The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins are a member
of the Central Division of Major League
Baseball's American League. From 1982
to the present, the Twins have played in the Hubert H. Humphrey
Metrodome.
The "Twins" name originates from Minnesota's Twin
Cities area of Minneapolis and St.
Paul. They are sometimes called "the Twinkies" by fans and
media (though not by the club), a two-syllable play on "Twins" inspired by the snack cake of the same
name.[1]
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Washington,
D.C. in 1901. Then the Washington Senators (not to be confused with the
Washington Senators that were enfranchised in 1961 as a replacement and eventually
became the Texas Rangers), the team moved to Minneapolis in 1961, then based in Metropolitan Stadium.
Team history
Washington Senators: 1901 to 1960
For a time, from 1911 to 1933, the Washington Senators were one of the more
successful franchises in major-league baseball. The team's rosters included Hall of Famers Goose
Goslin, Sam Rice, Joe Cronin, Bucky Harris, Heinie Manush and one of the greatest pitchers of all
time, Walter Johnson. But the Senators are remembered more for their many years of
mediocrity and futility, including six last-place finishes in the 1940s and 1950s.
Washington Senators jersey logo
A losing start for a charter franchise
When the American League declared itself a major league in 1901, the new league placed a team in Washington, a city that had been abandoned by the
National League a year earlier. The Washington club, like the old one, would be called
the Senators.
The Senators began their history as a consistently losing team, at times so inept that San Francisco Chronicle columnist Charley Dryden joked: "Washington: First in war, first in
peace, and last in the American League." The 1904 Senators lost 113 games, and the next season the team’s owners, trying for a
fresh start, changed the team’s name to the Nationals. But the Senators name remained widely used by fans and journalists, and
the team later restored it as the official name.
The ‘Big Train’ arrives
Whatever the name, the club continued to lose, despite the addition in 1907 of a
talented 19-year-old pitcher named Walter Johnson. Raised in rural Kansas, Johnson was a
tall, lanky man with long arms who, using a leisurely windup and unusual sidearm delivery, threw the ball faster than anyone had
ever seen. Johnson’s breakout year was 1910, when he struck out 313 batters, posted an
earned-run average of 1.36 and won 25 games for a losing ball club. Over his 21-year
Hall of Fame career, Johnson, called the “Big Train,” would win 417 games and strike out 3,509 batters, a major-league record
that would stand for more than 50 years.
New stadium, new manager
In 1911, the Senators’ wooden ballpark burned to the ground, and they replaced it
with a modern concrete-and-steel structure on the same location. First called National Park, it later would be renamed after the
man who was named Washington manager in 1912 and whose name would become almost synonymous with the ball club: Clark Griffith. A star pitcher with the National League’s Chicago
Colts in the 1890s, Griffith jumped to the AL in 1901 and became a successful manager with the Chicago White Sox and New York Highlanders. In
1912, with Griffith taking the Senators’ helm and Johnson winning 33 games, the
Senators posted their first winning record: 91-61, good for second place behind the Boston Red
Sox. The next year, 1913, was Johnson’s best yet, 36 victories and a minuscule
1.14 ERA, and the Senators again finished second, this time behind the Philadelphia
Athletics.
Starting in 1916, the Senators settled back into mediocrity. Griffith, frustrated
with the owners’ penny-pinching, bought a controlling interest in the team in 1920 and
stepped down as field manager a year later to focus on his duties as team president.
1924: World champions
In 1924, Griffith named 27-year-old second baseman Bucky Harris player-manager. Led by the hitting of Goose Goslin and
Sam Rice and a solid pitching staff headlined by the 36-year-old Johnson, the Senators captured
their first American League pennant, two games ahead of Babe Ruth and the New York
Yankees.
Washington's
Bucky Harris scores on his home run in the fourth inning of Game 7 of the 1924
World Series.
