Monthly Archives: October 2016

Friday Music Day

FMD: Dylan’s Literature

22 Comments

This got some pretty good play yesterday, but I was very pleased to hear about Bob's Nobel. I'm an admitted fan of his music, but he's one of the few artists who I go out of my way to listen to the lyrics.

Provided you view this as a "musician" receiving the Nobel for Literature, which author do you think would (or does) make a great lyricist? If you're feeling ambitious, offer a sample of their work and maybe a hint to the genre/sound you imagine they'd be set to.

In the key of What Is And What Should Never Be - Led Zeppelin:

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one
and reappeared again and they were black in the sun
and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms
with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real

and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake
and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again
and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars...
An Ambuscado by The Blood Meridians

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Eleven

3 Comments

CALIFORNIA 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Saturday, April 18.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-3 with a walk and stolen base.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4.  Steve Lombardozzi was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola got the Twins' second consecutive complete game loss, going eight innings and giving up an unearned run on six hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  John Candelaria pitched 7.1 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.  Donnie Moore struck out two in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Doug DeCinces was 2-for-3 with a run.

The game:  The lone run came in the seventh, when DeCinces singles, Dick Schofield got an infield single, and Butch Wynegar got an infield single-plus-error to bring DeCinces home.  The Twins got a man to third with two out in fifth and to second with one out in both the eighth and the ninth.

Of note:  Dan Gladden was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .320.  Randy Bush pinch-hit and was 0-for-1, dropping his average to .303.  Puckett's average fell to .419.  Greg Gagne was 0-for-3 and was batting .313.

Record:  The Twins were 7-4 and in second place, a game behind California.

Notes:  Tom Brunansky was the DH in this game, with Mark Davidson playing right field and Roy Smalley out of the lineup.  Nieto remained the starting catcher...I assume you know the story of the suicide of Donnie Moore.  His biographies tend to say he was never the same pitcher after the blown save in the deciding game of the 1986 ALCS, but that's really not true.  He pitched pretty well in the first part of 1987, but then ran into injury problems.  He made only three appearances after May 24, struggled through a 1988 season again marred by injury, and was released in late August.  He made a few appearances in AAA for the Royals in 1989, was released in June, and died in July.  On the face of it, it seems like perhaps the Angels did not treat him particularly fairly, but I don't know enough of the circumstances to state that with confidence.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 14

Joe Start (1842)
Paul Radford (1861)
Ivy Olson (1885)
Oscar Charleston (1896)
Harry Brecheen (1914)
Ken Heintzelman (1915)
Tom Cheney (1934)
Tommy Harper (1940)
Al Oliver (1946)
Frank Duffy (1946)
Ed Figueroa (1948)
Kiko Garcia (1953)
Willie Aikens (1954)
Jesus Vega (1955)
Joe Girardi (1964)
Midre Cummings (1971)
Ryan Church (1978)
Boof Bonser (1981)
Carlos Marmol (1982)

Outfielder Oscar Charleston is considered by some to have been the greatest player in Negro League history.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 14 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 13

Charles Somers (1868)
Wild Bill Donovan (1876)
Rube Waddell (1876)
Pickles Dillhoefer (1893)
Frankie Hayes (1914)
Lou Saban (1921)
Charlie Silvera (1924)
Eddie Yost (1926)
Eddie Mathews (1931)
Bob Bailey (1942)
Randy Moffitt (1948)
Dick Pole (1950)
Frank LaCorte (1951)
George Frazier (1954)
Bryan Hickerson (1963)
Chris Gwynn (1964)
Trevor Hoffman (1967)
Damian Miller (1969)

Charles Somers was one of the founders of the American League and was its principal financier.

Better known as a football coach, Lou Saban was the president of the New York Yankees in 1981 and 1982.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 13 →

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Ten

9 Comments

CALIFORNIA 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Friday, April 17.

Batting star:  Randy Bush was 1-for-4 with a triple and a run.  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched a complete game, going eight innings and giving up two runs on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Mike Witt also pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.  Devon White was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third.  Mark McLemore was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk, scoring once.

The game:  Blyleven left a pitch up to Devon White, who homered in the third to put the Angels up 1-0.  Bush led off the fourth with a triple and scored on a Puckett single to tie it 1-1.  McLemore led off the sixth with a ground-rule double and scored on a Wally Joyner single to give California a 2-1 lead.  The Twins did not get a hit after Puckett's fourth-inning single and their only baserunner after the fifth came when Puckett reached on a strikeout/passed ball leading off the ninth.

