The Jim-Esota Twins Baseball Team

The 1960s MInnesota Twins had some great pitchers named Jim

Nov 27, 2024

I became a Minnesota Twins fan around age ten. Grandpa Raney and uncle Butch liked them, and that was good enough for me. And sharing a favorite baseball team with them felt like one small step toward manhood.

I shared a bedroom with my year-younger brother Tony. Clear-channel WHO radio aired the Twins games in the late 60s. Merle Harmon and Herb Carneal did the play-by-play. A broadcast elder named Halsey Hall shared stories about Willie Mays playing for the Minneapolis Millers.

Announcers for the Minnesota Twins from a 1969 “Official Program and Scorecard”

That was when Killebrew blasted jaw-dropping dingers, Carew stole home seven times (look it up), and pinch-hitter Rick Renick seemed to come through in the clutch.

There were worse ways to fall asleep than listening to baseball on the radio.

I was thinking about those 1960s Minnesota Twins seasons recently. And I realized if you were a good Twins pitcher not named Camilo Pasquel or Dean Chance, you were likely a Jim.

Burrowing into the deep rabbit holes of baseball arcanery (is that even a word?), I discovered my “Jim-stincts" were correct.

Jim Kaat, Jim Grant, Jim Perry.

Jim Merritt, Jim Roland, Jim Ollom.

Jim Manning, Jim Donohue, Jim Strickland.

The Jim-Esota Twins.

The Jim-Esota Twins

Four Jims pitched against the L A Dodgers in the 1965 World Series. Three Jims won 20 games in a season for the Twins. Two Jims won games and lost games in the World Series. One Jim made it to the Hall of Fame. (Full disclosure: some Jims are duplicated).

The other Jims had less remarkable careers, but at least made it to The Show. Millions of us didn’t.

Here’s a brief overview of the Jim-Esota Twins.

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Calvin Griffith moved his perpetually awful Washington Senators team to Bloomington, Minnesota in 1961. How bad was the franchise? Between 1934 and 1960, Nats only had a winning record four times. In 26 years. They used to say “Washington–first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” It rang true more often than not.

-Lefty Jim Kaat pitched in sixteen games for the Senators in 1959 and 1960, compiling a 1-7 record. In Minnesota’s 1961 inaugural season, Kaat finished 9-17. The Twin’s offense improved in 1962 when he won 18 games, and Kitty was a solid starter for a decade.

He had red hair and freckles and Topps spelled his name KATT on his 1965 baseball card. As a kid I remember he was involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, impressing an impressionable Methodist boy in northeast Iowa. Jim Kaat could be trusted.

The Twins cruised to the 1965 American League championship, seven games ahead of the White Sox. They faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Future Hall-0f-Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale anchored a dominant pitching staff with a combined record of 49-20. Koufax had a career season. In 335 innings pitched, he struck out 335 batters and led the NL with a 2.06 ERA.

Jim Kaat wasn’t too shabby himself, compiling an 18-11 record with a 2.83 ERA and 154 Ks. Starting in the second game of the World Series, he notched a 5-1 win against Koufax. Meeting once again in game 5, Koufax shut out the Twins 7-zip in LA.

The series tied at three games each, Kaat and Koufax paired off once again for the series title at Metropolitan Stadium. Kitty pitched well but Sandy was brilliant, allowing only three hits and striking out ten in a 2-0 shutout. The Dodgers were 1965 World Champions.

Camp-In pictures from the 1973 Minnesota Twins yearbook and a 1965 “Jim Katt” baseball card.

Every summer back in the day, the Twins hosted a “Camp-In.” A section of the ballpark’s parking lot was reserved for folks who wanted to spend a weekend camping on hot asphalt, catching a ballgame or two instead of trolling for walleyes.

My friend Rich Wilson said his family pulled their pop-up camper up to Bloomington a few times in the early 70s. He and his buddies were prowling around after dark and came across a huge Winnebago with a giant cooler. They swiped a few beverages, which turned out to be club soda. Later they found out the big rig belonged to Jim freaking Kaat!

Kaat had a 190-159 record for the Minnesota Twins before becoming a White Sock in 1973. Incredibly durable, he pitched for twenty-five years across four different decades.

Kaat retired from the Cardinals in 1983. He had a 283-237 career record, won enough Gold Gloves to sink a barge, and joined the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 alongside former teammate Tony Oliva.

It was a glorious day for the Minnesota Twins. Two classy guys who had waited a long time finally got their reward.

-James Timothy “Mudcat” Grant pitched fourteen years in the Bigs for seven different teams.

He was nicknamed “Mudcat” in the minors when a teammate mistakenly thought he was from Mississippi, then known as “the Mudcat State.”

Jim “Mudcat” Grant came to the Twins in a mid-1964 trade with Cleveland. In 1965, Mudcat made history by becoming the first black American League pitcher to win 20 games (21-7). He even pitched in the All-Star game, hosted that year in Minnesota.

Grant and Drysdale squared off in game one of the 1965 World Series.

(Ace Sandy Koufax sat out the first game to honor the high Jewish holiday Yom Kippur). The Twins blasted Big Don for seven runs in three innings. In a complete game victory, Mudcat only allowed two Dodger runs. Twins win at Bloomington, 8-2.

Good base running, two home runs, and solid pitching by Drysdale led the Dodgers to a 7-2 victory in game four. Grant took the loss.

