1972 Minnesota Twins
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkMetropolitan Stadium
CityBloomington, Minnesota
OwnersCalvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General managersCalvin Griffith
ManagersBill Rigney, Frank Quilici
TelevisionWTCN-TV
(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Lynn Faris)
Radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)
Seasons

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, but did not hit any home runs during the season. Previously, Zach Wheat was the last player to accomplish this feat when he won the 1918 NL batting title with the Brooklyn Dodgers. 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 9362 0.600 — 48–29 45–33
Chicago White Sox 8767 0.565 5½ 55–23 32–44
Minnesota Twins 7777 0.500 15½ 42–32 35–45
Kansas City Royals 7678 0.494 16½ 44–33 32–45
California Angels 7580 0.484 18 44–36 31–44
Texas Rangers 54100 0.351 38½ 31–46 23–54

Record vs. opponents

1972 American League record

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK TEX
Baltimore —7–116–68–48–1010–86–610–56–67–66–66–6
Boston 11–7—8–46–68–75–96–611–74–89–99–38–4
California 6–64–8—7–118–45–79–67–57–84–88–1010–7
Chicago 4–86–611–7—8–45–78–99–38–67–57–814–4
Cleveland 10–87–84–84–8—10–86–65–108–47–112–109–3
Detroit 8–109–57–57–58–10—7–510–89–37–94–810–2
Kansas City 6–66–66–99–86–65–7—7–59–97–57–118–6
Milwaukee 5–107–115–73–910–58–105–7—4–89–94–85–7
Minnesota 6–68–48–76–84–83–99–98–4—6–68–911–7
New York 6–79–98–45–711–79–75–79–96–6—3–98–4
Oakland 6–63–910–88–710–28–411–78–49–89–3—11–4
Texas 6–64–87–104–143–92–106–87–57–114–84–11—

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
CGlenn Borgmann5617541.234314
1BHarmon Killebrew139433100.2312674
2BRod Carew142535170.318051
SSDanny Thompson144573158.276448
3BEric Soderholm9328754.1881339
LFSteve Brye10025361.241012
CFBobby Darwin145513137.2672280
RFCésar Tovar141548145.265231

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
Steve Braun121402116.289250
Jim Nettles10223548.204415
Rich Reese13219743.218526
George Mitterwald6416330.18418
Phil Roof6114630.205312
Charlie Manuel6312225.20518
Rick Renick559316.17248
Dan Monzon555515.27305
Rick Dempsey25408.20000
Tony Oliva10289.32101
Jim Holt102712.44416
Mike Adams362.33300
Bucky Guth330.00000

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
Bert Blyleven39287.117172.73228
Dick Woodson36251.214142.72150
Jim Perry35217.213163.3585
Jim Kaat15113.11022.0664
Dave Goltz1591.0332.6738

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
Ray Corbin31161.2892.6283

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
Wayne Granger6346193.0145
Dave LaRoche6257102.8379
Jim Strickland253132.5030
Tom Norton210102.7822
Bob Gebhard130118.5713
Steve Luebber20000.001

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 Melbourne Twins Florida East Coast League Fred Waters

Notes

  1. ↑ Bobby Darwin at Baseball Reference
  2. ↑ Brant Alyea at Baseball Reference
  3. ↑ Retrosheet box score – St. Louis Cardinals 6, Chicago Cubs 5 (2), game played on September 14, 1961 at Busch Stadium
  4. ↑ "Retrosheet Boxscore: Kansas City Royals 5, Baltimore Orioles 4". www.retrosheet.org. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ Retrosheet box score – Boston Red Sox 9, Seattle Mariners 6, game played on June 28, 1984 at Fenway Park
  6. ↑ Sal Butera at Baseball Reference
  7. ↑ Willie Norwood at Baseball Reference
  8. ↑ Lyman Bostock at Baseball Reference

References

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