1971 Minnesota Twins season explained

Minnesota Twins
Season:	1971
League:	American League
Division:	West
Ballpark:	Metropolitan Stadium
City:	Bloomington, Minnesota
Owners:	Calvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General Managers:	Calvin Griffith
Managers:	Bill Rigney
Television:	WTCN-TV (Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Bob Allison)
Radio:	830 WCCO AM (Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)

The 1971 Minnesota Twins finished 74–86, fifth in the American League West. 940,858 fans attended Twins games, the fifth-highest total in the American League, the first time the Twins failed to attract over one million fans since moving to Minnesota.

Regular season

Five Twins made the All-Star Game: first baseman Harmon Killebrew, second baseman Rod Carew, shortstop Leo Cárdenas, outfielder Tony Oliva, and pitcher Jim Perry.

On August 10, at Metropolitan Stadium, slugger Harmon Killebrew hit his 500th career home run, in the first inning off the Baltimore Orioles' Mike Cuellar. He followed that in the sixth inning with his 501st, also off Cuellar.

Lead off batter César Tovar led the AL with 204 hits and was second with 94 runs. Tony Oliva won his third batting title with a .337 average and led the AL with a .546 slugging percentage. Harmon Killebrew hit 28 HR and 119 RBI. Rod Carew hit .307.

Jim Perry (17–17), Bert Blyleven (16–15), and Jim Kaat (13–14) were the Twins' best pitchers. Kaat won his tenth Gold Glove Award.

Shortstop Leo Cárdenas topped the AL with a .985 fielding percentage—the highest for an American League shortstop since records began in 1901.

Notable transactions

• April 9, 1971: Dave Boswell was released by the Twins.^[1]
• June 8, 1971: 1971 Major League Baseball draft
  • Dave Edwards was drafted by the Twins in the 7th round.^[2]
  • Future NFL quarterback Joe Theismann was drafted by the Twins in the 39th round.^[3]
  • Glenn Borgmann was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round of the secondary phase.^[4]
• July 8, 1971: Paul Ratliff was traded by the Twins to the Milwaukee Brewers for Phil Roof.^[5]

Roster

1971 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		125	388	97	.250	13	44
1B		147	500	127	.254	28	119
2B		147	577	177	.307	2	48
SS		153	554	146	.264	18	75
3B		128	343	87	.254	5	35
LF		157	657	204	.311	1	45
CF		126	340	88	.259	1	29
RF		126	487	164	.337	22	81

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	120	329	72	.219	10	39
	70	168	42	.250	6	24
	79	158	28	.177	2	15
	28	107	24	.224	3	11
	31	87	21	.241	0	6
	21	64	10	.156	1	4
	48	57	15	.263	0	7
	27	45	10	.222	1	8
	21	44	7	.159	2	6
	20	31	5	.161	1	2
	23	30	8	.267	0	2
	21	23	3	.130	0	2
	18	16	2	.125	0	1
	6	13	4	.308	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	38	278.1	16	15	2.81	224
	40	270.0	17	17	4.23	126
	39	260.1	13	14	3.32	137

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	52	140.1	8	11	4.10	83
	48	129.2	4	7	3.33	137
	18	68.0	2	5	5.03	35
	13	44.0	2	4	6.75	16
	4	11.2	1	0	6.17	4

Tom Hall led the Twins in saves with 9.

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	36	1	4	5	6.75	21
	46	4	5	4	4.15	47
	31	4	2	1	4.28	29
	24	1	0	1	1.44	21
	17	1	2	0	3.00	13
	6	0	0	0	4.15	2

Awards and honors

• Harmon Killebrew, Lou Gehrig Award

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Charlotte, St. Cloud

References

• Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com
• Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com
• Book: Johnson. Lloyd. Wolff. Miles. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. 2nd. Durham, North Carolina. Baseball America. 1997. 978-0-9637189-8-3.

Notes and References

1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bosweda01.shtml Dave Boswell
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/edwarda01.shtml Dave Edwards
3. Web site: Baseball-Reference.com . Baseball Draft: 39th Round of the 1971 June Draft . December 27, 2008.
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/borgmgl01.shtml Glenn Borgmann
5. https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/roofph01.shtml Phil Roof