Lou Reed – Xmas In February / Voices Of Freedom

Surprisingly low amount of songs about February (though, saying that, I'm sure one of you asshats will prove me wrong).


Mar 2008

Towards the end, a bunch of people come on stage with various levels of notoriety, but I don't have the time to pick them all out now.

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1987 Rewind: Game Two

MINNESOTA 4, OAKLAND 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  April 8, 1987.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-3 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Frank Viola struck out eleven in six innings, giving up one run on five hits and three walks.  Keith Atherton pitched two shutout innings, giving up a walk and striking out one.  Jeff Reardon pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Carney Lansford was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.  Eric Plunk pitched seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

The game:  The Twins scored two in the first on a walk, a single, two ground outs, and a wild pitch.  They added single runs in the fourth and fifth.  The lone Oakland run came in the sixth.  They did not bring the tying run up to bat.

Of note:  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Record:  The Twins were 2-0, tied for first place with California.

Notes:  I had forgotten that, in fact, Tom Nieto was the starting catcher for about the first month and a half of the season...Dan Gladden was apparently fighting a minor injury at the start of the season.  After DHing in the first game, he did not play in this one, and would be used as a pinch-hitter a couple of times before making his first Twins start in the outfield on April 12.  Brunansky moved over to left in this game, with Randy Bush in right...Reggie Jackson, in his last season, was used as a pinch-hitter and struck out.  He was batting for DH Ron Cey, also in his last season.

Happy Birthday–October 5

Henry Chadwick (1824)
John Reilly (1858)
Claude Ritchey (1873)
Jim Bagby (1889)
Sam West (1904)
Si Johnson (1906)
Andy Kosco (1941)
Dan Fife (1949)
Onix Concepcion (1957)
Randy Bush (1958)
Rey Sanchez (1965)
Brandon Puffer (1975)

Henry Chadwick is often considered the father of baseball.  He wrote the first rule book, created the box score, and was the first to keep track of singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 5

1987 Rewind: Game One

MINNESOTA 5, OAKLAND 4 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, April 7.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 3-for-5 with a home run and a double, scoring twice and driving in two.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring once.  Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven pitched eight innings, giving up four runs on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts.  George Frazier pitched two shutout innings of relief, giving up one hit with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Alfredo Griffin was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer.  Mike Davis was 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, scoring once.  Curt Young struck out ten in seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks.

The game:  Oakland got on the board in the first, but Puckett hit a two-run homer in the third and Gaetti tripled and scored later in the third to make it 3-1.  The Athletics made it 3-2 in the fourth and Griffin's two-run homer in the fifth put Oakland up 4-3.  The Twins tied it in the eight on an RBI groundout by Kent Hrbek.  Lombardozzi opened the tenth with a single and a Puckett double put men on second and third.  Following an intentional walk to GaettiHrbek delivered an RBI single to win the game.

Of note:  Hrbek was 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

Record:  The win made the Twins 1-0, tied for first place with California and Chicago.

Notes:  A good trivia question is:  Who was the Twins' starting left fielder in the first game of the 1987 season?  The answer is not Dan Gladden, who was the DH in that game.  It was not Randy Bush, either.  It was---Mark Davidson, in his only full season in the majors.  He started forty games that season, twelve of them in left field.  He played in 102 games, but had only 150 at-bats.  That would be the most at-bats he would get in a season, as he was a reserve for the Twins from 1986-88 and for Houston from 1987-89...Another lineup oddity on opening night is that Tom Nieto was the catcher, rather than Tim Laudner.  He started only thirty-six games that season.  The two lineup gambles did not work, as Davidson and Nieto combined to go 0-for-6 with a walk...Alfredo Griffin hit only three home runs in 1987 and never had more than four in a season.  Presumably, Blyleven left a pitch up.  And yes, we may very well use that line forty-six times during this series.

