Born raised and live in Minnesota. My cousin said if you love her you must must must be fan/support ALL Minnesota teams!!! No exceptions!!! You can be fans of other teams but always support the Minnesota teams! Asides from family I’ve cut out social gatherings for twins/sports in general. Even not having girlfriend as well. Sports/twins are way more important!

20 hours ago, RickOShea said:

I was born in richfield, mn, just across the freeway from Met stadium.  At night you could stand in our back yard and see the lights from the Met and even hear the PA announcer.  My dad died when I was six and my brother took over as head of the household.  He was all-city and state in baseball and hockey.  Needless to say, his love of sports interested me.  We went to many games at Met stadium.  Our church was responsible for sweeping and cleaning up the litter at Met stadium.  

So as you can seen I had a very direct connection with the Twins and Met Stadium.  My uncle was an  apartment manager in Bloomington.  Many of the Twins players lived there, during the season, or even year round.  I met many of them as they would come and go from their apartments.

I remember my cousin and I had just attended a Twins night game.  While the fans were pretty passive most of the time, occasionally, you would run into a brief hassle or even a fight in the Met's parking lot.  One night, we could see this huge crowd gathered, and we assumed some trouble was brewing.  Wanting to check it out, we weaved our way to the center of the crowd.  There was no fight.  It was Harmon and Bob Allison sitting on the tailgate of a pick up truck, signing autographs.  They must have been there more than an hour after game time, signing away.

On 8/9/2023 at 8:47 AM, nclahammer said:

I became a Minnesota Twins fan watching and playing baseball with my four older brothers on our farm in near Bath, South Dakota.  We would play a game called "Work Up" and my brothers would shout out the names of different Twins players who were now batting.    My fandom of the Twins increased playing Strat-o-matic baseball with my brother Warren, and now you could hold that individual player card (such as Carew or Oliva) in your hand and they would bat for you when you rolled the dice (still have the game with those 1973 teams.)  I became a Pittsburgh Pirates fan (my second favorite team at the time), especially of Willie Stargell, because of this game.  Stargell seemed to always crush it for me in Strat-o-matic baseball.  Growing up in South Dakota in the 1960s-70s, I don't ever remember watching the Minnesota Twins play on TV, but I do remember catching glimpses of my favorite Twins players on TWIB (This Week in Baseball) with Mel Allen.  In 1978, I went to my first Twins game at Met Stadium, a double-header against Cleveland and Twins jacket giveaway day (I still have mine.)   On our way to the game (mind you, my father did NOT like driving in the big city), I remember my dad kept missing our ramp to turn off to the stadium and it kind of reminds me now like that scene from European Vacation, where the Griswold family gets trapped in that roundabout and keeps passing by Big Ben.  As a result, we missed the first inning or so of game one.  In the 80s, rarely would the Twins be on TV (no cable, only two networks and the game of the week), but now I would listen on the radio.  Sometimes I would go into town (nearby Aberdeen) and I might catch a Twins game on MSC (Midwest Sports Channel) at the friend's house who had cable TV.  I remember my first game at the Dome (1984?), going with my friend Lyle and his family, and seeing Minnesota play the Royals with the great George Brett.  Many more Dome games would follow.  I shared a 20 game season ticket package with my friend John at Target Field from 2010 - 2014, we went to the opener together.  Two tickets in the cheapest seats for twenty games.  He had been a Twins season ticket holder since 1999, and wanted someone to share the cost with until Minnesota hosted an all star game, which he knew Target Field would one day soon.  After John checked the all star game off his bucket list, I took over his account and still have it today, although I resell many of the tickets.    I used to take each of my daughters to their own game when they were younger, usually a Sunday game where they could get some free autographs and run the bases afterwards.  A date night game with the Mrs. too.  Now that the girls are older, we still try to go to one game together each year as a family, I usually have my girls pick one with a good giveaway or special event going on.  We'll be there on Friday, August 18, on Star Wars Night, when there will be a postgame drone show, in place of the usual Friday fireworks.  I just realized that I am now in my fifth decade as a fan of the Minnesota Twins.  How about that?  Go Twins!

