Watching the Twins finale on TV on Wednesday, I had this thought: "With the September collapse, where does this 2022 club rate in Twins history?''
Patrick Reusse grades all 62 Twins seasons: Here are the all-time best, meh and worst
You can probably guess the top two. And you might remember some of the F's. Only Patrick Reusse, in attendance on that first day in 1961, can grade them all.
October 8, 2022 at 11:01PM
Which gave me another thought: "You were at their first-ever home game with your father Richard in April 1961. Why don't you wrap up the season by rating all of them?''
So, here it is, based on level of joie de vivre for Twins fans at the end of their 62 seasons.
GRADE A
1. 1991: 95-67 (1st AL West, 8 GA). Won all-time great World Series vs. Atlanta.
2. 1987: 85-77 (1st ALW, 2 GA). Amazing play vs. Detroit in ALCS; first Series win vs. St. Louis.
3. 1965: 102-60 (1st AL, 7 GA). Lost Game 7 of Series to all-time great Sandy Koufax.
4. 2009: 87-76 (1st AL Central, 1 GA). Game 163 vs. Detroit. Joe Mauer, MVP. Phil Cuzzi calls it foul.
5. 1962: 91-71 (2nd AL, 5 GB). Year 2 in our beloved erector set, and Twins chase mighty Yankees.
6. 1969: 97-65 (1st ALW, 9 GA). Billy Ball, Billy Brawl.
7. 1970: 98-64 (1st ALW, 9 GA). KO Punch, Killebrew & Oliva — and Cy for Jim Perry.
8. 1967: 91-71 (T-2nd AL, 1 GA). The Great Race ends badly in Fenway.
9. 2010: 94-68 (1st ALC, 6 GA). Target Field welcomed with exciting team and 3,223,640 tickets sold.
10. 2002: 94-67 (1st ALC, 13.5 GA). Everyday Eddie walking plank vs. Money Ballers. Baseball doesn't get any better.
11. 2006: 96-66 (1st ALC, 1 GA). Cy Young (Johan Santana), MVP (Justin Morneau), The Piranhas and Francisco Liriano's elbow. What mighta been.
12. 2019: 101-61 (1st ALC, 8 GA). Out of nowhere, more home runs (307) than any team in MLB history.
GRADE B
13. 1961: 70-90. We were in the bigs! Then Pistol Pete Ramos shuts out Yankees in Twins' first-ever game and we started making World Series plans.
14. 1977: 84-77. The Year of Carew.
15. 2004: 92-70. Santana's first Cy Young, Twins' last playoff win.
16. 2003: 90-72. Shannon Stewart to the rescue.
17. 1984: 81-81. The Ticket Buyout, new owner, crazy contenders — and blew 10-0 lead in an elimination game.
18. 1992: 90-72. Excellent team — until A's Eric Fox hit that August home run and triggered an eight-year team slump.
19. 2001: 85-77. Twins return from eight losing seasons and Tom Kelly walks.
20. 1963: 91-70. Third place. Curve-balling Camilo Pascual leads AL in strikeouts — again.
21. 1988: 91-71. A's were too good, as 3 million ticket buyers to Metrodome found out.
22. 1996: 78-84. Paul Molitor and Chuck Knoblauch combined for 422 hits, which couldn't make up for Kirby Puckett waking up with a dot in front of his right eye late in spring training.
23. 1966: 89-73. Jim Kaat went 25-13, but it was the final year with only one Cy Young for both leagues and it went to Koufax.
24. 2008: 88-75. Jim Thome's home run to straightaway center in Chicago. White Sox 1, Twins 0 in Game 163.
GRADE C
25. 1974: 82-80. My first year on Twins beat. Maybe I could've figured how Frank Quilici finished above .500 with that bunch if I wasn't imbibing then.
26. 1973: 81-81. Blyleven won 20, pitched 325 innings and struck out 258.
27. 1976: 85-77. We got the great Gene Mauch (my all-timer).
28. 2017: 85-77. Wild card; Molitor Manager of the Year.
29. 2015: 83-79. Nightmare was over, briefly.
30. 1979: 82-80. Carew traded; Smalley did his best to save his Uncle Gene (Mauch) in first half.
31. 2005: 83-79. Yes, I should have had Santana and not Bartolo Colon at top of my official Cy Young ballot. I went with the wins.
32. 1964: 79-83. Tony O wins batting title as rookie; next year, World Series.
33. 1982: 60-102. Herbie, Gaetti, etc. went from Hapless Twins (16-54) to Hopeful Twins (44-48) with all those rookies in that zany summer.
34. 1983: 70-92. Ten-win improvement … and Ron Davis had his best year.
35. 1986: 71-91. Rabbit (Ray Miller) gets fired in September, Tom Kelly winds up with the job.
36. 1990: 74-88. You can't go last-to-first without being last.
GRADE D
37. 2022: 78-84. Here's the answer to the original question in this column. Collapses are punishable. And the rest of the very competitive D's:
38. 2007: 79-83. 39. 1989: 80-82. 40. 1972: 77-77. 41. 1980: 77-84*. 42. 1968: 79-83. 43. 2018: 78-84. 44. 1975: 76-83. 45. 1985: 77-85**. 46. 2000: 69-93. 47. 1978: 73-89. 48: 1971: 74-86.
*-Won 12 in a row in September with interim manager John Goryl, hiding that team's true ineptitude.
**-Interest in the Twins in the early '80s was such that friend Mark Whicker, in Twin Cities from L.A., needled the waitstaff at a Lake Minnetonka restaurant by repeatedly asking for an update on a Twins score. They almost called the cops on him.
INCOMPLETE
49. 2020: Season was delayed until late July by pandemic. Twins won AL Central at 36-24, but 37% of a season comes with asterisk.
50. 1994: Twins were 53-60 when players strike ended season and wiped out World Series.
GRADE F
Very hard to differentiate. Here are the abject failures, 51 through 61, chronologically: 1981: 41-68 (split season). 1993: 71-91. 1995: 56-88. 1997: 68-94. 1998: 70-92. 1999: 63-97. 2012: 66-96. 2013: 66-96. 2014: 70-92. 2016: 59-103. 2021: 73-89.
No. 62: 2011, 63-99. By record, 2016 rates as the worst, but what this collapse led to and did to change the timeline for the anticipated Target Field honeymoon makes this season unmatched for horrid impact on the franchise. Those Twins finished 19-50, and then celebrated openly when avoiding 100 losses on the last day at the Target Field they had spent the summer polluting.
Talk of competing for the best players or of a potential new owner wielding big bucks doesn’t change this: They are last in popularity among the four major men’s pro sports.
