A late push—but too late to repeat as AL champs
Happy New Year Twinkie Town! With the calendar flipped to 2026, I’ll be periodically checking in on the 2006 & 2016 campaigns this 365-cycle. But before that, we have a few one-off anniversaries—beginning with the Twins’ AL title defense 60 years ago.
In 1965, Minnesota established itself as a professional baseball powerhouse by flying an American League Championship banner and pushing a thrilling World Series to G7 before succumbing to Stunning Sandy. It should come as little surprise that 1966 saw 1,259,374 fans stream into Metropolitan Stadium—2nd best in the AL—for a pennant defense.
Offensively, tippy-top stalwarts Harmon Killebrew (39 HR, 110 RBI, 103 BB, .281 BA, 157 OPS+) & Tony Oliva (191 H, Gold Glove Award) showed no champagne hangover—but that couldn’t be applied to the rest of the lumber-wielders…
- Bob Allison was limited to 204 PA due to a wrist fracture
- 1965 AL MVP Zoilo Versalles dipped to an 83 OPS+
- Ted Uhlaender and his 59 OPS+ somehow received 403 PA
All told, a slightly-below-average team 95 OPS+.
Fortunately, the pitching picked up the slack.
Led by Jim Kaat’s newfound ace-dom—25-13, 2.75 ERA, 41 GS, 19 CG, 3 SHO, 304.2 IP, 131 ERA+—the likes of Mudcat Grant (111 ERA+), Jim Perry (142 ERA+), & Dave Boswell (115 ERA+) were also solid starters.
Add up the cunning contributions from Al Worthington (147 ERA+) & Pete Cimino (124 ERA+) out of the crib and the team 116 ERA+ was the squad’s strong point.
All told, this led to a respectable 89-73 record in 1966. Alas, “respectable” didn’t make the World Series in this era before divisions or playoffs. So, the MN boys of summer had to settle for 2nd place behind the 97-63 Baltimore Orioles—powered by a generational MVP season (198 OPS+) from Frank Robinson.
Hovering around .500 (17.5 GB) at the end of July, the Twins made a 21-11 August & 17-10 Sept/Oct push to cut the deficit to 9 GB—but ultimately ran out of time to catch the Orange Birds.
There were of course still some standout moments along route ‘66…
- June 9: Rich Rollins, Versalles, Oliva, Don Mincher, & Killebrew all homered in a single inning
- July 21: SP Jim Merritt K’d six batters in a row for an AL record
- August 18: The Twins turned the first triple play in franchise history—Rollins to Cesar Tovar to Killebrew off a Frank Malzone (California Angels) ground ball.
While not ending with the national fanfare of ‘65, this season proved the Minnesota Twins were no one-hit wonders. Their mix of hitting & pitching was strong enough to compete with AL stalwarts year-in and year-out.
Category: General Sports
