Offense
In 1996, catcher Terry Steinbach had a 35-home run, 100-RBI season with the Oakland Athletics in a contract year. Unfortunately for the Twins, he followed it up with a 12-home run, 54-RBI season with his hometown team. Scott Stahoviak played in half the games at first base but batted only .229. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, the team’s lone all-star, had a great year with the Twins, batting .291 and stealing a career-high 62 bases. The contrast between his season and his team’s season led him to demand a trade, a demand the team obliged by sending him to the New York Yankees the following February. Ron Coomer had a competent year at third, hitting .298 with 13 home runs. Pat Meares hit .276, an above-average season for him. The primary outfielders – Marty Cordova, Rich Becker, and Matt Lawton – had mediocre seasons. This was disappointing, because Cordova and Becker were coming off of the best years in their careers. Designated hitter Paul Molitor had a good year, batting .305 with 89 RBI, but it did not match his stellar 1996 numbers. Veterans like Roberto Kelly and Greg Colbrunn performed reasonably well off the bench.
| Statistic | Player | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| HR | Marty Cordova | 15 |
| RBI | Paul Molitor | 89 |
| BA | Paul Molitor | .305 |
| Runs | Chuck Knoblauch | 117 |
Read more about this topic: 1997 Minnesota Twins Season
Famous quotes containing the word offense:
“When offense occurred, Slaughter took the trail, and seldom returned with a live prisoner. Usually he reported that he had chased the suspect “clean out of the county”; these suspects never reappeared in Tombstone—or anywhere else.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Crude men who feel themselves insulted tend to assess the degree of insult as high as possible, and talk about the offense in greatly exaggerated language, only so they can revel to their heart’s content in the aroused feelings of hatred and revenge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is something in the breast of almost every man, which at bottom takes offense at the attentions of any other man offered to a woman, the hope of whose nuptial love he himself may have discarded. Fain would a man selfishly appropriate all the hearts which have ever in any way confessed themselves his.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)