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The team that would become the Twins – the Washington Senators set the pace that the Twins would follow, with lots of mediocrity and last place teams with occasional flourishes of quality. “First in War, Last in the American League.” Since it is a new year, I thought it would be fun to look back at our legacy and see what happened in 1919 and each decade after: 1919 The team was 56 – 84 and seventh place out of eight teams. Walter Johnson had a 10.8 WAR for this collection and a record of 20 – 14. Clark Griffith was the manager. They had three outstanding players on their roster – Bucky Harris (his rookie year, only a few appearances), Sam Rice (10th in batting average – 321) and Joe Judge (288/386/406). It was not enough. They were last in Batting and last in Pitching, but still managed to finish ahead of the Philadelphia As. 1929 The year that the Great Depression hit the nation the team was 71 -81 and up to fifth place! Firpo Marberry (19 – 12 and 9 saves) had 7.1 WAR and Walter Johnson was the manager. They were 34 games behind and there were no playoffs or other options to hope for in those years. Marberry was one of the first really great relief pitchers with four years of double figure saves when that was not a stat nor did anyone care much about it. Yet he was by far the most valuable player on the team. Sam Rice was now 39 but had a line that read 323/382/424. Goose Goslin was .288/366/.461, Joe Judge was .315/.397/.442, Buddy Myers at 2B was .300/.373/.403 and Joe Cronin was .281/.388/.421 which proves again that pitching is what wins games! 1939 World War II begins, but not much changes for the Senators. There record is 65 – 87 and they are in 6th place 41 ½ games out. Bucky Harris is now the manager and will be for 8 seasons. Buddy Lewis is their WAR leader with 5.7. A third baseman and outfielder his line was 319/.402/.478. The attendance for the year was just over 329,000. Amazingly Dutch Leonard was 20 – 8 – winning 31% of the team total! Their only other star was right fielder Taffy Wright .309/.359/.435. Of note was September call up Early Wynn who was 0 – 2 in his debut but would go on to win 300 games. In 1949 when I was 3 ½ the Senators really stunk. 50 – 104 and 47 games out of contention. Of course they were in 8th place. J Kuhel was in second and last year as manager and Eddie Robinson lead the team with 2.5 WAR as a first baseman with .294/.381/.459. and the attendance for the year was up to 774,000! A familiar name for Twins history was on this roster – Sam Mele 242/.288/.337. He started out the year in RF for the Red Sox and then came to the Senators in the season and played RF/CF/1B. Another familiar name is Eddie Yost who became famous for fouling off pitches, his line was .253/.383/.391. Member of the Twins front office Sherry Robertson was on the team and played 2B/3B/RF/LF. 1959. Two years from coming to Minnesota the team was 63 – 91 and in 8th place again. Cookie Lavagetto was manager and would be for the Twins in 1961 before giving way to Sam Mele. Camilo Pascual had 8.6 WAR. Always my favorite pitcher in the early Twins years Pascual was 17 – 10 that year giving him 27% of the team wins. In September Jim Kaat came to the team – 21 years old, 0 – 2 record! Jack Kralick and Pedro Ramos were also in the rotation and would becomes Twins staples! Both underrated in Twins history. At 23 Harmon Killebrew was finally given a full time position after rotting on the bench due to the bonus baby rule (another stupid rule from baseball’s hierarchy). With 42 HRs the Killer had a line of 242/.354/.516. Familiar names on the roster included Bob Allison, Jim Lemon, Lenny Green, Zoilo Versalles, Roy Seivers, and Reno Bertoia. Bad team with some great players. 