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
Calvin GriffithClick on the article to make it larger and easier to read.
After losing still another game on June 1, 1982 the Minnesota Twins found themselves with a 12-40 record and 20 games out of first place. How did Owner, President and GM all rolled into one Calvin Griffith react to the situation he found himself in? On May 28 he extended the contract of manager Billy Gardner when the Twins were 12-36 and had lost 9 games in a row and 14 out of the last 15. Here is what the June 7, 1982 Sporting News had to say. I’m pretty sure that owner Jim Pohlad will not take the same action 34 years later.
The Twins entered Friday’s game with an all-time record (since 1961) of 4,362-4,425 and an all-time franchise record (Senators and Twins) of 8,585-9,289. For sixty years, the Senators played baseball in our nation’s capital, winning one World Championship and three AL pennants. In 1961, owner, Calvin Griffith, moved the Senators from Washington, DC to Bloomington, Minnesota. The Senators played from 1901-1960, compiling a record of 4,223-4,864. Some notable Hall of Famers from the Senators teams include: Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, Joe Cronin, Bucky Harris, Heinie Manush and Walter Johnson. The Senators beat the New York Giants in the 1924 World Series in seven games, marking the only World Series victory for the franchise during their first sixty-year tenure in Washington. Source: Twins GameNotes
The 2015 baseball season is over and the Kansas City Royals won the World Series over the New York Mets last night. The Minnesota Twins finished their 2015 season and 55th season in Minnesota with a 83-79 record and 12.5 games behind the AL Central Division champion Royals and missed getting in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.
Just for fun let’s revisit October of 1960 and get the low down from Minneapolis Tribune writer and sports editor Charles O. Johnson (who was there and in the thick of things) on the demands that Senators owner Calvin Griffith put in place before the Washington Senators could move to Minnesota and become the Minnesota Twins. According to his article in the October 30, 1965 Sporting News, here is what happened.
The Twins chances for a 2015 wild card spot are “slim and none” as they prepare to play their final two games of 2015 at Target Field. Yes, mathematically they still have a chance but the odds are stacked against them. The Twins have had a wonderful season and stranger things have happened so there is still hope.
But 50 years ago the 1965 Minnesota Twins were playing their final game of the season at their home park (Metropolitan Stadium) too and they would go on to beat the California Angels 3-2 to post win number 102, the most ever wins in the Senators/Twins franchise history. Just a few days later this great team would take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 World Series.
A new book about that team and its players has just hit the market and if you are a fan of Minnesota Twins baseball you have to get your hands on that book. I have my book on order and can’t wait to start reading it. The book is called “A Pennant for the Twins Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins” and the author is Gregory H. Wolf.
Here is a portion of how the book is described on Amazon.com: “Included are the life and baseball stories of all 35 roster players, the coaches, and manager of the 1965 Twins, plus team owner Calvin Griffith; broadcasters Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, and Ray Scott; and sportswriters Dick Gordon and Max Nichols. A comprehensive summary of the regular season, as well as meticulous essays highlighting important games and the All-Star Game played in Minnesota, an overview of the 1965 Dodgers, and thorough summaries the World Series games are included. Chapters about how the Griffith family built its pennant winner, the fate of the Twins after 1965, Metropolitan Stadium, and the 1965 season “by the numbers” round out the book. Members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) researched and wrote all of the biographies and essays in this book“.
I am proud to say that I played a small part in this book by contributing the BIO on Twins catcher John Sevcik and as I said earlier, I can’t wait to get my hands on this book to read the rest of the story. The is definitely a book that you want on your book shelf and it will make a great gift for any Minnesota Twins fan.
The 1965 Minnesota Twins had 35 different players suit up and play ball wearing a Twins logo across their chest against the nine other members of the American league. Their manager, Sam Mele had four coaches at his disposal to help guide the team. Here are the images of the players and coaching staff that made up the 1965 American League champions. Team owner Calvin Griffith also served as the teams General Manager.
Just click on any player image to see a larger image
Earl Battey - Catcher
Don Mincher - 1B
Jerry Kindall - 2B
Zoilo Versalles - SS
Rich Rollins - 3B
Bob Allison - OF
Jimmie Hall - OF
Tony Oliva - OF
Harmon Killebrew - 1B/3B/OF
Sandy Valdespino - OF
Joe Nossek - OF/3B
Jerry Zimmerman - Catcher
Frank Quilici - 2B/SS
Andy Kosco - OF/1B
Bernie Allen - 2B/3B
Frank Kostro - 2B/3B/OF
Cesar Tovar - 2B/SS/3B/OF
Ted Uhlaender - OF
John Sevcik - Catcher
Rich Reese - 1B/OF
Jim "Mudcat" Grant - Pitcher
Jim Kaat - Pitcher
Camilo Pascual - Pitcher
Jim Perry - Pitcher
Dave Boswell - Pitcher
Jim Merritt - Pitcher
Dick Stigman - Pitcher
Al Worthington - Pitcher
Mel Nelson - Pitcher
Johnny Klippstein - Pitcher
Bill Pleis - Pitcher
Garry Roggenburk - Pitcher
Jerry Fosnow - Pitcher
Dwight Siebler - Pitcher
Pete Cimino - Pitcher
Sam Mele - Manager
Billy Martin - Coach
L-R: Johnny Sain - Pitching Coach with Manager Sam Mele
6/22/1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.
6/22/1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.
As we get to the middle of May it is time once again to revisit the 1965 Twins. The attached page of the May 15, 1965 Sporting News has a nice story on how Twins trainer George Lentz suggested that Tony Oliva use a knobless bat to lessen the pain that he endured with his knuckle on his right hand when swinging the bat. There is also a short piece on bench players Sandy Valdespino and Rich Reese.
