An illustrated history of the most electrifying, influential, and noteworthy moments in the state's sports history

For athletes, fanatics, and trivia buffs alike, Minnesota's first and only comprehensive sports almanac features 125 glorious years of winning, losing, and playing the game.

A fabulous showcase of individuals, events, and inventions that have made Minnesota.

The histories in Twin Cities Sports are rooted in the class, ethnic, and regional identity of this unique upper midwestern metropolitan area. The compilation includes a wide range of important studies on the hub of interwar speedskating, the success of Gopher football in the Jim Crow era, the integration of municipal golf courses, the building of a world-renowned park system, the Minneapolis Lakers’ basketball dynasty, the Minnesota Twins’ connections to Cuba, and more.

Genuine fans take the best team moments with the less than great, and know that the games that are best forgotten make the good moments truly shine. This monumental book of the Minnesota Twins documents all the best moments and personalities in the history of the team, but also unmasks the regrettably awful and the unflinchingly ugly. In entertaining—and unsparing—fashion, this book sparkles with Twins highlights and lowlights, from wonderful and wacky memories to the famous and infamous. Such moments include the World Championships of 1987 and 1991 and the miraculous years when Bud Selig almost contracted the franchise, as well as the outrageous number of losses by Terry Felton and when manager Billy Martin punched out his starting pitcher in 1969. Whether providing fond memories, goose bumps, or laughs, this portrait of the team is sure to appeal to the fan who has been through it all.

Professional sports returned to Minnesota in 1961, a year after one of the most successful pro sports franchises left Minneapolis for Los Angeles in 1960. Since then, a history of last-second losses, historically bad teams, draft busts, missed calls, terrible trades, disappointing playoff runs, blown leads, under-qualified front office staff and coaches and untimely injuries. Yet, this fan base stays loyal. For some reason. 'Land of 10,000 Aches' goes deeper into the most heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, even-I-could-make-that-field-goal moments in Minnesota sports history with first-hand accounts from players, coaches and fans. Everybody remembers where they were for the good things: the Minneapolis Miracle, Kirby Puckett's Game Six home run. But were you face down in disbelief when Garrett Hartley kicked the Saints to the Super Bowl? Or forced into an emotional fetal position watching the Eagles hang 38 unanswered points on the NFL's best defense? Until names like Sal Bando, Ron Schock, Claude Osteen, Ed Thorp, Gordie Peterkin and Sergei Krivokrasov make your stomach turn, you have a long drop into the doldrums of Minnesota melancholy. This book is your guide down.

Swinging for the Fences tells the great stories of baseball's past, from establishment of the color line and the early formation of the barnstorming teams to dazzling hits by black heroes that led the Twins to victory over the Cardinals in 1987. Each chapter focuses on one key player and gives readers an intimate look at the national pastime as it has evolved over the last century. These are stories of the bonds that formed between players, of legendary moments in baseball's past, and of real people whose love of the game kept them playing against tough odds. Featured here are Hall of Famers like Willie Mays, Roy Campanella, and Kirby Puckett and great players like Walter Ball, John Wesley Donaldson, and Bud Fowler, who, because of their race, never made the stats books.