Monthly Archives: December 2019

WGOM Videos

Angélique Kidjo – Afirika

Video 1 Comment

Angélique Kidjo‘s Celia, a contemplation of Celia Cruz’s African roots, might be my favorite album of the year. Maybe I should’ve chosen a video of her singing “La Vida es un Carnaval” or “Bemba Colorá” or “Sahara” for this, but I wanted to showcase Kidjo’s interaction with her audience at her BBC Proms debut this year. I can’t help but smile every time I watch it. This music, this kind of performance draws hearts together. In the weeks to come, I think we could all use a good reason to smile together.

6 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 106 votes, average: 8.83 out of 10 (6 votes, average: 8.83 out of 10)
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Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-two

TORONTO 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighteenth) and a double.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out four.  Terry Leach pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  David Wells pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.  Joe Carter was 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Glenallen Hill was 3-for-4 with a double.  Devon White was 3-for-5 with a triple, a double, a stolen base (his eighteenth) and two runs.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and two RBIs.

The game:  This time it was the Blue Jays who jumped out to an early lead.  White started the game with a double and stole third.  Alomar then tripled and Carter doubled, putting Toronto up 2-0 after the first three batters of the game.  Twins starter Mark Guthrie then settled down, and there was no more scoring until the fourth.  With two out Hill singled, White tripled, and Carter singled to make the score 4-0.

The Twins got a man to second base in the first, fourth, and fifth, but could not score.  The Blue Jays added one more run in the sixth.  Manny Lee singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on an Alomar single, increasing the lead to 5-0.

The Twins again got a man to second in the seventh and did not score.  They finally got on the board in the eighth when Knoblauch singled and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer.  After that, however, all the Twins could do is a single by Shane Mack in the ninth.  The score remained 5-2.

WP:  Wells (9-4).  LP:  Guthrie (5-4).  S:  Tom Henke (13).

Notes:  Gene Larkin was again at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Scott Leius in the ninth.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the ninth.  The pinch-hitters the Twins used had batting averages of .202 and .210, respectively.

Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and was batting .333.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .324.  Willis lowered his ERA to 3.03.  Leach's ERA went down to 3.26.

Guthrie allowed four runs in 3.2 innings on eight hits and two walks, striking out one.  His ERA was 5.66.

This was Guthrie's last start of the season.  He would be replaced in the rotation initially by Paul Abbott.  He would do much better out of the bullpen, going 2-1, 2.51, 1.37 WHIP with two saves in 43 innings (29 games).  He would make only two more starts in his major league career, both in 1994.  In his career as a starter, he was 13-18, 4.95, 1.52 WHIP.  As a reliever, he was 38-36, 3.75, 1.36 WHIP with 14 saves.

This was the second-longest stint of Willis' season to date, topped only by his 4.2 innings on April 23.  In August he would twice pitch five innings.  He would have a very good season, going 8-3, 2.63, 1.07 WHIP.  He would be about as good in 1992, going 7-3, 2.72, 1.06 WHIP.  He started to slip a little in 1993, although he was still pretty good.  After that he didn't get much accomplished, but from 1991-1993, he was a very effective relief pitcher.

This game is as good a place as any to declare the Twins' hot streak over.  It was a pretty good one, though.  From May 28 through June 25, the Twins won twenty-four out of twenty-seven.  They went from sixth place to first place.  They would not do that again, obviously, but they would continue to have winning months the rest of the season.

Record:  The Twins were 44-28, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 19

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Ford Frick (1894)
Al Kaline (1934)
Tony Taylor (1935)
Walt Williams (1943)
Rob Gardner (1944)
Geoff Zahn (1945)
Kevin Stanfield (1955)
Stu Cliburn (1956)
Stan Cliburn (1956)
Tom Lawless (1956)
Clay Parker (1962)
Bill Wegman (1962)
Mike Fetters (1964)
Chito Martinez (1965)
Russell Branyan (1975)
Rafael Soriano (1979)
Ian Kennedy (1984)

Ford Frick was the president of the National League from 1934-1951 and commissioner of baseball from 1951-1965.

Clay Parker was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-first round in 1984, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 19 →

WGOM Videos

Nots – “Half Painted House”

Video 3 Comments

I’m pretty glad that 2019 is finally coming to an end. I don’t feel like recapping in here (gotta save some material for Festivus eh?), but I will say that the events of the year made it really hard for me to really connect to a lot of music.

Music has been a huge part of my life for 25 years. The last few years, I can easily think of 50 albums I enjoyed. This year it’s honestly hard for me to identify 10 things I listened to that were new. I desperately needed normalcy and spent a lot of time revisiting the same things over and over, mostly albums I loved from a dozen years ago and that last Lil Peep album.

Anyway, the new Nots record, 3, was the closest to that kind of thing out of new stuff I heard this year. I love this kind of raw, urgent, punk. I liked the other Nots records but this one really sank its hooks into me. Given how damn hard that was this year, it says a lot about this record.

Also, I’m going to cheat and add a second, totally unrelated, song here. I couldn’t find a live video of it (which is super unfortunate, I saw her last year and she was incredible!), but it’s my favorite song of the year so you’re welcome.

4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10 (4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10)
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Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-one

MINNESOTA 8, TORONTO 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 25.

Batting stars:  Gene Larkin was 3-for-3 with a walk.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5.  Chili Davis was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his seventeenth), three walks, and two runs.  Mike Pagliarulo was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his third.

Pitching star:  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Greg Myers was 4-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs.  Devon White was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his sixteenth.  Kelly Gruber was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.  John Olerud was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.

