mikelink45

What a great program. You gave me a wonderful evening of memories and stories. Thank you.

I love Mudcat but he really only had a three year period of dominance for us, but Jim Perry would be the one that really needs to find a way into the top five, but I am not sure where. from 1969 - 74 he won 105 games for the Twins. He really was our Ace. Camilo Pascual is another that deserves to be on the list. in the first four years that the Twins were in MN he won 15, 20, 21, and 15 games. It is amazing that in almost 60 years Blyleven is our only HOF pitcher (not counting the Twins own HOF) other than the less than stellar time with Steve Carlton. If we go back in Franchise history we have number one all time - Walter Johnson, Early Wynn in the HOF

I have less optimism about this group than you do, but I enjoyed your essay. Wisler is a question mark, Duffey or May could regress and we are counting heavily on them. Littell could be a regress or continue to step up. Mr Slowball Romo is good for laughs, but is this the year that they really clobber his stuff? I am hoping you are right and my concerns are a waste of energy.

I am partial to Mudcat Grant - I was at so many of his good games. Camilo Pascual was a near HOF pitcher and Jim Kaat (along with Tommy John) should be in the HOF. A pitcher I liked a lot was Pedro Ramos who only pitched one year for us and lost 20 games - I have read that only really good pitchers lose 20 games because poor pitchers would not be allowed to start that much. He was the hard luck pitcher of the 1950s and should not be on this list, but I wanted to give him a little love. Johnny Klippstein in 1964 when we acquired him, already a 14 year vet posted a 1.97 ERA in 33 games, In 1965 he was 9-3 with a 2.24 ERA in 56 games. and in his final year with us - his 17th year in MLB he had a 3.40 ERA in 26 games. He was a major factor in our championship run.

Based on his 13 years of 20 wins it is not hard to believe that Spahn would have amassed over 400 wins without his service time. Many service guys did light duty, but as you mention - not Spahn. http://baseballegg.com/2018/12/03/warren-spahn-talks-about-his-experiences-in-world-war-ii/ Burdette was under rated in history https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bc3fde89 his record In an 18-year career, Burdette posted a 203–144 record with 1074 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 3067.1 innings, compiling 158 complete games and 33 shutouts is better than some HOF pitchers. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bc3fde89 Burdette is best known for winning the 13 inning game against Pittsburgh when Harvey Haddix pitched 12 innings of a perfect game only to lose in 13. Burdette was known for giving up lots of hits, but few runs and he told his clubhouse - ""He's not going to beat me. Get a run or else we're going to be here all night!" After Adcock hit a Home Run (and only got credit for a double) the game ended and Burdette called Haddix in the locker room, "You deserved to win," Burdette said, "but I scattered all my hits, and you bunched your one." Haddix hung up on him.https://vault.si.com/vault/2009/06/01/the-greatest-game-ever-pitched Imagine the duo - Burdette with 203 wins and Spahn with 363! And, by the way, Buhl had 166 wins.

Agreed, but they are not. "In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player has gained with hits. It is a weighted sum for which the weight value is 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. Only bases attained from hits count toward this total."

I too was devastated because annually my dad and mom took me to see the Braves play the Dodgers. So great. Mathews and Aaron make it on any team. Billy Bruton would have won out for CF. Schoendeinst would have beat out all second basemen but Carew. Adcock was underrated. Logan would be the SS and Crandall was a great catcher who would be even more appreciated today. Wait until the Pitchers - Spahn, Burdette, and Buhl versus the Twins!

Interesting to look back - Jimmie Hall had three good seasons and then he was essentially done. Tovar had four seasons in the 60s - all good. I am partial to Vic Power at 1B and Killebrew at 3B. Vic was terrific. If Tovar and Hall share CF - they essentially did when Hall was done Tovar took over, then Mincher would be DH. Thanks for doing this. I love the idea and look forward to your next posts.

