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
On May 15, 1918 the Washington Senators’ pitcher Walter “Big Train” Johnson pitched a Major League Baseball record 18-inning complete game shutout, to defeat Claude “Lefty” T. Williams and the Chicago White Sox 1-0. The fans at Griffith Stadium were treated to one of the greatest pitching duels in baseball history. Check out the original posting at D.C. Baseball History and take note of the amazing time that it took to play this game.
The Twins announced that pitcher Eddie Guardado and former executive Tom Mee have been selected to be inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame at Target Field on June 16 prior to the Twins vs Detroit Tigers game. Guardado and Mee will become
the 25th and 26th members of the Twins Hall of Fame.
The January 25th Minnesota Twins press release stated that “Guardado was elected by a 56-member committee consisting of local and national media, club officials, fans and past elected members, using rules similar to those necessary for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 56-member committee annually considers “player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame. Guardado was the top vote getter, followed by Chuck Knoblauch, Cesar Tovar and Dan Gladden. Mee was elected through the Veterans Committee ballot, which consists of 18 voters; voting participants include all living Twins Hall of Famers, current Twins President and General Manger and two Minnesota Baseball historians. The 18-member committee votes every other year on “non-player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame”.
The 42-year old Guardado was born in Stockton, California and was the Twins 21st round selection in the 1990 June amateur draft but he did not sign with the team until May 23, 1991. Guardado started his pro career with Elizabethton and pitched in Kenosha (A), Visalia (A+), and Nashville (AA) before the Twins called and said they needed his help in the big leagues.
On June 13, 1993 Eddie made his major league debut at the Metrodome as the Twins starter against the Oakland A’s but it was not a propitious beginning as Eddie gave up a home run to Terry Steinbach who was batting second in the A’s batting order in the top of the first inning. The Twins came back with four of their own in the bottom of the inning and led 4-1 after one inning. Guardado left with a 4-3 lead after pitching 3.1 innings and giving up 5 hits, 3 walks while striking out 3 but the Twins relievers could not hold the lead and the Twins lost 7-6. Guardado pitched in 19 games starting 16 of them in 1993 but as time went along it became apparent that Eddie’s true calling would be in the bullpen. “Everyday Eddie” soon became a bullpen fixture and pitched for the Twins from 1993-2003 and returned for 9 games in 2008. Guardado became the Twins closer in 2001 and saved a league leading 45 games in 2002 and had 41 saves in 2003 and was selected to the All-Star team both years. Guardado became a free agent after the 2003 season and signed with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners traded Guardado to the Cincinnati Reds in June of 2006 and “Every Day” Eddie pitched there for two season before playing for the Texas Rangers and the Twins again in 2008 and then finishing his active big league career as a Ranger once again in 2009. During his stay in Minnesota Guardado had a 37-48 record with 116 saves and is the Twins all-time pitching leader in games appeared with 648 throughout his career, recording at least 60 appearances in eight different seasons. Additionally, he is the Twins all-time leader in innings pitched (579.0) as a reliever and stands third on the Twins all-time saves list with 116.
St. Paul native Tom Mee is widely regarded as the Minnesota Twins first employee and he served in a variety of roles in the Twins organization including radio/TV broadcaster, public address announcer but was best known for serving as Director of Media Relations for 30 years. After retiring in 1991, Mee went on to be the teams official scorer and he performed those duties until he left that post in 2007.
Mee received the Robert O. Fischel award for Public Relations excellence in 1988 and in 2007 he became the second ever recipient of the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award. The Tom Mee Library, which is located in the Baseball Communications office at Target Field, is named in his honor
A number of fans seemed surprised and disappointed at Eddie Guardado’s selection to the Twins Hall of Fame stating that the bar has been lowered but if they took the time to look at what he accomplished in a Twins uniform they would see that he is fully deserving of the honor that the Twins will bestow on him this summer. Although Guardado was not blessed with the greatest physical abilities he proved over the years that he was one of the Twins best.
