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
Brant Alyea was born in Passiac, New Jersey on December 8, 1940 and passed away at the age of 83 in his Pennsylvania home on February 4, 2024. Alyea was a very athletic student lettering in three sports at Rutherford High School, playing quarterback for the Bulldogs and starring in basketball and baseball.
According to his SABR Bio, after graduating from high school Alyea accepted a scholarship to Hofstra College in Hempstead, New York, a seemingly perfect fit as the small Long Island institution was established on a campus bequeathed by a Dutch lumber magnate, William Hofstra, in the 1930s, and their athletic teams were known as the Flying Dutchmen. More significantly, Hofstra would give Alyea the opportunity to play basketball as well as baseball. The basketball team was then coached by another Dutchman originally from New Jersey, Butch van Breda Kolff. Alyea and the Dutchmen enjoyed significant basketball success in the NCAA College Division. In the 1959-60 season, they finished 23-1, losing only to Wagner College of Staten Island by two points in January, but that loss cost them the conference title and they were not selected for postseason play. The next year, Alyea led the Dutchmen in scoring and rebounding, and Hofstra was selected for the small-college tournament, in which the team was eliminated by Albright College.
But it was Alyea’s baseball skills, particularly his power that attracted baseball scouts and eventually led to his signing with the Cincinnati Reds in the Spring of 1962. The Reds assigned their 6’5″ prospect to Geneva (New York) of the Class D New York-Penn League, and he clubbed 32 home runs while hitting .319 in just 105 games. Those healthy numbers made Alyea a prime target in the Rule 5 draft, which at that time covered all first-year players who had not been placed on the 40-man roster, and Alyea was snatched up by the Washington Senators.
Another trip around the Sun is behind us and it is time once again to to look back and remember Minnesota Twins players of yesteryear that have left us. They may be gone from this earth but their memories always stay with us.
Reliever Bill Campbell (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Bill Cambell was signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in September 1970 and debuted with the Twins against Cleveland on July 14, 1973. Campbell pitched for the Twins from 1973-1976 saving 51 games. After becoming a free agent after the 1976 season, “Soup” signed with the Boston Red Sox. After leaving the Red Sox, Campbell went on to pitch for the Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals, Tigers before he finished his big league career with Montreal in 1987. Campbell pitched in 455 games, all but nine in relief and had 126 Saves in his 15 season in the big leagues.
Alex Cole signed with the Minnesota Twins as a free agent in February of 1994 and left as a free agent after the 1995 season. Many fans remember Cole breaking his leg in a gruesome injury in May of 1995. Cole, an outfielder, played primarily in centerfield and appeared in 133 games hitting .304 with five home runs. Cole played in the majors from 1990-1996 with the Cleveland Indians, Twins, Rockies and the Red Sox.
Before the 1955 season, Dan Dobbek was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent. Scouts in the Washington organization were touting Dobbek as a potential power hitter in the mold of Harmon Killebrew when he came up to the Senators in 1959 after hitting 23 home runs for the Chattanooga Lookouts. Dobbek was one of the original Minnesota Twins when they moved from Washington and he played in the Twins first-ever game as a defensive replacement for outfielder Jim Lemon. A neck injury Dobbek incurred when he ran into a fence as a Twin in 1961 may have contributed to his short big league career that ended after the 1961 season. The Twins traded Dobbek to the Cincinnati Reds in January of 1962 for catcher Jerry Zimmerman but he never played in the major leagues again. Dobbek spent the remainder of his playing career in the minors, retiring after the 1963 season. Dobbek also played for the Elefantes de Cienfuegos of the Cuban Winter League and was a member of the 1960 Caribbean Series champion team. From 1959-1961 Dobbek played in 198 games hitting fifteen home runs while hitting .208.
George Frazier was traded by the Chicago Cubs with Julius McDougal (minors) and Ray Fontenot to the Minnesota Twins for Dewayne Coleman (minors) and Ron Davis on August 13, 1986. Frazier pitched in 69 games in Minnesota in his 1 and 1/2 year stay, posting a 6-6 record with 8 Saves and had a 4.83 ERA. Frazier was a member of the 1987 World Series winning team as a member of the Minnesota Twins. Frazier was sent to pitch for the Twins once in their postseason run. In Game 4 of the World Series, he was sent to pitch in the seventh inning. The Twins lost 7-2, but he pitched two effective innings in what ended up being his last major league appearance. Frazier became a free agent after the 1987 season and with no takers decided to retire. Over his ten-year career with five big league teams, Frazier appeared in 415 games and was credited with 35 wins, 29 saves, and a 4.20 ERA. Frazier served as a color analyst for the Twins in 1993 and for the Colorado Rockies from 1998 until 2015. Following that he did color commentary for Fox Sports during the Big 12 Baseball championship broadcasts while also serving as a color analyst for Oklahoma baseball on television from 2015 to 2023.