Happy Birthday–October 4

Orator Shafer (1851)
Ray Fisher (1887)
Frank Crosetti (1910)
Red Munger (1918)
Rip Repulski (1928)
Jimy Williams (1943)
Tony LaRussa (1944)
Glenn Adams (1947)
Dave Johnson (1948)
John Wathan (1949)
Lary Sorensen (1955)
Charlie Liebrandt (1956)
Joe Boever (1960)
Billy Hatcher (1960)
Dennis Cook (1962)
Chris James (1962)
Bruce Ruffin (1963)
Mark McLemore (1964)
Steve Olin (1965)
Kyle Lohse (1978)
Tony Gwynn (1982)
Jered Weaver (1982)
Kurt Suzuki (1983)

Frank Crosetti was a coach for the Twins from 1970-71.

Outfielder/DH Glenn Charles Adams played for the Twins from 1977-1981. He was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was drafted by the Houston Astros with the fourth pick of the 1968 draft. Adams seemed to just be coming on strong in 1971, hitting .335 in a season split between AA Columbus and AAA Oklahoma City, but he was released by the Astros in January of 1972 and seems to have been out of baseball that year. He signed with the Giants in December. Adams hit very well for AA Amarillo in 1973 and even better for AAA Phoenix in 1974. He was finally called up to the Giants in 1975, and spent the next two seasons as a pinch-hitter/reserve corner outfielder for them. Adams was sold to the Twins in December of 1976, and became a part-time corner outfielder/DH throughout the Gene Mauch era. The Twins generally batted him in the middle of the order and seemed to think of him as a power hitter, despite the fact that he never hit more than 13 homers in a minor league season and his highest number in the majors was eight. He hit for a high average with the Twins, however, twice batting over .300. He declined when Mauch left, batting only .209 in 1981, and became a free agent after the season. Adams signed with Toronto and spent most of 1982 with AAA Syracuse, getting only 66 at-bats with the Blue Jays. That was the end of his playing career. He had a lifetime average in the minors of .311. As a Twin, Glenn Adams hit .281/.325/.399 in 501 games. He set a Twins record for most RBI in a game with eight on June 26, 1977, later tied by Randy Bush. He has been a long-time minor league coach, working for the Twins from 1989-1994. As of 2009, Glenn Adams was the batting coach for the Erie Sea Wolves, but he did not retain that position for 2010. No current information about Glenn Adams was readily available.

“Another” Dave Johnson, right-hander David Charles Johnson, played for the Twins in 1977 and 1978. Born and raised in Abilene, Texas, he was drafted by the Orioles in the fifth round in 1967. The Orioles seemed to have trouble making up their minds whether he should start or relieve, as he did some of both in each of his first five minor league seasons. He spent those five seasons in rookie and A ball, despite the fact that his numbers don’t look all that bad. The Orioles finally decided he was a reliever, and promoted him to AA Asheville in 1972 and to AAA Rochester in 1973. After a solid year and a half in Rochester, Johnson was promoted to Baltimore in July of 1974. Despite pitching well there for a month, he was returned to Rochester in August, coming back to Baltimore in September. He pitched only 8.2 innings for the Orioles in April and early May, being again returned to Rochester and then breaking his wrist in a motorcycle accident. Johnson was back in Rochester for all of 1976 and again pitched very well, but could not get a shot with the big club. The Orioles sold him to Seattle in October of 1976. He started the 1977 with AAA San Jose, but then was purchased by the Twins. He appeared in 30 games for the Twins in 1977, six of them starts. Those were his first starts since 1971. Johnson was fairly mediocre for the Twins that year. He started 1978 with the Twins, but pitched only 12 innings for them before being injured. He finished up his career with four innings in Toledo, and then was released. As a Twin, Dave Johnson appeared in 53 games, seven of them starts. He was 2-7 with an ERA of 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.57 in 84.2 innings. No information about Dave Johnson since that time was readily available.

