What a Spring it was for new manager Rocco Baldelli and his Minnesota Twins.

No Twins team, in franchise history, won more games (36) or achieved a higher winning percentage (.692), through Memorial Day than the 2019 club. The previous high water mark was turned in by the star studded Twins of 1970.  Oliva, Killebrew, Carew, Kaat, Perry and new manager, Bill Rigney sported a winning percentage of .690 by Memorial Day of 1970.

*Carew ended up missing most of the season after injuring his knee.

The attached photograph features my 1970 Twins yearbook with Rodney Cline Carew on the cover.  I was with dad at a game that summer and he forked over the 75 cents.

Take a close look and you’ll be able to make out the two autographs I managed to get that summer day in 1970. One was signed by Jim Holt who ended up playing 8 years “in the bigs”, mostly as a role player. The other autograph was from some rookie pitcher named Blyleven. I understand he ended up doing pretty well for himself.

We don’t know what the rest of this season holds in store for our 2019 Twins. However, we have seen a sufficient sampling to know what they’re capable of. There’s a bunch of baseball to be played beyond Memorial Day and, as usual, success will depend much more on pitching than it will on all of that hitting.

Go Twins!!