Tag: Royals

This Day in Twins History – September 30, 1981

Metropolitan Stadium in 1979. Note the Met Sports Center, home of the Minnesota North Stars in the background.

The Minnesota Twins played their final home game at Metropolitan Stadium in front of 15,900 fans on a drizzly and cloudy 52 degree day and lose to the Kansas City Royals 5-2. DH Roy Smalley makes the final Twins out at Met Stadium. John Verhoeven was the last Twins pitcher to toe the rubber at Met Stadium. Box score.

Home plate went missing just before the Minnesota Twins last game at Metropolitan Stadium in 1981. Ballpark access was apparently a little easier back in the day and a couple of presumably young pranksters dug it up and it was never heard from again. The Twins managed to locate a new one, though, and it was used in the final game against the Kansas City Royals. After the game, the historic plate and the three bases were given away in a raffle to those in attendance. The winner of the plate was a college kid named Bill Schnobrich, who worked part-time as a peanut vendor at the Stadium.

Schnobrich has moved to southern California but he was back in the Twin Cities recently and picked the plate up from a friend who’d been holding onto it. No doubt familiar with the prices some stadium memorabilia has been fetching in recent years, the Bible teacher is now thinking about selling it.

The first major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Dale Long of the Washington Senators on April 21, 1961. The last major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Clint Hurdle of the Kansas City Royals on September 30, 1981. Harmon Killebrew hit two-hundred forty-six home runs in The Met (the most by any player in history) & the total number of major league home runs hit in Metropolitan Stadium was 2,866.

Don’t forget to check out the Today in Twins History page to see other exciting Twins events that occurred on this day in Minnesota Twins history.

This Day in Twins History

9/16/1970 – Pitcher Clyde Wright becomes the California Angels second ever 20 game winner when he beat the Twins and Bert Blyleven 5-1 at Met Stadium. Bert Blyleven, a 19-year old rookie, ties an AL record by striking out the first six batters (Sandy Alomar, Tony Gonzalez, Jim Fregosi, Alex Johnson, Ken McMullen, and Jay Johnstone). He strikes out 10 in 6 2/3 innings.

9/16/1983 – Minnesota’s Tim Teufel goes 5-for-5 with a triple and the first 2 home runs of his ML career in an 11-4 win over the Blue Jays and in the process becomes the first Twin to get 5 hits in a single game at the Metrodome. Teufel becomes the only Twins player to ever get 5 hits and score 5 runs in a game. Teufel ends up with 13 total bases for the game.

9/16/1993 – Dave Winfield of the Minnesota Twins became the 19th player in major league history to get 3,000 hits with a single off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley at the Metrodome in a 13 inning 5-3 Twins win. In the process Winfield became the first player wearing a Twins uniform to get his 3,000th hit.

9/16/1996 – Paul Molitor gets his 3,000th career hit, becoming the 21st major leaguer to reach the mark and the first to do it with a triple (off Jose Rosado) while the Twins were on the road in Kansas City. The ‘Ignitor’ reaches this milestone in the same season in which he also collects 200 hits, making him the only player to accomplish both feats in the same campaign. The Twins end up losing the game 6-5.

According to Elias

 

Jamey Carroll

Jamey Carroll homered for the Twins in their 4-2 loss at Chicago. Carroll, who has only 13 home runs in 3,388 career at-bats in the majors, snapped his streak of 1,348 consecutive at-bats without a home run (since August 9, 2009). Carroll entered the night with the longest current homer-less streak in the majors; that distinction is now owned by Kansas City’s Chris Getz (currently on the disabled list with 918 at-bats since his last four-bagger). No player had ended a homer-less streak as long as Carroll’s since Rafael Belliard went 1,869 at-bats between round-trippers from May 5, 1987 to September 26, 1997. Source: Elias

As far as the Twins homer-less streaks are concerned, Al Newman is first with 1,647 homer-less at bats and Ben Revere is next with 884 home-less at bats through yesterday’s game and his streak is still active. Carroll is now third on the Twins longest homer-less streak with 412 at bats.

According to Elias

Glen Perkins

The Twins defeated the Royals, 3-1 and 8-7, in yesterday’s doubleheader, marking the second time this season that Minnesota has taken two in one day from Kansas City. On June 30, the Twins swept two from the Royals, 7-2 and 5-1, in Minneapolis. This marked the first time that the Twins have swept a specific opponent in two games in one day twice in the same season since they gave that treatment to the Athletics way back in 1978. The Twins were on the wrong side of such a thing as recently as last year, which they twice dropped a pair of games on the same day to the Indians. By the way, in all, the Twins played twice in a day four times last season-and lost all eight games! Glen Perkins saved both games for the Twins on Saturday, becoming the first Twins pitcher to earn two saves in one day since Rick Lysander saved a pair of games at Boston on Aug. 18, 1984. Source: Elias

This Day in Twins History – August 8

1974 – The Royals – Twins game at Royals Stadium is briefly interrupted by President Nixon’s resignation speech. The speech is broadcast after it begins and the next inning is delayed until the conclusion of the speech. The Twins prevail over the host Royals‚ 3 – 2 in 14 innings when Tony Oliva’s sacrifice fly drives home Rod Carew. Bill Campbell pitches 7 innings of relief for the win.