Hey Bud, 

Loved your post.  I too played strat as a kid, and still play today.  Greatest baseball game ever!  I am just a 61 yr old kid.

I wanted a baseball team in the AL that wasn't the Royals, I liked Twinkies and Kirby Puckett so it was a natural fit.

In 1961 when I was 10 years old, I was playing Little League in Indianapolis IN, and my team was the Minnesota Twins. I figured that I liked playing baseball by that age and I need to start following the major leagues so I promptly became a Twins fan. I could tune in games on either WHO Iowa station or WCCO when the skies were clear after about 9 pm eastern time. When I listened and the skies were not very clear, I would make out about one out of every five words and try to piece the broadcast together to tell what was going on in the game. Finally broadcast.com came about and I was able to listen to Twins games and hear everything. A lot of ups and downs over the years,  but I’ve been a staunch, diehard Twins fan the whole time. I played at Twins fantasy camp about five years ago, and had the time of my life. I got to play for coaches Kent Hrbek, and Tom Brunanskys’ team. I got to meet et a lot of great guys and former players. GO TWINS!!!

On 8/9/2023 at 9:00 AM, Puckett34 said:

Was a passive fan from birth-mid 2000's, the 2006 team captivated me and the 2009 team cemented to the fan I am now.  September 2009 was amazing

Yep. My first Twins memory was some crap team in the late 90s when Bob Tewksbury was on the team and starting. The 2002 team was the first Twins team that captivated my attention. The beginning of Johan’s dominant peak!

Nothing rivals the incredible comeback in the 2nd half of 2006. They’re the team I think of when I’m ready to write off a Twins team and think maybe not?

My goodness, what great stories in this thread.  Thanks for the question, Devlin.

It's hard to explain to younger fans now, but back in the day we didn't have so many options for media and distractions in life. When the Twins were playing it was common to hear the radio broadcast or see the TV broadcast wherever you were. Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall were like everyone's cousin and uncle as familiar kindly voices in our lives. And baseball's long season gave everyone many chapters of an unfolding story over the summer months. It was so easy to get hooked as a kid. Or adults. Even my grandma followed along.

Harmon, of course, was just monumental in the early era. Not only was he a great player, but his reserved yet friendly and always nice personality was a perfect fit for the place and times. Even though he was from Idaho, he seemed to be what we believed Minnesotans were like, NICE from all backgrounds and elements of our society. When Tony O came along as an incredibly talented rookie, the mix just got more fascinating, adding another touch of Cuban spice (along with Camilo and Zoilo). 

And then there were baseball cards back when they weren't preserved and collected for value, but to be used to trade, build paper teams, memorize important factoids from the back of the card, and occasionally attach to your bike to make cool sounds. 

It has been great to read all these paths to Twins fandom.

12 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Nothing rivals the incredible comeback in the 2nd half of 2006. They’re the team I think of when I’m ready to write off a Twins team and think maybe not?

That is always the team I think of when I'm ready to write them off.  There was a May or June in 2014 or 15 I think they went 20-8 in a month after being god awful for two months, was thinking, they're gonna do it. 

Think that was the season Plouffe hit like 10ish home runs in a month or something and Dozier was nearly matching him.

Edit: it was the May of 2015, went 20-7, then in June went 11-17. Fizzled out after the break. Good times

Edit Edit:  Mixing up my references and meshing them as one.  The Plouffe tear was indeed in June, but of 2012, but the May of 2015 thing obviously happened separately. 

My best friend in high school and juco back in NJ, ended up going to Iowa State for a short time. He roomed there with a guy who moved to St Paul after graduating from ISU, to work at West. A year or two later, my friend and I took a road trip from NJ to Mn to visit this other guy...and also to drink copious amounts of beer...and we also took in a Twins game at the dome, first year it opened. My opinion was...this is the worst damn ballpark ever created, and I still think so. Anyway, I met my future wife here in Mn on that trip...and I fell for her, and the Twinks. Been here since 82. Proud Twins fan!

