As I noted in my previous post, the Twins, although they couldn’t pitch in 1996, they certainly could hit and score runs, racking up 877 of them by season’s end. Not only did they score a lot of runs, they also came in bunches, including on April 24 when the Twins scored a team record... Continue Reading »

The 1996 season looked pretty bleak for the Minnesota Twins. No Kevin Tapani, no Scott Erickson and most of all, no Kirby Puckett, who took a fastball to the face toward the end of the 1995 season and then found himself on the injured list as the new season began on April 1, 1996, at... Continue Reading »

As the postseason came to its conclusion, what did we learn? Ex-Twin and reliever Louis Varland set a major league record with 15 appearances in the playoffs and fellow former Twins Paul Molitor and Jack Morris threw out first pitches before the start of Game 7. And just before the completion of the World Series,... Continue Reading »

Derek Shelton, a former Twins bench coach under Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli who later went on to guide the Pittsburgh Pirates for six seasons, is back in the fold as the new manager of the Twins, the team recently announced. Is he the right guy for the job? Well, he certainly knows the team,... Continue Reading »

This time the Twins were ready. After succumbing to early deficits in losses to the Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, the Twins finally rallied from an early hole to even their series at a game apiece with the Blue Jays after a 7-5 win on Tuesday. Again, Tuesday’s tilt did not get off... Continue Reading »

You know things have gone seriously awry when the two guys in the Twins radio booth are talking about their favorite TV shows as kids. Such was the case Friday. The Twins served up five runs in the first inning, coughed up two more in the third and were blanked by 41-year-old Detroit Tigers’ pitcher... Continue Reading »

The Twins’ Pablo Lopez, who was pegged as a possible AL Cy Young candidate this season, has been anything but that after he lost again on Sunday to the Texas Rangers, 6-2. Lopez has allowed 13 runs over his two previous starts. He’s now 4-5 with an ERA of 5.25. “It makes me mad more... Continue Reading »

The Twins were swept by the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, raising new questions about the team’s ability to hit and pitch. The club showed little of either in 7-4 and 11-3 losses on Monday and Tuesday, then the pitching improved on Wednesday, but the Twins managed to score only two runs on five hits in... Continue Reading »

Minnesota native and catcher Joe Mauer, who spent his entire 15-year career with the Twins, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday in his first year of eligibility. Mauer appeared on 76.1 percent of ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, just inching past the 75 percent mark to... Continue Reading »