1987 – The Twins beat the Oakland A’s 9-2 at the Metrodome as Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wins the 329th and final game of his Hall of Fame career. Carlton pitches 8 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs while striking out two batters

1988 – The Indians and the Twins were scoreless after 3 innings at the Metrodome with Allan Anderson on the mound for the local nine. In the top of the fourth inning with no one out, the Indians Ron Washington and Willie Upshaw singled to put runners on first and second and then Joe Carter smashed a long drive to the left field corner where Twins outfielder Dan Gladden snagged it for an out and wheeled and fired a strike to Steve Lombardozzi at 2B to nail Washington and then Lombo relayed the ball to Gene Larkin at first to get the runner there by at least 5 feet and completed the unusual 7-4-3 triple play. The Twins went on to win the game by a 7-2 score with Gladden going 3 for 5 with a run scored, a stolen base, and a RBI. Catcher Brian Harper was 4 for 4 but played second fiddle to Gladden on this day.

1998 – Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore to become only the fifth player ever with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.

2004 – The A’s beat the Twins 6 – 5 in 18 innings. It is the second-longest game in the 23-year history of the Metrodome. With the score tied 3 to 3, the A’s score 3 in the top of the 18th off Terry Mulholland to take a 6-3 lead. The Twins come back with 2 in the bottom of the 18th with a Morneau home run but leave Matthew LeCroy stranded on first when Koskie and Cuddyer fly out to end the rally and the Twins hope of a huge comeback victory. The game lasts 4 hours and 57 minutes.

2005 – One time Minnesota Twins manager (1976-1980) Gene Mauch passes away at the age of 79. Mauch was the seventh manager in Twins history. I think one of my favorite Gene Mauch quotes was “I’m not the manager because I am always right, but I am always right because I am the manager”.

2009 – The Twins third manager, Cal Ermer passed away at the age of 85 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Ermer replaced the fired Sam Mele in June 1967 with the Twins in sixth place with a 25-25 record. The Twins went 66-46 the rest of the season but lost the American League pennant on the final day of the season. Ermer was fired after the Twins finished in seventh place in 1968 with a 79-83 record.

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe (twice), Josh Willingham and Drew Butera all homered in the Twins’ 10-8 victory over the Royals at Minnesota. It was the first time that the Twins have hit more than three home runs in a game at Target Field, which opened for business in 2010. Minnesota entered Sunday’s game with a streak of 204 consecutive home games without hitting as many as four homers in a game (since October 4, 2009, at the Metrodome). The longest current streaks of that kind belong to the Pirates (234 home games) and Athletics (218). Source: Elias

This Day in Twins History – June 26

1964 – Gerry Arrigo pitches the Twins first ever one hitter when Mike Hershberger singles to right leading off the ninth inning and breaks up Arrigo’s no hit bid but the Twins prevail 2-0 over the White Sox at Met Stadium in the first game of a doubleheader. This is the first time a Twins pitcher has thrown a one hitter and the first time a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat at the Met.

1985 – Minnesota’s Ken Schrom one-hits Kansas City at the Metrodome, but needs a 2-run single from Roy Smalley in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 2-1 victory. Willie Wilson’s 3rd-inning single is the only Royals hit. The is the first one-hitter that a Twins pitcher has thrown in the Metrodome.

Maybe Liam Hendriks can make history tonight by becoming the Twins first hurler to get a one hitter at Target field, I will be out there watching. Twins pitchers have thrown 15 one hitters over the years and the last one was thrown by Scott Baker on August 31, 2007. Bert Blyleven has thrown the most one hitters, three, while pitching in a Minnesota Twins uniform. There have been 26 one hitters thrown against the Twins over the years with the last one thrown by Zach Stewart of the Mighty Whitey’s at Target Field last September.

This Day in Twins History – June 24

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.

This Day in Twins History – May 24, 1972

Jim Kaat

In one of the best pitching duels in Twins history, the Twins Jim Kaat and the Kansas City Royals Dick Drago go hammer and tong for 11 scoreless innings before the Twins Danny Thompson doubles to center to lead off the top of the 12th inning off Drago and then Rod Carew singles him home for the games only run. The Twins Wayne Granger comes in to shut down the Royals 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 12th for the save.

