All-Time Greatest Twins Players
On Tuesday morning, the Minnesota Twins and baseball
lost a hero. As you know by now, Harmon Killebrew
passed away after his short fight with esophageal cancer. After reading and
hearing stories about the man that "Killer" was, it almost makes
us minimize how great of a baseball player he really was.
How often since the news came out Friday morning that Killebrew was in his final days did we hear players
say, "I want to be like Harmon Killebrew," or
"Today, I lost my hero?"
Those aren't words uttered just any time that there is
a death. With Killebrew, it all appears to be
completely genuine. The respect he had for his teammates, the fans and the
game of baseball was something that people could count on. It is clear that the
respect was mutual.
Honestly, on Tuesday I wanted to blog about some
of the negatives surrounding the Twins. This 2011 team has been very
frustrating. I was ready to start some articles looking forward to 2012.
And then came the news of Killebrew's
passing, and all of the stories from teammates and fans alike. All I could
think was, "I want to be like Killer."
I want to be respectful. I want to stay
positive. I still want the Twins to play better and win, but I don't want
to be that guy that starts questioning the player's, coach's or front office's
desire to win and compete when I don't know the full story. I don't
want to bash players who are obviously still trying their best, and still
struggling. I want to believe in people, and I think that's OK.
That was Harmon. Yes, he was competitive and wanted to
win as much as anybody, but he did it with a style, a class, a composure.
I will have my days, like any Twins fan or blogger or
blog commenter, when the frustration gets the best of me. But I want to be like
Harmon. To paraphrase (or steal) a slogan, as I'm blogging and thinking
about writing something negative and spiteful and malicious (Which I never
think is fair or right), I will ask myself, "What Would Harmon
Do?"
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Last night, I posted on my Twitter and Facebook pages a Poll Question: I asked people to let
me know how they would rank the Top 5 Twins Players in their MInnesota history. In other words, over the past 51
seasons, who would be your top 5, and how would you rank them one through five. I had an answer in my mind, but I was
curious what others would think.
Obviously this is not a scientific poll. It's a fun
poll, and for me it was particularly fun to read many of the names that were
mentioned. Some may vote purely statistically. Some may choose other ways of
making their selections. That's just fine. If nothing else, it's a nice look
back at some of the greats in this franchise's history. Ironically, when
I made my charts today to show the results, there were exactly 50 people
who contributed their thoughts. A pretty nice sample.
I can't help but think that if you grabbed 50 random people around Target
Field or in the press box or at the Mall of America, they may come up with a
fairly similar list.
The results were very interesting. There are guys at
the top of this list that are quite obvious, but would the top two be in the
same order if this question was asked one year ago, or one year from now?
But it was very interesting to see some of the names
mentioned in the four and five spots. The best part about this type of blog is
that there is no right or wrong answer (although those that put Nick Punto in the #5 spot probably should be required to
explain!).
With that, enjoy this ranking, and in the comments
below, discuss and add your lists too. (Note - I used a system with 5
points for a 1st place vote, 4 points for a 2nd place vote, ... , and 1 point
for a 5th place vote.)
FOR THE RECORD - My vote (which I did
NOT include in the chart below) would go: 1.) Kirby
Puckett, 2.) Harmon Killebrew, 3.) Rod
Carew, 4.) Tony Oliva, and 5.) Jim Kaat. What's your vote?
|
Name |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
Total |
|
Harmon Killebrew |
145 |
60 |
18 |
0 |
0 |
223 |
|
Kirby Puckett |
95 |
96 |
9 |
8 |
0 |
208 |
|
Rod Carew |
10 |
28 |
75 |
16 |
1 |
130 |
|
Tony Oliva |
0 |
8 |
21 |
40 |
7 |
76 |
|
Kent Hrbek |
0 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
13 |
30 |
|
Joe Mauer |
0 |
0 |
9 |
8 |
13 |
30 |
|
Bert Blyleven |
0 |
4 |
0 |
10 |
3.5 |
17.5 |
|
Johan Santana |
0 |
0 |
3 |
6 |
1.5 |
10.5 |
|
Torii Hunter |
0 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
|
Jim Kaat |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
|
Nick Punto |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
|
Chuck Knoblauch |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Bob Allison |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
Justin Morneau |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Frank Viola |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Shane Mack |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Gary Gaetti |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Total |
250 |
200 |
150 |
100 |
50 |
|
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