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
Stan Wilson Williams was born in Enfield, New Hampshire on September 14, 1936 and passed away at the age of 84 on February 20, 2021 at his Laughlin, Nevada home. Williams had been hospitalized on February 11 and in hospice care due to the effects of cardio-pulmonary illness.
In 1954 the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the big fire-balling right-hander straight out of high school at the age of 17 and sent him to Shawnee of the Class-D Sooner State League and gave him an invite to spring training, primarily because he could throw over 90 miles per hour, but as you might expect was a bit on the wild side. In 1955 he pitched in class B Newport News where he posted an 18-7 record striking out 301 batters and walking 158 in 242 innings. On the fast track to the big leagues, in 1956 he split his time between AA Ft. Worth and for the AAA St. Paul Saints. In 1957 he spent the entire season with the AAA St. Paul Saints going 19-7 with a 3.04 ERA but he still walked over five batters a game.
2020 will be my 14th year of blogging about the Minnesota Twins and their history as Twinstrivia.com albeit on a couple of different platforms. I started my blog to have something to do that I would enjoy after my retirement from Norwest/Wells Fargo in April of 2007 where I worked in IT for 38+ years.
Milwaukee baseball fans fill the stands, and send a message to Major League Baseball, when the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins played an exhibition game at County Stadium on July 24, 1967. This photo was published on the front page of the July 25, 1967, Milwaukee Sentinel.
The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 2-1 in Milwaukee’s County Stadium but the game did not count in the standings, it was just an exhibition game. There were 51,144 baseball fans in the stands, about 3,000 more watched from the outfield where they were roped in and an estimated 5,000 more were turned away.
The White and Twins were scheduled to play the game at County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game sponsored by the Milwaukee Brewers, the organization trying to get another team for Milwaukee after the Braves moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season. A name Twins fans may recognize Allan (Bud) Selig was the president of that organization.
Ronald Baxter Henry was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on August 7, 1936 and passed away on May 14, 2016 in Denver, Colorado at the age of 79 from cardiovascular disease and end stage renal disease. Ron Henry played professional baseball for 15 seasons between 1954 and 1968 but his only time in the big leagues was in 1961 and 1964 when he served as the teams third catcher.
In 1954 Henry was acquired by the Milwaukee Braves from the Boise Pilots in the Pioneer League in some fashion and played in their minor league system through the 1960 season but after that season ended he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1960 Rule 5 draft which required him to spend the 1961 season with the Twins or to be returned to Milwaukee. In 1961 Henry served as the teams third catcher behind Earl Battey and Hal Naragon and made his big league debut at the age of 24 on April 15 at Memorial Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles as a pinch-hitter for Ted Sadowski in the fifth inning with the Twins trailing 6-0. Henry faced Oriole starter Steve Barber and hit into a 1-6-3 double play. Henry only appeared in 20 games that season getting just 31 plate appearances and had 4 hits and 3 RBI. Henry spent the next two seasons learning his trade in the minors before he got another shot with the Twins in 1964 and again he was the third catcher behind Battey and Jerry Zimmerman. In 1964 Henry, who according to the 1964 Twins media guide was known as “Scratch” appeared in 22 games and in those 43 plate appearances he had a double, triple and two home runs.
Ron Henry
Although his short stints in the majors did not show it, Henry was a very good hitter in the minor leagues where he played in 1,119 games and hit .260 with 126 home runs and 41 triples. Behind the plate Henry was a good catcher and one of the reasons the Twins selected him in the Rule 5 draft was his strong throwing arm. Henry played in the Twins minor league system until he was sent to the Houston Astro’s in mid 1967 in an unknown transaction. Henry played in the Astro’s system until he walked away from baseball after the 1968 season at the age of 31.
After his baseball career ended, which had been interspersed by a short stint in the U. S. Army, Ron settled in Denver, Colorado where he became a well-known and respected local singer and actor. Ron packed Denver nightclubs for 35 years. During his career he appeared in many of Denver’s hot spots. His acting career encompassed various venues, including Armando’s, Rodney’s and a turn at the Country Dinner Playhouse in “Damn Yankees”.
