1969: Twin Thieves

Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1969.

Killebrew hit 49 homers and drove in 140 runs that season as Minnesota won the AL West with a 97-55 record, but the Twins fell in the playoffs to Baltimore.

It was 50 years ago when the world started to witness “Billy Ball” with Billy Martin in his first year as a big-league manager with the Twins.

Martin would eventually win a World Series title with the New York Yankees, but one of the first displays of his style happened on May 18, 1969.

After about a month in first place, the Twins were in the middle of a three-game losing steak at home and had dropped to second in the division behind the Oakland A’s.

The Twins also had no scored for 21 straight innings. Time to manufacture some runs.

Defending world champion Detroit led 2-0 as the Twins came to bat in the bottom of the third against Tigers starter Mickey Lolich.

Cesar Tovar led off the inning with a single.

Generally a threat to steal, Tovar went to second on a balk by Lolich. With Rod Carew at the plate, Tovar swiped third.

Carew was walked and Killebrew stepped into the batter’s box. That’s when things started to happen on the base paths.

Tovar and Carew executed a double steal and the Twins finally scored. Carew proceeded to steal third and home with Killebrew still hitting.

With the score now tied at 2-2, a likely distracted Killebrew struck out.

Unfortunately for the Twins, that was all of the offense they could muster as the Tigers went on to win 8-2.

Minnesota did win the next day in Baltimore 3-2, but it took 13 innings. On a side note, Killebrew did hit a homer.

Stealing Home

That season, Carew stole home seven times, which tied the major league record set by Pete Reiser with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. He finished 1969 with 19 stolen bases, which was more than the 17 he had in his first two years.

What Carew learned from Martin allowed him to improve to reach a career-high 49 in 1976. Overall with the Twins and Angels, Carew had 353 steals from 1967 to 1985.

An 18-time all-star, seven-time batting champ, 1967 AL Rookie of the Year and 1977 AL MVP, Carew was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Tovar, who led the Twins with a career-high 45 stolen bases in 1969, finished with 226 in 12 seasons with the Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, A’s and New York Yankees.

In 1969, Lolich was 19-11 for the Tigers as he made the first of his three all-star appearances.

Lolich was 217-191 in 16 seasons with his best year of 25-14 coming in 1971 when the Tigers won the AL East, ironically with Martin at the helm.