One note on my votes. Yes obviously means I’m voting for the player this year. If I say no, that means I don’t think the player should ever be in the team Hall of Fame. Maybe means that I might vote for him in the future, but not right now. I think if we choose more than one or two players per year, the HOF will fill up with some marginal players pretty quickly, so some of these guys will just have to wait.

Dave Boswell, P. 8 seasons with Twins, 67-54, 3.49 ERA. My vote: No.

Boswell was a very competent pitcher, and he had one very good year in 1969. But he was never the staff ace, and his stock fell fast, to the point that he was cut by the team at age 26. Also, it’s hard to vote for a guy who got in a fight with Bob Allison and his manager.

Tom Brunansky, OF. 7 seasons, .250/.330/.432, 163 HR, 432 RBI. My vote: Maybe.

Bruno’s 9th place standing on the Twins home run list is safe now that Michael Cuddyer, who was 22 behind him, has left the team. He was a key piece of the 1987 Championship team, and his trade to the Cardinals in 1988 ushered in a 19 year curse that prevented any Twin from topping 30 homers in a season. He’s on the cusp of the Twins HOF. If he can get Rochester to hit well, that’ll put him over the top. (more…)

What do Richard Nixon, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Armstrong, and Harmon Killebrew all have in common?

These men all reached the pinnacles of their careers in 1969.

Nixon took the oath of office as America’s 37^th President. Hendrix dazzled a crowd of hippies by playing the Star Spangled Banner at a rock concert near the small town of Woodstock, New York. And Armstrong took one small step on the surface of the moon. Also in 1969, the Department of Defense created ARPANET, a computer network that eventually gave birth to the internet. Charles Manson and his gang of deranged disciples horrified the nation with a string of brutal murders. And the government began using the draft lottery to determine which young men would fight in Vietnam.

1969 was an incredibly eventful year, arguably the most eventful in American history. Anyone who isn’t a die-hard Twins fan could be forgiven for not remembering the incredible performance of Killebrew, who hit 49 home runs, collected the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award, and led Minnesota to the first ever American League Western Division title. In fact, the Twins were overshadowed even in the world of baseball – 1969 was the year of the  Amazin’ Mets, who stunned sports fans by winning their first ever World Series title.

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