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
The Minnesota Twins beat the Hank Bauer managed Baltimore Orioles 3-2 at Memorial Stadium and post win number 100 for the only time in franchise history in a 2 hour and 7 minute game. The Twins trailed 2 to 1 going into the 8th inning but Bob Allison hits a two run home run in the top of the eighth inning and the Twins are up 3-2. The Orioles however; were not going to go down without a fight, they load the bases with no one out against Twins starter Mudcat Grant on a walk, a single and a Frank Quilici error and Twins manager Sam Mele brings in Jim Merritt who induces pinch-hitter Bob Johnson to hit into a RF-C double play. Mele then pulls Merritt and brings in 37 year-old reliever Johnny Klippstein to face pinch-hitter Norm Siebern. Klippstein gets Siebern to fly out to center field to earn the save and the Twins put victory 100 into the books.
The Twins go on to win 102 games in 1965, the most in franchise history. The most games that the Washington Senators ever won was 99 in 1933 when they finished first but lost the World Series 4 games to 1 to the New York Giants.
September 26, 1965 – The Minnesota Twins beat the Washington Senators 2-1 at D.C. Stadium and clinch their first American League pennant with their 99th victory of the season. It is a bit ironic that the Twins win the pennant in Washington since they themselves were the Washington Senators before moving to Minnesota after the 1960 season.
Twins pitcher Jim Kaat pitched a complete game and struck out 10 while allowing one run (0 earned) on eight hits to earn his 17th win of the season. The Twins scored their two runs on a passed ball and a Sac fly. Senators pitcher Pete Richert also pitched a complete game allowing only three hits but end up the hard luck loser for the Gil Hodges managed Senators. Box score.
Former Twins infielder and baseball lifer Pete Mackanin has been named as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies for 2016 and a team option for 2017. Mackanin served as the Phillies interim manager since June and has also been an interim manager for the Pirates and the Reds but this will be his first full-time gig as a big league skipper.
“The Phillies are pleased that Pete has accepted the position of manager for the 2016 season,” team president (and former Twins GM) Andy MacPhail said in a statement. “We believe that Pete is the best fit for the role. Since assuming the interim manager position in June, Pete has developed an excellent rapport with our players and has also connected well with the media and our fans. Equally as important is his eagerness to take on the challenge of rebuilding the team and further developing our players. We look forward to his contributions.”
Mackanin was a fourth round selection by the Washington Senators in 1969 and played in 548 games in the majors from 1973 to 1981 with the Rangers, Expos, Phillies and Twins. The Twins acquired Mackanin from the Phillies on December 7, 1979 for pitcher Paul Thormodsgard. Mackanin played in 185 games in a Twins uniform hitting .252 before leaving the team as a free agent after the 1981 season. Mackanin did not play in the majors again after leaving Minnesota. Mackanin’s tie to Minnesota Twins history is that he hit the last Twins home run in Met Stadium and also scored the last Twins run there.
Dozier: first Twins middle infielder with 25-HR season
Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier slammed his 25th home run of the season in the Twins’ 4-1 victory over the Indians, becoming the first major-league second baseman to reach that total this season. He’s also the first Twins player at any position to hit 25 homers in any of the last three seasons, the last being Josh Willingham, who hit 35 in 2012. And, for a big finish, Dozier is the first middle infielder ever to hit 25 home runs for the Twins franchise since it began back in 1901 in Washington. Source: ELIAS
Phil Hughes tossed seven scoreless innings against his former team as the Twins knocked out four home runs and took a 10-1 decision from the Yankees. Hughes emphatically ended his streak of having allowed at least one home run in each of his last eight appearances, the longest such streak in the majors this season.