Roric Harrison was signed by the Minnesota Twins as a free agent on April 28, 1978 after spending time in the minor leagues since 1975. Harrison appeared in just nine games for Minnesota in 1978 going 0-1 with a 7.50 ERA and spent of his final season in pro ball with the Twins AAA Toledo team. Harrison was also a good hitting pitcher, and one of his most noteworthy accomplishments came with a bat in his hands. He made just 2 starts in his first big league season with the Baltimore Orioles, with the last one coming on October 3, the final game of the year. Harrison threw 6 innings of 1-run ball against Cleveland, and Grant Jackson pitched the final 3 innings in the 4-3 victory. Harrison also hit a sixth-inning home run off Cleveland starter Ray Lamb. Not only was it Harrison’s first major-league home run, it would be the last home run by an American League pitcher before the onset of the designated hitter rule. Almost 30 years would go by before another AL pitcher homered, thanks to the addition of interleague play. Bobby Witt Sr. of the Texas Rangers broke the dry spell when he hit a homer against Ismael Valdez of the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 30, 1997. Shortly after stepping away from the game, he began a career with Coldwell Banker, rising to the executive level for both the Residential Brokerage and Relocation Services divisions.
The Minnesota Twins beat out several clubs and signed fire-balling Danny Morris as an amateur free agent in June of 1964, for what Minnesota management called a five-figure bonus. Scout Ray Holton did the honors, and Morris was assigned to the Twins’ Cocoa Rookie League team in Melbourne, FL. Morris had his major league debut on September 10, 1968. Morris probably deserved more big league time with the Twins but the Twins excellent pitching staff kept Morris in the minors. Over parts of two seasons (1968-1969), Morris appeared in 6 games, including 3 starts, with the Twins. He had an 0-2 record, and in 16 innings, he allowed 16 hits and 5 earned runs for a 2.81 ERA. He walked 8 and fanned 7. After retiring from the MLB due to injuries–he moved to Oakland City, IN. to work along side his father, Clyde Morris, at Old Ben Coal. After Old Ben Coal closed, Danny opened Friends Bar Grill with his wife Donna in 1990. For 33 years he loved working at Friends and making lifelong friends that he cherished.
Cotton Nash, one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the University of Kentucky. He played in the NBA, the ABA as well as in MLB, as a first baseman and outfielder. When he graduated from college, Nash signed with a Los Angeles team — two of them, in fact. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA draft and also signed with the California Angels. In May of 1967 the California Angels traded Nash to the Chicago White Sox and Nash was called up for a cup of coffee at the tail end of 1967 and made his MLB debut at Fenway Park against the Red Sox going 0 of 2. Then in April 1969 the White Sox traded him to Pittsburgh for Ed Hobaugh but that trade was voided and in July of 1969 the White Sox traded Nash again, this time to the Minnesota Twins for a PTBNL that turned out to be Jerry Crider. Nash played in six games with the Twins in 1969 but he did get his first big league hit off of Steve Barber of the Seattle Pilots at Sick’s Stadium. In 1970 he played in four games with Minnesota so in his two seasons with the Twins he played in ten games and was 3 for 13 with a run scored and two RBI. That was it for Cotton Nash as a big leaguer although he continued to play minor league ball through 1972. His main sporting interest after retirement was breeding thoroughbred horses.
Juan Carlos Pulido
Carlos Pulido was signed at 18 in 1989 by Minnesota, the hard-throwing Pulido was a bright prospect in the Twins’ system, but a 1995 arm injury ruined his chances as a starter. After spending one season with the Twins in 1994, he spent the next decade in the minor leagues, as well as with the Orix BlueWave, before spending two more seasons with the Twins in 2003 and 2004. In his three-season MLB career, all with the Minnesota Twins, Pulido posted a 3–8 record with 47 strikeouts and a 5.98 ERA in 111.2 innings.
Sandy Valdespino was a Cuban outfielder who played for 7 seasons in the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins (1965-67), Atlanta Braves (1968), Houston Astros (1969), Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers (1969-70) and Kansas City Royals (1971). Like many of the Cuban and other Latin American ballplayers who ended up in the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins organization, his journey into professional baseball started with scout “Papa Joe” Cambria when he signed with the Washington Senators in 1957 but did not make his MLB debut until April 12, 1965 with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins outfield was crowded, so Valdespino did not get much playing time but in spite of that was a huge fan favorite. Valdespino played in 5 of the 7 1965 World Series games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and their great pitching staff going 3 for 11 with a double and a run scored. The Atlanta Braves snapped up Valdespino after the 1967 season in the Rule 5 draft. Sadly when all was said and done, Valdespino came up two games short of qualifying for an MLB pension.
