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
Bill Campbell was born on August 9, 1948 in Highland Park, Michigan. Campbell passed away on January 6, 2023 in the Chicago, Illinois area where he was under hospice care after a long battle with brain cancer.
Over the years 69 players have played 10 or more games at third base for the Minnesota Twins. Gary Gaetti has far and away played the hot corner more frequently and any other Minnesota Twin. To qualify for this list you must have played at least 51% of your games at third base. The most obvious name that you would think of that belongs on this list is Harmon Killebrew but he does not qualify because he played 1,939 games in a Minnesota Twins uniform but only 517 of them were at third base. My silly rule but it is what it is. My biggest surprise looking at the list is to see Eric Soderholm so high on the list.
| Rk | Player | WAR/pos | G | From | To | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BA | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Gaetti | 27.1 | 1361 | 1981 | 1990 | 4989 | 646 | 1276 | 201 | 758 | 74 | .256 | .744 |
| 2 | Corey Koskie | 22.2 | 816 | 1998 | 2004 | 2788 | 438 | 781 | 101 | 437 | 66 | .280 | .836 |
| 3 | John Castino | 15.1 | 666 | 1979 | 1984 | 2320 | 293 | 646 | 41 | 249 | 22 | .278 | .727 |
| 4 | Rich Rollins | 11.9 | 888 | 1961 | 1968 | 3048 | 395 | 830 | 71 | 369 | 15 | .272 | .727 |
| 5 | Eric Soderholm | 10.1 | 407 | 1971 | 1975 | 1345 | 184 | 345 | 36 | 161 | 14 | .257 | .725 |
| 6 | Trevor Plouffe | 8.1 | 723 | 2010 | 2016 | 2638 | 332 | 651 | 96 | 357 | 11 | .247 | .727 |
| 7 | Mike Cubbage | 6.9 | 555 | 1976 | 1980 | 1681 | 195 | 447 | 29 | 226 | 6 | .266 | .715 |
| 8 | Scott Leius | 4.8 | 476 | 1990 | 1995 | 1373 | 201 | 346 | 26 | 155 | 15 | .252 | .693 |
| 9 | Mike Pagliarulo | 4.0 | 246 | 1991 | 1993 | 723 | 79 | 197 | 9 | 68 | 8 | .272 | .693 |
| 10 | Brent Gates | 0.9 | 217 | 1998 | 1999 | 639 | 71 | 161 | 6 | 80 | 4 | .252 | .656 |
Lots of players that made their big league debut as a Minnesota Twin on September 10.
James Beresford (1B/3B/2B) – September 10, 2016 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on August 13, 2005. Made his major league debut at Target Field as the starting third baseman hitting eighth. James was 1 for 4 with a sacrifice in 5 PA’s and helped celebrate a Twins 2-1 victory over the Indians.
Chris Heintz (C) – September 10, 2005 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on November 21, 2003. Heintz debuted as a replacement for Mike Redmond as the catcher with the Twins down 7-2 at Jacobs Field. The Twins ended up losing 7-5 and Heintz was in the on deck circle awaiting his first plate appearance when the game ended.
Travis Bowyer (P) – September 10, 2005 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 20th round of the 1999 MLB June Amateur Draft. Bowyer debuted in the same game as Chris Heintz but Bowyer entered the game in relief with no outs and the bases full of Indians. Bowyer got the first batter on a sac fly and then threw a wild pitch moving the runners-up before allowing a single to score another run and his night was over at Jacobs Field in the 7-5 loss to Cleveland after 7 pitches.
Rich Becker (OF) – September 10, 1993 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1990 amateur draft. Becker, Hocking, and Stahoviak all debuted in the same game. Becker debuted in the lead-off spot while playing center field and went 2 for 5, both hits were doubles and he scored a run and struck out 3 times. Twins lost 3-2 in Arlington Stadium.
September 3 was a busy day for big league debuts in a Minnesota Twins uniform.