Ron Henry
During his life journey, Ron was married to Diane Chalmus, of Sicklerville, NJ; Sarah Saunders of Denver, CO and Leslie Henry , Raleigh, NC. After moving to Raleigh, he received a heart transplant at Duke University Hospital more than 10 years ago. Ron returned to his beloved Denver in 2008 where he lived for the remaining years of his life among family and close friends.
Ron had a larger than life personality that attracted numerous friends and fans. He had a gift for gab that included storytelling, putting smiles on faces and making people laugh. He was a fan of TV and talk radio and developed strong opinions on many subjects which he would debate and defend until the end.
Thank you for the memories Ron Henry and rest in peace.
I do not profess to be some baseball expert by any means but I have followed major league baseball since the mid 50’s and I started becoming a serious follower of major league baseball when the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series in 7 games. To me, baseball is interesting because of its history, its characters and last and certainly not least the fact that on any given day at any given game that you might be lucky enough to attend, that you will see something that you have never seen before. I have been to a lot of games at numerous baseball parks but I still have never seen a no-hitter or a batter hit for the cycle at a game I attended but I have seen many other interesting and historic baseball feats over the years.
Baseball is a unique game for a whole bevy of reasons such as the fact that there is no clock in baseball, each playing field has its own peculiarities, there are 162 games to be played and that does not count playoffs or spring training, some extremely interesting characters both from the player’s side and the ownership/front-office side, cheating by players has been tolerated even encouraged unless it becomes too blatant, owners have no payroll limitations, free agency has given players the right to work/play where ever they wish for the most part and various other reasons that I haven’t listed here.
MLB players, its owners and baseball fans everywhere actually benefit from free agency. When the last out of the World Series is made and the off-season begins you would think that baseball would go on hiatus as far as the fans are concerned but that is not the case in modern-day baseball. When the playing season ends the free agency season begins and hot stove league baseball remains a hot topic of discussion for true baseball fans even if football, hockey, and basketball seasons are underway and the ballparks are covered with ice and snow. Fantasy baseball is almost a year round event now as its players follow the free agency moves and make their draft plans accordingly. Heck, there are already drafts going on for the 2015 season.
But I am getting side-tracked here, my intent was to do a short piece on “why are these things happening”? Real head scratcher as far as I am concerned. As I said earlier, I am no expert but some of the moves or more accurately stated “proposed moves and /or rumors” by our local Twins team or other MLB teams make me really wonder what the heck these people in baseball are thinking? First off, the average person has no concept of the dollars in play and that it is easy to spend someone else’s money, I realize that. No one really know for instance what the Twins revenue really is and the few people who do surely aren’t going to divulge those secrets. How often do you hear someone say or write “it’s only $5 million, we should do it”. Or what idiotic owner first brought options into baseball contracts where as they can sign a player for $10 million dollars or they can choose to pay him $1 million to walk away, what is up with that? What bozo pays someone a million dollars not to work for them? MLB does.
So here are a couple of real head scratcher’s for me –
Michael Cuddyer
Why would former Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer who will turn 36 before the 2015 season begins turn down a $15.3 million qualifying offer from the Colorado Rockies to sign a two-year deal with the New York Mets for $21 million. Cuddyer missed all but 49 games for the Rockies this season due to injury. Maybe I don’t understand this qualifying offer business as well as I thought I did. As I understand it this process has been in place for three years and 34 qualifying offers have been made and zero have been accepted. Hard for me to fathom turning down $12-$15 million for one year’s work.
Torii Hunter
Numerous stories are being written about the Twins pursuing outfielder Torii Hunter who played for Minnesota from 1997-2007 before leaving via free agency. Hunter will be 40 years old this coming July and he just put $14 million in the bank thanks to the Detroit Tigers in 2014. No argument here the Twins outfield is a mess with no center fielder, no left fielder, and Oswaldo Arcia in right is not exactly a gold glover. Still, having said that I don’t understand why the Twins would pay Hunter around $10 million to play for them in 2015. We are talking 15 home runs and 80 RBI and a .280 average but is that worth $10 million or so even now for a team that has little to no chance of achieving the .500 mark? I know that fans still love Torii and he was a good player here for many years but let it go for God’s sake. The man can’t play like he did back in his 20’s. Why do the Twins and their fans always want their former stars to come back home? Haven’t you folks heard the old saying “you can never go home again?”
