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
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
March 29, 2011 – This year Opening Day for our Minnesota Twins will take place on Friday, April 1st at the Rogers Centre (formally called the SkyDome) in Toronto, Ontario next to the CNN Tower and the shores of Lake Ontario. The once proud Toronto Blue Jay team is coming off an 85-77 season and a third consecutive fourth place finish in the tough as nails American league Eastern Division.
Opening day is always a special day, no one has lost a game as yet, everyone is still in the pennant race and visions of the playoffs are on everyone’s mind. The Twins and Jays are no different and both teams will send their Ace’s to the mound hoping to get off to a fast start. As things stand today, I think it will be Carl Pavano for the Twins and Ricky Romero for the Jays, but I wouldn’t expect to see either pitcher around at the end of the game. Since the 1998 season started 13 years ago, the only complete games on Opening Day were by Jeff Weaver when his Tigers lost to the Twins 3-2 in 2001 in a 9 inning effort, In 2002 both Bartolo Colon then a Cleveland Indian beat the Angels 6-0 in 9 innings and Randy Johnson (130 pitches) as an Arizona D-Back beat the Padres 2-0 in 9 innings, in 2003 Hideo Nomo as a Dodger beat Arizona 8-0 in 9 innings, in 2005 Jake Westbrook of the Indians lost a complete 8 inning 1-0 effort to the Chicago White Sox. The last pitcher to chuck a complete game on Opening Day was the often injured Ben Sheets in 2007 when he pitched his Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-1 win over the Dodgers. That makes 6 complete games on Opening Day in the past 13 seasons.
So where do the Twins stand on opening day complete games? The Twins have taken part in 50 Opening Days and have a 24-26 record to show for their efforts and Twins Opening Day starters have pitched a total of six complete games and the last one was in 1978 but that was an 8 inning effort. The Twins have won 5 of the 6 times their pitcher pitched a complete game on the Opener.
The very first game the Minnesota Twins ever played was Opening Day effort against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium I on April 11, 1961 and Twins hurler Pedro Ramos pitched a complete 9 inning complete game and the Twins were victorious by a 6-0 score over Whitey Ford and his gang. Pistol Pete Ramos finished the season with an 11-20 record while pitching 264.1 innings in his only season as a Minnesota Twin. 14,607 fans saw the game. (Box score)
The second Twins complete Opening Day game took place in 1966 at Met Stadium on April 12 when both starters pitched complete games and the Twins Mudcat (Jim Grant) bested the Catfish (Jim Hunter) and his merry band of Kansas City A’s 2-1 in 9 innings in 1 hour and 45 minutes in front of only 21,658 fans. (Box score)
Opening Day complete game number three took place in D.C. Stadium on April 10, 1968 when Dean Chance went 9 innings and the Twins beat the Washington Senators and former Twins pitcher Camilo Pascual 2-0. Minnesota native Vice-President Hubert Humphrey threw out the first ball. (Box score)
The fourth complete Opening Day game took place on April 7, 1970 at Chicago White Sox Park when Jim Perry pitched a complete game and won the first of his 24 games during his Cy Young award season as the Twins pounded the Might Whitey’s by a 12-0 score. The White Sox starter that day was non other than Tommy John, just a pup then as he was just in his 8th big league season and he would end up pitching in the big leagues for 26 seasons. (Box score)
The fifth complete game and the last time a Minnesota Twins hurler pitched a complete 9 inning Twins win on Opening Day was by Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, then a 22 year old peach faced kid when he pitched the Twins to a 8-3 win over the Oakland A’s in Oakland-Alameda County Stadium on April 6, 1973. April 6? What is special about April 6? Everybody knows that, it is Bert Blyleven’s Birthday! The loser that day was Jim “Catfish” Hunter. A nice Birthday present indeed! (Box score)
The sixth and final Twins complete game on Opening Day was an 8 inning 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners in the KingDome by Minnesota native Dave Goltz on April 5, 1978. (Box score)
That is it, six complete games in 50 tries and none since 1978. One additional bit of trivia since this is of course Twinstrivia.com. Did you know that Camilo Pascual, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Jack Morris have “toed the rubber” as starters on Opening Day for both the Minnesota Twins and also against the Minnesota Twins?
May 18, 2010 – The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame began to induct members in 1939. It continued to do so even with all the political turmoil that has befallen Cuban Baseball. The Federacion de Peloteros Profesionales Cubanos en el Exilio continued elections of members after the end of professionalism in Cuba. For a complete list of members inducted, please go to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame pages.
The following one time Twins players are in the Cuban Hall of Fame.
