The 1964 Minnesota Twins season was the 4th season for the Minnesota Twins franchise in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, their 4th season at Metropolitan Stadium and the 64th overall in the American League. They failed to improve from the previous two seasons both with 91 wins, and fell to 79–83, a tie for sixth with the Cleveland Indians in the American League, 20 games behind the AL champion New York Yankees.
Offseason December 2, 1963: Rudy May was drafted from the Twins by the Chicago White Sox in the 1963 first-year draft.
Regular season On May 2, in Kansas City, Missouri, Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall and Harmon Killebrew hit consecutive 11th-inning home runs, to tie a major league record first set by the Milwaukee Braves in 1961 and duplicated by the Cleveland Indians in 1963. The Twins finished the year with 221 homers, their second-best total ever.
On July 15, new Twin Mudcat Grant allowed thirteen singles and a walk in facing the Washington Senators. None would score, and Grant pitches a shutout, 6–0.
Five Twins made the All-Star Game: first baseman Bob Allison, outfielders Harmon Killebrew, Jimmie Hall and Tony Oliva and pitcher Camilo Pascual.
Tony Oliva became the first black player in the history of the American League to win the AL Rookie of the Year award. He led the major leagues in hits (217), extra base hits and total bases. He led the American League in batting average (.323), runs scored (109) and doubles.
Six Twins hit 20 or more home runs: Harmon Killebrew (49 HR, 111 RBI), Tony Oliva (32 HR, 96 RBI, 109 runs), Bob Allison (32 HR, 86 RBI), Jimmie Hall (25 HR, 75 RBI), Don Mincher (23 HR, 56 RBI), and Zoilo Versalles (20 HR, 94 runs).
Jim Kaat led the Twins with 17 wins and won his third Gold Glove; Camilo Pascual again led the Twins in strikeouts with 213.
1,207,514 fans attended Twins games, the third highest total in the American League.
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Notable transactions June 6, 1964: Andy Kosco was signed as a free agent by the Twins. June 24, 1964: Rod Carew was signed as an amateur free agent by the Twins.
Roster 1964 Minnesota Twins Roster Pitchers Catchers
Infielders Outfielders
Other batters 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 C 131 405 110 .272 12 52 1B 149 492 141 .287 32 86 2B 74 243 52 .214 6 20 3B 148 596 161 .270 12 68 SS 160 659 171 .259 20 64 LF 158 577 156 .270 49 111 CF 149 510 144 .282 25 75 RF 161 672 217 .323 32 94
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 120 287 68 .237 23 56 Jerry Kindall 62 128 19 .148 1 6 Jerry Zimmerman 63 120 24 .200 0 12 Johnny Goryl 58 114 16 .140 0 1 Frank Kostro 59 103 28 .272 3 12 26 71 11 .155 1 9 19 45 10 .222 0 1 Ron Henry 22 41 5 .122 2 5 Jay Ward 12 31 7 .226 0 2 Bill Bethea 10 30 5 .167 0 2 Joe McCabe 14 19 3 .158 0 2 Lenny Green 26 15 0 .000 0 0 Bud Bloomfield 7 7 1 .143 0 0 Rich Reese 10 7 0 .000 0 0 Joe Nossek 7 1 0 .000 0 0 George Banks 1 1 0 .000 0 0
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 36 267.1 15 12 3.30 213 36 243.0 17 11 3.22 171 32 190.0 6 15 4.03 159 26 166.0 11 9 2.82 75 Lee Stange 14 79.2 3 6 4.74 54 4 23.1 2 0 4.24 25
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 41 105.2 7 4 3.84 96 Jim Roland 30 94.1 2 6 4.10 63
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 41 5 6 14 1.37 59 47 4 1 4 3.91 42 Jim Perry 42 6 3 2 3.44 55 33 0 4 2 1.97 39 14 1 2 0 8.22 6 Garland Shifflett 10 0 2 1 4.58 8 9 0 0 0 4.91 10 9 0 1 0 7.36 2 7 0 1 0 10.97 9 Bill Whitby 4 0 0 0 8.53 2 3 0 0 0 2.08 6 Chuck Nieson 2 0 0 0 4.50 5
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Melbourne
References
External links Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com