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
Michael Lee Cubbage, was born July 21, 1950, in Charlottesville, Virginia and passed away on August 10, 2024 after a near year-long battle with cancer, his wife, Jan, confirmed Sunday night, August 11. Cubbage was 74 years old.
Affectionately called “Cubby” by friends, family, players and coaches, Cubbage was a former Major League Baseball player and a pro baseball manager. He retired a couple of years ago after serving as one of the top scouts for the Washington Nationals.
He was a three-sport star at Charlottesville’s Lane High School, standing out in football, basketball and baseball before moving on to become a two-sport star at the University of Virginia, playing quarterback on the football team and becoming an All-ACC selection in baseball. Cubbage came from a baseball family that included cousins Larry Haney and Chris Haney, both major leaguer’s.
In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers, although there are some exceptions. Is it beneficial to be a switch hitter? Left-handed batters get a better jump out of the batter’s box to first base. This means the left-handed batter will get more infield hits. Hitting the ball to the first base side of the field has many built-in advantages for his team (such as hitting behind the runner), so he becomes a more valuable hitter.
If you look at position players only, then about 13% are switch hitters, 54% right-handed and 33% left-handed hitters. I believe that at last count there have been 20 switch hitters elected into the Hall of Fame. Many consider Mickey Mantle the greatest switch hitter of all time while others might tell you that it was Pete Rose but that is a whole different story. The switch hitter in the HOF with the most hits is Eddie Murray and the only HOF switch hitting player with more home runs than Murray (504) is Mickey Mantle with 536. So a case can certainly be made for Eddie Murray being the best switch hitter in MLB history.
The Minnesota Twins have had their fair share of switch hitters over the years. Who was their best switch hitter? That would depend on what you are looking for in a hitter but you have to start with Roy Smalley. Up until this past season Roy Smalley led Twins switch hitters with 110 career home runs in a Twins uniform but this past season in 2023 Jorge Polanco took over the team lead in switch hitter home runs with 112. Lets take a look at the Twins switch hitters from 1961 to 2023 at https://stathead.com/tiny/hYPg4. The list shows us the Twins have had 77 switch hitters (both position players and pitchers) over the years but only 68 of them had a plate appearance and 66 of them had at least one hit while 44 of them slugged at least one home run.
Cy Young winner Jim Perry was the Twins best switch hitting pitcher hitting 5 home runs and getting 46 RBI with 117 hits and hitting .191 in 613 AB’s over 380 games in his Twins career. Pitcher Pedro Ramos was no slouch with the stick for Minnesota as he hit three home runs in his one season (1961) pitching for Minnesota in just 93 AB’s. Ramos was the Minnesota Twins very first switch hitter to appear in a game and get a hit with two RBI off future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford when he batted on Opening Day in 1961 at Yankee Stadium. He also became the first Twins switch hitter to hit a home run when he hit one out on May 12 at Met Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels pitcher Eli Grba in a 5-4 Twins victory.
Today we look back and see what Twins players had the lowest batting average in a season in which they had 500 or more at bats. Not a great list for Zoilo to appear on just two years removed from winning the American leagues MVP award. I was surprised to see a current Twins player on this list. Some pretty good players on this list but you have to be a good player to get 500 at bats in a big league season.
When I go to the ballpark or watch a baseball game on TV I always expect the teams best players to be on the field day in and day out during the baseball season. I am old school in that regard and it is disappointing to me when today’s managers rest players so frequently. I believe that players are paid to play and only an injury that does not physically allow them to play should keep them off the field and in the dugout.
Justin Morneau
Apparently that is not how the Twins play baseball. Coming to the ballpark and playing every day is not how it is done in Minnesota. The last player to play 160 or more games in a season for the Minnesota Twins was Justin Morneau back in 2008, that was 12 years ago. Morneau put together a 218 consecutive games played streak that started on June 28, 2007 and ended on June 20, 2009.
Looking at just the American League (due to no DH in the National League) this past season there were four players that appeared in 160 or more games and there have been no instances from 1961-2019 where there hasn’t been at least one players appearing in 160 games in a season, excluding strike shortened seasons.