Wily Mo Pena
Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press tweets that there is interest between Wily Mo Pena and the Minnesota Twins. The soon to be 33-year-old Of/DH goes about 260 and has played in Japan for the last three season. Pena last appeared in the majors in 2011 with the Seattle Mariners and has never played in more than 110 games in the majors at any point in his career. I could care less that he hit 32 home runs in Japan in 2014, the last thing the Twins need to spend money on is a DH. Rumor or fact, this is just plain STUPID! If the Twins look they will find other positions that need more help then at DH.
Let’s move on from the Twins for a bit and see what else is going on in the AL Central. Last year the Chicago White Sox signed first baseman Jose Abreu from Cuba to a $68 million six-year deal and in 2014 the 27-year-old Abreu rewarded them with the American League Rookie of the Year award. Now the Sox go out and sign free agent 1B Adam LaRoche to a two-year deal for $25 million. I hate to repeat myself but what the heck are they thinking? They have numerous holes to fill and they chose to sign another first baseman. I sure hope the Sox know something we don’t because as first glance this is another dumb Sox move.
Raul Ibanez
Joe Maddon opted out of his manager gig in Tampa a couple of weeks ago because things were heading south in Tampa and the Chicago Cubs seem to have a future. That created an opening for a new Rays manager and the three finalist are Kevin Cash, Don Wakamatsu, and Raul Ibanez. RAUL IBANEZ? Where did he come from? Why is he qualified to manage a big league team? The last time I saw him he was playing for the Kansas City Royals in 2014 and now he is a finalist for the Tampa Rays manager job, how do things like this happen? Like I said, a real head scratcher for me.
You can’t make this stuff up but yet it happens in baseball day in and day out.
May 16, 1928 – Alfred Manuel “Billy” Martin was born in Berkeley, California. Billy played in the majors for 11 seasons with the New York Yankees, Kansas City A’s, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Braves and finished his career with the Minnesota Twins in 1961. Martin managed the Twins in 1969, the Detroit Tigers in 1971-1973, the Texas Rangers in 1973-1975, the Oakland A’s from 1980-1982, the New York Yankees from 1975-1979, 1983, 1985 and again in 1988. Billy Martin died as the result of an automobile accident on December 25, 1989.
May 16, 1983 – The Twins enter the ninth inning at the Metrodome trailing the Oakland A’s 7-0. The Twins hit four home runs in the bottom of the ninth (Dave Engle, Bobby Mitchell, Gary Gaetti, and Mickey Hatcher and they score 6 runs. They have the tying run on first when Dave Engle who pinch-hit a home run to lead off the rally strikes out to end the game. Hatcher’s home run was also as a pinch-hitter marking the third time in Twins history they have pinch-hit two home runs in the same game. The attendance was only 7,056 and you wonder how many fans were actually still at the Dome to witness this amazing comeback that fell a run short. Boxscore
Harvey Mackay
May 16, 1984 – The Twins sell 51,863 tickets to their 8-7 loss to the Blue Jays, but only 6,346 fans show up for the game. The skewed numbers are the result of a massive ticket buyout plan organized by Minneapolis businessman Harvey Mackay to keep the Twins in Minnesota; if the club does not sell 2.41 million tickets this season it can break its lease with the Metrodome. Taking advantage of reduced prices on the Family Day promotion, Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets. Boxscore
May 16, 2010 – Jason Kubel hit a stunning grand slam off Mariano Rivera with two outs in the eighth inning Sunday, and the Twins snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Yankees with a 6-3 victory in Yankee Stadium. Kubel’s third homer of the season and sixth career slam snapped a string of 51 straight converted save opportunities for Rivera at home, tying the major league record set by Eric Gagne with the Dodgers. Nick Blackburn (4-1) allowed three runs and nine hits in seven innings for Minnesota, which picked up its first win against New York since Aug. 13, 2008. The Twins had lost 12 straight overall against New York, counting the sweep in last year’s AL division series. Boxscore
6/24/1955 – Harmon Killebrew hit his first major league homer, off Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators 18-7. Here is what dcbaseballhistory.com wrote about this event. “The visiting Tigers pounce to a 13-0 lead in the top of the 5th, when 3B Harmon Killebrew boots a grounder. In the bottom of the frame, Killebrew would bat and work a 2-2 count against Detroit southpaw Billy Hoeft. Tigers catcher Frank House tells Killebrew that Hoeft’s next offering would be a fastball. Hoeft delivered that fastball and Killebrew rocketed the ball out of the park for his first major league home run. Killebrew would later say that, of all the home runs he hit at Griffith Stadium, the home run off Hoeft was the longest he ever hit in Griffith.”
