These players were born in the 1920’s and yet played for the Twins

The Minnesota Twins started play in 1961 after leaving Washington D.C. where they were known as the Washington Senators. Even though Calvin Griffith’s team started playing in Met Stadium in 1961 the team had a player on the roster that made his major league debut in game one of a doubleheader on September 22, 1940 in Shibe Park as the starting left fielder for the Philadelphia Athletics in a 5-4 loss to the Washington Senators. Valo went on to play for the Kansas City A’s, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and the Washington Senators in 1960 before playing for the Twins. When Valo appeared in his first game in a Twins uniform on April 21, 1961 at Met Stadium against who else but the Washington Senators he was playing in his 1,724th game. Elmer Valo appeared in just 33 games for Minnesota and only had 36 plate appearances. Valo was used strictly as a pinch-hitter except for one blow out game in which he pinch-hit and then stayed in the game as a left fielder and had four PA’s. The Twins released Valo on June 17, 1961 and he signed on with the Phillies again where he played out the 1961 season and then retired from baseball. An oddity about Elmer Valo is that he played for Philly when the Athletics moved to Kansas City, he was a Brooklyn Dodger when they moved to Los Angeles and he was with the Washington Senators when they moved to Minnesota to become our Twins. Elmer Valo SABR Bio.

"Harmon Killebrew joins the 200 Home Run club on Sept. 15, 1963. He is joined by teammates Wally Post, left and Vic Wertz. (Pioneer Press file)" — “Harmon Killebrew joins the 200 Home Run club on Sept. 15, 1963. He is joined by teammates Wally Post, left and Vic Wertz. (Pioneer Press file)”

Vic Wertz who debuted for the Detroit Tigers on April 15, 1947 against the St. Louis Browns played 35 games for the Twins in 1963 before retiring from the game. Vic Wertz SABR Bio.

Wally Post also played briefly for Minnesota in 1963 appearing in just 21 games after being purchased by the Twins from the Cincinnati Reds. The Twins released Post after the 1963 season and Post went on to play one more year, this time in Cleveland. Wally Post SABR Bio.

Rk	Player	Year	From ?	From	To	Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA	Pos
1	Elmer Valo	1961	1940	1961	1961	40-40	33	36	32	0	5	2	0	0	4	.156	/*H7
2	Vic Wertz	1963	1947	1963	1963	38-38	35	50	44	3	6	0	0	3	7	.136	/*H3
3	Wally Post	1963	1949	1963	1963	33-33	21	49	47	6	9	0	1	2	6	.191	/9H7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/23/2016.

All three of these players were born in the 1920’s which is just around the corner. It is hard to believe that in the next few years we will have future Twins players born 100 or more years after the “old time” Twins were born. Elmer Valo, Vic Wertz and Wally Post are all deceased and though they were not All-Stars in Minnesota they each had long baseball careers and played a part in the history of the Minnesota Twins and deserve to be remembered for their contributions to Twins lore.

According to ELIAS

Dozier is still hot

Brian Dozier had a two-run single in the Twins’ four-run second inning yesterday extending his hitting streak to 19 games. Dozier has 30 hits, 11 home runs and 22 runs batted in during this streak. The only other players in Twins franchise history with at least 30 hits, 10 home runs and 20 runs batted in over a 19-game span were Harmon Killebrew in 1961 (32 hits, 10 HR, 26 RBI) and Kirby Puckett in 1986.

When you are compared to two Hall of Famers you are in pretty good company. Dozier deserves more credit this year then he has received.

According to ELIAS – 3 home run games

Dozier dazzles in defeat

Brian Dozier slammed three homers, his 36th, 37th and 38th of the season in a Labor Day afternoon game at Target Field, though the Royals came away the 11-5 victors in Minneapolis. Dozier has now hit 21 homers in his last 35 games, and he became the first major-leaguer to connect for that many homers over a 35-game span since Shawn Green connected for 22 round-trippers over a 35-game span (including four in one game) for the Dodgers in 2002. Dozier has hit 24 homers in 50 games since the All-Star break, with 22 of them coming while in the game as a second baseman (the other two came in a game in which he was the designated hitter). Dozier broke the American League record for homers by a second baseman after the break; the old mark had belonged to Hall-of-Famer Joe Gordon since 1940, when he hit 21 post-break homers with the Yankees.