The Twins and Terry Ryan have put in a lot of time this off-season to try to round up some pitchers that they can put in the starting rotation so that manager Gardenhire can hopefully call on each of them to start 30-35 games each. That will be no easy task as last season the team leader in pitching starts was Scott Diamond with 27 and he didn’t even join the starting rotation until May 8th.
If you look back through franchise history you will find that the great Hall of Fame pitcher Walter (The Big Train) Johnson pitched for the Wasinhton Senators for 21 seasons from 1907-1927 and he started 666 games, that is an average of 31.71 starts each year for 21 years. He set the the franchise games started in a season record with 42 in 1910. Twins lefty Jim Kaat equalled that mark of 42 starts in the Twins 1965 AL Championship season and followed that up with 41 starts in 1966 making him the only pitcher in franchise history to have back-to-back 40+ starts seasons.
I thought it would be interesting to review the Gardenhire era from 2002 through 2012 to see how many pitchers he has had that have started 30 or more games in a season for the Twins.
2002 – Rick Reed and Kyle Lohse
2003 – Brad Radke, Kyle Lohse, Kenny Rogers, Joe Mays (and Rick Reed chipped in 27 starts)
2004 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Brad Radke, and Kyle Lohse
2005 – Johan Santana and Brad Radke
2006 – Johan Santana and Carlos Silva
2007 – Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, and Boof Bonser
2008 – Nick Blackburn
2009 – Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker
2010 – Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano
2011 – Carl Pavano
2012 – None, Scott Diamond led the pack with 27
In this 11 year time frame the Twins have had 12 different pitchers provide 30 or more starts in a single season and only three of them were actually drafted by the Twins, the rest were acquired in another manner. Radke was an 8th round pick in 1991, Blackburn was a 29th round pick in 2001, and Scott Baker was a 2nd round pick in 2003.
Chart showing numbers of pitchers with 30 or more starts
(Central Division champs marked with an *)| YEAR | Twins | Tigers | Indians | WSox | Royals | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 2* | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2003 | 4* | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| 2004 | 4* | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| 2005 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4* | 2 | 16 |
| 2006 | 2* | 4 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 14 |
| 2007 | 3 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 1 | 13 |
| 2008 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4* | 3 | 11 |
| 2009 | 2* | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| 2010 | 2* | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2011 | 1 | 4* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| 2012 | 0 | 3* | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Totals | 23 | 31 | 22 | 35 | 17 | 128 |
How big a deal is it to get 30 or more starts out of your starting pitchers? I will let you be the judge of that but the chart seems to indicate that the numbers of pitchers you have starting on a consistent basis will determine where you finish in the standings. The Twins seem to buck the trend a bit as they are the only team to win the Central Division title with fewer than 3 starters taking the mound 30 or more times and they did it 3 times with just 2 starters taking the mound 30 or more times.
All this research made me curious as to who the Twins pitchers were over the years with the most starts in a Minnesota Twins uniform and here is what I dug up. There have only been 14 Twins pitchers that have toed the pitching rubber in the first inning in a Twins uniform 150 or more times. Some of these pitchers may have started a number of games in different uniforms including the Washington Senators prior to becoming the Twins but I am only looking for starts while wearing “Minnesota” on their chest. Of these 14 pitchers, only six (Blyleven, Viola, Goltz, Baker, Erickson, and Boswell) were actually drafted by the Minnesota Twins. The only pitcher on the list to spend his entire career as a Minnesota Twin? Brad Radke.
