1969 Minnesota Twins - Mgr: Marvin Sik - 18 Cards

Thanks to the dynasty Baltimore Orioles teams of 1969-1971 we have all but forgotten just how good these Minnesota Twins teams were.  Billy Martin was at the helm, so that means that a veteran squad that might have been a bit set in their ways was awaiting a shakeup.  Finishing 9 games ahead of the upstart Oakland A's to take the first ever AL West Divisional crown the Twins fell short in the 1st ever LCS by being swept by the Orioles, who were on a magical run.  That sweep isn't an indictment of the Twins skill, but more a celebration of how good the dynasty O's were becoming.  

AL MVP Harmon Killebrew (.276-49-140) killed AL pitching all season despite not having a lot of power support behind him in the lineup.  Tony Oliva, who somehow doesn't find his way into Cooperstown, hit .309 with 24 homers and 101 RBI's along with playing a rock solid right field.  After those 2 the power drops off.  Rich Reese hit 16, while manning first base to go along with his .322 average.  Young hit master Rod Cared hit .332with 8 homers and 19 stolen bases as the team's regular second baseman.  Bobby Allison, at 34, still had a spot in left field, but he was fading fast with a .228 average.  Shortstop Leo Cardenas is still moody, but he does play hard with the Firery Little Genius at the helm.  Cardenas hit .280 with 10 homers, which was a lot for shortstops for this era.  Calling Cesar Tovar a bench player is a misnomer.  Tovar played in 158 games and hit .288 with 11 homers.  Martin used him everywhere and anywhere.  There wasn't a position, including pitcher, that Tovar didn't play.  His flexibility gave Martin the ability to keep his vets well rested and primed for the stretch run.  Handling the pitching staff was 36 year old Johnny Roseboro, who gained his fame as the primary catcher on some great Dodger pennant winners in the early to mid 60's.  Roseboro surprisingly hit .263, which is probably due to Martin not over playing him thanks to the emergence of 24 year old George Mitterwald as a reliable back up receiver.  Speaking of 24 year old's Martin tried to find playing time for this young guy named Graig Nettles.  With Killebrew firmly anchored at third Nettles had to move around a bit, which adversely affected his average.  Late in games when he replaced "Killer" at third he showed flashes of brilliance with the leather.  Manager Martin surely made of note of this.

No shock that 3 of Matin's 4 main starters had upwards of 250 innings pitched and double digit complete games.  Right from the start Billy's style was to ride his starters until their arms fell off.  Jim Perry (20-6, 2.82) had his best year on the hill for Matin.  Dave Boswell (20-12, 3.23) also hit his peak.  Lefty Jim Kaat (14-13, 3.49) had a bit of an off year.  Many speculate that he didn't mesh well with Martin's abrasive style.  The 4th slot was split between Tom Hall (8-7, 3.33) and Dean Chance (5-4, 2.95).  When Martin did go to the pen he basically trusted just 3 guys.  Closer Ron Perranoski, who came over from LA with Roseboro was one of the top, if not the top, reliever of the 1960's.  Perranoski (9-10, 2.11, 31 saves) had himself a phenomenal bounce back year as he finished 1/3 of Minnesota's games.  Bob Miller and Dick Woodson handle the long relief and spot starting roles.  Al Worthington and Joe Grzenda both log some time, but were not favorites of Martin in crunch time.

Marvin Sik, who is a charter member of KOD, returns for his 13th season behind the bench in the Twin Cities.  While other managers have jumped from franchises to franchise Marvin stick with his Twins through thick and thin and never complains when his team's offering for a certain theme might not be the strongest.  His loyalty to his franchise is commended.  His steadfastness and dedication was rewarded with his KOD12 pennant, where he came up 2 games short of a World Championship.  For those of you who don't remember KOD12, where we played the franchise best stars, Marvin found a way to get his Twins to overachieve and beat the dynasty Yankees to get to the fall classic.  His entry into KOD14 is rock solid and we expect to see him contend for the division once again.

To round out the 1969 set of cards Robert Chisholm added 18 cards.  Robert did some creative "Photo-shopping" and colorization to create this set.  I basically added a few updated photos that he ran with.  Working with the 1969 Topps template can be a challenge at times trying to find a place to put the round position ball in either the top left or top right corner.  This set has always been an enigma for Topps.  Paper quality and photo clarity was top not, but that position "bubble" or circle dominated the top half of the card and sometimes looked like a colorful tumor growing out of a players cap if he had one on.  IMO, Topps should have made the position bubble half the size or they should have gone with action shots (they didn't use those until 1972) to give more room up top.