My father's job put him in contact with Tony Olivia for a time. As a gesture of friendship Tony gave him an authentic baseball signed by the entire 1969 Twins team. Been a fan since. Seen a lot over the years, including visiting over 21 stadiums, most of them as road games with the Twins playing. Top highlight was being at Kirby Puckett's first game in LA.  He went 4 for 5 and stole the show vs the 1st place Angels. Next mornings paper said: KIRBY WHO? 

Great thread! 
 

It’s not as interesting for those like me that grew up in Minnesota.

I will say, though, that for those of us that are old enough that we became mlb ‘aware’ in the 1960’s in Minnesota there WAS a wrinkle:

Our parents, aunts/uncles…the generations ahead of us…were NOT necessarily Twins fans, at least in the early years. They had lived adult lives without the Twins existing and had developed loyalties for other clubs in the mid-west…some of whom could be followed by the powerful radio broadcast of the day, even in northern Minnesota.

My mom was a Milwaukee Braves fan, my dad, a Tiger’s fan, and my uncle and grandfather, Cardinal fans.

They all adopted the Twins eventually…some more ardently than others, but I can absolutely remember watching games on TV where my dad was rooting against me and my team.

For us kids, we knew we were Minnesotans…and being able to see them (and only them) play on television at that time, made most of us instant Twins fans.

As an aside, the impact of Harmon Killebrew, and how he put Minnesota on the mlb baseball map can not be overstated in terms of how it accelerated the adoption of the franchise as ‘ours’ among the adult population of Minnesota in the 1960’s.

Great thread and great stories. I wouldn't have a place to tell this otherwise but it's nice to tell these things we remember vividly.

I was born in a tiny town in SW North Dakota with no cable TV and antenna reception of 1.5 to 2.5 channels. What we had was KNDC, the mighty 1490, which carried Herb Carneal and the Twins. As I understand it, I was infatuated with baseball on the radio very early and while I can remember "sneaking" the radio under the pillow at night, that post dates this memory.

My first and most vivid memory of the Twins and sports in general was the 1987 World Series. I turned 9 that October. I don't remember a single thing about the season, the series, the team or anything sports related. My interest had to have been radio related but you couldn't prove it by me.

The thing I remember, like yesterday, was begging my mom to take me to grandma's house to watch a game as she had basic cable in her apartment. No idea which game I actually got to watch but it had to have been a weekend. A school night would not have been an option.  I think it was one of the later games as the excitement built she may have relented but I have no idea. The other part of the memory is of my mom and grandma (dad's mom) sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the game to be over. I'm sure it was late and all the coffee and chit chat was exhausted and they were long ready for bed. Later in life I can recognize the feeling when a woman who is being exceptionally patient with my **** is ready to be done but I didn't know it at the time. I now know it was that same feeling. At the time I was oblivious and loving it, although I don't remember a thing about the game.

We all know how that series finished and when I was 13 they won it again. Like so many Minnesota sports fans of my age (44) my expectations were damaged in a way we still can't fully understand. My relationship with baseball on the radio continued and at 15 I started working at that same radio station after school and in the summer evenings. If you are tracking along with the timeline that was John Gordon, who was great, and the 93-98 Twins, who were not.

Somehow it didn't matter what the team did. Surely I tuned out quite a few blow outs and missed many a 10 second ID break and a few inning breaks as well. Fortunately in those days the feed still was live with crowd noise so it wasn't dead air. I still prefer baseball on the radio and with the advent of technology I've devised several ways to watch on TV with synced radio audio.

I became a Twins fans literally because it was the only option and here I am. It's still the only option and it still doesn't matter if they are any good. Although I have my frustrations as we all do, I still follow every day. One day, I'll get that feeling again and this time I'll remember it.

