in April and now he ranks at the top of the list of some pretty good players that knew how to knock in runs for the Minnesota Twins. Some interesting names on this list of Twins that had 20 or more RBI in the first month of the season.
It will be interesting to see how many RBI Colabello will end up with in 2014. Harmon Killebrew wih 119 and Kirby Puckett with 112 ended up leading the league in RBI’s in the season they had 20 or more RBI’s in April. Dave Hollins on the other hand had 22 RBI in April and finished the season with 53. Strangely enough Dave Hollins, Paul Molitor, and Pat Meares all had 20 or more RBI in April of 1996 and yet the team finished the season at 78-84 with Paul Molitor and Marty Cordova ending up with over 100 RBI.
A nice record to have for Chris Colabello but it is a long season so it will be fun to watch to see if Colabello can maintain his RBI pace or if this past month is just an anomaly.
You can check out a nice article written about Colabello and his history by Dan Cook of WCCO Radio here.
April 25, 1961 – A tough day in Municipal Stadium in Kansas City as the A’s pound seven Minnesota Twins pitchers in a 20-2 Twins defeat. Twins reliever Fred Bruckbauer made his only big league appearance in this game when he came in to pitch in the top of the fourth inning and gave up a double, a single, a walk and a double before getting pulled. Bruckbauer was charged with 3 earned runs and since he never again pitched in the big leagues his ERA stands at infinity. Norm Bass went the distance for the A’s giving up 7 hits and 9 walks but still got the “W”.
Camilo Pascual
April 25, 1964 – The Twins lose to the Detroit Tigers 5-2 at Met Stadium in what was the first ever nationally televised Twins game from Met Stadium. The team had played on national TV 19 times before this game but all the games were on the road. Their first nationally televised game was on June 10, 1961. Strangely enough, Camilo Pascual started and lost both of these games. The game was on NBC and the announcers were Bob Wolff and Joe Garagiola.
Earl Wilson
April 25, 1970 – The Twins are playing the Tigers at the Met and take a 3-1 lead into the ninth only to have the Tigers score twice to tie the game. The Twins came back with one of their own, an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth and won the game 4-3. Exciting you say? But you should have seen what transpired in the top of the seventh with the Twins ahead 2-1. Jim Kaat is on the mound for the Twins and retires Elliot Maddox and Cesar Gutierrez on groundouts to the shortstop for the first two outs and then appeared to have struck out pitcher Earl Wilson, but, Twins catcher Paul Ratliff did not catch Kaat’s pitch in the air and this is where things really got weird. Ratliff got the ball and rolled it back to the mound and headed for the dugout. Tiger 3B coach Grover Resinger knew his rules and he told Wilson to head to first base. None of the Twins seemed to notice Wilson as he rounded first and headed for 2B and at this point coach Resinger was in the middle of the infield urging Wilson on. By now Twins LF Brant Alyea figured out what was happening and ran after the ball but had trouble picking it up and Wilson was still running and was now rounding 3B and heading for home. By this time Twins shortstop Leo Cardenas had ran over to cover home plate and Alyea threw him the ball. Wilson was a big guy and all this running was beginning to take its toll and when he saw Cardenas with the ball he turned and started back to 3B but pulled a hamstring and just collapsed to the ground before getting back to the 3B bag. Cardenas threw the ball back to Alyea who then tagged Wilson out as he lay in the base path just short of 3B and the Twins were out of the inning unscathed. The scoring you ask? A strikeout, an error on Ratliff, and the out was recorded as LF-SS-LF (7-6-7). To top it all off the television crew had all gone to the commercial after the apparent strikeout and none of this was recorded on video.
Mike Pazik
April 25, 1977 – Twins pitchers Mike Pazik and Don Carrithers were seriously injured in an automobile accident when their van collided with a car going the wrong way on an exit ramp in Bloomington, MN. Pazik suffered two broken bones in each leg and was out for the season. Carrithers, who was driving, suffered a compound fracture of his right knee, a partial rupture of the quadriceps tendon near his knee and a fractured right wrist and ended missing three months of the 1977 season.
April 25, 1980 – Making his first appearance in Minnesota since his fight with a marshmallow salesman in the Fall of 1979, A’s manager Billy Martin has to be restrained by umpires from attacking a fan who was pelting him with marshmallows during the Twins’ 10-3 victory.
April 25, 2005 – The Minnesota Twins and Hennepin County announce they have agreed on a proposal to fund and construct a new ballpark in downtown Minneapolis.
Chris Parmelee
April 25, 2012 – Twins 1B Chris Parmelee was hit in the batting helmet in the sixth inning by a 93 MPH fastball thrown by Red Sox hurler Justin Thomas. The ball hit the bill of Parmelee’s helmet, deflected down and struck Parmelee above his eye. A couple of inches lower, Parmelee continues to think, and he could have been struck directly in his eye. The ball bounced all the way back to the Red Sox dugout at Target Field. Parmelee was down for about a minute but rose to his feet and walked off the field. He was examined by doctors, who tested him for a concussion but luckily that was not the case. The Twins ended up losing the game 7-6.