It was Minnesota’s largest margin of victory over the Yankees in nearly 24 years; the Twins last beat the Yankees by a margin of at least nine runs on July 31, 1991, when they did it with a 12-3 win at old Yankee Stadium that also included four Minnesota homers. New York avoided a shutout by scoring a run in the ninth – a shutout that would have been only the second double-digit shutout loss ever to the Twins or to their ancestors, the Washington Senators. That’s right. These teams have been playing each other for 113 years, but the only double-digit shutout loss for the Yankees came on Sept. 7, 1928, when the Senators’ Bump Hadley three-hit the Yanks, 11-0. (Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig accounted for all three Yankees hits.) Source: ELIAS
Dozier, Twins shock Tigers with ninth-inning rally
Brian Dozier capped a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the ninth inning with a three-run homer against Tigers closer Joakim Soria to give the Twins an 8-6 walk-off victory. The win marks the first time since May 27, 1997 that Minnesota walked off with a win after trailing by at least five runs entering the bottom of the ninth inning – the Twins erased a five-run deficit in the ninth inning against the Mariners in that comeback victory. For the Tigers, it marks just the second time in the last 65 years that they lost a game in which they led by at least five runs in the ninth inning or later. On August 29, 1986, the Angels plated eight runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch a 13-12 win over Detroit, capped by a walk-off grand slam by Dick Schofield.
Roy Sievers – 1954 Topps
Dozier, who also launched a walk-off home run on July 6 against the Orioles to open the Twins’ home-stand, is the second player in franchise history to record multiple walk-off homers in a single home-stand. Roy Sievers achieved that feat for the Washington Senators in the 1958 campaign, having hit game-ending homers against the Indians on July 16 and the White Sox on July 20.
6/22/1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.
6/22/1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.
Twins overcome early deficit for late win at Fenway
The Twins, who trailed 4-0 early, scored four runs off Koji Uehara in the ninth inning to gain an 8-4 victory at Boston yesterday and split the four game series. It was the first time in Uehara’s 314 major-league appearances that he allowed even one run and failed to retire a batter.
This was Minnesota’s 825th game at Fenway Park, including 523 as the Washington Senators from 1912 to 1960. It was only the second of those games in which the Senators or Twins won by at least four runs after the Red Sox had taken a lead of four or more runs. The first was in 2003 and, for what it’s worth, Minnesota faced knuckleballers in both games: Tim Wakefield 12 years ago and Steven Wright yesterday. Source: ELIAS
4/23/1961 – The Twins play their first 1-0 game in history and come up winners at Met Stadium when Jack Kralick pitches a complete game 4 hit shutout of the Washington Senators. Kralick also knocks in the Twins lone run of the game with a fifth inning single. Box score
4/23/1980 – Angels pitcher Bruce Kison settles for a one-hitter when Minnesota’s Ken Landreaux rips a double with one out in the 9th inning of California’s 17-0 romp. For Landreaux, the hit marks the beginning of a 31-game hitting streak. Box score
4/23/1982 – The Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 12-4 at the Kingdome. Twins pitcher Roger Erickson recovers after a rough first inning where he gives up 3 runs on 5 hits and proceeds to pitch a complete game. Erickson strikes out no one and gives up 13 hits and walks two more in this unusual game. It marks the only time that Erickson pitched a complete game with no strikeouts. Twins hitters were no slouches themselves as they had 18 hits and drew 6 walks. Ron Washington had 4 hits and Bobby Mitchell and Gary Ward had 3 hits apiece.
Roger Erickson
Box score . See the table below showing all Twins pitchers that have pitched a complete game with zero strikeouts.
4/23/2011 – The Twins beat the visiting Cleveland Indians 10-3 at Target Field and in the process score more than 5 runs in a game for the first time in 2011. The Twins have not scored more than five runs in any game this season (19 games), according to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is the longest such streak to start a season in Twins history, and the longest streak in franchise history (the 1909 Washington Senators failed to score more than five runs in their first 18 games).The Twins were the only team in Major League Baseball that hasn’t scored six-or-more runs in a game in 2011. Box score
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Twins pitchers that have pitched a complete game with zero KO’s
It is mid February, TwinsFest is behind us and spring training is just around the corner. Target Field is still snow covered and the temperatures still don’t allow shorts to be worn outside but baseball fans are getting that itch, the itch to see some baseball. Since Minnesota fans won’t be able to see their home town nine play ball at Target Field until April some fans have already made their plans to travel to the Twins spring training home in Ft. Myers, Florida. Make no mistake, spring training is not far away, every day the numbers of players at the CenturyLink Sports Complex increases and Twins fans are attracted to Hammond Stadium like moths are to a flame. Some would argue with the same results.
