Monthly Archives: October 2018

Keeping Track

1969 Rewind: Game Twenty-seven

DETROIT 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, May 11.

Batting stars:  Rich Reese was 3-for-4 with three doubles.  Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a double.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-5.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Dick Woodson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  Bob Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Al Kaline was 2-for-3 with a home run, his sixth.  Jim Price was 2-for-4 with a home run (his third) and a double.  Don Wert was 1-for-2 with two walks.  Denny McLain pitched  7.2 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on nine hits and no walks and striking out four.

The game:  The Twins opened the game with two singles but never advanced the runners past first and second.  The Tigers put men on first and second with one out in the first but also did not advance them.  A Reese leadoff double in the second was also wasted.  Finally, in the bottom of the second, Price hit a home run that put Detroit up 1-0.  Kaline hit a two-out homer in the third that made it 2-0.

Twins starter Jim Kaat was lifted for pinch-hitter Charlie Manuel in the fifth with a man on first and one out.  It didn't work, as he fouled to the catcher and the Twins did not score.  Carew got a leadoff double in the sixth but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple.  McLain had an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

The Twins finally got on the board in the seventh.  Reese doubled, Leo Cardenas reached on an error, and Manuel singled to load the bases with one out.  They didn't take much advantage of it, though, as Uhlaender hit into a fielder's choice to bring home the only run of the inning.

Oliva led off the eighth with a home run to cut the margin to 3-2.  Reese hit a two-out double, but Pat Dobson came on to strike out Cardenas and end the inning.  Uhlaender got a two-out single in the ninth, but that was it.

Minnesota was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding nine men.  They had ten hits but only two runs.

WP:  McLain (5-3).  LP:  Kaat (2-1).  S:  Dobson (3).

Notes:  Carew raised his average to .394.  Manuel went 1-for-3 and was batting .385.  Cardenas was 1-for-4 and was batting .314.  Nettles was 0-for-2 and was batting .309.

Jim Perry pitched two innings of relief, giving up one run on two hits and two walks and striking out one.  His ERA was 2.70.  Miller lowered his ERA to 2.89.

Manuel obviously did not keep his average anywhere near .385.  He was used primarily as a pinch-hitter and fifth outfielder, which meant he got very sporadic playing time.  As a young player (twenty-five and in his first full season), that probably didn't help him any.  On the other hand, the 164 at-bats he got in 1969 were the most he had in any season.  He always hit well in AAA and also hit well in six seasons in Japan.  Could he have done it in the majors, had he been given regular playing time?  We'll never know.  That's not to criticize Billy Martin for not playing him.  With Oliva, Uhlaender, Bob Allison, Cesar Tovar, and Graig Nettles (moved to the outfield with Harmon Killebrew at third base), there just wasn't a spot for Manuel.  By the time he got to another organization (the Dodgers), he was thirty and his time had passed.

Don Wert drew two walks in this game.  One of them cost the Twins a run, as McLain followed with an RBI single.  McLain was batting .250 after this game--Wert was batting .123.  The other was an intentional walk in the bottom of the eighth, putting men on first and second with two out to bring up Dobson.  I would guess there have not been a lot of intentional walks given to people batting .123.  To give Wert proper credit, he would end the season at .225.  He actually finished tenth in MVP voting in 1965, when he batted .261/.341/.363.  Given the 1960s, those numbers are better than they sound today, although they don't exactly scream MVP.

Record:  The Twins were 18-9, tied for first with Oakland, although ahead by two percentage points (.667 to .665).

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 28

Tommy Tucker (1863)
Frank Smith (1879)
Doc Lavan (1890)
Johnny Neun (1900)
Joe Page (1917)
Bob Veale (1935)
Sammy Stewart (1954)
Bob Melvin (1961)
Lenny Harris (1964)
Larry Casian (1965)
Juan Guzman (1966)
Braden Looper (1974)
Nate McLouth (1981)
Jeremy Bonderman (1983)
Daniel Palka (1991)

This is my twenty-ninth wedding anniversary.  Coincidentally, it's Mrs. A's twenty-ninth wedding anniversary, too.  She has announced that she is picking up my option for another year, for which I am most grateful.

