Monthly Archives: May 2020

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–May 27

Frank Snyder (1894)
Pinky Higgins (1909)
Terry Moore (1912)
George O’Donnell (1929)
Jerry Kindall (1935)
Fred Bruckbauer (1938)
Jim Holt (1944)
Gary Nolan (1948)
Terry Collins (1949)
Mark Connor (1949)
Mark Clear (1956)
Ed Nunez (1963)
John Jaha (1966)
Jeff Bagwell (1968)
Frank Thomas (1968)
Todd Hundley (1969)
Jose Berrios (1994)

Terry Collins was the manager of Houston from 1994-96, of Anaheim from 1997-99, and of the Mets from 2011-2017.

Mark Connor pitched in the Twins’ minor league system from 1971-1972 before he suffered a career-ending arm injury.  He has been a pitching coach for the Yankees, Arizona, Toronto, Texas, and Baltimore.  He also was the head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 27 →

WGOM Games

Initial Time We Play A Game With Two Letters For Three Consecutive Weeks

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Just in case the guy on KFAN has got his intellectual property ducks in a row with his Kickstarter thing, I will not refer to this game by the same name he has given his version. Instead, this will be the initial time I "host" a game for the second on this platform with the following rules:

1. I will give you two letters (for example, "K.P"). All the items that week will be a two-word answer in which each word begins with letter in the appropriate spot. The answer can be a person, place, thing, or other two-word phrase. For example, if "K.P." are the letters, then one answer might be Kirby Puckett. Another answer might be "Krakow, Poland." And so on.

2. I will provide six clues for each answer. The clues will be provided one-at-a-time.

3. If you believe you know the answer, make a Spoilered guess in the thread. The point will go to whomever correctly identifies the answer first. If you submit an incorrect response, then you can no longer submit for that particular answer.

4. The participant with the most correct answers at the end of the week wins. (If there is a tie, then I will have tiebreakers for only the participants in the tie.)

5. You're going to be on the honor system, but you should not be using the internet or other resources.

The letters will be revealed, and clues for the first phrase will commence, tomorrow at 8:30 am.

Leaderboard

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1968, Game One Hundred Forty-three

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MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 1 IN DETROIT

Date:  Saturday, September 7.

Batting stars:  Ron Clark was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Graig Nettles was 2-for-4 with two home runs, his second and third.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits and three walks and striking out four.  Al Worthington pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Pat Dobson pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out four.  Mickey Stanley was 3-for-5.  Don Wert was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twelfth.

The game:  The Tigers had men on second and third with none out in the first, but a line drive double play took them out of the inning.  They had men on first and second with one out in the fourth, but the next two batters could not get the ball out of the infield and they were again turned aside.

Detroit got on the board in the fifth when Wert led off the inning with a home run.  Again, however, they missed a chance to get more, as they loaded the bases with two out and could not add to their lead.  It cost them, because in the next half-inning Nettles hit a two-out home run to tie it 1-1.

The Tigers got a man to second with two out in the seventh, and the Twins did the same in the eighth, but the score remained tied until the ninth, when Nettles led off the inning with a home run to give the Twins their first lead of the game at 2-1.  The Tigers got a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth, but did not advance the man past first base.

WP:  Worthington (4-5).  LP:  Dobson (5-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Bruce Look was behind the plate in place of Johnny Roseboro.  This was Look's only season in the majors.  He batted .246 with an OBP of .353, pretty good numbers for 1968.  Granted, it was 139 plate appearances, but still, you'd think he might have gotten another chance.  Instead, he went to AAA Denver in 1969, batted .223, and played just two more season, both in AAA, before his career came to an end.

Rich Reese was at first base in place of Harmon Killebrew.  This, or course, was the year Killebrew was injured in the all-star game.  He came back in September but was mostly used as a pinch-hitter, never playing a full game the rest of the season.

Frank Quilici was at second base in place of Rod Carew, who missed a few games.  Clark was at shortstop.  Jackie Hernandez played the most games at short in 1968 with 79, but Clark was second with 44.  Rich Rollins was at third base.  Cesar Tovar played the most games at third in 1968 with 77, but Rollins was second at with 56.  Tovar was in center field in place of Ted Uhlaender, who missed a couple of weeks.  Nettles was in right field in place of Tony Oliva, whose season ended on August 31.

