Metamorphosis in Minnesota

The hapless heroes of the Broadway musical Damn Yankees were so hopelessly stuck in seventh place that only the Devil could help them win the league pennant. It was art imitating life, except that in the late 1950s the Devil himself could not rescue the real-life Washington Senators. They were the most miserable team in the American League.

As it turned out, what the Senators needed was not a boost from Beelzebub but a whiff of good clean Midwestern air. Before the start of the 1961 season, they moved to the St. Paul-Minneapolis area and changed their name to the Twins. In four seasons, they have twice finished in the first division, a feat they had accomplished only 20 times in 60 years in Washington. And never have they been hotter than now. They have won nine of their last twelve games, including three out of four with those damn and now doomed Yankees, and at week's end were leading the American League by four games.

Gate Prizes. The move made all the difference. Sports fans in Washington could not care less about baseball in a town where the political games can be so much more exciting. The Twin Cities, on the other hand, were starved for baseball. The Twins set the 1963 American League attendance record and today average 16,000 per game, the highest in the league. Encouraged by this box office bustle, Twins President Calvin Griffith has spent $6,000,000 for 65 new players, 18 of whom have found a place on the Twins alongside seven stars from Washington days.

The best of the new batch is Outfielder Tony Oliva, 24, last year's American League batting champion (.323) and Rookie of the Year. Though his average is down to .295 this season, Oliva is making more key hits, leads the league in doubles (26). He is second only to another Twin in the number of runs scored; Oliva has 60, Shortstop Ziolio Versalles 61.

More On the Ball. In Manager Sam Mele's opinion, the Twins' greatest improvement came where it was needed most: on the mound. Under the coaching of Curve Baller John Sain, formerly with the Boston Braves, the Twins' pitchers have performed remarkably well: Jim Perry, with a new breaking curve in his repertoire, has six wins, no losses; Jim "Mudcat" Grant has won nine games and lost three; Camilo Pascual's record is 8-2. There is some notable talent in Mele's bullpen, too. "Last year we'd go into the late innings with a lead and we couldn't hold onto it," he says. "Now I can call on a reliever and feel confident." The one he calls on most is Righthander Al Worthington, 36, who has rescued six games for the Twins.

For all Mele's new faces, he still builds his attack around an oldtimer, Harmon Killebrew, 29, a ham-armed slugger who has hit 288 home runs and is closing in on Babe Ruth's home-run rate: Ruth ticked off a homer for every 11.8 times at bat; Killebrew is rapping one for every 12.9. Moreover, Killebrew gets his homers when they are most needed. In the last inning of the recent series against the Yankees, the Twins were trailing 5-4; with two men out, one man on, and the count at 3-2, Killebrew pounded Pete Mikkelsen's fast ball 360 ft. into the leftfield stand and won the game.

Pennant Pressure. If ever there was a year for the Twins to win the pennant, this could be it. The Chicago White Sox, after a brilliant beginning, have begun to stumble. Cleveland, superb for a while, has turned sour. Baltimore needs pitching. Even the Devil won't touch the Yankees, who have fallen 13 games behind the league leader. Still, the pressure of a pennant race could jar the Twins. "What pressure?" snorts ex-Red Sox outfielder Mele, who has never played on or managed a pennant winner. "I like it out in front. I'd rather have the rest of the clubs trying to catch us instead of us trying to catch them."

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