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
Baseball was fun to watch at Metropolitan Stadium from 1961-1981 and a lot of MLB and Minnesota Twins “greats” played there. Here is a short list of some of the Twins leaders in some hitting and pitching categories. Keep in mind these are stats accumulated only while playing at Met Stadium.
Games played – Harmon Killebrew-963, Tony Oliva-842, Rod Carew-817
Hits – Rod Carew-1,046, Tony Oliva-935, Harmon Killebrew-844
Here we have the Minnesota Twins HOF class for 2022. Congratulations to Ron Gardenhire, Dan Gladden and Cesar Tovar. It is about time that Pepe gets his due. Now when will see some of the voting results Mr. St. Peter?
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.
On January 24th the Minnesota Twins announced that former Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has been elected to the club’s Hall of Fame. Morneau will become the 34th member of the Twins Hall of Fame when he is inducted during an on-field pre-game ceremony at Target Field before the Twins host the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, May 23. This is all well and good because Justin Morneau is certainly deserving of the honor.
However; one player that stands out in my mind that played for the Minnesota Twins from 1965-1972 that has been left out of the Twins HOF once again is Cesar Tovar. Tovar passed away in 1994 at the age of 54. Cesar Tovar entered the Venezuelan Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its first class in 2003. He is still remembered as one of the greatest players in the history of his nation’s winter league. As Tony Oliva said of their days with the Twins, “If we’d had nine players like him, we wouldn’t have needed any others.” Yet as we enter 2020 Tovar is still not in the Minnesota Twins HOF, what an injustice!
When I go to the ballpark or watch a baseball game on TV I always expect the teams best players to be on the field day in and day out during the baseball season. I am old school in that regard and it is disappointing to me when today’s managers rest players so frequently. I believe that players are paid to play and only an injury that does not physically allow them to play should keep them off the field and in the dugout.
Apparently that is not how the Twins play baseball. Coming to the ballpark and playing every day is not how it is done in Minnesota. The last player to play 160 or more games in a season for the Minnesota Twins was Justin Morneau back in 2008, that was 12 years ago. Morneau put together a 218 consecutive games played streak that started on June 28, 2007 and ended on June 20, 2009.
Over the years the Twins have had 21 instances when a player has appeared in 160 games or more. Eleven players have accomplished this feat with Zoilo Versalles leading the pack with four such seasons, Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett each did it three times, Cesar Tovar, Leo Cardenas and Gary Gaetti did it twice while Tony Oliva, Roy Smalley, Paul Molitor, Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau each did it once. This past season the Twins “Ironman” was Jorge Polanco with 153 games played.
Looking at just the American League (due to no DH in the National League) this past season there were four players that appeared in 160 or more games and there have been no instances from 1961-2019 where there hasn’t been at least one players appearing in 160 games in a season, excluding strike shortened seasons.
Going back to 1961 the Twins have the third longest streak in the AL without a player appearing in 160 or more games. The last Cleveland Indians player to play in 160 or more games was Grady Sizemore in 2007 and the longest streak in the AL without a player playing in 160 games belongs to the Los Angeles Angels who had Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus qualify back in 2001. I found it interesting that the Texas Rangers who did not begin play until 1972 and play in the very hot Texas temperatures had 13 players play in 160 or more games between 1972-2019.
The Minnesota Twins announced today that closer Joe Nathan and former Twins Executive Jerry Bell will be inducted in the Twins Hall of Fame on August 3-4.
I would like to see the Minnesota Twins be more transparent about the voting process and the voting results. It would be nice to see who received how many votes and where they ended up when the voting was completed.
It is no secret that I think Cesar Tovar belongs in the Twins Hall of Fame and I did my best this year to try to get him in and so did a number of others. But I have no idea where he ended up in the voting or what the total voting process entails. Seems to me that the fans should be more in the know here. Just saying……
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 Kirby Puckett, Bob Allison, Torii Hunter and Cesar Tovar who played right field at different points in their careers. Tony O is the Twins all-time leader in games played in right field.