Right-hander Kyle Matthew Lohse played for the Twins from 2001-2006. He was born in Chico, California, and attended high school in Valley City, California. Lohse was drafted by the Cubs in the 29th round in 1996, and for a 29th round pick, has done very well. He pitched well in the low levels of the minors, but struggled for a few years after that. He was traded to the Twins in May of 1999 along with Jason Ryan for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs. He continued to struggle, hitting bottom in 2000, when he went 3-18 with a 6.04 ERA for AA New Britain. In 2001, however, he suddenly turned things around. In fourteen starts split between AA and AAA, Lohse went 7-3 with a 2.79 ERA, and by late June he found himself in the Twins’ rotation at the age of 22. He did not do well that year, but stayed in the Twins’ rotation until early 2006. He was never a star, but he was generally an average major league pitcher (with the exception of 2004), which is not something to be taken lightly. Lohse got off to a poor start in 2006, was sent to AAA Rochester, and was traded to the Cincinnati at the end of July for Zach Ward. Lohse continued to be a more-or-less average pitcher for Cincinnati, was traded to Philadelphia at the end of July of 2007, became a free agent at the end of the season, and signed with St. Louis for 2008. He a fine year in 2008, going 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA, but went back to normal in 2009. He was injured much of 2010, but also did not pitch well when he could pitch.  In 2011, however, he had his best season, going 13-8, 3.39, 1.17 WHIP in 188.1 innings.  He then topped it in 2012, going 16-3, 2.86, 1.09 WHIP in 211 innings.  A free agent after the season, it took him a long time to sign, but he finally became a Milwaukee Brewer in late March.  He had a pair of fine years for them, too, going 24-19, 3.45, 1.16 WHIP.  In 2015, however, he was not good at all, going 5-13, 5.85, and finally being taken out of the rotation in early August.  A year ago, we said, "It could be that he just had a bad year or that he was battling an injury, but it could also be that he's about done".  It turned out to be the latter.  He signed with Texas in May, pitched poorly in AAA, and made two bad starts for the Rangers in July.  As a Twin, Lohse was 51-57 with a 4.88 ERA, in 172 appearances, 152 of them starts.  He turns thirty-eight today.  We know teams are always looking for pitching, so it's possible someone will take him to spring training.  It appears, though, that it's time for Kyle Lohse to call it a pretty good career and move on to the next phase of his life.

Catcher Kurt Kiyoshi Suzuki has played for the Twins since 2014.  Born and raised in Wailuku, Hawaii, he attended Cal State-Fullerton and was drafted by Oakland in 2004.  He rose quickly through the minors, posting good batting averages and on-base percentages at every stop, though without a lot of power.  He reached the big leagues with Oakland in June of 2007 and never looked back, other than a rehab stint in 2010.  He shared the catching job with Jason Kendall in 2007 but took over as the regular catcher in 2008.  He hit in the .270s in 2008 and 2009, but dwindled to around .240 the next to seasons.  He was hitting only .218 in 2012 when he was traded to Washington in early August.  He hit well the rest of the season, but went back to hitting .222 in 2013 when he was traded back to Oakland in late August.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Minnesota for 2014.  It was thought that he might have been signed to backup Josmil Pinto, but he was the starting catcher from the start of the season and had the best offensive season of his career, hitting over .300 for much of the season before dropping to .288.  He also hit 34 doubles and made his first all-star team.  There was no reason go think he could repeat those numbers and he didn't, batting only .241 with 17 doubles in 2015, although he did drive in fifty runs.  He remained the Twins' starter for most of 2016 and did somewhat better, batting .258 with 24 doubles.  For most of his career he had a reputation as a very good defensive catcher, although that reputation may have dimmed a little the last couple of years.  He turns thirty-three today and is a free agent.  He's not everything you ever wanted in a catcher, but unless the Twins are willing to go with Mitch Garver they're either going to need to re-sign him or look for someone else somewhere.

Your 2017 Twins Are…

Forking off the discussion to here...

Here's my barely half baked attempt at a 2017 lineup.

Listing it out...

Catcher: ???
First: Mauer.
Second: Dozier.
Third: Sano. UZR had him as a plus fielder there this year and last.
Shortstop: Polanco? UZR did not like his fielding at short.
Right: Kepler.
Center: Buxton.
Left: ???

Suzuki's option did not vest so I think that makes him a free agent. That leaves Murphy as the catcher to start the season. Grossman is the obvious one to put in left but, well, gross. Maybe Rosario instead? Scouts never liked Polanco's fielding at short and the metrics agree with them. Escobar would then be the shortstop but he needs to bring back the 2015 version.