We've seen Josh Willingham's home run trot 30 times this season, which makes it one of the more common trots in team history. Photo by Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE

Josh Willingham hit a three run home run off Tiger pitcher Doug Fister last night. It was Willingham’s 30th home run of the 2012 season. Not only does that blast set a career high for the slugger, it put him in some select company among his fellow Minnesota Twins.

A 30 homer season is a common occurrence for some teams, but not the Twins. Aside from Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, the Twins are not a franchise that has ever been known for their power hitters. Among the 16 original MLB franchises, the Twins (formerly Washington Senators) are dead last with 9,717 round trippers. And they have endured some long power droughts in their history. One of the longest such droughts is still going strong; it has been 41 years since the Twins last had a player hit 35 or more in one season. For example, from 1988 through 2005, even as the other 29 teams were busy knocking balls over the fence in a steroid-fueled fury, no Twin managed to attain the 30 homer mark.

Willingham’s 2012 season is just the 24th 30 homer season since the Twins came to Minnesota in 1961. Killebrew owns a third of that total, with eight 30 HR seasons (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970). In every one of those seasons, Killebrew hit 39 or more, which gives him the eight highest individual HR totals in team history. Next on the list is Willingham’s teammate Justin Morneau, who has three 30 HR campaigns (2006, 2007, and 2009). Gary Gaetti (1986, 1987), Bob Allison (1963, 1964), and Tom Brunansky (1984, 1987) each had a pair. The other 30 homer seasons belong to Jimmie Hall (1963), Tony Oliva (1964), Kirby Puckett (1986), Kent Hrbek (1987), Torii Hunter (2006), Michael Cuddyer (2009), and Willingham.

The Twins expected Willingham to be a powerful presence in the team’s lineup, but nobody could have predicted just how successful he would be as a home run hitter. His previous career high was 29 home runs in 2011 with the Oakland Athletics; before last year he had never exceeded 26. But he has topped those numbers with 46 games still to be played in 2012, and he has given the lie to everyone who claimed that Target Field is a pitchers’ park where power hitters are doomed to struggle.

He also provided one of the few highlights in an awful game for the Twins. Aside from Willingham’s blast, Twins hitters managed just five other hits, and they struck out eight times. It was far too little offense on a night when the pitchers were doing nothing to stop the Detroit offense. Brian Duensing, Casey Fien, Alex Burnett, and Luis Perdomo combined to allow eight runs on five walks and 13 hits (six of those for extra bases). Willingham’s home run came in the fourth inning after three Detroit errors had created the only serious Twins’ scoring threat of the entire game, and it briefly tied the score at 4-4 before Detroit eventually ran away with the game.

Looking forward, Willingham has an excellent chance to reach the 35 home run mark, and possibly 40. If he does so, he’ll own the highest home run total by a Twin since Killebrew hit 41 in 1970. Several Twins have hit 34 since then, but never 35.

As every Twins fan is no doubt already aware, Plouffe and Willingham  have been playing a game of home run one-upsmanship for the last month. Early in June, Plouffe seized the team home run lead from the Hammer, but Willingham has not been eager to let the title slip away. Almost without fail, Willingham has answered Plouffe’s homers on the same day. Both players homered on June 4, June 12, June 13, June 24, June 30, July 1, and July 3. It’s almost as if the two are feeding off each other and thriving from the competition; at any rate, the barrage of homers from these two men is almost too remarkable to be a coincidence.

Coincidence or not, the two sluggers are now each a better-than-even shot to end a 41 year franchise dry spell. No Twin has hit 35 homers in a single season since Harmon Killebrew slammed 41 in 1970. Three have hit 34 (Gary Gaetti in 1986, Kent Hrbek in 1987, and Justin Morneau in 2006), but that 35th seems to be out of reach. Entering Wednesday evening’s game, though, Willingham was on pace for 36 and Plouffe on pace for 38 (despite not playing much at all in the season’s first month). The chase for that elusive number 35 probably won’t be quite as captivating as Mantle/Maris’s quest for 61 or Sosa/McGwire’s steroid-fueled race to 62, but it should provide some much-needed entertainment for Twins fans down the stretch.

If the comparisons to Mickey Mantle and Mark McGwire are facetious, Plouffe and Willingham do have a serious shot to establish themselves as the most powerful duo in Twins history. Currently the mark for most homers by a pair of Twins is held by Killebrew and Bob Allison back in 1964. Killebrew hit 49 that year and Allison hit 32 (Tony Oliva also hit 32, so you could substitute his name for Allison’s if you like). Killebrew and Allison also hold second place on the list with 80 in 1963. Allison hit 35 that year, making him the only Twin other than Killebrew to reach the number that Willingham and Plouffe are gunning for in 2012. Recent notable Twins homer pairs include Morneau (34) and Torii Hunter (31) in 2006, Hrbek (34) and Tom Brunansky (32) in 1987, and Gaetti (34) and Kirby Puckett (31) in 1986.

Some good news: Plouffe and Willingham have already far exceeded the output of the Twins’ two leading homer hitters from 1980. That year, John Castino led the team with a meager 13, and Roy Smalley contributed 12.

Joe Mauer and Ben Revere's high-five masks their brutal batting battle. Will one of them win the AL batting title? Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE

The homer race may be getting all the attention, but there’s another interesting statistical race going on amongst the Twins’ hitters. Entering play Wednesday, Joe Mauer’s batting average has climbed all the way to .332, good enough for third in the American League, and just eight points behind league leader Mike Trout. Right on Mauer’s heels is teammate Ben Revere, whose .328 mark would be fourth in the AL if only he had 46 more plate appearances.

Thanks to a slump, Mauer’s average had plummeted all the way to .265 on May 17th, but he has been absolutely deadly with the bat since. His .388 average (54/139) since that date has him back to his career levels and right in the thick of the batting race. In another strange coincidence, Revere was recalled from Rochester and played his first game on the very same date: May 17th. He has been hitting well the entire time, so his only obstacle in the batting race is accumulating enough plate appearances to qualify. As long as he avoids injury and stays in the lineup, he should have no trouble doing so by the latter part of the season. Thus, there could be two Twins battling it out for the batting title this year.

There have been only three occasions when two Twins hit .320 or higher. The best performance of all, one which Mauer and Revere probably cannot hope to match, came in 1977 when Rod Carew hit .388 and Lyman Bostock hit .323. The year before, Carew had hit .331 to Bostock’s .323. The other occasion came two decades later in 1996, when Hall of Famer Paul Molitor and noted humanitarian Chuck Knoblauch finished with identical .341 marks.

According to data from the U.S. 2010 Census, about 163 million people – more than half the U.S. population – wasn’t even born in 1970. So there’s a good chance you don’t have a favorite memory from the 1970 season. But if you do, it may very well involve a Harmon Killebrew home run. The Killer hit 41 that season, the eighth time he eclipsed the 40 mark. By 1970, Minnesota baseball fans were pretty much taking the big 4-0 for granted.

They shouldn’t have. Because the Twins haven’t had a 40 homer season since. I know I have complained about this before, but I’m going to keep doing it from time to time because it completely amazes me. Richard Nixon was president the last time a Twin hit 40 homers. A gallon of gas cost 36 cents. The moon landing was still news. Okay, you get the picture.

Having a 40 HR guy isn’t a requirement for a good baseball team, of course. The last three World Series winners didn’t have any. And neither did the 1987 or 1991 Twins. But a good power hitter sure is fun to watch. (more…)