Article: Top 10 Minnesota Twins Commercials

[Tom Froemming]

Diehard football fans may disagree, but to a lot of people the best part of the Super Bowl is the commercials. I'm sure there will be some great ones tonight, but in the meantime I figured it’d be a good time to take a look back at my all-time favorite commercials featuring Twins players. The team has had some great ad campaigns over the years, but there's one that'll always have a special place in my heart.This list is obviously subjective, but I’d love to hear from you. What are your favorite ads produced by the Twins or featuring Twins players? Laurel Krahn (@wintwins on Twitter) has a wonderful playlist on YouTube with more than 100 Twins commercials. But even the Internet has its limitations. I’m sure there are some great older ones that aren’t out there on YouTube.

 

10. Joe Mauer Mean Joe Green Tribute

9. Sorta Deep Thoughts With Bert Blyleven and Carl Pavano

8. Ron Gardenhire on TC’s Natural Habitat

7. Kent Hrbek’s First Base Lessons for Joe Mauer

6. Get to Know Em: Cristian Guzman

5. Sorta Deep Thoughts With Justin Morneau and TC

4. Johan Santana/Joe Nathan Carpool

3. Torii Hunter Birthday party pinata

2. Michael Cuddyer’s Magic Show

1, Get to Know Em: Corey Koskie

 

There were some tough choices, and I shared another 10 spots I really enjoyed on Twitter outside of this batch. A few of these are from the same ad campaigns, but they were so good I couldn’t narrow down to just one per year.

 

The Twins renaissance in the early 2000s had more to do with the players on the field and their success than any ad campaign, but the Get to Know ‘Em commercials were brilliant. The Twins were a developing club packed with young talent, but the players were still mostly anonymous even in a lot of parts of Twins Territory.

 

The team had been an afterthought for several years. In 2000, they averaged just 12,355 fans per game, topping only the Montreal Expos in attendance that season. To put that into some more perspective, the Tampa Bay Rays were dead last in attendance in 2017, but they drew 15,477 fans on average.

 

Hunt Adkins was the agency behind those Get to Know ‘Em commercials that put the focus on the players, their stories and their backgrounds. They had a great four-year relationship with the Twins. The team has has been partnered with Periscope the past 13 years — I especially appreciated their Sorta Deep Thoughts commercials — but a new agency will be at the helm in 2018: Carmichael Lynch. Here’s a link to some of the agency’s work, which includes the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Messin’ With Sasquatch ads.

 

OK, now it’s your turn. What are your favorite Twins commercials?

 

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[IndianaTwin]

The first 28 seconds of the Hunter pinata puts that one right there with the Joe Mauer/Greene one in my book. But the final shot of the kid puts Torii over the top for me.

[Squirrel]

It’s been linked here recently, but the Thome/Paul Bunyan and Babe Twins Territory commercial.

[Squirrel]

The narrator of the Guzman commercial makes that one hilarious with his bionic man noise.

[Brandon]

I agree thome as paul bunyon.

[Brandon]

Did they have any good campaigns back in the 87 to 92 seasons

[notoriousgod71]

Easily the best one:

[Wookiee of the Year]

I always liked this one:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4RtPSoFFJg

[Boots Electric]

Almost fell off my barstool when I studied abroad in Mexico and saw this during a game there https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LYFdFoU5xE0

[jmlease1]

Sandlot. TK at the end is just the best.

 

[Sarah]

Thanks Tom - I remember all of these. It is still pretty amazing when I think about how serendipitous the Get to Know 'Em ads were with the team improving. I still have a lot of the magnets and buttons they gave out at the games too. Clearly as we are still talking about them nearly 20 years later they were a special group. 

[Vanimal46]

Almost fell off my barstool when I studied abroad in Mexico and saw this during a game there

Did you try Malta Regional?

 

Welcome to Twins Daily!

[Vanimal46]

The first 28 seconds of the Hunter pinata puts that one right there with the Joe Mauer/Greene one in my book. But the final shot of the kid puts Torii over the top for me.

Concur. That kid was the star of that ad. I haven't watched that commercial since whenever season that debuted. Still makes me laugh!

[spanman2]

Certainly some classics in there.  The old 'Get to Know Em' and 'Gotta See Em' ones circa '02/'03 years were really good.  Twins marketing team represented themselves very well. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

The narrator of the Guzman commercial makes that one hilarious with his bionic man noise.

 

That might be my favorite audio of any of the Twins commercials ever...

[RaymondLuxuryYacht]

Old one:  Butch Wynegar described by narrator in depth.  Final line "he loves baseball so much, he'd probably play for free".  Then Close-up of smiling Calvin Griffith saying "I really like that kid!"

[Seth Stohs]

 

Almost fell off my barstool when I studied abroad in Mexico and saw this during a game there https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LYFdFoU5xE0

That is awesome!!

[Seth Stohs]

 

Sandlot. TK at the end is just the best.

 

 

Yes... this would definitely be Top 10 for me... 

[D. Hocking]

I remember in 2011 or 2012 they dropped the firm that had been doing a lot of the commercials and my thought was, with all the people that you could possibly fire or drop right now or things you could change, you are getting rid of the one thing you are doing right?

 

They had a great stretch of commercials going for awhile there - a lot more memorable than a lot of what you see on Super Bowl Sunday.

[OldManWinter]

Don't forget the Hamm's Bear ... "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters".

[Guest]

It’s a long way

From Rothsay. . .

To the Met!