Twins Trivia: Three Historical Twins Single Game Hitting Performances

[Matthew Lenz]

For the month of April, Baseball Reference has provided baseball fans with some entertainment by making their awesome Play Index tool free until Thursday. I’ve been playing around with that and have found three single game performances from Minnesota Twins that have historical significance.You’ll find these performances are somewhat random but I tried to put as few stipulations as I could into the Play Index tool to find a performance that has happened less than 100 times in the history of major League baseball. For reference, there have been 220,597 games played in major league history which means I am finding a performance that has happened in about 0.045% of games played.

 

If you want to have a little fun, I have organized this into three hints and you can give yourself a score based on what hint you guessed the correct player. If you’re able to get the player(s) without reading any of the hints then you earn 0 points, otherwise, guessing the player after…

• ...hint #1 = 1 point,
• ...hint #2 = 2 points, and
• ...hint #3 = 3 points.

For the sake of keeping score, give yourself 4 points if you need to look at the answer. Of course, like golf, the lower your score the better. Good luck!

 

Performance #1: Ten or more total bases without hitting a home run without extra innings.

1. This has happened once in Twins history and 35 times in major league baseball history. Three of the occurrences were accomplished by active players, and the Twin who accomplished this, although not officially retired, did not play in 2019.

 

2. On June 29th, 2010 the Twins destroyed the Detroit Tigers 11-4 at Target Field.

 

3. The onslaught was led by their center fielder at the time who went 4-for-4 with three triples and a walk.

 

 

The player: Denard Span.

 

Performance #2: At least eight runs batted in with no more than one home run without extra innings.

1. This has never happened with zero homer uns, but with one home run it has happened once in Twins history and just 25 times in major league history. In the same game, Tony Oliva had 6 RBI with one home run.

 

2. This was far from a pitchers duel, as the Twins beat the White Sox 19-12 at Metropolitan Stadium on June 26th,1977.

 

3. He was never a full-time player throughout his eight year career and mostly appeared as a designated hitter. Although on this particular day he was playing right field.

 

 

 

The player: Glenn Adams.

 

Performance #3: Hit two or more triples in a game without scoring a run or earning an RBI.

1. Nobody has done this with more than two triples, but this particular instance has happened 45 times in major league history including three times in Twins history. Take away one point if you can name two of the players and two bonus points if you can name all three. For scoring, treat each player as their own...so if you don’t get any of them then add 12 points to your total.

 

2. I will give one hint for each player starting, where “player #1” was the first player to accomplish this feat:

Player #1: The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox 9-6 at Griffith Stadium on April 27th, 1924. Relief pitcher, By Speece, scored a run and drove in a run on an RBI-triple himself.

Player #2: Given the stat, it’s probably not surprising that the Twins lost 4-0 to the New York Yankees at Metropolitan Stadium on July 17th, 1963.

Player #3: Again, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Twins lost to the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium on June 12th, 1974.

 

3. I will give one hint for each player starting, where “player #1” was the first player to accomplish this feat:

Player #1: He only played in more than 45 games twice in a short 5 year player career as a third basemen. He’s more well known as a manager where he holds the worst winning percentage of any manager who has managed at least 400 games.

Player #2: Like he did for much of his 12-year career, nine of which were with the Senators/Twins, he was batting lead off and playing shortstop on this day.

Player #3: He bounced around the outfield throughout his 14-year career, five of which were with the Twins, but on this particular day he was playing center field. Bonus fun fact: in 1973 he became the first designated hitter to appear in a spring training game.

 

 

 

Player #1: Doc Prothro

Player #2: Zoilo Versalles

Player #3: Larry Hisle

 

This was definitely tough. If I took this quiz myself, I think I would have gotten Denard Span and Zoilo Versalles after their respective third hints (3 points each), otherwise I would have gained an additional 12 points for not guessing the others to give me a total of 18. Ouch.

 

Use the chart below, which I’ve curved based on difficulty, to measure how you did and leave your score in the comments! Is anyone a hall of famer??

 

Download attachment: Screen Shot 2020-04-29 at 12.11.41 AM.png

 

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[ashbury]

I'm bad at trivia so I didn't give the article the serious attention it may have deserved. I think I'd have scored approximately the same as you, though.

[stringer bell]

I got the first two on the first hint. Question #3, I recognized Zoilo as soon as it was noted he was at shortstop for most of the Twins early years. Missed on Hisle, although I should have known.

[Nine of twelve]

 

  On 4/30/2020 at 1:02 AM, Matthew Lenz said:

Performance #2: At least eight runs batted in with no more than one home run without extra innings.

1. This has never happened with zero homer uns, but with one home run it has happened once in Twins history and just 25 times in major league history. In the same game, Tony Oliva had 6 RBI with one home run.

2. This was far from a pitchers duel, as the Twins beat the White Sox 19-12 at Metropolitan Stadium on June 26th,1977.

3. He was never a full-time player throughout his eight year career and mostly appeared as a designated hitter. Although on this particular day he was playing right field.

 

I knew this one because I was at the game. Another thing to mention is that Rod Carew raised his BA above .400 during this game.

[Matthew Lenz]

  On 4/30/2020 at 7:52 PM, Nine of twelve said:

I knew this one because I was at the game. Another thing to mention is that Rod Carew raised his BA above .400 during this game.

Awesome! I was hoping I would get a few responses like this.