MINNESOTA 3, CALIFORNIA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, October 3.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his twenty-fifth. Don Mincher was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a stolen base (his fourteenth) and a run.
Pitching stars: Jim Kaat struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk. Jim Perry struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk. Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit with one strikeout.
Opposition stars: Ed Kirkpatrick was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Rick Reichardt was 3-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his fourth. Bobby Knoop was 2-for-5 with a run.
The game: Killebrew hit a two-run homer in the first to give the Twins an early 2-0 lead. Vic Power cut the lead to 2-1 with an RBI single in the top of the third, but Mincher answered with an RBI single of his own in the bottom half to make it 3-1. Kirkpatrick doubled in a run in the fifth, but that was it for the scoring. The Angels had the tying run on second in the fifth and seventh and put men on first and third with two out in the eighth, but the Twins held on to win.
Of note: Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-3 with a walk. Sandy Valdespino was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run. Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a run.
Record: The Twins ended the regular season 102-60. Chicago defeated Kansas City to hold onto second place, seven games back. The rest of the standings went: Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, New York, California, Washington, Boston, Kansas City.
Notes: The Twins basically used this as a tune-up game. Kaat, Dave Boswell, Al Worthington, and Perry each pitched two innings and Klippstein pitched one...The regular lineup played except that Valdespino was once again in right rather than Tony Oliva. Oliva did not play in any of the last five Twins regular season games...Oliva was the only twin to hit .300, leading the league in batting at .321 and in hits with 185. Zoilo Versalles led the league in runs (126) and total bases (308), was tied for the league lead in doubles (45) and triples (12), and was second in hits with 182. Mudcat Grant led the league in wins (21), winning percentage (.750), and shutouts (6). Jim Kaat led the league in starts with 42. I wonder when the last time is that a pitcher started that many games in a season. The only one who comes immediately to mind is knuckleballer Wilbur Wood, who started at least that many games each year from 1971-75.
Last player to start at least 40 was Charlie Hough in 1987. The last player to start at least 42 games was Phil Niekro in 1979 with 44 games. He started 42 the year before.
The last Twin to start at least 40 was Bert in 1973.
I knew if I threw that out there somebody would look it up for me, and I knew there was a pretty good chance it'd be sean. Thanks!
Charlie Hough, one of the original Florida Marlins.
Of course it was Bert....
This was a great series, Padre. Makes me wish I was around in '65. Barring time travel, this seems to be the next best option. Thanks.
Now on to the WS.
Thanks. Glad you've enjoyed it.
Was Oliva all just to rest or was there any "protecting the batting title" going on?
He won by nine points over Carl Yastrzemski (.321 to .312) so I don't think he was protecting the batting title. I don't know if he might have had a minor injury or something.
I echo that this was a great series Padre. Funny thing for me reading these, is that several times I dealt with false memory. I was not alive in 1965, but between watching some of the featured players in 74-75, collecting 60's baseball cards as a kid, and reading so much about this team over the years... wow... getting old. I guess at least I recognize it's false memory.
I was alive, but I was six, so I guess I can be excused for how much I either didn't remember or remembered wrongly. I thought Bernie Allen was still the regular second baseman in 1965, but in fact he spent most of the year in AAA Denver. They never really did settle on a second baseman--Jerry Kindall got most of the starts, but Frank Quilici played a fair amount and even Rich Rollins played there some. I was surprised at how much Sandy Valdespino played. I had no memory at all of Harmon Killebrew missing almost all of August and most of September. I also didn't remember Camilo Pascual missing about a month and a half.
The most fun part, though, was just remembering all these players from when I was a kid, and looking them up to see that a lot of them actually were really good. That includes the players on the other teams. Guys like Frank Howard, Al Kaline, and Sam McDowell were an important part of my childhood fandom, and it was a lot of fun to think about them again.
I was alive, I was 4, in Panama, so I guess I can be excused for stuff. Great writeup, Pads.
I was four, but those players I don't remember (gone by the 70s) I still remember my mom's parents talking about. Oh, and hearing it all in Herb Carneal's voice.
Each year Topps Heritage set features current players on card designs from 50 years ago, and they have several (still living) players from back then as well on autographed cards. I try especially to find these if the price is right, because it's the only real shot at getting their certified autograph. This year's 1966 design includes AU card of Dwight Siebler.