1969 In the playoff era, one of our greatest teams finished first – 97 – 65 and then lost 3 – 0 in the ALCS. What a shame. Jim Perry with 6.5 was tops in WAR and 20 – 6! He was amazing that year. Dave Boswell was 20 – 12, Jim Kaat was 14 – 13, Tom Hall (who physically resembles Jose Berrios) was 8 – 7 and Dean Chance was 5 – 4. What a rotation! Ron Perranoski and Al Worthington were the top relief tandem. Then there were the bats – 36 year old John Roseboro at Catcher, Reese at 1B, Carew 2B - .332/.386/.467, Cardenas SS, Killebrew (49 HRs) at 3B, Allison (24 HR), Uhlander, and Oliva (.309/.355/.496) in the OF. The manager was a story in himself – Billy Martin! 1979 82 – 80 and fourth in the West. Gene Mauch was the manager (Roy Smalley’s uncle) and Jerry Koosman led in WAR (7.2). The Twins drew just over one million fans. In 1974 when Blyleven led the way they drew only 660,000. Koosman was 20 – 13, Dave Goltz was 14 – 13, and Geoff Zahn, Roger Erickson and Paul Hartzell rounded out a ½ good rotation. Mike Marshall was the pen – 90 appearances, 32 saves, 142 innings pitched. The Batting order did not match the sixties. Roy Smalley was probably the best, Kenny Landreaux was good and Butch Wynegar was Calvin Griffith favorite. We also had the great name – Bombo Rivera! 1989 80 – 82. Two years from our world series in – we only won five more regular season games that year and the year before we were 91 – 71 and better than any of the other teams in this time frame, but we finished second. This year had a similar record to ten years earlier, but we were below 500 and finished 5th. Kirby Puckett led in WAR (4.9) 339/.379/.465 and it was Tom Kelly’s third season as manager. We drew 2,200,000 fans! The rotation was led by Allen Anderson 17 – 10, Frank Viola 8 – 12, and Roy Smith 10 – 6 and Jeff Reardon was in the pen with Juan Berenguer. The big bats were Puckett, Harper, Hrbek, Gagne, Gaetti, and Gladden. It was also the year of Wally Backman at second base and that was some mistake. 1999 63 – 97 and in fifth place out of 5. Kelly was still the manager and Brad Radtke led in WAR – 6.5 and was 12 – 14. Terry Steinbeck was the catcher – nice to have the Minnesotan come home. He had a line of .242/.310/.410. A guy by the name of David Ortiz played 1B .277/.371/.446, but of course we did not like the way he swung the bat! Ron Coomer and Matt Lawton were regulars and a guy named Molitor was DH .281/.335/.382 – we liked that, we didn’t like Ortiz. In the rotation Radtke was joined by LaTroy Hawkins 7 – 14, Eric Milton 8 – 14 and Bob Tewksbury 7 – 13. Rick Aguilera and Eddie Guardado held the pen. 2009 – Current history. 87 – 67 and first place in the Central, then a 3 – 0 loss in the LDS. Joe Mauer led in WAR with 7.8 (28 HRs, .365/.444/.587 and Ron Gardenhire managed. Blackburn and Baker each won 12, Slowey and Perkins each won 11, and Livan Hernandez won 10. Joe Nathan was joined by Boof Bonser – another of the best names in Twins history – Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, and Dennys Reyes. Mauer, Morneau, Span and Kubel led the lineup with Carlos Gomez in CF and Nick Punto all over the field. 3B Buscher, 2b Casilla, and the famous Delmon Young in LF! 2019????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? That’s the decade review. When we were senators we finished 7/5/6/8/8 – very consistent. The Twins in the years that ended with 9 were 1/4/5/5/1 – somewhat erratic but some fun teams. What can we expect this year? There are so many questions – Happy New Year.

