18 thoughts on “1965 Rewind: Team Leaders”

1. May I recommend 1982?

   1. That would be--interesting, I guess, but it would also be rather depressing. I still maintain the 1981 team was the worst Twins team ever, but the 1982 squad has the worst winning percentage. I'm not sure I could handle doing recaps of 102 losses.

      1. I'd like to see 1988 done right. Many people were disappointed after the 1987 season and somehow got it through their heads that the 1988 team wasn't good, but many of the players had career years in '88

         1. You can make the argument that the 1988 team was better than the 1987 team. It's just that the 1988 Oakland team was better still. If I was going to choose one of those, though, I'd probably do 1987 just because World Series Champions!

            1. Maybe in a few years we can relive 2006 as well. That year was so much fun.

         2. the 1988 team was incredible

         3. The 1969, 1988, 1992, and 2002 seasons would all make excellent choices. I think the seasons I know less about, but should still be pretty interesting, are the 1977 & 1984 Twins.

         4. But 1988 had Tommy Herr

            1. Every good story has a strong villain

               1. like 1984?

2. Thanks for all the suggestions. Please feel free to keep them coming.

   My original plan had been to, over the years, do all of the Twins playoff teams. My hope was that, by the time I finished, the Twins would have more playoff teams to do. That's still my plan, but it looks like there's some sentiment to do some of the teams that never made the playoffs. Plans can change, after all.

   My original original plan had been to do the playoff teams in chronological order, which would mean 1969 would be next. I'm starting to think, though, that it might be more fun to take a team from a different Twins era, maybe the 1987 team.

   We'll see. I don't have to make the decision today, so I won't. But again, I'd love to hear more suggestions.

   1. I'd give W/L heavy consideration, regardless of post season.

      1. I like happy endings.

         Actually, if we go by winning percentage, the 1965 was first. The next highest appears to be the 1970 team, which went 98-64.

         1. And in fact, while I tend to think of 1965-70 as basically the same era, the team changed quite a bit. Killebrew and Oliva were still there, of course. Jim Perry and Jim Kaat were still around, and Dave Boswell took on a much more prominent role. Bob Allison and Frank Quilici were still around, but neither played a major role on the team.

            The infield, in addition to Killebrew, was Rich Reese, Danny Thompson, and Leo Cardenas (Rod Carew missed over half the season with injuries). The outfield was Oliva, Cesar Tovar, and Brant Alyea. George Mitterwald was the catcher. Blyleven and Luis Tiant rounded out the rotation, with Ron Perranoski as the closer and Stan Williams and Tom Hall as the other primary relievers. Jim Holt and Rick Renick were the main bench players. That actually might be kind of a fun team to do, too.

            1. The '70 team is the first Twins team I remember well.

               I don't know about "injuries"; from what I remember, Carew blew out a knee or something on a play at second base the season before, and was still recovering well into the next season. I wish I still had the newspaper clipping photo of Joe Cronin (?) handing him his silver slugger award in his hospital bed.

               1. 1970 was when he blew out his knee. The year before, 1969, was when he tied the record for stealing home.

                  1. That makes sense, and why I remember it better

3. Great job on the recap, отец. This is the point of time that I moved into Twinsland as a kid - obviously Killer and TonyO, Reese and Rollins, Allison and Versalles fading, Kaat to Perry, Grant -> Perranoski, Tovar, Tiant - Carew is the new guy, Ted U., Quilici fading. Great memories and replay. Thanks.

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