Gregory Carpenter Gagne (; born November 12, 1961) is a former
shortstop in
Major League Baseball. He played 10 seasons for the
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 ...
from 1983 to 1992, including both of the Twins' World Series championship teams in
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
and
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
. He was considered one of the American League's best defensive shortstops during his time with Minnesota.
Playing career
Greg Gagne was drafted by the
New York Yankees in the fifth round of the
1979 Major League Baseball Draft and spent the next three seasons in the Yankees' minor league system before being traded to the Twins on April 10, 1982, along with starting pitcher
Paul Boris
Paul Stanley Boris (born December 13, 1955) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He played during one season at the major-league level for the Minnesota Twins. He was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in . Boris playe ...
and reliever
Ron Davis for the Twins starting shortstop,
Roy Smalley. Gagne spent all of 1982 and all but 12 games of the 1983 and 1984 seasons in the minors before earning the starting shortstop job in 1985, after which Gagne became a fixture of the Twins' infield for the next eight seasons.
On October 4, 1986, during a Twins' home game at the
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League ...
, Gagne hit two
inside-the-park home runs
In baseball, an inside-the-park home run is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of the baseball field, field of play. It is also known as an "inside-the-parker", "in-the-park home run", or "in-the-park homer".
Discu ...
against the
Chicago White Sox. Both home runs were hit off Chicago starting pitcher
Floyd Bannister. The Twins also went on to win the game, 7-3.
Gagne was a fixture of the Twins drive to their second World Series appearance, and first World Series title, following the 1987 season. During the Twins march to their second World Series crown in four years, Gagne hit a game-winning, three-run homer in Game One of the
1991 World Series
The 1991 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) held after the 1991 season. The 88th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins ...
off Atlanta's
Charlie Leibrandt
Charles Louis Leibrandt, Jr. (; born October 4, 1956) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1979 to 1993 for the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, and Texas Rangers. Leibrandt was a productive pitcher thr ...
. Gagne hit only .213 during the Twins two post-season drives. Despite this low batting average, Gagne hit five doubles and four home runs, along with knocking in 10 runs and scoring 12 times, to maximize those 18 hits.
Gagne left the Twins when his contract was up in the 1992 season; the team had put a great deal of resources into re-signing superstar
Kirby Puckett (inking the star centerfielder to a then huge multi-year contract that would pay him $5.3 million in 1993) and with Gagne's replacement,
Pat Meares, already on the Major League roster, did not offer Gagne the salary increase that he was looking for. Gagne then signed with the
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
, agreeing to a 3-year, $10.6 million contract. Following three years with the Royals in which he put up similar numbers as he did with the Twins, he again entered free agency and signed a contract to play for the
Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1996 and 1997 seasons. Gagne retired from baseball following the end of the 1997 season.
Career statistics
In 27 postseason games, including the 1987 and '91 World Series, Gagne batted .220 (22-for-100) with 14 runs, 4 home runs and 10 RBI.
Retirement
During his tenure with the Twins, Gagne lived in
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Eden Prairie is a city southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 16th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,198. The city is adjacent to the north bank of th ...
. He currently lives in
Somerset, Massachusetts, and is the former head baseball coach at
Bishop Feehan High School
Bishop Feehan High School is a co-educational Catholic high school in Attleboro, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River. The school was built in 1961 and staffed by the Sisters of Mercy. The school has grown to ...
.
Gagne was a guest at the Metrodome farewell ceremony. During that day's game he sat in the broadcast booth with commentators
Dick Bremer and
Bert Blyleven for a half inning. On February 8, 2010, Gagne was elected to the Twins Hall of Fame and was inducted at Target Field on September 4, 2010.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gagne, Greg
Baseball players from Massachusetts
Sportspeople from Fall River, Massachusetts
Major League Baseball shortstops
Minnesota Twins players
Kansas City Royals players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
1961 births
Living people
People from Somerset, Massachusetts
Paintsville Yankees players
Greensboro Hornets players
Orlando Twins players
Fort Lauderdale Yankees players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albuquerque Dukes players