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About this blog

The history of the Minnesota Twins, one day at a time. Also sharing the stories of the major leaguers who grew up in Minnesota.

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The Twins Almanac for May 8

May 8, 1967 Rookie Carew Has Twins' First 5-Hit Game   Rookie Rod Carew became the first Twin to collect five hits in a single game in a 7-4 Twins loss to the Senators at home in Bloomington. Rodney was 5-for-5 on the day with a double, an RBI, and run scored. The Twins had 11 hits in total, but no other Twin had more than one.   Kirby Puckett set a new Twins record by going 6-for-6 with two home runs and two doubles in a 10-6 Twins win in Milwaukee on August 30th, 1987. Puckett had gone 4-
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Matt Johnson

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The Twins Almanac for May 7

May 7, 1965 Twins Commit Seven Errors   The Twins committed seven errors in a 13-5 loss to the White Sox on their home turf in Bloomington. Shortstop Zoilo Versalles and third baseman Rich Rollins each committed two errors, while Harmon Killebrew, Earl Battey and St. Paul native Jerry Kindall added one each. Every infielder plus the catcher committed an error. Despite the seven errors, Twins pitching still gave up 10 earned runs. Nimrod, MN native Dick Stigman started the game for the Twins
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The Twins Almanac for April 30-May 6

April 30, 1961 Killebrew’s First HR as a Twin   Trailing the White Sox 5-2 in the bottom of the 11th in Bloomington, Harmon Killebrew hit his first home run in a Twins uniform. The White Sox held on to win 5-3 with Bob Shaw pitching all 11 innings.   All told Harmon Killebrew would hit 573 home runs, fifth-most in baseball history at the time he retired, and still 11th all-time as of 2016. He hit 84 home runs as a member of the Washington Senators, 475 in a Twins uniform, and 14 as a Kansas Ci
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The Twins Almanac for April 23-29

April 23, 1961 Pitcher Kralick Delivers Twins' Only RBI   In the final game of the Twins' first ever home series, Jack Kralick pitched a complete game, four-hit shutout in a 1-0 Twins win versus the expansion Senators. Kralick's bat provided the Twins' only run, driving in Billy Gardner with a fifth-inning single. With the win the Twins improved to 7-2 on the season.   April 23, 1980 Landreaux Begins Record Hit Streak   Ken Landreaux began a 31-game hitting streak by breaking up Angel pitch
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The Twins Almanac for April 16-22

April 16, 1961 First Grand Slam in Twins History   Bob Allison hit the first grand slam in Twins history in the top of the first in the first game of a doubleheader in Baltimore. The Orioles’ Chuck Estrada, who had tied for the league lead with 18 wins the previous season and would win 15 in 1961, walked three straight to start the game, filling the bases for the cleanup hitter Allison. After giving up a double to Jim Lemon, Estrada was pulled having given up four runs without recording an out
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The Twins Almanac for April 9-15

April 9, 2000 Twins & Royals Go Back-to-Back-to-Back   Already up 6-0 entering the top of the sixth in Kansas City, Corey Koskie leads the inning off with a base hit. Ron Coomer, Jacque Jones and Matt LeCroy then proceed to hit three consecutive home runs on four total pitches. Coomer homers again in the seventh, again with Koskie on base.   Eric Milton retires the first 20 batters in order and has a 2-hit shutout going into the 8th. After retiring the first two batters, including former T
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The Twins Almanac for April 2-8

April 2, 1962 Twins Trade Ramos For Stigman   It what is commonly considered the first major trade in Twins history, Minnesota trades Pedro Ramos for Nimrod native, 1954 Sebeka High School graduate, and 1960 All-Star Dick Stigman.   Pedro Ramos started the first regular season game in Twins history, pitching a complete game three-hit shutout vs. Whitey Ford at Yankee Stadium on April 11, 1961.   He was involved in an interesting piece of Twins history on May 12, 1961 as he and Angels pitcher E
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Twins Almanac for March 26-April 1

March 26, 1989 Twins Trade Atherton for Castillo   The Twins trade pitcher Keith Atherton to the Cleveland ballclub for outfielder Carmelo Castillo.   Atherton’s name is attached to one of the more dubious records in team history as one of the record five Twins pitchers to work the eighth inning in a 14-8 loss to Toronto at the Metrodome.   Atherton made 59 relief appearances for the 1987 World Series Champion Twins. He faced two batters in Game 4 of the ‘87 ALCS, and made two appearances in t
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The Twins Almanac for March 19-25

