Twins on target to top Senators (or already have)

[IndianaTwin]

I still think of the Twins as being the lesser part of the long history of the Washington-Minnesota franchise.

 

Not so. The franchise played 60 seasons as the Senators and has completed just 57 as the Twins. But the season is now longer, so they are very close in total games played. In fact, amidst following the pennant race, most of us probably missed that late in the season, the Twins passed the Senators in games played to completion. The Senators were 4223-4864 for 9087 games played. The Twins are now 4501-4594, for 9095 games, so they passed their predecessors last September 23.

 

[Aside: Ironically, I was at the the game and didn't even realize its significance. I paid more attention to another statistical oddity, namely that Zach Granite hit a positionless homer. He entered the game as a pinch runner for Joe Mauer in the eighth. The Twins batted around, and Granite then homered while no longer a pinch runner and not yet having played defense. It remains his only career home run.]

 

[Aside, part 2: This homer remains Granite's only career homer. Baseball-reference lists his position as "other." I haven't been able to find a complete list of other "other" homers, but of those I have found so far, Granite is the only person to have it happen as his 1) first career home run; or 2) only career home run.]

 

However, before the advent of lights there were many more suspended games, which counted in individual player statistics. The Senators played 101 such games, whereas the Twins have only played 8. By that count, the Senators have played 9188 games and the Twins just 9103.

 

Barring rainouts or other schedule adjustments, the Twins will play their 86th game of the season and 9189th in franchise history. on July 5, when they take on the Orioles and pass the Senators for good. There will be fireworks to celebrate. Oh wait, the fireworks are just to celebrate that it's a Friday.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Love the trivia, thanks!

 

Is this just regular season games only, or did you include postseason?

[Nine of twelve]

I'm not going to do the research, but regarding suspended games: As long as the game was completed it's still just one game. A suspended game plus its completion on a different day does not count as two games. So I would guess your original tally is correct.

[IndianaTwin]

 

Love the trivia, thanks!

Is this just regular season games only, or did you include postseason?

 

Regular season only. 

[IndianaTwin]

 

I'm not going to do the research, but regarding suspended games: As long as the game was completed it's still just one game. A suspended game plus its completion on a different day does not count as two games. So I would guess your original tally is correct.

 

I should have referred to tie games rather than suspended. Before lights, it was common for games that ended in ties to be replayed in their entirety. It was not uncommon for individual players to have more games played than would indicate in their team's record. So in 1937, for example, Lou Gehrig played in 157 games, even though the Yankees finished 102-52 on the season. 

 

For the Senators, the high-water mark was six ties in three different seasons. However, the maximum number of games was only 159 (in 1916), since in each of those seasons they also had at least one game that was rained out or otherwise not made up.

 

An article at https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/but-its-tradition-is-no-reason-to-ban-ties-games-in-mlb/ notes that the number of tie games decreased dramatically in 1918 when daylight saving time was adopted. In the 17 years from 1901-17, the Senators played 55 tie games. In the first 17 years after daylight saving time, they played just 23. By the 1940s and 50s, they were averaging less than one tie per year. These were sometimes city curfew-related or because one team or the other needed to catch a train to the next city. 

 

To my knowledge, ties were never reported in the standings, though they are listed at baseball-reference.com.

 

[Monkeypaws]

dallas will be taking over ownership of the Stars in a couple years as well.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I still think of the Twins as being the lesser part of the long history of the Washington-Minnesota franchise.

 

Not so. The franchise played 60 seasons as the Senators and has completed just 57 as the Twins. But the season is now longer, so they are very close in total games played. In fact, amidst following the pennant race, most of us probably missed that late in the season, the Twins passed the Senators in games played to completion. The Senators were 4223-4864 for 9087 games played. The Twins are now 4501-4594, for 9095 games, so they passed their predecessors last September 23.

 

[Aside: Ironically, I was at the the game and didn't even realize its significance. I paid more attention to another statistical oddity, namely that Zach Granite hit a positionless homer. He entered the game as a pinch runner for Joe Mauer in the eighth. The Twins batted around, and Granite then homered while no longer a pinch runner and not yet having played defense. It remains his only career home run.]

 

[Aside, part 2: This homer remains Granite's only career homer. Baseball-reference lists his position as "other." I haven't been able to find a complete list of other "other" homers, but of those I have found so far, Granite is the only person to have it happen as his 1) first career home run; or 2) only career home run.]

 

However, before the advent of lights there were many more suspended games, which counted in individual player statistics. The Senators played 101 such games, whereas the Twins have only played 8. By that count, the Senators have played 9188 games and the Twins just 9103.

 

Barring rainouts or other schedule adjustments, the Twins will play their 86th game of the season and 9189th in franchise history. on July 5, when they take on the Orioles and pass the Senators for good. There will be fireworks to celebrate. Oh wait, the fireworks are just to celebrate that it's a Friday.

What a great, fun post.

[mikelink45]

Thanks for this update.  When I looked at the Franchise records - http://twinsdaily.com/blog/1028/entry-9313-franchise-hitting-records-the-mauerdozier-edition/  in this blog and the pitcher blog it was fascinating to see how the records were divided between the two halves of the franchise history.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League! RIP Washington Senators, the team of my boyhood.

[IndianaTwin]

 

Thanks for this update.  When I looked at the Franchise records - http://twinsdaily.com/blog/1028/entry-9313-franchise-hitting-records-the-mauerdozier-edition/  in this blog and the pitcher blog it was fascinating to see how the records were divided between the two halves of the franchise history.

 

Yeah, reading your post was what made me start looking at this. Thanks for starting it.