| Rk | Player | WAR/pos | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BA | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Oliva | 43.1 | 1676 | 6301 | 870 | 1917 | 220 | 947 | .304 | .830 |
| 2 | Tom Brunansky | 16.1 | 916 | 3313 | 450 | 829 | 163 | 469 | .250 | .782 |
| 3 | Michael Cuddyer | 12.8 | 1139 | 4072 | 606 | 1106 | 141 | 580 | .272 | .794 |
| 4 | Matt Lawton | 11.3 | 771 | 2672 | 423 | 739 | 72 | 384 | .277 | .808 |
| 5 | Max Kepler | 6.9 | 419 | 1446 | 199 | 337 | 56 | 190 | .233 | .730 |
| 6 | Bobby Darwin | 5.3 | 490 | 1817 | 210 | 467 | 70 | 282 | .257 | .735 |
| 7 | Dustan Mohr | 2.5 | 261 | 782 | 111 | 202 | 22 | 85 | .258 | .726 |
| 8 | Bombo Rivera | 2.5 | 257 | 627 | 85 | 167 | 8 | 64 | .266 | .699 |
| 9 | Hosken Powell | 2.3 | 442 | 1468 | 192 | 383 | 13 | 127 | .261 | .671 |
| 10 | Roberto Kelly | 1.8 | 173 | 569 | 80 | 175 | 11 | 84 | .308 | .808 |
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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.
| Rk | Player | WAR/pos | From | To | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BA | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shane Mack | 19.6 | 1990 | 1994 | 633 | 2161 | 351 | 668 | 67 | 315 | .309 | .854 |
| 2 | Larry Hisle | 17.2 | 1973 | 1977 | 662 | 2437 | 369 | 697 | 87 | 409 | .286 | .811 |
| 3 | Gary Ward | 10.6 | 1979 | 1983 | 417 | 1543 | 216 | 439 | 51 | 219 | .285 | .794 |
| 4 | Eddie Rosario | 8.8 | 2015 | 2018 | 503 | 1889 | 278 | 529 | 74 | 237 | .280 | .784 |
| 5 | Marty Cordova | 5.8 | 1995 | 1999 | 628 | 2322 | 336 | 643 | 79 | 385 | .277 | .799 |
| 6 | Dan Gladden | 5.7 | 1987 | 1991 | 644 | 2470 | 358 | 661 | 38 | 238 | .268 | .700 |
| 7 | Shannon Stewart | 4.9 | 2003 | 2006 | 333 | 1373 | 179 | 404 | 29 | 162 | .294 | .772 |
| 8 | Josh Willingham | 4.8 | 2012 | 2014 | 324 | 1132 | 161 | 263 | 61 | 192 | .232 | .799 |
| 9 | Delmon Young | 1.0 | 2008 | 2011 | 497 | 1845 | 233 | 530 | 47 | 273 | .287 | .753 |
| 10 | Brant Alyea | 0.5 | 1970 | 1971 | 173 | 416 | 47 | 103 | 18 | 76 | .248 | .753 |
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The Minnesota Twins started play in 1961 after moving from Washington D.C. where they were known as the Washington Senators. In their final year as the Senators in 1960 the team had a 73-81 record. Between 1946 and 1960 they had one, just one, winning season and that was in 1952 when they barely made it over the .500 mark with a 78-76 record.
Nevertheless the baseball fans of Minnesota were excited about getting a major league team (some might disagree with that description) to move to their state. Team owner Calvin Griffith felt he had some good young players that were just starting to make their mark.
The 1961 team was managed by Cookie Lavagetto until he was fired by Griffith after a 23-36 start and replaced by coach Sam Mele. The team went on to finish seventh in the ten team American League with a 70-90 mark and 38 games out of first place. The team won 91 games in both 1962 and 1963 but in 1964 they fell back to a 79-83 record and fans were calling for manager Mele to hit the road. However; Griffith stuck with his man and in 1965 Mele’s Twins won 102 games and found themselves in the World Series playing the Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale led Los Angeles Dodgers. The Twins came out on the short end of that Series losing four games to three but baseball was exciting in Minnesota.
The 1966 Twins were not able to defend their 1965 pennant and finished with a 89 win season but they were nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The 1967 season saw the American League with a pennant race like none before it with the Red Sox, Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Angels battling down to the very end of the season. The Twins started the season at just 25-25 and that was not what the Twins owner was expecting so he fired Mele and brought Cal Ermer to lead his team. The team responded to Ermer and had a one game lead with two games to play with the Red Sox at Fenway Park and they lost both games allowing the Red Sox to win the 1967 AL pennant by one game over Minnesota and Detroit, three games over the White Sox and 7.5 games over the Angels.