In the World Series, the underdog Senators faced John
McGraw's New York Giants. Despite Johnson losing both his two starts, the
Senators kept pace to tie the Series at three games apiece and force Game 7. In the ninth inning with the game tied 3-3, Harris
brought in Johnson to pitch on just one day of rest – he had been the losing pitcher in Game 5. Johnson shut out the Giants for
four innings, and in the bottom of the 12th, a ground ball bounced over Giant third baseman Fred Lindstrom’s head, scoring Muddy Ruel with the winning run.
The Washington Senators were world champions. Some called it the greatest World Series Game 7 ever … until 1991.
Building a winning tradition
The Senators repeated as AL champs in 1925 but lost the Series to Pittsburgh. After Johnson’s retirement in
1927, the Senators endured a few losing seasons until returning to contention in
1930, this time with Johnson as manager. But after the Senators finished third in
1931 and 1932, behind powerful New York and
Philadelphia, Griffith fired Johnson, a victim of high expectations.[1]
For his new manager in 1933, Griffith returned to the formula that worked for him in
1924, and 26-year-old shortstop Joe Cronin became player-manager. It worked. Washington
posted a 99-53 record and swept to the pennant seven games ahead of the Yankees. But the Senators lost the World Series to the Giants in five games.
Back to the second division
The Senators sank all the way to seventh in 1934. Attendance plunged as well, and
after the season Griffith traded Cronin to the Red Sox for journeyman shortstop Lyn Lary and
$225,000 in cash (even though Cronin was married to Griffith’s niece, Mildred). Despite the return of Harris as manager in
1935-42 and 1950-54, Washington remained mostly a losing ball club for the next 25 years, contending for the pennant only in the
talent-thin war years of 1943 and 1945.
In 1954, Senators scout Ossie Bluege signed a
17-year-old ballplayer from Payette, Idaho, named Harmon Killebrew. Because of his $30,000 signing bonus, league rules required Killebrew to spend the
rest of 1954 with the Senators as a “bonus baby.” Killebrew bounced between the Senators and the minor leagues for next few
years. He became the Senators’ regular third baseman in 1959, leading the league with
42 home runs and earning a starting spot on the American League All-Star team.
Looking west
Clark Griffith died in 1955, and his son Calvin took over the team presidency. He sold Griffith Stadium to the city of Washington and leased it
back, leading to speculation that the team was planning to move, as the Braves,
Browns and Athletics had all done in the
early 1950s. After an early flirtation with San Francisco, by 1958 Griffith
was courting Minneapolis-St. Paul. The American League opposed the move at first,
but in 1960 a deal was reached: The Senators would move and would be replaced with an
expansion Senators team for 1961. The
old Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins.
The Washington Senators in popular culture
The longtime competitive struggles of the team were fictionalized in the book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,
which became the legendary Broadway musical and movie Damn Yankees. The plot centers around Joe Boyd, a middle-aged real estate salesman and long-suffering
fan of the Washington Senators baseball club. In this musical comedy-drama of the Faust
legend, Boyd sells his soul to the Devil and becomes slugger Joe Hardy, the "long ball
hitter the Senators need that he'd sell his soul for" (as spoken by him in a throwaway line near the beginning of the drama). His
hitting prowess enables the Senators to win the American League pennant over the then-dominant
Yankees. One of the songs from the musical, You Gotta Have Heart, is frequently played at baseball games.
Minnesota Twins: 1961 to present
The "Minnesota" designation, instead of "Minneapolis" (the Twins were the first professional baseball team to be named for a
state rather than a city), comes from the fact that the team is intended to represent the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul (and,
presumably, the entire state). This fact is reinforced by the stylized TC logo originally worn on their caps, and by their
mascot, TC Bear.
The name "Twins" derives from the popular name of the region, the Twin Cities. It was unheard of at the time to name a
professional team after a whole state, though later the Texas Rangers,
Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies,
Arizona Diamondbacks, and the California Angels -- now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -- would follow their lead).
However, the original "Twin Cities Twins" TC logo was kept. The cap was abandoned in 1987 when the Twins adopted their current
uniforms. By this time, the team had become established enough that it could place an "M" on their caps without offending St.
