The Designated Hitter was introduced to baseball, but the 907,499 who viewed the Twins in 1973 did not see Harmon Killebrew in the role he was meant to play. Instead they saw the hobbled Tony Oliva, who would play out his remaining seasons as the Designated Hitter. Killebrew, himself slowed by injuries, would hit only 5 homers for the season. Rod Carew won his third batting crown with a .350 average, and was joined at the All-Star game by Bert Blyleven, who set five team records in the 1973 season with his 325 innings and 258 strikeouts to go with 25 complete games, 9 shutouts and holding opponents to a .252 batting average while compiling a monster 20-17 record.
The Twins hung around the AL West race well into July. As late as July 2nd they had a share of the lead, but for some reason fans thought this team was more of a pretender than a contender judging by their attendance which was 10th in the league and under a million fans. Contenders don't draw flies, which this team did. By the beginning of August they were still only 4 1/2 out, but a 7-21 stretch that ran from July 29th through Augst 26th left them 16 1/2 back and dead in the water. Watching 37 year old slugger and future HOF'er Harmon Killebrew fade right before everyone's eyes was painful to watch. It also hurt the team's chances to contend, since he hit only 5 homers and batter .242 to go along with his somewhat average glove play. Fans and ownership thought former ace Jim Kaat (11-12, 4.41) was kaput as well, so they shipped him off to the Chisox as the team faded. Blyleven started 40 games and completed 25. They needed him to start 80 to have a chance. The rotation after him and Kaat included .500 type pitchers like Joe Decker (10-10, 4.17), Dick Woodson (10-8, 3.95) and Bill Hands (7-10, 3.49). Ray Corbin (8-5, 14sv) and Bill Campbell (7sv) were solid out of the pen. Based on the numbers put up by this team manager Frank Quillici was lucky to get them to .500.
I create 15 new cards to complete the set, which is a low number for a team that finished in the middle of the pack.
Campbell started the season in AAA-Tacoma and started 18 games with a 10-5, 3.65 record. When the Twins called him up he was used primarily out of the pen going 3-3, 3.14 with 7 saves. His sophomore year provided zero jinxes with a 8-7, 2.62, 19sv effort. 1976 was the perfect time for him to go 17-5, 3.01 with 20 saves, because free agency became a reality after that and he signed a huge contract with the Red Sox. Campbell lost his status as an elite reliever after his 31 save season in 1977. Still he had financial security and te ability to eat up innings all the way until 1987.
After 7 seasons as a frontline starter for the Cubs, Hands moved to the AL and went 7-10, 3.49 for the Twins. No longer a guy who could be relied upon for 200+ innings and a winning record Hands was used as a swingman and a spot starter for the final two seasons of his 11 year career. He was traded from the Twins to the Rangers in the beginning of September of 1974 for the pennant drive. In his 2 starts he won both games with a 1.93, but the Rangers fell short. His final season, 1975 was subpar (6-7, 4.02). Rather than try to hang on he decided to retire and head back to Jersey.
"Mongo" spent all but one of his 7 major league seasons with the Twins. A big burly 6'3" guy who was expected to hit a lot of homers Kusick never had more than 268 AB's in any season. After hitting 27 homers and knocking in 104 runs in AAA Tacoma he got his first taste of major league baseball in 1973. He hit an even .250 in 15 September games. 1974 saw him split time between Tacoma and Minnesota, where he batted 90 points lower than his AAA average. On July 25, 1979 the Blue Jays purchased his contract from Minnesota where he was hitting just .241. He didn't fare much better north of the border hitting just .204. After the Jays cut him the Padres signed him and sent him to AAA-Hawaii where he hit .305 with 17 homers. The following season he was hitting .272 when he was traded to the Tigers and sent to Evansville, IN. No knock on Evansville, but getting traded there from Hawaii is a bit disappointing.
First thing my 12 year old brain was thinking, "Is he related to Barney?" My 52 year old brain said, "Really?" After starting for 3 years at the University of Michigan as a basketball player he chose baseball for his profession. In 2 major league seasons (1973-74) he posted a combined 3-2, 5.43 record. Maybe he should have signed with the Bucks, who drafted him in 1971. After baseball he became a highly successful HS basketball coach at Clarkston HS in Michigan.
