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
As we start a new year in 2021 and hope to get the COVID-19 pandemic behind us and head out to Target Field to watch the Twins play ball I wanted to share a list of former Minnesota Twins players and people associated with the Twins that passed away in 2021. We lost some great ones.
Stan Williams was born on September 14, 1936 in Enfield, New Hampshire and passed away at the age of 84 in Laughlin, Nevada on February 20, 2021.
Williams started pitching in pro ball at the age of 17 in 1954 and threw his last pitch 20 years later in 1974. In between “Big Daddy” pitched in the majors for 14 seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees, Indians, Twins, Cardinals and the Red Sox starting his career as a starter and finishing up in the bullpen. Williams pitched for Minnesota in 1970-1971 putting up a stellar season in 1970 at the age of 33.
Mike Marshall #28 of the Minnesota Twins looks on during an Major League Baseball game circa 1979. Marshall played for the Twins from 1978-80. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Mike Marshall, one of the most durable relievers in baseball history and the first reliever to win a Cy Young award has died at the age of 78 on May 31, 2021 exactly 54 years to day of when he made his MLB debut. Marshall passed away in his Zephyrhills, Florida home where he had been in hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. Michael Grant Marshall was born in Adrian, Michigan on January 15, 1943.
Marshall began his professional baseball career when he was signed as an infielder by the Philadelphia Phillies on September 13, 1960. Marshall made his MLB debut pitching for the Detroit Tigers at the age of 24 with an inning of relief in 9-0 blow-out loss to the Cleveland Indians.
As the Twins prepare for their 59th season of play in Minnesota we should look back and be thankful for some great seasons these players have given us in the past. I am using B-R Play Index to come up with the ten greatest seasons by Minnesota Twins players over the years and I am once again using WAR as the tool to do this. I think you might be surprised at some of these.
Second Base – Lou Whitaker was the Tigers fifth round in the 1975 draft and went on to become the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year, a five-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger winner, and a three-time Gold Glove winner. Sweet Lou played in the big leagues for 19 years, all with the team that drafted him and in his 2,308 games, all but 32 (DH) were as a second baseman.
Whitaker played 162 games against the boys from Minnesota hitting .298 with an OPS of .832. His 172 hits included 34 doubles, seven triples and 14 home runs. Whitaker walked off the Twins twice, both times with singles off of closers Mike Marshall and Ron Davis. To show the respect that Twins managers had for Whitaker, you don’t need to look any further than the 10 IBB that Twins pitchers issued to Whitaker. Whitaker is one of only 15 players to have been given 10 or more IBB by Twins pitchers since 1961.
The runner-up for this spot is Roberto Alomar who put up similar numbers against the Twins over the years. I could have gone either way with these two players, one is a Hall of Famer and the other should be a Hall of Famer. Whitaker has a career WAR of 74.9 and Alomar has a WAR of 66.8. To be honest and fair, I see each player with a strike against them in the fact that one spit in an umpires face and the other didn’t stand for the national anthem. I know it has nothing to do with their play against the Twins but this Twins all-opponent team is strictly my opinion, my list and it is what it is. You are always welcome to express your opinion as well.
We all know about the Minnesota Twins players who have been enshrined in the MLB Hall of Fame and it is a great and rare honor to get voted in. Over the years a number of outstanding and I think “hall worthy” Minnesota Twins players have received votes but never enough to get that call they have waited for, I would put players like Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat and Jack Morris in that category.
Oliva
Kaat
Morris
Here is a list of other one-time Twins players who received at least one vote in HOF balloting through 2017 voting, some deserved it and others I have to wonder what the voter was thinking.
A save (abbreviated SV or S) is a statistic awarded to a relief pitcher, often called a closer, who enters the game under certain conditions and maintains his team’s lead until the end of the game. The save rule was first adopted for the 1969 season and amended for the 1974 and 1975 seasons. Baseball researchers have worked through the official statistics retroactively to calculate saves for all major league seasons prior to 1969.
The first save credited to a Minnesota Twins pitcher occurred on April 16, 1961 long before the save rule was actually in existence in 1969.
Jose Reyes snapped a scoreless tie with his RBI double off Jared Burton in the eighth inning and he came around to score an insurance run in the Blue Jays’ 2-0 win at Minnesota yesterday. With his loss on Sunday, Burton’s record fell to 2-9 this season, a major-league high for losses by a reliever. Burton’s nine losses match the most for a Minnesota reliever in any of the last 29 years. Two other Twins absorbed nine losses out of the bullpen in one season since 1985: Rick Aguilera (4-9 in 1998) and Matt Guerrier (6-9 in 2008).
If you look back through the Twins entire history going back to 1961 you will find that “Iron Man” Mike Marshall hold the Twins record for most losses by a reliever not starting a single game with 12 in the “L” column. There are some pretty good relievers on this list and it goes to show that won/lost records for relievers mean very little. The list below reads like a list of “Whose Who” of Minnesota relievers.
During a game at Dodger Stadium, two protesters ran on the field, knelt down and poured lighter fluid on the American flag with the intention of burning it. As Rick Monday testified, the wind blew the first match out – and as they were about to touch the second match to the flag, Monday came from behind, snatched it and ran it to safety. Here is a clip of Cubs outfielder Rick Monday on April, 25, 1976 at Dodger Stadium saving the American flag from burning. Thank you Rick Monday! I wonder what ever happened to those two clowns that tried to burn our flag?
