The Twins Almanac: Merila’s Resilience, Viola’s Dominance, and Killebrew’s Legacy

Nov. 9: Happy 53rd birthday to Robbinsdale Armstrong graduate and 1994 Big Ten Player of the Year Mark Merila. Card collectors may remember Merila as one of three Minnesotans in the 1993 Topps Traded Team USA subset along with Perham graduate Charlie Nelson and Hill-Murray graduate Darren Grass. All three were teammates at the U of M.

A brain tumor ended Merila's playing career after two seasons in the Padres farm system, but he served as Padres bullpen catcher for 17 years before the tumor returned. He is currently a scout for the Padres. 

Nov. 9, 1865: Eight-year major league infielder Jack Crooks was born in St. Paul on this date in 1865. He had the first four-home run game in professional baseball history playing for the visiting minor league Omaha Omahogs in his hometown of St. Paul in 1889.

Two of his 21 major league home runs came off Cleveland Spiders ace Cy Young. 

Nov. 9, 1988: After leading the majors with 24 wins, Frank Viola becomes the second Cy Young Award winner in Minnesota Twins history, receiving 27 of 28 first-place votes. (Dennis Eckersley received the other vote.) Jim Perry won the award in 1970, and Johan Santana in 2004 and 2006. (He got robbed in 2005.)

Nov. 10, 1975: The Royals release 39-year-old Harmon Killebrew, ending his 22-year career. He had to wait until 1984—after four frickin' ballots—to finally be elected to the Hall of Fame, despite trailing only Babe Ruth on the American League home run list. 

Nov. 10, 2002: The Sporting News names Twins Vice President and General Manager Terry Ryan Executive of the Year. He also won the award in 2006. Fun Fact: Ryan (a left-handed reliever) went 10-0 with 13 saves and a 1.78 ERA at Class A Wisconsin Rapids in 1973.

Are you interested in Twins history? Then check out the Minnesota Twins Players Project, a community-driven project to discover and collect great information on every player to wear a Twins uniform!