Good post - Hank Aaron - my hero had 1402 walks which meant his total bases would be 8258 for his career. Babe Ruth in his best single TB year had 457 TB and 145 BB which meant 602 TB or and average of 3.9 bases per game in a 154 game season. Those are figures that blow me away!

Baseball records used to have so much more meaning for me, but now I realize the external and societal influences and they have taken on less meaning. 60 and 61 were magical - 70 and 73 on steroids - blah. 714 and 755 HR totals were meaningful, but they were steroided too and then along came the juiced ball and 300 + team HRs means less too. Doubles, triples, stolen bases are all dynamic and I love them, but ball park configurations, saber rattlers, and new strategies have removed a lot of the really exciting base movements. HR hitters drive cadillacs according to the old cliche. What do double hits drive? Hank Aaron had 6856 total bases in his career. He was most proud of that record. Total bases were the ultimate goal in his mind and I agree. The next highest total was 6134 (Stan Musial) - over 700 difference. Under rated Dave Winfield has 5221 and is 16 overall, while Molitor had 4854 and is #27. Harmon Killebrew is number #79 with 4143. 3998 is Carew's total - #92. Albert Pujols is the leading active player with 5863. The Twins/Senators record book has Harmon Killebrew 4026, Sam Rice 3833, Kirby Puckett 3453, Joe Judge 3239, Joe Mauer 3040 and Tony Oliva 3002. Remember that these are total bases with the Twins only so Killebrew and Carew will have different totals for the MLB record book. In a single season the Total Base records for the Twins has Tony Oliva with 374, Puckett 358 and 365, Rod Carew 351,and Brian Dozier 336. The Single season record for MLB is Babe Ruth 457, Rogers Hornsby 450, Lou Gehrig 447, Chuck Klein 445, Jimmy Foxx 438, Stan Musial 429, Sammy Sosa 425. Among active players Pujols has the 37th best season with 394. Tony Oliva's season rank 89th. Hank Aaron had fifteen seasons where he collected more than three-hundred total bases — the most seasons by any player and Lou Gehrig had five seasons of over 400. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hitotb1.shtml

Martin was always in fights and his fight with the marshmallow salesman was the best. It was just one of his fisticuffs, but the fact that it was a marshmallow salesman really raised the bar when Martin was pelted with Marshmallows at the park. His fight with his pitcher Dave Boswell was a low point. Billy did great for the Twins, Yankees, and A's, but wore out his welcome after a year at each. Except the Yankees kept bringing him back of one more year!

Spahn and Sain and pray for rain - they carried the then Boston Braves

Look at WAR and Carew blows them all away and even though we now question Versalles career year he the third best WAR season. By WAR it is CarewMauerVersallesKillebrewMorneau

Once upon a time I had the first copy of SI with Eddie Mathews on the cover - my third favorite player after Aaron and Spahn, but my mother did what hundreds of mothers did - cleaned house and threw it away. But for decades SI was the go to source like TD is today. Going through my old collection of magazine covers I was struck with the fun stories and insights that these covers give. I have posted this series of covers because it captures our 1987 World Series victory and Toronto which featured who would win in 1993 with a number of Minnesotans who would switch over to the Twins - Morris and Molitor. Winfield was there the year before. These were great days and there were lots of stories to explore. Look at the cover of the Champs - the sheer pleasure of this championship for a team that had no real expectations. In the first cover for the series it is gladden that gets the position of honor. And in the playoffs it is Greg Gagne. These covers hit HOF Trammell and not quite HOF Strawberry and Mattingly. All three were dominant and colorful. And then there is Seaver coming back to NY like Aaron returned to Milwaukee and Mays returned to NY. Keep going in this collection and you will find that the favored team was the Indians! Something just don't change. Of course there one cover that stands out - the salaries. Look at those players and their salaries. Somethings have really changed since 1987 and it is not a small change. If you click on the individual images they will enlarge. I invite you to enjoy these stories and images like I did.