Laging: 1965 Twins vs. 2009 Twins

Never ask a question unless you already know the answer. Roggenburk’s Law.

The 1965 Twins and the 2009 Twins belong to a different time. But one of the beauties of baseball is that due to its lack of change, distant years can be compared. The present day Twins are far from a carbon copy of their predecessor. As mentioned last week, the 1965 team was a typical American League team of little speed, heavy hitting and very good pitching. The 2009 team is a prototypical National League outfit, based on speed, defense and hopefully, pitching.

The ‘65 team had only one speedster in Zoilo Versalles while our current edition has four in Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, Alexi Casilla and Nick Punto. Last year’s Twins would hit behind the base runner and occasionally bunt a runner over to third base. The ‘65s would have been drummed out of the American League if they had committed such an act. During the Terry Ryan, Bill Smith, Ron Gardenhire era the Twins rely on manufacturing runs.

...The 1965 staff had an ERA of 3.14 which compares very favorably with the 2008 staff’s 4.18.

While runs scored last year by our present Twins exceeded the ‘65 team, runs allowed were 745 compared to 600 by the ‘65 team. Based on the pitching staff, if the two teams were to meet head-to-head in a World Series, I’d have to give the edge to the team of Grant, Kaat, etc. However our 2009 Twins have the potential to exceed the ‘65s if their pitching comes through, for although the team of 1965 went to the World Series, they did not win it.