Current Minnesota Twins players and future Twins players have it pretty good in spring training now days, but that has not always been the case. Back in 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando, Florida when the former Washington Senators players put on their Minnesota Twins uniforms for the first time life was a lot different. Most of the teams that held spring training in Florida had segregated living and eating facilities and many of them even traveled in separate vehicles when their teams played an away game.
The Washington Senators had moved out of the Langford Hotel in Winter Park, Florida and into the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 1) prior to spring training in 1959 under pressure from the Orlando Chamber of Commerce because the team was training in Orlando but staying in a Orlando suburb. When the Twins reported to their first spring training in 1961 the team was headquartered at the Cherry Plaza Hotel. However; the Cherry Plaza was segregated so the African-American players were housed at the Sadler Hotel on West Church Street which was an African-American business owned by Henry Sadler. It is ironic that Twins owner Calvin Griffith had helped to provide Sadler with the financing for his hotel.
In their first year of spring training as the Twins, there was little controversy over the segregated facilities in Orlando and the Cherry Plaza. Most baseball teams training in Florida were still segregating their players that year, although this would quickly change. According to various sources, by 1962 only five teams in Florida still had segregated spring training facilities, with the Twins being one of those teams.
In January of 1962, Twins players Earl Battey and Lenny Green were sitting at the head table of the “Hot Stove League” baseball banquet back in Minnesota while a derogatory and highly inappropriate story was told by “Rosy” Ryan, the former general manager of the Minneapolis Millers minor league club. Upon hearing the story, which referred to black players as “blackbirds,” Battey and Green promptly stormed out of the banquet. It is unknown if this was the straw that broke the camels back or just a coincidence but Earl Battey got in touch with than Minnesota Governor Elmer Andersen and updated him on the spring training segregation policies in Orlando.
Then the fur started to fly as then Minnesota Governor Elmer Andersen, Attorney General Walter Mondale and others started meeting with Twins owner Calvin Griffith, Road Secretary Howard Fox, and PR Director Herb Hoeft. Later, Minnesota Governor Karl Rolvaag got involved. The state also started communicating with Frank Flynn the General Manager of the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 2).
Downtowner Motel – Aren’t the color panels on this motel similar to colored panels on Met Stadium?
Heading into 1964 the Minnesota Twins were the only team in baseball that had not yet integrated its spring training facilities and the pressure was building as constant pressure on Griffith and Fox from civil rights organizations, the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office and, unceasingly, from the State Commission Against Discrimination (SCAD), caused the Twins to finally wake up. For the spring of 1964 they signed a contract with the Downtowner Motel in Orlando and abandoned the Cherry Plaza Hotel although Twins owner Calvin Griffith and his executives continued to stay at the Cherry Plaza Hotel. Segregated housing was finally over! The Twins even started paying the players meal money and allowing them to eat where ever they wished versus having the players always eat at the hotel and sign for the meal. According to Howard Fox, other teams have been providing meal money for years but the Twins approach has been to have the players sign for the meals so that the team could monitor if they were eating balanced meals.
Prior to the 1965 season the Cherry Plaza Hotel (part 3) became integrated and the Twins wasted no time moving back in and calling the Cherry Plaza Hotel as Twins headquarters once again.
There is a lot more detailed material to read about the Minnesota Twins and their early 1960’s segregation issues and you can check it out in some of these documents.
The Minnesota Twins beat the Hank Bauer managed Baltimore Orioles 3-2 at Memorial Stadium and post win number 100 for the only time in franchise history in a 2 hour and 7 minute game. The Twins trailed 2 to 1 going into the 8th inning but Bob Allison hits a two run home run in the top of the eighth inning and the Twins are up 3-2. The Orioles however; were not going to go down without a fight, they load the bases with no one out against Twins starter Mudcat Grant on a walk, a single and a Frank Quilici error and Twins manager Sam Mele brings in Jim Merritt who induces pinch-hitter Bob Johnson to hit into a RF-C double play. Mele then pulls Merritt and brings in 37 year-old reliever Johnny Klippstein to face pinch-hitter Norm Siebern. Klippstein gets Siebern to fly out to center field to earn the save and the Twins put victory 100 into the books.
