Monthly Archives: February 2017

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-nine

MINNESOTA 8, CHICAGO 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, September 7.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-2 with a home run (his twenty-seventh), a double, and two walks, scoring twice and driving in two.  Gary Gaetti was 3-for-5 with two stolen bases (his eighth and ninth), scoring twice and driving in two.  Tom Nieto was 1-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Jeff Bittiger pitched seven innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks with five strikeouts.  Juan Berenguer pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Harold Baines was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighteenth) and a walk.  Ray Searage pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

The game:  In the first inning, Kirby Puckett hit a ground ball back to White Sox starter Dave LaPoint.  LaPoint was apparently injured on the play, coming out of the game after facing only three batters.  His replacement, Scott Nielsen, gave up an RBI single to Gaetti to put the Twins up 1-0.  RBI singles by Gaetti and Don Baylor made it 3-0 in the third and a two-run homer by Brunansky made it 5-0 after five.  Baines homered with one out in the sixth, but the Twins scored three runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Of note:  Gladden remained out of the lineup.  Greg Gagne replaced him in the leadoff spot and Mark Davidson, batting second, replaced him in left field...Puckett was 0-for-4 with a walk, dropping his average to .328...This was the Twins debut for Jeff Bittiger.  He had appeared in three games in 1986 for Philadelphia, signed as a free agent with the Twins for 1987, and was in AAA Portland all year, where he went 12-10, 3.40, 1.27 WHIP.  Given how weak the back end of the Twins' rotation was, it seems odd that we didn't see Bittiger other than as a September call-up.  It seems even odder, given how well he did, that this was his only start for the Twins.  He appeared in only two more games, both in relief, and pitched only 1.1 more innings.  That was his entire Twins' career:  he was released after the season, spending parts of the next two seasons for the White Sox.  He was twenty-five years old in 1987.  I'm not suggesting Bittiger would've been a candidate for the Cy Young Award or even Rookie of the Year.  He might not have been any good at all.  I am suggesting, though, that given the list below, it might have behooved the Twins to give him a chance.  It's hard to see how he'd have done much worse.

1987 stats as starter:

Mike Smithson, 20 starts, 4-7, 6.15, 1.52 WHIP
Joe Niekro, 18 starts, 4-9, 6.26, 1.66 WHIP
Mark Portugal, 7 starts, 1-2, 8.60, 2.01 WHIP
Steve Carlton, 7 starts, 1-5, 6.70, 1.79 WHIP

Record:  The Twins were 74-65, in first place by three games over Oakland, who defeated Texas 2-1.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 19

John Morrill (1855)
Dick Siebert (1912)
Hub Kittle (1917)
Russ Nixon (1935)
Dave Niehaus (1935)
Jackie Moore (1939)
Walt Jocketty (1951)
Dave Stewart (1957)
Keith Atherton (1959)
Alvaro Espinoza (1962)
Miguel Batista (1971)
Juan Diaz (1974)

Hub Kittle’s baseball career spanned 68 years.  In 1980, he became the oldest player to appear in organized baseball, pitching a perfect inning for AAA Springfield on August 27 at age 63½.

Jackie Moore is a long-time major league coach and minor league manager.  He also was the manager of the Oakland Athletics from 1984-86,

Walt Jocketty was the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1995-2007 and was the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds from 2008-2015, when he became president of baseball operations.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 19 →

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-eight

MILWAUKEE 6, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, September 6.

Batting stars:  None.  The Twins had two hits in the game, both singles.

Pitching stars:  Steve Carlton pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on three hits and six walks with six strikeouts.  Roy Smith retired all four batters he faced, striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Teddy Higuera pitched a complete-game shutout, giving up two hits and three walks while striking out seven.  Rob Deer was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-seventh) and a walk, driving in four.  Glenn Braggs was 2-for-5 with a home run (his twelfth), scoring three times.

The game:  This was another instance of Carlton being matched against another team's ace.  Carlton held up his end of the bargain, but even thirty years ago the Twins could not win games when they scored zero runs.  Deer singled home a run in the first inning to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.  There was no more scoring until the sixth, when Braggs led off with a home run.  George Frazier came in to pitch the eighth and it did not go well.  He retired Robin Yount, but two singles and Deer's three-run homer followed.  Bill Schroeder homered later in the inning to make it 6-0.  The Twins' biggest threat came in the third, when an error and a single put men on first and third with none out.  Kirby Puckett then lined into a double play and Gary Gaetti fouled out to end the inning.

Of note:  Al Newman again replaced Greg Gagne at shortstop and batted leadoff.  Gagne, however, replaced Newman in the top of the fourth, leading one to believe that Newman must have suffered a minor injury...Dan Gladden was again out of the lineup, with Mark Davidson playing left and batting second.  Gladden was used as a pinch-hitter in the eighth...Puckett was 1-for-4, dropping his average to .330.

