1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty

MINNESOTA 8, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT

Date:  Thursday, August 19 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 1-for-3 with a home run (his seventeenth) and a walk, driving in four.  Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring twice.  Earl Battey was 1-for-3 with a double and two walks, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching star:  Mudcat Grant pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Julio Navarro struck out four in 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, allowing one hit and one walk.  Don Demeter was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifteenth.  Norm Cash was 1-for-3 with a home run, his seventeenth.

The game:  An RBI single by Tony Oliva and a run-scoring double by Battey put the Twins ahead 2-0 in the first.  In the third the Twins had back-to-back homers, a three-run shot by Mincher followed by a round-tripper by Rich Rollins to go up 6-0.  The Tigers never got closer than five runs after that.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Tony Oliva was 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.

Record:  The win made the Twins 76-44 and increased their lead over second-place Detroit to eight games.

Notes:  Valdespino played left in place of Bob Allison...Demeter replaced Al Kaline, who was removed in the first inning, apparently injured chasing down Battey's run-scoring double.  He would miss the rest of the month...Oliva tied Battey for the team batting lead, both at .313.  Hall fell below .300 at .299.

Happy Birthday–February 3

Lou Criger (1872)
Slim Sallee (1885)
Larry MacPhail (1890)
Joe Stripp (1903)
Buck Ross (1915)
Dick Tracewski (1935)
Joe Coleman (1947)
Bake McBride (1949)
Fred Lynn (1952)
Ronald Williamson (1953)
Fred Toliver (1961)
Joe Klink (1962)
Scott Klingenbeck (1971)
Skip Schumaker (1980)
B. J. Garbe (1981)

Larry MacPhail was the general manager of Cincinnati (1933-36) and Brooklyn (1938-42) and was president and part-owner of the Yankees (1946-47).  His son Lee MacPhail was president of the American League and his grandson Andy MacPhail was the general manager of the Twins (1985-94) and the president of the Cubs (2000-02) and the Orioles (2007-present).

Ronald Williamson was a catcher in the Oakland organization from 1971-1973.  In 1988, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.  He was cleared in 1999 through DNA testing and became the subject of John Grisham’s first non-fiction book, “The Innocent Man.”  Williamson passed away from cirrhosis in 2004.

Outfielder B. J. Garbe was chosen by the Twins with the fifth pick of the 1999 draft.  He was with the Twins through 2004, ended his career in 2006, and never got higher than AA.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 3

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Nineteen

DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 4 IN DETROIT

Date:  Tuesday, August 17.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs.  Earl Battey was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Mel Nelson struck out two in two perfect innings.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and one walk.

Opposition stars:  Willie Horton was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth) and four RBIs.  Hank Aguirre struck out seven in 7.2 innings, allowing three runs on nine hits and a walk.  Al Kaline was 2-for-2 with a home run (his eighteenth) and a walk.

The game:  Don Wert and Kaline each hit a solo homer in the third to put the Tigers up 2-0.  Horton homered in the fourth to make it 3-0.  In the fifth, Kaline had an RBI single and Horton hit a three-run homer to put the Tigers up 7-0.  The Twins made somewhat of a late comeback, scoring three in the eighth and one in the ninth, but did not get the tying run up to bat.

Of note:  Joe Nossek was 0-for-3.  Bob Allison was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run.

Record:  The Twins dropped to 75-44.  Detroit moved into sole possession of second place, seven games back.

Notes:  Battey raised his average to .312.  Oliva went to .310.  Hall was 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter and had his average at an even .300...Andy Kosco played right field, with Oliva moving to center.  Nossek was at third base.  Oliva played forty-two games of center field in his career, ten of them in 1965.

Happy Birthday–February 2

Orval Overall (1881)
George Halas (1895)
Willie Kamm (1900)
Wes Ferrell (1908)
Red Schoendienst (1923)
George Toma (1929)
Don Buford (1937)
Max Alvis (1938)
Dale Murray (1950)
John Tudor (1954)
Pat Tabler (1958)
Buddy Biancalana (1960)
Scott Erickson (1968)
Melvin Mora (1972)
Adam Everett (1977)
Ronny Cedeno (1983)

Logan Darnell (1989)

Better known as a football coach, George Halas was an outfielder and played in 12 games for the Yankees in 1919.

Groundskeeper George Toma is a charter member of the Groundskeepers' Hall of Fame.  It is to be hoped that he will eventually be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as well.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to meat and to Mama SoCal.

