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
Michael Lee Cubbage, was born July 21, 1950, in Charlottesville, Virginia and passed away on August 10, 2024 after a near year-long battle with cancer, his wife, Jan, confirmed Sunday night, August 11. Cubbage was 74 years old.
Affectionately called “Cubby” by friends, family, players and coaches, Cubbage was a former Major League Baseball player and a pro baseball manager. He retired a couple of years ago after serving as one of the top scouts for the Washington Nationals.
He was a three-sport star at Charlottesville’s Lane High School, standing out in football, basketball and baseball before moving on to become a two-sport star at the University of Virginia, playing quarterback on the football team and becoming an All-ACC selection in baseball. Cubbage came from a baseball family that included cousins Larry Haney and Chris Haney, both major leaguer’s.
Rod Carew’s .388 batting average in 1977 was the highest in baseball since Ted Williams in 1957. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)
It is always interesting to look back over the years and try to determine who has had the best offensive season for your favorite team. In the case of the Minnesota Twins I think that is a pretty easy answer, Rod Carew in 1977 and his run at hitting .400. I was lucky that I was able to witness that season as I was able to get out to Met Stadium and see a number of his games in person. Here is a short 3 minute video (don’t forget to turn on the sound) for you to watch about Rod. An interesting point is that none have taken place at Target Field.
But the Twins have had many great offensive seasons by their players and today we going to provide a list of the top 10 (actually 11) for you. All the players on this list have a WAR of 7.0 or above. As you go down the list you can picture the player in your mind or if you weren’t around or didn’t follow the Twins back then this website will hopefully learn more about that player and his contribution to Minnesota Twins history. As always we are going to use Baseball-Reference.com and their nifty tool “Stathead” to help us identify the players for this list by rating them using WAR.
Baseball was fun to watch at Metropolitan Stadium from 1961-1981 and a lot of MLB and Minnesota Twins “greats” played there. Here is a short list of some of the Twins leaders in some hitting and pitching categories. Keep in mind these are stats accumulated only while playing at Met Stadium.
In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers, although there are some exceptions. Is it beneficial to be a switch hitter? Left-handed batters get a better jump out of the batter’s box to first base. This means the left-handed batter will get more infield hits. Hitting the ball to the first base side of the field has many built-in advantages for his team (such as hitting behind the runner), so he becomes a more valuable hitter.
If you look at position players only, then about 13% are switch hitters, 54% right-handed and 33% left-handed hitters. I believe that at last count there have been 20 switch hitters elected into the Hall of Fame. Many consider Mickey Mantle the greatest switch hitter of all time while others might tell you that it was Pete Rose but that is a whole different story. The switch hitter in the HOF with the most hits is Eddie Murray and the only HOF switch hitting player with more home runs than Murray (504) is Mickey Mantle with 536. So a case can certainly be made for Eddie Murray being the best switch hitter in MLB history.
The Minnesota Twins have had their fair share of switch hitters over the years. Who was their best switch hitter? That would depend on what you are looking for in a hitter but you have to start with Roy Smalley. Up until this past season Roy Smalley led Twins switch hitters with 110 career home runs in a Twins uniform but this past season in 2023 Jorge Polanco took over the team lead in switch hitter home runs with 112. Lets take a look at the Twins switch hitters from 1961 to 2023 at https://stathead.com/tiny/hYPg4. The list shows us the Twins have had 77 switch hitters (both position players and pitchers) over the years but only 68 of them had a plate appearance and 66 of them had at least one hit while 44 of them slugged at least one home run.
Cy Young winner Jim Perry was the Twins best switch hitting pitcher hitting 5 home runs and getting 46 RBI with 117 hits and hitting .191 in 613 AB’s over 380 games in his Twins career. Pitcher Pedro Ramos was no slouch with the stick for Minnesota as he hit three home runs in his one season (1961) pitching for Minnesota in just 93 AB’s. Ramos was the Minnesota Twins very first switch hitter to appear in a game and get a hit with two RBI off future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford when he batted on Opening Day in 1961 at Yankee Stadium. He also became the first Twins switch hitter to hit a home run when he hit one out on May 12 at Met Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels pitcher Eli Grba in a 5-4 Twins victory.
Over the years the Minnesota Twins have hit 8,591 home runs since they started play in 1961 through the 2021 season. Let’s take a look at some milestone home runs, who hit them and where did they hit them. You might want to take note that the Minnesota Twins won 10 of these 12 games.
#1 was hit by Bob Allison on 4-11-61 at Yankee Stadium off Whitey Ford in a Twins 6-0 win in the first game they ever played.
