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The 1969 expansion of the major leagues and the splitting of leagues into two divisions worked well for the Minnesota Twins, even though the front office was concerned about the impact on attendance by getting fewer games against popular teams like Detroit, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. However, the Twins were being placed in a […]

A paltry crowd of 2,570 fans showed up at Metropolitan Stadium as the two franchises formerly known as the Washington Senators squared off in their 1974 season finale. Neither team was playoff bound, though the Texas Rangers had challenged the Oakland A’s in the American League West for much of the season, and the pitching […]

The opening game of the 1970 American League playoffs1 featured a pair of 24-game winners: Baltimore’s Mike Cuellar, who had tied with Denny McLain for the Cy Young Award the year before, and Minnesota’s Jim Perry, who would be the American League recipient in 1970.2 A 23-mile-per-hour wind blew out of the northwest at Minnesota’s Metropolitan […]

“The Little Man makes a big difference. He can do a lot of things.” – Bob Lemon, Kansas City Royals manager, July 9, 19711   The Minnesota Twins hosted the Kansas City Royals for a three-game series the weekend before the All-Star Game in July 1971. Things were going badly for Minnesota; after two American […]

Camilo Pascual had good reason to be anxious about his start for the Minnesota Twins against the Baltimore Orioles on the final day of the 1962 season. In his ninth major-league season, it was the closest he had come to winning 20 games in a season. With 19 wins under his belt for the first […]

Opening Day is always a celebration, especially when it’s your first one. Day two is usually just another day. For fans of the new team in town, though, excitement levels were still high, especially after they won their first game. The dignitaries had moved on, but there were still 161 games to be played, and […]

After winning the American League Most Valuable Player Award with the Chicago White Sox in 1972, Dick Allen needed some rest. “Toward the end of the season, I was completely exhausted, a nervous wreck,” he admitted. “I’d been carrying the team for months. … I didn’t think I could play anymore.”1 The newly adopted designated-hitter […]

The magic number was one. A Minnesota win or Baltimore loss would assure the 1965 Twins of the American League pennant. Baltimore was in no mood to cooperate. They had swept a doubleheader on Saturday night and they were looking for their seventh consecutive win as they took the field on Sunday, September 26, against […]

The 1961 American League baseball season ushered in change. The Washington Senators moved to Minnesota, becoming the Twins. It was the inaugural season for two new expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels and the new Washington Senators. Julio Becquer also experienced change as the season got under way. Beginning in 1955, Becquer had played for […]

Pete Mackanin has spanned the Western Hemisphere as a player, coach, and manager from Canada to Venezuela. He may be best remembered as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 2015 to 2017, although Bob Fowler of the Minneapolis Star once referred to him as a “non-fiction Casey at the Bat” for a feat Mackanin performed […]

The Minnesota Twins couldn’t have been happy to be facing Orioles left-hander Dave McNally in Game Two of the 1969 ALCS after losing Game One of the first-ever American League Championship Series. McNally faced the Twins three times during the 1969 season, including a game in Minnesota in May when he carried a no-hitter into […]

Pitcher Troy Herriage’s big-league career was notable for both its duration and its difficulty. The Kansas City Athletics, who selected Herriage in the Rule 5 minor-league draft in November 1955, were required to either keep him on their roster for the entire 1956 season or return him to his old club.1 They not only kept […]

Twins manager Sam Mele was not happy. His team had lost four of its last five games. The night before, fielding lapses, particularly a botched rundown, turned a 2-2 game into a 7-2 defeat at the hands of the last-place Washington Senators. So before the game on July 17, 1964, Mele held a drill to […]

“He was everything a ballplayer should be: dark, handsome eyes, and a raw-boned build – and he hit home runs at a remarkable rate.” — Terry Pluto1 If you were to stroll by a Little League field in greater Cleveland in the late 1950s, you might have seen a trend among the players. You might […]

Sometimes the best deal for a major-league team is the one it doesn’t make. In the first six weeks of the 1965 American League season, pitcher Jim Perry was given little opportunity to show the Minnesota Twins the truth in that adage. From the start of spring training through the first 35 games of the […]

Luis Tiant1 befuddled major-league hitters for 19 seasons with an assortment of pitches delivered from various angles. Signed at age 18 by the Mexico City Tigers of the Double-A Mexican League in 1959,2 Tiant toiled three years in Mexico before his contract was acquired by the Cleveland Indians. After two seasons in the Cleveland farm […]

“I knew this would probably be my last start of the season,” remarked California Angels speedballer Nolan Ryan. “I said to [catcher] Tom Egan, ‘I think I’ll let it all hang out. What do I have to lose?’”1 The Ryan Express overpowered the Minnesota Twins, striking out 15, and also overcame eight walks to conclude […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 1: Baseball Figures in Current Biography Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1986. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Joseph Lawler June 1986 Current Biography is a reference service of the H. W. Wilson Company of New York, publishers […]

Mel Nelson entered professional baseball as a right-handed-hitting outfielder, spent parts of six seasons in the major leagues as a left-handed pitcher, and when his playing days were over served as a scout for several teams. He spent more than half a century in professional baseball, including 17 years as a player. Although he didn’t […]

Three-time All-Star and 1959 Rookie of the Year Bob Allison was a feared slugger, an aggressive, daring baserunner, a versatile outfielder and first baseman with a powerful arm, and, above all, a competitive team player. He played his entire 13-year career (1958-1970) with the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins, helping transform a moribund franchise into a consistent […]

Some men hang around professional baseball for a long time because they possess a skill given to longevity. One may be a good catcher, or a left-handed relief pitcher, and he parlays this ability into lengthy playing careers. Some men hang around professional baseball for a long time because they’re great players, and long after […]

Jerry Moses aspired to become a major-league ballplayer, and declined football scholarships at Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities to pursue his dream. A 1970 American League All-Star, Jerry became the youngest Red Sox to hit a home run, at age 18 and 289 days, with a pinch-hit rocket off Jim “Mudcat” Grant on May 25, 1965. […]

Ferguson Arthur Jenkins, Jr. was a dominant right-handed pitcher known for strikeouts, eleventh (through 2013) on the all-time leader list with 3,192. He is the only pitcher to have more than 3,000 strikeouts with less than 1,000 walks (997). While he pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox, he is best […]

Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea IV, a free-swinging right-handed batter and just the ninth player to hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues, was born on December 8, 1940, in Passaic, New Jersey to a family of Dutch heritage that had been in the northern New Jersey area since the […]