I seldom missed a day of school back in Taylors Falls and I continued that practice at work during my working career. The Navy of course reinforced the idea that going to work every day was the only way. I am old school and retired now but back in the day when I worked I took a lot of pride in the fact that I showed up for work day in and day out rain or shine. I figured I was being paid to work so I showed up day after day. It used to drive me crazy when I knew that certain co-workers stayed home because they were hung-over or just plain didn’t feel like working. There were probably times when it would have been safer to stay home due to the snow or ice but not me, I was off to work.
Working every day carries over to my enjoyment of baseball, I like players that come to play ball each day and don’t take time off because they are tired or have a hang-nail. These players are being paid big bucks to play, not to sit on the bench and rest, they can rest on their own time like the rest of us.
So where am I going with this? Today we are going to take a look at the Minnesota Twins players that came to play. Today’s players are playing fewer games then their compatriots did 50 or so years ago for a variety of reasons. The change however; is not as great as I expected to find. When was the last time that a Twins player played in every game that season? That would be Justin Morneau in 2008 when he appeared in all 163 regular season games. Since 1961 and 55 baseball seasons only six Twins players have played in every game and Harmon Killebrew is the only one to do it more than once.
Rk | Player | Year | G | Age | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | SB | Pos | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Justin Morneau | 2008 | 163 | 27 | 712 | 623 | 187 | 23 | 129 | 0 | .300 | .873 | *3/D |
2 | Gary Gaetti | 1984 | 162 | 25 | 644 | 588 | 154 | 5 | 65 | 11 | .262 | .665 | *5/76 |
3 | Roy Smalley | 1979 | 162 | 26 | 729 | 621 | 168 | 24 | 95 | 2 | .271 | .794 | *6/3 |
4 | Harmon Killebrew | 1969 | 162 | 33 | 709 | 555 | 153 | 49 | 140 | 8 | .276 | 1.011 | *5*3 |
6 | Cesar Tovar | 1967 | 164 | 26 | 726 | 649 | 173 | 6 | 47 | 19 | .267 | .691 | 5847/69H |
7 | Harmon Killebrew | 1966 | 162 | 30 | 677 | 569 | 160 | 39 | 110 | 0 | .281 | .929 | *537/H |
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Working or playing every day can be tough and everyone gets sick or hurt now and then