The 60s Twins are my favorite sports franchise/team and they seemed very likely to be the dominant team in the AL after the Yankees finally ran out of good players. Once the Orioles traded for Frank Robinson the dream died. Then the Tigers and Red Sox came on strong and the Twins could never quite break through again into the WS. Cleveland and the Chisox had v good teams and in a year or two Oakland was making noise. The 67 pennant race was a classic.
I remember that as Mudcat was going into his windup he would tap the rubber twice, a timing thing thing for him, and I never saw another pitcher with that particular move. He had great stuff. Sad to see him go.
We are twin sons of different franchises. Minnesota and Detroit had the misfortune of building solid contenders that should have won multiple pennants, only to cancel each other out in 1967 in favor of the Impossible Dream Red Sox and then get run over by Baltimore's and Oakland's superior pitching. (And then both did it AGAIN in the mid-80s, with the Twins taming the Tigers in 1987.)
Minnesota went first, second, second, seventh, first from 1965-1969.
The Killer, supported by a cast of big bats and great defense. Heavily underrated Tony Oliva. Cesar Tovar. Bob Allison. Ted Uhlaender. Zulio Versalles. Battey, Mincher, Allen at the beginning. Reese, Carew and Nettles at the end.
Perry, Boswell, Kitty Kaat, Grant, Merritt. Those Twins deserved more than one trip. But the same could be said of my Tigers, not to mention the Giants (and perhaps Cubs).
The DH came one decade too late for Killebrew and Gates Brown.