The Twins started the 1968 season with six straight wins, five of them on the road but that was their high-water mark for the season and when the season ended so did the managing career of Cal Ermer. Less than two weeks later Calvin Griffith hired Billy Martin as his new manager.
1969 saw the AL break in two divisions with the Twins being part of the six team AL West along with the Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Seattle Pilots, and the Kansas City Royals. 1969 was also the first season that had a best of five ALCS. In this case the West Division winning Twins played the East Division winning Baltimore Orioles and the Twins lost all three games. They lost the first game in Baltimore in 12 innings 4 to 3, the lost game two again in Baltimore in 11 innings 1 to 0 and their third and final game was a blowout 11-2 loss at the Met when Billy Martin went on a hunch and started Bob Miller, a part-time starter/reliever and he lasted just 1.2 innings. Martin’s decision to start Miller turned out to be one of the key reasons he would be fired by Griffith after just one season.
The Twins played winning baseball (.542) in the 60’s and had a record of 789-666. So who were the key Twins hitters and pitchers in the Twins first decade of baseball in the Minnesota? It is difficult to determine the value that a player brings to the team without being arbitrary so the best way that I know of to measure a players worth is WAR. I know of lot of you either don’t like it and don’t know how it is calculated exactly (either do I), but if we apply the same measurement to everyone it will serve our purpose here. The position player with the highest WAR for the period of 1961-1969 probably is no surprise to anyone, it is Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and the pitcher for that same time period is Jim Kaat.
The Washington Senators franchise moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. From 1961 through 1969 the Twins had a record of 789-666 and played .542 baseball.
During that time period the Minnesota Twins worst season was their first when the team went 70-90. In 1962 the team improved dramatically and won 91 games but finished second, five games behind the New York Yankees. In 1963 the team won 91 games again but this time finished in third behind the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. In 1964 dropped off dramatically and finished in 6th place with a 79-83 record and as usual the Yankees won the AL Pennant. In 1965 the Twins roared back with 102 wins, a franchise high that stands to this day and they played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series but lost in seven games. 1966 found Minnesota winning 89 games while losing 73 but that was only good enough for second place, nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles. 1967 is remembered as one of the greatest pennant races in baseball history and the Twins came up short when the lost their final two games of the season to the Boston Red Sox and finished one game out with a record of 91-71 and tied the Detroit Tigers for second place behind the pennant winning Red Sox. The following season, 1968, saw the Twins fall back to a 79-83 record and seventh place as the Tigers hoisted the AL pennant in Detroit. 1969 saw expansion and the first time that the AL was split into two Divisions. The Twins won the West Division with a 97-65 mark and played the East Division winning Baltimore Orioles who were 109-53 and the Twins came up short in the ALCS losing 3 games to zip. So in nine seasons of play in the 60’s, the Twins had just three losing seasons. During this era pitchers were also hitters, the DH did not come into play until 1973.
So who were the best Twins position players in that era? Let’s look back and see who they were by position.
C – Earl Battey with a WAR of 14.3
1B – Harmon Killebrew with a WAR of 42.7
2B – Rod Carew with a WAR of 10.1
3B – Rich Rollins with a WAR of 11.9
SS – Zoilo Versalles with a WAR of 15.2
LF – Bob Allison with a WAR of 30.3
CF – Cesar Tovar with a WAR of 15.1 (why is this guy not in the Twins Hall of Fame?)
RF – Tony Oliva with a WAR of 31.9
P – Jim Kaat with a hitting/fielding WAR of 4.3
Let’s take a look at Twins pitching in the 60’s. The biggest surprise on this list is Jim Merritt who I always liked but his numbers are better than I remember.
SP – Jim Kaat with a WAR of 23.7
SP – Jim Perry with a WAR of 20.5
SP – Camilo Pascual with a WAR of 18.4
SP – Dean Chance with a WAR of 13.0
SP – Dave Boswell with a WAR of 12.8
SP – Jim Merritt with a WAR of 11.2
RP – Al Worthington with a WAR of 10.0
For more information about Minnesota Twins from the 1960’s, please go to Twins Heroes
