The Minnesota Twins started out as the Washington Senators before moving to the Twin Cities to begin play in 1961 at renovated Metropolitan Stadium. It didn’t take long for the Twins to forge a unique identity and winning team as with such colorful players as Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, and Zoilo Versailles in the lineup they won then 1965 American League pennant before losing to the LA Dodgers in the Fall Classic. In 1969 a fiery young manager named Billy Martin led the Twins to the American League West division title in the first season of division formats but the Twins fell to powerful and loaded Baltimore in the ALCS. They repeated as division champions in 1970, again losing in the post season to the Orioles. The Twins began to show their age in the early to mid 1970's and could not keep pace with the division rival Oakland A's who were on their way to building a dynasty. Minnesota hit rock bottom in 1982 when they stumbled out of the gate with a 16-54 record en route to a 102-loss season.  Although the Twins opened as big time losers in their new home they were beginning to develop impressive young talent such as Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaeitti, Tom Brunansky, Tim Launder and Kirby Puckett that would lead to a baseball renaissance in the Twin Cities.