| Pitcher | # of starts | Years Pitched | Avg. # of starts per season | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jim Kaat | 422 | 1961-1973 | 32.46 |
| 2. | Brad Radke | 377 | 1995-2006 | 31.42 |
| 3. | Bert Blyleven | 345 | 1970-1976 & 1985-1988 | 31.36 |
| 4. | Frank Viola | 259 | 1982-1989 | 32.38 |
| 5. | Jim Perry | 249 | 1963-1972 | 24.90 |
| 6. | Dave Goltz | 215 | 1972-1979 | 26.88 |
| 7. | Kevin Tapani | 180 | 1989-1995 | 25.71 |
| 8. | Camilo Pascual | 179 | 1961-1966 | 29.83 |
| 9. | Johan Santana | 175 | 2000-2007 | 21.88 |
| 10. | Eric Milton | 165 | 1998-2003 | 27.50 |
| 11. | Scot Baker | 159 | 2005-2011 | 22.71 |
| 12. | Scott Erickson | 153 | 1990-1995 | 25.50 |
| 13. | Kyle Lohse | 152 | 2001-2006 | 25.33 |
| 14. | Dave Boswell | 150 | 1964-1970 | 21.43 |
If you are a long time baseball fan and enjoy baseball history you should take a few minutes and check out fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance member Graham Womack’s of Baseball: Past and Present story called The BPP All-Time Dream Project. According to Graham, “Over the past two months, I conducted a project having people vote on nine-player all-time dream teams. The idea was for voters to pick a team to win a one-off, sandlot game, the ultimate cosmic playoff. This wasn’t about a 25-man roster or designated hitters or relievers, just finding nine players to win a game. I received more than 600 votes in all from a mix of baseball figures, fellow writers, and others. To help with the presentation and do justice to the subject matter, I recruited a number of my favorite baseball writers and hired an illustrator, Sarah Wiener to create trading cards for each player. Like the cards? A complimentary set can be had for the first 100 people who donate $25 to 826 Valencia, a non-profit that teaches journalism to kids. We’re looking to raise $3,000 and, as of press time, we’re about halfway there. If everyone who reads this post donates even a dollar, we’ll shatter the goal. To donate, go here.”
Can you imagine what it would be like to watch this team play? No Minnesota Twins made the team but Washington Senators Walter Johnson is the teams starting pitcher. Some Twins that did receive votes are Joe Mauer, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Graig Nettles, and Dave Winfield. Check out the story, you won’t be sorry.
April 10, 2011 – That Brad Radke started out the 2005 season by walking just one of the first 247 hitters who stepped into the batters box? Maybe the 2011 Twins pitching staff should watch some of Brad Radke’s old video’s.
That the Twins moved in left field at Met Stadium from 346 feet to 330 feet prior to the 1975 season and Twins players started calling it Borgie’s Porch. Twins Catcher Glenn Borgmann was often accused by other Twins players of having “warning track power” and he was convinced that moving the wall in would help his power numbers. Unfortunately that was not the case, the year before, Glenn had hit three home runs and in 1975 he hit just two. As a matter of fact, Borgmann never hit more than three home runs in any of his nine big league seasons.
The great HOF Walter “Big Train” Johnson’s final major-league appearance came as a pinch hitter at Yankee Stadium I in the same game in which the Babe Ruth hit his then-record 60th home run on September 30, 1927. The New York Yankkes beat the Washington Senators that day by a 4-2 score.
67 years passed between World Series Game Sevens that went into extra innings. How odd that the same franchise produced victories in both; the 1924 Washington Senators when they beat the New York Giants and the 1991 Minnesota Twins that beat the Atlanta Braves.
