Everybody still likes K-Pop, right??
(3 votes, average: 6.00 out of 10)
Loading... Ken Williams (1890)
Haruyasu Nakajima (1910)
A. Ray Smith (1915)
Oscar Rodriguez (1931)
Fred Gladding (1936)
Ron Luciano (1937)
Al Downing (1941)
Fred Talbot (1941)
Don Baylor (1949)
Chris Speier (1950)
Joe Sambito (1952)
Clay Christiansen (1958)
John Elway (1960)
Jay Schroeder (1961)
Mark Grace (1964)
Ron Mahay (1971)
Corey Koskie (1973)
Richard Hidalgo (1975)
Brandon Phillips (1981)
Haruyasu Nakajima is in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
A. Ray Smith owned minor league baseball teams from 1961-1986.
Oscar Rodriguez is in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ron Luciano was an American League umpire from 1969-1979.
NFL quarterbacks John Elway and Jay Schroeder each played minor league baseball. Elway hit .318 in 151 at-bats as an outfielder for Class A Oneonta in 1982. Schroeder was primarily an outfielder for four years in the Toronto system, never getting higher than Class A. He hit .213 with 36 homers in 1,304 minor league at-bats.
Mark Grace was drafted by Minnesota in the fifteenth round of the January draft in 1984, but did not sign.
We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Philosofer's youngest child.
If I understand this correct, the NHL has created a system for this year that would give eight teams (including the Wild) incentive to immediately and viciously tank their opening "playoff" series. All right, I guess.
Date: Tuesday, July 7.
Batting stars: Kurt Suzuki was 3-for-4. Miguel Sano was 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and three RBIs. Joe Mauer was 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs.
Pitching stars: Kyle Gibson struck out seven in six innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk. Brian Duensing pitched a perfect inning, striking out one. Ryan O'Rourke pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Adam Jones was 2-for-4 with two doubles. J. J. Hardy was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth. Brad Brach pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and two walks and striking out two.
The game: The Orioles put men on second and third with one out in the first inning but did not score. It was the last time they were in the game.
In the bottom of the first Mauer hit a one-out single, took second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Trevor Plouffe double. Sano followed with his first major league home run to put the Twins ahead 3-0. In the third Mauer again singled, again took second on a wild pitch, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a strikeout/passed ball (Twins baseball!) to make it 4-0. The Twins put it away in the fourth. Aaron Hicks led off with a double and Suzuki singled. A sacrifice fly scored a run; with a man on third Mauer was intentionally walked and Plouffe was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Sano drew a walk to force in a run and Eddie Rosario singled home two to make it 8-0 Twins.
Baltimore got two in the sixth on Hardy's homer and added one more in the eighth on a Jones double, but again, they never threatened to get back into the game.
WP: Gibson (7-6). LP: Kevin Gausman (1-1). S: None.
Notes: Danny Santana was at shortstop. He started the season as the regular shortstop, but did not hit and was eventually replaced by Eduardo Escobar. For the season Escobar played slightly more games at short, 71 to 67.
In this game, however, Escobar was in left field. Rosario, normally in left, moved to right, with Torii Hunter given the day off.
Shane Robinson went to left in the eighth in place of Escobar.
This was the sixth game of Sano's major league career. He was batting .450 and, as noted above, hit his first major league home run in this game. He would finish at .269 with 18 home runs. The Twins did not have a .300 hitter, or anything close to it, in 2015. In fact, Sano's .269 led the team. Rosario was next at .267 and Mauer batted .265. The Twins were next-to-last in batting average at .247. Detroit led the league at .270.
Brian Dozier led the team with 28 home runs. Hunter and Plouffe tied for second with 22. The Twins had eight players with double digit home runs: Sano had 18, Rosario 13, Escobar 12, Hicks 11, and Mauer 10. The Twins were tenth in home runs with 156. Toronto led the league at 232.