Monday, a two-time all-star who played in the majors for 19 years with the Kansas City A’s, the Oakland A’s, the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers was the Chicago Cubs center fielder that day and went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and a RBI. The Cubs lost that game to the Dodgers in the bottom of the 10th inning by a 5-4 score on a walk-off single by Ron Cey. The box score can be found here.
Monday has been a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1993 after starting his sports casting career in 1985.
Former Twins, pitcher Mike Marshall and catcher Randy Hundley also played in this game.
Eddie “Everyday Eddie” Guardado (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
The Twins announced that pitcher Eddie Guardado and former executive Tom Mee have been selected to be inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame at Target Field on June 16 prior to the Twins vs Detroit Tigers game. Guardado and Mee will become
the 25th and 26th members of the Twins Hall of Fame.
The January 25th Minnesota Twins press release stated that “Guardado was elected by a 56-member committee consisting of local and national media, club officials, fans and past elected members, using rules similar to those necessary for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 56-member committee annually considers “player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame. Guardado was the top vote getter, followed by Chuck Knoblauch, Cesar Tovar and Dan Gladden. Mee was elected through the Veterans Committee ballot, which consists of 18 voters; voting participants include all living Twins Hall of Famers, current Twins President and General Manger and two Minnesota Baseball historians. The 18-member committee votes every other year on “non-player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame”.
The 42-year old Guardado was born in Stockton, California and was the Twins 21st round selection in the 1990 June amateur draft but he did not sign with the team until May 23, 1991. Guardado started his pro career with Elizabethton and pitched in Kenosha (A), Visalia (A+), and Nashville (AA) before the Twins called and said they needed his help in the big leagues.
On June 13, 1993 Eddie made his major league debut at the Metrodome as the Twins starter against the Oakland A’s but it was not a propitious beginning as Eddie gave up a home run to Terry Steinbach who was batting second in the A’s batting order in the top of the first inning. The Twins came back with four of their own in the bottom of the inning and led 4-1 after one inning. Guardado left with a 4-3 lead after pitching 3.1 innings and giving up 5 hits, 3 walks while striking out 3 but the Twins relievers could not hold the lead and the Twins lost 7-6. Guardado pitched in 19 games starting 16 of them in 1993 but as time went along it became apparent that Eddie’s true calling would be in the bullpen. “Everyday Eddie” soon became a bullpen fixture and pitched for the Twins from 1993-2003 and returned for 9 games in 2008. Guardado became the Twins closer in 2001 and saved a league leading 45 games in 2002 and had 41 saves in 2003 and was selected to the All-Star team both years. Guardado became a free agent after the 2003 season and signed with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners traded Guardado to the Cincinnati Reds in June of 2006 and “Every Day” Eddie pitched there for two season before playing for the Texas Rangers and the Twins again in 2008 and then finishing his active big league career as a Ranger once again in 2009. During his stay in Minnesota Guardado had a 37-48 record with 116 saves and is the Twins all-time pitching leader in games appeared with 648 throughout his career, recording at least 60 appearances in eight different seasons. Additionally, he is the Twins all-time leader in innings pitched (579.0) as a reliever and stands third on the Twins all-time saves list with 116.
Tom Mee (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
St. Paul native Tom Mee is widely regarded as the Minnesota Twins first employee and he served in a variety of roles in the Twins organization including radio/TV broadcaster, public address announcer but was best known for serving as Director of Media Relations for 30 years. After retiring in 1991, Mee went on to be the teams official scorer and he performed those duties until he left that post in 2007.
Mee received the Robert O. Fischel award for Public Relations excellence in 1988 and in 2007 he became the second ever recipient of the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award. The Tom Mee Library, which is located in the Baseball Communications office at Target Field, is named in his honor
A number of fans seemed surprised and disappointed at Eddie Guardado’s selection to the Twins Hall of Fame stating that the bar has been lowered but if they took the time to look at what he accomplished in a Twins uniform they would see that he is fully deserving of the honor that the Twins will bestow on him this summer. Although Guardado was not blessed with the greatest physical abilities he proved over the years that he was one of the Twins best.
Third on the franchise all-time saves list behind Joe Nathan and Rick Aguilera with 116.
Third on the franchise strikeouts per 9 innings ranking behind only Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano.
Second in franchise history in games appeared by a pitcher behind only Hall of Famer Walter Johnson.
Only “Iron Mike” Marshall appeared in more games in a season than Guardado did.
Only Nathan and Aguilera finished more games than Eddie did in franchise history.
Mike Marshall – Twins pitcher form 1978 – 1980 and known as “Iron Mike”
August 28, 2010 – This is obviously a relief pitcher category but still a lot of fun to look at. There are a couple of guys on this list that obviously threw more innings than most of the other pitchers on this list did. Look at what Bill “Soup” Campbell did in 1976, zero starts, a 17-5 record and 167.2 innings in 78 games, that is more than two innings per appearance. Dr. Mike Marshall is the leader in games appeared with 90 and he threw 142.2 innings. 90 games, that means he appeared in 56% of the games the Twins played that year, just amazing. Heck, both of these guys threw more innings than a lot of today’s starters do. There are some names here that maybe I did not expect to see on a list like this.
If you look at it by decade, it breaks down like this, 60’s = 0, 70’s = 2, 80’s = 0, 90’s = 4, and 00 = 5. I think it shows how much more important that relievers are becoming in baseball today.
