Holiday's over, time to go back to work. I'll have to get me another one of those jobs, I reckon.
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Loading... Hugh Duffy (1866)
Fred Tenney (1871)
Bob Johnson (1905)
Lefty Gomez (1908)
Howard Easterling (1911)
Bob Elliott (1916)
Eddie Miller (1916)
Jeff Torborg (1941)
Larry Gura (1947)
Richie Hebner (1947)
Jorge Orta (1950)
Jay Howell (1955)
Bob Walk (1956)
Mike Moore (1959)
Harold Reynolds (1960)
Chuck Finley (1962)
Brian Schneider (1976)
Matt Garza (1983)
Infielder Howard Easterling was a star in the Negro Leagues in the 1930s and 1940s.
We'll find out this afternoon if InSight survived its "Seven Minutes of Terror". Here's a handy primer on the mission.
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(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Loading... Ever run into someone in a weird place you haven’t seen in forever so you just stand there staring at each other stupidly for a few moments? That’s always fun.
Date: Friday, June 13.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 2-for-4. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fifteenth.
Pitching star: Jerry Crider pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.
Opposition stars: Ken Suarez was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Sam McDowell pitched a complete game, giving up four runs (all unearned) on seven hits and four walks and striking out seven. He also was 2-for-3 with a double.
The game: Rod Carew got an infield hit in the first and Harmon Killebrew was hit by a pitch, putting men on first and third with none out, but nothing came of it. Bob Allison hit a leadoff double in the fourth, but it was again fruitless.
The Twins finally got on the board in the fifth, but missed a chance for more. Ted Uhlaender and Jim Perry opened the inning with walks. Cesar Tovar hit into a force out but then stole second, putting men on second and third with one down. Carew walked, bringing up Killebrew with the bases full. A passed ball brought home a run, but Killebrew hit a short fly ball that did not produce anything. Allison was intentionally walked and Oliva flied out, so all the Twins got was one run.
It cost them, as the Indians broke through for four runs in the sixth. Suarez led off the inning with a home run to tie the score. With one out, Russ Snyder singled and Larry Brown and Ken Harrelson walked, loading the bases. Tony Horton then delivered a two-run single and Jose Cardenal hit a sacrifice fly, putting Cleveland up 4-1.
The Indians loaded the bases in the seventh, but did not score. They added two in the ninth, however. They opened the inning with singles by ex-Twin Zoilo Versalles, Vern Fuller, and Suarez, plating one run. A bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one down and Brown hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-1.
The Twins made the final score look better in the ninth. Rick Renick singled with one out and Carew reached on an error with two out. Killebrew followed with a three-run homer to cut the margin to 6-4. That was as good as it got, though, as Allison struck out to end the game.
WP: McDowell (7-6). LP: Perry (4-3). S: None.
Notes: Tovar played third base in this game and was in the leadoff spot. Allison was in left and batted fourth. George Mitterwald was the catcher in place of Johnny Roseboro.
Carew was 1-for-4 with a walk and was batting .390. Oliva raised his average to .304.
Al Worthington pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up no runs and one hit. He was unscored upon in 2.2 innings on the season. Bob Miller gave up two runs on five hits and a walk in two innings, raising his ERA to 2.81. Crider stretched the scoreless streak at the beginning of his career to 6.1 innings.
The home run by Suarez was his only homer of the season and one of only five he hit in his career. A career backup catcher, he played in parts of seven seasons. He was with Kansas City for 1966-1967, sticking in the majors for most of both seasons but appearing in a total of just seventy-four games. He was left unprotected and was chosen by Cleveland in the rule 5 draft, where he stayed from 1968-1971. He had started 1969 in the minors, and this was only his second major league game of the season. He batted .294 for the season with an OPS of .788, although it was just 85 at-bats. He spent all of 1970 in AAA, but came back to the majors in 1971. He was then traded to Texas as part of an eight-player swap (sadly, you never see eight-player swaps any more). He was with the Rangers from 1972-1973. He was the semi-regular catcher for Texas in 1973, starting eighty-eight games (the other catchers were Dick Billings and Rick Stelmaszek). He batted .248/.334/.299. He felt he deserved a raise from his $20,000 salary, but the Rangers responded to that request by trading him back to Cleveland for ex-Twin Leo Cardenas. He filed a grievance with the Players Association and refused to play for the Indians. He was still traded to California in September with player to be named later and cash for Frank Robinson. Robinson was at the end of his career and Suarez did not play again, but it would still be pretty cool to be able to say you were traded for Frank Robinson. At last report, Ken Suarez was living in Fort Worth. His career numbers were .227/.330/.297 in 661 at-bats.
