Minnesota Twins, specialized baseball team and one of five teams in the Central Division of the American League (AL). Named for Minnesota ’s Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul , the association plays at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis and wears white pinstriped uniforms with red trim. The franchise originated as the Washington Senators, a club that joined the American League at the time of the league’s formation in 1901.

The Minnesota Twins reached the playoffs three times from 1961 to 1970, throughout the franchise’s first 10 years. The Minnesota Twins first won the World Series in 1987. The club won another Series title in 1991. Both championship teams were led by boss Tom Kelly and perennial .300 hitter and All-Star outfielder Kirby Puckett.

Two of the greatest Minnesota Twins players were slugger Harmon Killebrew and line-drive hitter Rod Carew. Killebrew won six AL home run titles and ranks in the top ten on the all-time home run list with 573. Carew, documented as the best pure hitter of his day, won seven league batting Minnesota Twins and compiled a career .328 average—among the finest averages recorded in the second half of the 20th century.

The Minnesota Twins joined the league in 1961 when, in spite of pleas from the Congress of the United States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower , AL officials unwillingly allowed Washington Senators owner Calvin Griffith to move his club to Minneapolis . Sam Mele was named manager in 1961 and in 1965 led the Twins to the AL pennant with sluggers Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Zoilo Versalles. Minnesota ’s hitters, though, succumbed to pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.