Bonus side story. Very similar situation with Saturday night WWF wrasslin. I would beg to stay up and watch because everyone would be talking about it at school Monday. Mom would say "I'll wake you up when it starts" Uh huh, sure she would. I was sleeping so good she would say. Then I got nothing for school on Monday. I did get to watch a few times but must have fallen for the same thing 100 times. 😂

On 8/10/2023 at 8:23 PM, 218263 said:

In 1961 when I was 10 years old, I was playing Little League in Indianapolis IN, and my team was the Minnesota Twins. I figured that I liked playing baseball by that age and I need to start following the major leagues so I promptly became a Twins fan. I could tune in games on either WHO Iowa station or WCCO when the skies were clear after about 9 pm eastern time…

Grew up in small town Iowa. My father kept his radio on booming WHO 1040 Des Moines, who carried Twins games for at least a couple years on. Later able to be Metrodome regular attendee in 1985 and through ‘90. Health problems kept me away for ‘91.

As a kid and a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, I went to a game in Yankee Stadium where the Yanks played Washington Senators. The Yanks led the whole way until they brought in a blind pitcher named Ryne Duran who always threw his first warmup pitch to the backstop. Well, Duran proceeded to walk 4 or 5 batters and blew the game for the Yanks. Though I loved Mickey Mantle and Moose Skowron, I rooted for the Senators. After that I continued to follow the Senators and, when the Dodgers moved to LA, I rooted for them and kept going after they moved to Minnesota. I've been a Twins fan almost forever.

Like many others it was my dad. He always had the game on the radio, WNAX out of Yankton. I fell in love to the Twins listening to Herb Carneal and John Gordon.  Kent Hrbek was my favorite player. 

Often in the summer dad, my sister and I would go fishing in the evenings and him and I would listen to the game on the radio and my sister would wonder off somewhere and it always seemed like she could more fish then the both of us put together! 

Good times

My grandparents lived in Washington, DC, where I was born. Although I moved to North Carolina when I was 5, I became a Washington Senators fan in 1954 during a visit to my grandparents' home in DC. Plus the Charlotte minor league team was a Senators farm team for years and we got the Charlotte newspaper. Who couldn't pull for Clint "Scrapiron" Courtney, Lyle Lutrell. Angel Scull, Wayne Terwilliger, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Jim Lemon, Camilo "Little Potato" Pascual, Pedro "The Yankee Killer" Ramos, Eddie "Walking Man" Yost, Roy Sievers, Cookie Lavagettoa and Chuck Dressen as managers, Chuck Stobbs, Little Albie Pearson, etc.  And, as they say, the rest is history.

Growing up as a farm kid in SD, I listened to hundreds of games on WNAX radio (often on a tractor) in the 1970's and early 80's.  Even though I know I listened prior to this because I remember a few Harmon Killebrew home runs, my first really vivid Twins memory is hearing Tony Oliva hit a home run on opening day in 1973.  I had decided that I really liked baseball at that point and was looking forward to the opening day game.  I was too young at the time to realize the significance of it being the first DH home run, but it still made an impression. 

My favorite player over the years was Rod Carew, and he had that ridiculous season in 1977 that we will all remember.  As you may have guessed from my screen name, I share a birthday of October 1 with Mr. Carew, although he is my senior by many years.  I actually didn't realize that until many years later (sometime in the 1980's) when someone got my one of those "On your birthday" papers and he was listed as one of the celebrities/athletes that was born on October 1. 

I have another favorite tidbit of Twins information as well.  In 1983, my cousin put out a flyer (one front/back page on a copy machine) and mailed (yes.  mailed) it to as many sportswriters/voters as he could find the information for.  It was entitled "Killebrew in '84" and he even got to hand a copy to Mr. Killebrew at an old-timers game.  Years later, a family member contacted him when my cousin was dying of brain cancer, he came to Salt Lake City to see him and offer him some gifts.  He was "that kind of guy." 

My Twins connections run deep and I am a die hard fan.  They have brought me much joy (and a little frustration) over the years. 

