Sixty years ago, the Minnesota Twins had their most memorable season since moving from Washington, D.C. to the Twin Cities. They made their first World Series appearance, beating out the Chicago White Sox to win the American League pennant and face the Los Angeles Dodgers and one of the greatest starting rotations in MLB history.
Before they made it to the big dance, the Twins were in the spotlight for hosting the 1965 MLB All-Star Game. It was the first time Minnesota hosted the All-Star Game, and six Twins players made the American League roster, the most in club history. The game also featured 20 future Hall of Famers, including one of the best National League or Major League outfields, for that matter, ever assembled: Roberto Clemente in left, Willie Mays in center, and the greatest hitter of all time, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, in right.
On July 13, 1965, the Twins’ longtime curator, Clyde Doepner, witnessed this trio of Hall of Famers from the high outfield seats at Metropolitan Stadium. Doepner has been working for the Twins in one capacity or another since 1966, but the 1965 season was the last he took in purely as a fan.
Doepner, 81, is a North St. Paul native and had seen the later years of two Minor League Baseball franchises in the Twin Cities: the Minneapolis Millers (New York Giants, 1945-57, and Boston Red Sox affiliate, 1958-60), and the St. Paul Saints (Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, 1944-60).
Before the Twins moved into town from D.C., the Old Met had already opened its doors to Minnesota’s High School State Championship tournament, in which Dopener had played during the 1960 season. North St. Paul finished in the consolation spot for 4th place.
Doepner takes great pride in the fact that he got to play baseball before many of his favorite players, including Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva, who later became lifelong friends and played for most of their careers. However, back in 1965, Doepner was in his senior year at Winona State, completing his education to become a history teacher and excited about what having the MLB All-Star Game meant for Minnesota.
“It brought national prominence to the area,” Doepner said. “They (the national baseball fans and media) got to know where the Twin Cities were because of the All-Star game.”
Over the first four years of Twins baseball, Doepner went to countless games with his father, Clifford, and Uncle Russell, more commonly known as Russ. Both men, along with their three other brothers, were World War II veterans, but Russ and Clifford were the baseball fans of the family.
The ‘65 season is one held dearly in Doepner’s heart. His father, Clifford, died of cancer on September 8 that year, and he and Uncle Russ bonded over their love of the game as the Twins team gifted them an unforgettable season. There were many highlights from that season, but the ‘65 All-Star Game was top among them before they knew they’d be seeing the Twins in the World Series.
“To see the 20 Hall of Famers on the field and then to see them in the World Series,” Doepner recalled. “Unbelievable.”
Doepner and his uncle Russ went to the game separately, as Doepner went with his fraternity brothers from Winona State.
It was exciting to see the likes of Killebrew, Oliva, Jim ‘Mudcat’ Grant, Earl Battey, Jimmie Hall, and the 1965 A.L. MVP Zoilo Versalles representing the Twins for the American League squad. The A.L. had four additional Hall of Famers with Brooks Robinson starting at third, Mickey Mantle, Carl Yastrzemski, and Al Kaline on the bench as reserves. But it was nothing compared to what the National League had, fielding one of the best starting lineups ever assembled.
Mays led off in center field, Aaron batting second in right, Willie Stargell, before he was known as Pops, in left field. Newly minted Hall of Famer Dick Allen batted cleanup and played third, Joe Torre caught, and Ernie Banks was at first base batting sixth. Pete Rose played second base, and the speedster Maury Willis was at short and batted eighth. The Dominican Dandy himself, Juan Marichal, rounded things out on the mound.
With the lineup the National League rolled out, it was no surprise they ended up winning the game 6-5 and were just building up their dominant stretch of winning 25 of 28 All-Star games from 1959 to 1982. Still, the game didn’t always look that way when things were underway.
The 1965 All-Star game at the Old Met started off with Mays crushing a lead-off home run off of the Milt Pappas on an 0-1 count to left-center field, far away from where Doepner was sitting in the second level outfield bleachers.
“Willie Mays‘ homer, everyone was in awe. We were thrilled to see it because the National League coming to town was rare.”
A few batters later, with Stargell on first after hitting a single, Torre pulled a ball on a 2-0 count to the left field bleachers and put the N.L. up 3-0.
Grant came in to replace Pappas in the second inning and gave the Minnesota faithful something more to cheer for. However, the N.L. All-Stars would not give Grant an easy assignment for his first inning of work. Stargell crushed a two-run shot to right-center field. Grant would bounce back in the third, retiring Torre, Banks, and Rose in order and receiving an ovation from the Twins fans in attendance.
The American League All-Stars started making a comeback after Marichal exited the game in the third, facing the minimum and later winning the game MVP. The starting right fielder, Rocky Colavito, got the A.L. on the board from Colavito’s RBI single, trailing 5-1.
The American League didn’t start hitting until the fifth, but then their bats came alive. Starting shortstop, Dick McAuliffe hit a two-run homer that scored the Twins center fielder, Hall, to make it a 5-3 deficit. Then the biggest hit of the game for the A.L. came from none other than the Killer himself.
Killebrew had a runner on first with Robinson getting a base hit in the previous at-bat. He walked up to the plate with a loud ovation from the crowd, as he had with every previous at-bat.
He worked a 2-2 count against Jim Maloney on the mound and would have struck out swinging earlier in the count if he had not foul-tipped the sixth pitch of the at-bat. Then, as luck would have it, Killebrew, the hometown fan favorite, crushed the furthest homer of the day deep into the left field bleachers and tied it up 5-5 as the fans gave their loudest cheer of the day, according to Doepner.
“When Mays hit his, it was confirmation of his talent. With Killebrew, it was proud moment for our guy.”
Unfortunately, things unraveled for the American League in the top of the seventh. Cubs Hall of Fame third baseman, Ron Santo, would get an RBI single off Cleveland lefty Sam McDowell that scored Mays for the game-winning run.
Despite suffering a loss in the late innings of the All-Star game, Twins fans, including Doepner, still had plenty more to root for that season. The Twins made it to Game 7 of the World Series, winning all the games at the Met, aside from that one, when Sandy Koufax was at his peak on the mound.
“It spoiled us,” said Doepner. “It was living proof that it would keep getting better. We never reached that again until 1987, and it was worth the wait.”
Russ is still alive today, 97 years young, and gets visits from his nephew to this day. The ‘65 season is often a topic of conversation between the two, but Doepner always reminds his uncle of the first baseball stat that ever stuck in his memory, which Russ told him sometimes when he was either seven or eight years old.
Lou Gehrig held the longest consecutive games played streak in MLB at the time, with 2,130 games. Every time he brings the fact up to his uncle during their visits, it always gets a resounding, ‘I must have told you that when you were seven or eight. You still remember that?’
Doepner always responds with ‘of course.’ As a retired history teacher, Doepner has had a lifetime of remembering facts due to their importance. It’s only fitting that he took on the role of Twins curator when he retired from teaching, preserving the franchise’s history, and was able to vividly recall the first MLB All-Star Game in Minnesota 60 years ago.
That way, the younger fans of Twins baseball, who never had that direct connection of the past, can relive it from those who were there.
