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New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Twins' newest team Hall of Famer: Corey Koskie, the volleyball-playing ‘no shot' from Canada
Editor's note: This article was originally published on Feb. 11, 2002, as part of a series about the most underrated players in Minnesota Twins history. It's being republished now, in honor of Corey Koskie's induction into the Twins' team Hall of Fame on Sunday at Target Field. Corey Koskie grew up on a farm in Canada, in a community called Anola with a population of 200 or so. He barely played baseball but starred in hockey and volleyball. Koskie was recruited to play goalie for the University of Minnesota-Duluth but opted for a volleyball scholarship from the University of Manitoba. And that was almost the end of his baseball career. Advertisement After redshirting as a freshman, he was playing baseball for a summer townball team when John Smith, the head coach for Des Moines Area Community College, persuaded Koskie to switch sports and come to Boone, Iowa. 'For some reason I decided to go there and play baseball,' Koskie said years later. 'I wasn't a long shot. I view it as being a no shot.' After one successful season there, Koskie moved back home to Canada to play for Kwantlen University and the National Baseball Institute in British Columbia, where a Twins scout spotted him. Picked by the Twins in the 26th round of the 1994 draft, Koskie moved methodically up the minor-league ladder, spending a full season at each of four levels despite promotion-worthy performances. He finally reached Triple A in 1998, at age 25, and hit .301/.368/.539 with 26 homers in 135 games to earn his first career in-season promotion in the form of a September call-up to Minnesota. Despite batting just .138 with 10 strikeouts in his 11-game MLB debut, Koskie broke camp with the Twins the next spring and hit .333/.395/.564 in April to solidify his status as a big leaguer. However, manager Tom Kelly played Koskie sparingly, opting for veterans Ron Coomer, Brent Gates and Denny Hocking at third base. Koskie's fielding was a problem. He started just five of the Twins' first 54 games at third base, his only position throughout five seasons in the minor leagues, with his sporadic playing time coming mostly at designated hitter and even right field. 'I knew there was a reason I wasn't playing,' Koskie said at the time. 'I didn't want to sit and pout about it.' With the message received, Koskie worked tirelessly with third-base coach Ron Gardenhire to improve his hands and reaction time. It paid off, as Kelly noticed the strides Koskie was making and gradually gave him more starts at third base. He started 54 of the final 81 games, all of them at third base, and his left-handed bat was in the lineup nearly every day versus right-handed pitchers. Advertisement 'He has worked his butt off,' Gardenhire said in 2002. 'You can't wish anything but the best for a guy who works like he does. … I had no choice. I was the guy (Kelly) would yell at every time Corey didn't make a play.' Hard work leading to improvement isn't uncommon, but the remarkable aspect of Koskie's story was how rapidly he progressed and how much room he had to grow from a non-baseball background. He was an average-ish third baseman by his second season, and by 2001 — Kelly's last year before Gardenhire took over as manager — Koskie was one of the league's better-fielding third basemen. Corey Koskie going all out in Game 1 of the 2002 ALCS…a 2-1 Twins win. #MNTwins — Jeff (@MNTwinsZealot) October 16, 2019 Koskie required no such improvement at the plate, hitting .310/.387/.468 as a rookie and topping an .800 OPS in each of his six seasons with the Twins. His offensive profile changed, as Koskie traded some batting average for power, but his production was consistent. In those six seasons, only Chipper Jones, Scott Rolen, Troy Glaus and Eric Chávez had a higher OPS among third basemen. Koskie led Twins position players in Wins Above Replacement in three of his six seasons and was never worse than third on the team. At his best in 2001 as the Twins returned to relevance, he batted .276/.362/.488 with 26 homers, 65 total extra-base hits, 103 RBIs and Gold Glove-caliber defense. He even stole 27 bases despite a gait that could be charitably described as slow-moving. He was similarly productive in 2002, 2003 and 2004, playing for Gardenhire as one of the veterans on a squad that broke through with three straight division titles, but Koskie missed time with injuries in each of those seasons. And really, health was the main thing separating a good Koskie season from a great Koskie season, because he always had an .800-something OPS with good defense. Advertisement Even when he was young and healthy, Koskie moved at his own leisurely pace, shuffling out to his position in the field each inning and regularly causing false injury alarms for anyone watching what was the baseball-playing equivalent of a grandpa gently getting up from a couch. He'd snap into action, swiping a base or snagging a line drive, then resume his sedate way around the diamond. Because of his long journey through the minors, Koskie was already 30 in 2003, his fifth full season, and he dealt with nagging back and hamstring injuries that further gave him the look of someone for whom everything was a chore. But he kept producing. Koskie led the division-winning 2003 and 2004 teams in OPS while playing 131 and 118 games. Koskie slugged .607 with 11 homers and 11 doubles across 37 games in August and September 2004 as the Twins ran away from Chicago and Cleveland for their third straight AL Central title. He kept rolling in the ALDS, hitting .308 with a .474 on-base percentage versus the Yankees, and if not for a bad bounce Koskie would have one of the biggest clutch hits in Twins history. After winning Game 1 in New York behind seven shutout innings from Johan Santana, the Twins trailed 5-3 in the eighth inning of Game 2. They rallied off Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera, cutting the lead to 5-4 as Koskie stepped to the plate with runners on the corners and one out. Luis Rivas pinch-ran for Justin Morneau at first base, putting good speed on as the go-ahead run. Koskie slashed a Rivera cutter into the left-field corner as Torii Hunter jogged home with the tying run. Rivas was set to claim a lead that could have put the Twins up 2-0 in the series heading back to Minnesota and maybe even forever alter the now-lopsided postseason history between the two teams. Except the ball hopped over the wall for a ground-rule double, halting Rivas. 