Once again I fell down the rabbit hole that is the internet and came across a wild Twins game played in June 1977. I found my way to this tilt after reading about the history of Metropolitan Stadium, otherwise known as the Met, that the Twins called home from 1961 to 1981. It was a... Continue Reading »

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 »

The Twins were barely competitive in 1979, finishing the season with a record of 82-80. It also was manager Gene Mauch’s final full season with the club, and star infielder, Rod Carew, who hit .388 in 1977, was no longer with the Twins after he was traded during the offseason. His departure was almost a... Continue Reading »

In late September 1978, Calvin Griffith, the former longtime owner of the Twins, found himself at a Lions Club luncheon in the town of Waseca, south of the Twin Cities. That afternoon would become Griffith’s undoing after he made disparaging comments about Black people and Twins star infielder, Rod Carew. The ensuing negative publicity would... 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 »

I wasn’t sure I was going to come up with a Twins-related nugget to write about this week as baseball sits on the sidelines, waiting, like we all are, for the curve of the coronavirus to flatten. But then the Baseball-Reference.com newsletter landed in my inbox and there it was: a little item about top... Continue Reading »

It’s back to the well with another look at “The Baseball Codes,” a book about the unwritten rules of the game, including the business of beanballs. Hitting a batter, it turns out, is not always about retaliating after the batter takes the pitcher deep, or tosses the bat too far, or stares too intently at... Continue Reading »

In 1976, Gene Mauch took over as Twins manager, Rod Carew hit better than .330 and the club would go on to have one of its best seasons since 1970. They were especially good down the stretch — 21-8 in September and October — but in mid-May they were still trying to overcome a slow... Continue Reading »

Twins baseball is back, and with it a win and a loss in split-squad action on Saturday. The Twins’ B-team lost to the Baltimore Orioles, but forget about that game for a moment because the A-team knocked off the Tampa Bay Rays with little trouble, or so it appears. Even better? Twins outfielder, Byron Buxton,... Continue Reading »