The Twins Almanac: Weekend Edition

[Matt Johnson]

This weekend's Almanac features a short but diverse cast of Minnesota baseball figures: Tony Oliva, Terry Ryan, 1923 major leaguer Rip Wade, and Mankato State all-time great Fritz Polka. 

 

Jan. 11, 1973: In an effort spearheaded by Oakland Athletics’ owner Charlie Finley, American League owners voted 8-4 in favor of adopting the designated hitter on this date in 1973. Coincidentally, the Twins' Tony Oliva would hit the first regular season home run by a DH off Oakland’s Catfish Hunter on Opening Day. 

The Twins' Larry Hisle had the distinction of being the first DH that spring training and he made the owners look like geniuses, hitting two home runs and driving in seven.

(The Yankees' Ron Blomberg took the first regular-season at-bat as a DH. Worth noting that the AL had previously experimented the designated hitter, but only in spring training.) 

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Jan. 12: Happy 60th birthday to Rochester native Fritz Polka. The Mets drafted him in the second round out of Mankato State in 1986. At one point, Baseball America projected him to be the Mets starting catcher in 1990, but he retired from baseball in 1989 having only made it to Double A. 

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Jan. 12, 1898: Richard "Rip" Wade was born in Duluth on this date in 1898. He graduated from Denfeld High School in 1916. According to Baseball Reference, he played 17 seasons of professional baseball. He got a cup of coffee in the majors in 1923, playing some outfield and making 14 pinch hitting appearances over a total of 33 games with the Washington Senators. Coincidentally, he was teammates on the '23 Senators with George "Showboat" Fisher, who grew up in Albany, Minnesota. (Of course the Senators went on to win their only World Series the following season.) 

Duluth’s Wade Stadium is named after Rip’s dad, Frank.

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Jan. 12, 2013: Twins GM Terry Ryan received the George Genovese Lifetime Achievement Award in Scouting at the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation’s 10th annual "In The Spirit of the Game" Sports and Entertainment Spectacular in Los Angeles on this date in 2013. The Foundation created the award in honor of the legendary SoCal scout in 2003.

Ryan’s relationship with the Twins began in 1972 when they drafted the Janesville, WI native in the 35th round. The lefty went 10-0 with 13 saves and a 1.78 ERA at class-A Wisconsin Rapids in ‘73. After an arm injury, however, he struggled at Double-A Orlando until being released in June 1976.

Ryan joined the Mets as a scouting supervisor in 1980. In 1986, he returned to the Twins organization as scouting director. He ascended to vice president of player personnel in 1991, and became GM following Andy MacPhail’s departure to the Chicago Cubs after the ‘94 season. Ryan served as GM for 13 years before resigning on October 1, 2007. He remained with the Twins as an adviser while Bill Smith took over as GM. After Smith’s firing following the 2011 season, Ryan returned to his former post. He was fired on July 18, 2016, midway through the worst season in franchise history.

Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail hired Terry Ryan as a special assignment scout on November 30, 2016. (I assume both men are enjoying retirement these days.) 

 

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[theBOMisthebomb]

I thought this was Randball Stu with the Rochester native Fritz Polka reference. However, the BB Ref link appears legitimate. Nice work, there was much deep dive interesting material here. 

[Matt Johnson]

43 minutes ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

I thought this was Randball Stu with the Rochester native Fritz Polka reference. However, the BB Ref link appears legitimate. Nice work, there was much deep dive interesting material here. 

There are a TON of readily available, inexpensive minor league baseball cards from the late '80s/early '90s, so I went through Trading Card Database and found as many Minnesota natives as I could. 

[Blyleven2011]

I like these almanacs  , good Wright up  ....

I do have to disagree with 2016 being the worst season for the twins , 1990 wasn't good but 1991 the twins went from last to first so they redeemed themselves  , 2021 and 2022 and the start of 2023 , and the end of 2024 were some of the most laughable bad playing games I have ever witnessed  , the reason I don't think 2016 was the worst is because we lost a tremendous amount of 1 run competitive games  ...

Thanks and keep them coming ...

[Doctor Wu]

On 1/11/2025 at 11:19 PM, theBOMisthebomb said:

I thought this was Randball Stu with the Rochester native Fritz Polka reference. However, the BB Ref link appears legitimate. Nice work, there was much deep dive interesting material here. 

I had never heard of Fritz Polka before either. But what an absolutely GREAT baseball name!