Dozier’s season total of 38 home runs has been reached by only one other player since the Twins moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961. The Hall-of-Famer Harmon Killebrew reached that level in eight different seasons in Minnesota (he had also done it once while the team still played in the nation’s capital), knocking out a team-record of 49 homers in 1964 and 1969.

Minnesota Twins 3 home run games

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BOP	Pos Summary
1	Brian Dozier	2016-09-05	MIN	KCR	L 5-11	5	5	3	3	3	4	1	2B
2	Max Kepler	2016-08-01	MIN	CLE	W 12-5	6	6	3	4	3	6	3	RF
3	Justin Morneau	2007-07-06 (2)	MIN	CHW	W 12-0	5	5	3	3	3	6	5	1B
4	Tony Oliva	1973-07-03	MIN	KCR	L 6-7	5	5	3	3	3	3	3	DH
5	Harmon Killebrew	1963-09-21 (1)	MIN	BOS	W 13-4	5	5	3	3	3	5	4	LF
6	Bob Allison	1963-05-17	MIN	CLE	W 11-4	5	5	3	3	3	6	4	RF

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2016.

Opponents 3 home run games

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BOP	Pos Summary
1	Josh Donaldson	2016-08-28	TOR	MIN	W 9-6	5	4	3	3	3	4	2	3B
2	Alex Rodriguez	2015-07-25	NYY	MIN	W 8-5	4	4	3	3	3	4	3	DH
3	Curtis Granderson	2012-04-19	NYY	MIN	W 7-6	5	5	3	5	3	4	2	CF
4	Jose Bautista	2011-05-15	TOR	MIN	W 11-3	5	5	3	3	3	4	3	RF
5	Evan Longoria	2008-09-18	TBR	MIN	L 8-11	5	5	3	3	3	4	4	3B
6	Nick Markakis	2006-08-22	BAL	MIN	W 6-3	4	4	3	3	3	3	2	RF
7	Hee-Seop Choi	2005-06-12	LAD	MIN	W 4-3	4	4	3	3	3	3	2	1B
8	Ellis Burks	2001-06-19	CLE	MIN	L 9-10	7	7	3	5	3	3	2	DH
9	Edgar Martinez	1999-05-18	SEA	MIN	W 10-1	5	5	3	3	3	4	4	DH
10	Ivan Rodriguez	1997-09-11	TEX	MIN	W 7-0	4	4	3	3	3	5	2	C
11	Geronimo Berroa	1996-08-12	OAK	MIN	W 11-1	5	5	3	4	3	5	5	RF LF
12	Ernie Young	1996-05-10	OAK	MIN	W 15-5	6	5	4	4	3	6	1	CF
13	Darnell Coles	1994-07-05	TOR	MIN	W 14-3	5	5	3	3	3	4	7	3B
14	Juan Gonzalez	1992-06-07	TEX	MIN	W 5-4	4	4	3	3	3	4	6	CF
15	Dave Henderson	1991-08-03	OAK	MIN	L 6-8	5	5	3	3	3	3	2	CF
16	Dave Winfield	1991-04-13	CAL	MIN	W 15-9	6	6	4	5	3	6	4	RF
17	Joe Carter	1989-07-19	CLE	MIN	W 10-1	5	3	3	3	3	6	4	LF
18	Cory Snyder	1987-05-21	CLE	MIN	W 6-3	4	4	3	3	3	3	7	RF
19	Harold Baines	1984-09-17	CHW	MIN	W 7-3	5	4	3	3	3	4	3	RF
20	Doug DeCinces	1982-08-03	CAL	MIN	L 4-5	5	5	3	3	3	4	2	3B
21	Jeff Burroughs	1981-08-14 (2)	SEA	MIN	W 13-3	5	4	3	3	3	6	6	RF
22	Eddie Murray	1979-08-29 (2)	BAL	MIN	W 7-4	5	5	3	3	3	7	4	1B
23	Al Oliver	1979-05-23	TEX	MIN	W 7-2	4	4	3	3	3	4	3	CF
24	Bobby Grich	1974-06-18	BAL	MIN	W 10-1	5	5	3	3	3	6	3	2B
25	Joe Lahoud	1969-06-11	BOS	MIN	W 13-5	5	5	3	3	3	4	6	RF
26	Tommy McCraw	1967-05-24	CHW	MIN	W 14-1	6	6	3	3	3	8	4	1B

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2016.