'They would have scored two (runs), no doubt about it,' Yankees catcher Jorge Posada said afterward. Instead, Jason Kubel and Cristian Guzmán stranded Rivas at third base and two hours later, in the bottom of the 12th inning, the Yankees evened the series with a walk-off victory. It took Minnesota two decades to win another playing game, including going 0-13 against the Yankees. Perhaps one bounce could have changed everything, for Koskie and for the Twins. Advertisement Koskie's double off Rivera proved to be the final big hit of his Twins career. He became a free agent after the season and the Twins made little effort to re-sign the 32-year-old, who went home to Canada on a three-year, $16.5 million deal with Toronto. Koskie bought a full-page ad in both local newspapers to thank Twins fans, calling it 'the hardest decision our family has ever had to make.' He had a down season for Toronto in 2005, missing two months with a broken thumb, and that winter the Blue Jays traded Koskie to the Brewers. He got off to a nice start with Milwaukee in 2006, hitting .261/.343/.490 with 12 homers in 76 games, but Koskie fell hard while chasing a pop-up on July 5 and suffered a concussion that ultimately ended his career at age 33. He never played again. 'It was 2 1/2 years of just dealing with this hell,' Koskie said in 2018 of the post-concussion symptoms and numerous setbacks. 'It sucked. Everything I (once) could do, I couldn't do anymore and you didn't know if you were OK. Everyone would say 'you look OK,' but you don't feel OK. It was a personal hell, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.' Twins gift David Ortiz peanut butter in homage to epic prank. — theScore (@theScore) June 11, 2016 In addition to his strong defense at third base and consistently good production at the plate, Koskie was also known as a clubhouse prankster who pulled off his most famous trick on David Ortiz during spring training in 2002. As the story goes, Koskie was upset over some minor offense, so he went into the clubhouse during a game and filled Ortiz's underwear with peanut butter. Chunky, too. Later, a freshly showered Ortiz somehow got fully dressed — underwear, jeans, shirt, jacket, shoes — before noticing, at which point it was way too late. Years later, the Twins honored a retiring Ortiz during his farewell stop in Minnesota by having Koskie, Hunter, Gardenhire, LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado present him with a new jar of chunky peanut butter. It wasn't just pranks that made Koskie a popular teammate. Morneau, who later became a Twins leader himself, credits Koskie for taking him under his wing as a wide-eyed kid drafted out of Canada in 1999. They quickly bonded and years later, when Morneau was a top prospect invited to his first major-league spring training, Koskie was there to mentor him. They still play hockey together. 'He looked out for me and checked up on me in the minor leagues,' Morneau told The Athletic last year. 'My first big-league camp, I made plenty of mistakes. And he was there just saying, hey, you can't do this, you can't do that. There are certain ways you've got to conduct yourself. That's the way the game works. Everyone who's been there understands. They remember what it's like to be a rookie.' Advertisement Koskie probably remembered that rookie feeling more than most, since his path to the majors was anything but standard and his first manager wasn't shy about letting him know his fielding wasn't good enough. In response, he improved his defense as much as anyone in Twins history and emerged as one of the biggest driving forces for the team's return to prominence in the early 2000s. Gary Gaetti is almost universally regarded as the greatest Twins third baseman of all time. And for good reason. He spent 10 seasons in Minnesota, starred on the 1987 championship team, won four Gold Glove awards and has the eighth-most homers in Twins history. Gaetti is unquestionably an all-time Twins great and deservedly was inducted into the team Hall of Fame in 2007. Koskie is, at worst, the No. 2 third baseman in Twins history and has more of a case for the No. 1 spot than most fans would be willing to even consider. Gaetti played four more years and 67 percent more games in Minnesota, yet the career WAR in a Twins uniform is relatively close (27.1 to 22.1) because Koskie was far more consistently an all-around asset. Gaetti's production varied wildly from year to year, and he was a notorious free-swinger prone to terrible on-base percentages. He's most remembered for being a middle-of-the-order slugger on a World Series-winning team, but Gaetti was an above-average hitter relative to the league average in just three of 10 seasons with the Twins, whereas Koskie cleared that bar easily in all six seasons. Gaetti had a .744 OPS for the Twins at a time when the league as a whole had a .728 OPS. He was great from 1986 to 1988 but almost exactly average overall. By comparison, Koskie posted an .836 OPS for the Twins at a time when the league OPS was .771, and he topped the league-wide OPS by at least 40 points in every season. Koskie was a better hitter than Gaetti, often