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
There are a lot of opinions out there floating around about former Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith and the two most common ones are that he was cheap and that he was a racist. I am not going to get into the racist discussion here and now but I did want to share with you a piece of a column that Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Dick Cullum wrote on August 20, 1968.
Sid Hartman a Minnesota legend and Minnesota sports columnist, radio personality and an old-school home team booster who once ran the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers and achieved nearly as much celebrity as some of the athletes he covered died at the age of 100 on October 18, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sid was born in Minneapolis on March 15, 1920. His Father, Jack Hechtman, was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States at age 16, changing his name to Hartman after he arrived. Sid Hartman’s mother, Celia Weinberg, immigrated to the United States from Latvia at age nine. Sid grew up in a Jewish family in North Minneapolis and by the age of nine was selling newspapers.
From a humble start selling newspapers on the street in 1928, he wrote about sports for the Star Tribune for the ensuing decades. At the age of 100 he was still writing three columns a week with his final one appearing on the day he died. According to a count by Star Tribune staffer Joel Rippel, Hartman produced 21,235 bylined stories in his career, from 1944 until the one that ran on C2 of Sunday’s Sports section. This, in addition to his various sports gigs on WCCO radio for 65 years and participating in a TV Sports panel for over 20 years.
Sid was one of those people that everyone in Minnesota knew by just his first name, kind of like Kirby, Harmon, and Bud. Sid obviously led an interesting life in which he worked to the very end in a job that he loved. No many of us get to spend a life doing something we love to do. Having said that, he was also very good at what he did and he had an unbelievable work ethic. No one worked harder than Sid to get a story and he loved to be the first to break a story and there are numerous stories floating around about what he would do to make sure that happened.
Twins beat-writer Phil Miller wrote in past Sunday’s edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the Minnesota Twins could have as many as 12 different pitchers fighting for the five spots in the Twins 2017 starting rotation. Keep that number 12 in the back of your mind as you read this. Here are the pitchers Miller listed as possible starters in 2017.
TWINS STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATESErvin Santana (R), 34: 7-11 last season, but his 3.38 ERA was 10th-best in the American League.
Phil Hughes (R), 30: Missed most of last season because of thoracic outlet syndrome. Gave up league-high 29 home runs in 2015.
Kyle Gibson (R), 29: Fourth year in rotation (98 starts), but ERA rocketed to 5.07 in 2016.
Hector Santiago (L), 29: Acquired from Angels last season. Another starter who gives up lots of home runs.
Jose Berrios (R), 22: Team’s top young pitching prospect has been bombed in majors (8.02 ERA).
Tyler Duffey (R), 26: In 26 starts last season his 6.43 ERA was worst among pitchers with more than 130 innings.
Trevor May (R), 27: Back injury hampered him last season, when he was a reliever. He wants to start.
Adalberto Mejia (R), 23: Picked up from Giants in Eduardo Nunez trade last season. In 566 minor league innings he has 487 K’s.
Nick Tepesch (R), 28: Had 39 starts for Texas in 2013-14. He missed 2015 because of shoulder issues; he’s on a minor league deal.
Ryan Vogelsong (R), 39: Grizzled veteran has 179 starts in 12 seasons; 3-7, 4.81 ERA for Giants last year.
Justin Haley (R), 25: Proven starter in Class AAA was picked up in the Rule 5 draft, meaning he’s likely to make the team.
Stephen Gonsalves (L), 22: Twins minor league pitcher of the year in 2016; was dominant at Class AA Chattanooga.
It would be nice to have quality over quantity but one has to play with the cards they are dealt or the starters they might have. In 2016 the American League teams used 157 different starters an average of 10.47 starters per team. The Toronto Blue Jays used only seven starters in 2016 while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sent 15 different starters to the mound. The Twins marched out 11 different pitchers to start their games in 2016.
The National League teams used 176 different starters in their quest for wins and that comes out to an average of 11.73 starters. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants only required eight starters each while the Atlanta Braves had double that, they needed 16 starters to get through the season.
The Twins have used as many as 13 different starters in 1962 and 1995 and as few as six starters in 1972 but they only played 154 games that year. If you look at the Twins average number of starters used over the years per season you end up with 9.68 so even though the battle for the starting rotation will take place this spring and there will probably be five winners by Opening Day, there is no assurance they will be starting games at Target Field come September. Starting pitchers will be lost due to injury, performance, trades, and personal reasons so the more pitchers the Twins have ready to start big league games the better. The message to the pitchers who won’t be Twins starters on Opening Day is to hang in there because your turn is coming, be ready.
The below material came from a column that Sid Hartman wrote in the Star Tribune on August 19, 1990.
The payroll for the Twins, the American League West’s last-place team, is about $16 million, an average of more than $400,000 a player. In 1965, when the Twins won the pennant in a 10-team league with no playoffs, the payroll for 25 players was about $1.5 million, less than half what Kirby Puckett is paid per season. There wasn’t any free agency then and the reserve clause was in effect. There wasn’t any arbitration, either, and it was either take it or leave it.
How things have changed in favor of the player. Harmon Killebrew, a big star on the team, didn’t make $100,000 until 1967. And Bob Allison, another big star, earned about $35,000. The team drew 1,463,288 fans and sold only 3,318 season tickets. Owner Calvin Griffith made a lot of money.