According to ELIAS

Dozier ties franchise record for extra-base hits in a month

Brian Dozier‘s first-inning home run on last night was his 23rd extra-base hit this month, tying a Twins franchise record for extra-base hits in a calendar month. Joe Cronin had 23 extra-base hits in a calendar month twice, when the team was known as the Senators, in July 1932 and June 1933. Cronin hit .368 (46-for-125) in July 1932, but then topped that off by sporting a remarkable .458 batting average (54-for-118) in June 1933.

Dozier has 12 home runs this month, the most for any player in a calendar month this season. Only two other players in franchise history had 12 or more homers in a calendar month: Harmon Killebrew eight times (his high for a month was 15 in May 1959) and Jimmie Hall in August 1963 (13 homers).

According to ELIAS

Royals allow one run, on Dozier’s homer

For the fourth straight game, the Royals allowed only one run, and it came on a solo homer. No other team in major-league history has had a streak like that, allowing only one run, on a solo homer, in four straight games.

Yesterday’s homer came off the bat of Brian Dozier, who has a six-game homer streak against the Royals. (Dozier did have a game during the streak with only a pinch-hit walk, but we’re going by the hitting streak rules here.) The only other player to have a six-game homer streak against the defending World Series winner was Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves. He homered in nine straight games against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. The Twins longest streak of this kind belongs to Harmon Killebrew who homered against the Kansas City Athletics in 9 straight games in 1961. The longest streak of this kind for an opponent belongs to Seattle Mariners Ken Griffey Jr. who hit six against the Twins in 1999 and Jim Thome who also hit six against the Twins while with the White Sox in 2007.

The pinch-hit grand slam, it has been awhile

Odds are that you will not recognize the player in this picture but he is still in the Twins organization and has been on the Fort Myers Miracle coaching staff since 2006. He played in the big leagues for 18 seasons for seven different teams but never had more than 260 at bats in any single season and played for the Minnesota Twins in 1998, 1999 and 1990.

It has been over 25 years since a Minnesota Twins batter pinch-hit a grand slam for the Minnesota Twins. This Twins were ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning when “Pig Pen” stepped into the left-handed batters box to hit pinch-hit for Twins catcher Tim Laudner who was hitting in the 7-hole on that day. Right-hander Donn Pall was the third pitcher used by the mighty whitey’s that inning and he gave up the grand salami to Jim Dwyer and the Twins were up 7-2 and would eventually win the game by a score of 10-3 as Frank Viola won his 22nd game of the season. No one has pinch-hit a grand slam home run for the Twins since September 15, 1988.

Pinch-hit grand slam home runs in Twins history

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI
1	Jim Dwyer	1988-09-15	MIN	CHW	W 10-3	1	1	1	1	1	4
2	Mike Cubbage	1978-08-08	MIN	SEA	W 10-2	1	1	1	1	1	4
3	Rod Carew	1976-09-09	MIN	TEX	W 6-0	1	1	1	1	1	4
4	Tony Oliva	1975-06-29	MIN	TEX	L 7-9	1	1	1	1	1	4
5	Rich Reese	1972-07-09	MIN	NYY	L 6-9	1	1	1	1	1	4
6	Harmon Killebrew	1971-09-03 (1)	MIN	OAK	W 9-4	1	1	1	1	1	4
7	Rick Renick	1970-06-30	MIN	KCR	W 8-5	1	1	1	1	1	4
8	Rich Reese	1969-08-03	MIN	BAL	W 5-2	1	1	1	1	1	4
9	Julio Becquer	1961-07-04 (1)	MIN	CHW	W 6-4	1	1	1	1	1	4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/5/2016.