 Right-hander Scott Gavin Erickson pitched for the Twins from 1990-1995.  Born in Long Beach, California, he attended high school in Cupertino, California and then went to the University of Arizona.  He was drafted by the Twins in the fourth round in 1989.  Erickson pitched very well in the minors, but did not stay there long, making his major league debut in June of 1990.  He was apparently ready, as he went 8-4, 2.87 in seventeen starts at age 22.  The next year was the best of his career:  he was 20-7, 3.18, made the all-star team, finished second in Cy Young voting, and was seventeenth in MVP balloting.  He also began to experience some arm trouble, a problem that would plague him the rest of his career.  He had another solid year in 1992, but then his effectiveness as a Twin was pretty much over.  Erickson had back-to-back seasons with an ERA over five, leading the league in losses in 1993.  His ERA was again over five in July of 1995 when he was traded to Baltimore for Scott Klingenbeck and a player to be named later (Kimera Bartee).  He struggled at first as an Oriole but then got things back together, going 16-7, 3.69 in 1997.  In 1998, Erickson led the league in starts, complete games, and innings pitched.  He was still decent in 1999, but after that seven years of pitching over 200 innings (plus another when he pitched 196) finally took their toll.  He struggled through an injury-plagued 2000 campaign, going 5-8 in the three months that he was healthy enough to pitch.  Erickson missed all of 2001 due to injury, tried to comeback in 2002 and didn't pitch well, and missed all of 2003 due to injury.  He then struggled through three more years, pitching for the Mets and Rangers in 2004, the Dodgers in 2005, and the Yankees in 2006.  He also was in the minors for part of each of those seasons before finally calling it a career.  He attempted a comeback in 2008, but after pitching in Mexico decided he could not pitch well enough to continue.  As a Twin, Scott Erickson was 61-60, 4.22 in 153 starts and nearly a thousand innings.  He had his ups and downs, but at his best he was a very good pitcher.  He is a member of the University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.  Scott Erickson is currently the owner of a movie production company called HomeTeam Productions.  He was the pitching coach of the Carolina Mudcats (Cleveland, A) in 2012 and was the pitching coach of the AZL Indians in 2013.  He has gotten involved with real estate development with the Diamante Golf Club in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Further, he is the president of MLM, short for majorleaguemechanics.com, which offers professional pitching instruction.  We don't know how successful any of these ventures have been, but he certainly shouldn't lack for things to do.

Shortstop Jeffrey Adam Everett played for Minnesota in 2008.  He was born in Austell, Georgia, and attended high school in Kenesaw, Georgia.  He attended both North Carolina State and South Carolina, and was drafted by Boston with the 12th pick of the 1998 draft.  He was in the Red Sox' chain for two years and did fairly well, but was traded to Houston after the 1999 season as part of a package for Carl Everett.  He spent parts of the next four years at AAA New Orleans, where he established a reputation as an excellent fielder.  He got brief trials with the Astros in 2001 and 2002, but was called up in May of 2003 and quickly become Houston's regular shortstop from that point on.  His best year at bat was 2004, when he hit .273, but his strength was always as a fielder, not as a batter.  Everett was injured in mid-June of 2007 and missed almost all the rest of the season.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with Minnesota.  He suffered through an injury-plagued season, playing only 48 games and batting just .213/.278/.323.  A free agent again after the 2008 campaign, he signed with Detroit for 2009.  He was their mostly-regular shortstop and played about the way he has played for most of his career, batting .228 but providing good defense.  It wasn’t good enough, however, as the Tigers released him in mid-June of 2010.  Out of baseball the rest of the season, he has signed with Cleveland for 2011.  He again made it through June and was released, bringing his playing career to an end.  After his retirement, Adam Everett worked for the Cleveland Indians, first as a special assistant for baseball operations and later as minor league infield coordinator.  In 2014, he moved to the Houston Astros.  He was a roving minor league infield instructor that year and became their bench coach for 2015.

Left-hander Logan Reece Darnell appeared in seven games for the Twins in 2014.  He was born in Nashville, went to high school in Madison, Tennessee, attended the University of Kentucky, and was drafted by Minnesota in the sixth round in 2010.  He was promoted to AA in 2011 despite not having been all that impressive at lower levels.  Not surprisingly, it took him a while to have success there.  He did well there in 2013, though, and was promoted to Rochester by mid-season.  He had a solid 2014 in Rochester and made seven appearances in the big leagues, getting a couple of brief callups during the season and another in September.  He pitched well in three relief appearances but not well at all in four starts.  Perhaps coincidentally, he moved to the bullpen in Rochester in 2015 and had another solid season, but was not called up to the Twins.  Recently, he was taken off the forty-man roster, but cleared waivers and was outrighted to Rochester.  He turns twenty-seven today.  Stardom does not appear to be in his future, but you never know with relievers, especially left-handed ones.  There's still a chance that Logan Darnell may play an important role in a big-league bullpen at some point.