And when members of the 1965 Twins World Series team, here to play in an old-timers game Saturday night, reminisced about winning the pennant and losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games, they had to recall that it wasn’t all peaches and cream in the clubhouse. Pitching coach Johnny Sain didn’t get along with third-base coach Billy Martin, and manager Sam Mele sided with Martin. Many times Martin and Sain almost came to blows.
The pitchers were on the side of Sain, who believed a pitcher never threw a bad pitch or lost a game. But they never would have won without Martin’s inspiration. Still, they won the pennant and might have won the World Series had Jim Gilliam not made a sensational fielding play on a hard ground ball hit to third in the fifth inning of Game 7. Gilliam handled shortstop Zoilo Versalles‘ shot toward third with Rich Rollins on first and Frank Quilici on second. The score was 2-0 at the time and that is how it ended, with Sandy Koufax winning for the Dodgers.
Yes, baseball has sure changed in the last 25 years.
Ft. Myers outfielder Byron Buxton is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In six games for the Miracle, he hit .500 (12-for-24) with two home runs, one triple, four RBI, eight runs scored and five walks. Buxton homered in back-to-back games July 17 & 18 at Daytona, including four hits on the 18th. The 20 year-old Buxton has played in just 13 games this season, missing time with an injured left wrist but is hitting .280 (14-for-50) with one double, one triple, three home runs, six RBI and five walks for the Miracles this season. You have to figure Buxton will be moved up to New Britain soon.
Not that long ago Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune did a nice piece on Buxton that you can view here. Depending on what site you choose to read, Buxton is either the number one or number two prospect in all of baseball. Will the Twins have the stones to put Buxton in a Twins uniform later this season? If they do, they will have a sellout crowd on their hands, probably the only way they will get one this year.
This morning I pick up the Star and Tribune and the front page headline is “Wild lands biggest catch”. There is no mention of the Minnesota Twins in the Sports section until page C4 and that is a short blurb titled “Gardy, Mauer join recruiting process” that talks about how they helped to recruit hockey free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to the Minnesota Wild. The Twins game story from last nights 5-1 loss to the Tigers is on the LAST page of the Sports section, page C8. Today is July 5th, the MLB All-Star game is less than a week away and the Tribune puts baseball on pages 7 and 8, that is just plain disgusting. I know that signing Parise and Suter is a big deal but this is just ridiculous. At this rate when the Vikings open their pre-season camp I might not even be able to read anything about the Twins for the rest of the year. With the Wild, Vikings, and even the Timberwolves improving their teams, interest in Twins baseball may be dropping quickly. The Twins need to do something to right the ship that is taking on water and fighting to stay afloat.
Before the 2012 season started I thought that if the Twins stayed fairly healthy that they would finish the 2012 season at 78-84 but now with the team at the half way point in the season their record stands at a disappointing 35-46 and on pace to finish at 70-92, just seven games better than last years injury plagued season 99 loss season. The sad part is that there is not a lot of reason to be optimistic in the short-term with the Twins starting pitching in such wretched shape. I know that Scott Diamond has pitched well Francisco Liriano has pitched decently the last few games but we all know that Liriano will be traded before the month is out and rightfully so. The rest of the starting staff is in shambles and I don’t see Walters or DeVries as part of the solution long-term. Scott Baker is out for the season and I like Baker but I don’t think I would throw $9 million in his direction but if I could sign him for less than that, I make it happen. The bullpen has for the most part pitched well but how long can they continue to do so if they have to throw as many innings as they have so far?
The Twins have several directions they can go, they can force feed some of their young pitchers but that would be a big gamble and could take some time and Twins season ticket-holders numbers will drop like a rock. If Twins fans quit paying to watch their home town boys then the revenue drops and we all know what that means. Ownership could go out on the free agent market and find some starters but that will take big bucks and that has not been the road that the Twins have ever traveled. It might however; be a road that ownership is forced to take if they still want fans to be willing to spend part of their hard-earned dollars on a Twins ticket. Minnesota fans will always pay to watch the Vikings and if the Wild and Timberwolves get hot the Twins will be in deep do-do. Any marketing or sales person worth his salt will tell you that it is always better and less expensive to retain a customer than it is to find a new customer. I always have been and always will be a Twins fan but there are a lot of “fair weather” fans that will drop the Twins like a hot potato if the team does not show them that they can put a fun and competitive team on the diamond. The last option is to trade some of their position players for pitching but everyone is looking for pitching so that is not an easy path either. The Twins are on the edge here, the next few weeks will begin to show us what direction this team is headed.
What would I do? It is always easy to spend other people’s money but here is my take on things. First off, I listen to any and all offers and I make any deal that I think will help me get better and that means that no player either in the big leagues or in the minors is untouchable. Not every trade works out the way you plan but some changes are necessary. It is easy to fall in love with your players but the bottom line is the won-loss record and if our players are so good, why aren’t we winning? I think the Twins need to acquire one big time starter like a Zack Greinke that can lead the staff and that will cost some money but it is something that needs to get done. The rest of the starting staff will need to be put together from with in the organization. I am not saying it will be easy but if ownership wants to keep butts in the Target Field seats they have to spend some money to make this team competitive while the Twins young stars in the minors learn the game. The fans have shown that they will support this team if they put a competitive team on the field, now it is time for the Pohlad’s to step up and show the fans that they mean business.