Of note:  Puckett's average dropped to .425.  Dan Gladden struck out as a pinch-hitter and dropped to .381.  Greg Gagne was 1-for-3 and was batting .345.  Al Newman went 0-for-4 to fall to .320.  Bush fell to .313.

Record:  The Twins were 7-3 and were tied for first with California.

Notes:  Newman was again at second base with Steve Lombardozzi on the bench.  Bush again started in right with Tom Brunansky in left and Gladden on the bench...Devon White had more power than I remembered.  I think of him as a speed guy, but he hit 208 home runs in his career.  1987 was his first full season in the majors and his best from a home run standpoint, as he hit 24 that year.  His highest slugging percentage, and his highest OPS, actually came in his last season, with Milwaukee in 2001, when he hit .277/.343/.459.  He became a free agent after that season--I don't know if nobody wanted him or if he simply decided, at age 39, that he'd had enough.  My recollection of him as a speed guy is not entirely misplaced, as he stole 346 bases.  His highest number there came in 1989, when he stole 44.

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Nine

5 Comments

MINNESOTA 5, OAKLAND 2 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Wednesday, April 15.

Batting stars:  Al Newman was 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI.  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Mike Smithson pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts.  George Frazier struck out two in 1.1 innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Dave Stewart pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts.  Dwayne Murphy was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, driving in one.

The game:  Puckett singled in a run in the third, Newman doubled one home in the fifth, and Puckett had another RBI single in the seventh to put the Twins up 3-0.  Doubles by Carney Lansford and Murphy made it 3-1 after seven, but Tom Nieto delivered a two-out two-run single in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Of note:  Dan Gladden was 1-for-3 with a walk and three runs.  He was batting .400 on the young season.  Newman raised his average to .381.  Puckett raised his average to .444.  Randy Bush went 2-for-3 to raise his average to .321.  Roy Smalley went 0-for-4 but was still batting .310.  Greg Gagne raised his average to .346.  That's six of the nine batters in the starting lineup with averages over .300.

Record:  The Twins were 7-2, in first place, leading California by a game.

Notes:  Bush played right field in place of Tom Brunansky, who delivered a pinch-hit single in the eighth...Newman started at second base in place of Steve Lombardozzi.  Newman started nearly half the team's games in 1987, with 38 starts at shortstop, 32 at second base, 3 at third base, and 2 at DH...Bill Krueger, who would pitch for the Twins in 1992, was in the Oakland bullpen at the start of the 1987 season.  He made nine appearances, but pitched only 5.2 innings.  Four of those appearances and four of the innings were against the Twins.  He allowed three runs on six hits and two walks.  Two of the runs were in this game. He spent most of 1987 and 1988 in the minors before resurfacing with Milwaukee in 1989.  He had some decent seasons from 1989-1993, but was really never all that good, and after 1995 he was done.  He's had a successful life after baseball, though.   He's the Strategic Relationship Officer for Northwest Center, a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities.  He is also a broadcaster for Root Sports Northwest.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 12

1 Comment

Sam Field (1846)
Pop Smith (1856)
Malachi Kittridge (1869)
Pete Hill (1882)
Dixie Davis (1890)
Rick Ferrell (1905)
Joe Cronin (1906)
Al Smith (1907)
Bob Sheppard (1910)
Tony Kubek (1935)
Glenn Beckert (1940)
Herman Hill (1945)
Garth Iorg (1954)
Jim Lewis (1955)
Sid Fernandez (1962)
Jose Valentin (1969)
Derrick White (1969)
Tanyon Sturtze (1970)
Tony Fiore (1971)

B-r.com says "Sam Field played only 12 games in the majors, but managed to do so with three teams in two leagues. He played mostly catcher.  His career may have been doomed by his .712 fielding percentage."  It may also have been doomed by his .146 batting average.

Pete Hill is considered one of the greatest outfielders of the Negro Leagues.  Incomplete statistics list his average as .326.

Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, of course, played for the Washington franchise from 1928-1934, managing the team in the latter two years. He married Clark Griffith’s niece, which did not keep Griffith from trading him to Boston after the 1934 season.

If there was a Hall of Fame for public address announcers, Bob Sheppard would be the first one in.

Jose Valentin is the brother of ex-Twin Javier Valentin.

First baseman/outfielder Derrick White was drafted by Minnesota in the 23rd round in 1989, but did not sign. He played in the major leagues for Montreal, Detroit, the Cubs, and Colorado, playing in three seasons and totaling 116 at-bats.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Dr. Chop.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 12 →