Plenty of Minnesota sports anniversaries and years are embedded in our collective sports minds. Merely mention 1987, 1991 or 1998, for example, and the Twins' two World Series titles plus the Vikings' 15-1 season spring immediately to mind. But what about some lesser-known anniversaries? We're here to take a look back at some of those, in increments of five years, dating backward from 2013. Today: The 1993 Twins — five things you might have forgotten about that season.

1 Let's start with the positive: On Sept. 16, 1993, Dave Winfield — the St. Paul kid before Joe Mauer — collected his 3,000th career hit. It was a ninth-inning single off Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley and it came during a two-run rally that sent the game into extra innings. Oakland scored twice in the 13th inning but the Twins scored three times in the bottom half (the winning run scoring when Chip Hale knocked in Denny Hocking) for a 5-4 victory.

2 That's about the end of the good stuff (except for the odd quirk of the Twins going 10-2 in extra inning games despite going 71-91 overall). The Twins won the World Series in 1991 and were a force again in 1992, but the wheels came off in 1993. After starting 8-6, they had an eight-game losing streak; in seven of the losses, they gave up at least eight runs. In fact, they had two eight-game losing streaks and a nine-game losing streak in the first 58 games of the season. What nobody knew at the time is that the rut would last eight seasons, until the 2001 Twins and the next generation of youngsters posted a winning season.

3 Part of the problem was down years (by their standards) for Kirby Puckett and Chuck Knoblauch as well as an offense that was aging faster than the organization might have hoped.

4 But the main culprit, as would often define Twins teams in the 1990s, was starting pitching. Two years after tying for the AL lead in victories with 20 in helping the Twins to the World Series, Scott Erickson led the AL in losses with 19. He only had eight victories — fewer than double-digit winners Kevin Tapani, Willie Banks and Jim Deshaies. Your primary fifth starter that year? Rookie Eddie Guardado.

5 Touted rookie David McCarty made his debut and proceeded to fall flat. McCarty, the No. 3 overall pick in the 1991 draft, posted a .542 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 371 plate appearances. By comparison, Tsuyoshi Nishioka had a .527 OPS in 2011.

MICHAEL RAND