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
With the extraordinarily warm weather we are having in Minnesota where the grass is still green, the water in the lakes is still liquid and Thanksgiving is just around the corner it is hard to believe we are well into the fall/winter sports season. The Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Timberwolves all doing better than expected, pushing the Minnesota Twins off sports fans radar screens.
That is in spite of the fact that the Twins have announced that MLB will produce and distribute Twins games in 2025 but no specifics pertaining to cost were provided, the Pohlad family announced their intent to explore a sale of the Minnesota Twins, the team fired all three hitting coaches as well as its assistant bench coach, GM Thad Levine decided to pursue other interests and was replaced by Jeremy Zoll, Alex Kirilloff announced he was retiring at the age of 26, the team announced an executive leadership succession plan, to be implemented in the first quarter of 2025 whereas club President & CEO Dave St. Peter will transition to the role of Strategic Advisor; and President, Baseball Operations Derek Falvey will be elevated to President, Baseball & Business Operations. My favorite announcement so far though is the Twins also announcing in a very low-key manner a new (and I think complicated) ticket plan that includes the sale of MYTWINS Memberships and Reward Plans ranging from $600 to $7500. Just another method of of reaching into Twins fans pockets.
All of this with the Twins season ending less than a month ago and the MLB Winter Meetings (December 8-12) in Dallas still two weeks off. We have been very busy here at the home of Twinstrivia.com as we sold our home in Plymouth, MN in mid-October and are preparing to move to Corcoran, MN around Thanksgiving. When you live some place for 38+ years you tend to accumulate way too much stuff including in my case Twins memorabilia and other stuff. I first thought about skipping a Twins Turkey of the Year award this year but that just wouldn’t fair when the Minnesota Twins had an epic collapse that saw them drop from second place all the way to fourth. A 9-18 September had the Twins players calling their travel agents and making new travel plans that included more golf and no baseball. A season like the Twins just had in 2024 requires that a Twins Turkey of the Year winner be named yet again.
A Minnesota Twins legend Wayne Hattaway passed away on April 30, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama after a battle with cancer. Wayne was born in Mobile on February 24, 1940 to Fred and Margaret Hattaway and was the first of the five children, four of which were girls.
Wayne enjoyed baseball as a youngster growing up Mobile and often snuck away from school to catch a baseball game at Hartwell Field, the home park for the Mobile Bears who at that time were in the Southern Association as a AA affiliate of the the Brooklyn Dodgers. One thing led to another and in 1952 the team asked Wayne Hattaway (he was 12 at the time) if he wanted to be their batboy and of course he jumped at the opportunity. Little did Wayne know at the time that his career in baseball had begun.
What is going on here? L-R – Jim Pohlad, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Falvey, and ?
The Minnesota Twins find themselves in a strange position this spring. The team is coming off a record-setting 59-103 season and yet there are really no position battles waging in Ft. Myers this spring. All the starting position players are pretty much the same as last season except for the catcher Kurt Suzuki who left via free agency and the Twins signed free agent Jason Castro to replace him and handed him the starting job.
How often does that happen? Usually you lose 103 games and everyone is fighting for a job but that is not the case in the spring of 2017 at the CenturyLink Sports complex where the Twins are preparing for the 2017 season. As I watch the team go through its spring routines there doesn’t seem to be much urgency and the players are acting as if they are all veterans just waiting for the bell to ring in a new season. I can see the players going through the drills but I just don’t see that they are working hard to get better. This team is young, and talented but have they had enough sand kicked in their face yet to really want to win? I hope so.
I am still convinced that Joe Mauer playing first base limits the Twins from taking that next step. Mauer is the grey-beard among the position players at 33 and then Brian Dozier and Jason Castro follow at 29 and the rest of the starting line-up is 25 or under.
If you look at the spring training stats and I know they don’t mean a hill of beans when the season starts BUT this team appears to be a team that can score some runs but will hit for a lower average than what fans might expect. Mauer’s .300 plus days are in his rear view mirror and I am not expecting Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, or Brian Dozier to hit .260 or above. I expect a higher average from Eddie Rosario this year but he too is still unproven.
In spite of what I have written this team should be fun to watch but you must be prepared for those “what the hell just happened” moments. This team will continue to improve as the season progresses and but so much will depend on the teams pitching staff both from the starters and the relievers.
I was used to seeing GM Terry Ryan out next to the fields checking out the action but this year I have not seen Thad Levine at all and Derek Falvey just once and that was this morning. A different style I guess, particularly since all I heard early on about Falvey was how closely he worked with his manager. But you are right, it is still early.
After horrible starts to the season the last two years, how will the Twins leave the starting gate in 2017? Another bad start could would be a serious problem for Paul Molitor and his boys.
