Tag: Harmon Killebrew

Twins opening day tidbits

March 31, 2011 – I thought that it would be fun to look over the Twins 50 year history of Opening Days and see who has started the most games at each position. Through their first fifty years, the Twins record on Opening Day is 24-26 and they are currently on a two game losing streak.

The Minnesota Twins first Opening Day was at Yankee Stadium on April 11, 1961 in front of only 14,607 fans and the Twins played and won their first ever game by a score of 6-0. Their Opening Day line-up that day had Earl Battey catching, Harmon Killebrew at first, Billy Gardner at second, Zoilo Versalles was at short, Reno Bertoia played third, Jim Lemon was in left, Lenny Green was in center, Bob Allison was in right, and Pedro Ramos was the starting pitcher. Little did anyone know at the time that the Twins second baseman that day, Billy Gardner, would become the Twins manager twenty years later. The Twins have only fielded the same opening day line-up from one year to the next on one occasion in 50 years and that was in 1970 (won 12-0) and 1971 (lost 7-2) when the Twins had George Mitterwald catching, Rich Reese at first, Rod Carew at second, Leo Cardenas was at short, Harmon Killebrew was at third, Brant Alyea was in left, Cesar Tovar was the centerfielder, Tony Oliva was in right and Jim Perry was the starting pitcher. This goes to show how much things change from year to year.

I told you earlier that I was going to find out what Twins have started the most Opening Day games by position and here is what I have found.

  Total # of players that have played this position on opening day Started most opening days at this position
Catcher 20 Earl Battey, Butch Wynegar, Joe Mauer – 6
1B 19 Kent Hrbek – 12
2B 20 Rod Carew – 9
SS 16 Zoilo Versalles, Roy Smalley, Greg Gagne – 7
3B 23 Gary Gaetti – 9
LF 25 Mickey Hatcher, Dan Gladden, Marty Cordova, Jacques Jones – 4
CF 20 Torii Hunter – 9
RF 19 Tony Oliva – 8
DH 25 Paul Molitor, Randy Bush, Glenn Adams – 3
P 25 Brad Radke – 9

 

The Killer

October 15, 2010 – A nice article about Harmon Killebrew written by Barbara Heilman for Sports Illustrated’s Baseball issue back in April 8, 1963. A nice piece, it is well worth your time and you might even learn a few things about the Twins greatest slugger that you never knew before. Just click on the Sports Illustrated cover to read the article

Most Games Played in a Twins Uniform

Rank Name Games played Plate appearances
1 Harmon Killebrew 2,329 9,462
2 Kirby Puckett 1,783 7,831
3 Kent Hrbek 1,747 7,137
4 Tony Oliva 1,676 6,879
5 Rod Carew 1,635 6,980
6 Bob Allison 1,541 5,921
7 Gary Gaetti 1,361 5,459
8 Torii Hunter 1,234 4,894
9 Randy Bush 1,219 3,480
10 Roy Smalley 1,148 4,675

 

Tough to strike out

June 21, 2010 – Hall of Famer Sam Rice is way ahead of everyone in franchise history with the best strike out per at bat ratio going down swinging just once in every 33.6 at bats in 9,879 plate appearances. It seems as though the players in the past had much bat control or were more patient then the players of today. As you can see, the Twins best in this category is Brian Harper and he struck out once in every 19.6 at bats in 2,691 plate appearances. Where do Joe Mauer and Rod Carew stand you ask? To this point in his career Joe has 3,253 plate appearances and he strikes out once in every 8.8 at bats. Carew struck out once in every 8.7 at bats in his 6,980 Twins plate appearances. What I think is kind of weird is that Tony Oliva was known as a free swinger and he struck out once every 9.8 at bats in 6,879 at bats. Just for comparison, Harmon Killebrew struck out once every 5.81 at bats in 9,462 Twins plate appearances while Justin Morneau is currently at a strike out every 6.71 at bats in 3,889 plate appearances.

Toughest Twins to strike out

Catcher Brian Harper
Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Brian Harper 19.6
2 Mickey Hatcher 15.0
3 Cesar Tovar 13.5
4 Lenny Green 13.3
5 Hosken Powell 11.0
6 Butch Wynegar 10.6
7 Lyman Bostock 10.4
7 Ted Uhlaender 10.4
9 Al Newman 10.2
10 Jim Holt 10.0

 Toughest Senators to strike out

outfielder Sam Rice

 

Rank Name At bats per strike out
1 Sam Rice 33.6
2 Sam Dente 27.7
3 Heinie Manush 25.1
4 Muddy Ruel 23.4
5 Clyde Milan 23.1
6 Rick Ferrell 21.0
7 Clint Courtney 19.3
8 Eddie Foster 19.2
9 Stan Spence 18.5
10 George Case 17.5

 

Good Eye, Good Eye!

