When the American League (AL) became a major league in 1901, the new league placed a team in Washington D.C., a city that had been ditched by the National League (NL) a year earlier. The new Washington club, like the old one, would be called the "Senators".
The Senators' early day were mired in consecutive losing streaks. In the 1904 season, the Senators lost 113 games, so the following season the owners, searching for a new beginning, changed the team's nickname to the "Nationals". However, the "Senators" name remained so popular that the powers-that-be soon reverted back to the original nickname.
The name change did little to reverse the on-field fortunes of the club. Not only did they continue losing a lot, their ballpark also burned down in 1911.
The year 1912 would prove huge in the whole history of the ball club. Firstly, the new stadium, "National Park" was completed, featuring many modern features. Secondly, a new manager was named in Clark Griffith, a man whose influence would loom large on the club for many years to come.
Griffith's first season in charge saw Washington improve markedly, finishing the season with the team's first winning record of 91-61, a record good enough to see Washington finish second behind the Boston Red Sox. The following year saw Washington again finish second, this time behind the Philadelphia Athletics.
But by 1916, the Senators had once again reverted back to their dismal, losing ways. Soon after Griffith, fed up with the owners' thriftiness, decided to buy a controlling interest in the team. In 1921, he decided to stand down as manager to concentrate on being team president.
On the back of a talented line-up in season 1924, the Senators captured their first AL pennant, two games ahead of Babe Ruth's Yankees. The Senators were the decided underdogs in the World Series, facing the more experienced New York Giants. Despite dropping the first two games of the series, the Senators were able to tie it up at 3-3 and force a seventh game. In a remarkable game that went to 12 innings, the Senators scored a major upset, downing the Giants and taking the club's first World Series title.
The Senators again won the AL pennant in 1925, but lost the World Series to Pittsburgh. After dropping off the pace later in the decade, the Senators returned to contention in 1930.
The Senators' success at this time was slightly short-lived, before the team had a stand-out season in 1933, posting a 99-53 win-loss record and easily taking the AL pennant by seven games over the New York Yankees. However, disappointment again ensued in the World Series, this time going down to the Giants.
For the next generation, the Senators underachieved markedly. Managers and players were hired and fired at will, attendances plunged and the Senators were losers on the park.
After the legendary Griffith died in 1955 (still in office as team president), his adopted son (biological nephew) Calvin assumed the team presidency, and immediately showed signs of wanting to move the team out of Washington.
By the late 1950s, Griffith Junior was actively courting the Minneapolis-St. Paul district as a site for relocation, and whilst the AL initially opposed the move, the deal was done in 1960 - the Senators would move to Minnesota, and be replaced with an expansion Washington team in 1961. The former Washington Senators thus became the "Minnesota Twins".
The twin cities area of Minneapolis-St. Paul enthusiastically welcomed the baseball franchise to the state of Minnesota, and that community support helped the franchise greatly improve their on-field performances. The Twins won 92 games in 1962, the most by the franchise since 1933.
The Twins won the AL pennant in 1965, but lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. The early success of the Twins helped endear them to the whole state of Minnesota, which would prove vital in forthcoming years of difficulty.
In 1967, the Twins were involved in one of the closest pennant races in baseball history. Heading into the final weekend of the season, the Twins, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers all had a shot at clinching the AL championship. With two games left to play, the Twins and Red Sox were level atop the standings; ironically, the two remaining games each team had to play were against each other. Unfortunately for Minnesota, the Red Sox won both games and clinched their first pennant since 1946, finishing with a 92-70 record. The Twins and Tigers both finished a game behind, at 91-71, while the White Sox finished three games behind, at 89-73.
In 1969, the Twins again made the playoffs, winning the newly-created AL West division. However, the Twins were swept by Baltimore in the first AL Championship Series.
The team continued to post winning records through 1971, winning another AL West pennant in 1970. However, for the rest of the 1970s, the Twins entered a prolonged period of mediocrity, hovering only around the .500 win-loss mark, and never really threatening for a playoff run.
During this time, owner Calvin Griffith faced financial difficulty with the start of free agency. While other owners had fortunes made in other business fields, Griffith's only income came from baseball. He ran the Twins as a family-owned business, employing many family members, and had to make a profit each season just to survive. Many stars soon began leaving the Twins under free agency rules.
