Minnesota Twins

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1901
• Home ballpark: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Owner: Jim Pohlad
• Team colors: Navy blue, scarlet red, Kasota gold, and white

Overview

The Minnesota Twins is a Major League Baseball (MLB) team that plays in the American League Central division. The franchise originated in Washington, DC, where it was confusingly called the Nationals but popularly known as the Senators. In the early years of the twentieth century, Washington’s rotation included hard-throwing right-hander Walter Johnson who set numerous baseball records and is still considered one of the greatest pitchers in history. The franchise spent sixty seasons in Washington, winning one World Series, before moving to Minnesota in 1961 and changing its name to the Twins. Minnesota made three playoff appearances and one World Series in the first decade in its new home. The team found its greatest success in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it won two World Series titles, both in come-from-behind fashion. In the twenty-first century, the Twins have been one of baseball’s more competitive teams but often seem to have their path to playoff success blocked by the powerhouse New York Yankees.

History

In 1891, a baseball team known as the Washington Statesmen joined the National League (NL) and changed its name to the Senators. This version of the Senators played in the NL until 1899 when the team folded. In 1901, a new professional baseball league called the American League (AL) formed and established franchises in eight cities ranging from Boston to Milwaukee. The owners of the franchise in Washington called their team the Nationals to distance it from the city’s previous NL team. However, fans and sportswriters ignored the new name and continued to refer to the team as the Senators. The team wore uniforms with the name “Nationals” across the front in 1905 and 1906, but with the name failing to catch on, it abandoned the idea in 1907 for a simple “W.”

No matter what the franchise was called, Washington was one of the worst teams in the AL for its first decade of existence. From 1901 to 1911, the team failed to post a winning season and lost more than one hundred games three times. In 1907, Washington signed a young right-hander named Walter Johnson who slowly developed into the game’s best pitcher by 1910. With Johnson anchoring the rotation, the Senators achieved respectability in the 1910s and became a championship contender in the 1920s. Washington won its first World Series in 1924 with a 4–3 series win over the New York Giants. Johnson provided the heroics with four shutout innings of relief to get the win in a deciding Game Seven. The Senators returned to the World Series in 1925 but lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Washington remained one of the AL’s best teams from 1926 to 1933 but had the bad fortune of playing in the same era with the Babe Ruth-led New York Yankees and the powerful Philadelphia A’s. The Senators did make it to the World Series in 1933, only to fall to the Giants in five games. Washington tumbled out of contention for most of the next quarter century, routinely finishing near the bottom of the AL standings. The team’s struggles were so bad that they inspired a 1955 Broadway musical called Damn Yankees, in which a Senators’ fan makes a deal with the devil to finally beat the Yankees and win a pennant. The musical was eventually made into a popular film of the same name.

As fan support for the scuffling franchise dwindled in the late 1950s, the team’s owner began to look for a new home. Officials in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota had also been trying to lure a team to the area. In 1960, the Senators agreed to relocate to Minnesota, but AL officials would not allow the move until a new team could be placed in Washington. So in 1961, the Senators were allowed to move to Minneapolis, while an expansion team—also named the Senators—was established in Washington. The relocated Senators changed their name to the Twins as a reference to the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Within a year of moving to Minnesota, the franchise posted its first winning season in more than a decade. From 1962 to 1970, the Twins finished above .500 seven times and advanced to the postseason three times. In 1965, Minnesota made the World Series, only to lose in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 1970s and early 1980s were not as kind to Minnesota, as the Twins finished out of playoff contention for sixteen straight seasons.

In 1987, the Twins finished a mediocre 85–77 but that record was good enough for a division title and a berth in the playoffs. After defeating the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series (ALCS), Minnesota next faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The Twins fell behind 3–2, but rallied to win the championship in seven games. In 1991, Minnesota again won its division to play in the World Series. In similar fashion, the Twins trailed the Atlanta Braves 3–2 entering Game Six. Minnesota forced a deciding seventh game on the strength of a dramatic eleventh-inning home run by outfielder Kirby Puckett. In a tense Game Seven—considered by many experts to be one of the greatest games of all time—Twins starter Jack Morris pitched ten shutout innings to maintain a scoreless tie. Minnesota then won the game in the bottom of the tenth for the third championship in franchise history.