6/24/1968 – In a one game series, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game called after 5 innings due to rain. The reason the game was played in Milwaukee was that in 1968, Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves who had been unable to stop the relocation of his team three years earlier, contracted with the Allyn brothers who owned the White Sox to host nine home games (one against each of the other American League clubs) at Milwaukee County Stadium as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frank Jackson of The Hardball Times did a nice blog earlier this year on the Milwaukee White Sox that is well worth your read.
6/24/1977 – Ralph Garr of the White Sox homered off Minnesota’s Paul Thormodsgard in Minneapolis. It came in the third inning with two men on and no one out. Jim Essian, the runner on first, thought the ball might be caught by the Twins’ right fielder, Dan Ford, so he retreated towards first base. Garr was watching the flight of the ball and passed Essian after rounding the bag. He was credited with a single and two runs batted in.
6/24/1984 – 2B Tim Teufel gives the Twins a 3-2 win over the White Sox with a three-run inside-the-park walk off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth at the Metrodome.
6/24/1989 – Twins outfielder John Moses is asked to pitch at Fenway Park in an 11-2 loss to the Red Sox. John threw one scoreless inning giving up a walk but only faced 3 batters with the team turned a double play behind him. John is the fourth Twins position player to pitch and this is the fifth occurrence of a Twins position player pitching for the Twins.
June 24th has been an interesting day in Minnesota Twins history over the years, here are some of the events that occurred on this day.
1955– Harmon Killebrew hit his first major league homer, off lefty Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators 18-7. Killebrew would later say that, of all the home runs he hit at Griffith Stadium, the home run off Hoeft was the longest he ever hit in Griffith. Twenty years later, on September 18, 1975 Harmon, wearing a KC Royals uniform hit his last career home run, a blast to left field off Twins hurler Eddie Bane in a Royals 4-3 victory at Met Stadium over the home town Minnesota Twins. In his career, Killebrew smashed 246 home runs at Met Stadium.
1968 – In a one game series, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game called after 5 innings due to rain. The reason the game was played in Milwaukee was that in 1968, Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves who had been unable to stop the relocation of his team three years earlier, contracted with the Allyn brothers who owned the White Sox to host nine home games (one against each of the other American League clubs) at Milwaukee County Stadium as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1977 – Ralph Garr of the White Sox homered off Minnesota’s Paul Thormodsgard in Minneapolis. It came in the third inning with two men on and no one out. Jim Essian, the runner on first, thought the ball might be caught by the Twins’ right fielder, Dan Ford, so he retreated towards first base. Garr was watching the flight of the ball and passed Essian after rounding the bag. He was credited with a single and two runs batted in.
1984 – 2B Tim Teufel gives the Twins a 3-2 win over the White Sox with a three-run inside-the-park walk off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth at the Metrodome.
1989 – Twins outfielder John Moses is asked to pitch at Fenway Park in an 11-2 loss to the Red Sox. John threw one scoreless inning giving up a walk but only faced 3 batters with the team turned a double play behind him. John is the fourth Twins position player to pitch and this is the fifth occurrence of a Twins position player pitching for the Twins.