https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-18-036/?loclr=eanotw The library of Congress has given us a historical gift - the scouting reports of Branch Rickey. He was a vital part of baseball history, even beyond signing Jackie Robinson and this is where you can check it out. Here are some notes from the introduction and entries that struck me: Rickey’s 1963 scouting report on Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing home run record of 714 in 1974. Rickey wrote "Surely one of the greatest hitters in baseball today. Can hit late with power, - good wrists. But in spite of his hitting record and admitted power ability, one cannot help think that Aaron is frequently a guess hitter." A 1955 scouting report on Roberto Clemente, who amassed 3,000 hits in his Hall of Fame career for the Pittsburgh Pirates A report dated March 30-31, 1964, on future National Basketball Association great Dave DeBusschere, where Rickey predicted that DeBusschere “should become a corking good major league pitcher.” For Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, Rickey noted on March 14, 1964, “when trying out young players… scouts and coaches would keep in mind Bob Gibson as a model for comparison and rate the prospect’s stuff accordingly.” About Richie Allen - “Rollie Hemsley at Indianapolis, Bill Adair at Toronto, Larry Shepard at Columbus, Kerby Farrell at Buffalo and Harry Walker at Atlanta all believe that outfielder Allen is the best major league prospect in the International League. A colored boy, very young, and belongs to Philadelphia. He has extraordinary power to all fields. Arm not great, but adequate. Highly desirable in any deal with Philadelphia. I am sorry not to have been able to see this boy in action, but rating give to the player by baseball men generally put him immediately as a regular in any major league outfield. I would risk a heavy deal to have the Cardinals Get this player.” Minnesotan Twins 2B Bernie Allen – “Tall boy from Purdue. Left hand hitter, has power and I believe he can outrun Rollins. I doubt if he is a .300 hitter. Hit .269 in 1962, Not hitting a lick this year…” Bob Allison – “A 275 hitter with exceptional power. Looks the part of a great athlete. Right hander all the way. He has everything it takes to be a long time major league regular.” Earl Battey – “A big colored catcher. Looks overweight, but has a remarkable action. Quick and has power at the plate, plenty of it. Looks like he likes to play. I can imagine him in a World Series.” Minnesota born, Yankee – John Blanchard – “If Blanchard’s habits were good and his team relationship satisfactory, St Louis could use him. I would not take him unless I were permitted to have a conversation with the player with results satisfactory to myself.” Harmon Killebrew – “A big right hand hitter with as much distance power as any man in the game. Strikes out a great deal. I would not be interested in obtaining his contract in any kind of possible trade. I don’t want him at the price.” It will take a lot of time to sort out everything, but this is a very personal glimpse into the game in the early 60's.

As we carefully analyze each game of the new season and try to read the tea leaves on each swing of the bat I thought I would provide just a little change of pace and look at another story from baseball history. While Civil War general Abner Doubleday is mythologically given the title of the founder of the game of baseball, a myth that has been refuted by nearly every scholar, we should look at baseball and an even more famous General – William Tecumseh Sherman. In his biography by James Lee McDonough we learn the following: “…a number of friends with whom Cump (Sherman) played a primitive form of baseball, using yarn balls. From time to time the balls were hit into a garden adjoining the playing field, whose owner became irate at his garden being trampled by young me retrieving valls. When the man began confiscating the balls and throwing them into his stove, Sherman and his buddies sought revenge. They filled a ball with gunpowder. Soon the unsuspecting garden owner seized the devilishly prepared thing and cast it into his stove; a fiery explosion rocked the house, leaving the man suffering with burns and damage o his home. The boys, naturally, had waited close by to observe the result of their scheme. Suddenly the angry man burst forth from his house, intent upon chasing down the culprits. He managed to catch the slowest of the boys as they ran.” Sherman being fleet of foot escaped unscathed! The Smithsonian takes the relationship to baseball and the Civil War another step forward with this statement, “The evolving Knickerbocker Code or rules had its origins in metropolitan New York in 1845. Union soldiers, more familiar with the game, introduced others, including Southerners and Westerners to baseball throughout the Civil War, resulting in thousands of soldiers learning the game. Upon returning home, the game spread to friends and neighbors and soon the sport was played in every region of the country, solidifying its title as “The National Pastime." http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/08/civil-war-baseball.html

