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What a Week It Was!
The Minnesota Twins 2025 Fantasy Camp is in the books and it was an historic camp on many fronts. This year’s camp was held January 4th-11th, in Ft Myers, Florida, and was the fifth ten team camp hosted by the Twins and our largest ever. One hundred and thirty-seven campers joined Camp Commissioner Bert Blyleven and fellow Baseball Hall of Fame member, Tony Oliva who were joined by a staff of 23 former MLB and Twins greats for an incredible week of making baseball memories. Campers from 19 states were on hand for an incredible week of baseball. With plenty of sunshine and great temperatures for playing baseball, 2025 provided “cool – but dry” weather for this year’s camp.
The 2025 Twins Camp was also witness to the induction of twelve (12) new members to the Camp’s Hall of Fame (see related story below).
The 2025 Twins Camp Pro Staff
Back Row (L to R): Toby Gardenhire, Juan Berenguer, Juan Rincon, Glen Perkins, Matt Guerrier, Matt LeCroy, Jacque Jones, Gene Larkin, Devin Smeltzer, Tommy Watkins, Frank Viola, Brian Dinkelman & Kent Hrbek. Front Row: Milt Cuyler, Stan Cliburn, Stu Cliburn, Ron Gardenhire, Jeff Reardon, Bert Blyleven, Stan Dickman, Tony Oliva, Dick Stigman, Phil Roof, Tom Brunansky, Tim Laudner & Al Newman.
New to the Camp’s Pro Staff this year were former Twins relief pitching specialist, Matt Guerrier and former Twins AAA Manager of the Rochester Red Wings, Stan Cliburn. Both proved to be wonderful additions to an already solid Pro Staff. The “Rookie” coaches jumped right in and were well received by our enthusiastic group of campers. Based on the feedback we’ve received from Matt & Stan, we can report that they had a great experience as well.
 
The Pro Staff welcomed two new members to the group in 2025. Former Twins “Set-up” Relief Pitcher, Matt Guerrier & former Twins AAA Rochester Manager, Stan Cliburn were both great additions to an already
Again this year, the quality of baseball at the Twins Camp was truly exceptional. Following Sunday’s typical spirited draft, the Pro Staff Coaches proudly announced their teams at Sunday evening’s banquet. Over the course of the seven game pool play, the coaches readied their squads for play-off baseball, beginning on Monday morning. When the dust settled with the end of play on Thursday, eight of this year’s ten teams were to qualify for the play-offs. Fortunately, this year all of Friday’s schedule was completed, with first round play-off games in the morning and the Pro-Camper game inside Hammond Stadium that afternoon. In our next issue of the Fantasy Forum, will will detail the results of both the Blue and Red Championship games, as well as recognize the individual player award winners for the 2023 Twins Camp.
We wish to sincerely thank all of the 2025 Twins Campers and our incredible Pro Staff for another great Camp Week! We’re already planning for our next great camp! At the time we’re going to press, we have not yet confirmed the date for that camp. In any event, we hope to see you back then!
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Largest Class Ever Joins Twins Camp Hall of Fame!
The Twins Camp Hall of Fame expanded by 12 members in 2025, with seven new campers being inducted at the annual Wednesday evening Hall of Fame Banquet. The 2025 Twins Camp Hall of Fame inductees are (Front Row – L to R): Tim Vernon, Dave Roiger, Rick Bruce, Ben Kepple, Steve Kluvers & Mark Besser. Gerry Seurer in the center. (Back Row – L to R): Scott Morvig, Steve Dickman, Tim Laudner, Tim Salter & John Green.
We speak often about our Twins Camp family and the special bond that exists between our campers and our Pro Staff members. As a result of that magic, the camp has evolved from a “bucket list” experience to an annual reunion of good friends and baseball enthusiasts that come together each year in Florida to renew those bonds and to compete in the game that we all love.
Twins Camp Hall of Fame members have demonstrated an enduring support of the Camp and the Camp experience. That support has been critical to creating a foundation for the camp’s continuing success.
In 2025, a record twelve new members joined the Camp Hall of Fame which now consists of 79 Campers and Staff members. We are proud to say that the last 70 of these members have joined our Hall of Fame since 2009.
One of the highlights of every camp week is the Hall of Fame evening banquet where we pay tribute to our existing Hall of Fame members and welcome any new inductees to the Hall. As part of that evening, root beer floats made with Killebrew root beer are served as dessert and as a remembrance and tribute to the Twins first National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Harmon Killebrew. We were blessed to have had Harmon as a member of our Pro Staff for many years. Jim and Rose Lundeen once again donated their incredible Killebrew Root Beer to allow us to continue this wonderful tradition.
This year’s class had approached Stan early in the year expressing their desire to do something a bit different, a bit special, given the historic size of the 2025 class. They had inquired into the possibility of doing a hog roast. To that end, Stan was able to source a caterer that specializes in roasting whole hogs and the results were amazing! Thanks to Steve Johnson at Pop’z barbecue for the outstanding job that he and his team turned in.
Again this year the camper inductees were asked to say a few words about their induction and what the camp has meant to them. All did an excellent job and it was easy to see by everyone in attendance that the camp experience has had a profound and positive impact on their baseball and personal lives. Friendships forged here will last a lifetime and become the driving incentive to return year after year. T0 say that the Hall of Fame ceremony always makes for an emotional evening would be an understatement.
Congratulations and Thank You Mark, Rick, John, Ben, Steve, Scott, Dave, Tim, Gerry, Tim, Reno & Tim! Welcome to the Hall!
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Twins Campers Deliver in Big League fashion for Cancer Patients at This Year’s Lee Health Foundation Charity Auction!
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Chief Justice, Bert Blyleven, was joined again this year by Associate Justice & fellow National Baseball Hall of Fame member, Tony Oliva, for the 2025 edition of the Twins Camp’s Kangaroo Court. Each year, camper’s face fines due to various infractions, such as looking at a third strike, leaving equipment on the field or some other faux pas in baseball protocol. Judges Blyleven and Oliva were again successful and we are proud to report that over $6,000 in fines at this year’s two Kangaroo Court sessions were raised to assist young cancer patients in the Ft Myers area.
Twins Camp Kangaroo Court Judges, Tony Oliva and Bert Blyleven team up to right any wrongs committed by Campers or staff at this year’s camp.
Those proceeds, along with the money raised at the annual charity auction on the final night, were responsible for raising over $50,000.00 for the Lee Health Foundation’s Cancer Center. The Foundation then leverages the Camp’s donations with their annual Twins Celebrity Golf Classic to raise more than $120,000.00 each year. By our calculations and thanks to our incredible group, Twins campers have been responsible for raising nearly $500,000.00 for this worthwhile program.
And a special thanks to 2025 Hall of Fame inductee, Tim Vernon and Yamaha Golf of Savage, MN. For a second time, Tim had a special Twins Camp golf cart designed and manufactured. This year’s was a gas powered beauty in Silver and Black – camp logos decorated the outside of the cart and the seats included the camp’s logo embroidered into the seat. Once it arrived at camp, Tim enlisted this year’s Pro Staff in autographing the cart and then had it clear coated to preserve the autographs for the life of the cart. Included in those autographs were HOF signings from Bert Blyleven (2011) and Tony Oliva (2022). This year’s cart fetched a winning bid of $22,000.00, and was key to the camp breaking it’s all time record of giving to the Lee Health Foundation.
Thank you Tim Vernon & Yamaha Golf and Our Entire Camp Family for Your Generosity!
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