The Twins on-going hunt for starting pitchers never seems to change and Twins skipper Sam Mele had the same issue back in 1965. The May 22, 1965 issue of the Sporting News has a nice spread on Twins starter Jim Grant and a new pitch he learned form pitching coach John Sain. There is also mention of the May 6 Twin Cities infamous tornado outbreak that did some relatively minor damage to the homes of Howard Fox and owner Calvin Griffith. Just as an FYI, the Lake Minnetonka former home of Griffith was bulldozed a couple of months ago for what I would expect will be a new McMansion.
On May 15, 1965 the Twins record was 18-8 having won seven out of their last eight games and they were in second place just a half game out of the league lead. As good as the team was, the fans were not coming out to watch them play at Met Stadium. The biggest home crowd they had to date was 17,664 for a Sunday afternoon game against the Mighty Whitey’s which the Twins won 6-1 when Camilo Pascual pitched a complete game bringing his record to 4-0 and hitting a home run to boot. Their home opener on April 12 albeit in bad weather had a crowd of only 15,388.
As well as the Twins were playing, they would throw in a clinker now and then, for example, a 13-5 loss to the White Sox on May 7 when the Twins gave up 10 unearned runs due to seven errors in a game at the Met.
5/4/1974 – Less than 3 months after pitcher Dick Woodson wins MLB’s first salary arbitration case, the Twins exile him to the New York Yankees for pitcher Mike Pazik. Owner Calvin Griffith swore he would never pay Woodson the money and he held true to his word.
5/4/1975 – The Minnesota Twins retired their first number ever, HOF Harmon Killebrew’s number 3. Harmon, playing for the Kansas City Royals, hit his first ever home run against the Twins and it was at Met Stadium in a Twins 6-3 win over the Royals. Vic Albury gave up the long ball to Harmon in the first inning. Box score.
Stew Thornley wrote the following in the Halsey Hall chapter of SABR “Old-timers” may remember a promotion by Tootsie Rolls in 1975 to commemorate the one millionth run in major league history (with only the history of the American and National leagues being recognized). The countdown came down to Sunday, May 4, 1975. At Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota, the Twins held a pre-game ceremony to retire the number of Harmon Killebrew, who then homered in the first inning for the Kansas City Royals. In the bottom of the second, Rod Carew was on third for the Twins with no out. Teammates, monitoring the progress of runs that day, yelled at Carew that he was in line to score the millionth run. When Steve Brye hit a fly to right, Carew tagged and raced for home. However, the strong-arm of Al Cowens nailed Carew at the plate, taking away his chance for the millionth run. Soon after Bob Watson of the Astros, in the first game of a doubleheader in San Francisco, scored on a home run by Milt May and took the honor. The run came at 12:52 Pacific time. Watson was on second and ran as fast as he could to reach home. He reportedly crossed home plate at Candlestick Park four seconds before Dave Concepcion, who had homered in Cincinnati and also beat cheeks around the bases. Carew, by being thrown out by Cowens, missed out on the prize: $10,000 and 1 million Tootsie Rolls”.
5/4/1982 – Minnesota Twins’ rookie outfielder Jim Eisenreich, who suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome, removes himself from the game due to taunts from Boston Red Sox bleacher fans.
5/4/1984 – In the fourth inning of the Twins-A’s game, Oakland’s Dave Kingman hit a ball into one of the Metrodome roof’s drainage holes and the ball never came back down. Kingman’s pop-up had gone up 180 feet and into one of the seven-inch drainage holes in the inner layer of the roof. The umpires gathered to discuss the event that had never happened before in a major league game and awarded Kingman a ground rule double. In the ninth inning Kingman homered for Oakland’s only run and the Twins won 3-1. Before the game the next day, a Dome worker found the ball and let it fall on the field to a waiting Twins outfielder Mickey Hatcher, he dropped it. Box score.
Mike Lincoln Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport
5/4/1999 – The Twins beat the Yankees 8-4 at the Metrodome as Mike Lincoln gets the win and the Twins get victory number 3,000. Box score.
Our notes about the 1965 American League champion Twins continues with a great write-up in the April 10 edition of the Sporting News about pitchers Jim Merritt and Dave Boswell as they battled to make the 1965 team out of spring training. There is also a blurb about the problem with the Stadium Club and a short piece on why the president of the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce thought that the Twins should open the season in Fairbanks, Alaska versus Met Stadium. Here is a clue – Collegeville, Minnesota had 66 inches of snow fall during the month of March in 1965. Oh, ticket sales, the Twins are mumbling about their 13,000-14,000 season ticket fan base this season, back in 1965 Calvin Griffith saw his season ticket base fall to about 3,400 going into the 1965 season. Plus, an update on the new outfield walls and new left field grandstand as the team prepares to host their first ever All-Star game.
As the Twins entered spring training in 1965 they faced some challenges that baseball teams do not face today. One of those challenges was the “holdout.” Agents didn’t really exist back then and arbitration was unheard of as players went head-to-head with their teams to sign a contract that both sides could live with. Back in the day, “holdouts” were commonplace as players fought with ownership for a good contract. In today’s world they never even discuss pay cuts after a player has a substandard season, back then it was common place and player salaries could be cut by as much as 20%.
Twins owner Calvin Griffith was known as one of the toughest negotiators in baseball and there was seldom a year that went by that he didn’t have some difficult salary negotiations with a number of his players, 1965 was no different as Calvin had some issues signing two of his best pitchers, Camilo Pascual and Jim Kaat.
The Cuban born outfielder Sandy Valdespino played sparingly for Minnesota between 1965-1967 appearing in 259 games. You can learn a little more about Hilario Valdespino by reading the piece about him in the March 27, 1965 issue of the Sporting News.