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed Aaron Gleeman’s Minnesota Twins the Big 50 and thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia and stories. It is an excellent book and I am sure that Aaron dislikes the one big editing error that has the big page for Jim Kaat as Jim Katt. Otherwise Aaron should be very proud of the book and the quality he maintained. There are players for every era and some choices that surprised me, but nothing that I completely disagree with. I was surprised that it was not 50 players and there were sections on world series games and teams and even our previous two managers – where is Billy Martin? This made me wonder if we did not have 50 worthy players. I tried to think of who I would add. I am sorry that Lyman Bostock was not there and as an old Twin fan I missed Vic Power. Two seasons for Vic, but gold gloves and 280 average with 26 homeruns. He was colorful, exciting to watch and a player who really connected with the fans and the other one was Mudcat Grant who also had too shore a Twins career but was so much fun to watch and cheer for and his 21 wins made him worthy of our fandom. However, since we had managers and teams and games in the Gleeman book I thought about who I would have as NUMBER 51 – and Is THE OWNERS. What can I say to summarize the owners of this franchise? Of course, there is the forever echo of fans calling Pohlad cheap, but I think the most egregious of all his actions was during that low point in major league baseball when they were considering contraction and Carl volunteered to let the Twins be eliminated. Willing to accept $250,000,000 Carl was not going to lose money, but he certainly gave up Twin City admiration. “Well, he was frustrated,” Selig told the Pioneer Press last month during an interview. “The guy tried everything. I know. I was up there. I thought we had a deal two or three times and every time it fell apart, mainly for political reasons. “Contraction had nothing to do with Minnesota. Baseball was really struggling at the time, losing a fortune as a sport. There were owners who believed that contraction might help. I wasn’t of that particular view, but the owners were searching around,” Selig said. Then a local judge stepped up – “Hennepin County Judge Harry Seymour Crump became a local folk hero when he issued a temporary restraining order that forced the Twins to honor their lease and play the 2002 season at the Dome. “The vital public interest, or trust, of the Twins substantially outweighs any private interest,” Crump wrote in his ruling.” (Brian Murphy) Then there was the original owner – Calvin Griffith. In a well written article Kevin Hennessey wrote, “Calvin reacted to the new baseball economics by futilely trying to resist changes such as salary arbitration, player agents, free agency, and the increasing importance of television revenue, which gave an advantage to teams in larger markets. As time moved on, Griffith was considered a “dinosaur” or a “vestige of yesterday” relative to the new baseball owners of the late 1970s. Then there was the Waseca Lions Club meeting where Calvin let his tongue run loose and ended up losing Rod Carew - “Griffith interrupted himself, lowered his voice and asked if there were any blacks around. After he looked around the room and assured himself that his audience was white, Griffith resumed his answer. “I’ll tell you why we came to Minnesota,” he said. “It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don’t go to ball games, but they’ll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you to death. It’s unbelievable. We came here because you’ve got good, hardworking, white people here.” Next was the feud between Calvin and his son Clark who refused to serve an apprenticeship in the minors. And in 1983 the team considered moving the franchise to Tampa Bay. http://sabr.org/research/calvin-griffith-ups-and-downs-last-family-owned-baseball-team-0

