MINNESOTA 5, BALTIMORE 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, May 7.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 2-for-2 with a double and two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.  Gary Gaetti was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.  Al Newman was 1-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base, scoring twice.

Pitching stars:  Frank Viola pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  Jeff Reardon struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Cal Ripken was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice.  Alan Wiggins was 3-for-5.  Eddie Murray was 1-for-3 with a walk.

The game:  Gladden had an RBI double and later scored to give the Twins a 2-0 lead in the first inning.  It was 2-1 after six, but the Twins took control in the seventh on a double and three singles.  Kirby Puckett singled in one run and Gaetti singled home two.  The Orioles cut the lead to 5-2 in the eighth.  In the ninth, a bloop single and an infield hit brought the tying run to bat with two down, but Reardon struck out Fred Lynn to end the game.

Of note:  Puckett was 0-for-4 to make his average .333...Tim Laudner was 0-for-3 and was now hitting .048.

Record:  The Twins were 15-12 and in second place, a half game behind California.

Note:  Al Newman played shortstop, replacing Greg Gagne...Gladden played center, with Puckett at DH.  Mark Davidson was in left and Roy Smalley was out of the lineup...In the 1965 series, we were profiling players you may only have read about.  In this series, at least for those of a certain age, it's more along the lines of players you may remember but haven't thought about in a long time.  Alan Wiggins is probably one of those.  He made his debut in 1981 with San Diego as a September call-up.  He was with the Padres for about four months in 1982 and became a regular in 1983.  He was an outfielder that season but moved to second base in 1984.  He had a decent OBP but almost no power.  His calling card was stolen bases, as he stole 66 in 1983 and 70 in 1984.  The seventy stolen bases, along with the fact that San Diego reached the World Series, are presumably why he got a few MVP votes in 1984, because his OPS was .671.  He got suspended in late April of 1985 due to cocaine usage, and when he came back in late July he was a member of the Baltimore Orioles, traded for Roy Lee Jackson and a player to be named later (Rich Caldwell).  He was the Orioles second baseman the rest of 1985.  He was the Orioles regular second baseman in 1986 to the extent they had one, but made only 66 starts there.  One assumes Baltimore knew he wasn't really good enough (OPS of .581 that season), but had no one better.  His playing time declined still further in 1987, as he started only 33 games at second.  Oddly, he started 36 games at DH, despite having an OPS of .566.  Rick Burleson and later Billy Ripken took over at second base, and Wiggins was released late in the season, ending his career.  Sadly, it was not too much later that Wiggins contracted AIDS.  He passed away due to complications from the disease in 1991.