Monthly Archives: November 2019

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 11

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Joe Battin (1853)
Freddy Parent (1875)
Rabbit Maranville (1891)
Al Schacht (1892)
Pie Traynor (1898)
Hal Trosky (1912)
George Case (1915)
Ike Delock (1929)
Ron Musselman (1954)
John Hobbs (1955)
Cory Snyder (1962)
Roberto Hernandez (1964)
Damion Easley (1969)
Jason Grilli (1976)

Sadly, Joe Battin wasn't much good at battin'.  An infielder, he batted .225/.241/.281.  His career spanned ten seasons, though, so I assume he was really good at fieldin'.

Al Schacht played in the majors for three years, but was better known as "The Clown Prince of Baseball".

On this Veterans' Day, we would like to thank all current and former members of the military for their service, especially those who are part of the wgom.

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Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-four

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MILWAUKEE 6, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.  Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-4 with a double.  Pedro Munoz was 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched 3.1 innings of relief, giving up one run on five hits.  Terry Leach pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Rick Aguilera pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Greg Vaughn was 3-for-5 with a triple.  Dale Sveum was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Willie Randolph was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Robin Yount was 2-for-5 with a home run (his eighth), two runs, and two RBIs.  Bill Wegman pitched five innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out two.  Darren Holmes pitched four innings, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out one.

The game:  Most of the runs came early.  Paul Molitor led off the game by being hit by a pitch.  He stole second and scored on a single by Vaughn, who was thrown out trying to stretch the hit to a double.  Yount then followed with a home run to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

The Twins got the runs back in the bottom of the first.  Gagne led off the inning with a home run.  Shane Mack was hit by a pitch, went to second on a Kirby Puckett single, and scored on a pair of fly outs to tie the score 2-2.

Milwaukee then took control.  Dante Bichette led off the second with a home run.  In the third, Vaughn hit a two-out triple, Yount singled him home, and Franklin Stubbs hit an RBI double to give the Brewers a 5-2 advantage.

The Twins didn't do a lot after that.  Pagliarulo hit a one-out double in the fourth but didn't advance.  A couple of singles didn't amount to anything.  Milwaukee added a run in the seventh when Sveum doubled and Randolph singled, making it 6-2.  Munoz hit a home run leading off the ninth, but the Twins never threatened to get back into the game.

WP:  Wegman (1-1).  LP:  Allan Anderson (1-3).  S:  Holmes (1).

Notes:  With the day game, Dan Gladden was out of the lineup.  Shane Mack was in left and Munoz in right.  Gene Larkin was at first base replacing Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman was at second, replacing Chuck Knoblauch.

Brian Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .391.  Gagne raised his average to .301.  Chili Davis was 0-for-4 and was batting .301.  Leach lowered his ERA to 2.77.  Aguilera's ERA was at 1.84.

Anderson lasted just three innings, giving up five runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two.  In his last two starts, he had given up nine runs on twelve hits in seven innings.  His ERA went from 3.55 to 4.80.

Willis had appeared in four games since his call-up on April 23.  Three of those appearances were of three innings or longer.

Holmes had three saves in 1991.  All of them were of the three-or-more-innings variety.  He would go on to get 59 saves in his career.  He was the closer for Colorado in their first year of existence in 1993 and was again their closer for about a month in 1995.

Bill Wegman was in the Brewers' rotation from 1986-1988, then missed a lot of time in the next two seasons due to injuries.  He came back in 1991 to have the best year of his career, going 15-7, 2.84, 1.12 WHIP.  He had a fine year in 1992 as well, going 13-14 but with an ERA of 3.20 and a WHIP of 1.17.  He pitched 261.1 innings, though, and it was apparently too much for him.  He stayed with Milwaukee for three more seasons, and in fact spent his entire career with them, but he never had a good year again.  For his career he was 81-90, 4.16, 1.29 WHIP.  For two seasons, though, he was an excellent starting pitcher.

Record:  The Twins were 17-17, tied with Chicago for fifth place in the American League West, 3.5 games behind Oakland.  The Twins were just a half game out of fourth and a game out of third.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-three

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MILWAUKEE 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, May 15.

Batting star:  Brian Harper was 2-for-3 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Larry Casian pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.  Steve Bedrosian pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Paul Molitor was 4-for-5 and hit for the cycle.  The home run was his second of the year.  Chris Bosio pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and no walks and striking out one.  Willie Randolph was 2-for-4.

The game:  Molitor led off the game with a triple and scored on a ground out to give the Brewers and early 1-0 lead.  In the third, singles by B. J. Surhoff and Molitor and another run-scoring ground out made it 2-0.  The Twins got their first hit in the bottom of the third, a single by Mike Pagliarulo.  In the fourth, Robin Yount led off with a double, went to third on a fly ball, and scored on yet another run-scoring ground out to make it 3-0.  Molitor got a double with one out in the fifth, and a pair of two-out walks loaded the bases, but Greg Brock struck out to keep the score 3-0.

The Twins got on the board in the fifth when Randy Bush got a one-out single-plus-error and scored on Harper's single.  Milwaukee got the run back in the seventh when Molitor led off with a home run.

The Twins made a run at getting back into the game in the eighth.  Harper led off with a double and scored on a Greg Gagne single to make it 4-2.  Dan Gladden then singled to put the tying run on base, but Chuck Knoblauch hit into a double play.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Bosio (4-4).  LP:  Kevin Tapani (2-3).  S:  Dan Plesac (1).

