36 years ago today, Twins fans had a frightening experience at the Metrodome. And Ron Davis hadn't even entered the game yet!
It was a Saturday night in April 1986, and the stadium was unusually crowded with fans for that era, with an announced attendance of 31,996. I'd like to report that a mass of Twins faithful had shown up to support a young, exciting team building towards a World Series championship the following year, but Howard Sinker in the next morning's Star Tribune likened it to
"The Twins have signed a free agent to a 3-year contract with two opt-outs."
Sound familiar? It might.
Image courtesy of the Star Tribune
The seeds of today's Carlos Correa contract were planted on Feb. 5, 1991, with the Twins signing of Jack Morris. Technically the opt-outs were called "player options" at the time, but they were functionally the same: they empowered the player, alone, to turn a shorter-term contract into a longer-term one.
According to a 2016 NY Daily
I'm a geezer! I love baseball. Still young enough to move pretty darn well and old enough to remember when I was just learning to move. But, I have always loved the Twins!
The Twins Geezer