Johnny Neun managed two major league teams, the Yankees in 1946 and Cincinnati from 1947-1948. Each time, he was replaced by someone who was nicknamed “Bucky”.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 28 →

Keeping Track

1969 Rewind: Game Twenty-six

MINNESOTA 6, DETROIT 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Friday, May 9.

Batting stars:  Graig Nettles was 3-for-4 with a double.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-3 with a double.  Rod Carew was 1-for-3 with two walks.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eighth.

Pitching stars:  Dean Chance struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks.  Bob Miller pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jim Northrup was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer, his third.  John Hiller struck out four in 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  The Tigers put men on first and third with one out in the first, but a double play ended the inning.  In the second, the Twins had men on first and third with one out, but Nettles was caught stealing home on a 2-3-2 putout to end the threat.  The Twins broke through in the third when Carew scored from first on a two-out double by Tony Oliva.

The Twins added to their lead in the fourth.  Nettles singled, Cardenas doubled, and Johnny Roseboro was intentionally walked, loading the bases with one out.  Chance singled to center to bring home a run, and with two out Carew drew a walk to force home a run and make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, Chance had retired twelve men in a row before Bill Freehan doubled with two out in the fifth.  He reached third on a wild pitch but went no farther.  The Tigers got back into in the seventh, however.  Norm Cash drew a walk and Northrup hit a two-run homer to cut the Twins' lead to 3-2.  After a walk to Freehan, Miller came in to retire pinch-hitter Gates Brown on a ground out to end the inning.

The Twins got an insurance run in the eighth when Rich Reese singled, was bunted to second, and scored on a Roseboro single.  They put it out of reach when Killebrew hit a two-out two-run homer in the ninth.  Detroit did put men on first and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Ron Perranoski came in to retire Northrup and Freehan to end the game.

WP:  Chance (3-0).  LP:  Earl Wilson (1-4).  S:  Perranoski (6).

Notes:  Carew was batting .393.  Nettles raised his average to .321.  Roseboro was 1-for-3 with a walk and was also at .321.  Cardenas was batting .316.  Oliva was 1-for-4 with a walk and was batting .311.  Killebrew was batting .307.

Chance lowered his ERA to 1.46.  Perranoski lowered his to 0.36.

Chance would make just one more start and two relief appearances in May before going on the disabled list until August 1.  His RBI single was a rare event--not only was it his only RBI of the season, it was his only hit of the season.  He batted .042 for the year, and that was not the worst batting average of his career.  He batted .026 in 1966 and .033 in 1967.  His best was .150 in 1963.  For his career, he batted .066/.113/.069.  He drew thirty walks in his career, which shows that sometimes just the simple act of throwing a strike is more than a pitcher can manage.  He struck out 420 times in his 662 career at-bats.  I assume that, on those occasions when the possibility of using a designated hitter was raised, he was one of its most ardent proponents.

The DH came along too late to help Gates Brown, too.  He was, in theory, and outfielder, but he only had one season in which he saw semi-regular play there (1964).  He was primarily a pinch-hitter, and a good one.  For his career, he batted .251/.356/.421 in exactly five hundred plate appearances as a pinch-hitter.  In 1968, in forty-eight pinch-hitting appearances, he batted ,450/.542/.850, for an astounding OPS of 1.357.  In 1972, in thirty-one pitch-hitting appearances, he batted .346/.452/.692, for an OPS of 1.144.  He was still around in 1973, when the DH came in, but by then he was thirty-four, and as he had never kept himself in great shape, he was able to only bat .236/.328/.366.  If there was a pinch-hitters Hall of Fame, though, he'd be in the first group selected.

Wilson pitched just 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.

This would be the last multi-hit game for Nettles until August 8.  His average went all the way down to .214 over that period.  As his batting declined, so did his playing time as others, primarily Bob Allison, were given time in left field.

Record:  The Twins were 18-8, in first place, leading Oakland by 1.5 games in the American League West.