Despite health warnings and minor league prohibition, Major League players continue to chew tobacco on the field and in the dugout. A number of years ago I remember being near one of the back fields watching the Twins minor league players getting ready to play a minor league game and I saw catcher Wilson Ramos reach into his bag for some tobacco to chew when Twins GM Terry Ryan spotted him and ran over and told him that the Twins don’t want their players chewing “that stuff”. Ramos put the can pack in his bag and that was the end of it. I don’t know if Ramos chews today or not but that little episode stuck with me as I remember the health problems that former Twins player Bill Tuttle had with “chew”.
SABR Baseball Cards recently did a piece they called “Chaw Shots” showing baseball cards with players chewing. I think it is surprising how many of the former players pictured were Minnesota Twins at one time or another.
Twenty two years ago, the 1995 Opening Day that no one wanted loomed over Major League Baseball. The reason? After the games were completed on August 11, 1994 major league baseball players went on strike forcing MLB to cancel the remaining games in 1994 and for the first time since 1904 there was no World Series. I remember how disappointing it was back then and I hope that we never see it happen again. What is Fall without the World Series? Not to mention how it messed up my fantasy baseball league with me at the top of the standings.
As spring training approached the majority of the teams signed replacement players, players that had retired, career minor league players and anyone that could pitch or hit a baseball was signed. A few major league players crossed the picket lines and some active minor league players also thought the risk was worth the effort. Wannabee baseball players all over the country left their families and jobs behind to see if they could become the new stars of major league baseball. A few teams said they would not play with replacements and some major league managers and coaches said they wanted no part of this charade.
Some replacements received a reported $5,000 at the beginning of spring training with a bonus of $20,000 if they made it to Opening Day. Salaries reportedly were set at $115,000, with each team permitted to have three players making $275,000.
First of all I would like to wish you and your families and friends a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving. Without further ado let’s cut to the meat of things.
Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it with our fourth runner-up, The Pohlad family, the 75th richest family in the US of A and Jim Pohlad serves as their spokesman. Mr. Pohlad watched this team deteriorate for six seasons before he finally realized that what we have here is a “total systems failure” when his team set a new record with 103 losses. Finally he told his GM Terry Ryan that his services were no longer needed as of the end of the season and Terry Ryan said OK and walked away in July. The team didn’t put a permanent replacement in place until after the World Series was over in early November although Rob Antony served as the interim GM. According to the new Chief of Baseball Operations for the Twins, he interviewed with brothers Jim, Bill, and Bob Pohlad and a host of other Twins organization members before getting offered the job. The one stipulation that Jim Pohlad put on the new CBO was that Paul Molitor manages the Twins in 2017. Why would you do that to a manager who is in the final year of his contract and why would Molitor stay on the job? Sounds like Pohlad doesn’t want to do the dirty work in dumping Molitor, that’s why he has employees like Derek Falvey.
Twins General Manager Terry Ryan (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
Our third runner-up is former GM Terry Ryan. Terry Ryan was always one of my favorite people in the Twins organization. A very good down to earth baseball man who has watched how baseball has changed over the years but unfortunately I think that the pace of change within baseball caught up with him and made him one of baseball’s dinosaurs and you all know what happened to the dinosaurs. I think that there should always be a place in baseball for people like Terry Ryan. Ryan had either bad luck or bad input on many of his free agent signings over the last few years and his trades have not panned out either. One of his biggest mistakes was his decision this past season to try to make Miguel Sano an outfielder when he had never played there before, not only was Sano not able to play the outfield he was so confused and stressed by the position change that he was no longer the power hitter the Twins have been waiting for.
Neil Allen
Second runner-up is our pitching coach Neil Allen. Allen talks a story about how he wants to change the pitching staff and make them better but so far we have not seen zilch. After two seasons at least show me a couple of pitchers that have improved under the tutelage of Allen because I sure have not seen them. Who really hired Neil Allen to be the pitching coach any way because Paul Molitor said that he never met Allen before Twins Fest in 2015. Add in the fact that Allen has been a recovering alcoholic since 1994 but fell off the wagon and was charged with a DWI and suspended by Minnesota on May 26 and you have a recipe for disaster. Allen was reinstated on July.
Paul Molitor
Our runner-up this year is Twins skipper Paul Molitor who will start year three of his three-year contract. I am still amazed that Molitor has hung on as the Twins manager going into the final year of his contract. Players in 2017 have no reason to buy into Molitor’s ideas and plans because the players will be here longer than Molitor will. What faith does management have in you when they force you to manage in this situation, they might as well tell him don’t buy any green banana’s and to go month to month on his rent payments. Molitor took over 70 win team and managed them to 83 win in his first year, then in year two he managed them to 59 wins. The honeymoon has worn off quickly and the sooner Derek Falvey gives Molitor the pink slip the better it will be for all concerned including Paul Molitor who looks like he has aged 20 years in his two season at the helm of the Minnesota Twins. For his own health and well being Paul Molitor should walk away sooner than later.
