#5 Eric Milton No-Hits the Angels
Like most of us I assume I was not paying much attention to the Twins in 1999. I had just started my first year of college the week before and they hadn't been good in so long I barely knew who was on the team. Honestly, when I read the paper the next day I'm pretty sure I thought, "Who's Eric Milton?" Turned out he was pretty decent and his trade continued the amazing Knoblauch trade tree.
Anyway, here's another glorious call by Herb Carneal.
#12 Señor Smoke Strikes Out Four Batters, Saves ALCS Game 2
In the 8th inning Blyleven allowed a homer to Lou Whitaker and a single to Darrell Evans and Kelly pulled him in favor of Berenguer. While this kind of save situation would normally not make a manager nervous, the Twins bullpen in '87 outside of Berenguer and late season Reardon was pretty abysmal. And the Tigers offense was a juggernaut.
Berenguer struck out Kirk Gibson and got Alan Trammell to ground out to end the threat. And then in the 9th he turned into a modern day reliever by getting Matt Nokes, Chet Lemon, and Pat Sheridan to strike out to put the Twins up 2-0 heading to Detroit.
You can watch the whole game on YouTube of course. Here's a snippet that includes more great announcing by Carneal.
The Better Moment
- Eric Milton No-Hitter (55%, 12 Votes)
- Juan Berenguer Saves ALCS Game 2 (45%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 22
Loading ...The Better Moment
- Pedro Munoz Walks Off in 22nd Inning (65%, 13 Votes)
- Twins Win 15 In A Row (35%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 20
Loading ...The Better Moment
- Larkin Walks It Off (96%, 23 Votes)
- Mike Sweeney Pops Into Infield Fly Double Play, Gets Nailed by Dougie (4%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 24
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I'm guessing a person's age will be a big factor in voting.
I'm guessing the date of Milton's no-hitter will also be an influence.
Did someone say Trade Tree!?
I adore that Milton's No-hitter was probably the least-watched no-hitter ever. The game got bumped to an 11:05 a.m. start because of a Gopher football game that night.
I think I caught the end of that on my grandpa's old ass TV.
If you did, it was a replay. The game was not televised live. FSN (which at the time was probably still MSC) did later show it, using the Metrodome cameras and the radio play-by-play.
You know, none of this tracks. I must be confusing it with something else. Erikson's no-hitter doesn't make sense either as it was on a Wednesday.
By BR's Game Score, it's the best game ever by a Twin. Box score says 11,222 attended that game. Last time the Twins had that few attend a game was May of 2002. However, there was a game in April of 2019 that had 11,465 people in attendance. Quite a few in the 11,222 to 12,000 range since then.
I was at the April 2019 game. There were dozens of us. Dozens!
I had a varsity soccer game at Minnehaha Academy during the game.
Man, look at Señor Smoke’s chest as he’s taking the sign. He was pumping El Gasolino!