Monthly Archives: December 2017

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 9

Joe Kelley (1871)
Cy Seymour (1872)
Adam Comorosky (1905)
Billy Klaus (1928)
Joe DeMaestri (1928)
Darold Knowles (1941)
Jim Merritt (1943)
Del Unser (1944)
Jerry Cram (1947)
Doc Medich (1948)
Steve Christmas (1957)
Ed Romero (1957)
Juan Samuel (1960)
Tony Tarasco (1970)
Todd Van Poppel (1971)
Tony Batista (1973)
Adam Wilk (1987)

Outfielder Del Unser was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 1965, but did not sign. Catcher Steve Christmas was drafted by Minnesota in the thirty-third round in 1975, but did not sign.

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Friday Music Day

FMD: Perfect Movie/TV Song

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Sometimes there are songs that are played in TV episodes or movies that just... hit right. I'm thinking primarily of songs that already exist out in the world, and then get brought into the show/film. When they work right they just deepen the whole experience. The one that pops immediately to my mind is Moby's "When It's Cold I'd Like To Die" used in Stranger Things. I know there have been others throughout my life. I'm curious what has worked brilliantly in others' minds? Any times you've said "oh, they should have used this song instead!" or anything like that?

Plus, drop your lists!

Happy Friday!

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-five

ATLANTA 11, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 11.

Batting stars:  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-2 with a walk.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-3 with a double.  Those were the only two Twins hits.

Pitching stars:  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Matt Kinney pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Tom Glavine pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and one walk and striking out two.  Rafael Furcal was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Vinny Castilla was 2-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.

The game:  The Braves scored once in the third on a Chipper Jones sacrifice fly and once in the fourth on a home run by Keith Lockhart.  They blew the game open in the fifth, scoring seven times.  Andruw Jones hit a two-run homer and Castilla and Matt Franco also homered.  Javy Lopez added a two-run homer in the sixth.  The biggest Twins threat came in the second, when LeCroy led off with a double and Kielty followed with a walk.  A fly out and a double play ended the threat.

WP:  Glavine (11-2).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (6-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy played first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz...Kielty played center field in place of Torii Hunter...Brian Buchanan was the DH in place of David Ortiz...Tom Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to make his average .313...LeCroy's average was now .338.  He couldn't be expected to keep that up, and he sure didn't.  Over the last three months of the season he batted .163...Kielty's average was now .339...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .315...Luis Rivas was 0-for-3 and was batting .306...Hawkins now had an ERA of 1.37...Tom Glavine was nearly as consistent as Greg Maddux.  He had double-digit wins in every season from 1989-2002, had nine in 2003, and then was back in double digits from 2004-2007.  He won twenty or more games five times and fourteen or more games thirteen times.  His ERA was under four (often well under) every season from 1991-1998, and after posting a 4.12 mark in 1999 he was back under four from 2000-2002.  He made twenty-nine or more starts in every year from 1998-2007 except for the strike year of 1994, when he made twenty-five.  He pitched 180 or more innings a season over that same span, with the strike year of 1994 again being the lone exception (165.1).  He won the Cy Young Award twice and was in the top three four other times.  It has to be a wonderful feeling for a manager to know he has two top-notch starters in his rotation who never get hurt and almost always give you six or seven innings.

Record:  The Twins were 37-28, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 8

Jack Rowe (1856)
Jimmy Austin (1879)
Sam Zoldak (1918)
Jim Pagliaroni (1937)
Brant Alyea (1940)
Ed Brinkman (1941)
Ken Roy (1941)
Masahiro Doi (1943)
Alan Foster (1946)
Jeff Grotewold (1965)
Mike Mussina (1968)
Garvin Alston (1971)
Reed Johnson (1976)
Vernon Wells (1978)

Ken Roy was a minor league umpire for two years before becoming a Catholic priest.  He said that his umpiring career helped him in ministry because it gave him more patience with people and made him a better listener.

Masahiro Doi was a fifteen-time all-star in the Japanese Pacific League, playing from 1962-1981.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to AMR’s son, HPR.

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History, Miscellaneous, WGOM

Mount Rushmore of MN Sports

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Alright, let's do this. Nibs dropped Lindsey Whalen as a suggestion for the MN Sports Mount Rushmore, and I find myself curious what others would come up with.

The rules are simple: you get 4 people (no less, no more). You can only use athletes who played for Minnesota teams (we'll keep out the Sid Hartmans and Bud Grants), but can include non-athletic factors in your decision (Kent Hrbek now advertises for a local company, Alan Page was a MN Supreme Court Justice!). This is not limited to athletes from Minnesota, though I think most people would agree that being from MN probably helps.

I'm gonna kick it off:

Whalen, KG, Dave Winfield, Mauer

(Wow, this was way tougher than I expected.)

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Sixty-Four

MINNESOTA 6, ATLANTA 5 IN MINNESOTA (15 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, June 10.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-6.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-5.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Mike Jackson pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.  J. C. Romero pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Tony Fiore struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.

Opposition stars:  Vinny Castilla was 4-for-6.  Chipper Jones was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer (his seventh), a double, and two walks.  Kevin Gryboski struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up only a walk.

The game:  The Twins jumped on Atlanta starter Greg Maddux early, scoring five first-innings runs.  They opened the inning with five consecutive singles.  Then came a sacrifice fly, a stolen base-plus-error, then another single.  Maddux then settled down, giving up just three singles and a walk over the next six innings.  Atlanta came back with three in the fifth on a double, three singles, and a ground out.  They tied it in the sixth on Jones' two-run homer.  There was then no more scoring, and really not a lot of big threats, until the fifteenth.  The first two Twins were retired.  Tom Prince. who came into the game in the thirteenth inning after Brian Buchanan pinch-ran for Pierzynski, singled to left.  Cristian Guzman then hit a long double to deep right and Prince was able to score from first with the winning run.

WP:  Fiore (4-1).  LP:  Kerry Ligtenberg (0-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was 1-for-6, dropping his average to .318...LeCroy, who had been out for nearly a month, raised his average to .338...Torii Hunter was 1-for-6 and was batting .304...Dustan Mohr was 1-for-6 and was batting .321...Pierzynski raised his average to .332...Luis Rivas was 0-for-4 and was batting .333...The Twins had fourteen hits, thirteen of them singles.  Their only extra-base hit was Guzman's double to end the game...Eric Milton pitched seven innings, giving up five runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two...Jackson dropped his ERA to 0.99...Romero's ERA fell to 0.73...Maddux was thirty-six in 2002, but he showed no signs of losing anything.  He went 16-6, 2.62, 1.20 WHIP.  You obviously don't need me to tell you the Greg Maddux was a great pitcher, but what strikes me when I look at his record is how long he was a great pitcher, and how incredibly consistent he was.  He had fifteen or more wins every year from 1993-2004 and double digit wins for three years after that.  His ERA was under 3.60 (often well under) from 1993-2002.  He pitched over 190 innings every year from 1993-2008.  His WHIP was less than 1.35 (often well under) in every year of that span.  He only once walked more than three batters per nine innings over that span, and that was when he walked 3.1 in 1994.  He won four Cy Young awards and finished in the top five five other times.  He got the benefit of a wide strike zone sometimes, and that was frustrating, but he was still an incredible pitcher for a very long time.

Record:  The Twins were 37-27, in first place, six games ahead of Chicago.