After struggling for the remainder of the 1990s, the Twins bounced back to become one of the AL’s most consistent teams of the 2000s. Minnesota won six division titles from 2002 to 2010 and advanced to the 2002 ALCS. However, on four of those occasions, the Twins were eliminated from the playoffs by the New York Yankees, twice by a 3–0 series sweep. When Minnesota returned to the playoffs in 2017 and 2019, they were once again sent home by the Yankees. In 2017, New York won a one-game wild card playoff to bounce the Twins, and in 2019, the Yankees won in another sweep. The Twins made the playoffs again in 2020 and 2023, but on both occasions, it was the Houston Astros that eliminated them from contention.

Notable players

Twenty-five former players, managers, and team officials associated with the Minnesota Twins have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as of 2020. Chief among these was Walter Johnson, who was part of the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1936. Johnson spent his entire career with the Senators from 1907 to 1927. He won twenty or more games twelve times, twice topping thirty wins. He led the American League in victories six times and won twelve strikeout titles, including eight in a row from 1912 to 1919. His 417 career wins are not only first in franchise history, but also second all-time in MLB history. Johnson’s 3,509 strikeouts stood as the MLB record from 1927 until 1983. As of 2020, Johnson is ninth all-time in career strikeouts. His 110 shutouts are twenty more than any other player in history and unlikely to ever be surpassed.

Outfielder Sam Rice was a teammate of Johnson’s in the 1924 World Series champions and played with the Senators from 1915 to 1933. A .323 career hitter, Rice holds the franchise record for career hits with 2,889. The team’s first star upon its move to Minnesota was slugger Harmon Killebrew, who began his career as a Senator in 1954. Killebrew was a seven-time All-Star who won the AL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 1969. In twenty-one seasons with the franchise, Killebrew hit a club-record 559 home runs and drove in 1,540 runs—also a team record. Infielder Rod Carew was one of the best hitters of his generation, winning seven AL batting titles with Minnesota from 1967 to 1978. Carew’s .334 batting average with the Twins is the best in team history, and his 2,085 hits is sixth on the franchise list. Over the course of his career, Carew batted .328 and accumulated 3,053 hits.

Pitcher Bert Blyleven had two stints in Minnesota, one from 1970 to 1976 and another from 1985 to 1988. Of his 3,701 career strikeouts, Blyleven struck out 2,035 batters with the Twins, second behind Johnson on the franchise list. Blyleven also won 149 of his 287 career wins with Minnesota. Kirby Puckett played for two World Series winners in Minnesota from 1984 to 1995. The ten-time All-Star is second in team history with 2,304 hits and stands fifth with a lifetime .318 batting average. Puckett likely would have added to his career statistics but was forced into an early retirement in 1996 after suffering from glaucoma.

In the twenty-first century, the Twins were led by pitcher Johan Santana, who won two Cy Young Awards and three AL strikeout titles with Minnesota from 2000 to 2007. Catcher Joe Mauer was a six-time All-Star with the Twins from 2004 until his retirement in 2018. Mauer won the 2009 AL MVP Award and is fourth in franchise history with 2,123 hits. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Bibliography

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Chase, Benjamin. “Minnesota Twins All-Time 25-Man Roster.” FOX Sports, 30 June 2017, www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/minnesota-twins-all-time-25-man-roster-022117. Accessed 11 May 2020.

Gleeman, Aaron. The Big 50: Minnesota Twins. Triumph Books, 2018.

“Twins History.” MLB.com, 2020, www.mlb.com/twins/history. Accessed 12 May 2020.

“Minnesota Twins.” Baseball Almanac, 2024, www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/minn.shtml. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“Minnesota Twins Team History & Encyclopedia.” Baseball Reference, 2024, www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

“Washington Senators (Twins) Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/washington-senators-mn. Accessed 12 May 2020.

“Why the Washington Nationals Were Once Known as the Senators.” United States Senate, www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Washington‗Nationals‗Once‗Known‗as‗Senators.htm. Accessed 12 May 2020.