Ken Landreaux hit in 31 straight games for the Twins in 1980, which is still the team record. Brian Harper had hit in 25 games in 1990, followed by Lenny Green's 24 in 1961. John Swol's Twins Trivia site posted an excellent list of the top 45 in team history last July 27.You should go to a Baseball Digest spread on Landreaux from August of '80 - the version is here at my Google docs page. There is one other pdf newspaper linked below, with facts from the game his streaked ended (May 31, 1980, BBRef.)
An inset box (below) taken from the Hutchinson (KS) News of June 1, 1980, details Landreaux's attitude after the streak was stopped by Baltimore's Scott McGregor with a nice group of quotes, and a list of hitting streaks.
For me, Ken Landreaux was a lot of fun to watch. He had a smooth swing, could take the pitch the other way, and had occasional pull power as a left handed batter. He partially filled the offensive void, if only for one strong season, following the trade of Rod Carew (the transaction which included Ken) to the Angels in February, 1979. Nearly eclipsing the feat in importance was the fact that by then, Kenny's super afro and mutton chops placed him near the top of Minnesota's All-Time Sideburn and Hair-Do Roll Of Fame - and bests Brian Dozier's in overall effect.
Indiana (Penn.) Gazette, May 30, 1980
To borrow from the great old broadcaster, I say:
"So Long, Everybody!" - Herb Carneal
1 comment:
Think Mauch might have been off just a bit on the "greatest trade ever for the Twins" line. Nice article. I love the casual tone of the piece.
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