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
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.
As we start a new year in 2020 I wanted to share a list of former Minnesota Twins players that passed away in 2019. We lost some great ones.
Pitcher Greg Booker appeared in 161 big league games over 8 seasons with three different teams. Booker spent about 6 months with the Minnesota Twins in 1989 appearing in 6 games, all in relief. Booker was “Trader” Jack McKeon‘s son-in-law.
Outfielder Lenny Green played in the major leagues for five different teams over 12 years. Green, a Korean War veteran was with the Washington Senators from 1959-1960 and became a Minnesota Twin when they moved to Minnesota and became the Twins after the 1960 season. Green was the Twins opening day center fielder when they began play in 1961. The Twins traded Green to the Angels in a three-team-trade in June of 1964. Lenny Green has always been in my list of top 10 Twins players.
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.
Jerry Kindall played major league baseball from 1956 through 1965 but it was not his baseball playing or coaching skills that he is most remembered for, it was his compassion for everyone off the field that brings back the best Jerry Kindall memories.
Gerald Donald Kindall was born in St. Paul Minnesota on May 27, 1935 and passed away in Tucson, Arizona on Christmas Eve 2017 after suffering a stroke on December 21st.
Kindall signed a $50,000 bonus contract with the Chicago Cubs soon after he led the Minnesota Gophers to the 1956 national championship. He did so, in part, because his parents needed the money. His stepmother, Isabel, incapacitated by multiple sclerosis, had been confined to a wheelchair since Jerry was 12. His father, Harold, drove a truck from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then worked a shift at the railroad five nights a week.
Kindall, known as “Slim” played for the Cubs from 1956 through 1961 and then was traded to the Cleveland Indians. On June 11, 1964 he was part of a three-team trade and ended up in Minnesota along with Frank Kostro from the LA Angels. The Angels sent Billy Moran to the Indians and the Twins traded Lenny Green and Vic Power to the Angels.
Jerry Kindall played 62 games for the Twins in 1964 and 125 games for the AL pennant winning Twins in 1965. Kindall played mainly as a second baseman but also filled in at third and at shortstop. Kindall hit under. 200 both seasons but it wasn’t his bat that the Twins liked, it was his glove and passion. The Minnesota Twins released Kindall in April 1966 and Kindall walked away from the game of baseball as an active player and moved to the coaching side where he excelled and managed Arizona to three National championships.
Kindall was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1991, the University of Minnesota Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995, and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
I was lucky enough to interview Jerry Kindall in January 2011 and he spent over an hour on the phone with me. You can listen to his interview here.
Kindall is survived by his wife, Diane, and stepdaughter, Elise Sargent, as well as four children — Betsy, Doug, Bruce and Martha — from his first marriage to the late Georgia Kindall.
RIP Jerry Kindall and thank you for all the great memories.
Three of the five players listed below debuted in the bigs as Twins in one game on September 9th. What are the odds of finding them all on one card?
Benj Sampson (Credit: Getty images)
Benj Sampson (P) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 6th round of the 1993 amateur draft. pitched one inning of scoreless relief at Edison Field throwing 15 pitches and allowing no hits but the Twins lost to the Anaheim Angels 10-8.
Corey Koskie
Corey Koskie (3B) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 26th round of the 1994 amateur draft. Entered the game at Edison Field to play 3B with the Twins already down 10-3 and he struck out twice in two PA’s as the Twins lost to Anaheim 10-8.
AJ Pierzynski – 1998 Spring Training – Credit Getty images
A.J. Pierzynski (C) – September 9, 1998 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1994 amateur draft. The Twins were down 10-2 when A.J. entered the game to catch. He had two PA’s in the game and grounded out in his first at bat and then was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a bases clearing triple but the Twins still came out on the short end of a 10-8 loss at Edison Field the Anaheim Angels.
Larry Casian (P) – September 9, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 6th round of the 1987 amateur draft. Debuted at the Dome in a 12-9 loss to the Indians. Casian pitched the final 1.1 innings of the game allowing one run on two hits.
Tony Oliva (OF) – September 9, 1962 – Signed as an amateur free agent in 1961. Fifteenth player to make his big league debut in a Twins uniform. The Twins lost to the Tigers 10-9 at Tigers Field the day that Oliva debuted in the big leagues. The Twins scored 3 in the top of the ninth on a Bernie Allen home run to close the gap to just a run but then Zoilo Versalles grounded out for the first out, Tony Oliva then struck out against Bob Humphreys four the second out and then Lenny Green grounded out to end the game.
The 1967 Detroit rebellion, also known as the 1967 Detroit riot or as the 12th Street riot, was a violent public disorder that turned into a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan. It began in the early morning hours of Sunday July 23, 1967.
There was a recent article “Black Tigers: Detroit and the 1967 Rebellion” written by Andrew Linden Louis Moore and posted on the Sports in American History site that is worth reading. Check it out, it might make you wonder how much progress we have really made in the last 50 years.
Lenny Green who played for the Senators/Twins from 1959-1964 is one of the players in the article.
The Minnesota Twins have had a strong history of good center field play and when you look at this list you can certainly see why. The rankings are in Baseball-Reference WAR order and the player needed to have played center field in at least 50% of his games.
How many of these guys did you get to see play? An old fossil like me gets to say he saw them all play and one of my favorites although he did not play here very long was Lenny Green. I am not saying that Green was in Puckett’s or Hunter’s class as a center fielder but I enjoyed watching him play.
Todays Twins center fielder is still tying to prove he belongs on this list and he just might but he is going to have to show us his stuff. Can he prove to be even better than hall of famer Kirby Puckett? That is a tall order, we will just have to wait and see and it should be fun. I am expecting a HUGE breakout season from Buxton in 2017.
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.
With a few exceptions the Minnesota Twins appear to have gone belly up and are just walking through the motions as they continue their march to 100 or more losses. There isn’t much good news coming out of Target Field lately so we have to search for some to watch and cheer for and one of those items is Brian Dozier‘s hitting streak which has now hit 22 games. The Twins have a dozen games left to play in 2016, the first six are at home against the Tigers and the Mariners and the next six are on the road at Kansas City and in Chicago against the the White Sox.
If Dozier plays in every game and his hitting streak continues he could tie the Twins hitting streak record of 31 in Kansas City and then go for the record in Chicago. That would be pretty awesome since we plan to be in Chicago that final baseball week-end of the season catching a few Twins games at US Cellular Field which is a field I have never been at, but I have watched a game at White Sox Park back in 1965.
Keep it up Brian Dozier, we need something exciting to watch and the 2016 season winds down for us Twins fans.
UPDATE: September 21, 2016 – Dozier’s hit streak now stands at 23.
UPDATE: September 23, 2016 – Dozier’s hit streak comes to an end at 24 games in game 2 of a DH against the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander on 9/22/2016. Nice run by Mr. Dozier.
