Liverpool’s Fab Four made a tour stop in Minnesota on Aug. 21, 1965, taking the stage at Metropolitan Stadium before 30,000 fans. They would go on to play 11 songs — they opened with “She’s a woman” — in an appearance that lasted all of 35 minutes, according to Thom Henninger, author of “The Pride of Minnesota: The Twins in the turbulent 1960s.”
No one would pay for a 35-minute concert today, but for the Beatles? I think many of us would still pay top dollar to see the history-making group for that long or less. It’s hard to put into words just how significant the landscape of music and pop culture changed when the Beatles came to be. They are the world’s most famous musical group.
At some point during their stop in Minnesota, Beatle George Harrison put on a Twins cap and posed for a photographer, showing thumbs up, according to Henninger’s book. Was he a Twins fan? No, I’m sure he wasn’t, but it would have been a good time to become one because the Twins were in the middle of their best-ever season. While the Beatles rocked the Met, the Twins were on the road, splitting a two-game series with the California Angels, who were still playing games at Dodgers Stadium, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
After the split, the Twins came home to face the New York Yankees for four games. They won the opener in walk-off fashion in the 10th inning. The Yanks called on “Ball Four” author Jim Bouton to pitch the 10th and he was not up to the task, walking the first two batters he faced. He struck out Frank Quilici, then served up a center field single to Jerry Kindall, who was hitting .202. Bob Allison scored and the Twins won 4-3. Bouton took the loss to fall to a dreadful 4-13 on the season.
The Twins took three of four games from the Yanks, including the final game of the series, 9-2. Allison powered the win with two doubles and a home run, part of a 14-hit attack.
The Twins went 19-13 that August, followed by 17-9 in September to wrap up the American League pennant with a record of 102-60. The Twins dominated the league like never before or since. They were 17-1 against the Boston Red Sox, 15-3 versus the Senators and 13-5 against the Yankees, their arch-rivals.
Extra innings…
-The Minneapolis Tribune coverage of the Beatles was, like a lot of coverage in those years, largely patronizing as an older generation of reporters clearly struggled to get their heads around the hubbub created by the group. The concert story focused on the shrieking fans, the press conference was nothing more than silly questions and silly answers — a staple of the Beatles’ press conference, it seems — and the paper decided to send reporter Susan Stocking to the Leamington Motor Inn so that she could impersonate a waitress and gain access to their room. What did she learn about the Beatles? Not much.
Source: Newspapers.com
And then there was this…
Drew Butera and Matt Capps with Kim Kardashian #mntwins pic.twitter.com/0JMSuNWo0m
— Twins Players you forgot about (@TwinsNewsNow) January 15, 2022