The 1961 American League season was unique because for the first time since the turn of the century the league was not made up of 8 teams. Not only did the Senators move from Washington to Minnesota, but the league added 2 expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels and the “new” Washington Senators. Originally the expansion teams were supposed to be located in Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul, but Calvin Griffith, the owner of the Washington Senators, asked for and received approval to move the Senators to Minnesota, giving Washington the expansion team. Even though the Senators had a hard time getting fans to attend, the baseball felt that because of baseball’s anti-trust issues that it was best to have a team in the Nation's capital.

Up until the Senators moved to Minnesota there had only been 5 teams that had pulled up stakes in one city and moved to another. They were: 1) in 1953 when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, 2) in 1954 when the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, 3) in 1955 when the Philadephia Athletics moved to Kansas City, and 4/5) in 1958 when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, 

There would be other relocations after the Twins: 1) in 1966 the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, 2) in 1968 the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland, 3) in 1970 the expansion Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee, 4) in 1972 the Washington Senators moved to Dallas/Ft. Worth, 5) in 2005 the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. and 6) in 2024 the Oakland Athletics moved to Las Vegas.

When the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota in 1961 they brought with them a team that had finished the 1960 season with a 73-81 record, good for 5th place in the 8 team American League. This was their best finish in 6 years -

Not only were they in the 2nd half of the 8 team division in standings, but here are their attendance standings.

Their attendance for the 1960 season at Griffith Stadium was 743,404 (9,655 per game), which was the lowest in the American League. When they moved they brought with them their Owner and General Manager, Clark Griffith, Farm Director – Sherry Robertson and Manager – Cookie Lavagetto. Cookie would only last 59 games into the season when he was fired with a 23-36 record and was replaced by Sam Mele who would be 47-54-1 for the season. Their overall record was 70-90-1 good for 7th place (out of 10 teams). Both the expansion Senators and the Angels would finish behind the Twins in the standings as well as the Kansas City Athletics. The Twins attendance for the season was 1,256,723 (an average of slightly over 15,000 per game (3rd out of 10 teams).

How much better was it to receive a team as a transfer rather than an expansion team?

If we examine the 8 teams that relocated between 1901 and 1968 you will see that many of them had early success that may not have happened if they had received an expansion team.

Here is where those 8 teams finished in the standings in their first five years in a new city.

It’s really interesting to note that there have been a total of 8 franchise moves listed above and 6 of the teams won a league championship within 5 years of moving.

Here are the first five years of every expansion team.

Of the 14 expansion teams listed in the table only the Diamondbacks were able to finish in 1st place in their division (3 times). Only the Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies experienced moderate success.

1960/61 Expansion Draft to stock Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators

In the very first expansion draft an existing team had to make available seven players from their active roster as of August 31, 1960 and eight others from their 40 man roster, with a maximum of seven players that could be taken from each existing club.

The Angels took Eli Grba, Jerry Casale, Duke Maas, Tex Clevenger, and Bob Sprout with their 1st five choises, while the Senators took Bobby Shantz, Dave Sisler, Johhny Klipstein, Pete Burnside and Carl Mathias with their choices. The Senators/Twins would lose Tex Clevinger, Hal Woodeshick, Hector Maestri, Rudy Hernandez, Johnny Schaive, Faye Throneberry, Julio Becquer and Joe McClain.  

1997/98 Expansion Draft to stock the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks

In the most recent expansion draft each existing team could protect 15 players. All players in an organization were eligible to be drafted except with those with no prior major league experience who had less than 3 years of service. A team could lose no more than 1 player per round, with 28 selections in rounds one and two, and 14 selections in round 3. After the first two rounds a team could add three more players to be protected.

The Devil Rays chose Tony Saunders, Quinton McCracken, Bobby Abreau, Miguel Cairo and Rich Bulter with their 1st five choices. The Diamondbacks chose Brian Anderson, Jeff Suppan, Gabe Alvarez, Jorge Fabergas, and Karim Garcia with their choices. The best player taken in the draft would turn out to be Randy Winn taken from the Marlins by the Devil Rays in the 3rd round. The Twins would lose Brent Brede (1B) and Damian Miller (Catcher).

Conclusion

Clark Griffith did the fans of the Twins a great service by moving his franchise to Minnesota in 1961, rather than giving Minnesota an expansion team.