1. Twins Win Their First World Series

16. Juan Rincon Induces  a 4-3-5 Triple Play.

Considering the Twins won this game and the division by just one game, this turned out to a pretty important play.  Mostly, I just thought it was hilarious.

2006: On May 14, just 13 days earlier, the Twins hit into a triple play against the White Sox. Luis Castillo was the batter (on a bunt pop) in the Chicago game and one of the fielders in Minnesota’s fielding trifecta. “I said, ‘We got it!'” Castillo said after turning the trick against Seattle. “Last time, they got me. Now we got the other team.” Against the Mariners, Juan Rincon entered the game to face Kenji Johjima, who hit a grounder to second on the first pitch. Castillo fielded the ball, tagged out Adrian Beltre then threw to first to get Johjima. First baseman Justin Morneau noticed Carl Everett was leaning the wrong way off third base and fired a strike to Tony Batista, the third baseman tagging out Everett to complete the triple play. Said Rincon: “Seeing this one is fun. Seeing the other one is not fun.” Johjima had perhaps the most interesting comment: “This wasn’t the first time that’s happened to me,” he said through an interpreter.”

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#2  Hrbek Hits Grand Slam in Game 6

For the longest time, I thought that Hrbek won game six for the Twins. As it turns out, the REALLY big hit came from Don Baylor the inning before, and the game-winning RBI went to Steve Lombardozzi. But one could argue that Hrbek guaranteed the victory.

Dan Gladden’s grand slam in game one was improbable, but what happened in the sixth inning here was nigh impossible. With one out and the bases loaded, Bob Forsch got Brunansky to pop out. Up next was Hrbek, so Whitey Herzog very correctly called in Ken Dayley to face him. Here were their respective splits that season:

Hrbek versus lefties: 225/290/370, 6 homers in 138 at bats.
Dayley versus lefties: 247/337/301, 0 homers in 73 at bats.

The last time Dayley had given up a homer to a lefty was October, 1985 to Darryl Strawberry. Hell, Dayley had only given up three PERIOD since that homer to Strawberry. He was way more likely to throw Hrbek four straight balls. Hrbek had been pretty brutal all postseason long, especially against lefties.

McGee Goes Back!

Man, I got shivers again.

#15  Hicks Shows Off His Cannon

So he misplayed the bounce a little bit, but I love how nonchalant he is, like it's a forgone conclusion Wells was going to be out.

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I really dislike these cloying retrospectives from the Twins and Dick Bremer but it's the video I got.

7. Jack Morris Escapes Jam in 5th inning of Game 7

One could argue the entire game was a moment for Jack Morris, but it's not like he was brilliant.  He just was solid and escaped a few jams, thanks to some luck (thanks Lonnie Smith), some bad hitting, and a lot of guile.  But his work in the 5th inning was pretty excellent, and I love his reaction when he strikes out Gant.

10. Brad Radke wins his 20th game

Brad Radke might be my favorite pitcher.  Even when I barely paid attention to the Twins in the 90's, I paid attention to what he was doing.  He had a lot of solid games in his career.  There's the ALDS against the A's.  There's pitching with a torn labrum in 2006 to help the Twins make the playoffs.  And I'll always fondly remember him for being terrible in the first inning before settling down.

Since I couldn't pick a single moment, him winning his 20th game of the year for a terrible team by pitching ten innings with Paul Molitor driving in the game-winning run with a triple (Brent Brede scoring!) seemed as good as any.  Might I say he's also one very good looking dude.

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#4: Hrbek Tags Out Gant.

We talked about this a lot just last week.  I'm just grateful it happened before instant replay.  Not because of it could have been overturned.  It just would have been nauseating sitting through it.

#13 Bobby Korecky Gets His First Career Hit And His First Career Win

On May 19, 2008, the Twins were a game out of first place in a very crowded AL Central.  In a back-and-forth game against the Rangers, the Twins tied in the 9th thanks to a Joe Mauer single.  However, due to Mike Redmond pinch-hitting for Adam Everett (my word) and  Craig Monroe pinch-hitting for Alexi Casilla (oh man), Gardy lost the DH after the 9th inning (at least Monroe walked and scored the tying run!).  Howie Clark filled in at second base and DH Brendan Harris went to short.

