The 1972 Minnesota Twins season was the 12th season for the Minnesota Twins franchise in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, their 12th season at Metropolitan Stadium and the 72nd overall in the American League. The Twins finished 77–77, third in the American League West.
Offseason October 22, 1971: Paul Powell was traded by the Twins to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bobby Darwin.Bobby Darwin at Baseball Reference November 29, 1971: Brant Alyea was drafted from the Twins by the Oakland Athletics in the 1971 rule 5 draft.Brant Alyea at Baseball Reference
Regular season
On May 12, in a twenty-two inning match which concluded a day later, Danny Thompson went 0 for 10 with a sacrifice bunt, dropping his batting average 39 points over one game. He and César Tovar set a team record with their eleven plate appearances.
After a slow start, manager Bill Rigney was replaced by Frank Quilici in early July.
On July 9, Rich Reese hit his third pinch-hit grand slam home run, tying a major league record in doing so.
Rothsay, Minnesota, native Dave Goltz made his major league debut on July 18 – he is the first Minnesotan drafted by the Minnesota Twins to make the big league club. He gave up one hit in innings.
Only one Twin made the All-Star Game: second baseman Rod Carew.
On July 31, pitcher Bert Blyleven gave up two inside-the-park home runs, both to the Chicago White Sox Dick Allen. When this next occurs in the major leagues (October 4, 1986), Blyleven is again on the mound. But the feat is accomplished this time by his Minnesota teammate Greg Gagne.
When César Tovar hit for the cycle on September 19, he finished with a game-ending home run. The only other player to do that in history was Ken Boyer ().Retrosheet box score – St. Louis Cardinals 6, Chicago Cubs 5 (2), game played on September 14, 1961 at Busch Stadium In later years, and after such a hit became known as a "walk-off home run", the feat was duplicated by George Brett (), Dwight Evans (),Retrosheet box score – Boston Red Sox 9, Seattle Mariners 6, game played on June 28, 1984 at Fenway Park and Carlos González (). Tovar is just the second Twin to hit for the cycle, after Rod Carew in 1970; eight more Twins will do so by 2009.
Carew won his second AL batting title with a .318 average, but did not hit any home runs during the season. Previously, Zach Wheat was the last player to accomplish this feat when he won the 1918 NL batting title with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Bobby Darwin showed potential as a hitter with 22 HR and 80 RBI, but that did not make up for age and injuries taking their toll on other players. (Those numbers were also suppressed by his Twins-record 145 strikeouts.) Harmon Killebrew hit 26 HR (4th in the league) but drove in only 75 runs. Tony Oliva's bad knees limited him to only 10 games. César Tovar led the team with 86 runs scored. Four pitchers had double digit wins: Bert Blyleven (17–17), Dick Woodson (14–14), Jim Perry (13–16), and Jim Kaat (10–2). Kaat also won his 11th Gold Glove Award.
797,901 fans attended Twins games, the seventh highest total in the American League. It was almost half the number of fans that had attended just a few seasons earlier.
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Notable transactions May 12, 1972: Sal Butera was signed by the Twins as an amateur free agent.Sal Butera at Baseball Reference June 6, 1972: 1972 Major League Baseball draft Willie Norwood was drafted by the Twins in the 3rd round.Willie Norwood at Baseball Reference Lyman Bostock was drafted by the Twins in the 26th round.Lyman Bostock at Baseball Reference
Roster 1972 Minnesota Twins Roster Pitchers Catchers
Infielders Outfielders Manager
Coaches
Player stats = Indicates team leader = Indicates league 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 56 175 41 .234 3 14 1B 139 433 100 .231 26 74 2B 142 535 170 .318 0 51 SS 144 573 158 .276 4 48 3B Eric Soderholm 93 287 54 .188 13 39 LF Steve Brye 100 253 61 .241 0 12 CF 145 513 137 .267 22 80 RF 141 548 145 .265 2 31
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 Steve Braun 121 402 116 .289 2 50 Jim Nettles 102 235 48 .204 4 15 Rich Reese 132 197 43 .218 5 26 George Mitterwald 64 163 30 .184 1 8 Phil Roof 61 146 30 .205 3 12 Charlie Manuel 63 122 25 .205 1 8 Rick Renick 55 93 16 .172 4 8 Dan Monzon 55 55 15 .273 0 5 Rick Dempsey 25 40 8 .200 0 0 10 28 9 .321 0 1 Jim Holt 10 27 12 .444 1 6 3 6 2 .333 0 0 3 3 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 39 287.1 17 17 2.73 228 36 251.2 14 14 2.72 150 35 217.2 13 16 3.35 85 15 113.1 10 2 2.06 64 15 91.0 3 3 2.67 38
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 31 161.2 8 9 2.62 83
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 63 4 6 19 3.01 45 62 5 7 10 2.83 79 Jim Strickland 25 3 1 3 2.50 30 Tom Norton 21 0 1 0 2.78 22 13 0 1 1 8.57 13 2 0 0 0 0.00 1
Awards and honors
All-Star Game Rod Carew, Second Base Starter
Farm system
Notes
References
Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com