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…)

The game must have felt like a hot dagger to the heart of every Washington fan. Just four years before, the perennially futile Senators had left town, only to be replaced by an even less effective collection of players. And now, as Washington Post writer Bob Addie lamented, “fickle fate ordained that the old Senators, now known as the Twins, should win the pennant by beating the new Senators.”

With a 2-1 victory over their former selves in front of a pitiful Washington crowd (8,302 fans), the Twins punched a ticket to the World Series for the first time since moving to Minnesota, and the first time in franchise history since 1933. Meanwhile, Washington endured a 72-90 record. It was the best performance so far by the new Senators, but still a forgettable one. The team left town four years later, and playoff baseball hasn’t returned to the nation’s capital since.

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Dear Bill Smith and co.:

I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it.

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