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
Leonard Charles Green (born January 6, 1933, in Detroit) was the middle of three sons born to Eugene and Anna Green and passed away on his 86th birthday on January 6, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.
After graduating from Pershing High School, Lenny Green was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns late in 1952 to play for York of the Class B Inter-State League. But before he ever put on a York uniform or a Browns uniform for that matter the Army called and he spent 1953-1954 in the service of his country during the Korean War. Green was stationed stateside and ended up playing on a baseball team with and against players like Willie Mays, Don Newcombe, Billy Martin and Zach Monroe. After being discharged from the Army as a corporal, Green was free to resume his pro baseball career but thing had changed and Green experienced his first MLB franchise shift as the Browns became the Baltimore Orioles.
Between 1961-2017 there have been 58 players that have played at least 10 games at first base for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played first base in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and of course Joe Mauer who started playing first base later in their careers. Kent Hrbek is the Twins all-time leaders in games at first base with 1,609.
Kent Hrbek – Hrbek’s work in the field was as good as his work with a bat.
Jerry Kindall played major league baseball from 1956 through 1965 but it was not his baseball playing or coaching skills that he is most remembered for, it was his compassion for everyone off the field that brings back the best Jerry Kindall memories.
Gerald Donald Kindall was born in St. Paul Minnesota on May 27, 1935 and passed away in Tucson, Arizona on Christmas Eve 2017 after suffering a stroke on December 21st.
Kindall signed a $50,000 bonus contract with the Chicago Cubs soon after he led the Minnesota Gophers to the 1956 national championship. He did so, in part, because his parents needed the money. His stepmother, Isabel, incapacitated by multiple sclerosis, had been confined to a wheelchair since Jerry was 12. His father, Harold, drove a truck from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then worked a shift at the railroad five nights a week.
Kindall, known as “Slim” played for the Cubs from 1956 through 1961 and then was traded to the Cleveland Indians. On June 11, 1964 he was part of a three-team trade and ended up in Minnesota along with Frank Kostro from the LA Angels. The Angels sent Billy Moran to the Indians and the Twins traded Lenny Green and Vic Power to the Angels.
Jerry Kindall played 62 games for the Twins in 1964 and 125 games for the AL pennant winning Twins in 1965. Kindall played mainly as a second baseman but also filled in at third and at shortstop. Kindall hit under. 200 both seasons but it wasn’t his bat that the Twins liked, it was his glove and passion. The Minnesota Twins released Kindall in April 1966 and Kindall walked away from the game of baseball as an active player and moved to the coaching side where he excelled and managed Arizona to three National championships.
Kindall was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1991, the University of Minnesota Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995, and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
I was lucky enough to interview Jerry Kindall in January 2011 and he spent over an hour on the phone with me. You can listen to his interview here.
Kindall is survived by his wife, Diane, and stepdaughter, Elise Sargent, as well as four children — Betsy, Doug, Bruce and Martha — from his first marriage to the late Georgia Kindall.
RIP Jerry Kindall and thank you for all the great memories.
We all know about the Minnesota Twins players who have been enshrined in the MLB Hall of Fame and it is a great and rare honor to get voted in. Over the years a number of outstanding and I think “hall worthy” Minnesota Twins players have received votes but never enough to get that call they have waited for, I would put players like Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat and Jack Morris in that category.
OlivaKaatMorris
Here is a list of other one-time Twins players who received at least one vote in HOF balloting through 2017 voting, some deserved it and others I have to wonder what the voter was thinking.
From the time the Twins started play in 1961 through yesterday June 14 (2016) the Minnesota Twins have hit 7,462 home runs, 3,746 have been hit on the road and 3,716 have been hit at home. The Twins hit 1,872 home runs at the Metrodome, 1,424 at Met Stadium and 420 at Target Field. The most home runs the Twins have hit on the road have been at the Angels home park where they have hit 257.
Of the Twins 7,462 round-trippers only 50 of them have been inside-the-park home runs. Inside-the-park home runs are relatively rare so I am a bit surprised that when Eduardo Nunez hit the latest one back on June 2 that no one mentioned that it was number 50 in Minnesota Twins history. How rare are they? Only .0067% of Twins home runs are of the inside-the-park variety. So what Twins have hit IPHR’s? We have put together a complete list here for you with the help of Baseball-Reference.
Twins inside-the-park home runs from 1961-June 2, 2016
The other day I was having lunch and reading my newest Memories and Dreams magazine put out by the Hall of Fame. There are always good stories in this magazine and in this edition there was a short one page article by Marty Appel called A Second Look at Hall of Famer Nellie Fox.
I am old enough to have seen Nellie play second base for the Chicago White Sox in early 60’s although by then he was on the down-hill side of his amazing career that started back in 1951. Not only was the man a twelve time all-star but he was the American League MVP in 1959.