A.J. Achter (P) – September 3, 2014 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 46th round of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. Closed out a Twins 11-4 win over the White Sox at Target Field with a perfect 9th inning on 10 pitches.
Matt Fox (P) – September 3, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (35th pick) of the 2004 amateur draft. Fox debuted at Target Field in a start against the Texas Rangers going 5.2 innings (90 pitches) and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk but got a ND for his efforts. It was his one and only game for the Twins and one of only 4 big league games he would appear in.
Third base is known as the “hot corner”, because the third baseman is relatively close to the batter and most right-handed hitters tend to hit the ball hard in this direction. Now days the third base position is expected to provide power. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than there are Hall of Famers’ of any other position.
The Twins have had their share of good players at that position and the list below shows Twins players that have played in at least 200 games and played at least 51% of their games at third base from 1961 through 2016. Current Twins third sacker Miguel Sano will be moving up this list very quickly.
Gary Gaetti has always been one of my all-time favorite Minnesota Twins. I enjoyed watching him play third base and the man got his uniform dirty, he went all out all the time. Plus, he was a very good hitter. If I was asked for my Twins top 10 list, he would be near the top.
| WAR/pos | G | From | To | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | 1 | Gary Gaetti | 27.1 | 1361 | 1981 | 1990 | 4989 | 646 | 1276 | 252 | 25 | 201 | 758 | 74 | .256 | .744 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Corey Koskie | 22.1 | 816 | 1998 | 2004 | 2788 | 438 | 781 | 180 | 13 | 101 | 437 | 66 | .280 | .836 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | John Castino | 15.1 | 666 | 1979 | 1984 | 2320 | 293 | 646 | 86 | 34 | 41 | 249 | 22 | .278 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Rich Rollins | 11.8 | 888 | 1961 | 1968 | 3048 | 395 | 830 | 117 | 20 | 71 | 369 | 15 | .272 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Eric Soderholm | 10.2 | 407 | 1971 | 1975 | 1345 | 184 | 345 | 56 | 7 | 36 | 161 | 14 | .257 | .725 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Trevor Plouffe | 8.1 | 723 | 2010 | 2016 | 2638 | 332 | 651 | 148 | 10 | 96 | 357 | 11 | .247 | .727 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Mike Cubbage | 6.9 | 555 | 1976 | 1980 | 1681 | 195 | 447 | 66 | 18 | 29 | 226 | 6 | .266 | .715 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Scott Leius | 4.9 | 476 | 1990 | 1995 | 1373 | 201 | 346 | 58 | 10 | 26 | 155 | 15 | .252 | .693 | |||||||||||||
| 9 | Mike Pagliarulo | 4.0 | 246 | 1991 | 1993 | 723 | 79 | 197 | 40 | 4 | 9 | 68 | 8 | .272 | .693 | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Danny Valencia | 0.8 | 273 | 2010 | 2012 | 989 | 106 | 257 | 52 | 4 | 24 | 129 | 4 | .260 | .695 | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Brent Gates | 0.8 | 217 | 1998 | 1999 | 639 | 71 | 161 | 28 | 2 | 6 | 80 | 4 | .252 | .656 |
From the time the Twins started play in 1961 through yesterday June 14 (2016) the Minnesota Twins have hit 7,462 home runs, 3,746 have been hit on the road and 3,716 have been hit at home. The Twins hit 1,872 home runs at the Metrodome, 1,424 at Met Stadium and 420 at Target Field. The most home runs the Twins have hit on the road have been at the Angels home park where they have hit 257.
Of the Twins 7,462 round-trippers only 50 of them have been inside-the-park home runs. Inside-the-park home runs are relatively rare so I am a bit surprised that when Eduardo Nunez hit the latest one back on June 2 that no one mentioned that it was number 50 in Minnesota Twins history. How rare are they? Only .0067% of Twins home runs are of the inside-the-park variety. So what Twins have hit IPHR’s? We have put together a complete list here for you with the help of Baseball-Reference.
