The Minnesota Twins Tickets : Success Came Quickly To The Team In Minnesota

Apr 27th, 2011 Cynthia Hoffman

The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome from 1982 to 2009, and they played their first game at Target Field on April 12, 2010.

The team was founded in Kansas City in 1894 as a Western League team and would move to Washington, D.C. in 1901 as one of the eight original teams of the American League, named the Washington Senators or Washington Nationals.

Although the Washington team endured long bouts of mediocrity (immortalized in the Broadway musical Damn Yankees), they had a period of prolonged success in the 1920s and 1930s, led by Hall-of-Famers Bucky Harris, Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, Joe Cronin, and above all Walter Johnson. Manager Clark Griffith joined the team in 1912 and became the team's owner in 1920. The franchise remained under Griffith family ownership until 1984.

In 1960, Major League Baseball granted the city of Minneapolis an expansion team. Washington owner Calvin Griffith, Clark's nephew and adopted son, requested that he be allowed to move his team to Minneapolis and instead grant Washington the expansion team. The league granted his request, and the team moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season, setting up shop in Metropolitan Stadium, while Washington fielded a brand new "Washington Senators" (which later became the Texas Rangers prior to the 1972 season).

Success came quickly to the team in Minnesota. Sluggers Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison, who had already been stars in Washington, were joined by Tony Oliva and Zoilo Versalles, and later second baseman Rod Carew and pitchers Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, winning the American League pennant in 1965. A second wave of success came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, led by Kent Hrbek, Bert Blyleven, and Kirby Puckett, winning the franchise's second and third World Series (and first in Minnesota).

Through the 2009 season, the franchise has won three World Series championships (1924, 1987, and 1991) and has fielded 18 American League batting champions.

In their inaugural season played at Target Field, the Twins finished the regular season with a record of 94 wins and 68 losses, clinching the American League title for the 6th time in 9 years under manager Ron Gardenhire. New regular players included rookie Danny Valencia at third base, designated hitter Jim Thome, closer Matt Capps, infielder J.J. Hardy, and infielder Orlando Hudson. In relief pitching roles were late additions Brian Fuentes and Randy Flores.

The quirks of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, including the turf floor and the white roof, gave the Twins a significant home-field advantage that played into their winning the World Series in both 1987 and 1991. These were the first two World Series in professional baseball history in which a team won the championship by winning all four home games.

(The feat has since been repeated once, by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.) Nevertheless, the Twins argued that the Metrodome was obsolete and that the lack of a dedicated baseball only ballpark limited team revenue and made it difficult to sustain a top-notch, competitive team. The team was rumored to contemplate moving to such places as New Jersey, Las Vegas, Portland, Oregon, the Raleigh Durham area, and elsewhere in search of a more financially competitive market.

In 2002, the team was nearly disbanded when Major League Baseball selected the Twins and the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals franchise) for elimination due to their financial weakness relative to other franchises in the league. The impetus for league contraction diminished after a court decision forced the Twins to play out their lease on the Metrodome.

However, the Twins continued their efforts to relocate, pursuing litigation against the Metropolitan Stadium Commission and obtaining a state court ruling that they were not obligated to play in the Metrodome after the 2006 season. This cleared the way for the Twins to either be relocated or disbanded prior to the 2007 season if a new deal was not reached.

About the Author:

Cynthia Hoffman is the author of Ticketwood.com . Ticketwood is a leader tickets market search engine that enable Ticket shoppers to easily find, compare and buy Minnesota Twins Tickets sports tickets, theatre tickets MLB Tickets plus other events tickets.

Article Marketing

8 people like this article