Meet the Twins If a player swings the bat well he can always find a home with the with the Minnesota Twins That has been true for more than 50 years ars Indeed the Twins have a tradition of home run hitters and d batting champions that few teams can match Of course there is much more to Minnesota’s success than power at the plate The Twins pride themselves on playing good smart baseball They are prepared for every situation The Twins know how to win games on the basepaths and in the field And their pitchers are always thinking a step ahead of enemy batters This book tells the story of the Twins They are known for or their big hitters but they also have a knack for doing all the little little things that lead to victory When they are at the top of their game there is no team in baseball that’s harder to beat The Twins escort hometown hero Joe Mauer to the dugout after he scores a run Mauer grew up in Minnesota watching the team play 5
Glory Days T he Twins played their first season in Minnesota in 1961 However they were not a new team Six decades earlier the Washington Senators were one of eight teams that joined the newly formed American League AL The team’s greatest star in those early years was Walter Johnson a sidearm pitcher who threw the ball close to 100 miles per hour Another important person in the club’s history was Clark Griffith He began as the manager and ended up owning the team The Senators won the World Series in 1924 They captured the pennant twice after that in 1925 and 1933 They had some very good players over the years including Sam Rice Goose Goslin Joe Cronin Heinie Manush George Case Cecil Travis Sid Hudson and Mickey Vernon However most seasons the Senators finished at the bottom 6
LEFT Clark Griffith went from team manager to team owner in Washington RIGHT Harmon Killebrew was the team’s top star when they became the Twins in 1961 of the standings In fact a popular joke said that Washington was first in war first in peace and last in the American League By the 1950s Griffith’s nephew Calvin had taken charge of the team The Senators were losing a lot of games and a lot of money Several baseball-starved cities offered to give the team a new home In the end the state of Minnesota won over the Griffith family The team moved to the city of Bloomington in 1961 and played in brand-new Metropolitan Stadium The Senators would forever after be known as the Twins Minnesota held onto some very good players from Washington Jim Kaat and Camilo Pascual were among the best pitchers in the AL while sluggers Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison led the hitting attack 7
