A Couple of Obscure but Interesting Facts about the 1981 Twins

[Teflon]

The 1981 Twins were decidedly bad but their season still had some interesting tidbits when looking back. It was interrupted by a two-month strike beginning in June so was played in two-halves. The Twins finished 7th in the AL in the first half at 17-39 and 4th in the second half at 24-29. Due to the cancelled games, the Twins ended up playing 11 more contests at home (60) than on the road (49) in 1981 but still finished dead-last in attendance in the MLB with only 469,000 passing through the turnstiles despite it being the last season played at Metropolitan Stadium. 

There were two facts on Baseball Reference about the Twins that season that were interesting to me:

1. The Twins had 3 players finish in the top 10 voting for Rookie of the year. (Dave Engle 5th - tied with Oakland's Immortal Shooty Babitt; Brad Havens and Gary Ward tied for 9th) Have the Twins ever had more?

2. The Twins used 38 players that season and only one - Pitcher and former Sandinista rebel Al Williams from Nicaragua - was born outside of the U.S.!!  I feel safe in claiming that no other Twins roster has had so few foreign players since the team moved from D.C..

What obscure but interesting facts have you unearthed in Twins seasons past? Feel free to share your gems. 

 

[MGX]

That 1981 season definitely provided some weird oddities because of the strike & the way it was handled/mishandled by MLB.

For the Twins who were awful in the 1st half & yet were about .500 in the 2nd half, about 1/2 way into August which kept them in range of a playoff spot.

Kansas City was bad in the 1st half (20-30) like the Twins & bounced back to win the 2nd half division title.

The most unfortunate result of that strike & MLB's handling of it was the fact that the Cincinnati Reds had MLB's best record in 1981 & didn't make the playoffs because of the idea of having a divisional winner in each half. 

[The Great Hambino]

32 minutes ago, MGX said:

That 1981 season definitely provided some weird oddities because of the strike & the way it was handled/mishandled by MLB.

For the Twins who were awful in the 1st half & yet were about .500 in the 2nd half, about 1/2 way into August which kept them in range of a playoff spot.

Kansas City was bad in the 1st half (20-30) like the Twins & bounced back to win the 2nd half division title.

The most unfortunate result of that strike & MLB's handling of it was the fact that the Cincinnati Reds had MLB's best record in 1981 & didn't make the playoffs because of the idea of having a divisional winner in each half. 

That weird season also gave us the only episode of Montreal Expos: Playoff Team

Interesting that it took a strike to get them into the playoffs (at the expense of a Cardinals team that had the division's best overall record), but another strike killed the best Expos team ever before it could get to the playoffs

It's like rain on your wedding day

[Teflon]

3 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

It's like rain on your wedding day

...Or a free ride when you've already paid.

[Doctor Wu]

Just reading about a player named Shooty Babbit, plus one that was a former Sandanista rebel made my day --- and night! More, please!