Notes:  Randy Bush was in right field.

With one out and none on in the ninth, the Brewers brought in lefty Plesac to face Kent Hrbek.  The Twins countered by sending Shane Mack up to pinch-hit.  Unfortunately, Mack grounded to third.

Harper increased his average to .393.  Knoblauch was 0-for-4 and was batting .320.  Chili Davis was 0-for-4 and was batting .312.

Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .299.  He would remain below .300 for one more game, then get back above it and stay there the rest of the season.

Harper was 14-for-23 with four doubles in his last six games.

Tapani pitched seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out two.  His ERA went up to 3.00.  It had to be a frustrating game for him.  He only gave up seven hits, but four of them went for extra bases.  All those runs that scored on ground outs must have been frustrating for him, too.  But, that's baseball.  Of course, if he could've figured out a way to get Molitor out, the Twins might've won the game.

This was the start of a tough stretch for Tapani.  It was the first of four consecutive starts in which he gave up four or five runs.  He pitched into the seventh in three of the four starts, though, and in his first 15 starts he had only one in which he pitched fewer than six innings.  He went over 100 pitched in eight of those starts, but never more than 116.

Bedrosian lowered his ERA to 3.20.

Plesac had taken over the closer role for the Brewers in 1986 and made the all-star team every year from 1987-1989.  He struggled in 1990, however, and by the start of the 1991 season had lost the closer role to Edwin Nunez.  Nunez got hurt in early May, however.  Plesac was given some of the save opportunities after that, but most of them went to Doug Henry.  Plesac would never be "the closer" again, although it appears he was part of a closer-by-committee in Pittsburgh in 1996.  He had 158 saves for his career, but only 34 after 1990.  For a few years, though, he was as good a closer as anyone.

Record:  The Twins were 17-16, tied for fourth place with California in the American League West, 2.5 games behind Oakland.  They were only two percentage points behind third-place California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 10

Jim Whitney (1857)
Cy Morgan (1878)
Del Gainer (1886)
Chick Fewster (1895)
Jimmie Dykes (1896)
Birdie Tebbetts (1912)
Johnny Lipon (1922)
Cal Ermer (1923)
Gene Conley (1930)
Norm Cash (1934)
Mike Vail (1951)
Larry Christenson (1953)
Larry Parrish (1953)
Paul Thormodsgard (1953)
Bob Stanley (1954)
Jack Clark (1955)
Keith Lockhart (1964)
Kenny Rogers (1964)
Butch Huskey (1971)
Shawn Green (1972)
Brian Dinkelman (1983)
Matt Magill (1989)

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Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-two

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MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 14.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 3-for-4 with two runs.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighth) and two runs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched a complete game, giving up one run on two hits and two walks and striking out seven.

Opposition star:  Jim Gantner was 2-for-4 with two doubles.

The game:  The Twins got a couple of two-out singles in the first, but nothing came of them.  Gantner hit a one-out double in the fourth but did not move past second.  Gladden hit a two-out double in the fifth and was stranded.  So we remained scoreless into the sixth.

And then we were not scoreless any more.  Hrbek singled and Davis followed with a two-run homer.  It did not kill the rally, as Pedro Munoz had a two-out single and scored on a double by Mike Pagliarulo.  

The Brewers got on the board in the seventh when Gantner led off with a double and scored on a pair of ground outs.  The Twins got the run back with interest in the bottom of the seventh.  With two out, Hrbek singled, Davis reached on an error, and Harper hit a two-run double to make the scored 5-1.  That's where it stayed, as Milwaukee did not get a hit after Gantner's seventh-inning double.

WP:  Morris (3-4).  LP:  Jaime Navarro (2-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Munoz was the right fielder.  Other than that, it was the standard Twins lineup.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Munoz in the seventh, with Shane Mack going to right for defense.  Al Newman went in for defense in the ninth to replace Pagliarulo.

Harper raised his average to .383.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-5 and was batting .331.  Davis raised his average to .324.  Puckett was 1-for-5 and was batting .309.

Bush was 0-for-1 and was batting .195.

Harper was 12-for-20 with three doubles in his last five games.  Davis was 6-for-11 with three home runs in his last three games.

Morris got his ERA down to 5.04.  That was the lowest it had been all season.

The Twins had won four in a row and seven of nine.

Milwaukee starter Navarro pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three.  1991 was his first full season, although he had been with the Brewers for most of 1990.  He was good in 1991, but his best season was probably 1992, when he went 17-12, 3.33, 1.17 WHIP.  He then struggled for a couple of seasons and became a free agent after 1994, signing with the Cubs.  He had two excellent seasons with the Cubs, going 29-18, 3.62, 1.30 WHIP.  He then signed with the White Sox and had three awful years.  He was 25-43, 6.06, 1.69 WHIP.  Amazingly, he stayed in the rotation all three of those seasons, making 87 starts.  He ended his major league career in 2000, playing for Milwaukee and Cleveland, but continued to play in the minors, in independent ball, in Mexico, and in Italy through 2006.  He has been involved in coaching since then, and is currently the pitching coach of Monclova in the Mexican League.

Record:  The Twins were 17-15, third in the American League West, 1.5 games behind Oakland.  They were one game behind second-place Seattle.