From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1971 Minnesota Twins season

Field	Value
name	Minnesota Twins
season	1971
league	American League
division	West
ballpark	Metropolitan Stadium
city	Bloomington, Minnesota
record
divisional_place	5th
owners	Calvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
general_managers	Calvin Griffith
managers	Bill Rigney
television	WTCN-TV
(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Bob Allison)
radio	830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen)

(Halsey Hall, Frank Buetel, Bob Allison) (Herb Carneal, Halsey Hall, Ray Christensen) |}}

The **1971 Minnesota Twins season **was the 11th season for the Minnesota Twins franchise in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, their 11th season at Metropolitan Stadium and the 71st overall in the American League.

The Twins finished 74–86, fifth in the American League West. 940,858 fans attended Twins games, the fifth-highest total in the American League, the first time the Twins failed to attract over one million fans since moving to Minnesota.

Regular season

Five Twins made the All-Star Game: first baseman Harmon Killebrew, second baseman Rod Carew, shortstop Leo Cárdenas, outfielder Tony Oliva, and pitcher Jim Perry.

On August 10, at Metropolitan Stadium, slugger Harmon Killebrew hit his 500th career home run, in the first inning off the Baltimore Orioles' Mike Cuellar. He followed that in the sixth inning with his 501st, also off Cuellar.

Lead off batter César Tovar led the AL with 204 hits and was second with 94 runs. Tony Oliva won his third batting title with a .337 average and led the AL with a .546 slugging percentage. Harmon Killebrew hit 28 HR and 119 RBI. Rod Carew hit .307.

Jim Perry (17–17), Bert Blyleven (16–15), and Jim Kaat (13–14) were the Twins' best pitchers. Kaat won his tenth Gold Glove Award.

Shortstop Leo Cárdenas topped the AL with a .985 fielding percentage—the highest for an American League shortstop since records began in 1901.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

April 9, 1971: Dave Boswell was released by the Twins.
June 8, 1971: 1971 Major League Baseball draft
- Dave Edwards was drafted by the Twins in the 7th round.
- Future NFL quarterback Joe Theismann was drafted by the Twins in the 39th round.
- Glenn Borgmann was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round of the secondary phase.
July 8, 1971: Paul Ratliff was traded by the Twins to the Milwaukee Brewers for Phil Roof.

Roster

1971 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers

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
C	George Mitterwald	125	388	97	.250	13	44
1B		147	500	127	.254	28	119
2B	Rod Carew	147	577	177	.307	2	48
SS		153	554	146	.264	18	75
3B	Steve Braun	128	343	87	.254	5	35
LF		157	657	204	.311	1	45
CF	Jim Holt	126	340	88	.259	1	29
RF		126	487	164	.337	22	81

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
Rich Reese	120	329	72	.219	10	39
Jim Nettles	70	168	42	.250	6	24
Brant Alyea	79	158	28	.177	2	15
Steve Brye	28	107	24	.224	3	11
Phil Roof	31	87	21	.241	0	6
Eric Soderholm	21	64	10	.156	1	4
	48	57	15	.263	0	7
Rick Renick	27	45	10	.222	1	8
	21	44	7	.159	2	6
Paul Powell	20	31	5	.161	1	2
George Thomas	23	30	8	.267	0	2
Tom Tischinski	21	23	3	.130	0	2
Charlie Manuel	18	16	2	.125	0	1
Rick Dempsey	6	13	4	.308	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
38	278.1	16	15	2.81	224
40	270.0	17	17	4.23	126
39	260.1	13	14	3.32	137

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
	52	140.1	8	11	4.10	83
	48	129.2	4	7	3.33	137
	18	68.0	2	5	5.03	35
Pete Hamm	13	44.0	2	4	6.75	16
	4	11.2	1	0	6.17	4

Tom Hall led the Twins in saves with 9.

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
Ron Perranoski	36	1	4	5	6.75	21
Stan Williams	46	4	5	4	4.15	47
Hal Haydel	31	4	2	1	4.28	29
Jim Strickland	24	1	0	1	1.44	21
	17	1	2	0	3.00	13
	6	0	0	0	4.15	2

Awards and honors

Harmon Killebrew, Lou Gehrig Award

All-Star Game

Rod Carew, Second Base, Starter
Harmon Killebrew, First Base, Reserve
Jim Perry, Pitcher, Reserve
Tony Olivia, Outfield, Injured, Did not play

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Charlotte, St. Cloud

Notes

References

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bosweda01.shtml Dave Boswell] at ''Baseball Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/edwarda01.shtml Dave Edwards] at ''Baseball Reference''
"Baseball Draft: 39th Round of the 1971 June Draft". Baseball-Reference.com.
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/borgmgl01.shtml Glenn Borgmann] at ''Baseball Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/roofph01.shtml Phil Roof] at ''Baseball Reference''

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

minnesota-twins-seasons 1971-major-league-baseball-season 1971-in-sports-in-minnesota

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1971 Minnesota Twins season — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report