Search the Community

Anything can happen. Dreams can come true. Tom Klawitter’s big league career may not have been real long. Many Twins die-hards may not even remember it. However, his story is one worth telling. It’s worth telling to Minnesota Twins fans. It’s worth telling to Minnesota Twins minor leaguers, and minor leaguers across baseball. It’s also worth telling to kids who dream of getting to the big leagues. Klawitter was born in 1958 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Asked if he was a Twins fan, Klawitter said, “It’s kind of funny. As a kid, I was kind of a front-runner. Back in the late-60s, I was an Orioles fan, and then I became a Dodgers fan after I got drafted. I did have a connection to the Twins with (former Twins 3B) Craig Kusick being from LaCrosse.” He wasn’t drafted out of high school, and then he stayed home for college. He spent four years at the University of Wisconsin, in LaCrosse. It was there that, despite being a northern school, he started to get the attention of area scouts. “I got to my senior year. I was 5-0, and the guys down south were 15-and-whatever, so I didn’t expect (to get drafted).” In June of 1980, Klawitter was the 19th round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, the Dodgers were one of the most popular teams in baseball. They had players such as Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzuela, Ron Cey and more household names. Klawitter said, “It was obviously a great opportunity for me. That was quite an experience being around all those great ballplayers. When I got up there early, it was Ron Cey and Valenzuela and those guys that were in the majors at the time. Garvey. Tommy Lasorda. In ’81 I went to camp there. It was quite an experience to see those guys. I was pretty spoiled at the time. The Dodgers were a first-class, top-of-the-line organization. Vero Beach was the place to be. You got treated pretty well down there.” In 1980, he had the second most starts for a Lethbridge (Rookie League) team that went 52-18. In 1981, he won 11 games for Lodi of the California League. In 1982, he made the jump to AA San Antonio. The then-24-year-old went 9-14 with a 5.30 ERA that year. The next spring he returned to San Antonio, but his stay there was short. After just seven games, he was released by the Dodgers. It was a tough time for Klawitter, but good came from it. “That’s a tough thing. It’s like being let go from your job. Obviously it’s pretty tough on you. Fortunately, I was able to come back pretty close to home and got picked up by the Twins.” The Twins signed him and sent him to Low Class A Wisconsin Rapids, a town less than a two-hour drive from his hometown of LaCrosse. “That was just what the doctor ordered. I was back in my old stomping grounds, where I had a lot of success. It seemed to pump in a lot of confidence, and I pitched pretty well. So that was kind of the start of it.” Over 23 appearances (21 starts) with Wisconsin Rapids, Klawitter went 10-5 with a 2.99 ERA in 156.1 innings. The next season, 1984, he jumped all the way up to AAA Toledo. “Being in AAA with the Mudhens is another great experience, and I had a pretty good year there too.” He made 26 starts and went 10-6 with a 3.59 ERA for the Mudhens. The roster was made up of several of the players who would become big pieces of the Minnesota Twins 1987 championship team. Playing for manager Cal Ermer, the team went 74-63. The Minnesota Twins 1984 team went late into the season before falling out of playoff contention, but prior to the age of social media, most of the players in Toledo weren’t really keeping tabs on the big league club, including Klawitter. “For me, I was so happy to be there that I didn’t even notice that some of the guys were really pressing to get to the big leagues or back to the big leagues or whatever. It was a really good time, and I was pitching well. When you’re playing well, it’s a lot more fun. I was right in the rotation, and Cal Ermer had a lot of confidence in me. The dynamics of the team were, I mean, we had a pretty close group of guys. I think that’s why we were successful. We did pretty well right up to the end. We had a good mix of guys that had had a taste of it and guys that were just trying to get a part of it. It was pretty neat.” Klawitter continued, “I’m not even sure we had anyone called up that year from our team. Brad Havens might have been. We were kind of in the thick of what we were doing. Scott Ullger was one of our outfielders. Bobby Mitchell, who came over from the Dodgers, I knew. It was just a bunch of great guys who, I mean, I really felt that we played for our team and not so much for ourselves. You don’t find that a lot in pro ball.” He truly enjoyed the opportunity. “It was a phenomenal opportunity at the time. That’s when I first started my friendship with Kirby. He was in AAA for a month and then he got called up right after that.” Klawitter performed, and because of it, he received a non-roster invitation to major league spring training with the Twins. He was excited about the news and another opportunity. “I was surprised and obviously very thankful. I took whatever I could get. I wasn’t disappointed that I wasn’t on the 40-man roster. I was thankful for the opportunity to get that chance. They sent me my contract, and it said this, but you’re a non-roster player, and come down with the big club in Orlando. We did pretty much what everyone was doing, just the fact that we were not on the roster. We went about our business and just hoped for an opportunity. I got down there and made the best of it.” He was also realistic about his chances of making the big league club out of spring training. “I thought I could have gone back to Toledo, and I would have been fine with that. I was playing pro ball, and I guess you can look at it any way you want to. It was a lot of us non-roster guys throwing batting practice and doing this or that and that’s part of everything.” In fact, his first spring training outing wasn’t really even supposed to happen, or at least not likely. “I believe somebody was looking out for me,” Klawitter explained. “The coaches told me to go warm up, that I had the ninth. We were on the road and down by I don’t know how many runs. The chances of me getting in the game were not good. Sure enough, we came back and went ahead. I went out there and shut them down in the ninth.” He believes that the coaches thought to themselves, “Wow! Maybe this guy can pitch.” One outing became two, and then three, and so on. “I didn’t really watch who else was pitching, but a couple of other guys weren’t getting the job done. I had a pretty good spring.” With the last name of Klawitter, it was clear that his nickname since his young years was The Klaw. As spring went along, and he was experiencing success, his nickname became a big part of his story At the same time, Baron von Raschke was very popular among pro wrestling fans. His signature move was The Claw. The match only made too much sense, and it just took off, with the help of one of his teammates. “(Twins Hall of Famer Kent) Hrbek was fun-loving, and he was kind of into this wrestling with Baron von Raschke, and it was just perfect timing for me.” “It was absolutely a blast. It took some of the pressure off. It just kind of kept building. You get Hrbek feeding off it, and (Gary) Gaetti started saying stuff. Then all of a sudden (manager Billy) Gardner, I don’t know why, stuck his hand out and started doing The Claw and it worked on its own,” Klawitter continued, “Like I said, someone was looking after me and it was a perfect opportunity for me. In the right place at the right time. It was definitely a high spot in my career, I’ll tell you that.” Instead of pitching when the games were out of hand, Klawitter started pitching in the seventh inning or in more important game situations. That’s when he figured he had a chance to make the team. Even toward the end of spring training, he was pretty certain that he would head back to Toledo. It wasn’t until very late in camp that somebody told him that he had made the Twins opening day roster. Klawitter recalled, “That was such an honor. I can’t even remember how it happened.” The first phone calls he made were to his family. “You’d like to call everybody. It’s more of a conversation like, ‘you won’t believe this, but I’m breaking with the big club.’” Tom Klawitter was the story of Twins spring training thirty years ago. His story did not end when he was called up to the Twins. In Part 2 of this Tom Klawitter story, we discuss his brief time in a Twins uniform. We will also tell you what has kept him busy, competitive and successful since his retirement. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments below.