Minnesota Twins Slay Los Angeles Dodgers in Shocking 42-14 Smash!

42 post-’97. | Getty Images Watching 42 on Friday’s movie night , I had forgotten that among shots of MLB players wearing 42 during the pre-credits montage, there is one at Target Field. That got me thinking about the Twins who have worn #42 outside of April 15 every year, and checking Baseball Reference, there have been just six.

(Two of them were Senators, but they still count. ) They are: Al Kozar 2B, 1950 Kozar spent all of 1948 and 1949 with the Senators, wearing #2 the first season and #1 the second. For the start of the 1950 season, he wore #42, an unusual number change for a player — players usually move to a lower number.

However, he only wore #42 for 20 games before being traded to the White Sox, where he played 10 more games before his MLB career ended. Cass Michaels 2B, 1950-1 Michaels came over to Washington in the Kozar trade and immediately claimed the vacated number. He wore #42 for the rest of 1950 and part of 1951 before switching to #7 (I could not find any further specifics as to when he switched), but in that new number, his Senators career ended the same way as his predecessor’s: a trade, sent to the Browns in May 1952.

Jim Manning RP, 1962 The first Twin on the list, Manning wore #42 during his entire career: seven innings across five games at the start of the 1962 season. Jack O’Connor SP, 1982 O’Connor’s case is interesting. He wore #33 for most of his four seasons (well, three seasons and two games) in Minnesota, but he wore #42 for at least part of 1982, his only season as a primary starter.