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Harmon Killebrew clouted 573 home runs in his 22-year big-league career, but few were more dramatic than his walk-off, two-run smash with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Minnesota Twins an exciting victory over the New York Yankees, 6-5, on Sunday, July 11, 1965, at Metropolitan Stadium. “The scene could have been […]

Harmon Killebrew spent 21 seasons starting with the Washington Senators and then the Minnesota Twins after they moved to the Twin Cities. The Twins released him at the end of the 1974 season, and Killebrew signed with the Kansas City Royals. The early May series between the two teams marked the first time that Killebrew […]

Harmon “Killer” Killebrew lived up to his name on this Fourth of July weekend. Going into a three-game series with the Oakland Athletics, the Minnesota Twins (43-34) were one game behind the A’s (42-31). Prior to the Friday series opener, Killebrew’s batting average was .273 with 19 home runs and 72 runs batted in. After […]

The 1958 season was one of change in minor-league baseball, especially at the highest level. With the migration of the two New York National League teams to California, there was a realignment of locations and affiliations. New Pacific Coast League teams were established in Spokane, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. Minneapolis of the American Association […]

On May 24, 1963, the Minnesota Twins used two dramatic home runs to extend their winning streak to five games. Harmon Killebrew’s grand slam put the Twins ahead in the fifth inning, and after the Chicago White Sox tied the score, Jimmie Hall ended the game with a two-run blast in the bottom of the […]

Should a midseason exhibition be included among the greatest games in Metropolitan Stadium history? After all, as the United Press International wire service candidly pointed out, by the end of the game, “many of the Twins had left the dugout, showered and gone home.”1 If the players left early, how could the game be all […]

This edition of the fall classic had so many bizarre twists and turns that they might as well have had Rod Serling do the pregame show. First there were the Twins beating both of the Dodgers’ best pitchers, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. Then the punchless Dodgers turned around and won the next two games […]

Sports columnist Charles Johnson wrote of the 1961 Twins team: “Actually it’s strange that a team which hasn’t played .500 ball at home can keep the spectators excited, enthused and applauding.”1 It was more than just the fact that it was the first year of major-league baseball in Minnesota. It was the kind of competitive […]

On Friday, July 7, 1972, presidential candidates arrived in Miami for the 1972 Republican National Convention that nominated Richard Nixon. Billie Jean King won the women’s title at Wimbledon. And, that night at Metropolitan Stadium, two Twins greats did what they could so well: Harmon Killebrew slugged a go-ahead home run and Rod Carew drove […]

The Twins-Senators game on June 18, 1968, had many ebbs and flows and featured almost every play you could imagine. Minnesota starter Jim Merritt had a no-hitter for 5⅔ innings, and then bullpen implosions by both teams led to four lead changes in the last two innings. Among the 26 hits in the game were […]

The Minnesota Twins belted five home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to erase a 4-3 deficit and take the rubber game of a three-game series with the Kansas City Athletics, 9-4, before a crowd of 9,621at Metropolitan Stadium. It was the first time an American League team hit five home runs in […]

In early-season coverage of their third year in Minnesota, local newspapers often highlighted Twins or Met Stadium happenings that reminded readers how young the new franchise still was. Case in point: a late May Sunday-afternoon game against the Chicago White Sox that saw the Twins win their seventh in a row, the team’s longest winning […]

By the end of the 1960s, it seemed that the Major League Baseball All-Star Game had turned into an annual exhibition of National League dominance. The senior circuit had won 11 of 13 games during the decade (two games were played in 1960, 1961 and 1962; one game was tied when it was called because […]

The Wednesday afternoon game between the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins produced a modern-era major-league first when the Twins’ Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew blasted first-inning grand slams in the 14-3 blowout victory.1 The same team hitting two grand slams in one inning has been matched only four times since Allison and Killebrew accomplished the […]

On October 4, 1969, nearly 40,000 fans filed into Memorial Stadium in Baltimore for the first-ever American League Championship Series. Beginning in 1969 the American and National Leagues were separated into two divisions, East and West. At the end of the season, each division winner would square off in a best-of-five series to decide who […]

On Saturday, September 30, 1967, as the thrilling American League pennant race neared its conclusion, the Boston Red Sox entered their final series of the season needing two victories against the Minnesota Twins — whom they trailed by one game — plus two Detroit Tigers defeats to make their Impossible Dream become reality.1 Left fielder […]

If Catfish Hunter was going to pitch a perfect game, Minnesota Twins manager Cal Ermer was going to make him earn every out.1 Hunter, a 22-year-old right-hander in his fourth season with the Athletics, had retired 24 straight batters going into the top of the ninth inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, on May 8, 1968, […]

As August 1966 was about to turn into September, the chase for the American League pennant had deteriorated into a race for second place behind the Baltimore Orioles. The White Sox hosted the Minnesota Twins in a Sunday doubleheader at Comiskey Park on August 28 that was attended by 21,576 fans who got more innings […]

Bernie Allen was well-known in Minnesota, for bad and good reasons to fans in the state. In 1960 he was the quarterback, kicker, punter, and a defensive back for a Purdue team that upset the Minnesota Gophers and kept them from winning the Big Ten title outright. (The Gophers still tied for the conference championship […]

Billy Martin preferred to make points with his fists, but the weapon of choice in his home opener as a major-league manager was The Blade. Martin had prepped all his life to be a big-league manager. He’d been a major-league player and coach, a minor-league manager and a student ready to learn from an assortment […]

The last Saturday in August of 1963 brought an afternoon match at the Met between the Minnesota Twins and the visiting Chicago White Sox. An announced crowd of 23,415 came out to the ballpark for this, the second of a three-game series. Minnesota, at 75-58, had won three in a row and six of its […]

Before the Athletics relocated to Oakland in 1968, they hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1952, when they still called Philadelphia home. After 13 years of losing in Kansas City, a move to the West Coast revitalized the flagging franchise. The A’s won 89 games in 1970 and 101 in 1971, reaching the postseason for […]

“He’s gonna trade me, I know it.”1 That’s what Minnesota Twins leadoff batter César Tovar told reporters before a September 19, 1972, game between the Twins and the Texas Rangers at Metropolitan Stadium. He was referring to Twins President Calvin Griffith. According to the Minneapolis Star, Tovar’s name had been “bounced around as Minnesota’s most […]

Minnesota Twins manager Bill Rigney had a plan for the game on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals. With three games to go in the regular season and the American League West title already clinched, Rigney wanted to get his players ready for the playoff opener Saturday against the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles. His […]