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Eddie Rosario found the first big league pitch he saw to his liking and he hammered it into the Target Field left-center field bleachers for a home run. The pitch was thrown by left-handed starter Scott Kazmir and put the Twins up 1-0 en-route to a 13-0 white-washing of the Oakland A’s. Rosario becomes the 115th player to hit a home run in his first major league at bat but only the 29th player in big league history to swing at the first pitch he saw in the major leagues and hit it for a home run.
Rosario goes into the Twins record books as the 10th Twin to hit a home run in his first game but the first to do it on the first pitch of his first plate appearance. Six of the 10 home runs in the first game came on the first at bat.
I have been waiting for the Twins to call up Rosario and it was nice to see him have a positive impact in his first major league game. Rosario’s parents were in the stands to witness their sons historic moment. Although Rosario’s stay in Minnesota is expected to be short, you never know, he might just be here to stay. Congratulations Eddie!
| Rk | Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BOP | Pos Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eddie Rosario | 2015-05-06 | OAK | W 13-0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | RF |
| 2 | Luke Hughes | 2010-04-28 | DET | L 6-11 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3B |
| 3 | Andre David | 1984-06-29 (1) | DET | W 5-3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | RF |
| 4 | Gary Gaetti | 1981-09-20 | TEX | L 3-4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3B |
| 5 | Tim Laudner | 1981-08-28 | DET | W 6-0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | C |
| 6 | Kent Hrbek | 1981-08-24 | NYY | W 3-2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 1B |
| 7 | Dave McKay | 1975-08-22 | DET | W 8-4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3B |
| 8 | Eric Soderholm | 1971-09-03 (1) | OAK | W 9-4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3B |
| 9 | Hal Haydel | 1970-09-07 (2) | MIL | W 8-3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | P |
| 10 | Rick Renick | 1968-07-11 | DET | W 5-4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | SS |
I find it kind of interesting that all the players on the above list were slotted 7-9 in the batting order.
Forty years ago today only 3,285 fans witness what turns out to be a wild and wooly game between the Chicago White Sox and the Twins at the Met. Twins starter Vic Albury leaves after 7 with a 3-1 lead and closer Bill Campbell comes in to shut the door in what seems to be a routine ball game. Campbell retires the Whitey’s in the 8th with no scoring but in the top of the 9th all hell breaks loose. Before Campbell can retire a batter he gives up a single, then a double and Brian Downing then steps up to the plate and promptly hits a 3-run home run to tie the game at 4. The next batter singles and manager Quilici has seen enough and he brings in Tom Burgmeier who quickly gives up another single but settles down and retires the next three White Sox without any further damage and the Twins fail to score in the bottom of the ninth so to extra innings we go.
Neither team scores in the 10th but in the top of the 11th inning the White Sox get a single, a sacrifice and another single and take a 5-4 lead but Burgmeier closes the door. Craig Kusick leads off the bottom of the 11th for the Twins with a home run and once again we are tied, this time at 5. The 12th inning is scoreless. In the 13th the White Sox put a couple of hits together off of Burgy and take a 6-5 lead but once again the Twins fight back with walks to Eric Soderholm, Craig Kusick, and a sacrifice/fielders choice by Danny Thompson and the Twins have the bases loaded with one out. Glenn Borgmann singles to left to score Soderholm but Jerry Terrell who was running for Kusick is thrown out at home but the game is tied at 6 apiece. The White Sox escape further damage and the game moves on to the 14th inning. For some reason, Twins manager Frank Quilici brings in St. Paul native Tom Johnson to make his major league pitching debut in the 14th inning in a tie ball game. The rookie pitcher gives up two singles and commits an error and the White Sox push a run across to take a 7-6 lead. In the bottom of the 14h inning the Twins get a single from Soderholm and a double from Tony Oliva and yes, the game is tied at 7 once again. Johnson pitches a 1-2-3 top of the 15th and the Twins come to bat in the bottom of the inning facing future hall of famer, Goose Gossage. Steve Brye strikes out but Rod Carew singles and proceeds to steal second, Larry Hisle steps up and singles to left and Carew scores and the Twins have an unbelievable 8-7 victory. Twins Tom Burgmeier pitched 5 innings of relief and Tom Johnson pitched two innings in his major league debut and won his first major league game in his first big league appearance. The fans sure got their money’s worth in this 4 hour and 7 minute game.