Going back to 1961 the Twins have the third longest streak in the AL without a player appearing in 160 or more games. The last Cleveland Indians player to play in 160 or more games was Grady Sizemore in 2007 and the longest streak in the AL without a player playing in 160 games belongs to the Los Angeles Angels who had Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus qualify back in 2001. I found it interesting that the Texas Rangers who did not begin play until 1972 and play in the very hot Texas temperatures had 13 players play in 160 or more games between 1972-2019.
The Official WasWatching.com Scorecard of the Longest 9 Inning Game In Major League History.
The Major League Baseball definition of an error is: A fielder is given an error if, in the judgment of the official scorer, he fails to convert an out on a play that an average fielder should have made. Fielders can also be given errors if they make a poor play that allows one or more runners to advance on the bases. A batter does not necessarily need to reach base for a fielder to be given an error. If he drops a foul ball that extends an at-bat, that fielder can also be assessed an error.
Defensive errors are a vital tool in many statistical equations. For instance, batters do not receive RBIs for any runs that would not have scored without the help of an error and pitchers are not assessed any earned runs for runs that would not have scored without the error.
According to several sources the official scoring for MLB games was primarily done by home town newspaper writers that covered the games prior to 1979 when most major newspapers banned their writers from doing official scoring.
Since there are no official records kept of who official scorers have been for Minnesota Twins home games in the past I have put together a list as best I can by using the Sporting News and Star and Tribune archives. The best information I garnered though was by talking with Laurel Prieb from MLB and Stew Thornley and Howard Sinker who either have been official scorers or currently are performing that function.
Prior to 1979 – BBWAA home town newspaper writers
1979 thru 1987 – Bob Beebe
1988 – Bob Beebe and Howard Sinker (Glenn Gostick did a game in 1988)
1989 – June 1991 – Howard Sinker and Tom Briere
June 1991 to May 2007 – Tom Mee with Barry Fritz filling in when Mee was unavailable.
Remainder of 2007 – Barry Fritz, Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Howard Sinker
2008 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
2009 thru 2012 – Gregg Wong, Stew Thornley and Kevin Hennessy did a few games each year
2013 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
2014 thru 2018 – Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Dr. Kyle Traynor
According to MLB the official scorer is permitted to change a judgment call for up to 24 hours after a game concludes or is suspended. A player or team can request that the executive vice president of baseball operations review a call in which said player or team participated. This request must come within 72 hours after the conclusion or suspension of that game, or 72 hours after the official scorer’s call in the event a post game change is made.
It is time for us to take a look back in Minnesota Twins history with the help of Baseball-Reference.com and see how the Twins have fared in this important baseball statistic. Or are errors just another thing that happen during a game playing a minor role in terms of wins and losses? How often have you heard “that you have to be strong up the middle” to be a good team? Probably more often than you have heard that “liars figure and figures lie”. Take the 1965 Minnesota Twins for example, we all know that they played in the World Series that year and lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers but did you know that they led the American League with 172 errors that season?
Twins play-off teams and where they ranked in errors
1965 – ranked 10th out of 10 teams with 172 errors
1969 – ranked 9th out of 12 teams with 150 errors
1970 – ranked 3rd out of 12 teams with 123 errors
1987 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 98 errors
1991 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 95 errors
2002 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 74 errors
2003 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 87 errors
2004 – ranked 6th out of 14 teams with 101 errors
2006 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 84 errors
2009 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 76 errors
2010 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 78 errors
2017 – ranked 2nd out of 15 teams with 78 errors
So it appears that it helps to have a strong defense to be a play-off team but it there are no guarantees as five Twins teams over the years had the fewest or second fewest errors (82, 84, 88, 94 and 99 and still spent October at home. The most errors the Twins team committed was in their first season (1961) when they had 174 errors.
So what Minnesota Twins players had the most errors in a single season? That would be shortstop Zoilo Versalles with 39 errors in 1965, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award. Last Twins player to have 30 or more errors in a season? That would be Roy Smalley in 1977 with 33 boots. The Twin have committed 6,699 errors since they started play in 1961, that averages out to 114 per season. The first Twins error was made by outfielder Jim Lemon in the Twins first ever game.
We all know that strikeout rates are up all across baseball for the last few years but today we will look at Minnesota Twins batters and their strikeout rates going back to 1961. We used B-R’s amazing Play Index to find what we were looking for.
