As I have written before here, the 1973 Twins encountered a little bit of everything it seems. They swept the eventual World Series-winning Oakland A’s to start the season — and went 14-4 against the club the rest of the way — yet they had a losing record against the 91-loss Cleveland Indians, struggled as... Continue Reading »

It’s hard to imagine that 2020 could get any worse, but it has after losing some of the giants of the game. In a matter of weeks, it seems, we have lost Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Joe Morgan and longtime Yankees pitcher, Whitey Ford, the Chairman of the Board. Ford died last week... Continue Reading »

The Twins won Game 1 of the 1973 season and ended it at 81-81. In between, they shut out their opponents 18 times and were shut out 13 times as well. They also served up 11 walk-off losses, were 3-9 against the New York Yankees (of course) and yet they dominated the best team in... Continue Reading »

I’m not positive that major league baseball and its players truly settled their COVID-19 differences, but no matter: baseball is back. Summer training begins soon, followed by a 60-game season that gets underway later this month. At first glance, the shorter and geographically condensed season would appear to work in the Twins favor. Or does... Continue Reading »

I find simulated baseball to be a lousy substitution for the real thing. And though I’ve tried to ignore it, I have peeked at what Baseball-Reference.com has done by using a program called Out of the Park Baseball 21 to simulate the 2020 season. It’s hard to miss because the data can be found almost... Continue Reading »

In our slower, baseball-less world, except in South Korea, of course, I found myself staring at Twitter when a tweet popped up about a horrible Twins loss on May 13, 1985. Where did this happen? Where else? The Bronx, the site of so much Twins agony. On that spring night at Yankee Stadium, the Twins... Continue Reading »

The 39th anniversary of a fateful trade made by the Minnesota Twins came and went last week, a date that likely slipped past many Twins fans. But not this fan. That’s because I’ll never forget sitting in the Kingdome with my father, watching the Twins increase their lead over the Seattle Mariners to 7-4 as... Continue Reading »

Former starting pitcher, Phil Hughes, who is perhaps best known as an ex-Yankee, was also long-coveted by the Twins. And he finally joined the Minnesota team as a free agent in 2013, then put together a record-setting season in 2014 on a club that lost 92 games. Hughes would win 16 games that season with... Continue Reading »

Amid the business of spring training — lineups with lots of new faces and veterans slowly working their way back from the offseason — a tweet caught my eye. Yankee Stadium, 1967, a few short year before it would be totally reconfigured (1974-75). #Yankees pic.twitter.com/QYpxwdpiuS — MLBcathedrals (@MLBcathedrals) February 27, 2020 This time it was... Continue Reading »