For me growing northern Ohio with parents as Pirates fans from PA I had no connection to the Guardians growing up.  My first year in organized "little league" baseball at the local rec center at the age of 6, I was placed on the Twins team.  All the teams had MLB names.  Anyways we won the championship. I still got the team photo. I was hooked.  My dad would show me were the real Twins were in the standings and took me to downtown Cleveland every summer to watch my MLB Twins when they came to town.  I was even able to attach enough tin foil to my radio antenna and I could actually pick up the Twins broadcasts..but only at night when there seamed to be less static..even then I couldn't here much.  I even recall many of the commercials like Jolt cola and others.  I had no idea were Minnesota was in my younger years.. But I became a lifer.  Being a Twins fan and wearing home made Twins shirts even got me into numerous fights with kids that couldn't understand why I didn't cheer for the local Cleveland team.  There wasn't really any stores I could find that sold any Twins related gear...though we tried.  So my Mom sewed me one every year and of course it would be torn to shreds by mid summer..lol.  one of the best "choices?" of my life.  It has lead me to some of my best experiences.  I've lived many places but never in market.  Now considering moving to Fort Myers area just so I can be around the kids and entire spring training.  Sorry for being long winded.

I became a Twins fan in 1961, listening to games with my grandparents. I think the games were on WCCO. Went to my first game in 1963 again with my grandparents. I was very fortunate as I was in the stands at the Met for the World Series in 1965 and the Dome for the '87 series. I grew up as an overweight kid, my favorite player was Harmon Killebrew. He was described as the "Husky" first baseman and he was a spokesman for Kemps Ice Cream. I have no idea how many Schweighert hot dogs I ate while sitting in the stands. I still sing the Schweighert jingle on occasion, drives my wife crazy! I moved to Fort Myers in 1990. Worked at Hammond Stadium hawking beer for Spring Training throughout the 90's. I worked for the Miracle for several years as well! Mike Veeck is one of the funniest people I've ever met! I've followed the Twins for 62 years and baseball is the only sport I really care for! Through thick and thin I am a die hard fan, first, last, and always! I am not at all ashamed to say I Love The Twins!!!

Another upstate NY guy here.  I am surprised to see a few of us here.  My story won't make much sense, but it is the only way I know how to explain it because it is all true.  I grew up in a small town in between NYC and Albany.  My dad was a Yankee fan, but my dad's brother, my uncle Matt, part-owned a small warehouse in Queens and had an in with Mets tickets.  We were not a rich family so when my dad could get tickets from uncle Matt he'd pounce. My first Mets game attended was September 23, 1972 when the Mets beat the Phillies 5-3.  Too bad it was not the September 24th game.  That was Seaver vs. Carlton and a player name Lute Barnes got a couple of key hits off Lefty to win.  1972 Steve Carlton was nasty.  Wish we could have seen that one....Anyway the next year the Mets went all the way to the WS on a wild ride which I was there for as a seven year old.  I can recall one day during the summer watching the Mets get destroyed in Montreal like 19-7 and I was seething.  I think Bob Bailey drove in like 8 runs and hit a ball into the swimming pool outside of Jarry Park. I cried when Wayne Garrett flied out to shallow left to make the last out in the WS.  I was all in with baseball by then and was playing midget baseball the next summer.  In 1974 and 1975 the Yankees played at Shea Stadium and I did see one Yankee game there.  Jim Bibby pitched a one hitter and my uncle left my brother (born Christmas 1964, my cousin Joe born December of '65 and me, born April '66 unattended for about seven innings).  Sometime around the second inning he bolted and he came by sometime after the 7th inning stretch.  He had "a thing", I guess.  He is 94 now and living in Florida.  He doesn't remember that.