Paul. The "TC" logo returned to one version of the home uniforms in 2002, as did the team's original cartoon logo: two large
twins representing the Minneapolis Millers and St.
Paul Saints--the two minor-league teams that preceded the Twins in the area--shaking hands over the Mississippi River, which runs through each of the two cities.
1960s: The Twins arrive in Minnesota
The Twins were eagerly greeted in Minnesota when they arrived in 1961.
They brought a nucleus of talented players: Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Camilo Pascual, Zoilo
Versalles, Jim Kaat, Earl Battey, and
Lenny Green. The Twins won 92 games in 1962, the most by the franchise since 1933.
The Twins won the American League Pennant in 1965, driven by the exciting play of superstar sluggers
Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva and flashy play of
league MVP Zoilo
Versalles. However, they were defeated in the 1965 World Series by the
Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games; each home team had won until Game 7, when
Sandy Koufax shut out the Twins 2-0 in Minnesota. The Twins scored a total of two runs in
their four losses, and were shut out three times, twice by Koufax. Although disappointed with the near miss, the championship
drive cemented the team's relationship with the people of Minnesota. The Twins would wait 22 years to return to the World Series;
they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the 1987 Series.
In 1967, the Twins were involved in one of the closest pennant races in baseball
history. Heading into the final weekend of the season, the Twins, Boston Red Sox,
Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers all had
a shot at clinching the American League championship. With two games left to play, the Twins and Red Sox were knotted atop the
standings; moreover, the two remaining games each team had to play happened to be against each other. Unfortunately for Minnesota
baseball fans, the Red Sox won both games and clinched their first pennant since 1946,
finishing with a 92-70 record. The Twins and Tigers both finished a game behind, at 91-71, while the White Sox were three games
out, at 89-73.
In 1969, Billy Martin was named
manager. Martin pushed aggressive base running, with Rod Carew stealing home 7 times.[2] The Twins won the American League West, led by Rod Carew (.332, his first batting
title), Tony Oliva (.309, 24 HR, 101 RBI) and league
MVP Harmon Killebrew (49 HR, 140 RBI).[3] Unfortunately, the Twins were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the first American League
Championship Series.
1970s: From first place to mediocrity
The team continued to post winning records through 1971, winning the
first two American League West division titles. However, they then entered a decade-long slump, finishing around .500 for the
next eight years. Tony Oliva and Rod Carew continued to
provide offensive power, but Killebrew's home run production decreased and the pitching staff languished.
Owner Calvin Griffith faced financial difficulty with the start of free agency. While other owners had fortunes made in other businesses, Griffith's only income came from
baseball. He ran the Twins as a family owned business, employing many family members, and had to turn a profit each season. Stars
Lyman Bostock and Larry Hisle left as free agents
after the 1977 season and prompted the trade of Rod Carew after the 1978 season.
1980s: Building a World Champion
In the early 1980s, The Twins fell further, winning only 37% of its games from 1981 to 1982. They had their worst season in
Minnesota in 1982, with a 60-102 record, the worst the franchise had since the 1904 season (that team went 38-113). From their
arrival in 1961 through 1981, the team played its games at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, a suburb south
of the Twin Cities. The Mall of America now occupies the spot where the "Old Met" stood,
complete with home plate and the seat where Harmon Killebrew hit a 520 foot home run.
The 1982 season brought the team indoors, into the Metrodome, which is in downtown Minneapolis near the Mississippi River.
In 1984, Calvin Griffith sold the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad. In 1985, Minnesota hosted the All-Star Game at the Metrodome.
After several losing seasons in the Dome, a nucleus of players acquired during the waning years of the Griffith regime
(Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky, Gary Gaetti, Frank Viola) combined with a few good trades
(Bert Blyleven), intelligent free agent acquisitions (Al
Newman, Roy Smalley), and a rising star in Kirby Puckett, combined to return the team to the World Series for the first time since 1965, defeating
the Detroit Tigers (who won the World Series three years earlier) in the ALCS along the way. The dynamic play of the new
superstars electrified the team and propelled the Twins to a seven-game victory over the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 1987 World Series.