May 15, 2010 – The Twins preach to their pitchers that the batter should earn his way on base via a hit, just throw the ball over the plate and take your chances that the batter will hit it to one of your fielders. In recent years, the Twins pitching staff has always been one of the league leaders in fewest bases on balls allowed.

But the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to the Twins hitters where the coaching staff tries to teach patience at the plate, after all, a walk is just as good as a hit. Plus, the more pitches you see, the better the odds are of the batter getting a hit and the quicker the pitcher reaches their so called pitch limits. This year the Twins hitters have taken that advice to heart and after 32 games they have walked 147 times and are on pace for about 700 walks which would be the most not only in Twins history but in franchise history. The 1956 Senators walked 690 times and the most walks by a Twins team was the 1962 Twins when they walked to first base 649 times. Let’s take a look at the top 10 career Twins and Senators batters that believed that a walk was indeed as good as a hit.

Minnesota Twins

HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
HOF Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954-1974
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Harmon Killebrew 1,321 8,018 16.48%
2 Kent Hrbek 838 7,137 11.74%
3 Bob Allison 641 4,641 13.81%
4 Rod Carew 613 6,980 8.78%
5 Roy Smalley 549 4,675 11.74%
6 Chuck Knoblauch 513 4,571 11.22%
7 Kirby Puckett 450 7,831 5.75%
8 Tony Oliva 448 6,879 6.61%
9 Matt Lawton 408 3,150 12.95%
10 Tom Brunansky 394 3,760 10.48%

 Washington Senators

Eddie Yost
Eddie Yost
Rank Player Bases on Balls Plate Appearances Base on Ball %
1 Eddie Yost 1,274 7,461 17.08%
2 Joe Judge 943 8,906 10.59%
3 Buddy Myer 864 7,028 12.29%
4 Mickey Vernon 735 7,769 9.46%
5 Ossie Bluege 723 7,452 9.70%
6 Clyde Milan 685 8,312 8.24%
7 Sam Rice 680 9.879 6.89%
8 Buddy Lewis 573 5,937 9.65%
9 Joe Kuhel 530 5,234 10.13%
10 Goose Goslin 488 5,810 8.40%

Harmon Killebrew – Harmonic History

April 13, 2010 – Harmon Killebrew, the long time Twins star power hitter in the 60’s and MLB Hall of Famer spent some time in 2009 with CTVNorthSuburbs and they did a YouTube video called Harmon Killebrew – Harmonic History. I found the two-part video video the other day and I thought that I would put a link out here so that you too can enjoy these two video clips. There are some cool vintage baseball shots of Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax and others that you will also enjoy as Harmon chats about his career and his journey through life. To view part one just click here and to view part two just click here.

STRIKE THREE!

March 4, 2010 – The Minnesota Twins preach putting the bat on the ball and getting it in play because you never know what can happen next, but the Twins have had a number of players over the years that have taken that long walk to the bench after flailing away and missing. Strangely enough, when you look at the franchise top fifty strike-out leaders from a hitting perspective, 46 out of 50 are Twins players and only 4 are Washington Senators and both of them, Jim Lemon and Harmon Killebrew played for the Twins. You would think with the old-time pitchers accumulating so many strike-outs that you would see more Washington Senators on this list. The top Twins strikeout team was the 1997 team (68-94) with 1,121 KO’s and the top Senators strike-out team was the 1960 team (73-81) with 883 KO’s. The top man on the list is Bobby Darwin who led the AL in strikeouts between 1972-1974. Here are the seasonal top ten strike-out performances by Twins/Senators hitters:

Rank Name Strike outs Year
1 Bobby Darwin 145 1972
2 (tie) Carlos Gomez 142 2008
2 (tie) Harmon Killebrew 142 1962
4 Jim Lemon 138 1956
5 Bobby Darwin 137 1973
6 Harmon Killebrew 135 1964
7 (tie) Rich Becker 130 1997
7 (tie) Michael Cuddyer 130 2006
9 Jacques Jones 129 2002
10 Lary Hisle 128 1973

 

Top franchise home run teams

January 23, 2010 – The home run, the long ball, the big blast, or whatever you want to call it is fun to watch and it can put runs on the score board in a hurry. The home run is loved by most baseball fans (pitchers excluded of course) but it does not guarantee a winning season. The 1965 Twins hit 150, the 1987 Twins hit 196 and the 1991 Twins hit 140 home runs and all three teams played in a World Series. The Twins big slugger as we all know was Harmon Killebrew who hit 49 out of the park in 1964 and again in 1969. Matter of fact, the Killer holds the top nine Twins home run seasons, Bob Allison joins him in the top ten with 35 in 1963. The Twins least productive season from a home run perspective was the strike shortened season of 1981 when the Twins hit only 47 long balls in 109 games and Roy Smalley was the team leader with a total of 7. Their lowest full season home run output was 81 in 1976 when they finished third with an 85-77 record and Disco Danny Ford hit 20 round trippers.