ERROR, ERROR, RECOMPUTE: A bit of a technical glitch with my search, it turns out that the last player to pinch-hit a home run for the Twins was not Jim Dwyer but our old friend Matt LeCroy in 2004. Here is the corrected list.

here

Rk	Player	Date ?	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	Pos Summary
1	Matt LeCroy	2004-05-19	MIN	TOR	W 6-5	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH 1B
2	Greg Colbrunn	1997-08-04	MIN	TOR	W 9-3	3	3	1	1	1	4	PH 1B
3	Jim Dwyer	1989-06-10	MIN	CHW	W 11-8	2	2	1	1	1	4	PH DH
4	Carmelo Castillo	1989-04-11	MIN	DET	W 14-0	2	1	1	1	1	4	PH RF
5	Jim Dwyer	1988-09-15	MIN	CHW	W 10-3	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
6	Ron Washington	1986-07-03	MIN	BAL	W 11-7	2	2	2	2	1	4	PH 2B
7	Dave Engle	1982-07-06	MIN	DET	L 6-11	4	4	1	3	1	4	PH RF
8	Mike Cubbage	1978-08-08	MIN	SEA	W 10-2	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
9	Rod Carew	1976-09-09	MIN	TEX	W 6-0	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
10	Tony Oliva	1975-06-29	MIN	TEX	L 7-9	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
11	Danny Walton	1973-04-17	MIN	CAL	W 10-5	2	2	2	2	1	4	PH DH
12	Rich Reese	1972-07-09	MIN	NYY	L 6-9	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
13	Harmon Killebrew	1971-09-03 (1)	MIN	OAK	W 9-4	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
14	Rick Renick	1970-06-30	MIN	KCR	W 8-5	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
15	Rich Reese	1970-06-07	MIN	WSA	W 10-9	3	3	1	1	1	4	PH 1B
16	Rich Reese	1969-08-03	MIN	BAL	W 5-2	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH
17	Julio Becquer	1961-07-04 (1)	MIN	CHW	W 6-4	1	1	1	1	1	4	PH

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/20/2016.

According to ELIAS

Kepler does something a certain 40-year-old has never done

Max Kepler slugged three home runs last night, which may make another active player who began his career with the Twins a little jealous. David Ortiz has hit 528 home runs in the majors and he has never had a three-homer game. Big Papi is one of three members of the 500-home-run club who never hit three in one game, along with Rafael Palmeiro and Gary Sheffield.

Corey Seager went deep three times in a game against the Braves in June. Kepler and Seager are the fourth pair of rookies to each have a three-homer game in the same season. The other tandems to do that were Mark McGwire and Mickey Brantley in 1987, Nick Markakis and Cody Ross in 2006, and Evan Longoria and Joey Votto in 2008.

Update: According to Elias, Max Kepler became the first European-born player in baseball history to homer three times in a game.

Kepler hits three homers in Twins’ victory

Box score

Congratulations Max!

This Day in Twins History – July 11, 1965 – Killebrew walks off Yankees

July 11, 1965 – With the Twins AL lead at only 4 games and the All-Star game break coming up the next day, the Twins took on the New York Yankees at the Met and after 8 innings the score was tied at 4 apiece. The Yanks scored one in the top of the ninth and the Twins had their backs to the wall. In the bottom of the ninth, Zoilo Versalles grounded out to the pitcher but Rich Rollins coaxed a walk from Pete Mikkelsen and the Twins had the tieing run on base with Tony Oliva due up. Oliva flew out to center and the Twins were down to their last out but the last Twins hitter was Harmon Killebrew and he took Mikkelsen to a full count before hitting a walk-off 2 run homer and the Twins fans celebrated. The Twins players never looked back and ended up winning the league pennant by 7 games over the White Sox. Killebrew’s described his home run as “It’s one of the sweetest of the sweet” and it stands in Twins lore as one of their most famous home runs.

Box score

According to ELIAS

Dozier ties Twins franchise mark

Brian Dozier hit two home runs and knocked in four runs in the Twins’ 4-0 win over the White Sox last night. It marked the ninth consecutive game that Dozier delivered an extra-base hit, tying the Twins franchise record in that category. Mickey Vernon had a double, triple or homer in nine consecutive games for the then Washington Senators in 1953. Prior to Dozier, the last major-league player to produce an extra-base hit in at least nine consecutive games while starting at second base in each game during the streak was Chase Utley in 2008.