Back in Minnesota for game 6, Mudcat started for the Twins on two days rest. He helped his cause by cracking a three-run homer in the sixth inning, becoming only the seventh pitcher in World Series history to do so. Grant was 2-1 with a 2.74 ERA in 23 innings with two hits in the Fall Classic.

Mudcat was so cool that he hosted a local TV song-and-dance show and led an off-season nightclub act named “Mudcat and the Kittens.” I wonder if Kaat ever joined them?

The program for Mudcat Grant’s 2018 Negro Leagues Museum Hall of Fame ceremony, his 1968 Topps baseball card, and his bio in the 1965 World Series program.

Jim Grant was traded to the Dodgers in 1967, and then chosen by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft. He was the Opening Day pitcher for the first-ever Expos game in April, 1969, but barely made it into the second inning after giving up three runs on six hits.

He pitched his last big league game with the Oakland A’s in 1971. Grant played briefly for the Iowa Oaks in 1972 before retiring.

A strong civil rights activist, he helped former players struggling with substance abuse and financial issues. For his outstanding career and community service, he was inducted into the Negro League Baseball Museum Hall in 2018. He passed away in 2021.

Jim “Mudcat” Grant was one awesome dude.

–Jim Perry pitched for 17 years in the majors, becoming the first Twin to win a Cy Young award for the Twins after going 24-12 in 1970. In ten seasons with the club, he won 128 games. He pitched four innings in the ‘65 Series, giving up two runs. It seemed like he smiled in every picture, and I thought he looked kinda like Jim Nabors/Gomer Pyle.

Jim Perry’s defaced 1961 Topps card, a family picture from the 1970 Twins yearbook, and his 1968 Topps card. His son Chris became a PGA golfer.

In the mid-seventies, Jim Perry teamed up with younger brother Gaylord when he joined the Cleveland Indians. They became the only brothers to each win 200 games and a Cy Young award. (Only brothers Phil and Joe Niekro have won more combined games. Both sets of brothers were notorious for doctoring the baseball. It worked–between the four bros, they won 1068 games!)

Here’s some trivia: Jim Perry started three games in which the opposing starter pitched a no-hitter.

-Rookie Jim Merritt joined the Twins in 1965 just in time to pitch three innings in the World Series, giving up an earned run.

By 1967, he had established himself as a great control pitcher, finishing the season with 161 strikeouts and only 30 walks. He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Leo Cardenas after the 1968 season.

With the Reds, he went 37-21 in two seasons before his career unwound. Merritt retired in 1975 after pitching five games for the Texas Rangers.

–Jim Roland spent six years as a Minnesota Twin from 1962-68, primarily as a reliever. Afterward, he pitched for the A’s, Yankees, and Rangers. He had a 19-17 career record.

-Washington native Jim Ollom made his major league debut on September 3, 1966 after winning 20 games for Triple-A Denver.

His MLB career ended on September 15, 1967, with an 0-1 record in 21 appearances,

Topps still printed a 1968 baseball card for Jim Ollom (#91). It might be the only way he’ll be remembered, but think that’s cool.

Topps baseball cards: 1968 Jim Merritt, 1969 Jim Roland, 1968 Jim Ollom

-At age 18, Jim Manning had a five-game call-up with Minnesota in 1961. He pitched seven innings with no decisions and a 5.14 ERA.

Manning continued to play in the minors until 1966.

-Another early Twin with a brief career was Jim Donohue. Acquired in a 1962 trade with the Los Angeles Angels, Donohue made ten appearances for Minnesota–gave up eight runs–and was exiled to the minors.

-Southpaw reliever Jim Strickland appeared in 56 games for Minnesota between 1971-73. He finished his career in Cleveland with a lifetime record of 4-2 and a respectable 2.68 ERA.

He’s not the same Jim Strickland that yelled “DO NOT TO WADE IN THE WATER!!!” while doing a WHO-TV remote during the Floods of ‘93. Reporter Jim Strickland moved from Des Moines to WSB-TV in Atlanta, retiring as an investigative consumer affairs reporter in 2019.

Pitcher Jim Strickland in the 1973 Twins yearbook. Not the guy from WHO-TV.

Bottom of the page trivia:

Career-wise, the nine Jim-Esota Twins compiled a 419-336 record while pitching in the Northland. I’m betting that’s better than any combination of Toms, Dicks or Harrys on any other club. Dig your own rabbit holes and prove me wrong!
How many Minnesota Tims have there been? Only two that I recall– Tim Teufel (1983-85) and Mason City native Tim Laudner (1981-89).
Jim Perry’s son Chris Perry was a PGA golfer.
This has nothing to do with Jim Grant, but my dear friend Karen Anderson has written The Hundred and Two MudCats about mid-century baseball in Nodaway, Iowa. Her uncle Delmar Haley first pitched in 1934, and his last game was against the Indianapolis Clowns in 1968! Thirty four years of town ball!

Jim Kaat ain’t got nothin on Delmar Haley.

SOURCES:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kaatji01.shtml

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=kaatji01

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Kaat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudcat_Grant

https://baseballhall.org/discover/mudcat-grant-starred-on-and-off-the-field

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/grantmu01.shtml

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/perryji01.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Perry_(baseball)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Merritt

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/merriji01.shtml