#100 was hit by Bob Allison on 7-19-61 at Wrigley Field off the Angels Ron Kline in a 6-0 Twins win in game one of a DH.
This past Thursday Ryne Harper pitched 3.1 innings of solid relief against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field giving his team a chance to come back and win the game. The Twins didn’t come back to win the game but the 31-year-old rookie pitcher did his share.
Twins relief pitchers have pitched 3 or more innings in a game 1,787 times since 1961. From 1961-1969 Twins relievers did it 282 times, in the 70’s they did it 475 times, in the 80’s they did it 388 times, in the 90’s they did it 358 times, in the 2000’s Twins relievers did it 161 times and from 2010 through yesterday it has been done 123 times and to be fair, some of these occurrences starting in 2018 are “primary pitchers” following an “opener”.
Ray Corbin
The longest Twins relief appearance took place back on May 25, 1975 when Ray Corbin relieved Vic Albury after just two outs when the Detroit Tigers jumped on Albury for three first inning runs at Metropolitan Stadium and manager Frank Quilici had seen enough. Corbin pitched the next 10.1 innings allowing just two runs (one earned) on seven hits and four walks along with four strikeouts. The game was tied at 4-4 after five innings until the Tigers scored an unearned run off Corbin (Corbin’s error) in the top of the 11th inning to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the 11th Tiger pitcher John Hiller walked Steve Brye and Larry Hisle followed with a two-run home run and the Twins walked off the Tigers 6-5 with Ray Corbin getting the well deserved win. Just four days earlier Corbin had pitched 6.1 innings of relief.
Vic Albury
As irony would have it, just over a month later on June 30th the Twins were facing the California Angels at the Met and the Twins started Ray Corbin. Before Corbin could retire a single Angel batter he gave up five straight singles and John Doherty followed with a three-run homer, the only home run he would hit that season and the Angels were up 6-0 and Twins skipper Frank Quilici sent Corbin to the showers and called for Vic Albury. Albury held the Angels scoreless for 8 innings before running into trouble in the ninth when he gave up four runs but only one earned run on three hits and an error. Albury pitched 9 innings of relief allowing the one earned run on six hits and seven walks while striking out four batters and ended up with a no decision for his days work as the Angels beat the Twins 10-3.
Twins relievers have pitched seven or more innings in a game a total of 33 times. Ray Corbin and Tom Burgmeier each did it on three occasions. It has been a long time since it was done last, 34 years ago Dennis Burtt was the last Twins pitcher to pitch seven or more innings of relief when he did it in October of 1985 in a 8-6 Twins loss to the Indians at the Metrodome.
It appears that it is just not starting pitchers that are pitching fewer innings in each start, it looks like relievers don’t stay in games as long either.
I love baseball and I love gardening. There is nothing in this world that tastes better than a freshly picked tomato off the vine on a warm summer day. There was a lot of fun at Met Stadium back in the early 60’s and some of it was not on the diamond. In today’s world we take too many things too seriously and neglect to stop and smell the roses tomato’s. We forget sometimes that baseball was meant to be a game but over the years it became a business. We don’t have the “characters” in baseball anymore like we once had and players work at the game year-around. I miss the game of baseball the way it used to be but baseball is still a great game no matter what. Here is a fun column by Dick Cullum about the Metropolitan Stadium tomato growing contest. Maybe they should come up with something similar now that the Twins are playing outdoors again. Sounds like a great marketing gimmick to me.
This clipping is from the June 24, 1964 Star Tribune.
Here is what Amanda Fiegl wrote on Smithsonian.com back in March of 2008 in her article called “Tomatoes in the Bullpen”. Obviously she never heard of what went on at Met Stadium.
Greenest Bullpen Shea Stadium, Queens, NY: Home of the Mets
Shea is a place of many firsts. When it opened in 1964, it was the first stadium capable of hosting both baseball and football events. The Jets stopped using it in 1984, and soon the Mets will too, with the new Citi Field set to open next year.
Shea was the site of the longest extra-inning doubleheader in baseball history (10 hours and 32 innings, against the San Francisco Giants) in May 1964, and hosted the Beatles’ first U.S. outdoor stadium show a year later. It also hosts some uninvited guests–The New York Times reported in 2007 that a colony of several dozen feral cats lives at the stadium, sometimes making surprise appearances on camera. In the one YouTube-celebrated instance last season, a startled kitten popped out of a tarp being unfurled by and even more startled groundskeeper.