March 19   Nothing happened today, except for the births of Paul Powell in San Angelo, Texas in 1948, and Tim Corcoran in Glendale, California in 1953. The two hit a combined .171 in 42 total games as Twins.   Powell went 5-for-31 as a Twins rookie in 1971. Corcoran, who played parts of nine season in the majors, went 9-for-51 for the Twins in 1981.     March 20 Happy 27th Birthday to Brad Hand   It’s the birthday of 2008 Chaska High School graduate and current Padres pitcher Brad Hand.
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The Twins Almanac for March 12-18

March 12, 2006 Kirby Puckett Memorial Service   15,000 fans, family, and friends including Cal Ripken Jr., Dave Winfield, Kent Hrbek, Harmon Killebrew, Dan Gladden, Al Newman, Gardy, TK and more pay tribute to Kirby Puckett in a moving memorial service at the Metrodome. Mudcat Grant sang “What a Wonderful World.”     March 12, 2014 Sano Goes Under the Knife   Mets team physician Dr. David Altchek performs Tommy John surgery on 20-year-old Twins prospect Miguel Sano at the Hospital for S
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The Twins Almanac for March 5-11

March 5 Happy 60th Birthday to Jerry Ujdur   It's the birthday 1975 Hermantown High School graduate Jerry Ujdur. Jerry made the Hermantown varsity team as an 8th grader. In ‘75 he met Dick Siebert halfway in Hinckley to audition for the legendary Gophers coach. He would win 27 games as a Gopher, second only to his teammate, Minnetonka High School grad Steve Comer's 30 wins. Ujdur appeared in 49 games, starting 37 for Detroit from 1980 to '83, winning 10 games for the Tigers in ‘82. He would pi
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The Twins Almanac for Feb 26-Mar 4

February 26, 1933 Johnny Blanchard Born in Minneapolis   It’s the birthdate of probably the most famous backup catcher in baseball history, Johnny Blanchard, born 85 years ago in the Mini Apple. Blanchard attended Minneapolis’s De LaSalle and Central High Schools, playing football, basketball, and baseball. He played one game for the New York Yankees late in the 1955 season, and would not play in the majors again until 1958, making a career of backing up Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. He would
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The Twins Almanac for February 19-25

Here is the Twins Almanac for the week of February 19-25. Four Minnesotan major leaguers were born in this week in history: "Home Run" Joe Marshall, Charley Walters, Dave Maurer and Dana Kiecker. Dick Siebert, one of the most important figures in the history of baseball in our great state, was born in Fall River, Massachusetts this week in 1912. And the Twins traded for two members of their first World Series Championship team this week in 1985 and '87.   February 19, 1876 “Home Run” Joe Mars
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The Twins Almanac for February 5-11

Here is the Twins Almanac for the week of February 5-11. Former Twins closer Al Worthington, Mounds View grad Mark Hamburger, and current Twins outfielder Max Kepler are all celebrating birthdays this week. '27 Yankees third baseman Julie Wera was born in Winona this week in 1902. Also this week in Twins history was a big payday for Bloomington's Kent Hrbek (1985), the Chuck Knoblauch trade ('08), and Terry Ryan's cancer diagnosis ('14).     http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/Wort
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The Twins Almanac for February 12-18

Here is the Twins Almanac for the week of February 12-18. Former Twins pitchers Kevin Tapani and Cole De Vries celebrate birthdays this week, as well as a pair of big leaguers who played their high school ball in Minnesota, Don Arlich and Brian Denman. And it was this week in 1973 that the Twins revealed 27-year-old infielder Danny Thompson's leukemia diagnosis.   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/denman_zpseevl08jd.jpg   February 12 Happy 61st Birthday to Brian Denman   It’
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The Twins Almanac for Jan 29-Feb 4

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/TwinsAlmanac_zpscrd6a75x.jpg   January 29 Twins Almanac’s First Birthday   The Twins Almanac was born in a Bellingham, WA apartment with the creation of the @TwinsAlmanac Twitter account on January 29, 2016. In the intervening year Molly and I moved to Minnesota where our daughter was born earlier this month.   The Twitter account was originally a way for me to feel like I was being productive, building an audience for the articles that were
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Twins Almanac: Dozier Edition

