Minnesota Twins - 1973 Topps #654

The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The team was founded in Kansas City in 1894 as the Kansas City Blues of the Western League. The team moved to Washington, D.C., in 1901 as one of the eight original teams of the American League, named the Washington Senators or Washington Nationals. The Washington team had a period of success in the 1920s and 1930s, led by Baseball Hall of Fame members Bucky Harris, Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, Heinie Manush, Joe Cronin, and Walter Johnson. Manager Clark Griffith joined the team in 1912 and became the team's owner in 1920. The franchise remained under Griffith family ownership until 1984.
In 1960, Major League Baseball granted the city of Minneapolis an expansion team. Washington owner Calvin Griffith, requested that he be allowed to move his team to Minneapolis and instead give Washington the expansion team. With league approval, the team moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season, in Metropolitan Stadium, while Washington fielded a brand new Washington Senators, which later became the Texas Rangers in the 1972 season.
Sluggers Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison, who had already been stars in Washington, were joined by Tony Oliva and Zoilo Versalles, and later second baseman Rod Carew and pitchers Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, winning the American League pennant in 1965. A second wave of success came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, led by Kent Hrbek, Bert Blyleven, Frank Viola, and Kirby Puckett, winning the franchise's second and third World Series.
Through the 2012 season, the franchise has won three World Series championships (1924, 1987, and 1991), and has 18 American League batting champions.