by quite a bit. In fact, Koskie was a better hitter than most everyone in Twins history. Among all players with at least 1,500 plate appearances for the Twins, he ranks seventh in OPS (.836), sandwiched between Kirby Puckett (.837) and Morneau (.832). Koskie's raw numbers are inflated by playing in a high-scoring era, but even his OPS+ — which accounts for that context — ranks 15th in Twins history. Gaetti is one of the elite defensive third basemen of all time in reputation and numbers, so he has a considerable advantage there even though Koskie was a quality fielder himself. And yet WAR, which factors in batting, fielding and baserunning, gives Koskie a sizable all-around edge over Gaetti per 150 games with the Twins — 4.1 to 3.0. Koskie was worth roughly an extra win per year. Advertisement Gaetti's far lengthier Twins career and superior durability shouldn't be brushed aside, and it's absolutely justified to consider 'The Rat' as the Twins' best third baseman. But there's also a reasonable argument to be made for Koskie, and the fact that would come as a shock to so many fans is evidence for his being vastly underrated. And now Koskie is deservedly joining Gaetti in the Twins Hall of Fame this weekend. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Winnipeg Free Press
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Koskie to be inducted into Twins HOF
WinnipegElmwood Despite the strained relations between Canada and the United States, a number of Manitoba baseball fans will no doubt be at Target Field in Minneapolis on Sunday, Aug. 17. The Minnesota Twins are hosting the Detroit Tigers and a highlight of the afternoon will be the induction of Anola's Corey Koskie into the club's Hall of Fame. Koskie was born in 1973 and, according to his Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame biography, he got his start with the Elmwood Giants in 1989. In 1992, with the Giants junior squad, he was the Manitoba Junior League batting champion and named rookie of the year. Koskie was a multi-sport athlete, who played goal for the Selkirk Steelers of the MJHL at age 17, and volleyball for Manitoba at the national level. He focused on baseball once he earned a scholarship to play at Boone College in Iowa. File photo Anola's Corey Koskie will be inducted into the Minnesota Twins' Hall of Fame on Aug. 17. Koskie is arguably Manitoba's greatest baseball player. Koskie was selected in the 26th round of the 1994 major league baseball draft and began his pro career in the Gulf Coast League. He joined the Twins in September 1998 and appeared in 834 regular season and playoff games through third baseman had a .280 batting average and hit 101 home runs for the Twins. In 2001, Koskie had a very impressive season with 26 home runs, 103 runs batted in, and 27 stolen bases. He later played for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2005 and Milwaukee Brewers in 2006 before retiring. He and his family make their home in the Twin Cities. The honours kept coming for Koskie. In 1999, 2001, and 2006, he was named Manitoba Male Athlete of the Year by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. His induction into the provincial baseball shrine in Morden, Man., took place in 2011. Two years later he was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and in 2015, he became an honoured member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. That summer's induction class included former Blue Jay Carlos Delgado, Matt Stairs from Fredericton, N.B., who played for 13 teams in the majors between 1992 and 2011, former Montreal Expo Felipe Alou, and the late Expo executive Jim Fanning. In 1961, the American League Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and the team was renamed Twins in recognition of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. From 1961 until 1981, the home field was the Metropolitan Stadium in the suburban community of Bloomington south of the two competing cities. In 1982, the Twins moved to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The covered stadium was not a great place to enjoy a summer baseball game, but the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 while calling it home. Fans were thrilled when the excellent Target Field was constructed several blocks north and opened in 2010. Mondays A weekly look at news and events that matter in your communities. When Koskie enters the Twins HOF in August, he will be the 41st individual to be honoured since it was formed in 2000. He and Gary Gaetti are the only regular third basemen to be recognized. In addition to players, the Hall includes managers, executives and broadcasters. The first class included National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted players Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett and owner Calvin Griffith. The fifth player was Kent Hrbek, a Bloomington product, who was the first baseman on the World Series champion teams. Pitchers Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat and catcher Joe Mauer are other Twins in the National HOF. Koskie is arguably our province's greatest baseball player. The one player who might compete for that honour is Brandon-born Russ Ford, the first Canadian to win 20 games in a major league season. He accomplished that in 1910 when he won 26 games for the New York Highlanders of the American League. The next season, he won 22 games and pitched for the AL in a benefit game that was baseball's first unofficial all-star contest. When Ford was inducted into the Manitoba Sports HOF in 2002, this columnist, who had researched his history, had the honour of accepting for him. The Ford family had moved to the US when Russ was a young boy and the Hall couldn't find any family members. T. Kent MorganMemories of Sport Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@ Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