The 1987 Twins set a record for fewest regular season victories by a
World Series champion with 85 and a .525 winning percentage. This record was broken by the 2006 Cardinals, who won the World Series after going 83-79 during the regular season and a .513
percentage. While their 56-21 record at the Metrodome was the best overall home record for 1987, the Twins had an appalling 33-52
mark away from the Metrodome and they only won nine road games after the All-Star break.
The Twins won more games in 1988, but could not overcome the powerhouse division rival Oakland Athletics, even though pitcher Frank Viola won the
Cy Young Award in that year. 1989 saw a decline
in the win column though Puckett would win the batting title (1989 in baseball).
1990s: From worst to first to worst again
The Twins surprisingly did quite poorly in 1990, finishing last in the AL West division with a record of 74-88.
1991 brought breakout years from newcomers Shane Mack, Scott Leius, Chili Davis, and rookie of the year
Chuck Knoblauch, along with consistently excellent performances from stars Hrbek and
Puckett. The pitching staff excelled as well, with Scott Erickson, Rick Aguilera, and St. Paul native Jack Morris having all-star years. The Twins defeated the Atlanta
Braves 4 games to 3 to win the nail biting 1991
World Series (which is considered by many to be the greatest of all-time). [4] Game 6 is widely considered to be one of the greatest World Series games ever played. With the scored
tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 11th inning, Kirby Puckett stepped up to the plate and drove the game winning home run into the left field seats to force a
decisive Game 7. All three of the Twins' World Series appearances were decided in seven games, with the latter series ending in a
dramatic 10-inning, 1-0 shutout by series MVP Jack Morris. 1991 was also the first time
any team finishing last in its division the previous year advanced to the World Series, both the Twins and Braves accomplished
the feat. In both this and the Twins' previous World Series appearance, the home team
won each game, which had never occurred before. ESPN rated the 1991 World Series as the best ever
played in a 2003 centennial retrospective of the World Series.
1992 saw another superb Oakland team that the Twins could not overcome, despite a
90-72 season and solid pitching from John Smiley. After 1992, the Twins again fell into an extended slump, posting a losing record each year for the next eight
years: 71-91 in 1993, 50-63 in 1994, 56-88 in 1995, 78-84 in 1996, 68-94 in 1997, 70-92 in 1998, 63-97 in 1999 and 69-93 in 2000.
From 1994 to 1997 a long sequence of
retirements and injuries (including superstars Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett) hurt the team badly, and Tom Kelly spent the remainder of his managerial career attempting to rebuild the Twins. In
1998, management cleared out the team of all of its players earning over 1 million
dollars (except for pitcher Brad Radke) and rebuilt from the ground up; the team barely
avoided finishing in the cellar that year, finishing just five games ahead of the Detroit
Tigers and avoiding the mark of 100 losses by eight games.
In 1997, owner Carl Pohlad almost sold the
Twins to North Carolina businessman Don Beaver, who would have moved the team to the
Piedmont Triad (Greensboro -
Winston-Salem - High
Point) area of the state. The defeat of a referendum for a stadium in that area and a
lack of interest in building a stadium for the Twins in Charlotte killed the
deal.
