Monthly Archives: January 2016

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-six

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MINNESOTA 8, BALTIMORE 5 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Sunday, July 25.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice and driving in three.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk, driving in four.  Jimmie Hall was 3-for-5 with a home run, his seventeenth.

Pitching stars:  Dick Stigman struck out four in three innings, giving up one run on one hit.  Mel Nelson struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  John Miller struck out seven in seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks.  Norm Siebern was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.  Brooks Robinson was 1-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

The game:  Miller struck out the side in the top of the first.  Curt Blefary singled in a run in the first and the Orioles got three more in the second, two scoring on a Bob Johnson triple, to take a 4-0 lead.  Hall homered in the fourth to get the Twins on the board at 4-1, but Baltimore got the run back in the fifth when Robinson homered.  It was still 5-1 going to the eighth.  The Twins led off the eighth with singles by Frank Quilici, Sandy Valdespino, and Versalles, with Zoilo knocking in a run to make it 5-1, and the Oliva hit a three-run homer to tie it 5-5.  In the ninth, a single by Earl Battey, a bunt, and an intentional walk to Rich Rollins put two on with one out.  Versalles then hit a two-run triple and Oliva followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Twins an 8-5 advantage.  The Orioles did not get the tying run up to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Of note:  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-5.  Battey was 1-for-4.  Jim Kaat pitched only 1.2 innings, giving up four unearned runs on five hits and no walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins salvaged one of the three-game series against the second-place Orioles.  The win made their record 60-36 and increased their lead to 3.5 games.

Notes:  The first three batters in the Twins' lineup (Versalles, Oliva, and Hall) went 6-for-12 with two home runs, a triple, and two walks, scoring four runs and driving in all eight...Hall raised his average to .310...Battey fell below .300 for the first time since July 3 as his average dropped to .299...Kaat had his shortest start of the season and had gone six innings only once in the month of July.  In fairness to him, it was his fourth start in eleven days, as he had started on the 15th, the 18th, and the 21st.  He would start again on the 27th.  As you might have guessed, he led all of baseball in games started in 1965 with 42, meaning he started 26% of all Twins games in 1965...John Miller got cups of coffee with the Orioles in 1962 and 1963.  He came up in late June of 1965 and was a spot starter for them the rest of the season, making 16 starts.  He had a good season, going 6-4, 3.18 (although with a WHIP of 1.43.  It was the only good major league season he would have.  He was with the Orioles for all of 1966, spent most of 1967 in the minors, and was out of baseball after the 1968 season at age 27.

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-five

BALTIMORE 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Saturday, July 24.

Batting stars:  Joe Nossek was 1-for-2 with a double and a run.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his tenth.  Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Camilo Pascual pitched 5.1 innings, giving up only one run despite four hits and five walks with two strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Boog Powell was 3-for-4 with a home run (his eighth) and two RBIs.  Dave McNally pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts.  Norm Siebern was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.

The game:  It was scoreless until the fifth, when Zoilo Versalles delivered a two-out RBI single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Powell answered with a run-scoring single in the sixth to tie it 1-1.  The Orioles almost took the lead in the seventh, but Jimmie Hall threw out Siebern at the plate as he tried to score from second on a single.  The Twins loaded the bases with two-out in the eighth, but Sandy Valdespino, pinch-hitting for Earl Battey, grounded out to end the threat.  Powell gave Baltimore the lead in the eighth with a leadoff homer and relief pitcher Dick Hall drove in an insurance run with a two-out double to left.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

Of note:  Versalles was 1-for-4 with an RBI.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Battey was 0-for-2 with a walk.  Hall entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and was 0-for-2.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 59-36.  They remained in first place, but their second straight loss to Baltimore cut their lead over the Orioles to 2.5 games.

