MINNESOTA 10, ST. LOUIS 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, October 17.
Batting stars: Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a grand slam, a double, and a stolen base, driving in five. Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk, scoring three times. Kent Hrbek was 1-for-2 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in two.
Pitching stars: Frank Viola pitched eight innings, giving up one run on five hits and no walks with five strikeouts. Keith Atherton pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Jim Lindeman was 2-for-4 with a double and a run. Willie McGee was 2-for-3.
The game: The Cardinals got on the board in the second inning, as Lindeman led off with a double, went to third on a fly ball and scored on Tony Pena's ground out. In the fourth, however, the Twins took control. Singles by Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, and Don Baylor loaded the bases with none out and Hrbek hit the fourth consecutive single to drive in two and put the Twins ahead. Lombardozzi walked to again load the bases, which got St. Louis starter Joe Magrane a trip to the showers. Bob Forsch came in and immediately gave up an RBI single to Tim Laudner and a grand slam to Gladden. The slam killed the rally, but no one cared as the Twins had a 7-1 lead. Lombardozzi hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 9-1. The Twins scored their final run in the seventh when Lombardozzi singled and Gladden doubled him home.
Notes: Gladden and Lombardozzi were probably the least likely Twins to hit home runs, as each hit only eight during the season...Magrane was in his rookie season in 1987 and was just twenty-two years old. He had done well for the Cardinals, going 9-7, 3.54, 1.27 WHIP in 26 starts (170.1 innings). There was controversy about going with a pitcher that young in Game 1, but he had the lowest ERA and the lowest WHIP of any of the St. Louis starters. Danny Cox and John Tudor were unavailable due to their use in the NLCS, so the only other real choices were Greg Mathews and Forsch, who came on in relief in this game...Lindeman played first base and batted fourth for St. Louis. I have zero memory of him. He was a part-time player for the Cardinals from 1986-89 and was in the majors for at least parts of seasons through 1994, playing for Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston, and the Mets. He played corner outfield as well as first base. 1987 was the year he saw his most major league playing time, appearing in 75 games and getting 207 at-bats. He batted .208/.253/.386 that season. For his career, he appeared in 351 games, got 676 at-bats, and batted .244/.289/.391. His best season was 1991, when he batted .337/.413/.389 in 95 at-bats for Philadelphia. The Cardinals' regular first baseman in 1987 was Jack Clark, who was unavailable in the World Series due to an ankle injury.
Record: The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Here's a little New York Times piece on Lindeman from 18 October 1987 for you, Chaps.
And here's an appreciation of Jack Clark's "under-appreciated" 1987 season. As with the timing of home field advantage in the ALCS and World Series, the Twins were fortunate that Clark was unable to play in the World Series.
and Pendleton was limited as well, though that's like one-fifth of the problem as missing Clark, who had a beast of a season. That walk rate is insane!
This is the first baseball game of my life I have any memory of. I believe I watched it alone.
It is among the first games (if not the first) that I remember too. I was at my grandparent's, and I have a very vivid memory of walking through the dining room to the kitchen to tell everyone in there about the grand slam. I remember the impression the words made on me. "Grand slam." It seemed like a phrase out of some sort of whimsical magical world. What a sport, with these "slams" that are "grand"!
Thanks. I find it odd that I have no memory whatsoever of him. But then, for some reason, I have a lot more memories of the 1987 ALCS than I have of the World Series. Part of that may be that I had some sort of virus during the World Series that was giving me severe headaches. I know I watched the games, but I don't remember that much about them.
There's no condensed or full game video available on the tubes, but I did find this home video from the upper deck cheapies in straight-away center:
"Bases loaded, fourth inning...I think it's [unintelligble] that's up...HWWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
I don't think I ever sat up there, but that evoked a pretty intense wave of Dome nostalgia all the same.
At least these games are available for purchase.
Even with the labor involved in preparing them for release on DVD (or streaming), I really don't understand why MLB doesn't offer LCS boxed sets.
I wonder how much of it is copyright issues. Does MLB have the right to resell the games on DVD or by streaming? I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't.
Here are a couple other video goodies.
ABC's intro to Game One:
https://youtu.be/6Gf1rs2JU4w
KSTP's 10pm-ish news/post-game coverage after Game One, featuring interviews with Hrbie, Bruno, Mike Smithson, and "Dr. Crank":
https://youtu.be/sPbVMDx7BD0
I'm not sure why I didn't see this yesterday:
I had just started dating Mrs. Runner in August, so she learned early on to put up with the Twins during baseball season. She was a trooper during this postseason run.
Also, the first two places I've lived since moving out of Minnesota were LA and StL, so my running joke is our next move will end up being Atlanta, if the Twins WS opponent trend continues. God, I hope not.
I started dating Mrs. A in August of 1987, so there's a coincidence for you. She knew nothing about baseball then, and doesn't know (or care) much about it now, but she did watch much of the Twins post-season with me and rooted for them for my sake.
I got engaged to the Mrs in June of 1987 and watched the World Series in the living room of my future in-laws. My FiL was an ardent Cardinals fan. But he seemed to put up with me. 🙂
I started dating my wife in July of 2010, so she was sort of with me through their last playoff "run." Since then I haven't watched a ton of baseball since the Twins haven't been giving me that good of an excuse to. So I have no idea what things will be like once they're good again. We might need another TV.
The Milkmaid doesn't care about baseball, but likes going to games with me and will hang out in the room doing other things when I watch. She does get the game and the players, and she did have a warranted obsession with Johan Santana's pretty eyes, but for the most part she finishes other projects as I bemoan the state of the team.
Philosofette loves baseball and can speak (and/or joke) knowledgeably about the Twins franchise and their players.
My wife is one of the "best fans in baseball," except without the racism.
Mrs. Hayes enjoys baseball well enough but doesn't follow it. She's a native Chicagolander, so I was pretty relieved when I confirmed that she was a nominal Cubs fan and had no affection for the Pale Hosers. Interestingly, the Cubs winning the World Series probably will mean less to her than when the Twins next win it. She's surprisingly familiar with the mid-Eighties to mid-Nineties Twins; this caught me off guard until I realized that's because she's a huge MST3K fan.
Unfortunately, her all-time favorite player was a Southsider for a time. Fortunately, that player is JI
JIM THOME.
Had she grown up a Twins fan, my guess is Hrbek would've been her favorite.
My wife grew up with her grandmother, who watched nearly every Twins game. It never stuck. She'll go to the occasional game with me and knows some of the very basics. But zero interest beyond the fact that I'm happy when they win.