2000s: A perennial contender
Things turned around, and from 2001 to 2006, the Twins compiled the longest streak of consecutive winning seasons since moving
to Minnesota, going 85-77 in 2001, 94-67 in 2002, 90-72 in 2003, 92-70 in
2004, 83-79 in 2005,
and 96-66 in 2006. From 2002 to 2004, the Twins compiled their longest
streak of consecutive league/division championships ever (previous were the 1924 World
Champion-1925 AL Champion Senators and the 1969–70 Twins). Threatened with closure by league
contraction in 2002, the team battled back to reach the American League Championship Series before being eliminated 4-1 by that year's
eventual World Series champion Anaheim Angels. Their streak of three
straight division titles, along with some bitterly fought games, have helped to create an intense rivalry with the
Chicago White Sox in recent years, starting with 2000 when the Sox clinched the
division at the Metrodome, and heating up especially in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
In 2006, the Twins came from 12 games back in the division at the All-Star break to tie the Detroit Tigers for the lead in the 159th game of the season. With the Tigers having won the season
head-to-head by 11 games to 8, the Twins needed a Tiger loss and a Twins win in order to take sole possession of first place and
win the division outright, and got both on the last day of the season, when the Tigers lost their third straight game at home to
the last place Kansas City Royals in a 10-8 game in 14 innings. After their win against the Chicago White Sox, the Minnesota
Twins and somewhere between 30,000 to 40,000 fans watched the Tigers-Royals game on the Metrodome's jumbotrons. This is the first
time in major league history that a team has won a division or league outright on the last day of the regular season without ever
having had sole possession of first place earlier. The magical season came to a sudden end, however, as the Twins were swept 3-0
in the divisional championship series, while Detroit went on as a wild card entry, beat the Yankees 3-1 in their divisional
series, and went on to play the A's in the league championship series. The Tigers would go on to sweep the A's 4-0 in the ALCS
and lose the 2006 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.
In the minds of many, the current Minnesota Twins seem to be a new version of the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s, a talented team
that won their division many times, only to fall short in the playoffs, often losing in the divisional series. This was
especially compounded when their bitter rivals, the White Sox, won the World Series in the lone year they won the division in
2005. Similarly, the Tigers, despite losing the division in 2006, managed to win the American League pennant. In contrast, the
Twins, despite winning the division in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, have only reached the American League Championship Series
once, losing in the aforementioned 2002 ALCS. In 2007, the Twins went 79-83 and the 2001 Central Division champion Cleveland
Indians, won it again in 2007. It ended a six-year winning-season run starting in 2001.
Contraction
Over the past 10 years, the Twins have argued that the lack of a modern baseball-dedicated ballpark has stood in the way of
producing a top-notch, competitive team, despite the fact that their current stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, played a crucial role in their championship seasons of
1987 and 1991. The
quirks of the facility, such as the turf floor and the white roof, gave the Twins a huge homefield advantage (often referred to
as the "Dome"-field advantage). Due to the structure of the stadium, the Twins won every one of their home games in their two
World Series victories. Regardless, the Metrodome has often been considered inadequate mainly because of its relatively low
income producing power and in the 1990s and early 2000s the Twins were often rumored to be moving to such places as
New Jersey, Las Vegas, Portland, Oregon, the Raleigh-Durham area, and others in search of a
more financially competitive market. The team was nearly contracted (disbanded) in 2002, a move which would have eliminated the
Twins and the Montreal Expos franchises. The Twins survived largely due to a court
decision which forced them to play out their lease on the Metrodome.
In October of 2005 the Twins went back to state court asking for a ruling that they have no long-term lease with the
Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, the owner of the Metrodome where the Twins currently play. In February 2006 the court
did rule favorably on the Twins motion. Thus, the Twins were not obligated to play in the Metrodome after the 2006 season. This
removed one of the roadblocks that prevented contraction prior to the 2002
season and cleared the way for the Twins to either be relocated or disbanded prior to the 2007 season if a new deal was not
reached.
The Future
For a long time, the Twins wished to move the Metrodome with the Target Center ballpark within the next half decade, claiming that the Metrodome generates too little revenue for the
Twins to be competitive. In particular, the Twins receive very little revenue from luxury suite leasing (as the majority are
owned by co-tenant Minnesota Vikings) and only a small percentage of concessions
sales; also, the percentage of season-ticket-quality seats in the Metrodome is said to be very low compared to other stadiums,
and the capacity of the stadium is far too high for baseball. However, attempts to spur interest and push legislative efforts
towards a new stadium repeatedly failed prior to 2006. The Dome is thought to be an increasingly poor fit for all three of its
major tenants (the Twins, the Vikings and the University of Minnesota Golden
Gophers football team). In fact, in addition to the Twins, the Vikings also have a stadium proposal in various stages of
development, and the Gophers are in the process of beginning construction on their new stadium.
