A season for the ages
If you know your Minnesota Twins franchise history, you’ll agree with Mr. Shatner—1965 was a very good year.
After coming over from Washington in 1961, the Twins were immediately an offensive juggernaut—a trend that continued in ‘65. Even with Harmon Killebrew limited to 25 home runs in 479 PA due to injury, the bats were not a problem:
- Zoilo Versalles put up this eye-popping line—728 PA, 126 R, 45 2B, 12 3B, 308 TB—to capture AL MVP
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- Tony Oliva’s league-leading 185 hits netted a batting title at a .321 clip
- Don Mincher, Bob Allison, & Jimmie Hall added 20+ fence-busters apiece
- On April 27, even moundsman Camilo Pascual limbered up some lumber with a grand slam!
The biggest reason the powerful Twins often fell short of the New York Yankees in the early 60s? A lack of top-shelf pitching. This time, MN even had that covered:
- Jim “Mudcat” Grant posted a league-leading 21 wins
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- Jim Kaat made 42 starts at a 18-11 clip
- Jim Perry was an unheralded swing man—starter & long reliever—at 136 ERA+
- Al Worthington (168 ERA+) & Johnny Klippstein (160 ERA+) were ferocious firemen
The ‘65 team was an absolute machine. 51-30 at home—and 51-30 on the road. 53-29 in the first half—49-31 in the second half. A metronome of consistent winning.
The regular season’s most memorable moment? On July 11—the day before the All-Star Break—the Twins sat 4.0 GA of the rest of the AL. Playing the perpetual rival Bronx Bombers, it was a back-and-forth contest. In the top of the ninth inning the Yankees pushed a run across Metropolitan Stadium’s home plate to go up 5-4. But in the bottom of the 9th, Rich Rollins drew a walk and with two outs the Killer sent fans home happy.
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The Twins remained in 1st place the rest of the way, finishing with a still-franchise-record 102-60 mark under manager Sam Mele. 1,463,258 paying customers streamed to Bloomington that summer—tops in the Junior Circuit.
On September 26, the Twins clinched the AL pennant in Washington (the irony!). In a pre-divisional era, this punched an immediate World Series ticket.
The story of the 1965 Fall Classic would be severely underserved with just a blurb here, so it will be portioned out over the next few months. But for the moment, we can all take a beat to bask in the glory of the greatest regular season in Twins baseball history.
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