Everybody loves a good record chase. Whether it's Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's asterisk-fueled home run battle of 1998 or the very non-asterisk-fueled Kansas City Royals challenging the record for most consecutive innings without scoring a run last season—a record chase is compelling. There's a fine line, though, between fun facts and records. Fun facts get mocked (rightfully) for having more qualifiers than valuable information. “He has the most infield singles on Tuesday night home games before the All-Star break,” you'll hear someone say in a dopey voice that doesn't actually exist in nature. Those are fun facts and in most cases they are not fun at all. But somewhere between real records and those not-so-fun fun facts are some interesting statistics, if you're into that kind of thing. I am very much into this kind of thing. If you look hard enough, you could find a record-breaking event in nearly every MLB game. If you look a little less hard (look softer?) you come up with a handful of records that are on the verge of being broken in 2018. That’s what I did with the Twins. I looked softer (that doesn’t sound right) and came up with four Twins-specific records that could be broken this year. If you want to watch history in the making this season, you just need to know where to look. Here is your guide to weird Twins records to keep an eye on in 2018. Career Hits against Lefties As Joe Mauer enters his 15th season with the Twins, he is starting to approach some accumulation records. While he’s still 900+ hits away from that franchise record, he is within striking distance of the franchise record of hits against left-handed pitchers. Mauer needs to collect 54 hits against lefties this year to pass Carew’s record mark. While he's had just 40 such hits last year, he’s had 5 seasons in his career with 54+ against southpaws. Unfortunately, the most recent of those seasons came 6 years ago in 2012. Adding to the degree of difficulty, the starting rotations of AL Central opponents expects to be very righty-heavy this year, which could suppress his number of plate appearance against lefties. If Mauer breaks this record in 2018, it will come at the very end of the year, so file this one away for a few months. Target Field Strikeouts If you're looking for a record that could be broken early in the year, then look no further (but please do look further, I still have 2 more after this one). Francisco Liriano is the current record-holder for strikeouts at Target Field. His lead, however, is so narrow that he will certainly be passed by at least one Twins pitcher this year, even though he could add to his total by pitching at Target Field when his Detroit Tigers visit Minnesota. Even if it turns out that Kyle Gibson didn't turn a corner late last year, it won't take much for him to pass up Liriano, as he only needs 4 Ks to do it. If Gibson did turn a corner, then he'll likely take the lead after one start. Ervin Santana is poised to pass Liriano as well assuming he can remain healthy after he returns from his finger injury. As for Santana catching up to Gibson, it would require Gibson to miss most of the year or get traded. Phil Hughes could also pass Liriano with a good season, but surpassing Gibson and Santana would necessitate a BOGO sale at the Springfield Mystery Spot. Kennys Vargas’ Elite Immobility All Kennys Vargas has to do to set a franchise record is just stand there. Currently, he is the active MLB leader in games played without a stolen base attempt among non-pitchers. The only player in Twins history with more games played without an attempted steal is former-backup-catcher turned manager turned former-manager Mike Redmond. I included the rest of the top 5 because having the Butera Boyz™ together is fun, and any leaderboard that includes Mike Redmond and Hall of Famer Jim Thome together is fantastic. Vargas is just 22 stationary games away from owning this franchise record outright. Unfortunately for him, the addition of Logan Morrison puts his playing time—and roster spot—into question. It does, however, make pinch-hit appearances even more likely if he stays on the team, which would count as games played but would limit his stolen base opportunities. If he remains on the team as a bench bat, expect this record to be his by June, assuming he doesn't screw it up by trying to steal. If he gets designated for assignment or traded, Redmond can light up a cigar in celebration. Total Bases at Target Field Target Field-specific records are kind of lame, but total bases, like strikeouts, is a fairly informative stat. Total bases can be used as crude short-hand for “who was good for the longest time”. If you asked the average Twins fan who was good for the longest time since Target Field opened in 2010, they would probably say either Joe Mauer or Brian Dozier, and that’s exactly who sits at the top of this leaderboard. Dozier needs to net 13 total bases this year to wrest the record away from Mauer. Considering that Dozier had 55 more total bases at home than Mauer last year (during Mauer’s best offensive season in four years), it’s likely that Dozier climbs to the top of this leaderboard by May and doesn’t look back for the rest of 2018. Where these guys fit into the Twins plans going forward will likely dictate who finishes their career with this record on their mantle. Which record are you most excited to watch for in 2018? Or is there another record that isn't listed here that you'll be keeping an eye on?