To sum up, of the eight regular listed by b-r.com, the only one to start the game at his regular position was left fielder Bob Allison.

Killebrew pinch-hit for Perry in the seventh.  Rick Renick came into the game at shortstop in the ninth inning, with Clark moving to third and Rollins coming out of the game.  Frank Kostro came into the game in left field and Jim Holt came into the game in right field, replacing Nettles and Allison.

Oliva led the team in batting at .289.  Uhlaender batted .283 and Carew it .273.  Of players used in this game, Tovar had the highest batting average at .272.

Allison led the team in home runs with 22.  Oliva had 18 and Killebrew had 17.

Perry was essentially the fifth starter in a four-man rotation, getting starts because of doubleheaders or injuries.  He had a tremendous season, though, going 8-6, 2.27, 1.00 WHIP.  The Twins' starters numbers sound impressive:  Dean Chance (16-16, 2.53, 0.98), Jim Kaat (14-12, 2.94, 1.12), Jim Merritt (12-16, 3.35, 1.09), and Dave Boswell (10-13, 3.32, 1.24.  On the other hand, the league ERA was 2.98, and the league WHIP was 1.19, so those numbers are perhaps not as impressive as they sound.  There's a reason they call it The Year of the Pitcher.

Record:  The Twins were 68-75, in seventh place in the American League, 22 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 79-83, in seventh place, 24 games behind Detroit.

The Tigers were 90-53, in first place in the American League, 8 games ahead of Baltimore.  They would finish 103-59, in first place, 12 games ahead of Baltimore.

Rewind record:  The Twins are 29-26 in rewind games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–May 26

Jim Frey (1931)
Joe Altobelli (1932)
Jim McKean (1945)
Darrell Evans (1947)
Kevin Kennedy (1954)
Rob Murphy (1960)
Jason Bere (1971)
Chris Latham (1973)
Travis Lee (1975)
Ben Zobrist (1981)
Kevin Mulvey (1985)

Among other things, Jim Frey was manager of Kansas City from 1980-81, manager of the Cubs from 1984-86, and general manager of the Cubs from 1988-91.

Jim McKean was an American League umpire from 1974-2001.  He also played in the CFL for five years.

Kevin Kennedy managed Texas from 1993-94 and Boston from 1995-96.  He has also been a broadcaster for FOX.

Travis Lee was drafted by Minnesota with the second pick of the 1996 draft.  However, the Twins failed to make a formal contract offer within the time designated under the Basic Agreement, and Lee was declared a free agent.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 26 →

The Nation Has An Appetite

Milk Crate Container Garden for the ‘pocalypse

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After Doc S (I think) mentioned that we were going to run into shortages of produce as supply chains were stress out by the pandemic Dr. Chop and I got down to business planting vegetables and herbs. We try to grow stuff every year, and every year we lose most the crop to the insects. This year we were able to spend a lot more time in the yard and we were able to kill enough caterpillars to keep the peppers and squash alive. And now we've got peppers for days. We also installed a bird feeder which I think has a positive effect on the insect problem as well.

As I mentioned in the CoC we got an Aero Garden at the start of the year, and we've been able to produce several heads of lettuce, spinach, and herbs. Currently, we've got chives sprouting, a new head of spinach, and bok choi growing to be transferred to the containers. We've always grown food stuff in containers, including our citrus, fig and olive trees, because the soil in New Orleans is suspect to begin with and the flooding from Katrina didn't help matters. We've found through the tree services by Rich's Tree Service, Inc that you need to use high quality potting soil, compost, and an occasional fertilizing in order to get enough nutrient into the containers to provide good growth.

While out walking the neighborhood I found several milk crates littered in vacant lots, and the idea sprouted to turn them into square foot garden boxes. I had some stupid expensive dirt and ground cloth delivered for free (I heavily tipped the driver) from the local garden shop. I measured the crates - 12 x 12 x 10 3/4(h), so I cut the 48 inch long cloth into 14 inch wide strips with excess to account for seam allowance.

I laid two strips across each other at their centers and sewed 2 sides together. I decided that doubling the cloth on the bottom would slow drainage, and add an extra layer of protection from weeds and other intruders.

 

 

Then you gather up the corners and sew them face to face to make a box

 

 

Repeat for the remaining 3 corners and you've got a ground cloth box.