Dick Drago

Drago was the tough luck loser pitching all 12 innings, facing 43 batters, giving up 6 hits, one walk while striking out 13 Twins batters. Kaat pitched 11 innings for the win and held the Royals to 5 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 7 of the 40 Royals he faced. The game took 3 hours and 15 minutes and only 8,381 fans saw a pitching duel for the ages at Municipal Stadium that day. Boy, if they counted pitches back then the old clicker would have really had a good work-out.

Box score

How well have AL Central teams drafted in the last 10 years

The 2012 first-year player draft will take place June 4-6 and begins with the first round and compensation round A on Monday, June 4, at 7 p.m. ET. The first night of the event will be broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com. The Twins will have the second over-all pick in what is widely being reported as lower in quality than what has been available in the last few years. There appears to be no clear-cut choice for the number 1 overall pick this year, no Stephen Strasburg or Bryce Harper. It will still be interesting to see who is picked first and who the Twins will pick next. A lot of the reports have Georgia high school outfielder Byron Buxton as the best player available but yet most  of the so called experts agree that the Houston Astros who have the first pick will pass on Buxton. So what do the Twins do if Buxton is available when it comes their time to pick? I just can’t see the Twins passing on Buxton if he is available, no matter how much the Twins may need pitching. You can never have too many 5-tool players and if you do indeed have to many outfielders in a few years, you can always make a deal. It will be interesting to see what the Twins will do.

But this piece is not about what will happen in 2012, it is about what has transpired in the draft from 2002 through 2011 for the teams in the AL Central Division. Over the 10 years I am covering here, each team has drafted about 500 players give or take depending on compensatory picks and picks lost due to free agent signings. The chart I have put together shows how many players drafted by the Central division teams have made it to the big leagues regardless if it is with the team that drafted them or if they made it to the bigs with another team. Keep in mind too that I am not taking into consideration the fact that some of these players chose not to see with the original team that may have drafted them. For example, Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum was picked by the Cubs in 2003 in round 48 and by the Indians in round 42 in 2005 and chose not to sign until he was picked in rond 1 and 10th over all by the Giants in 2006. Keep in mind too that I do not differentiate between appearing in 1 big league game or 500 big league games, all I am tracking here is how many of each Central Division draft picks made it to the Show by year drafted as of May 20, 2012.

P = pitchers, H = hitters

YEAR TIGERS WSOX INDIANS ROYALS TWINS
2011 0 0 0 0 0
2010 2 P, 0 H 2 P, 0 H 1 P, 0 H 0 0
2009 3 P, 0 H 0 1 P, 1 H 2 P, 0 H 0 P, 1 H
2008 3 P, 2 H 1 P, 2 H 1 P, 2 H 0 P, 2 H 0
2007 3 P, 2 H 3 P, 0 H 1 P, 1 H 2 P, 1 H 0 P, 1 H
2006 3 P, 2 H 3 P, 0 H 4 P, 1 H 3 P, 1 H 3 P, 5 H
2005 4 P, 8 H 4 P, 3 H 3 P, 5 H 0 P, 1 H 5 P, 3 H
2004 4 P, 2 H 6 P, 3 H 3 P, 2 H 3 P, 1 H 4 P, 3 H
2003 5 P, 2 H 1 P, 2 H 2 P, 4 H 2 P, 5 H 3 P, 3 H
2002 3 P, 4 H 10 P, 2 H 3 P, 1 H 3 P, 4 H 4 P, 5 H
TOTALS 52 – 30 P, 22 H 42 – 30 P, 12 H 36 – 19 P, 17 H 30 – 15 P, 15 H 40 – 19 P, 21 H

It appears that the Twins either have not drafted well in recent years or it is taking longer for the players they draft to get to the big league level. No pitcher drafted by the Twins between 2007 – 2011 has reached the majors and only 2 hitters picked in that time frame have made a big league debut and they would be Ben Revere picked in 2007 and Brian Dozier chosen in 2009. During that same time frame the Tigers have had 15 players (11 pitchers and 4 hitters) debut, the White Sox have had 8 players (6 pitchers and 2 hitters) debut, the Indians have had 8 players (4 pitchers and 4 hitters) debut and the Royals have had 7 players (4 pitchers and 3 hitters) debut in the big leagues.

Other points I find interesting is that 12 players (4 pitchers and 8 hitters) from the Detroit Tigers 2005 draft have reached the big league level and that 12 players (10 pitchers and 2 hitters) from the 2002 draft by the White Sox have reached the promised land. The best the Twins have done is 9 players from their 2002 draft. This chart kind of shows how few players that are drafted ever reach the big leagues at all and how long it does take for those that do make it. It was fun doing the research on a cool wet day when the Twins were getting trounced 16-4 in Milwaukee, I hope that you enjoyed it.