Bane was 0-5 with a 4.92 ERA in 23 games (60+ IP) for the Twinkies during the '73 season. The 21 year old was a first round draft pick and was drop shipped straight from the ASU campus right into Bloomington. Obviously they thought of his a "our David Clyde". Well we all know how bad the Clyde story turned out, and this one was no different. The Twins were a bit smarter than the Rangers and saw the error in their ways and made sure that Bane spent the full '74 season in AAA-Tacoma (10-8, 4.18). Since his ERA and walks were high he started out '75 back in Tacoma and went 15-11, 4.03. Very similar to his numbers from 1974. As a late season callup he gave hope to Twin fas with 4 positive starts (3-1, 2.86). What the non-seamheads didn't notice was that during that stretch he struck out 24, but walked 39. Those numbers reversed aren't even good for a major league pitcher. When he started '76 with more losses than wins (4-7, 5.11) he was returned to Tacoma for the next two seasons where he bombed. The White Sox took a shot with him in 1978 and his AAA-Iowa numbers showed a modest improvement. After taking off all of 1979 he gave it one more go in 1980 with Wichita (CUB) and Omaha (KCR), but he just didn't have it. And so goes the tale of another #1 pick that just didn't pan out.
"Guido's" teams in Minnesota always hung around .500. Sometimes they were a bit over and more often than not a bit under. They were purely average and very pedestrian. If location is important in Real Estate, then timing is important in baseball. Quilici had the bad timing to get the Twins job at the age of 33 in 1972. He inherited a team that had been solid contenders for the past decade, but was now long in the tooth, plus he hat the unenviable task of managing his former teammates...some (like Killebrew), who were older than him. After keeping the Twins afloat using putty, tape and spit in 1974 Quilici could not find any magic the following year and was fired, which was probably a relief for him since working for cheapo owner Cal Griffith wasn't conducive to any manager's success. At 36 years of age and with a lot of life ahead Guido became a Twins broadcaster and a successful business man.
By 1973 Mitterwald was in his 7th and final year as a Twin. With a roller coaster like career where he would be horrible one season and rise up to mediocrity the next Mitterwald saved his best season for the end hitting .259 with 16 homers in 125 games. Cheapo owner Cal Griffith was nobody's fool and he decided to sell high and get the most value for his 29 year old backstop coming off a career (his) year. Georgie was sent to the Cubs for their aging catcher Randy Hundley who in one season turned out to be Minnesota's version of the Hindenburg (.193 in 32 games), while Mitterwald hit .251 at Wrigley.
Jerry Terrell was a surprise 26 year old rookie callup who got into 124 games and hit a solid .265 for the '73 Twins thanks to the rash of injuries that the team experienced. Terrell, who was more flexible than Olga Korbut, played every postion except catcher during his 7 year career as a utilityman. Known for his hustle he was voted the Twins 1973 top rookie. After hitting just .224 in 1977 he was shipped off to KC where he was used sparingly and survied 3 more seasons. In his final season, 1980, he came out of the gate hitting .063 and was banished to Omaha-AAA where he finished out his professional baseball career hitting .288. Terrell was deeply respected by Royals management, in fact he was respected by all of baseball. He was called up in September and was allowed to sit on the bench in uniform during the Royals post season run. Despite the fact that Terrell spent much of the 1980 season in the minor leagues, he was presented with the 1980 Danny Thompson Award, an award given annually for “exemplary Christian spirit” in baseball.
When doing my research on George Henry "Joe" Decker I found out this little tidbit (from the Find a Grave website): Joe Decker was a hard thrower, but tended to have streaks of wildness, so much so, that in spring training, his teammates would sometimes refused to bat against him. In 1973, his first season with the Twins, he was 10-10 with a 4.17 ERA. The next year proved to be the watershed mark in his career. He was 16-14 with a 3.29 ERA, with 37 games started, tallying 11 complete games and 1 shutout, but would never approached these figures again. After 1974 performance, he explained his success: "I try to tranquilize myself when I pitch. If I'm lethargic, I have better stuff." He started only 10 games in 1975, going 1-3. He was released by the Twins on
June 25, 1976, after having compiled a 2-7 record. After that it was pack your bags and travel from team to team time with is final destination the expansion Mariners right after he returned from Mexico
After playing mediocre ball for 3 horrible Phillies teams (1970-72) Lis wound up in the right place at the right time, Minnesota. For the price tag of one disgruntled Cesar Tovar the Twins received Lis and two broken down pitchers (Reynolds & Sanders). Lis was brough on as an insurance policy in case something happened to the aging Killebrew. All-State insurance he was not. Lis was not a charter member of the "good hands people". In fact he wasn't even a good bat person, which his .245 average with 9 homers would attest to. When he started off weak in 1974 he was to the Indians where he finished even slower (.202). The following two seasons (1975 & 1976) saw him hit over .300 in very limited action (29 games combined). In fact that's how Lis looked good, when he wasn't seen much on the major league level. On the minor league level he hit over 30 homers, which was the 4th time in his career that he accomplished that. If only he could get Triple-A pitching to the majors or face the 1978 A's every day, Lis was going to have problems. Lis decided to take his talents to Japan, where so many AAAA Americans migrated to become stars. This was not the case as he hit .206, which resulted in his deportation to Evansville, IN (AAA-DET) where he had a nice swan song season (.292-16-80).