Minnesota Twins
| Names | Seasons | Games started | Complete games |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Kaat | 13 | 422 | 133 |
| Brad Radke | 12 | 377 | 37 |
| Bert Blyleven | 11 | 345 | 141 |
| Frank Viola | 8 | 259 | 54 |
| Jim Perry | 10 | 249 | 61 |
| Dave Goltz | 8 | 215 | 80 |
| Kevin Tapani | 7 | 180 | 19 |
| Camilo Pascual | 6 | 179 | 70 |
| Johan Santana | 8 | 175 | 6 |
| Eric Milton | 6 | 165 | 10 |
Washington Senators
| Name | Seasons | Games started | Complete games |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walter Johnson (HOF) | 21 | 666 | 531 |
| Dutch Leonard | 9 | 251 | 130 |
| Sid Hudson | 10 | 239 | 112 |
| Casey Patten | 8 | 237 | 206 |
| Camilo Pascual | 7 | 225 | 62 |
| Tom Zachary | 9 | 210 | 93 |
| Tom Hughes | 9 | 205 | 139 |
| Jim Shaw | 9 | 194 | 96 |
| Bob Groom | 5 | 169 | 104 |
| Early Wynn (HOF) | 8 | 168 | 92 |
February 22, 2010 – With Twins pitchers and catchers working out for the first time today, it is a good time to take a look at the top control pitchers in franchise history. The Twins always preach to their pitchers that walks will kill. If you want to pitch for the Minnesota Twins you need to get your pitches over the plate and force the hitter to put the ball in play. This strategy has worked for the Twins in the past and I don’t see it changing in the future. So let’s take a look and see what Twins pitchers gave up the fewest walks per inning pitched and at the same time compare how Washington Senators pitchers in the past compared to their modern day counterparts.
Minnesota Twins
| Rank | Pitcher | BB/9 | Innings pitched |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlos Silva | 1.303 | 773 |
| 2 | Brad Radke | 1.634 | 2,451 |
| 3 | Jim Merritt | 1.769 | 686 |
| 4 | Jim “Mudcat” Grant | 1.879 | 780 |
| 5 | Kevin Tapani | 1.959 | 1,171 |
| 6 | Scott Baker | 2.054 | 653 |
| 7 | John Butcher | 2.148 | 502 |
| 8 | Jim Kaat | 2.177 | 3,014 |
| 9 | Dean Chance | 2.250 | 664 |
| 10 | Allan Anderson | 2.320 | 818 |
Washington Senators
| Rank | Pitcher | BB/9 | Innings pitched |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Al Orth | 1.555 | 677 |
| 2 | Watty Lee | 1.794 | 526 |
| 3 | Dutch Leonard | 1.910 | 1,899 |
| 4 | Waletr Johnson | 2.074 | 5,914 |
| 5 | Garland Braxton | 2.115 | 583 |
| 6 | Doc Ayers | 2.301 | 1,122 |
| 7 | George Mogridge | 2.417 | 1,016 |
| 8 | Casey Patten | 2.430 | 2,059 |
| 9 | Charlie Smith | 2,240 | 822 |
| 10 | Roger Wolff | 2,442 | 527 |
December 16, 2009 – A successful team needs to have a top notch closer, a pitcher that can come in and slam the door on the opposition game after game. In the past, closers were expected to pitch more than one inning but in today’s game most closers pitch only in the ninth inning. The Twins have been blessed over the years with some very good closers and a strong case could be made that their current closer Joe Nathan, is the best of the bunch. Assuming nothing bad happens to Nathan, he should be expected to break the Twins all time saves record now held by Rick Aguilera early in 2010.
Update – Turns out that something did happen and Joe Nathan had TJ surgery and missed all of 2010 and came back in 2011 to take over the Twins career saves lead before leaving as a free agent after the 2011 season. Table has been updated to show the updated numbers.
Just as an interesting tidbit, In looking at the Twins top ten closers in terms of saves, only two were left-handed, the same hold true for the Washington Senators/Nationals who also had only two southpaws in their top 11 save leaders.