Dan Dobbek, one of the original 1961 Minnesota Twins died in his home in Portland, Oregon on November 28 just eight days short of 89th birthday, of congestive heart failure with dementia surrounded by his family. Dan was born December 6, 1934, in Ontonagon, Mich., to John and Marion (McKinnon) Dobbek. He had an older sister Dolores, who died at 26.
Dan was drafted and served in the U.S. Army in 1957-1958. He played professional baseball for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Jim Kaat noted that he and Dan Dobbek were both signed by Twins scout Dick Wiencek. In his first year in pro ball in 1956 with the Class B Hobbs Sports, Dobbek played in 129 games hitting .340 with 23 home runs and had 144 RBI. Dan was drafted by Uncle Sam and served in the U.S. Army in 1957-1958. He made his MLB debut with the Washington Senators on September 9, 1959 going 1 for 4 against the Chicago White Sox at Griffith Stadium in a 5-1 loss. Dobbek spent the 1960 season with the Senators appearing in 110 games but had only 288 PA’s while hitting just .218 with 10 home runs.
When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins, Dan Dobbek became one of the original Twins. Although Dobbek did not start the Twins first game in 1961 against the New York Yankees he entered the game in the seventh inning as a defensive replacement for Jim Lemon and had the honor of being just one of ten Twins who played in that first Twins game, a 6-0 Twins shutout at Yankee Stadium I. Later that year on July 2 in a game at Municipal Stadium against the Kansas City Athletics Dobbek ran into a fence hurting his shoulder and cutting his head. It was later determined he would need surgery for the injured shoulder. After the 1961 season, the Twins traded Dobbek to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Jerry Zimmerman.
Dan Dobbek never played in the major leagues again, finishing his pro career in the minors with the Reds and then again in the Twins minor league system and retired after the 1963 season. Dobbek also played for the Elefantes de Cienfuegos of the Cuban Winter League and was a member of the 1960 Caribbean Series champion team. After leaving baseball, Dobbek worked over 30 years for several different laundry companies in Portland.
Dan Dobbek leaves behind his wife, Helen Joan (Lingelbach) Dobbek; and sons, Thomas John and Patsy and Daniel Joseph and Johnita; as well as a granddaughter, Cecilia Palos; and a great-granddaughter, Athena of Georgetown, Ky.
Thank you for the memories Dan Dobbek. We at Twinstrivia.com pass on our condolences to the Dobbek family, friends and fans.
With no baseball being played and “classic” games being broadcast on the radio and television I thought I would do something a bit different, at least for awhile, since no baseball is being played. I thought I would give up a brief recap of Minnesota Twins games from 1961.
I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week one.
Yankee manager Ralph Houk inspects the jacket of Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto prior to the Twins first ever game, played April 11, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. Twins win 6-0.
The Official WasWatching.com Scorecard of the Longest 9 Inning Game In Major League History.
The Major League Baseball definition of an error is: A fielder is given an error if, in the judgment of the official scorer, he fails to convert an out on a play that an average fielder should have made. Fielders can also be given errors if they make a poor play that allows one or more runners to advance on the bases. A batter does not necessarily need to reach base for a fielder to be given an error. If he drops a foul ball that extends an at-bat, that fielder can also be assessed an error.
Defensive errors are a vital tool in many statistical equations. For instance, batters do not receive RBIs for any runs that would not have scored without the help of an error and pitchers are not assessed any earned runs for runs that would not have scored without the error.
According to several sources the official scoring for MLB games was primarily done by home town newspaper writers that covered the games prior to 1979 when most major newspapers banned their writers from doing official scoring.
Since there are no official records kept of who official scorers have been for Minnesota Twins home games in the past I have put together a list as best I can by using the Sporting News and Star and Tribune archives. The best information I garnered though was by talking with Laurel Prieb from MLB and Stew Thornley and Howard Sinker who either have been official scorers or currently are performing that function.
Prior to 1979 – BBWAA home town newspaper writers
1979 thru 1987 – Bob Beebe
1988 – Bob Beebe and Howard Sinker (Glenn Gostick did a game in 1988)
1989 – June 1991 – Howard Sinker and Tom Briere
June 1991 to May 2007 – Tom Mee with Barry Fritz filling in when Mee was unavailable.