Here's my quick kitchen table roundup of all of the trivia surrounding Dozier's big day.     Brian Dozier is the sixth player in Twins history to homer three times in a game, joining Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew (1963), Tony Oliva ('73), Justin Morneau ('07) and Max Kepler who homered three times on August 1st this season in Cleveland.   Dozier's first homer came on the first pitch of the game. It was Dozier's 17th career leadoff home run. It was also his 36th home run of the season, givin
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Twins Almanac: Weekend Edition

And here is the Labor Day weekend edition of the Twins Almanac. While you're reading this I'll be attending my first State Fair of the millennium. Expect the next Almanac to read like it was written by someone five pounds fatter.   September 3, 1971 Eric Soderholm’s Eventful MLB Debut   Making his major league debut versus Oakland at home at Met Stadium in Bloomington, Eric Soderholm homered off of Diego Segui in just his second big league at-bat. A closer look at the game, though, reveals
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Twins Almanac: Workweek Edition

And here is the Twins Almanac for Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 2, 2016. Mrs. Johnson broke the internet at my folks' place where we're staying, so I'm posting this from across the pasture at my sister's house. I kind of forgot about this whole humidity thing here in Minnesota. It's alright, though, I'm just pretending I'm on safari.   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/killebrewallison_zpsq2qqq1gi.jpg   August 29, 1963 Twins Hit 12 Home Runs   The Twins hit a team
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Twins Almanac: Weekend Edition

And here is the Twins Almanac for the weekend of August 27-28, 2016. Mrs. Johnson and I have been busy getting settled here in Minnesota. It's good to be back after a decade out west. Look for a fresh batch of Twins trivia by open of business Monday.   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160810_105324_zpsinrwxudh.jpg   August 27 Happy 46th Birthday, Jim Thome   It’s the birthday of Jim Thome, born in 1970 in Peoria, IL. He had already hit 564 home runs when he signed with
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Twins Almanac for August 20-26

August 20, 1961 Two Twins Pitchers Homer in Same Game   Twins starting pitcher Jack Kralick and reliever Al Schroll both hit solo home runs vs. the Angels at Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field. The Twins, incidentally, won by 2 runs, 9-7. Twins center fielder Lenny Green homered to lead-off the game. Bloomington High School graduate George Thomas tied the game for the Angels with an RBI single in the second. The Angels went on to build a 3-1 lead in the inning. Then, leading off the third inning, Twi
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Twins Almanac, August 13-19

The Twins Almanac for August 13-19   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160810_105206_zpsixc8dcyp.jpg   And here is the first full-fledged Twins Almanac in awhile. In my absence from Twins Daily, many of you have been keeping in touch on Twitter, with over 1,000 new people following @TwinsAlmanac over the past month. It's good to be back writing posts of greater than 140 characters, though. This was a fun week in Twins history to write about. My childhood hero Kent Hrbek's n
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The Twins Almanac for May 26-31

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160525_170738_zpsyytecp4e.jpg   May 26, 2011 Twins Pay Final Respects to Harmon Killebrew   On an off day, the Twins and about 4,000 of their fans paid their final respects to Harmon Killebrew, who had passed away on May 17, with a beautiful memorial service on the infield at Target Field. In attendance was Commissioner Bud Selig, Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor and Bert Blyleven, as well as Tony Oliva and an All-Star lin
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The Twins Almanac for May 23-25

May 23, 1991 Kirby Puckett Has Second 6-Hit Game   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160522_105636_zpswcgiqwij.jpg   Kirby Puckett collected 6 hits for the second time in his career, going 6-for-7, scoring 2 runs in an eleven inning loss to Texas at the Metrodome. Kirby had 5 singles and a triple. His 6th hit, a single, came in the eleventh inning. The game was tied 5-5 entering the eleventh, but the Rangers were able to score 5 runs off of Steve Bedrosian. Kent Hrbek drove i
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Twins Almanac: Weekend Edition

May 21st Happy Birthday, Kent Hrbek   It's the birthday of Kent Hrbek, born on this date in 1960 in Minneapolis. He graduated from Bloomington's Kennedy High School in 1978 and was drafted that June by the Twins in the 17th round. Only Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett have played more games in a Twins uniform.   http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/Hrbek.82D_zps6hujuucx.jpg   The big, 6'4" left-handed first baseman made his Major League debut on August 24, 1981 at Yankee Stad
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