Inducted in 1979 – Leo Cardenas – SS
Inducted in 1980 = Zoilo Versalles – SS
Inducted in 1981 – Pedro Ramos – P
Inducted in 1982 – Tony Oliva – OF
Inducted in 1983 – Camilo Pascual – P
Inducted in 1985 – Mike Fornieles – P
Inducted in 1997 – Julio Becquer – 1B
Inducted in 1997 – Luis Tiant – P
June 9, 2009 – A nice story written by Matt Welch a number of years ago for ESPN.com that I think is worth your read. The story is about the Washington Senators ties to Cuban ballplayers such as Julio Becquer, Pedro Ramos, Camilo Pascual, Tony Oliva and numerous others. The relationship of super Cuban scout Papa Joe Cambria and the numerous players he signed to major league contracts is also looked at. The story ends with a “feel good” moment that shows once again that Calvin Griffith was not the ogre that many made him out to be. Click here for the story.
April 11, 2009 – The Twins played their first game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on April 11, 1961 in front of 14,607 fans on a nice 50 degree day. The Yankees were coming off another World Series season but had lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960 World Series in 7 games due to the famous Bill Mazeroski home run. The Twins on the other hand had just moved to Minnesota from Washington where they had finished 5th in the 8 team American league.
Cookie Lavagetto’s Twins had Pedro Ramos on the mound against the Yankee ace Whitey Ford. Zoilo Versalles the Twins shortstop led off the game with a ground ball to shortstop Tony Kubek who threw to Bill “Moose” Skowron for the Twins first out. Centerfielder Lenny Green also was out on a ground out and Harmon Killebrew was walked to become the Twins first base runner. Left Fielder Jim Lemon was the clean-up hitter but he ground out to Bobby Richardson at 2B and the Twins first inning was history. In the bottom of the first, Ramos retired Richardson and Hector Lopez before Yogi Berra batting in the 3 hole, got the first hit off a Twins pitcher, a single to right field. Ramos induced Mickey Mantle to ground out to 2B and future Twins manager Billy Gardner and after one inning it was 0-0. In the second inning Lemon committed the Twins first error but the Yankees could not take advantage of it and after two innings the game remained scoreless. Both the Twins and the Yankees went 1-2-3 in the 3rd and after 3 innings the game remained scoreless. The Killer led off the 4th inning with the Twins first hit, a single to center but Ford retired the next three batters again keeping the Twins from getting on the board. In the bottom of the 4th Ramos struck out Mantle and Maris back to back before allowing a single to Skowron but Kubek flied out to Green in center to end any possibility of a Yankee score. Billy Gardner singled off Ford in the 5th but Ford retired Ramos and Versalles to end that threat. In the bottom of the 5th Whitey Ford singled off Ramos with one out but Ramos got Richardson to hit into a 5-4-3 double play from Reno Bertoia to Gardner to Killebrew and after 5 the game was still 0-0. The 6th inning was uneventful as both sides went 1-2-3 and the Twins and Yankees were locked in a pitcher’s duel in the Twins first ever game. Ford must have started to tire in the 7th because Bob Allison led off with a long homerun to left, and in the process scored the Twins first run. Earl Battey followed with a double and Bertoia walked. Lavagetto then had Gardner sacrifice bunt the runners along and Ramos, a good hitting pitcher, singled to center scoring Battey and Bertoia and the Twins had a 3-0 lead. That turned out to be the final batter that Ford faced and Ralph Terry came on for the Yankees and Versalles greeted him with a single to center before Terry got Green on a fly out. Killebrew followed with another walk but Lemon ground out for the third out. But after 6 ½, the Twins were leading the hated Yankees 3-0. Ramos retired the Yankees 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and after 7 the Twins were winning 3-0. Allison led off the 8th with a single of Terry, Battey hit a ground ball forcing Allison at 2B but Bertoia followed with his first homer and after 7 ½ the Twins were up 5 to nothing. Ramos again retired the Yanks 1-2-3 and after 8 the score was Minnesota 5 and New York 0. In the top of the 9th, Jim Coates came on to pitch for the Yankees and Versalles singled to left. Green popped out to Richardson. With Killebrew in the batter’s box, Versalles stole 2B and then stole 3B. Killebrew then hit a sac fly to left scoring Zoilo for the 6th and final run of the game. Dan Dobbek, who had replaced Lemon in left, was hit but a Coates pitch and proceeded to steal 2B while Allison was at bat but Bob ground out to shortstop to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th Ramos retired Hector Lopez, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle flew out to Allison in right and the Minnesota Twins had won their first game after 2 hours and 27 minutes of play in a 6-0 shutout over the Yankees.
Pedro Ramos would go on to pitch two other shutouts in 1961 but finished the season with an 11-20 record. The Twins would finish their first season with a 70-90 record and a seventh place finish, ahead of only the Angels, A’s, and Senators. But on this magical day after 1 day of play in 1961 the Minnesota Twins were 1-0 and tied for 1st place in the American league. Click on my “Twins Box Scores” page and you can see the actual box score for this game.