On May 21 2006, the Twins' new
stadium received the approval of the Minnesota House of Representatives, with a vote of 71-61, and then received approval
from the Senate, with a nailbiting vote of 34-32, after 4 a.m. on the second-to-last day of the 2006 legislative session. The
bill moved on to Governor Tim Pawlenty, who
signed it during a special pre-game ceremony at the HHH Metrodome on May
26, 2006 (the Twins played the Seattle Mariners that night) on what will be the first home plate installed in the new
stadium.
New ballpark
Twins Ballpark, the proposed future stadium of the Twins will be located in what is
now a parking lot at the north end of downtown Minneapolis within walking distance of the Target
Center. The Hiawatha Light Rail line will be extended to the ballpark area with a
possible connection with the proposed Northstar Commuter Rail. Preliminary plans call for a seating capacity of 40,000 seats and
72 suites. There will be approximately 34 bathrooms compared to only 16 in the Metrodome. The concourses will be open to the
playing field with a view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline from every seat in the park. There will not be a retractable roof
on the stadium which would add about $100 million on to the cost which is currently set at $522 million. This has received some
objection due to the harsh game conditions in April and early May, and the resulting lost revenue. Since there will not be a
roof, heat can be pumped into the seating areas from a nearby garbage burner. The official groundbreaking for the stadium,
originally scheduled for 2 August 2007, was postponed to
August 30 due to the collapse of the I-35W
Mississippi River bridge nearby. However, officials still expect the work to be completed in time for the 2010 home
opener. With the new ballpark bill, a provision was signed into law that allows the state of Minnesota the right of first refusal
to buy the team if it is ever sold, and requires that the name, colors, World Series trophies and history of the team remain in
Minnesota if the Twins are ever moved out of state (a reaction to the loss of the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas in 1993).
Team Statistics
- Best regular season record: 1965 (102-60)
- Worst regular season record: 1904 (38-113) as Washington Senators
- Worst regular season record: 1982 (60-102) as Minnesota Twins
- Longest win streak: 1991 (15 games, June 1 to
June 16)
- World Series Home Record: 17-5. (8-0 at home in last two series, 1987 and
1991}
- World Series Away Record: 2-16. (No road wins since 1925's Game 1)
- Ballpark gimmick: Homer Hanky (1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006)
- Mascot: TC, introduced in 2001.
- Team Song: We're Gonna Win, Twins, by Dick Wilson, introduced in 1961.
- Spring Training Facility: Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers, Florida
- The team and the Metrodome were featured in the 1994 motion picture Little Big League.
- The Twins are affectionately called the "Twinkies" by some fans. Despite the cream-puff
sound of that nickname, the Twins have a reputation as a hard-working, hard-playing club. Current manager Ron Gardenhire runs and encourages a hard-nosed, fundamentals-first attitude toward playing and winning
baseball games.
- The party atmosphere of the Twins clubhouse after a win is well-known, the team's players unwinding with loud
rock music (usually the choice of the winning pitcher)
and video games. The club has several well-known, harmless hazing rituals, such as requiring the most junior relief pitcher on the team to carry water and snacks to the
bullpen in a brightly-colored small child's backpack (Barbie in 2005, SpongeBob Squarepants in 2006, Hello Kitty in 2007), and many
of its players, both past and present, are notorious pranksters.
- A new nickname was unintentionally introduced by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén, who
called the Twins "Little Piranhas" as they gobbled up wins in July through August in the 2006
season. In 2007, the Twins sometimes play an animated sequence of piranhas munching under that caption, in situations where the
Twins are scoring runs via "small ball".
- Bob Casey was the Twins first public-address announcer starting in
1961 and going until his death in 2005. He was well known for his unique delivery and his signature announcements of "NOOO
Smoking in the Metrodome, either go outside or quit!", "Centerfielder, #34, KIRRBYYYYYYY PUCKETTTTTT!!!" and asking fans not to
'throw anything or anybody' onto the field.
