Monthly Archives: December 2015

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Eighty-four

KANSAS CITY 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, July 15 (Game 2 of doubleheader)

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with two runs and a stolen base, his eleventh.  Jim Perry was 2-for-3 with a triple.

Pitching star:  Perry pitched 7.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Rollie Sheldon pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts.  Ken Harrelson was 1-for-3 with a home run (his tenth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Tommie Reynolds was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

The game:  Harrelson led off the second with a home run to put the Athletics up 1-0.  Oliva doubled home Versalles in the third and singled him home in the fifth to give the Twins a 2-1 advantage.  The lead held up until the ninth.  Al Worthington had come on to get the last out of the eighth inning, but in the ninth he walked Harrelson and gave up a single to Johnny Blanchard.  A bunt moved the runners up.  Nelson Matthews struck out, but Reynolds delivered a two-run double that put Kansas City ahead 3-2.  The Twins got pinch-hit singles from Rich Rollins and Joe Nossek to put men on first and second with two out in the ninth, but Versalles struck out to end the game.

Of note:  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Earl Battey was 0-for-4.

Record:  The doubleheader split made the Twins 54-30 and put them five games ahead of Cleveland, which defeated Boston.  Baltimore lost to Detroit in extra innings and fell to a third place tie with Chicago, 5.5 games back.

Notes:  Hall dropped his average to.317...Battey dropped his average to .314...Bob Allison remained out of the lineup, with Sandy Valdespino playing left.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 29

Hank DeBerry (1894)
Bill Knickerbocker (1911)
Ted Del Guercio (1927)
Ken Rudolph (1946)
Jim Wilson (1960)
Devon White (1962)
Craig Grebeck (1964)
James Mouton (1968)
Tomas Perez (1973)
Richie Sexson (1974)
Emil Brown (1974)
Jaret Wright (1975)
Jack Wilson (1977)

Ted Del Guercio was part of the largest trade in baseball history. He was traded by the New York Yankees along with Don Larsen, Billy Hunter, Bob Turley, Kal Segrist, Bill Miller and Don Leppert to the Baltimore Orioles for Gene Woodling, Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Willy Miranda, Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley and Dick Kryhoski in the off-season following the 1953 campaign. Del Guercio was the only person involved in the trade not to play in the majors.

James Mouton was drafted by Minnesota in the eighth round in 1990, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 29 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Eighty-three

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MINNESOTA 11, KANSAS CITY 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, July 15 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his thirteenth and fourteenth) and a walk, scoring three times.  Sandy Valdespino was 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs.  Earl Battey was 2-for-2 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk with one strikeout.  Johnny Klippstein struck out six in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.

Opposition stars:  Ken Harrelson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.  Dick Green was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.  Rene Lachemann was 1-for-3 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.

The game:  Oliva homered in the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second, two singles and a hit batsman filled the bases with one out, a wild pitch scored one run, and Kaat delivered a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0.  The Twins then scored seven in the fourth to put the game out of reach.  Two singles and a walk filled the bases with none out.  Kaat hit his second sacrifice fly of the game to bring home one run.  Zoilo Versalles struck out, but with two out and two on the next five batters walked, forcing in four runs.  Three different pitchers issued the five walks, which must have been extremely frustrating to Athletics manager Heywood Sullivan.  Valdespino then delivered a two-run single to put the Twins up 10-0.  Kaat gave up three solo homers in the next two innings but was never really in trouble.

Of note:  Versalles was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring once and driving in one.

Record:  The win made the Twins 54-29 and kept them in first place by four and a half games over Cleveland.

Notes:  One of Bud Selig's many "contributions" to the game is the four-day all-star break.  In 1965, when Men were Men, you not only got by with three days, you played a doubleheader when you got back.  In fact, not every team even got three days.  There were three major league games played on Wednesday, the day after the all-star game...Kaat, as stated above, had two sacrifice flies in the game.  Only twelve players have hit three sacrifice flies in a game, with the most recent being Jose Lopez in 2008, and none of them were pitchers, so it appears that Kaat tied a record...I could not quickly find out what the record is for most consecutive walks, but I did see that Bill "Dolly" Gray walked seven consecutive batters in 1909.

WGOM Videos

Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin

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This video was very nearly quite a few different things; so many new albums were released this year by bands I love. Off the top of my head,* and in no particular order, there were new releases from Alabama Shakes, The Decemberists, Tame Impala, Silversun Pickups, Beirut, Wilco, Father John Misty, Kendrick Lamar, Cage The Elephant, Ben Folds, Mark Ronson, Zac Brown Band, Beach House, CeeLo Green, Best Coast, The Tallest Man on Earth, Twenty One Pilots, Low, Metric, Blitzen Trapper, Jason Isbell, Of Monsters and Men, Kid Cudi, The Arcs ... and I'm sure I've missed a few.** Point is, all of these bands dropped new music in 2015 making this a very tough choice.

One of my favorites of the year showed up on bootsy's list (and he actually prompted me to get Smoke Ring For My Halo a few years back) - Kurt Vile's b'lieve i'm goin down... is home to Pretty Pimpin:

*not really. I had to look a few up to be sure the album I was thinking of was released this year.
**not to mention all the new bands I've yet to get to.

5 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 10 (5 votes, average: 9.20 out of 10)
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Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: All-star Game

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NATIONAL LEAGUE 6, AMERICAN LEAGUE 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, July 13.

National League stars:  Willie Stargell was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and scored twice.  Willie Mays was 1-for-3 with a home run and two walks, scoring twice.  Juan Marichal started and pitched three innings, allowing only one hit.

American League stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and two walks.  Dick McAuliffe was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and two runs.  Pete Richert struck out two in two innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Mays led off the game with a home run and Joe Torre hit a two-run homer later in the first inning, both off Milt Pappas, to give the NL a 3-0 lead.  In the second, Stargell hit a two-run homer off Mudcat Grant to make it 5-0.  The Americans got on the board in the fourth on Rocky Colavito's RBI single.  In the fifth, McAuliffe and Killebrew each hit a two-run homer off Jim Maloney to tie it 5-5.  In the sixth, Ron Santo delivered an RBI single to put the Nationals up 6-5.  The AL got a man to third with two out in the eighth and Tony Oliva led off the ninth with a double, but they could not tie the score.

Twins:  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-2 with a walk and a run.  Oliva was 1-for-2 with a double.  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-1 with a walk.  Grant struck out three in two innings but gave up two runs on two hits and a walk.