MINNESOTA 7, CALIFORNIA 4 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Thursday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighteenth) and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two.  Rich Reese was 2-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with two doubles, scoring twice and driving in two.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.  Al Worthington struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up four hits.

Opposition stars:  Bubba Morton was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Rick Reichardt was 2-for-4.  Sandy Alomar was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jim Fregosi was 2-for-5.

The game:  Sandy Alomar led off the first with a double and scored on an error by left fielder Charlie Manuel, putting the Angels up 1-0.  The Twins had only one hit through the first three innings, but Killebrew homered with one out in the fourth to tie the score 1-1.

Jim Hicks led off the fifth with a home run to give California a 2-1 lead.  It was short-lived, however, as the Twins came back with two in the sixth.  Tovar and Oliva hit back-to-back one-out doubles to tie it and Killebrew followed with an RBI single to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.  That lead was short-lived as well, as the Angels got two in the bottom of the sixth.  Singles by Fregosi and Aurelio Rodriguez and a two-run double by Morton gave California the lead, 4-3.

The Twins went into the lead to stay with a four-run eighth.  Tovar and Oliva again hit back-to-back one-out doubles to tie the score.  Killebrew was intentionally walked, but Reese singled to bring home the go-ahead run.  A wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third, a walk to Manuel loaded the bases, and a passed ball brought home the third run of the inning.  Johnny Roseboro then delivered an RBi single to make the score 7-4.

The Angels got three hits in the last two innings, but thanks to a double play never got a man past first base.

WP:  Worthington (1-0).  LP:  Jim McGlothlin (5-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Rod Carew was out of the lineup, with Tovar at second base.  In the eighth, Frank Quilici came in to play second, with Tovar moving to left to replace Manuel.

Oliva raised his average to .305.  Over his last six games he was 15-for-28 with 9 doubles and 2 home runs.  Reese raised his average to .313.  He was 7-for-11 in his last three games.

The Twins' two-through-five batters were 8-for-17 with a home run, four doubles, and a walk.  They scored seven runs and drove in five.

After giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning on June 17, Worthington had pitched 7.1 scoreless innings over five games.  His ERA fell from 17.18 to 5.73.

Kaat's ERA was now 2.70.

They say that everybody loves a Bubba, but Bubba Morton batted well enough to make on think he should've gotten more of a chance than he did.  He was the first black player signed by the Detroit Tigers.  He batted .324 as a twenty-four-year old in Class D in 1956, but was promoted only to Class B in 1957, where he batted .310.  He batted .285 in AAA Charleston in 1959, but was made to repeat AAA in 1960.  He finally got to the majors in 1961, at age thirty, but was used primarily as a pinch-hitter, appearing in 77 games but getting only 108 at-bats.  Remarkably, he batted .287/.382/.407 in that role.  He had another solid year in 1962.  In fairness to the Tigers, it should be pointed out that Morton was a corner outfielder, and they had Al Kaline and Rocky Colavito to play corner outfield at the time, so there wasn't much room for Morton.

In 1963 he went 1-for-11 to start the season and was sold to Milwaukee.  The Braves had Hank Aaron in their outfield, but their other outfielders were Don Dillard, Mack Jones, Ty Cline, and Hawk Taylor, so you'd think they might have given Morton a shot.  Instead, they continued to use him as a pinch-hitter and sent him to the minors after just twenty-eight at-bats.  He didn't get back to the majors until 1966.  He batted .303 with an OPS of .843 in AAA in 1964, and all it got him was a sale to Cleveland.  He batted .319 With an OPS of .836 in AAA in 1965, and all it got him was a sale to California.  He got a September call-up with them in 1966 and stayed with them through 1969.  He was still often used as a pinch-hitter, but at least got some playing time in the outfield, making forty to fifty starts a season.  With the Angels, he batted .267/.351/.436 in 586 at-bats.  He played in Japan in 1970, then was done as a player.  He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1972-1976, then worked for Boeing.  He passed away in 2006.

His career numbers were .267/.351/.370, numbers compiled in the 1960s when offense was very low.  His career numbers as a pinch-hitter are .281/.378/.331 in 189 pinch-hitting appearances.  I don't know why he didn't get more of a chance to play.  Was racism involved?  Was he a very poor defensive player?  Was he such a good pinch-hitter that teams didn't want to take him out of that role?  Was it a matter of age?  It would be an interesting thing to research by someone who had the time.

Record:  The Twins were 39-30, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of Oakland.