Record:  The Twins were 73-65, in first place by three games over Oakland, which lost to Baltimore 7-6.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 18

Ray Ryan (1883)
George Mogridge (1889)
Sherry Smith (1891)
Jake Kline (1895)
Huck Betts (1897)
Joe Gordon (1915)
Herm Wehmeier (1927)
Frank House (1930)
Manny Mota (1938)
Dal Maxvill (1939)
Bob Miller (1939)
Jerry Morales (1949)
John Mayberry (1949)
Bruce Kison (1950)
Marc Hill (1952)
Rafael Ramirez (1958)
Kevin Tapani (1964)
John Valentin (1967)
Shawn Estes (1973)
Jamey Carroll (1974)
Chad Moeller (1975)
Alex Rios (1981)

Ray Ryan was involved in minor league baseball for six decades.  He had one baseball card, a part of the T206 tobacco series.  This is the series that produced the famous Honus Wagner card.

Jake Kline was the baseball coach at Notre Dame from 1934-1975.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 18 →

Friday Music Day

FMD: Let’s talk country

172 Comments

My mother-in-law recently bought a George Strait greatest hits CD. It's... kind of fantastic (despite missing a few obvious selections). Wit the exception of, say Sturgill, we don't talk country music 'round these parts too often. I listened to a fair amount of country in high school, mostly while working in the summers, and that era of Country still hits a sweet spot for me sometimes. I've also listened to a good amount of older outlaw country over the past, say, decade. I still loathe new country, for the most part, and the few good songs aren't worth wading through the rest, imo. For me, country music's decline started with Lonestar. Anyway... What thoughts have you on Country? Not just what you like/tolerate/hate, but... More. What stories, reasons, feelings... Etc.

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-seven

4 Comments

MINNESOTA 2, MILWAUKEE 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, September 5.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-eighth) and a stolen base (his eleventh).  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk.  Al Newman was 1-for-3 with a walk, a run, and a stolen base (his fifteenth).

Pitching stars:  Mike Smithson pitched eight innings, giving up one run on three hits and five walks with three strikeouts.  Keith Atherton pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Juan Nieves struck out seven in 7.2 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and three walks.  Ernie Riles was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Greg Brock was 0-for-2 with two walks, a run, and a stolen base (his fifth).

The game:  It was scoreless until the seventh, when Brock walked, stole second, and scored on a Riles single.  The Twins got the run back in the eighth when Newman singled and scored on Puckett's triple.  They won it in the bottom of the ninth when Brunansky led off the inning with a walkoff home run.

Of note:  This was the fourth straight Twins win, and the third straight game they won by a score of 2-1...Dan Gladden remained out of the lineup, with Mark Davidson in left field...Newman played second, replacing Steve Lombardozzi, and batted leadoff.  With Gladden out, Tom Kelly's choices for leadoff man were mostly Newman or Randy Bush.  While those may seem odd choices, the fact is the Twins didn't really have anyone who looked like a good leadoff batter, or even a good number two batter...Puckett raised his average to .331...Don Baylor was the DH, going 1-for-3.,,Smithson had spent the month of August in AAA Portland, coming back as a September call-up.  This was his first appearance since coming back.

Record:  The Twins were 73-64, in first place by three games over Oakland, which defeated Baltimore 7-2.

Parentgood

Father Knows Best: Boredom

32 Comments

Things have been rough lately, mostly because at least two people at any given time have been sick in this household--sometimes all four of us--since at least Thanksgiving. It's exhausting. But at least it's fairly simple to figure out what you need to do to get through each day. I think about when Henry was a baby. I was tired constantly; some days I could barely keep my eyes open. But while I was by no means confident in what I was doing, I knew pretty much every decision was around eating, pooping, or sleeping. Not that complex.

I'm not nearly as exhausted these days, which I won't complain about. But I'm more frequently being faced with probably the hardest part about being a parent so far, which is boredom. That sounds harsh, but I don't know how else to explain that agonizing feeling when Henry wants to read the same book 12 times in a row, or play the same game (in the wrong way, of course) for an hour straight (and I only barely tolerated it the first time because he was being adorable), or the same routine day after day after day because with his autism it takes tremendous effort to talk him into deviating from original plans. I've learned that sometimes the only way to get him to do something I want to do is to just do it without asking, which works okay if we're going to a new park, but usually not well when it's playing with a new toy.

I know that in six or seven years he might barely ever want to play with me at all. He certainly won't want to hang on my leg or beg me to pay attention to him. Nor will he say, "I love you Daddy," genuinely but with an ulterior motive of getting a cookie. So I want to enjoy every second. But too many nights I just can't wait until he goes to bed so I can do something interesting. And I feel horrible about it.

So, what advice say you guys? How do you keep focused and interested in toddler time night after night after night?