Twins top 10 home run teams

  Year Home Runs Record Finish
1 1963 225 91-70 3
2 1964 221 79-83 6
3 1986 196 71-91 6
4 1987 196 85-77 1
5 2004 191 92-70 1
6 1962 185 91-71 2
7 2009 172 87-76 1
8 1961 167 70-90 7
9 2002 167 94-67 1
10 2001 164 85-77 2

The Senators top home run teams never even got a sniff of the top spot in their league as their top 10 home run teams never finished better than in fifth place. Their pennant winning teams of 1924, 1925, and 1933 hit 22, 56, and 60 home runs respectively. The Senators top sluggers were none other than the Twins big bopper, Harmon Killebrew who hit 42 as a Senator in 1959 and Roy Sievers who hit 42 out of the park for the 1957 Senators and hit 39 more in 1958.

Senators top 10 home run teams

  Year Home Runs Record Finish
1 1959 163 63-91 8
2 1960 147 73-81 5
3 1958 121 61-93 8
4 1956 112 59-95 7
5 1957 111 55-99 8
6 1938 85 75-76 5
7 1949 81 50-104 8
8 1954 81 66-88 6
9 1955 80 53-101 8
10 1950 76 67-87 5

 

Did you know?

October 29, 2009 – That the Minnesota Twins were the first team in history to start measuring the distance of home runs? The practice started at Met Stadium in 1963.

or that

Harmon Killbrew hit his first major league home run in a Washington Senator uniform off Detroit Tiger pitcher Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium on June 24, 1955 in front of 4,188 fans and hit his last home run off Minnesota Twins pitcher Eddie Bane in a Kansas City Royal uniform at Met Stadium on September 18, 1975 in front on only 3,201 fans.

or that

Harmon Killebrew hit more home runs off former Red Sox and Tigers pitcher Earl Wilson than any other pitcher? The Killer hit 9 out of the park against against Wilson.

or that

Harmon hit 4 walk-off home runs in his career and that 3 of them were against the New York Yankees?

or that

Harmon blasted more home runs (393) in the 1960’s than any other player. He led the American League in home runs 5 times during the decade, and almost certainly would have been the 4th player in major league history to hit 400 or more home runs in a single decade had an injury not cost him more than 50 games in 1968. (The 3 players who have hit 400 home runs in a decade are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Mark McGwire.) Killebrew ranked second in RBIs for the decade (1,013) and fifth in slugging percentage (.546).

Twins Home Run Leaders by Position

 

October 21, 2009 – I thought that it would be fun to take a look back over the Twins history just to see who the Twins leaders are in home runs at each position. Some of the numbers that I found from the Twins 49 seasons in Minnesota were really a surprise to me and I have followed the Twins since their inception in 1961.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Tim Laudner 77 26.46
1B Kent Hrbek 293 21.13
2B Rod Carew 46 96.74
SS Zoilo Versalles 86 48.23
3B Gary Gaetti 201 24.82
OF Kirby Puckett 207 35.00
DH Matt LeCroy 53 21.40
P Jim Kaat 14 71.00

You have to be thinking, this can’t be right, where is Twins all-time home run slugger Harmon Killebrew? But when you look at the numbers you will see that Harmon played 14 seasons with the Twins but he split his time playing four positions, he played 881 games at 1B, 481 games at 3B, 455 games in the OF, and 122 games as a DH. Killebrew smashed 191 home runs as a first baseman, 142 as an outfielder, 129 while playing the hot corner, and 13 more when he was the DH. The Twins currently have some players on the roster like Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Joe Mauer that could be slugging their way on to this list very soon.

When you look at the Washington Sentaors/Nationals numbers from 1901 to 1960 to get a franchise perspective you see how much different baseball is today from its earlier years. I think the one interesting number that jumped out at me here was Roy Sievers and the fact that he hit a home run in every 16.95 at bats when he played the outfield.It is always fun to look at historical numbers and to do comparisons.

POSITION PLAYER HOME RUNS AT BATS PER HOME RUN
Catcher Jake Early 29 68.76
1B Mickey Vernon 121 57.27
2B Buddy Myer 34 162.94
SS Joe Cronin 51 70.24
3B Eddie Yost 101 59.51
OF Roy Sievers 159 16.95
DH – – –
P Walter Johnson 24 96.83