Sanders was one of those broken down pitchers traded along with Lis to the Twins for Tovar. Sanders earned eight saves for the Twins by the end of May 1973 despite a relatively high 5.60 ERA. He lost the closer's job to Ray Corbin, and was placed on waivers. He was soon claimed by the Cleveland Indians, and pitched far more respectably with his new club, going 5-1 with a 1.65 ERA and five saves. Back-to-back poor performances against the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles led to his release in 1974. He soon signed a minor league deal with the California Angels, and was promoted to the big league club after nineteen games at triple A. He appeared in nine games with the Angels, earning one save. During the off season, he was traded to the New York Mets. Sanders, along with former Brewers teammate Skip Lockwood and Bob Apodaca, gave the Mets one of the more formidable bullpens in the division. For his part, Sanders went 1-1 with a 2.30 ERA and five saves.
Hisle had success early on as a 22 year old rookie in Philly, but his fortunes and the team's fortunes bottomed out at about the same time. Eventually the Phils gave up on him and shipped him to LA where he found his stroke in AAA-Albuquerque (.325-23-91). With a loaded outfield in LA the team refused to hold him back and sent him to St. Louis, who immediately re-packaged him to the Twins for reliever Wayne Granger. Hisle couldn't have found a better place to go than to the rebuilding Twins. Over the next 5 years he hit .286 with 87 homers and led the AL in RBI's (119) in 1977. Since Griffith was a tightwad he offered free agent Hisle peanuts. When the Brewers offered him a 6 year $3 million deal Hisle jumped on it. Unlike most free agents, who disappoint, Hisle gave Milwaukee their money's worth with a near MVP season. Once again he hit triple digits in RBI's (115) along with 34 homers and .290 batting average. At that point the 31 year old star was on top of the world, but like most things in life baseball is a cruel business. Early in the '78 seasons Hisle made a hard throw from his left field position and blew out his shoulder. Rather than be a guinea pig on the early rotator cuff surgeries he tried to rehab it. PT did not work. Surgery was the only way. When the surgery didn't work he was out of baseball after 2 failed comebacks. A sad ending for a great guy who worked his tail off and never quit.
The light-hitting Adams was a fine, strong-armed outfielder, but was never more than a part-time player serving as a defensive replacement late in the game. He reached the majors in 1972 with the Minnesota Twins, spending two years with them before moving to the Cubs and Athletics. His most productive season came in 1973 with Minnesota, when he posted career-highs in games played (55), hits (14), runs (21), home runs (3) and RBI (six). In parts of five seasons, Adams was a .195 hitter (23-for-118) with a .375 OBP, three home runs and nine RBI in 100 games.
The highlight of Reese's '73 season, well maybe it was his low-light, was being Nolan Ryan's 383rd strikeout victim as he set the all time season record on September 27th. Reese, who played 9 seasons with the Twins returned to the team for one final hurrah after being released by the Tigers on August 17th. He hit .174 in 22 games, which marked the end of his 10 year career. His best seasons (1969 & 1970) coincided with the Twins winning consecutive AL West crowns. Reese hit .322 with 16 homers and 69 RBI's in '69, which was the only time he ever eclipsed the .270 mark in his career.
Albury, a portly southpaw, made his major league debut on August 7, 1973 pitching 2 mop up innings in a blow out loss to Baltimore. He gave up 1 run, but didn't give up another run in his next 10 appearances. In 14 appearances he was 1-0, 2.70 in 23+ innings of work. Desperate for starting pitching he was promoted to the rotation in 1974 where he was 8-9, 4.12 in 22 starts. 1975 saw his season almost come to an end due to a shoulder injury. While it didn't cost him his season, it did cost him his spot in the rotation where he only started in 15 of his 32 appearances going 6-7, 4.53 with the lone save of his career. 1976 started well for him, but when he was hit by a line drive off of George Brett's bat (OUCH!) he was relegated to just 23 games (3-1, 3.58) all out of the pen. By that point the Twins realized that he never going to be a healthy front line starter so both he and the team decided it was best to part company. Albury singed a minor league deal with the defending AL Champion NY Yankees, who can never have enough left handed pitching assets. The 30 year old spent the full '77 season in AAA-Syracuse posting an even 9-9 record with a bloated 5.13 ERA. After sitting out the full '78 season he split time in 1979 playing for Puerto Rico in the doomed IAML and Cleveland's AAA-Tacoma affiliate (5-3, 4.58) before retiring.
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