Got a trip coming up and I'm trying to decide which order to go in.
Would you rather stay overnight in which of these American cities?
Total Voters: 18
Loading ...Harry Wright (1835)
Chick Stahl (1873)
Del Pratt (1888)
Ziggy Sears (1892)
Max Patkin (1920)
George Strickland (1926)
Jim O'Toole (1937)
Willie McCovey (1938)
Chuck Dobson (1944)
Wilfredo Sanchez (1948)
Richard Dotson (1959)
Kelvin Torve (1960)
Wally Bell (1965)
Kevin Baez (1967)
Gary Rath (1973)
Adam Kennedy (1976)
Outfielder Ziggy Sears played in the minors for sixteen years, mostly in the Texas League. He once drove in eleven runs in a game. He was a National League umpire from 1934-1945.
Max Patkin was a well-known baseball clown from 1944-1995.
Wilfredo Sanchez was a star in Cuba from 1968-1986, winning five batting titles.
Wally Bell was a major league umpire from 1992-2013, when he passed away from a heart attack.
(4 votes, average: 5.75 out of 10)
Loading... Date: Saturday, July 26.
Batting star: Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fourth.
Pitching star: Jim Kaat pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and five walks and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Jose Cardenal was 3-for-4 with a two-run homer (his seventh), a stolen base (his twenty-third) and three runs. Eddie Leon was 2-for-4. Tony Horton was 1-for-1 with a double and three walks. Dick Ellsworth pitched seven innings, giving up three unearned runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out five.
The game: Horton doubled home Cardenal, who had walked, in the first inning to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. With the bases loaded and one out in the third, the Cleveland scored again on an odd play. Cap Peterson hit a grounder to short. It appears that the Twins tried to turn a double play but either the throw to second was late or the second baseman was off the base, so instead of a 6-4-3 double play it was a 6-4-3 ground out, with Cardenal again scoring. The Twins still got a double play out of it, however, as Dave Nelson tried to score from second on the play and was thrown out. Still, the score was 2-0.
The Twins took the lead in the fifth. Rick Renick reached on an error and Kaat hit a two-out double. Tovar followed with a three-run homer, putting Minnesota ahead 3-2.
The lead held until the seventh. Eddie Leon led off with a single, but had only gotten to second with two out. Bob Miller came on to face Cardenal and gave up a two-run homer, giving the Indians a 4-3 advantage. Cleveland added one more run in the eighth when Horton walked, Larry Brown singled, and Leon delivered an RBI single. The Twins got only one hit after the sixth inning.
WP: Ellsworth(6-5). LP: Miller (2-4). S: Stan Williams (7).
Notes: Harmon Killebrew was at first base in this game, with Renick at third. Bob Allison was in left, with Tovar in center. Rich Reese and Ted Uhlaender were on the bench, although Reese was used as a pinch-hitter.
Rod Carew was 1-for-4 and was batting .369. Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .331. Kaat had his ERA go up to 2.92.
It's interesting that Kaat was removed from the game when he was not pitching badly. He had not allowed a run since the third, and the leadoff hit by Leon in the seventh was only the second hit he had allowed in that span. There were two out. Kaat had been struggling to get Cardenal out in this game, however, and the Twins gained a platoon advantage by bringing in the right-handed Miller. I'm not saying it was a bad decision, and the fact that it didn't work doesn't mean it was the wrong thing to do. I just find it interesting.
Future Twin Stan Williams pitched the last two innings of the game and did not allow a baserunner.
This was Eddie Leon's rookie season. He was the Indians' regular shortstop for the second half of 1969, then was their regular second baseman for 1970-1971. A failure to hit moved him to a utility role in 1972, then he was traded to the White Sox, for whom he was the regular shortstop in 1973. He played sporadically for the White Sox in 1974, appeared in one game for the Yankees in 1975, then finished his career in Mexico in 1975-1976. He never hit--his best year was 1971, when he hit .261/.317/.326. His career numbers are .236/.296/.313 in 1862 at-bats. He was highly thought of before he became a pro--the Twins drafted him in the first round in 1965, the Cubs drafted him in the first round in 1966, and Cleveland, with whom he finally signed, drafted him in the second round in 1977. It reminds me of a saying, "You can talk all you want about the five tools, but none of the others mean much if you can't hit."
Record: The Twins were 60-39, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Oakland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B1Cgeh5oR0
(6 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)Loading... Bill Thomas (1905)
Johnny Washington (1916)
John Kibler (1928)
Julio Navarro (1936)
Ralph Terry (1936)
Masaaki Mori (1937)
Al Clark (1948)
Joe Wallis (1952)
Ivan DeJesus (1953)
Otis Nixon (1959)
Stan Javier (1964)
Jay Powell (1972)
Gabriel Moya (1995)
Bill Thomas pitched in the minors from 1924-1952. He set records for games pitched (1,016), wins (383), losses (347), innings (5,995), hits allowed (6,721), and runs allowed (3,098).