Garrabrant (Brant) Ryerson Alyea was born in Passaic, New Jersey and will turn 73 on December 8th. His father’ s family was Dutch. Brant attended Rutherford High School, where he was famous for his long home runs. The 6’5″ right-handed hitting Alyea received a scholarship to Hofstra University and played for Hofstra from 1959 to 1962. Brant also played for the basketball team coached by Butch van Breda Kolff, leading Hofstra in rebounding in 1960–61. The 1959-1960 Hofstra team went 23-1.
The Cincinnati Reds signed Alyea as an amateur free agent in 1962 and assigned him to the class D Geneva Redlegs where he hit 32 home runs, knocked in 116 while hitting at a .319 clip. In his spare time he appeared as a pitcher in 2 games but after walking 3, giving up 3 hits and 3 runs in just 2 innings he decided his pitching career was over. In November of 1962 the Washington Senators selected Alyea from the Reds in the first-year player draft. Brant worked his way up the Senators minor league chain and was about to make his major league debut as a pinch-hitter against the California Angels on September 11, 1965 at D.C. Stadium when the Angels changed pitchers and Alyea was pinch-hit for before getting a plate appearance. The next day with an announced crowd of 840 in the stands, Senators manager Gil Hodges again called on Alyea to pinch-hit and this time he stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning with one out and two runners on and on the very first pitch from Angels hurler Rudy May he hit a three run home run in his first big league at bat and became the first American Leaguer to make such an auspicious debut.
Manager Ted Williams, right, of the Washington Senators and two home run hitting outfielders flash big grins in the dressing room after defeating the New York Yankees 9-6, April 10, 1969, Washington, D.C. Frank Howard, left, slammed two home runs, bringing his total to four in the first three games of the season, while Brant Alyea hammered another four-bagger. (AP Photo/Charles W. Harrity)
Although Alyea could hit for power, hitting for average was not so easy and it kept Alyea in the minors. Alyea spent all of 1966 and 1967 in the minors. In 1968 he had 150 at bats for the Senators and 237 more in 1969 and during those two season he had 17 home runs with a .259 batting average. Brant stayed sharp and picked up some extra money playing winter ball. He was the top home run hitter in Nicaragua in 1965–66 and set a record for home runs in the Venezuelan Winter League in 1968–69, blasting 18 in 50 games.
Twins owner Calvin Griffith was intrigued with the power hitting Alyea and offered Senators owner Bob Short a young infielder by the name of Graig Nettles but Short passed on the offer. On March 21, 1970 Griffith finally got his man and the Washington Senators traded Brant Alyea to the Twins for pitchers Joe Grzenda and Charlie Walters. Yes, that would be the same Charlie Walters that still writes for the St. Paul Pioneer Press today.
Alyea was the Twins opening day left fielder in 1970 at White Sox Park and what a day he had in a Twins 12-0 pasting of the mighty whitey’s. Brant went 4 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 2 home runs and had a club record tying 7 RBI. But that was just the beginning, Alyea had a torrid April. Playing in 17 games Alyea hit .415 with 5 home runs, 23 RBI with a 1.257 OPS. Alyea cooled off but still finished 1970 with a very respectable 16 home runs, 61 RBI and a .291 average in 258 at bats. Alyea appeared in all 3 of the 1970 ALCS games against the Baltimore Orioles but went 0 for 7 in what would turn out to be his only playoff experience. The rest of the Twins didn’t do much better, hitting just .238 and lost 3 straight games.
Earl Wilson
Alyea was also involved in a bizarre strikeout that ended in a 7-6-7 put out (yes, that’s left fielder to shortstop to left fielder!). Here’s how it happened, according to the Project Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org) newsletter of May 1997: “From Dave Smith: How about a strikeout with the batter being retired 767? In the game of April 25, 1970, Tigers pitcher Earl Wilson struck out to end the seventh inning in the Twin Cities. Or so it appeared to everyone except Detroit third base coach Grover Resinger. He saw that Twins catcher Paul Ratliff trapped the pitch in the dirt, did not tag Wilson and rolled the ball to the mound. Resinger told Wilson to start running as most of the Twins entered the dugout. Earl got to first easily and headed for second. Since no one interfered with him, he started for third. By this time, Brant Alyea, who was trotting in from left field, heard Resinger shouting at Wilson. Alyea hustled to the mound but had trouble picking up the ball. Wilson headed for home where Twins Leo Cardenas and Ratliff had returned. Alyea finally picked up the ball and threw to Cardenas. Wilson turned back to third but was tagged out by Alyea for a K767. Rookie catcher Ratliff was charged with an error. After the game, Detroit catcher Bill Freehan said “If Alyea had been hustling, Earl might have made it [home]. Tell him [Alyea] to start coming in and off the field a little quicker.” The aftermath of the story is that Wilson pulled a hamstring muscle running the bases and had to leave the game.”