The top two all time Twins leader in strikeouts are Harmon Killebrew with 1,314 and Joe Mauer with 1,034. Mauer? What the heck? Longevity can do strange things to numbers and the devil is in the details.
Ervin Santana earned his 14th win of the season and teammate Jorge Polanco homered from each side of the plate in the Twins’ 6-4 triumph over the White Sox. Santana has a 14-win season with three different teams (three such seasons with the Angels, one with the Braves, and now one with the Twins). Two other active pitchers have had at least one season of 14-or-more wins with three different teams: Bartolo Colon (five different teams) and Zack Greinke (four teams). The last pitcher to win at least 14 games for the Twins was Phil Hughes who won 16 games in 2014.
Jorge Polanco
Polanco is the third player to homer from each side of the plate as a shortstop in a game this season, joining Francisco Lindor (April 5) and Freddy Galvis (June 4). Polanco joins a select group of Minnesota Twins (Roy Smalley, Chili Davis, Ryan Doumit, and Kennys Vargas) to hit a home run from each side of the plate in a single game.
Jorge Polanco homered for the third straight game in the Twins’ win over the White Sox yesterday, tying the longest homer streak by a shortstop in Twins history. Their only other players to do that, including their 60 years as the Washington Senators, were Zoilo Versalles (three times) and Roy Smalley, Jr. (in 1980).
A big day for major league debuts as Minnesota Twins, one was drafted and went on to be a hall of famer and two were acquired in trades.
Greg Gagne
Greg Gagne (SS) – June 5, 1983 – Traded by the New York Yankees with Paul Boris and Ron Davis to the Minnesota Twins for Roy Smalley on April 10, 1982. Gagne struck out in his first two at bats before doubling in the sixth and then scoring. Gagne ended up 1 for 4 in a Twins 10-4 win over the Red Sox at the Dome.
Brad Havens
Brad Havens (P) – June 5, 1981 – Traded by the California Angels to the Minnesota Twins in February 1979. In his big league debut Havens faced off against Jack Morris at Tiger Stadium and pitched 6 innings allowing just 2 hits, a single and a home run by Alan Trammell and left the game down 1 to nothing. Unfortunately, Morris pitched a complete game 3-hit shutout and the Twins and Havens lost 2-0 in a 2 hour game.
Bert Blyleven
Bert Blyleven (P) – June 5, 1970 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1969 amateur draft and became the 69th player to make his big league debut as a Twins player. As Blyleven has stated on many occasions, he did indeed give up a home run to the first Senators batter he faced in his debut at RFK Stadium and that batter was Lee Maye and that tied the score at one apiece. Blyleven gave up another single in the first but then held Washington to 3 hits the rest of the way and was pulled after seven innings after having allowed the one run on 5 hits and a walk while striking out seven and the future hall of fame right-hander was on his way. The Twins selected OF Paul Powell in round 1 that year and he played 30 big league games, 20 with Minny. In round 2 they selected Ron McDonald a high school 3B but he never got above AA ball. They selected shortstop Rick Burleson in round 7 but couldn’t sign him…The Red Sox did after taking him in the January secondary draft.
Trevor Plouffe (SS/2B/OF/3B) – May 21, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (20th) of the 2004 MLB June Amateur Draft. A nice debut at shortstop for Trevor going 2 for 5 with a run scored and two RBI.
Luis Rodriguez (2B/3B/SS) – May 21, 2005 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on June 1, 1997
Gene Larkin (1B/OF) – May 21, 1987 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 20th round of the 1984 amateur draft. Going 2 for 4 with an RBI in your first big league game is pretty nice.
Frank Eufemia
Frank Eufemia (P) – May 21, 1985 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 18th round of the 1982 amateur draft. Debut not too shabby considering he was pitching in a blow-out loss, 3.1 innings and no runs allowed.
Paul Boris (P) – May 21, 1982 –Traded by the New York Yankees with Ron Davis and Greg Gagne to the Minnesota Twins for Roy Smalley on April 10, 1982. Boris’s major league debut was one he would like to forget.
Jerry Crider (P) – May 21, 1969 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1962
