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
September 13, 2009 – Paul Robert Giel was born on September 29, 1932 in Winona, Minnesota. Giel attended the University of Minnesota where he was a star in both baseball and football. For the Gopher baseball team, he was a three-time all-American pitcher and still holds the school record with 243 strikeouts in his three seasons. Football however; may have been Giel’s best sport. As a single-wing tailback, he also played quarterback on offense, punted, returned kicks, and played in the defensive backfield. Giel was selected as the Big Ten’s MVP in 1952 and again in 1953. Giel was selected twice as a football All-American and after his senior year in 1953 the Minnesota Gophers captain finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Notre Dame QB Johnny Lattner. Giel was also selected as the UPI player of the year and AP back of the year as a senior. Many years later, Paul Giel was elected as a member of the National Football Foundation Football College Hall of Fame.
The Canadian Football League offered Giel $75,000 over three years, and the Chicago Bears held his National Football League rights. Seven or eight baseball teams, including all three in New York, the Giants, the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers all wanted him. Giel signed with the Giants for a $60,000 bonus, their highest ever at the time. Paul had a “live” fastball, a good slider and an ordinary curveball and needed minor league seasoning, but the rules at the time required such so-called bonus babies to spend at least their first two years in the major leagues. In his major league debut on July 10, 1954 at the Polo Grounds against the Pirates, Giel pitched the ninth inning with the Giants trailing 10-7 and he struck out all three batters that he faced. He played sparingly, appearing in only 40 games in his first two seasons. Giel served as an Army officer in 1956 and 1957 before returning to baseball and the Giants in 1958 that by this time had moved to San Francisco. The Giants waived Giel in 1959 and he was picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates where he pitched for 2 seasons before being sold to Minnesota in February of 1961.
Paul Giel became the first Minnesota native to appear in a Twins uniform when he came in to pitch in relief on April 15, 1961 against the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial stadium. The Twins were losing to the Orioles 6-0 when Giel was called to the mound in the top of the 5th inning. Paul pitched 3 innings that day giving up 3 hits (one was a two run home run to future HOF manager Dick Williams), 2 runs, both earned, issued a walk while striking out two Orioles.
Paul only pitched in 12 games for the Minnesota Twins before he was traded in a very unusual deal to the Kansas City Royals on June 1, 1961 in what is considered the Twins first ever trade. Giel’s career numbers with the Twins were not all that impressive, he only pitched 19.1 innings giving up 24 hits, 21 earned runs for an ERA of 9.78 while walking 17 and striking out 14. The unusual deal started on June 1, 1961 when the Minnesota Twins traded Paul Giel, Reno Bertoia, and a player to be named later to the Kansas City Athletics for outfielder Bill Tuttle and a player to be named later. He is where things get a little strange, on June 10, the Twins sent cash to Kansas City instead of a player to be named later, nothing special here yet, correct? Well, Kansas City still owed Minnesota a player to be named later and guess who that turned out to be, yup, it was Paul Giel. So in the end Giel was traded to the A’s but they shipped him back to the Twins as their player to be named later. In a manner of speaking, Giel was traded for himself after pitching in only one game for the A’s. Paul Giel never appeared in another major league game after being traded back to Minnesota.
After retiring from pro baseball, Giel served stints as a business manager for the Minnesota Vikings and sports director at WCCO radio. In 1972 Paul Giel became Athletic Director at the University of Minnesota. Giel served as the AD during some turbulent times at the U of M and in 1988 he was let go by the University of Minnesota after nearly three years of controversy that included rape allegations against basketball players visiting Madison, Wis., in 1986. Eventually the players were acquitted and many felt at that time and still feel today that Paul Giel was made the scapegoat and lost his job through no fault of his own. After he left the Gophers AD’s position, Giel spent 12 years as the U of M’s vice president of public affairs and chief fund raiser for the Minneapolis Heart Institution Foundation. Paul Giel was plagued by heart issues late in life and died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on May 22, 2002. It is fitting that a person of this caliber is credited as being the first Minnesota native to play for the Minnesota Twins.