Twins Saves Leaders
| Name | R/L | Years pitched | Saves | K/BB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Nathan | R | 2004-2011 | 260 | 4.19 |
| 2 | Rick Aguilera | R | 1989-1999 | 254 | 3.27 |
| 3 | Eddie Guardado | L | 1993-2003, 2008 | 116 | 2.26 |
| 4 | Ron Davis | R | 1982-1986 | 108 | 1.89 |
| 5 | Jeff Reardon | R | 1987-1989 | 104 | 3.36 |
| 6 | Al Worthington | R | 1964-1969 | 88 | 2.15 |
| 7 | Ron Perranoski | L | 1968-1971 | 76 | 1.27 |
| 8 | Mike Marshall | R | 1978-1980 | 54 | 1.55 |
| 9 | Bill Campbell | R | 1973-1976 | 51 | 1.76 |
| 10 | LaTroy Hawkins | R | 1995-2003 | 44 | 1.83 |
Senators Saves Leaders
| Name | R/L | Years pitched | Saves | K/BB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firpo Marberry | R | 1923-1932, 1936 | 96 | n/a |
| 2 | Walter Johnson | R | 1907-1927 | 34 | n/a |
| 3 | Tex Clevenger | R | 1957-1960 | 29 | 1.29 |
| 4 | Garland Braxton | L | 1927-1930 | 28 | n/a |
| 5 | Jack Russell | R | 1933-1936 | 26 | n/a |
| 6 | Dick Hyde | R | 1955-1960 | 23 | 1.04 |
| 7 | Tom Ferrick | R | 1947-1948, 1951-1952 | 22 | n/a |
| 8 | Mickey Harris | L | 1949-1952 | 19 | n/a |
| 9 | Allan Russell | R | 1923-1925 | 19 | n/a |
| 10 | Pete Appleton | R | 1936-1939, 1945 | 17 | n/a |
| 11 | Jim Shaw | R | 1913-1921 | 17 | n/a |
March 18, 2009 – I had received a book called “Damn Senators” as a Christmas gift but had not gotten around to reading this book until a couple of days ago. I was so intrigued with the book once I started reading it that I read it in two afternoons as I sat out by the pool here in Cape Coral, Florida enjoying the warm and sunny weather that only Florida can provide at this time of the year. The book was written back in about 2003 by Mark Gauvreau Judge who wrote the book about his Grandfather, Joe Judge who played first base for the Washington Senators between 1915 and 1938 before wrapping up his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox in 1939 and 1940. Joe was not a power hitter as we see in first basemen today but instead was a slick fielder that hit for a career average of .298 and stole 213 bases along the way.
Although the book was written about Joe Judge and his wonderful career, its primary focus is on the 1924 Washington Senators World Championship season, the one only time that the Washington Senators were the world champions of baseball. The team was then owned by Clark Griffith and the book has some very interesting stories about Griffith and how he worked and to build that championship team. The book goes at great length to detail the Hall of Fame career of the great Walter Johnson who many say to this day was the greatest pitcher that ever threw a baseball in the major leagues. It talks about how Johnson was a very low key modest individual but who was a lion at heart once he took the mound. The relationship between he and Ty Cobb is outlined and it talks about the friendship and respect between the two even though these two individuals could not have been any more different.
It is very interesting too how it came to pass that the Senators beat the New York Giants in that 1924 World Series when all hope appeared to be lost. I could tell you more but I don’t want to ruin it for those of you that will go out and read this book. If you want to learn a little more about the history about the Washington Senators who became our Minnesota Twins in 1961, you should either buy a copy of this book or check it out from your local library, it is a fun and informative book that you will enjoy.
August 28, 2008 – Walter Johnson was the only pitcher elected to the MLB Hall of Fame at its inception. Johnson won 20 or more games 12 times in his career and 30 or more games twice. He started 666 games in his career and completed 531 of them.
Roy Sievers hit 42 home runs in 1957 and was the only Washing Senator to ever win the American league home run title outright.
Senator third baseman Eddie Yost set an American league record by hitting 28 homeruns as a leadoff batter.
One time Twins owner Calvin Griffith served as the Senators batboy on their 1924 World Series Championship team. Calvin’s father Clark owned the team.
Senator’s catcher Morris “Moe” Berg became a renowned author and master spy for the US government. Berg, a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School was known as the “brainiest man in baseball”, spoke several languages and reportedly read at least 10 newspapers a day.
On May 11, 1897, Senators catcher Duke Farrell set a Major League Baseball record that has stood for more than 100 years by catching eight of nine opposing players who attempted to steal a base.