I remained a Met fan until about the early 90s, but I always had the Twins in me.  For starters, my first favorite player was Rod Carew.  My older brother and I had Baseball Digest delivered from about 1977 to 1982 and we had a paper route in from 1977 to 1979.  I followed Carew and watched him whenever the Twins played the Yankees.  That was when I read the sports page and became obsessed with baseball stats.  The Sunday Edition of the papers showed batting averages!  I vividly remember reading about Carew in a 1977 Sports Illustrated and I felt bad for the Twins when he went to the Angels.  Since I was a Mets fan I was not against teams beating the Yankees.  I'd quietly root for the Twins whenever they played the Yankees (so as to not upset my dad)!  I loved Bob Casey and the old Met.  Loved the way he'd announce a player called Jim Holt.  First base!  Jim! Holt! 🤣🤣

Sadly I can recall Danny Thompson dying.  It was a Monday Night Baseball game and Howard Cosell announced his loss.  When I collected baseball cards I always looked for Twins.  By the time I was playing pony league baseball in middle school I was following Roy Smalley and oddly enough my pony league team was THE TWINS!  We played some real barn burners against a team called The Brewers!  They were undefeated, but we had them on the ropes twice!  Some of the Twins at that time wore their stirrups low so I tied my stirrups around my foot to wear them low.  I even saw the Twins play at Yankee Stadium in 1980.  They won 1-0 in 11 on a Ken Landreux single to center ( I should also say he hit a kid right in the face with a line drive during batting practice.  Literally happened ten feet from me and it is one of the sickest sounds I ever heard).  On that trip, I think I heard the song "Cars" by Gary Numan about 4 times in my dad's '72 Galaxie 500 on the way to and from Yankee Stadium.  Shocked we stayed for the whole game but I guess my dad figured we were in high school now so....

Being a Mets fan and in college by 1986 I saw the Mets win it all in Oneonta.  What a party that was.  Obviously, the Twins in '87 played the Cardinals the next year and I absolutely HATED those Cardinal teams because the Mets struggled so bad with them.  I was all in with the Twins by then, but still mostly a Met fan.  I have to tell you there was a play at the plate where Don Baylor was called out and I went completely bonkers.  That was about where I was a dual fan and plus the 1980s teams had so many likeable players.

Cut to the early 90s and my interest in baseball started to wane for various reasons and the Mets were plain dysfunctional and  awful.  Then the strike happened and I pretty much switched to being a hockey fan and said F-baseball for a few years.  It was not until 2000 with the Subway Series where I got back into watching baseball, but I honestly couldn't stand the Met/Yankee dynamic in NY state.  I also wasn't partial to big payroll teams any longer.  To be honest, I was posting regularly on the Twins page at the ESPN cite in 2000, but no real in depth stuff.  That was the season I followed them every day.  By 2001 I was crazy into it and posting up a storm on the ESPN Twins page, hating on Guardians fans.   Brock B was Rocketpig and he probably was my favorite poster.  When Chad Allen broke his leg some moron Indian fan came over to take a dump on our page.  I was not having that!  On ESPN I chose a stupid name: Haljaliakakik (how'd you like a kick?).  That 2001 team doesn't get enough love, in my opinion.  My brother, who is a huge Yankee fan took me to a belated birthday night game at Yankee Stadium in May of 2001. Eric Milton pitched a three hitter and we won,  Dougie Meintkiewicz was hitting about .400.   By 1998 I had moved to a place closer to the city (only 75 miles and my brother even closer).  I still teach in a school maybe 50 miles north of NYC and then 9/11 happened and I stopped posting on ESPN like that.  Snap your fingers I was gone from posting until the 2002 season started.  Sadly I did not go the series in NY in 2002 (probably because of 9/11, I am not city guy).  I would say from about 2004 to pre-COVID ( I do not care for NYC anymore) I would make the hour and a half train ride to Yankee Stadium from Poughkeepsie (often alone wearing Twins gear) and watch us lose about 10 in a row, all the way until 2015.  I saw no less than three blown saves, the worst being Joe Nathan in 2009.

I was at the first game at Target and went to about six or seven games at the Dome from 2004 until it closed.  Not sure if this makes sense to anyone and congratulations for getting this far.  I see lots of parallels with the Twins and Mets and the number of pitchers who pitched for both teams in unbelievable.  That could be a thread all on its own