Notes:  Battey's average dropped to .310...Hall fell to .305...Pinch-hitting Valdespino for Battey seems a curious move, but Valdespino was hitting .286 at the time and they did gain a platoon advantage.  There may have been other reasons for the move, too--it's hard to second-guess the manager fifty years after the fact...In my memory Boog Powell was a great slugger, and some years he was, but he was not very consistent.  He hit over thirty homers four times, but he also had five seasons of more than four hundred at-bats in which he hit fewer than twenty.  1965 was one of those seasons.  in 556 at-bats, he hit only seventeen home runs and posted a slugging average of .407.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 10

Harry Wright (1835)
Chick Stahl (1873)
Del Pratt (1888)
Ziggy Sears (1892)
Max Patkin (1920)
George Strickland (1926)
Jim O'Toole (1937)
Willie McCovey (1938)
Chuck Dobson (1944)
Wilfredo Sanchez (1948)
Richard Dotson (1959)
Kelvin Torve (1960)
Wally Bell (1965)
Kevin Baez (1967)
Gary Rath (1973)
Adam Kennedy (1976)

 Outfielder Ziggy Sears played in the minors for sixteen years, mostly in the Texas League.  He once drove in eleven runs in a game.  He was a National League umpire from 1934-1945.

Max Patkin was a well-known baseball clown from 1944-1995.

Wilfredo Sanchez was a star in Cuba from 1968-1986, winning five batting titles.

Wally Bell was a major league umpire from 1992-2013, when he passed away from a heart attack.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 10 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 9

Bill Thomas (1905)
Johnny Washington (1916)
John Kibler (1928)
Julio Navarro (1936)
Ralph Terry (1936)
Masaaki Mori (1937)
Al Clark (1948)
Joe Wallis (1952)
Ivan DeJesus (1953)
Otis Nixon (1959)
Stan Javier (1964)
Jay Powell (1972)

Bill Thomas pitched in the minors from 1924-1952. He set records for games pitched (1,016), wins (383), losses (347), innings (5,995), hits allowed (6,721), and runs allowed (3,098).

Outfielder/first baseman Johnny Washington played in the Negro Leagues for nearly twenty years.

John Kibler was a National League umpire from 1963-1989.

Masaaki Mori was involved with twenty-seven pennant winners in Japan, sixteen as a player, three as a coach, and eight as a manager.

Al Clark was a long-time American League umpire.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 9 →

Friday Music Day

FMD: Best of 2015

81 Comments

Oh yeah, I was supposed to put up a "Best of 2015" post. I forgot.

Appropriately, though, that pretty much sums up my new-in-2015 listening experiences. I just never quite got around to listening to lots of new stuff I intended to, and... that's about it.

I do love me some Nathaniel Rateliff though.

How about you all tell us your bests of, and maybe I can get caught up someday, AMR's rambling comment about how getting caught up isn't possible notwithstanding.

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-four

BALTIMORE 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, July 23.

Batting stars:  Bob Allison was 1-for-2 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk.  Earl Battey was 1-for-3 with a home run, his fourth.  Frank Quilici was 2-for-3.

Pitching star:  Jim Perry pitched 8.1 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Steve Barber pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts.  Russ Snyder was 2-for-4.  Norm Siebern was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run.

The game:  It was scoreless until the fourth, when a single, a single-plus-error, and a wild pitch plated two Orioles runs.  It looked like the lead might hold up, as the Twins had only two hits through seven innings and had fourteen consecutive batters retired after Quilici's single leading off the third.  Things changed in the eighth, however, as Allison and Battey started the inning with back-to-back home runs to tie the score.  In the Oriole ninth, a walk and a single put men on first and third with one out.  Perry was replaced by Bill Pleis, who walked Siebern to fill the bases.  Johnny Klippstein then came in and gave up a game-winning single to Brooks Robinson for the Baltimore victory.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-4.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a double.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-3.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 59-35, still in first place, but their lead over Baltimore dropped to 3.5 games.

Notes:  The Twins first three batters were 0-for-12 and their first four were 1-for-16...Hall's averaged fell to .307...Battey went up to .304...Largely forgotten now, Steve Barber was a fine pitcher for a number of years.  He made two all-star teams and twice finished in the top twenty in MVP voting.  He had a heavy workload when he was young, however, which led to arm problems and ineffectiveness.  He was a rookie in 1960, at age 21, and pitched 423 innings in his first two seasons.  He missed time in 1962, came back to pitch 258.2 innings in 1963, missed time in 1964, pitched 220.2 innings in 1965, and missed time again in 1966.  That was his last good season as a starter, but he hung around for several more years and was an effective relief pitcher for the Angels from 1972-73.  His career numbers aren't bad at all--121-106, 3.36 ERA--but one wonders what it might have been had his innings been managed more effectively.