The game:  In the first inning, Knoblauch hit a one-out single and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer to put the Twins up 2-0.  In the third, Gladden and Knoblauch singled and Kirby Puckett drew a walk to load the bases with one out.  Brian Harper hit a sacrifice fly and Larkin singled home a run to make it 4-0.

The Blue Jays came storming back in the fifth.  Gruber led off with a home run and Olerud hit a one-out homer to cut the lead to 4-2.  Myers singled and Manny Lee hit a single-plus-error, scoring Myers and making it 4-3.  Mookie Wilson then hit a sacrifice fly to tie it 4-4.  Toronto wasn't done, as White singled and stole second and then scored on a Roberto Alomar single to put the Blue Jays up 5-4.

It stayed 5-4 until the sixth, when Larkin singled and Pagliarulo hit a two-run homer to put the Twins back in front 6-5.  They got a couple of insurance runs in the seventh.  Puckett was hit by a pitch and Davis walked.  A bunt moved the runners up, Mack's sacrifice fly scored one, and an Al Newman single made the score 8-5.

Myers homered in the eighth to make it 8-6, but that was the only hit Toronto had after the sixth inning.

WP:  Jack Morris (10-5).  LP:  Todd Stottlemyre (8-3).  S:  Aguilera (20).

Notes:  Larkin remained at first base, as Kent Hrbek was still out of the lineup.  Newman pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the seventh and stayed in the game at third base.

Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .340.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .327.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.78.

Morris pitched seven innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out four.  He pitched really well other than in the fourth inning.  Again, I would suggest that any other pitcher would've come out of the game in that fourth inning--Morris allowed five runs on six hits, including two home runs, in that inning.  For whatever reason, Tom Kelly stuck with Morris.  I guess you can say it worked, as Morris pitched well after that inning and the Twins came back and won.  It could be suggested, however, that it would've been better to not have lost the lead in the first place, and that using a relief pitcher might have accomplished that.

Stottlemyre pitched six innings, allowing six runs on ten hits and three walks and striking out six.  Stottlemyre had a really good year in 1991, this game notwithstanding.  He went 15-8, 3.78, 1.23 WHIP.  That was the highest win total of his career, the second-lowest ERA (3.74 in 1998), and the second-lowest WHIP (1.22 in 1997).  He never made an all-star team and never got any Cy Young votes, but he was a solid rotation starter for eleven seasons.  For his career, he was 138-121, 4.28, 1.38 WHIP.

Record:  The Twins were 44-27, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of both California and Oakland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 18

Ty Cobb (1886)
Dick Coffman (1906)
Gino Cimoli (1929)
Moose Skowron (1930)
Zoilo Versalles (1939)
Steve Hovley (1944)
Drew Coble (1947)
Roy Howell (1953)
Jim Clancy (1955)
Scott Bailes (1961)
Willie Blair (1965)
Joe Randa (1969)
Jose Rodriguez (1974)
Byron Buxton (1993)

Drew Coble was an American League umpire from 1982-1999.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to cheaptoy.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 18 →

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy

MINNESOTA 5, NEW YORK 0 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Monday, June 24.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his seventh), a double, and two runs.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a home run (his ninth) and two runs.

Pitching star:  Scott Erickson pitched a complete game shutout, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out six.

Opposition star:  Jeff Johnson pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on four hits and a walk and striking out none.

The game:  Through five innings there were only two hits, both by the Yankees.  They put a man on third base in the second, as Matt Nokes doubled and went to third on a wild pitch, but Alvaro Espinoza grounded out to end the inning.  Meanwhile, the first fifteen Twins batters were retired.

Junior Ortiz gave the Twins their first baserunner with a leadoff walk in the sixth.  He was bunted to second, and with two out Dan Gladden got the Twins' first hit, an RBI triple that made it 1-0 Minnesota.  In the seventh, Puckett led off with a home run, followed by Mack's double and a Pedro Munoz RBI single to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  In the ninth, PUckett had a one-out single and Mack hit a two-run homer to make it 5-0.

The Yankees did not get a hit after Nokes' second-inning double.  Their other hit was a single by Don Mattingly in the first.  Their only baserunner after the second was Kevin Maas, who walked leading off the seventh and did not get past first base.

WP:  Erickson (12-2).  LP:  Johnson (1-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Gene Larkin was at first base, as Hrbek remained out.  With Erickson pitching, Ortiz was catching.  Munoz was the DH in place of Chili Davis.  Mack batted in the fourth spot.

Puckett raised his average to .328.  Erickson's ERA went down to 1.39.

Erickson was an incredible pitcher to this point of the season.  12-2, 1.39 ERA, 1.07 WHIP in 116.1 innings.  He would not sustain that, of course, and it was not reasonable to think he could.  In fact, he would never have a half-season like that again.  As we've said before, Tom Kelly rode him pretty hard for a twenty-three year old in his first full season, and he eventually had to pay the price for that.  But for the first half of 1991, he was the best there was.

This was the fourth start of Jeff Johnson's major league career.  He would appear in parts of three major league seasons, all with the Yankees.  He made twenty-three starts in 1991 and went 6-11, 5.95, 1.49 WHIP.  That was as good as it would get for him--he would appear in thirteen games (eight starts) in 1992 and make two more starts in 1993, and his numbers got worse each season.  For his career, he was 8-16, 6.52, 1.63 WHIP.  He had good seasons in AAA at that time--4-0, 2.61, 1.34 WHIP in 10 starts in 1991 and 2-1, 2.17, 1.02 WHIP in 11 starts in 1992.  I don't know why he had so few decisions in that many starts.  I also don't know why he could not translate his AAA success into major league success, but he clearly couldn't.  I wish the Yankees had more pitchers like that these days.  Jeff Johnson has been a minor league pitching coach for several seasons.

Record:  The Twins were 43-27, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of Oakland.