Don’t forget to check out This Day in Twins History each and every day.
Popular former Minnesota Twins player and manager Billy Martin dies in an automobile accident in Binghamton, New York at the age of 61. Billy served as the Twins fourth skipper during the 1969 season and led the Twins to a first place finish only to lose to the Baltimore Orioles 3 games to none.
Alfred Manual Martin played in the major leagues with the Yankees from 1950-1957, Kansas City A’s in 1957, the Detroit Tigers in 1958, the Cleveland Indians in 1959, the Cincinnati Reds in 1960, and the Milwaukee Braves and Minnesota Twins in 1961. Martin, 33 at the time, only played in 108 games hitting .246 for the Twins before retiring as an active player. The feisty Martin managed the Twins in 1969, the Detroit Tigers in 1971-1973, the Texas Rangers in 1973-1975, the New York Yankees from 1975-1979, the Oakland A’s from 1980-1982 and the Yankees again in 1983, 1985, and 1988. In sixteen years and 2,267 games as a manager, Martin had a 1,253 and 1,013 won-lost record while winning two pennants and one World Series title.
I had written an earlier article about Billy that you can see here.
November 25, 2010 – For me, baseball started back in 1957 when I followed the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. My brother Stan (now deceased and probably talking baseball and watching some former greats strapping it on again in the big field in the sky) and I grew up like many other kids, collecting baseball cards and trading them, not thinking they would ever be worth anything. Back then, Topps were about the only card on the market in our small home town and they were a nickel a pack or six for a quarter and each pack had some awful tasting bubblegum that was hard as a rock, not to mention that the gum often ruined the card that was next to it. I always hated the Yankees so I always traded any Yankee card for any Twins card I could get my hands on. I wonder how many Mickey Mantle cards I got rid of. Of course I don’t have any of those cards today, my Mother saw to that while I was in the Navy.
But this story is getting off of its original intent and that is to talk about managers and ejections. Back then we had no TV so the only baseball action we could get was via the radio as I listened to Milwaukee Braves night games on my transistor radio and then when the Twins moved to Minnesota we finally had our own team on WCCO radio and I listened to as many games as I could. One of my favorite parts of listening to a game was when there was a disagreement on the field and one of the managers came out to argue his side of the play. I really enjoyed Halsey Hall or Herb Carneal telling me what was going on and then the big moment, the ump calls “you are outta here” and you could hear the fans cheer or boo depending on who was ejected. Those were the good old days for me, managers like Earl Weaver, Dick Williams or Billy Martin going toe to toe with the umps, the spit flying, kicking sand on home plate, flinging first base out into right field, slamming their cap to the ground before kicking it, and of course tossing a few bats and balls on the field as they exited the diamond on their way to the clubhouse for a cool and refreshing drink. You don’t see that manager passion that much anymore and one of the last of that breed left us when Lou Piniella retired from the game this year.
But maybe all is not lost, I recently checked with the Twins to see if they could tell me how many times each of the Twins managers had been ejected but all they could provide me with were the numbers for Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire as stats were not kept previous to that. We all know that Bobby Cox holds baseball’s career ejection mark with something like 158 but how is our own Gardy doing? He has been thumbed a number of times in his Twins managing career. According to the Twins, current manager Ron Gardenhire has been sent to the clubhouse on 52 occasions in his nine seasons as a Twins manager. Cox managed for 33 seasons and if you divide his 158 career ejections by the number of years he managed it comes out to about 4.79 ejections per season. Gardy has only managed for 9 seasons but he already has been thrown out 52 times and that averages out to 5.78 per season, almost one full ejection more per season managed than what Bobby Cox has accrued. Of course Gardy would have to manage many more years to beat the high ejection standard that Bobby Cox has established but Gardy could well be on his way, if Gardy managed for 33 years and kept up his current ejection rate and didn’t mellow, he could end up with 190+ ejections, is that something to look forward to or what? Go gettem Gardy! Oh by the way, Tom Kelly managed for 15+ season and was relieved of his managing duties only 5 times……….You gotta love baseball.
