Happy Birthday–March 3

John Montgomery Ward (1860)
Wee Willie Keeler (1872)
Ed Phelps (1879)
Tetsuya Yoneda (1938)
Paul Schaal (1943)
Rick Reed (1950)
Chuck Cary (1960)
Neal Heaton (1960)
Marvin Hudson (1964)
Scott Radinsky (1968)
Mike Romano (1972)
Matt Diaz (1978)
Jorge Julio (1979)

Tetsuya Yoneda is the second-winningest pitcher in Japanese professional baseball with 350 victories.

The Rick Reed whose birthday is today is the major league umpire from 1979-2009, not the ex-Twin.

Marvin Hudson was a major league umpire from 1979-2009.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–March 3

Keeping Track

Toward the end of last year, a colleague was asking us to vote on favorite books in different categories--e.g. favorite graphic novel, favorite poetry collection, etc. After trying to recall exactly what I'd read in those categories, I suddenly became very grateful for the partial record of books I'd read within the First Monday Book Day posts.

This year, I'm using a bullet journal for the first time (because an author recommended it!), so I've got a few pages set aside at the back for jotting down book titles (and authors and illustrators). It's no spreadsheet, but at least at the end of 2020, I will have a good accounting of what I've read.

Do you keep track of the books you read? If so, how?

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-seven

KANSAS CITY 10, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, September 18.

Batting stars:  Gene Larkin was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Willie Banks pitched three innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jorge Pedre was 2-for-3.  George Brett was 2-for-4 with a double.  Todd Benzinger was 2-for-5 with a triple and two runs.  Kurt Stillwell was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  It was scoreless through three, with each team managing only one hit.  In the fourth, however, Brett had a one-out double, Danny Tartabull walked, and Jim Eisenreich delivered a two-run triple.  Eisenreich was then picked off third, but Twins catcher Junior Ortiz threw the ball away, allowing him to score and making it 3-0 Royals.

The Twins came back to tie it in the fifth.  Chili Davis walked, Shane Mack was hit by a pitch, and Larkin walked, loading the bases with none out.  Pagliarulo singled in two and a ground out brought home a third to make it 3-3.  The tie only lasted until Kansas City batted in the sixth.  Stillwell doubled and scored on a Tartabull single.  Benzinger drove in Tartabull with a triple and Bill Pecota followed with an RBI double.  David Howard singled to put men on first and third, and Pedre then circled the bases on a three-run single-plus-error, giving the Royals a 9-3 advantage.

It was pretty much over at that point Mike MacFarlane had an RBI single in the eighth to make it 10-3 and Greg Gagne had an RBI double in the ninth to make the final 10-4.

WP:  Luis Aquino (8-3).  LP:  Scott Erickson (18-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Mack was in left and Larkin in right with Dan Gladden on the bench.  Gagne moved into the leadoff spot.  Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.

Lenny Webster came in to catch in the seventh, replacing Ortiz once Erickson was out of the game.  Pedro Munoz pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the ninth.

Kirby Puckett was 0-for-5 and was batting .321.  He was 1-for-16 and 5-for-34 since September 8.  Mack was 0-for-3 and was batting .308.  Webster was 0-for-1 and was batting .391.

Erickson continued to try to pitch through his injury, and it continued to not work very well.  He did well for three innings, but his line was 5.2 innings, seven runs (six earned), eight hits, one walk, four strikeouts.  His ERA was up to 3.34, still quite good but nowhere near what it had been earlier in the season.

Carl Willis gave up two unearned runs in a third of an inning, making his ERA 2.34.

This was the fifth big league appearance of Banks' career, and his last of 1991.  He would go on to pitch for the Twins through 1993 and would be in the big leagues through 2002.

I mentioned a few days back that Jorge Pedre played in fourteen major league games, going 5-for-23.  Three of his five hits came against the Twins.  He was 3-for-5 with a double against the Twins, for a slash line of .600/.600/.800.  Against everyone else, then, he had a slash line of .111/.238/.222.  Maybe if he'd played against the Twins more, he'd have had a longer career.

The White Sox defeated Oakland 6-0 to come a game closer to the Twins.  The lead was not in serious jeopardy, but I suspect at least a few Twins fans were thinking "you never know..."

Record:  The Twins were 87-60, in first place in the American League West, six games ahead of Chicago.

In the East, Toronto and Boston both won, keeping the Blue Jays' lead at 2.5 games.

Happy Birthday–March 2

Horace Fogel (1861)
Moe Berg (1902)
Woody English (1906)
Jack Knott (1907)
Mel Ott (1909)
Mort Cooper (1913)
Jim Konstanty (1917)
Jim Nettles (1947)
Pete Broberg (1950)
Larry Wolfe (1953)
Terry Steinbach (1962)
Ron Gant (1965)
Jay Gibbons (1977)
Glen Perkins (1983)
Bud Norris (1985)

Horace Fogel was a sportswriter who became manager of the New York Giants in 1902.  His time as Giants manager is best remembered for his attempt to move Christy Mathewson to first base.  He was fired 41 games into the season and replaced by Heinie Smith, who put an end to such nonsense.  Instead, he tried to move Mathewson to shortstop.

We assume everyone reading this knows Ron Gant's connection to the Minnesota Twins.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–March 2

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-six

KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 17.

Batting stars:  Paul Sorrento was 2-for-4 with a double.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Jack Morris pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and five walks and striking out six.  He threw 126 pitches.  Steve Bedrosian pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Bret Saberhagen pitched 7.2 innings, giving up one run on five hits and a walk and striking out six.  Kurt Stillwell was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his third.  George Brett was 2-for-4 with a home run (his tenth) and a walk.

The game:  Dan Gladden created the Twins' lone run in the first inning.  He got an infield single, went to second on a ground out, stole third, and scored on another ground out, putting the Twins up 1-0.  It stayed 1-0 through three innings, but in the fourth Bill Pecota drew a two-out walk, stole second, and scored on a Stillwell single to tie it 1-1.

The Royals took the lead in the sixth, and again it happened with two out.  Stillwell walked and stole second and Brent Mayne delivered a single to make it 2-1 Kansas City.  Brett homered in the third to increase the lead to 3-1.  The Twins threatened in the eighth, putting men on first and third with two out, but a ground out ended the inning.  The Royals added their final run in the ninth when David Howard walked, Brett had a two-out single, and Jim Eisenreich singled in the run.

WP:  Saberhagen (11-8).  LP:  Morris (16-12).  S:  Jeff Montgomery (29).

Notes:  Sorrento played first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Scott Leius was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Leius in the eighth, with Gagne going in at short.

Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .324.  Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and was batting .311.  Shane Mack was 0-for-4 and was batting .310.

The White Sox defeated Oakland 1-0 to take a game off the Twins' lead.

Record:  The Twins were 87-59, in first place in the American League West, seven games ahead of Chicago.

In the East, Toronto lost to Seattle and Boston defeated Baltimore, so the Blue Jays' lead was down to 2.5 games.