That of course bring us to this years winner of the Twins Turkey of the Year award. The 2016 Minnesota Twins season was so outrageously bad that it would not be fair to award this years honor to just one individual. Instead this years award goes to all the players, field staff, and front office personnel who made up the 2016 Minnesota Twins team. The team finished with the worst record in baseball at 59-103, a drop from 83 wins in 2015, a drop of 24 games in the win column. Yikes! The team was out scored 722 to 889, only the 1996 Twins gave up more runs. Twins hitters did hit 200 home runs led by Brain Dozier’s 42 but the pitching staff gave up 221 round-trippers. The Twins used 11 starting pitchers and the starter with the most wins had nine victories. Miguel Sano led the team in strikeouts with 178, oh wait, he is a hitter, on the pitching staff Ervin Santana had 149 K’s. The good news? The Minnesota Twins say they will not raise ticket prices in 2017, a good idea after going 407-565 (.418%) during the last six seasons. I know this is really a radical idea but maybe you should consider lowering ticket prices….. but then again that is not how you earned the 2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award.
2016 Twins Turkey of the Year award winners – the 2016 Minnesota Twins
Halloween 2016 finds the Minnesota Twins in a waiting mode. After firing long-time GM Terry Ryan back in July and putting Rob Antony at the helm as the interim GM with his hands tied behind his back the good ship “Thelosingtwins” has been DIW and drifting aimlessly while they try to locate and bring on board the new captain they hired from the Cleveland Indians who are still playing baseball while many Twins players have already notched a couple dozen rounds of golf after putting their gloves and bats away for the winter.
Derek Falvey
The Minnesota Twins new Superman PBO is going to be Derek Falvey who will report to Minnesota as soon as The Indians beat the Cubbies in the 2016 World Series which could be as early as Tuesday night or the next day if they need game seven. There are probably going to be a lot of changes in the Twins front office prior to the MLB Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Maryland on December 4-6. The current rumor is that the Twins new GM will be Thad Levine for the Texas Ranger organization. After that hire who knows whats next but the Twins field staff should not get too comfortable or buy any green banana’s.
The Minnesota Twins went heavy on the tricks versus treats in 2016. The Twins treated their fans to only 59 wins this season while playing nasty tricks on their fans on 103 occasions. Some of the bad plays that Twins players made this season surely must have been on purpose by bad actors because major league players shouldn’t play that bad.
Who knows what the Minnesota Twins have in store for 2017 and beyond but we can only hope to see more treats and fewer tricks. I was lucky enough to get in touch with Jim Pohlad recently to discuss the current state of the Minnesota Twins organization and here is our conversation.
Well there you have it, your Halloween message from the Minnesota Twins.
When Target Field opened in 2010, Minnesota Twins fans were hungry for out-door baseball after having spent the previous 28 seasons watching the Twins play their home games indoors at the H.H.H. Metrodome and over 3.2 million fans poured through the Target Field turnstiles to watch the playoff bound Twins play ball. The 2010 AL Central champs were swept by the New York Yankees 3 games to zip in the ALDS but it turns out that was the least of the Twins problems.
The end is quickly approaching to what may be the Minnesota Twins worst season in history. The team fired GM Terry Ryan back in July and has been looking to revamp the front office ever since. The recent chatter coming out of the organization is that the team hopes to have a head of Baseball Operations hired by the end of September while at the same time stories have come out that a number of people who the ballclub was interested in hiring have no interest in coming to Minnesota. Owner Jim Pohlad did say back in July when Ryan was let go that manager Paul Molitor would be back in 2017 for his third and final year of his contract.
Paul Molitor
If I am Paul Molitor, why would I come back in 2017? What manager worth his salt manages in his final year of a three-year deal? What kind of message does that send to the players not to mention the fans? Why come back and work for a GM or Head of Baseball Ops who didn’t hire him? An extension looks extremely unlikely after a season of 100 or so losses while working for someone who did not hire him in the first place. The easiest way out for everyone is for Paul Molitor to resign after the season ends and for the new Head of Baseball Ops to hire his own field staff.
The sun still rose in the east this morning just as it always has but the difference is that Terry Ryan is no longer the Twins GM. Lots of Twins fans are happy that Ryan is gone and many are sad and disappointed. I am never happy to see someone lose their job, especially a job they love.
But life moves on, and almost 48 hours after the announcement I think I would like to jot down some thoughts and questions that come to mind.
Owner Jim Pohlad
My over-riding thought about the situation is that I now have a different opinion of owner Jim Pohlad. I had originally thought that he was a hands off owner and that he would let his brain-trust run the Minnesota Twins organization. Now it appears to me that is not the case, in true Pohlad fashion he is taking charge and showing everyone that he who holds the gold makes the rules. There is nothing wrong with that, just don’t try to blow smoke up my skirt saying that you let the experts run the show. What I don’t understand about this announcement is why Pohlad would tell Ryan that his contract would not be renewed after the season ended? Why tell your GM in June that his services are no longer required but that he can run the team for the rest of the season if he wishes to do so? I guess that the team just did not want to announce a “firing”, they would have preferred simply not renewing his contract. Another thing, why would Pohlad say that the only stipulation for a new GM is that Paul Molitor will manage in 2017? Only Jim Pohlad and Dave St. Peter know for sure.