Fox was one tough dude to strike out, in over 10,000 plate appearances he struck out just 216 times, that is incredible. He once had a record 98 straight games without being retired on strikes.
That got me to thinking about the Twins and how often they strike out. Now days players strike out more frequently then they once did and baseball and teams just kind of wink and say “yes, he strikes out but look at all those home runs”. If Nellie went 98 games with striking out what is the Twins longest streak of games without striking out.
Are you kidding me, Earl Battey with a 35 game streak of no strike outs during the 1965 pennant race? Wowsers, that is amazing. I sure don’t remember Battey having such a good eye at the plate but when you look at his numbers you will find out he never struck out more than 75 times in a season. Brain Harper is on the list twice, with a 28 game streak and a 20 game streak. I used to love watching Harper bat, he always seemed to make contact and what I remember most about him was how he followed each and every pitch all the way to the catchers glove.
You will notice that the most recent Twins streak of at least 20 games with out striking out goes back to 1996 when Chip Hale had a 23 gamer, today Chip Hale manages the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Aoki as a KC Royal in 2014
Who had the longest streak of this kind in 2015 you ask? That would be Nori Aoki from the San Francisco Giants with a 22 game streak from June 6 to August 5 and that was after he had a 20 game streak from May 5 to May 31. He must have had something in his eye because he struck out once a game on June 1, 2 and 3. That means from May 9 to August 5, Aoki had 187 plate appearances and struck out 3 times. Nice! Aoki just signed to play with Seattle a week or so ago.
How about the Minnesota Twins in 2015? The most games streak with out a strikeout was 10 by catcher Kurt Suzuki.
To me one of the oddest things about the above list is that catchers make up the top three streaks and Jose Morales is a bit further down the list and he played a handful of games behind the plate too. Now in 2015 Suzuki has the longest streak. Why is that?
Is it because catchers just naturally have a better eye for the strike zone? I doubt it. Do catchers learn as the game goes along how the umpire is calling balls and strikes and they can put that information to use? Are catchers skillful enough to do that? Or is it that maybe umpires have a certain degree of empathy for catchers and build friendships with them over time that causes them subconsciously not to call strikes on them as often? You gotta wonder… or is it just a quirk that three Twins catchers are on top of this list?
Did you stop by and check out our Today in Twins History page? October 3 has been an interesting day in Minnesota Twins lore for sure. Read about Vic Power, the 1970 ALCS, the strange finish to the 1976 AL batting race, the Twins signing a letter of intent to move to North Carolina, how the Twins ended the 1999 season with a tie game and more. Even though the Twins season is done, you can still read about their exploits, good and bad from the past.
6/11/1964 – The LA Angels trade outfielder Frank Kostro to the Twins for 1B Vic Power and outfielder Lenny Green. Certainly not one of the better trades in Twins history.
6/11/1965 – The Twins sweep the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium by a 5-4 score in both games with the first game going 10 innings and the second game going 12 innings. Tiger reliever Terry Fox takes the loss in both games. Boxscore: Game 1, Game 2
6/11/1972– Jim Kaat hits a home run off Cleveland pitcher Vince Colbert in a Twins 5-3 victory at Cleveland Stadium. This now stands as the last home run that has been hit by a Twins pitcher. Boxscore
6/11/1986– The Twins lose to the Texas Rangers 6-2 in sixteen innings at the Metrodome. The game is tied 2-2 after 9 innings and both starters, Charlie Hough for the Rangers and Allan Anderson for the Twins are still in the game. Anderson ends up going 10 and Hough keeps throwing that knuckler of his for 13 innings. The Rangers score 4 in the top of the 16th inning off Roy Lee Jackson for the win. Boxscore
6/11/2010 – Francisco Liriano ties a team record when he strikes out 7 consecutive Atlanta Braves batters in a 2-1 win at Target Field. Liriano used his slider to strike out Martin Prado and Jason Heyward to end the third inning. He struck out Chipper Jones on a slider, Troy Glaus on a change-up and Brian McCann on a slider to get through the fourth. Liriano opened the fifth by striking out Yunel Escobar on a slider and Omar Infante with a change-up. Jim Merritt also accomplished this feat on July 21, 1966 against the Washington Senators.
6/11/2011 – One of only three Cy Young Award winners (1970) in Twins history, right-hander Jim Perry was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame today. Jim, 75, is the older brother of 72-year-old Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry. Between the two of them, the Perry brothers won 529 games and three Cy Young Awards, as Gaylord won the honor in 1972 with the Indians and in ’78 with the Padres. The Perry brothers are the second-winningest brother combination in baseball history behind Joe Niekro and Phil Niekro, who had 539 victories between them.