Remainder of 2007 – Barry Fritz, Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Howard Sinker
2008 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
2009 thru 2012 – Gregg Wong, Stew Thornley and Kevin Hennessy did a few games each year
2013 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
2014 thru 2018 – Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Dr. Kyle Traynor
According to MLB the official scorer is permitted to change a judgment call for up to 24 hours after a game concludes or is suspended. A player or team can request that the executive vice president of baseball operations review a call in which said player or team participated. This request must come within 72 hours after the conclusion or suspension of that game, or 72 hours after the official scorer’s call in the event a post game change is made.
It is time for us to take a look back in Minnesota Twins history with the help of Baseball-Reference.com and see how the Twins have fared in this important baseball statistic. Or are errors just another thing that happen during a game playing a minor role in terms of wins and losses? How often have you heard “that you have to be strong up the middle” to be a good team? Probably more often than you have heard that “liars figure and figures lie”. Take the 1965 Minnesota Twins for example, we all know that they played in the World Series that year and lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers but did you know that they led the American League with 172 errors that season?
Twins play-off teams and where they ranked in errors
1965 – ranked 10th out of 10 teams with 172 errors
1969 – ranked 9th out of 12 teams with 150 errors
1970 – ranked 3rd out of 12 teams with 123 errors
1987 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 98 errors
1991 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 95 errors
2002 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 74 errors
2003 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 87 errors
2004 – ranked 6th out of 14 teams with 101 errors
2006 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 84 errors
2009 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 76 errors
2010 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 78 errors
2017 – ranked 2nd out of 15 teams with 78 errors
So it appears that it helps to have a strong defense to be a play-off team but it there are no guarantees as five Twins teams over the years had the fewest or second fewest errors (82, 84, 88, 94 and 99 and still spent October at home. The most errors the Twins team committed was in their first season (1961) when they had 174 errors.
So what Minnesota Twins players had the most errors in a single season? That would be shortstop Zoilo Versalles with 39 errors in 1965, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award. Last Twins player to have 30 or more errors in a season? That would be Roy Smalley in 1977 with 33 boots. The Twin have committed 6,699 errors since they started play in 1961, that averages out to 114 per season. The first Twins error was made by outfielder Jim Lemon in the Twins first ever game.
Leonard Charles Green (born January 6, 1933, in Detroit) was the middle of three sons born to Eugene and Anna Green and passed away on his 86th birthday on January 6, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.
After graduating from Pershing High School, Lenny Green was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns late in 1952 to play for York of the Class B Inter-State League. But before he ever put on a York uniform or a Browns uniform for that matter the Army called and he spent 1953-1954 in the service of his country during the Korean War. Green was stationed stateside and ended up playing on a baseball team with and against players like Willie Mays, Don Newcombe, Billy Martin and Zach Monroe. After being discharged from the Army as a corporal, Green was free to resume his pro baseball career but thing had changed and Green experienced his first MLB franchise shift as the Browns became the Baltimore Orioles.
Eddie Rosario’s bat that hit the third home run is headed the the Twins archives. Credit-Dan Hayes
Congratulations to Minnesota Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario on becoming the first Minnesota Twins player in franchise history to hit three or more home runs in a game on two occasions.
Rosario did it for the first time on June 13, 2017 at Target Field against the Seattle Mariners and again less than a year later on June 3, 2018 again at Target field but this time the Cleveland Indians were the victims.
The Minnesota Twins and their predecessor Washington Senators have never had a player hit more than three home runs in a game but their players have hit three home runs in a game on 11 occasions and as mentioned earlier, Rosario is the only player to do it more than once.
Before the Washington franchise moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, two Senators players had hit three home run in a single game, Jim Lemon on August 31, 1956 at Griffith Stadium against the New York Yankees and Goose Goslin on June 19, 1925 against the Cleveland Indians at Dunn Field. Lemon played for the Minnesota Twins from 1961-1963.
Twins opponents have hit three or more home runs in a game against the Twins a total of 26 times and no player has done it more than once.
Everyday is a good day to thank a Veteran for his service but Veterans Day is even more meaningful. With the national election behind us and a new President waiting his turn to sit in the Oval office we should all be thankful to the Veterans who have made this possible. It makes no difference if you voted for the President-elect or not, it is now time to respect the wishes of the people and the laws of this country and to roll up our sleeves and move on to make it even better than what is already is.
Here is a list of former Minnesota Twins players that have served their country. Please take a few moments to thank them for their service.
When I was growing up on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River about 70 miles north of the Twin Cities and just starting to follow baseball in the late 1950’s we had no TV at home so my sources of information about baseball were the radio, the Minneapolis and St. Paul newspapers and eventually The Sporting News. My parents were not sports fans and they pretty much felt that my interest in baseball was a waste of time that could be put to better use by doing more tasks around the dairy farm that we lived on.
