The 1980

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

season was a season in American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. The Twins finished 77–84, third in the

American League West The American League West is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. The division has five teams as of the 2013 season, but had four teams from 1994 to 2012, and had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. Although its teams curr ...

. 769,206 fans attended Twins games, the lowest total in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

Offseason

* December 3, 1979: 1979 rule 5 draft **

Doug Corbett Douglas Mitchell Corbett (born November 4, 1952) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) relief pitcher who played for the Minnesota Twins, California Angels and Baltimore Orioles between 1980 and 1987. Early years Doug Corbett was bo ...

was drafted by the Twins from the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. **

Guy Sularz Guy Patrick Sularz (born November 7, 1955) is a former infielder in Major League Baseball. He played for the San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Gia ...

was drafted by the Twins from the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

. * December 5, 1979:

Jeff Holly Jeffrey Owen Holly (born March 1, 1953- February 28, 2019) is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played parts of three seasons in the Major League Baseball from until , all for the Minnesota Twins. After the 1979 season he was traded t ...

was traded by the Twins to the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

for

Fernando Arroyo Fernando Arroyo (born March 21, 1952) is an American former professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). In eight MLB seasons, he had a 24–37 record over 121 ga ...

. * January 6, 1980: Albert Williams was signed as a free agent by the Twins.

Regular season

On May 31,

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Ken Landreaux Kenneth Francis Landreaux (born December 22, 1954) is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the California Angels, Minnesota Twins, and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1977 through 1987. Pla ...

went 0 for 4, ending his hitting streak at 31 games. This set a

record that has yet to be topped. Landreaux tripled three times July 3, in a 10-3 win over the Texas Rangers, to tie an

record. This

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

record remained untouched until Denard Span matched it on June 29, 2010. Landreaux, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

native, is the only Twins player to make the

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...

. One of the club's most unusual games was played in Toronto on Thursday, August 28, a game in which one player was replaced after being injured in a car crash during the game and that featured a rare save by a Twins starting pitcher. A game that ended with the Blue Jays' mound ace playing left field. The

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day, ...

(like a state fair) was set up adjacent to

Exhibition Stadium Canadian National Exhibition Stadium (commonly known as Exhibition Stadium or CNE Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium that formerly stood on the Exhibition Place grounds, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally built for Canadian National Exhi ...

. Because of a schedule evening concert by the rock group

The Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...

, no inning would be able to start past 5:00 PM; the game was begun at 1:00 PM to avoid the curfew. However, the game went into extra innings and was suspended in the 15th inning, to be finished the following afternoon. During the evening hours Thursday,

Bombo Rivera Jesus "Bombo" Rivera Torres (born August 2, 1952) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. At the age of seven, his youth baseball manager started calling him "Bombo", meaning "fly ball," and the nickname stuck. Aside from baseball, Rivera a ...

was injured in a car crash with Toronto's Otto Velez and neither could resume playing Friday. Friday's scheduled starter

Dave Stieb Dave Andrew Stieb (; born July 22, 1957) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. A seven-time All-Star, he also won ''The Sporting News'' Pitcher of the Year Award in 1982. Stieb won 140 games i ...

played left field for the final inning of the Thursday game when the Jays ran out of position players (he'd go on to lose the Friday game). Minnesota's John Verhoeven got the win, and starter Albert Williams, who faced four batters in the fifteenth inning, got the save. On September 18, at Milwaukee for a double-header, outfielder Gary Ward hit a double, single, homer and triple in the first game, becoming the sixth Twin to

hit for the cycle In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League Ba ...

. It came, however, in a losing effort as the 9-8 win by the Brewers was the only time—of the ten Minnesota cycles—that Minnesota has lost the game in which a Twin cycled. Ward became part of history in 2004 when, on May 26, his son

Daryle Ward Daryle Lamar Ward (born June 27, 1975) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and left fielder. He played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1998 to 2008 for the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirat ...

hit for the cycle for

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and they became the only father-son duo to accomplish the feat. Infielder

John Castino John Anthony Castino (born October 23, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball player. Castino played as an infielder, primarily at third base and second base, with the Minnesota Twins from 1979 through 1984. Professional career Castino graduat ...

led the team in most of the major offensive categories, batting .302 with 13 HR and 64 RBI. Shortstop Roy Smalley hit 12 HR and collected 63 RBI.

batted .281 with 7 HR and 62 RBI. Reliever

replaced Mike Marshall as manager

Gene Mauch Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005) was an American professional baseball player and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (, ), Pittsburgh Pirates (), Chicago Cubs ...

's all-purpose reliever, racking up 8 relief wins along with 23 saves. His saves total set a major league rookie record. Only veterans

Jerry Koosman Jerome Martin Koosman (born December 23, 1942) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies between and . Koosm ...

(16-13) and

Geoff Zahn Geoffery Clayton Zahn (born December 19, 1945) is a former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched thirteen seasons in Major League Baseball from 1973 to 1985. In his career, he had a Win–loss record of 111–109, an earned run average of 3.74 ...

(14-18) had double digit wins.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

* April 1, 1980: Guy Sularz was returned by the Twins to the San Francisco Giants. * April 3, 1980:

Paul Hartzell Paul F. Hartzell is an American former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) in all or part of six seasons, between 1976 and 1984. During that time, he pitched for the California Angels, Minnesota Twins, Balt ...

was released by the Twins. * April 3, 1980: Bob Randall was released by the Twins.Bob Randall page at Baseball Reference
/ref> * May 16, 1980: Bob Randall was signed as a free agent by the Twins. * June 3, 1980: Bob Randall was released by the Twins. * June 6, 1980: Mike Marshall was released by the Twins.Mike Marshall page at Baseball Reference
/ref> * June 18, 1980: Bob Randall was signed as a free agent by the Twins. * July 16, 1980: Bob Randall was released by the Twins.

Roster

Player stats

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''

Other batters

''Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in''

Pitching

Starting pitchers

''Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts''

Other pitchers

''Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts''

Relief pitchers

''Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts''

Farm system

Notes

References

*
Player stats from www.baseball-reference.comTeam info from www.baseball-almanac.com
{{Minnesota Twins Minnesota Twins seasons Minnesota Twins season 1980 in sports in Minnesota