Tag: Paul Molitor

The BPP All-Time Dream Project

If you are a long time baseball fan and enjoy baseball history you should take a few minutes and check out fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance member Graham Womack’s of Baseball: Past and Present story called The BPP All-Time Dream Project. According to Graham, “Over the past two months, I conducted a project having people vote on nine-player all-time dream teams. The idea was for voters to pick a team to win a one-off, sandlot game, the ultimate cosmic playoff. This wasn’t about a 25-man roster or designated hitters or relievers, just finding nine players to win a game. I received more than 600 votes in all from a mix of baseball figures, fellow writers, and others. To help with the presentation and do justice to the subject matter, I recruited a number of my favorite baseball writers and hired an illustrator, Sarah Wiener to create trading cards for each player. Like the cards? A complimentary set can be had for the first 100 people who donate $25 to 826 Valencia, a non-profit that teaches journalism to kids. We’re looking to raise $3,000 and, as of press time, we’re about halfway there. If everyone who reads this post donates even a dollar, we’ll shatter the goal. To donate, go here.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to watch this team play? No Minnesota Twins made the team but Washington Senators Walter Johnson is the teams starting pitcher. Some Twins that did receive votes are Joe Mauer, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Graig Nettles, and Dave Winfield. Check out the story, you won’t be sorry.

Checking on the minor league side

 

When I arrived at Hammond Stadium today there was not a lot going on the big league side with a lot of the Twins preparing to play Tampa at Port Charlotte today. A little BP for a couple of players, several pitchers were getting some throwing in and the rest of the pitchers that didn’t go to Port Charlotte were shagging fly balls during BP. I wandered of to the minor league side where all the fields were in use in one fashion or another and a couple of the lower level teams were bussed over to the old Red Sox complex so they could get there work in before coming back in the afternoon for a quick-lunch and a ball game this afternoon. I didn’t have the time to stay for the game but I did get some pictures of the minor leaguers that were there this morning.

Miguel Sano

On one of the fields coaches Tom Kelly and Paul Molitor were working with two infielders at a time teaching then the proper techniques for back handing a ball, flipping the ball to second and turning the double play etc. I saw Miguel Sano being put through his paces there, Adam Pettersen was there as well as several others. The attached picture of Sano fielding a ball at shortstop kind of says it all as to why he will not be a shortstop in the big leagues, he is just too big. I found it a bit more difficult shooting pictures today now that we are on EDT with the sun angle at this hour of the day. I found myself shooting into the sun all day and that is never a good thing.

So, not much for me to report today but I hope that you enjoy the pictures I took on the back fields. The first picture I took today is of Anthony Swarzak getting his throwing in, I am shocked at how much weight Swarzak has lost since last year. If you have not been checking out our “Today in Twins History” page, please stop by and check it out, there is a lot of cool stuff out there.

This Day in Twins History – January 6, 2004

Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley are named to the MLB Hall of Fame by the baseball writers. Molitor, a Minnesota native, played for the Twins from 1996 through 1998 after playing for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1983-1992 and the Toronto Blue Jays from 1993-1995. Molitor got hit number 3,000 as a Minnesota Twin and finished his career with 3,319 hits.

Twins opening day tidbits

March 31, 2011 – I thought that it would be fun to look over the Twins 50 year history of Opening Days and see who has started the most games at each position. Through their first fifty years, the Twins record on Opening Day is 24-26 and they are currently on a two game losing streak.

The Minnesota Twins first Opening Day was at Yankee Stadium on April 11, 1961 in front of only 14,607 fans and the Twins played and won their first ever game by a score of 6-0. Their Opening Day line-up that day had Earl Battey catching, Harmon Killebrew at first, Billy Gardner at second, Zoilo Versalles was at short, Reno Bertoia played third, Jim Lemon was in left, Lenny Green was in center, Bob Allison was in right, and Pedro Ramos was the starting pitcher. Little did anyone know at the time that the Twins second baseman that day, Billy Gardner, would become the Twins manager twenty years later. The Twins have only fielded the same opening day line-up from one year to the next on one occasion in 50 years and that was in 1970 (won 12-0) and 1971 (lost 7-2) when the Twins had George Mitterwald catching, Rich Reese at first, Rod Carew at second, Leo Cardenas was at short, Harmon Killebrew was at third, Brant Alyea was in left, Cesar Tovar was the centerfielder, Tony Oliva was in right and Jim Perry was the starting pitcher. This goes to show how much things change from year to year.

I told you earlier that I was going to find out what Twins have started the most Opening Day games by position and here is what I have found.

  Total # of players that have played this position on opening day Started most opening days at this position
Catcher 20 Earl Battey, Butch Wynegar, Joe Mauer – 6
1B 19 Kent Hrbek – 12
2B 20 Rod Carew – 9
SS 16 Zoilo Versalles, Roy Smalley, Greg Gagne – 7
3B 23 Gary Gaetti – 9
LF 25 Mickey Hatcher, Dan Gladden, Marty Cordova, Jacques Jones – 4
CF 20 Torii Hunter – 9
RF 19 Tony Oliva – 8
DH 25 Paul Molitor, Randy Bush, Glenn Adams – 3
P 25 Brad Radke – 9

 

Another visit to Hammond Stadium

February 26, 2009 – Yesterday I decided to go out to the stadium about 10 AM and catch the Twins practice before their home opener on Wednesday night against the Red Sox. When I got there I found a few fans and no players, none at all, not even anyone playing catch on the back fields. A lesson learned I guess, but without access to the Twins inside scoop like the regular press has it can be a hit and miss proposition sometimes.

But I don’t give up easy so I went out again this morning knowing that the Twins had an away game with Cincinnati so I was expecting to find a lot of the regulars left behind and that is exactly what happened. When I got there, Morneau, Young, Casilla, Cuddyer, Crede, Redmond and a number of others were taking batting practice. I guess these veterans had earned the right to skip some of the spring training bus rides. So there was no Gardy to run the show but TK was keeping things moving.

The Twins bring in some of their past stars to do a little spring training coaching and today I saw Rod Carew and Paul Molitor. When they players and coaches leave the field they usually have to walk through a gauntlet of fans looking for autographs and pictures. Most of the players and coaches stop, chat with the fans a little, sign some autographs, pose for some pictures and move on, but not Mr. Rod Carew the Hall of Famer. Today Carew just blew past everyone and his eyes never left his shoelaces and he didn’t utter a word. He reminded me of someone walking through a dairy barn barefoot making sure they didn’t step into a “cow pie”. Geez what a grump, Carew was a good player and maybe he is a good coach but he still lacks basic human relations skills that would make him one of the Twins fans favorites. Maybe I just caught him on a bad day….. Paul Molitor, who is not exactly as outgoing as Harmon Killebrew at least stopped, signed and posed for some pictures. Even TK who I always thought was a major grump as a Twins manager stopped and chatted with fans and posed for a picture with some kids. Believe it or not, he told the kids to smile, who would have “thunk” it? But you know who stayed out there the longest and signed until the last fan was satisfied? It was Justin Morneau; he must have been out there for a good half hour signing everything in sight and posing for anyone that asked. How cool is that? You know he was ready to call it a day and get in the clubhouse but he stayed out there until all the cards, balls, and bats were signed even when he knew that a number of them were for going to be put up for sale before the ink had dried. That is why Morneau is such a popular player; he knows how to treat his fans the right way. Thanks Justin, I was very impressed.