For those of you that were raised on a dairy farm you know how hard the work can be. You started and finished each and every day in the barn milking the cows. You probably got up about 5 AM and went to bed between 10 PM and 11 PM before you started the process all over again the next day. There is no such thing as an eight-hour day, a sick day, a holiday or a week-end, every day is the same, work on a dairy farm is relentless.
We had a radio in the barn that was always tuned to just one station, 830 on the AM dial, the “Good Neighbor”, WCCO radio. Back then WCCO was one of the premier and most powerful radio stations in the country and in 1961 it became the flag-ship station for the Minnesota Twins. There might as well have been no dial on that old tube radio because the station was never changed, it was our source for news, weather and of course the farm reports but my favorite things on the radio were the Twins games and school closings.
The Minneapolis and St. Paul papers were not delivered out to farm country and we couldn’t afford it even if they did, fortunately our school library subscribed to the morning papers and every chance I had I would go to the library and check out the sports pages. One day I ran across a Sporting News at our local dime store magazine rack, Ben Franklin if my memory serves me correctly and I thought I had died and gone to heaven, page after page of baseball news that was published weekly. It took some time but I finally saved up enough money to get a subscription and I was hooked. Out where we lived there was no mail delivery so we had a PO box in out local community and when my parents went grocery shopping on Saturday’s they would stop off at the post office and pick up the mail and hopefully my copy of the Sporting News, my reading material for the next few days. I would read every single article on every single page, sometimes more than once and during baseball season I would spend hours studying the box scores. I continued to get the Sporting News until I graduated from high school and joined the US Navy. The Navy of the mid 1960’s didn’t share my love of baseball and we had no such thing back then as the internet so baseball and I parted ways for the couple of years that I spent on board the USS Shangri-La (CVA-38).
After my naval career came to an end I returned to Minnesota and started to follow baseball once again but I found that the Sporting News was now writing about other sports than just baseball and I didn’t like that at all and I have not subscribed to the Sporting news since 1965 but I still have some great memories of what has often been described as the Baseball Bible.
Now as the Minnesota Twins prepare for their 56th season I thought it might be interesting to look back in the archives of the Sporting News and see what they had to say about the Minnesota Twins back in 1961 as the former Washington Senators prepared for their first season of baseball as the Minnesota Twins.
When you look back on baseball history some things never change, the players want to be rewarded for their efforts with more money and the owners want to put what they can in their pockets. The process has obviously changed with “holdouts” a term long forgotten and arbitration, free agency, long-term contracts, and opt-outs are the terms we hear and read about every day. The Sporting News page I have for you talks about Jim Lemon‘s holdout, a rhubarb between the Twins and Dodgers, the expansion and new features at Met Stadium and booming Twins ticket sales. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.
The 1965 Minnesota Twins had 35 different players suit up and play ball wearing a Twins logo across their chest against the nine other members of the American league. Their manager, Sam Mele had four coaches at his disposal to help guide the team. Here are the images of the players and coaching staff that made up the 1965 American League champions. Team owner Calvin Griffith also served as the teams General Manager.
Just click on any player image to see a larger image
Earl Battey - Catcher
Don Mincher - 1B
Jerry Kindall - 2B
Zoilo Versalles - SS
Rich Rollins - 3B
Bob Allison - OF
Jimmie Hall - OF
Tony Oliva - OF
Harmon Killebrew - 1B/3B/OF
Sandy Valdespino - OF
Joe Nossek - OF/3B
Jerry Zimmerman - Catcher
Frank Quilici - 2B/SS
Andy Kosco - OF/1B
Bernie Allen - 2B/3B
Frank Kostro - 2B/3B/OF
Cesar Tovar - 2B/SS/3B/OF
Ted Uhlaender - OF
John Sevcik - Catcher
Rich Reese - 1B/OF
Jim "Mudcat" Grant - Pitcher
Jim Kaat - Pitcher
Camilo Pascual - Pitcher
Jim Perry - Pitcher
Dave Boswell - Pitcher
Jim Merritt - Pitcher
Dick Stigman - Pitcher
Al Worthington - Pitcher
Mel Nelson - Pitcher
Johnny Klippstein - Pitcher
Bill Pleis - Pitcher
Garry Roggenburk - Pitcher
Jerry Fosnow - Pitcher
Dwight Siebler - Pitcher
Pete Cimino - Pitcher
Sam Mele - Manager
Billy Martin - Coach
L-R: Johnny Sain - Pitching Coach with Manager Sam Mele