Korecky relieved Juan Rincon in the 11th and helped him escape a bases loaded jam with one out.  And then in the bottom half he promptly banged a single to right.  In fact, he was on 3rd base as the winning run with just one out when Morneau and Cuddyer were shut down (as they had been all game).

No worries, though.  Korecky pitched a 1-2-3 ninth against Josh Hamilton, Milton Bradley, and David Murphy.  And then in the bottom half, Carlos Gomez (who had started on the bench due to an injury) singled and scored on Howie Clark's final hit of his career.

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#5 Eric Milton No-Hits the Angels

Like most of us I assume I was not paying much attention to the Twins in 1999.  I had just started my first year of college the week before and they hadn't been good in so long I barely knew who was on the team.  Honestly, when I read the paper the next day I'm pretty sure I thought, "Who's Eric Milton?" Turned out he was pretty decent and his trade continued the amazing Knoblauch trade tree.

Anyway, here's another glorious call by Herb Carneal.

#12 Señor Smoke Strikes Out Four Batters, Saves ALCS Game 2

In the 8th inning Blyleven allowed a homer to Lou Whitaker and a single to Darrell Evans and Kelly pulled him in favor of Berenguer.  While this kind of save situation would normally not make a manager nervous, the Twins bullpen in '87 outside of Berenguer and late season Reardon was pretty abysmal.  And the Tigers offense was a juggernaut.

Berenguer struck out Kirk Gibson and got Alan Trammell to ground out to end the threat.  And then in the 9th he turned into a modern day reliever by getting Matt Nokes, Chet Lemon, and Pat Sheridan to strike out to put the Twins up 2-0 heading to Detroit.

You can watch the whole game on YouTube of course.  Here's a snippet that includes more great announcing by Carneal.

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#8 Twins Defeat Cleveland in Extra Innings, Win 15th In A Row

Jeff talked about the game here.  The game where the streak was snapped was more memorable, but I do remember as a kid feeling after fifteen wins that this team was invincible and could win it all.  I was so bummed out when they lost the next night.

#9 Pedro Munoz Hits Walk-Off Jack in the 22nd Inning

Video here.  Though I have to say, watching Greg Gagne make that diving catch might be even more fun.  Man, he was good in the field.  This is tied for the longest game in Twins history.  I love that Munoz just sort of walks up to home plate.  No jumping.  No yelling.  No Gatorade bath.  He just steps on the plate and everyone gives him some gentlemanly congratulations before presumably falling asleep.

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#1 Seed: Larkin Walks It Off

#16 Seed: Mike Sweeney Pops Into Infield Fly Double Play, Gets Nailed by Dougie

On May 30th, 2004 the Twins defeated the Royals like they often did, and this time with the help of some confused Royals baserunners. I can't find any video of the play, but thankfully, Batgirl reenacted everything with Legos! Click on the link to see the play in all its glory.

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Hello!

Philo's "fun" bracket (I mean, the beach, WTF?) as well as Jeff's rewind wrapping up has inspired me to create my own bracket. Heck, we need even more things to get us through this shitstorm, and baseball distractions are the best. The reason I'm going from 1987 on is that my first baseball memories start there, and that's similar for many of us here. Allison's diving catch is awesome, but most of us didn't live it and the old-timers would be at a disadvantage. Here's the set-up:

• 64 seed bracket
• Moments are from games that matter. So, you won't see Puckett's memorial service or Jason Morneau winning the home-run derby.
• For the most part, moments will also be individual achievements or individual games. So you likely won't see "Shannon Stewart propels Twins to division title."
• I will make at least one post per day (probably more at times) with a seeded match-up. I'll include videos if I can find them. You guys can discuss and vote. I'll keep polls open as long as possible within the same round so people can come back and vote if they miss a few days.
• I have intentionally left every #11 seed empty. The #6/#11 matchups will be saved for last, and at that time you all can nominate some #11 seeds. If we get a lot of good nominations, I will consider doing "play-in" games for the #11 seeds.
• The bracket will not be public until the end of the 1st round. The four "regions" are Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Johan Santana, and Joe Mauer. Generally I tried to keep moments within the same careers of each of those four players, but I couldn't do that in every instance.
• The seeding itself is not necessarily my own personal preference. In some cases moments were seeded higher because the moments were more famous or were high on public lists I reviewed. Though to be sure, all of my personal favorites are in the bracket somewhere.

The first post will likely be on Sunday.