In the early 1980s, The Twins fell even further. Their worst Minnesota-based season coming in 1982, when the franchise finished with a disastrous 60-102 win-loss record. This season also saw the Twins switch home games to the modern cookie-cutter "Metrodome" stadium in downtown Minneapolis.
Financial difficulties finally forced Calvin Griffith to sell the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad in 1984. Some excellent development of youth, coupled with some shrewd trades, saw the success of the Twins skyrocket in the 1987 season. So much so, that Minnesota upset the Detroit Tigers in the AL Championship Series, and then defeated the Cardinals in seven games to win the franchise's second World Series, and first since 1924.
With just 85 wins during the 1987 season, the Twins set a record for fewest regular season victories by a World Series champion, later broken by the Cardinals themselves in 2006. The Twins' indifferent season tally was largely due to a dreadful road record.
Whilst the Twins recorded more wins during the 1988 season, they weren't able to overpower their division rivals, the Oakland Athletics. This began a steady decline for Minnesota over the next two years, seeing them finish last in the AL West in 1990 with a 74-88 win-loss record.
However, again when all seemed lost and forlorn for Minnesota, the Twins again came from the clouds in the 1991 season to challenge for another World Series title. With all the players firing, the Twins managed to hold off a gallant Atlanta in seven games in the World Series, with game six of the series being an 11-inning classic. The Twins had now won three World Series titles, two of these after being based in Minnesota.
Despite a solid season in 1992, finishing 90-72 wasn't good enough for Minnesota to overcome another strong Oakland team. After this year, the Twins again fell into a prolonged slump, posting losing records for the next eight seasons.
In 1997, owner Pohlad almost sold the Twins to a prominent North Carolina businessman, who was going to move the franchise to his home state. Due to local opposition and a lack of interest for a stadium to be built in the Charlotte area, the deal was eventually quashed.
Newly-committed to the Minnesota state, the Twins team divested themselves of most of the team's established players, and attempted to build from the bottom-up in 1998. A bunch of youngsters narrowly avoided the ignominy of a 100-loss season by just eight games in that initial season.
After finishing the 1990s on somewhat of a low, the Twins entered the new millennium with high hopes. These hopes were matched by some much-improved on-field performances, as the franchise enjoyed winning seasons every year between 2001 and 2006, the longest consecutive run of winning seasons since the franchise had moved to the Twin Cities in 1960.
After narrowly avoiding another shot at their very existence in 2002 (due to league contraction), the Twins responded on-field by reaching the AL Championship Series, going down in five games to eventual World Series winner the Anaheim Angels.
During 2002-2004, the Twins won their division pennant each season, and during this period they garnered a huge rivalry with division-mates the Chicago White Sox.
In 2006, the Twins came from 12 games back in the division at the All-Star break to tie the Detroit Tigers for the lead in the second-last game of the season. With the Tigers having won the season head-to-head record between the two teams, the Twins needed a Tiger loss and a Twins win in order to win the division outright.
Amazingly, lady luck shone on the Twins as they got both results on the last day of the season, when the Tigers lost their third straight game at home to the last-placed Kansas City Royals in a 10-8 game in 14 innings. After their win against the Chicago White Sox, the Minnesota Twins players, accompanied by thousands of fans, eagerly watched the Tigers-Royals game on the Metrodome's video scoreboards.
This was the first time in Major League Baseball history that a team had won a division or league outright on the last day of the regular season without ever having been outright leader before. However, the Twins' luck abruptly stopped there as they were swept in the first-round of the playoffs, whilst Detroit rode the crest of a wave on a wild card playoff spot and made the World Series.
Minnesota are currently viewed by many in baseball as a talented crop of underachievers, a group capable of making the playoffs, but doing little when they actually get there. Their failure to seriously challenge for a World Series crown during their terrific winning-season run between 2001-2006 lay testament to this.
Minnesota struggled somewhat in season 2007, going 79-83 and finishing well out of playoff calculations.
This season, as things stand now, the Twins are well-placed to return to playoff action, with a 55-46 win-loss record at the time of writing, despite just being swept in a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.
With the talent currently on the Twins roster, should they make the playoffs, they are definitely capable of making some noise and having a say in who takes 2008's World Series crown.