Tony Oliva cornered me in the Twins' clubhouse today, and had a clipping from today's paper in his hand. I knew what he was going to say before he even started.
He corrected my error, in no uncertain terms. But there's a 49-year-old error that he can't get fixed.
In searching for context for Oswaldo Arcia's 11th home run of the season on Tuesday night, I did a computer search for home runs by a Twin in his first season, which showed that Arcia ranked sixth -- or so I thought. But in searching for "first" season instead of "rookie" season, I slighted Tony O, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunanski, Justin Morneau, and every other Twin who spent a few days in the big leagues before their official "rookie" season.
Jimmie Hall, I wrote in Wednesday's Star Tribune, holds the Twins' rookie record for home runs with 33, with Marty Cordova second. In reality, Hall is the record holder, but Oliva's 32 in 1964 is second-most; my search credited Oliva with zero, since he had nine at-bats in 1962, his "first" season.
But Oliva had another tidbit: He should be tied with Hall for the Twins' rookie record. "They missed one in Anaheim," he told me of that 1964 season. "I hit a ball high, and it came down behind the fence, but [the umpires] said it bounced over it." He was awarded a ground-rule double, he said, and was robbed of what would have been his 33rd homer.
So for the record, Arcia's 11 homers puts him in a tie for 18th place among rookies in Twins' history. Here's the complete, and correct, top 10. And my apologies to Tony Oliva; I never meant to slight No. 6.
33 - Jimmie Hall, 1963
32 -- Tony Oliva, 1964
