1972 Minnesota Twins season

The 1972 Minnesota Twins finished 77–77, third in the American League West.

1972 Minnesota Twins
77–77, third in the AL Western Division
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Calvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General manager(s)Calvin Griffith
Manager(s)Bill Rigney, Frank Quilici
Local televisionWTCN-TV
(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Lynn Faris)
Local radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)
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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. 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 Records

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
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
Tony Oliva10289.32101
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 Goltz1591332.6738

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
Bob Gebhard130118.5713
Steve Luebber20000.001

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
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 box score – Kansas City Royals 5, Baltimore Orioles 4, game played on May 28, 1979 at Royals Stadium
  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
  • Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
  • Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com
  • Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com
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