Outfielder/first baseman Johnny Washington played in the Negro Leagues for nearly twenty years.
John Kibler was a National League umpire from 1963-1989.
Masaaki Mori was involved with twenty-seven pennant winners in Japan, sixteen as a player, three as a coach, and eight as a manager.
Al Clark was a long-time American League umpire.
What's goin on in yo kitchen? Need some volunteers for The Nation Has An Appetite. The first spot will be Monday, so let me know if you'd rather go later than that (or if you have a preferred month).
Date: Friday, July 25.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 2-for-4 with a double, a stolen base (his sixteenth) and two RBIs. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5 with a stolen base (his twenty-third) and two walks. Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-6 with a walk and two RBIs.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched 6.2 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and a walk and striking out five. Ron Perranoski struck out six in 5.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Jose Cardenal was 3-for-7. Sam McDowell pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks and striking out five. Mike Paul pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks and striking out five.
The game: It was scoreless through six, and the only real threat came in the top of the sixth, when Tovar reached on an error, stole second, and went to third on a passed ball, getting there with one out. In the seventh, Frank Quilici and Rick Renick hit two-out singles, advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, and both scored on Roseboro's single.
The lead held until the ninth. Al Worthington allowed a leadoff walk to Ken Harrelson. With one out, Duke Sims hit a two-run homer to tie the score and send the game to extra innings.
From the tenth through the fifteenth the only threats were in the tenth, when the Twins put men on first and second with two out, and in the fifteenth, when they had a man on second with none out. In the sixteenth, Harmon Killebrew led off with a walk and Leo Cardenas hit a one-out double, putting men on second and third. With two down, Carew delivered a two-run double to give the Twins a 4-2 lead. The Indians went down in order in the bottom of the sixteenth.
WP: Perranoski (6-5). LP: Paul (2-8). S: None.
Notes: It was an odd defensive alignment, with Bob Allison in left, Tovar in center, Rick Renick in right, and Quilici at second base. I don't know if Billy Martin was playing a hunch or just decided to give some guys a day off against McDowell. It apparently had nothing to do with injury, as Ted Uhlaender, Tony Oliva, and Carew all entered the game for defense in the eighth inning and played the rest of the game. Quilici moved to third at that point, but later left the game for pinch-hitter Charlie Manuel. Manuel then went to left, with Uhlaender going to center and Tovar moving to third base.
It seems unusual for Martin to have taken Perry out of the game with a shutout going. Not saying it was a bad move, and it worked out, but it seems an out-of-character thing for him to have done.
It's also interesting that Martin chose Worthington to come into the game in the seventh to protect a 2-0 lead, rather than Perranoski. Perranoski had pitched two-thirds of an inning the night before, and before that was the all-star break, so he hadn't been overused lately. Worthington had been pitching well lately (other than giving up three runs in the July 19 game), so again, the point is not that it was a bad move. It just seems an interesting choice.
The 5.2 relief innings Perranoski pitched would be his longest outing of the year.
Mike Paul had been used as a spot starter by the Indians. While this was his longest outing of the year, he had twice gone seven innings and once six, so this was not completely unusual for him. He was twenty-four in 1969, in his second year in the majors, and had a fairly decent year: 5-10, 3.61, 1.35 WHIP. He followed that up with two pretty bad years, prompting the Indians to trade him to Texas after the 1971 season. He had the best season of his career for the Rangers in 1972, going 8-9, 2.17, 1.24 in 161.2 innings (49 games, 20 starts). He started the year in the bullpen but went into the rotation in July, pitching well in both roles. He struggled early in 1973, and one wonders if he might have clashed with new manager Whitey Herzog, as the Rangers don't seem to have had much patience with him. Despite his strong pitching in 1972 he was used as a swing man, then sent to the bullpen, then traded to the Cubs. He pitched well for the Cubs down the stretch, but after two ineffective appearances to start the 1974 season the Cubs simply released him. Paul certainly wasn't a star, but he was just twenty-nine and had some record of success. Still, that was the end of his major league career. He signed with Philadelphia and went 7-2, 3.32 for AAA Toledo, but did not even get a September call-up. He was in Toledo again in 1974, but did not pitch well. He then went to the Mexican League, where he played until 1982. He then became a minor league pitching coach and then a scout for many years. At last report he was still a scout for the Colorado Rockies.
Record: The Twins were 60-38, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Oakland.
Let’s see what Billy and the gang are up to.
https://youtu.be/C2N3Mf6CWzM
(4 votes, average: 6.75 out of 10)Loading... Sounds like there's a number of changes coming to Target Field next year. If you could update one area of the park, what would you choose?