April 7, 2009 – Wow, what a shock this morning when I woke up and heard that former WCCO radio icon Steve Cannon had passed away at the age of 81 after a short battle with cancer. I listened to the “Cannon Mess” for many years as I drove home to Wayzata from downtown Minneapolis after a long days work at Norwest/Wells Fargo. The show was unique every day as you listened to Steve banter between 3-6 with his sidekicks Morgan Mundane, Lash LaRue, and of course the wonderful Ma Linger. Now and then he would tell us about Da Niece and Da Nephew and their escapades. A great Twins and Vikings fan, I think Cannon started the term “Viqueens” and his sports prognostications with Morgan Mundane were legendary. The man was blessed with a golden radio voice, the best I have ever heard, and when you listened to his show it was as if you were sitting across the table and listening to a family member tells you a story. I remember one day someone had asked him why he never took any calls on his show and his response was simple and straight forward, “I have earned the right to run my show the way I want, if you want to talk on the radio, get your own show”. Cannon always did it his way and that is one of the things that really impressed me about Steve Cannon. Steve is gone now but my memories of Steve Cannon will be with me forever. I am sure that when Steve appeared at the pearly gates St. Peter just said, Welcome Steve, the microphone is over there, what time slot would you like? Rest in peace Steve as you have earned it. My condolences go out to the Cannon family.
The Star Tribune did a nice story on Cannon that you can read here.
February 2, 2009 – I arrived in the Ft. Myers area yesterday and will stay here for the next two months soaking up the sun, playing a little golf, doing some fishing, and hanging out at Hammond Stadium watching the Twins as they go through yet another spring training. It is always fun to see baseball again after a long and cold winter and I hope to get some good pictures and maybe provide a little of my insight on how the Twins are doing.
Like many others, I watched the Super Bowl on TV last night and although I was disappointed that the Cardinals did not win, I thought that it was the best Super Bowl game that I can remember. Did you catch that new Twins ad that debuted during the Super Bowl? I did not see it here in Florida since it was local ad but if you missed it, you can see it right here. After the ad is complete it shows some of the “out-takes” that did not make the final ad.
Several days ago, KSTP the Twins radio home and the Minnesota Twins announced that the KSTP will broadcast 25 Twins spring training games this season beginning with the February 25th Twins Grapefruit opener against the Red Sox. Some of the games supposedly will have a unique format with possible interviews with uniformed personnel and others may take calls from the listeners. It is nice to hear that Twins fans will be able to listen to the boys of summer as they prepare for their final season at the Metrodome.
As far as I am concerned, baseball and radio go together but I don’t think that KSTP is the radio station that should be broadcasting the Twins games this year or any year for that matter. WCCO did a great job for the Twins for so many years and I am still disgusted that the Twins left the “Good Neighbor”. Why do I dislike KSTP? I have two main complaints about KSTP, first is the lack of range, I live less than 12 miles from the Metrodome and unless I point my radio in just the right direction I can’t get the game, when I do get it, the signal usually fades in and out. Dang, it is so irritating to hear Gordo say “and here comes the pitch, Morneau swings and it is a long fly ball to……………..static! How frustrating is that? I can usually be found walking and enjoying the Luce Line trail on summer evenings, before KSTP came along I could listen to the Twins on WCCO on my little arm band radio, but not since the Twins moved to KSTP. My second reason for my problem with KSTP is their pre-game show, up until the time they hand it off to the John Gordon and Dan Gladden team and their post game show. These shows are boring and so unprofessional I seldom if ever listen. The shows are more of a venting and a blood-letting then they are a good honest look at the team and its management. I can’t wait for the Twins/KSTP contract to run out and I hope that the Twins move Minnesota Twins baseball back to WCCO where it belongs. I am not the only Twins fans out here that feels this way, maybe it is time for the Twins to do a serious study and survey of their fans to determine where on the radio dial they want to find Twins baseball and if it should be returned to “830” where it rightfully belongs.
The Canadian Football League offered Giel $75,000 over three years, and the Chicago Bears held his National Football League rights. Seven or eight baseball teams, including all three in New York, the Giants, the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers all wanted him. Giel signed with the Giants for a $60,000 bonus, their highest ever at the time. Paul had a “live” fastball, a good slider and an ordinary curveball and needed minor league seasoning, but the rules at the time required such so-called bonus babies to spend at least their first two years in the major leagues. In his major league debut on July 10, 1954 at the Polo Grounds against the Pirates, Giel pitched the ninth inning with the Giants trailing 10-7 and he struck out all three batters that he faced. He played sparingly, appearing in only 40 games in his first two seasons. Giel served as an Army officer in 1956 and 1957 before returning to baseball and the Giants in 1958 that by this time had moved to San Francisco. The Giants waived Giel in 1959 and he was picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates where he pitched for 2 seasons before being sold to Minnesota in February of 1961.