But Shea has another unique claim to fame as well–the majors’ first bullpen vegetable garden. The tradition is said to have started with a few tomatoes planted by bullpen coach Joe Pignatano in 1969, which groundskeepers turned into a full-fledged garden in later years. By 1997, the corn and sunflowers in the Mets’ bullpen grew so high that the visiting Phillies actually complained that the greenery obstructed their view of warm-ups. Now, teams including the Red Sox, Braves and Detroit Tigers also have bullpen gardens.
The Twins called Met Stadium home from 1961 through 1981 before moving into the HHH Metrodome in 1982. Today we are going to look at the starting pitchers that pitched at the Met for the Minnesota Twins and for their opponents and determine who won the most games.
The opposing pitcher that won the most games at Met Stadium pitched for the Yankees his entire career from 1964 to 1974 and it is Mel Stottlemyre. Not many people remember Mel Stottlemyre but he was what we would consider “a horse” today but his big league career ended way too early due to injury. Here is how his SABR Bio starts out:
A baseball lifer, Mel Stottlemyre burst on the scene as a midseason call-up for the New York Yankees in 1964, helping the club win its fifth consecutive pennant and starting three games in the World Series. One of the most underrated and overlooked pitchers of his generation, Stottlemyre won 149 games and averaged 272 innings per season over a nine-year stretch (1965-1973) that corresponded with the nadir of Yankees history. Only Bob Gibson (166 victories), Gaylord Perry (161), Mickey Lolich (156), and Juan Marichal (155) won more during that period; only Perry tossed more innings, and only Gibson fired more shutouts (43) than Stottlemyre’s 38. Stottlemyre was the “epitome of Yankee class and dignity,” wrote longtime New York sportswriter Phil Pepe. “[He was] a throwback to a winning tradition in those years of mediocrity.” After a torn rotator cuff ended his playing career at the age of 32 in 1974, Stottlemyre embarked on a storied career as a big-league pitching coach.
You can read the rest of his SABR Bio by going here. No opposing pitcher won more games than the 13 that Mel Stottlemyre did at the Met.
Opposing pitchers that won the most games at Met Stadium
Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx, New York 8/25/1968
A bomb scare caused a 43 minute delay in the fourth inning of the Twins and Boston Red Sox game at the Met.
“Leave the stadium quickly,” Twins public address announcer Bob Casey declared. “There is going to be an explosion in ten minutes.”
Bob Casey
The people of the Twin Cities were already on edge when Casey made his ill-advised announcement during the fourth inning of the Twins-Red Sox game at Met Stadium on the evening of August 25, 1970. Just three days earlier, a bomb had exploded inside Dayton’s department store in downtown St. Paul, injuring one person. Police and Twins officials had little choice but to stop play and evacuate the stands when they received a phone call warning that a bomb was set to explode at the stadium at 9:30 p.m. Their mistake came in entrusting the gaffe-prone Casey with the task of telling 17,697 people they needed to leave the stadium. Despite Casey’s alarmist announcement, the evacuation went smoothly. Most fans headed to the parking lot while the rest joined the players in center field.
The game was scoreless going in to the eighth inning when Twins reliever Tommy Hall gave up a home run to Tony Conigliaro after striking out Reggie Smith and Carl Yastrzemski for the first two outs of the inning. The Twins had no match for the home run and ended up losing the game 1-0
Harmon Killebrew hit the longest home run ever hit by a Twin, estimated at 522 feet. The Killer crushed this 3 run blast against Lew Burdette of the Angels on June 3, 1967 in front of just 12,337 Twins fans. The ball landed in the sixth row of the upper deck at Metropolitan Stadium and Killebrew becomes the first player to hit a ball into the second deck of the left field pavilion. The ball cracked the seat, which was later painted orange to commemorate the event and the seat eventually found its way to the Hall of Fame. Box Score
The ’67 summer was the most heartbreaking of that era for Twins fans. We were edged out for the pennant at the very end. Boston and Carl Yastrzemski prevailed. Historical annals show Harmon hitting tape measure blasts at his very best then. He came to bat on an early summer day, looking out to the mound and pitcher Lew Burdette of the Los Angeles Angels. It was early summer but the temperature felt like midsummer, making the atmosphere perfect at our beloved “Met.” The wind was gusting in the 25-35 MPH range. Legend has it Harmon may have caught a jet stream. Burdette vainly tried to fool “the Killer” with a knuckler. Killebrew launched the ball on a ride of 520 feet. The ball came down in the upper deck of the Met’s left field pavilion. Burdette was quoted saying “I threw him a knuckle ball that started out high. And all it did was get higher.”
The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.