Zelous Wheeler, called up from the minors by the Yankees on Thursday when slumping Yangervis Solarte was sent down, made a big splash in his major-league debut when he hit a home run in the fifth inning against the Twins’ Phil Hughes. Wheeler is the eighth player to hit a home run for the Yankees is his first major-league game and the first since Marcus Thames in 2002. The most notable player to homer for the Yankees in his big-league debut is Yogi Berra, who did so against the Philadelphia A’s in the first game of a doubleheader in the Bronx on Sept. 22, 1946.
So how many Minnesota Twins players have hit a home run in their first game?
| Rk | Player | Year ? | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Hughes | 2010 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Andre David | 1984 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Gary Gaetti | 1981 | Ind. Games | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | Kent Hrbek | 1981 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Tim Laudner | 1981 | Ind. Games | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Dave McKay | 1975 | Ind. Games | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Eric Soderholm | 1971 | Ind. Games | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Hal Haydel | 1970 | Ind. Games | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Rick Renick | 1968 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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How about if we look to see who has hit a home run in his first game when the opponent was the Minnesota Twins?
| Rk | Player | Year ? | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | Tm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zelous Wheeler | 2014 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | NYY |
| 2 | Chris Richard | 2000 | Ind. Games | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | STL |
| 3 | Jay Bell | 1986 | Ind. Games | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | CLE |
| 4 | Dave Machemer | 1978 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | CAL |
| 5 | Bert Campaneris | 1964 | Ind. Games | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | KCA |
| 6 | John Kennedy | 1962 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | WSA |
April 29, 2010 – Luke Hughes hit a home run in his first major league at bat and in the process became the fifth Minnesota Twin to accomplish this feat. Hughes hit his home run to right field off Detroit Tiger starter Max Scherzer on a 2-2 count as he lead off the third inning. Actually Hughes was batting in the second inning when Delmon Young was caught stealing third base for the final out of the second inning so that at bat did not count. Hughes, who was born in Perth, Australia, is the eighth Aussie to hit a homer in the major leagues and the first to do so in his first at-bat in the bigs. Unfortunately for Hughes and the Twins, they lost the game to the Tigers by an 11-6 score.
A complete list of Twins to hit a home run in either their first at bat or their first major league game are listed below. Hal Haydel is the only pitcher in the group. Oddly enough, no Twins rookie ever accomplished this feat at the Metrodome.
| Player | Date | At Bat | Count | Opponent | Pitcher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Hughes | 4-28-2010 | 1 | 2-2 | in Detroit | Max Scherzer |
| Andre David | 6-29-1984 | 1 | 1-2 | in Detroit | Jack Morris |
| Gary Gaetti | 9-20-1981 | 1 | 1-1 | in Texas | Charlie Hough |
| Tim Laudner | 8-28-1981 | 3 | 0-1 | Detroit @ Met Stadium | Dave Rozema |
| Kent Hrbek | 8-24-1981 | 5 | 2-2 | in New York | George Frazier |
| Dave McKay | 8-22-1975 | 1 | 1-1 | Detroit @ Met Stadium | Vern Ruhle |
| Eric Soderholm | 9-3-1971 | 2 | 1-1 | Oakland @ Met Stadium | Diego Segui |
| Hal Haydel | 9-7-1970 | 2 | 0-0 | Milwaukee @ Met Stadium | Al Downing |
| Rick Renick | 7-11-1968 | 1 | 3-1 | Detroit @ Met Stadium | Mickey Lolich |
