The Minnesota Twins played their final home game at Metropolitan Stadium in front of 15,900 fans on a drizzly and cloudy 52 degree day and lose to the Kansas City Royals 5-2. DH Roy Smalley makes the final Twins out at Met Stadium. John Verhoeven was the last Twins pitcher to toe the rubber at Met Stadium. Box score.
Home plate went missing just before the Minnesota Twins last game at Metropolitan Stadium in 1981. Ballpark access was apparently a little easier back in the day and a couple of presumably young pranksters dug it up and it was never heard from again. The Twins managed to locate a new one, though, and it was used in the final game against the Kansas City Royals. After the game, the historic plate and the three bases were given away in a raffle to those in attendance. The winner of the plate was a college kid named Bill Schnobrich, who worked part-time as a peanut vendor at the Stadium.
Schnobrich has moved to southern California but he was back in the Twin Cities recently and picked the plate up from a friend who’d been holding onto it. No doubt familiar with the prices some stadium memorabilia has been fetching in recent years, the Bible teacher is now thinking about selling it.
The first major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Dale Long of the Washington Senators on April 21, 1961. The last major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Clint Hurdle of the Kansas City Royals on September 30, 1981. Harmon Killebrew hit two-hundred forty-six home runs in The Met (the most by any player in history) & the total number of major league home runs hit in Metropolitan Stadium was 2,866.
Don’t forget to check out the Today in Twins History page to see other exciting Twins events that occurred on this day in Minnesota Twins history.