mikelink45

I thought about that, but the perfect is even more endangered. The last one was in 2012 by Felix Hernandez. And for some reason that year there were three - Phil Humber (amazingly), and Roy Halladay. Then it goes to 2010 Dallas Braden, 2009 Mark Buerhle and 2004 with Randy Johnson. That is all for the last decade and with the demise of the no-hitter goes the demise of the perfect game.

Don Larsen, age 90, passed away and with him goes the honor of being the only man to toss a no-hit perfect game in a World Series (1956). Pitching to Yogi Berra in that classic Larsen rose to heights that exceed his career 81 - 91 record. His last out was a strikeout of Dale Mitchell. In Casey Stengel's unorthodox method of random pitcher selection, Don was shocked that he was called on after a poor game two. “I must admit I was shocked,” Larsen wrote in his autobiography. “I knew I had to do better than the last time, keep the game close and somehow give our team a chance to win. Casey was betting on me, and I was determined not to let him down this time.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/obituaries/don-larsen-dead.html In today's game he would not have pitched nine innings. Only an old school pitcher like Dustin Verlander this year will insist on having a complete game. Mike Fiers had the other complete game no-hitter in 2019 and two were multiple pitcher games which lacks the same sense of anticipation to me. There were three no-hitters in 2018, two complete games, There was one in 2017 and one in 2016. There were seven no-hitters in 2015! Roy Halladay had two in 2010. Nolan Ryan threw SEVEN no-hitters. Sandy Koufax had four, Cy Young, Larry Corcoran, Justin Verlander and Bob Feller had three each! There have been 260 no-hitters since 1901 so those six had almost 10% of the no-hitters over 120 years. Like Don Larsen, Johnny Vander Meer was an obscure pitcher who reached no hit immortality as the only pitcher to throw two in a row. Others to have two in one season include Ryan, Virgil Trucks, Allie Reynolds, Roy Halladay, and Max Scherzer. Max and Justin are old school pitchers that I love to watch work a game who will take their place; will others be allowed to take their place? In 1954 there were 840 complete games - 34%. In 2019 there were 45 complete games - 0.9%. No wonder RP are burning out.

I always wonder why a team like the A's would not keep a relatively inexpensive pitcher like Bailey. They are not a team that wastes cheap talent.

Don't we have Raley, Kiriloff, Rooker, Larnach? One of them could play 1B

Why would we trade players of value to sign a first baseman who ranks behind C J Cron? Why didn't we just sign Cron and keep the players? This kind of maneuver makes no sense to me.

I have been inspired by the many postings about the year and the decade, the optimism for signings like Hill and Bailey, the continuing hope for signing Donaldson, and the general sense that we will be better this year despite having lost some good players and signing some possible good players. But that is what New Years are about - out with the old resolutions and in with the new. So I will let the TD experts look at this coming decade, I want to look at the past ones. 1960 we were still the Washington Senators with Cookie Lavagetto as manager and the top WAR belonging to Pedro Ramos (4.2). The team finished 75 - 79 and 5th out of an 8 team league. Lemon hit 38 HRs and Killebrew hit 31. Pascual was 12 - 8, while the WAR leader, Ramos, was 11 - 18 and Jack Kralick was 8 - 6. And by the way the 21 year old Jim Kaat was 1 - 5. It would be the last year in Washington DC and the team would be the TWINS in 1961. 1970 98 - 64. Bill Rigney was the manager. Harmon Killebrew had 41 HRs and Tony Oliva had 23 plus he hit 325. Cesar Tovar was the second player to hit 300 on the team. Jim Perry was 24 - 12, Kaat was 14 - 10, and Blyleven was 10 - 9. I always hear that Blyleven would have had 300 wins if he was on more winning teams - I guess he missed out this year. Perranoski had 34 saves. The headlines were not about the Twins but rather Kent State and the Manson murders in 1970. 1980 Doug Corbett - the closer had the highest WAR 5.7. The team went 77 - 84 and Gene Mauch was replaced in the season by Johnny Goryl as the manager. John Castino at 4.5 had the highest WAR among the hitters. The non-Bombas were led by Castino's 13 HRs followed by Roy Smalley's 12. Castino's 302 led the batting average with Kenny Landreaux's 278 second. Koosman was 16 - 13, Geoff Zahn was 14 - 18 and Roger Erickson was 7 - 13. They were not the Bombas, but they did have Bombo Rivera. And it was the year of the 31 game hitting streak - the Twins Record - https://twinstrivia.com/2018/01/28/the-twins-longest-hitting-streak-goes-back-to-1980/ https://twinstrivia.com/2018/01/28/the-twins-longest-hitting-streak-goes-back-to-1980/ - Ken Landreaux had the streak. 1990 - Tom Kelly led the team to a record of 74 - 88 with Greg Garne's 3.2 the highest WAR on the team. Hrbek's 22 Home Runs led the team, Gaeti's 16 and Puckett's 12 were the only other double digit HR hitters. Shane Mack hit 326 and was the only 300 hitter. Mack also had an OPS + of 133, and Hrbek was 131. Puckett was 121 and Harper was fourth at 107. Kevin Tapani was 12 - 8, Allan Anderson was 7 - 18, Roy Smith was 5 - 10 and Scott Erickson was 8 - 4. Aguilera saved 32 games! They did turn two triple plays in one game in 1990: 2000 How did Y2K affect the Twins? No well, Tom Kelly the legendary manager was still here and the Twins had a record of 69 - 93 despite Brad Radtke having 6.2 WAR. Jacques Jones led the team with 19 HRs followed by that renowned slugger - Ron Coomer with 16 and Matt Lawton with 13. Eric Milton was 13 - 10, Radtke was 12 - 16 and Mark Redman was 12 - 9. The top closer was LaTroy Hawkins with 14. The biggest sports news of 2000 was John Rocker being off his rocker as told by Fox sports - "John Rocker didn’t exactly embrace the diversity that exists in New York City. Asked if he’d ever consider playing for the Yankees or Mets, Rocker replied, "I’d retire first. It’s the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids." For his enlightened comments, Rocker received a 28-game suspension (later reduced to 14) and the everlasting hatred of most New York fans. Oh, yeah. He also received a 700-policeman strong security detail and a snazzy protective covering over the bullpen on his first business trip back to Queens." 2010 - Ron Gardenhire got the decade records rolling with a 94 - 68 record (followed by a sweep of three games by the Yankees). Mauer led in WAR with 5.9 and with average 327 (Morneau batted 345 but only played half the season). Thome his 25 HRs and Delmon Young and Jason Kubel each hit 21. Six Twin pitchers had double digit wins lead by Carl Pavano's 17. Liriano 14, Slowey 13, Baker 12, Blackburn and Duensing each had 10 and Rauch has 21 saves followed by the famous Matt Capps with 16. So what happens in 2010 - you have to turn to the regular Twins writers or just wait and see. Happy New Years.