Dozier broke the Twins record of eight consecutive game XBH that was previously held by Harmon Killebrew (1970) and Tony Oliva (1969). Another long time record bites the dust……

Twins inside-the-park home runs are a rarity

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.

Twins inside-the-park home runs from 1961-June 2, 2016

Date	Batter	Opp	Pitcher	Play Description
1961-07-04 (2)	Harmon Killebrew	CHW	Cal McLish	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1962-04-27	Zoilo Versalles	@CLE	Dick Donovan	Home Run
1963-09-22	Jimmie Hall	@BOS	Bob Heffner	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1963-09-28	Vic Power	@NYY	Whitey Ford	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1964-07-04 (1)	Tony Oliva	@NYY	Jim Bouton	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1964-08-04	Rich Rollins	BOS	Bill Monbouquette	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1964-09-04	Tony Oliva	BOS	Dave Gray	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1965-04-22	Zoilo Versalles	@NYY	Pedro Ramos	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1965-06-04	Jimmie Hall	WSA	Howie Koplitz	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1965-06-18	Rich Rollins	@NYY	Bill Stafford	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1966-06-04	Tony Oliva	CLE	Tom Kelley	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1967-05-08	Ted Uhlaender	WSA	Phil Ortega	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1969-05-13	Rod Carew	BAL	Mike Cuellar	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1971-07-22	Jim Nettles	@NYY	Fritz Peterson	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1972-10-04	Eric Soderholm	CHW	Ken Frailing	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1974-06-24	Danny Thompson	@TEX	David Clyde	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1975-06-17 (1)	Dan Ford	OAK	Vida Blue	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1975-09-07	Steve Brye	@CHW	Claude Osteen	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1979-05-08	Ken Landreaux	TOR	Balor Moore	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1979-05-15	John Castino	TEX	Sparky Lyle	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1980-07-11	Rick Sofield	@SEA	Glenn Abbott	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1980-08-20	Mike Cubbage	TOR	Jackson Todd	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1982-05-28	Tom Brunansky	NYY	Ron Guidry	Home Run
1982-07-19	Tom Brunansky	MIL	Jerry Augustine	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1982-09-10	Gary Ward	@KCR	Larry Gura	Home Run
1982-09-30	Kent Hrbek	@TOR	Luis Leal	Home Run
1983-09-25	Tom Brunansky	@KCR	Keith Creel	Inside-the-park Home Run
1984-06-23	Randy Bush	CHW	Tom Seaver	Home Run
1984-06-24	Tim Teufel	CHW	Richard Dotson	WALK-OFF:ENDED GAME:Home Run
1984-09-11	Kent Hrbek	KCR	Charlie Leibrandt	Home Run
1985-07-03	Dave Engle	CLE	Neal Heaton	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1986-07-03	Ron Washington	BAL	Mike Boddicker	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1986-10-04	Greg Gagne	CHW	Floyd Bannister	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1986-10-04	Greg Gagne	CHW	Floyd Bannister	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1987-05-31 (1)	Gary Gaetti	@DET	Jeff Robinson	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1987-09-24	Greg Gagne	TEX	Charlie Hough	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1988-07-08	Steve Lombardozzi	MIL	Bill Wegman	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1988-09-28	Steve Lombardozzi	OAK	Todd Burns	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1990-05-26	Gene Larkin	BOS	Mike Boddicker	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1991-05-19	Mike Pagliarulo	@DET	Dan Petry	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1994-05-17	Shane Mack	NYY	Jimmy Key	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1997-04-26	Rich Becker	TEX	Bobby Witt	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1997-05-25	Pat Meares	OAK	Ariel Prieto	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1997-08-08	Roberto Kelly	NYY	Dwight Gooden	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1999-09-05	Todd Walker	@TBD	Ryan Rupe	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2000-07-29	Chad Moeller	NYY	Ramiro Mendoza	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
2001-07-26	Torii Hunter	@OAK	Mark Guthrie	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2007-07-21	Joe Mauer	LAA	Scot Shields	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
2014-05-20	Kurt Suzuki	@SDP	Nick Vincent	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2016-06-02	Eduardo Nunez	TBR	Matt Moore	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/14/2016.

Tag: Harmon Killebrew

These players were born in the 1920’s and yet played for the Twins

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