In 1971 Alyea seemed to lose his power although he was hitting .316 and didn’t hit his first home run until May 14. Manager Bill Rigney was losing confidence in Alyea and as his playing time decreased so did his performance and he finished the 1971 season with a dismal .177 average and just 2 home runs in 158 at bats. In November 1971 the Twins lost Brant Alyea to the Oakland A’s in the Rule 5 draft.
Alyea started the 1972 season in Oakland appearing in 10 games before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. After appearing in just 13 games as a Cardinal, Alyea for some unknown reason is returned to Oakland on July 23. Playing for the A’s in September Alyea pulls a muscle legging out a hit and ends up spending the 1972 postseason on the DL as his team beats the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS and the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series 4 games to 3. In November 1972 Oakland sent Brant Alyea to the Texas Rangers as the PTBNL in an earlier trade for Paul Lindblad. After failing to make the Texas Rangers team out of spring training in 1973 Alyea spent what turned out to be his final pro season with the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket. He hit just .212 with 6 home runs in 48 games and his baseball career was over at the age of 32.
The time that Brant Alyea spent with the Twins was short, just 173 games spread over two seasons. In 416 at bats he hit .248 with 18 home runs and 76 RBI. Nothing special about these numbers but yet he managed to have 7 RBI in a game twice. Twins players have only had 7 or more RBI’s in a game 17 times in 53 years but yet Brant accomplished this feat twice and the only other Twins player to do this twice is HOF Kirby Puckett. Puckett had 7,244 at bats and Alyea had just 416….
Brant Alyea Jr.
Alyea had a son Brant Alyea Jr., born out-of-wedlock in Nicaragua where Brant Sr. played winter ball. There is a wonderful piece that Peter Gammons wrote for Sports Illustrated back in June of 1986 about father and son meeting for the first time in many years that you can read here. The younger Alyea played in the minor leagues from 1985 to 1990 for the Blue Jays, Rangers and Mets but never achieved his goal of playing in the big leagues like his Dad did before him.
3/21/1970 – The Twins acquire outfielder Brant Alyea from Washington and part ways with pitcher Joe Grezenda and pitcher Charley Walters who will later become a St. Paul Pioneer Press sports writer.
Brant Alyea
Alyea was red-hot in his first month in Minnesota hitting .415 by going 22 for 53 with four doubles, five home runs and knocking in 23 RBI’s. Alyea was also involved in a bizarre strikeout that ended in a 7-6-7 put out (yes, that’s left fielder to shortstop to left fielder!). Here’s how it happened, according to the Project Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org) newsletter of May 1997: “From Dave Smith: How about a strikeout with the batter being retired 767? In the game of April 25, 1970, Tigers pitcher Earl Wilson struck out to end the seventh inning in the Twin Cities. Or so it appeared to everyone except Detroit third base coach Grover Resinger. He saw that Twins catcher Paul Ratliff trapped the pitch in the dirt, did not tag Wilson and rolled the ball to the mound. Resinger told Wilson to start running as most of the Twins entered the dugout. Earl got to first easily and headed for second. Since no one interfered with him, he started for third. By this time, Brant Alyea, who was trotting in from left field, heard Resinger shouting at Wilson. Alyea hustled to the mound but had trouble picking up the ball. Wilson headed for home where Twins Leo Cardenas and Ratliff had returned. Alyea finally picked up the ball and threw to Cardenas. Wilson turned back to third but was tagged out by Alyea for a K767. Rookie catcher Ratliff was charged with an error. After the game, Detroit catcher Bill Freehan said “If Alyea had been hustling, Earl might have made it [home]. Tell him [Alyea] to start coming in and off the field a little quicker.” The aftermath of the story is that Wilson pulled a hamstring muscle running the bases and had to leave the game.”
3/21/1989 – 2B Steve Lombardozzi is sent packing to the Astros and the Twins acquire 2B Mica Lewis and outfielder Ramon Cedeno.
3/21/2010 – The Twins get some bad news as they learn that star closer Joe Nathan will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a tear in a ligament in his pitching elbow. Joe misses the entire 2010 season.
In game 1 of a double-header at Met Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers, outfielder Brant Alyea goes 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 2 home runs and knocks in all 7 Twins runs in a 7-6 Twins win. Alyea sets a Twins team RBI record in the process that has since been broken by Glenn Adams in 1977 and Randy Bush in 1989.
Hal Haydel
In game 2 of the double-header Twins rookie pitcher Hal Haydel hits a home run in his first major league game when he hits one out against Milwaukee Brewers hurler Al Downing at Met Stadium in his second at bat, Haydel had doubled in his first at bat and the Twins won the game 8-3 and swept the double-header. Haydel remains the only Twins pitcher in history to hit a home run in his first ML game. Haydel had relieved Luis Tiant who was taken out of the game after one inning, and pitched 5 innings to get his first major league victory. Brant Alyea had two more RBI’s in the second game.
