1972 Minnesota Twins season

1972 Minnesota Twins
77-77, third in the AL Western Division
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s) Calvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General manager(s) Calvin Griffith
Manager(s) Bill Rigney, Frank Quilici
Local television WTCN-TV
(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Lynn Faris)
Local radio 830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)
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The 1972 Minnesota Twins finished 77-77, third in the American League West.

Offseason

Regular season

Armed Forces Day at Metropolitan Stadium, 1972.

On May 12, in a twenty-two inning match which concluded a day later, Danny Thompson went 0 for 10 with a sacrifice bunt, dropping his batting average 39 points over one game. He and César Tovar set a team record with their eleven plate appearances.

After a slow start, manager Bill Rigney was replaced by Frank Quilici in early July.

On July 9, Rich Reese hit his third pinch-hit grand slam home run, tying a major league record in doing so.

Rothsay, Minnesota, native Dave Goltz made his major league debut on July 18 -- he is the first Minnesotan drafted by the Minnesota Twins to make the big league club. He gave up one hit in 3⅔ innings.

Only one Twin made the All-Star Game: second baseman Rod Carew.

On July 31, pitcher Bert Blyleven gave up two inside-the-park home runs, both to the Chicago White Sox Dick Allen. When this next occurs in the major leagues (October 4, 1986), Blyleven is again on the mound. But the feat is accomplished this time by his Minnesota teammate Greg Gagne.

When César Tovar hit for the cycle on September 19, he finished with a game-ending home run. The only other player to do that in history was Ken Boyer (1961).[3] In later years, and after such a hit became known as a "walk-off home run", the feat was duplicated by George Brett (1979),[4] Dwight Evans (1984),[5] and Carlos González (2010). Tovar is just the second Twin to hit for the cycle, after Rod Carew in 1970; eight more Twins will do so by 2009.

Carew won his second AL batting title with a .318 average. Bobby Darwin showed potential as a hitter with 22 HR and 80 RBI, but that did not make up for age and injuries taking their toll on other players. (Those numbers were also suppressed by his Twins-record 145 strikeouts.) Harmon Killebrew hit 26 HR (4th in the league) but drove in only 75 runs. Tony Oliva's bad knees limited him to only 10 games. César Tovar led the team with 86 runs scored. Four pitchers had double digit wins: Bert Blyleven (17-17), Dick Woodson (14-14), Jim Perry (13-16), and Jim Kaat (10-2). Kaat also won his 11th Gold Glove Award.

797,901 fans attended Twins games, the seventh highest total in the American League. It was almost half the number of fans that had attended just a few seasons earlier.

Season standings

AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 93 62 0.600 — 48–29 45–33
Chicago White Sox 87 67 0.565 5½ 55–23 32–44
Minnesota Twins 77 77 0.500 15½ 42–32 35–45
Kansas City Royals 76 78 0.494 16½ 44–33 32–45
California Angels 75 80 0.484 18 44–36 31–44
Texas Rangers 54 100 0.351 38½ 31–46 23–54

Record vs. opponents

1972 American League Records

Sources:

Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK TEX
Baltimore — 7–11 6–6 8–4 8–10 10–8 6–6 10–5 6–6 7–6 6–6 6–6
Boston 11–7 — 8–4 6–6 8–7 5–9 6–6 11–7 4–8 9–9 9–3 8–4
California 6–6 4–8 — 7–11 8–4 5–7 9–6 7–5 7–8 4–8 8–10 10–7
Chicago 4–8 6–6 11–7 — 8–4 5–7 8–9 9–3 8–6 7–5 7–8 14–4
Cleveland 10–8 7–8 4–8 4–8 — 10–8 6–6 5–10 8–4 7–11 2–10 9–3
Detroit 8–10 9–5 7–5 7–5 8–10 — 7–5 10–8 9–3 7–9 4–8 10–2
Kansas City 6–6 6–6 6–9 9–8 6–6 5–7 — 7–5 9–9 7–5 7–11 8–6
Milwaukee 5–10 7–11 5–7 3–9 10–5 8–10 5–7 — 4–8 9–9 4–8 5–7
Minnesota 6–6 8–4 8–7 6–8 4–8 3–9 9–9 8–4 — 6–6 8–9 11–7
New York 6–7 9–9 8–4 5–7 11–7 9–7 5–7 9–9 6–6 — 3–9 8–4
Oakland 6–6 3–9 10–8 8–7 10–2 8–4 11–7 8–4 9–8 9–3 — 11–4
Texas 6–6 4–8 7–10 4–14 3–9 2–10 6–8 7–5 7–11 4–8 4–11 —

Notable transactions

Roster

1972 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

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 Borgmann, GlennGlenn Borgmann 56 175 41 .234 3 14
1B Killebrew, HarmonHarmon Killebrew 139 433 100 .231 26 74
2B Carew, RodRod Carew 142 535 170 .318 0 51
SS Thompson, DannyDanny Thompson 144 573 158 .276 4 48
CF Darwin, BobbyBobby Darwin 145 513 137 .267 22 80
RF Tovar, CésarCésar Tovar 141 548 145 .265 2 31

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
Oliva, TonyTony Oliva 10 28 9 .321 0 1
Adams, MikeMike Adams 3 6 2 .333 0 0
Guth, BuckyBucky Guth 3 3 0 .000 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
Blyleven, BertBert Blyleven 39 287.1 17 17 2.73 228
Woodson, DickDick Woodson 36 251.2 14 14 2.72 150
Perry, JimJim Perry 35 217.2 13 16 3.35 85
Kaat, JimJim Kaat 15 113.1 10 2 2.06 64
Goltz, DaveDave Goltz 15 91 3 3 2.67 38

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
Corbin, RayRay Corbin 31 161.2 8 9 2.62 83

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
Granger, WayneWayne Granger 63 4 6 19 3.01 45
LaRoche, DaveDave LaRoche 62 5 7 10 2.83 79
Gebhard, BobBob Gebhard 13 0 1 1 8.57 13
Luebber, SteveSteve Luebber 2 0 0 0 0.00 1

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Tacoma Twins Pacific Coast League Harry Warner
AA Charlotte Hornets Southern League Johnny Goryl
A Lynchburg Twins Carolina League Kerby Farrell
A Orlando Twins Florida State League Early Wynn
A Wisconsin Rapids Twins Midwest League Jay Ward
A Charlotte Twins Western Carolinas League Bob Sadowski
Rookie FECL Twins Florida East Coast League Fred Waters

Notes

References

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