Instead of making these cloth boxes to match the actual size of the crate, I made them much taller so that I could wrap the excess over the top to keep the pressure of the dirt from spilling out of the bag.

As a side note, making sweet potatoes from a sprouting sweet potato is the easiest, and one of the most satisfying horticultural endeavors I've ever undertaken. I put the sprouted spud in a clear cup of water and let the roots grow out and alien looking purple leaves and veins multiplied quickly under the grow light of the aero garden. I was a little late getting these into the boxes for them to produce large potatoes, but they'll certainly make a bunch of tubers.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2007, Game Fifty-one

MINNESOTA 9, CHICAGO 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 29.

Batting stars:  Justin Morneau was 3-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth), two doubles, a walk, and four RBIs.  Michael Cuddyer was 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, and three runs.  Luis Castillo was 3-for-5 with a walk and a stolen base, his third.  Jason Bartlett was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Jeff Cirillo was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jason Kubel was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer (his second), a walk, and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Boof Bonser pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits and three walks and striking out six.  Carmen Cali pitched a perfect inning.  Ramon Ortiz pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Alex Cintron was 2-for-5.  Boone Logan pitched 1.2 perfect inning.

The game:  The White Sox scored first.  In the first inning Darin Erstad and Jim Thome singled and Jermaine Dye walked, loading the bases with one out.  Paul Konerko hit a sacrifice fly to put Chicago up 1-0.

The Twins took over from there.  With two out in the second, Jason Kubel walked and Bartlett and Castillo each singled to tie it 1-1.  Cuddyer led off the third with a double and Morneau hit a two-run homer.  That worked so well the Twins did it again later in the inning:  with two out Cirillo doubled and Kubel hit a two-run homer to give the Twins a 5-1 lead.

The Twins added a run in the fourth when Cuddyer singled, Morneau doubled, and Torii Hunter walked, loading the bases, and Mike Redmond hit a sacrifice fly.  They put it away in the fifth.  With two out and none on Castillo and Nick Punto singled, Cuddyer walked, a wild pitch brought home a run, and Morneau doubled home two more.  It was a 9-1 lead for the Twins.

The White Sox made one last attempt to get back in the game in the seventh.  Juan Uribe hit a one-out single, Andy Gonzalez reached on an error, and Cintron singled, loading the bases.  Dye drew a two-out walk to make it 9-2, but that was all Chicago could do.  Their last seven batters were retired.

WP:  Bonser (4-1).  LP:  John Danks (3-5).  S:  None.

Notes:   Redmond was behind the plate in place of Joe Mauer, who was out with an injury.

Cirillo was the DH.  The Twins did not have a regular DH in 2007, with eight players seeing double digit games there.  Kubel had the most with 36.  Others were Jason Tyner (26), Cirillo (24), Mauer (19), Rondell White (19), Redmond (18), Morneau (14), and Garrett Jones (13).

Lew Ford pinch-hit for Hunter in the seventh and stayed in the game in center field.  Chris Heintz pinch-ran for Redmond in the eighth and stayed in the game at catcher.

Castillo was the leading batter for the Twins at .335.  He finished at .304 as a Twin; he actually finished as a New York Met, traded there at the July deadline.  Redmond was batting .320--he finished at .294.  Hunter was batting .314--he finished at .287.

On the other hand, Ford was batting just .184.  He finished at .233.  This would be his last year as a Twin.  He bounced around, played independent ball for a while, and battled his way back to play 25 games for Baltimore in 2012.

Morneau hit 31 homers to lead the team and Hunter 28.  Cuddyer had 16 homers and Kubel 13.  They still were next-to-last in team home runs with 118.

Bonser did not have a good year in 2007.  He did well in this game, but for the season he was 8-12, 5.10, 1.53 WHIP.  The Twins had a pretty good rotation:  Johan Santana (15-13, 3.33), Matt Garza (5-7, 3.69), Carlos Silva (13-14, 4.19), and Scott Baker (9-9, 4.26).  The struggled to find a fifth starter, though, with Kevin Slowey doing the best of the rest at 4-1, 4.73.

This was the third of a five-game winning streak for the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 26-25, in fourth place in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 79-83, in third place, 17 games behind Cleveland.

The White Sox were 24-23, in third place with Minnesota in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 72-90, in fourth place, 24 games behind Cleveland.