The Bleacher Bums: November 22, 2006 Archive

You may not realize how great this team was

Posted at 12:13 PM on November 22, 2006 by Ben Tesch

Here are some interesting factoids for you about an unknown baseball team:

• They were truly a team that lived on pitching and defense, and were middle of the pack in runs scored in road games.
  
• They might have been able to win the pennant if it weren’t for a star pitcher's injury which kept him out for more than two months.
  
• The players on the team won the MVP, Cy Young, and batting titles.
  

What's your guess? Pat yourself on the back if your answer was the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers. The star pitcher was Sandy Koufax, the MVP was Maury Wills, the Cy Young was Don Drysdale, and the batting title was won by Tommy Davis.

Yesterday someone asked me if any team had ever won the MVP, Cy Young, and batting title with three different players, so I decided to look it up. Not only have there been only 6 other teams who have done it, only one other team has done it with three different players: the '62 Dodgers.

Year	Team	MVP	Cy Young	Batting	Result
2006	MIN	Morneau	Santana	Mauer	Lost ALDS vs. Athletics
1991	ATL	Pendleton	Glavine	Pendleton	Lost WS vs. Twins
1986	BOS	Clemens	Clemens	Boggs	Lost WS vs. Mets
1967	BOS	Yastrzemski	Lonborg	Yastrzemski	Lost WS vs. Cardinals
1963	LAD	Koufax	Koufax	Davis	Won WS vs. Yankees
1962	LAD	Wills	Drysdale	Davis	Finished 2nd in NL behind Giants
1960	PIT	Groat	Law	Groat	Won WS vs. Yankees

This list is some pretty good company to be in, and I think you will find that the 2006 Twins team has a lot in common with these teams. The bad thing is that we didn't win, but neither did many teams listed. The good thing is that some of these teams could be considered some of the better teams in baseball history, and kept themselves in contention often over the years, (where even the word "dynasty" is sometimes thrown around.) It makes you wonder if people will be looking back in 30 or 40 years at the 2006 Twins and thinking about how great they really were.