- The Twins were the first World Series champion to lose three away games and still win
the series by winning all four home games; doing it in 1987 and again in
1991. The Arizona Diamondbacks
duplicated this feat in 2001, when they became the first National League team to do so.
- The Twins are the first team in Major League history to sweep the Player of the
Month, Pitcher of the Month, and Rookie of the Month awards, accomplishing this feat in June 2006 with catcher
Joe Mauer, pitcher Johan Santana, and Rookie Pitcher
Francisco Liriano.
- In 2006, the club became one of the most decorated in recent baseball history, with
Justin Morneau's MVP following the AL Cy Young Award won by Johan Santana and the AL batting title by Joe Mauer. The last team to
have done it was the 1962 Los Angeles
Dodgers. In addition to this, center fielder Torii Hunter was awarded the Rawlings Gold Glove Award for his defense in the 2006 season, and Mauer and Morneau each
received a Silver Slugger Award for the offense as catcher and first baseman respectively.
Baseball Hall of Famers
Elected at least partly on basis of performance with franchise as Minnesota Twins
Elected at least partly on basis of performance with franchise as Washington Senators
Other Hall-of-Famers associated with franchise
Molitor and Winfield, St. Paul natives and University of Minnesota graduates, came to the team late in their careers and were warmly
received as "hometown heroes," but were elected to the Hall on the basis of their tenures with other teams. Both swatted their
3,000th hit with the Twins.
Cronin, Goslin, Griffith, Harris, Johnson, Killebrew and Wynn are listed on the Washington Hall of Stars display at
Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. So are Ossie Bluege, George Case, Joe
Judge, George Selkirk, Roy Sievers,
Cecil Travis, Mickey Vernon and Eddie Yost.
Twins Hall of Fame
| Class of 2000 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Harmon Killebrew |
First Baseman |
1961-74 |
| Rod Carew |
Second Baseman |
1967-78 |
| Tony Oliva |
Outfielder |
1962-76 |
| Kent Hrbek |
First Baseman |
1981-94 |
| Kirby Puckett |
Outfielder |
1984-95 |
| Calvin Griffith |
President and Owner |
1961-83 |
| Class of 2001 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Herb Carneal |
Radio Broadcaster |
1962-2007 |
| Jim Kaat |
Lefthanded Pitcher |
1961-73 |
| Class of 2002 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Bert Blyleven |
Righthanded Pitcher |
1970-76, 1985-88 |
| Tom Kelly |
Manager |
1986-2001 |
| Class of 2003 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Bob Allison |
Outfielder |
1961-70 |
| Bob Casey |
Public Address Announcer |
1961-2004 |
| Class of 2004 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Earl Battey |
Catcher |
1961-67 |
| Class of 2005 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Frank Viola |
Lefthanded Pitcher |
1982-89 |
| Carl Pohlad |
Owner |
1984-Present |
| Class of 2006 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Zoilo Versalles |
Shortstop |
1961-67 |
| Class of 2007 |
Affiliation |
Years w/ Twins |
| Gary Gaetti |
Third Baseman |
1981-90 |
| Jim Rantz |
Director of Minor Leagues |
1986-Present |
Retired numbers
- 3 Harmon Killebrew, OF-1B-3B, Washington 1954-60, Minnesota 1961-74
- 6 Tony Oliva, OF, Minnesota 1962-76; Coach, 1976-78, 1985-91
- 14 Kent Hrbek, 1B, Minnesota 1981-94
- 29 Rod Carew, 1B-2B, Minnesota 1967-78
- 34 Kirby Puckett, OF, Minnesota 1984-95
- 42 Jackie Robinson, retired throughout Major League Baseball
Current roster
Minnesota Twins all-time roster: A complete list of players who
played in at least one game for the Twins franchise.
|
Minnesota Twins roster
|
| Active roster |
Inactive roster |
Coaches/Other |
| Starting rotation
Bullpen
† 15-day disabled list
Roster updated 2007-10-11
Transactions • Depth
chart
|
|
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
|