Hey all, John and Seth suggested that I bring my latest venture to your attention here at Twins Daily, especially because, eventually, it's bound to be Twins-related.Although the Twins' forays into Asia have both been busts, that doesn't diminish the importance of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan as hotbeds of talent and enthusiasm for the game. And long before there was ByungHo Park or Tsuyoshi Nishioka, there was Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player to make it to the Major Leagues. Murakami's success as a member of the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965 are the subject of the latest episode of This Week In Baseball History, a new podcast produced by Mike Bates (hey, that's me!) and Bill Parker. His story is a great one that touches on the difficulties of the immigrant experience, from culture shock to prejudice to triumph, and reaches (spoiler alert) a pretty bittersweet conclusion. Our special guest in this episode, Rob Fitts, literally wrote the book on Mashi, and has great insight on how his time in America and his return to Japan affected the rest of his life, and why, after Murakami left the Giants, there wasn't another Japanese MLBer for another 30 years. Bill and I are back each week with a new topic. So far, we've covered the trial of the Chicago Black Sox, the deaths of Thurman Munson and Ed Delahanty, Mark McGwire's record-setting rookie season in 1987 (ooh, that's kind of Twins-related; we talk about Bert Blyleven), and more. You can find all the episodes of the podcast at This Week In Baseball History. Click here to view the article

As you may have heard other places on the inter-net and quite possibly on this very website, the Twins' top prospect, Byron Buxton, has joined the team in Texas and the assumption is that he'll make his debut on Sunday. Understandably, there is a lot of excitement surrounding his arrival and not a mean amount of expectation-tempering from the other side as Twins fans try to figure out what it means to have a player of Buxton's caliber on the roster. While Buxton wasn't Baseball America's top prospect in baseball this year, that prize went to the Cubs' Kris Bryant, he was their 2014 top prospect, which puts him in some pretty elite company, joining players like Bryce Harper, Jason Heyward, Joe Mauer, and Alex Rodriguez. All of these players excited their team's fanbase upon their arrival and surely produced the same hand-wringing over what they were going to do for the team. So, here is what the last 20 years of Baseball America Top Prospects did in the very first major league game, along with the date of their debut (Pitcher stats have been omitted): 2015: Kris Bryant, April 17, 2015, 0-4, 3K 2014: Byron Buxton: Pending 2013: Jurickson Profar: September 2, 2012, 2-4, 2B, HR, R, RBI 2012: Bryce Harper: April 28, 2012, 1-3, 2B, RBI 2011: Bryce Harper: April 28, 2012, 1-3, 2B, RBI 2010: Jason Heyward: April 5, 2010, 2-5, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2009: Matt Wieters: May 29, 2009, 0-4, K 2008: Jay Bruce: May 27, 2008, 3-3, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB 2007: Daisuke Matsuzaka 2006: Delmon Young: August 29, 2006, 2-3, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI 2005: Joe Mauer: April 5, 2004, 2-3, 2 R, 2 BB 2004: Joe Mauer: April 5, 2004, 2-3, 2 R, 2 BB 2003: Mark Teixeira: April 1, 2003, 0-3, BB, K 2002: Josh Beckett 2001: Josh Hamilton: April 2, 2007, 0-1 (1-3, HR, R, RBI, 2BB in full debut on April 10) 2000: Rick Ankiel (P) 1999: J.D. Drew: September 2, 1998, 0-2, K (0-3, R, 2K, BB in first start on Sept. 13) 1998: Ben Grieve: September 3, 1997, 3-4, 3 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI, BB 1997: Andruw Jones: August 15, 1996, 1-5, R, RBI, 2K 1996: Andruw Jones: August 15, 1996, 1-5, R, RBI, 2K 1995: Alex Rodriguez: July 8, 1994, 0-3 The good news for Buxton is that, unless he becomes the first top prospect in the last 20 years to earn a Golden Sombrero on his debut, he's unlikely to have a worse coming out party than Bryant did in April. On the other end of the spectrum, he'll be chasing Ben Grieve and Jay Bruce for the best day, though Jurickson Profar isn't far behind in terms of productivity. If that isn't reason enough not to get too high or too low about what Buxton does in his first game, I'm not sure what is. One way Buxton could set his name in the stars is if he steals a base; since 1990, no BA top prospect has successfully stolen a base on his debut. No matter what he does, it's fairly clear that what happens when he does start has literally no effect on the rest of his career. Still, I don't think many Twins fans would say no to a duplicate of what Joe Mauer did back in 2004.