Record: The Twins were 30-25, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland. They were now 11-17 since May 11.
Bert Cunningham (1865)
Jakie May (1895)
Charles Baron (1913)
Joe DiMaggio (1914)
Mike Ryan (1941)
Bucky Dent (1951)
Dave Baker (1956)
Chico Walker (1958)
Mark Whiten (1966)
Octavio Dotel (1973)
Nick Swisher (1980)
First baseman Charles Baron played in the minors from 1931-1951, batting .306 with 2,319 hits. He was a player-manager for the last five of those seasons.
Date: Wednesday, June 11.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 3-for-5 with a double. Leo Cardenas was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching star: Al Worthington pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Joe Lahoud was 3-for-5 with three home runs and four RBIs. Dick Schofield was 3-for-5 with three doubles and a walk, scoring twice. George Scott was 3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs. Reggie Smith was 3-for-4 with a stolen base (his fourth), scoring twice and driving in two. Sonny Siebert struck out five in five shutout innings of relief, giving up two hits.
The game: The Red Sox opened the scoring in the second, as Rico Petrocelli walked and Lahoud hit a two-run homer. The Twins got a two-out double from Graig Nettles in the bottom of the second, but Roseboro was intentionally walked and Dave Boswell struck out. In the third, two walks and an infield single loaded the bases for Boston with one out, but Petrocelli hit a short fly to center and Lahoud struck out to end the inning.
The Red Sox appeared to break it open in the fourth. With men on first and second and one out Schofield hit an RBI double, Dalton Jones had a two-run single, a two-out passed ball scored a fourth run, and later Petrocelli had an RBI single to make it 7-0. The Twins got back into it with four in the bottom of the fourth. With two out and a man on third, the Twins got four consecutive singles (Cardenas, Roseboro, Rick Renick, and Ted Uhlaender) and a double from Carew to cut the margin to 7-4.
Lahoud hit his second home run in the fifth to make the score 8-4. The Twins got the run back in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly.
That was as good as it would get for the Twins. Smith had an RBi single and Scott drove in two with a single in the sixth to give Boston an 11-5 lead. Smith hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Lahoud hit his third home run in the eighth.
WP: Siebert (5-6). LP: Boswell (7-7). S: None.
Notes: Reese was again in left, with Nettles at third base.
Carew raised his average to .393. Roseboro raised his average to .303. Tony Oliva was 0-for-5 to make his average .300.
Boswell lasted just 3.1 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits and three walks and striking out two. In his prior two starts, he had thrown seven shutout innings and eight shutout innings. The Twins used seven pitchers, only two of whom went unscored upon. In addition to Worthington, Jerry Crider pitched one-third of an inning without giving up a run. He actually gave up a hit to the only man he faced, but Smith was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on Petrocelli's single. Crider still had not given up a run in six major league appearances (5.1 innings).
Outfielder Joe Lahoud was in his first full major league season. He would hit only nine home runs in 1969, one-third of them in this game. He was used as a reserve, playing in 101 games but getting just 218 at-bats. He played in parts of eleven seasons, never getting more than 325 at-bats in a season. He batted over .250 just once, when he hit .271 for California in 1974. That was also the only season in which he posted an OPS of over .800, putting up a mark of .825. He played for Boston from 1968-1971, Milwaukee in 1972-1973, California from 1974-1976, Texas for the latter part of 1976, and Kansas City from 1977-1978. His career numbers are .223/.334/.372. He hit sixty-five home runs, with a season high of fourteen in 1971. One assumes he was considered a superior defender, although he played corner outfield almost exclusively. He doesn' t look like he was very good, really, but again, he played in parts of eleven seasons, so somebody must have thought he was doing something well. As he put it during the 1975 season, "It's easy to stay in the majors for seven and a half years when you hit .300, but when you hit .216, like me, it's really an accomplishment."
Record: The Twins were 30-24, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland. They were now 11-16 since May 11.
George Burns (1889)
Billy Rogell (1904)
Joe Medwick (1911)
Danny Ozark (1923)
Bob Friend (1930)
Jim Northrup (1939)
Steve Yeager (1948)
Randy Velarde (1962)
Cal Eldred (1967)
Ben McDonald (1967)
Al Martin (1967)
Dave Hansen (1968)
Chris Herrmann (1987)
Danny Ozark was the manager of Philadelphia from 1973-1979.
Okay, it's late and I'm watching a little Chopped. What schemes/designs/plans do you have for all the random ingredients left in your fridge?