Gibson would probably have to be considered the ace of the staff. He went 11-11, 3.84, 1.29 WHIP in a team-leading 32 starts. The only other starter with an ERA under four was Tommy Milone, who was 9-5, 3.92, 1.28. Ervin Santana, who missed the first half of the season, was 7-5, 4.00, 1.30. The other starters were Mike Pelfrey (6-11. 4.26, 1.48) and Phil Hughes (11-9, 4.40, 1.29).
Glen Perkins was the closer, going 3-5, 3.32, 1.19 with 32 saves. Others who were reliable relievers include Blaine Boyer (3-6, 2.40, 1.25) and Casey Fien (4-6, 3.55, 1.09). Doing well in limited duty were Tyler Duffey (5-1, 3.10, 1.31), Kevin Jepsen (1-1, 1.61, 0.89), Ryan Pressly (3-2, 2.93, 1.41), and Michael Tomkin (0-0, 3.47, 1.29).
The Twins were tenth in ERA at 4.07. Houston led the league at 3.57. They were twelfth in WHIP at 1.33. Cleveland led at 1.19.
Baltimore players with a Twins connection include Hardy, Chris Parmelee, Steve Pearce, and Jonathan Schoop.
It seems like more than five years ago that we had people like Robinson, Boyer and Tomkin. Also playing in this game was J. R. Graham.
This was the middle game of a three-game winning streak. The Twins would go on to win seven of eight.
Record: The Twins were 45-39, in second place in the American League Central, 4.5 games behind Kansas City. They would finish 83-79, in second place, 12 games behind Kansas City.
The Orioles were 43-41, in second place in the American League East, 1.5 games behind New York. They would finish 81-81, in third place, 12 games behind Toronto.
Random Record: The Twins are 44-43 in Random Rewind games.
My grandpa's getting well into his 90s, so he moved into a home awhile back. He didn't want anything in his large, old St. Paul home anymore, so he told the family to take whatever they'd like. I was sad because there were so many great things, including some beautiful and very large pieces, that we just didn't have the space for and/or way to good way to get to us. Below is one small thing I did take though. Grandpa used it as kind of miscellaneous drawer. One, it's a good sturdy drawer that wasn't prohibitively large. Two, I remember it from all the way back as a small child because I could never figure out what the hell those words/name(s?) meant. Cursory G##gle search brought no answers. Anyone have an idea?
(4 votes, average: 8.75 out of 10)Loading... Rube Benton (1890)
Fred Saigh (1905)
Dick Terwilliger (1906)
Wendell Smith (1914)
Lou Kretlow (1921)
Gus Zernial (1923)
Wayne Terwilliger (1925)
Charles Bronfman (1931)
Chuck Coles (1931)
Eddie Kasko (1931)
Rico Petrocelli (1943)
Takashi Nishimoto (1956)
Jeff Conine (1966)
Jim Edmonds (1970)
Daryle Ward (1975)
Chris Woodward (1976)
Luis Rodriguez (1980)
Jim Johnson (1983)
Fred Saigh was the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1947-1953, selling to Anheuser-Busch.
Wendell Smith was an African-American sportswriter who was influential in the choice of Jackie Robinson as the first African-American major league player.
Charles Bronfman was the owner of the Montreal Expos from 1969-1991.
Takashi Nishimoto was a star pitcher in Japan from 1977-1993.
Daryle Ward is the son of ex-Twin Gary Ward.
We would also like to wish a happy anniversary to MagUidhir's brother.
Date: Monday, August 24.
Batting stars: Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth. Shane Mack was 2-for-4. Randy Bush was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Mike Trombley struck out four in three innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits. Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Eric King pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits and one walk and striking out five. Skeeter Barnes was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third. Mark Carreon was 2-for-4. Tony Phillips was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Dan Gladden was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his sixth. Cecil Fielder was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-eighth.
The game: Neither team did much for the first two innings, but the Tigers opened the third with consecutive singles by Carreon, Barnes, and Gary Pettis to take a 1-0 lead. They did no more damage, however, and when Hrbek homered with two out in the fourth, the scored was tied 1-1.
But then Detroit took over in the fifth. Barnes led off with a single and went to third on a stolen base-plus-error. Pettis walked, Phillips hit a two-run double, and Gladden followed with a two-run homer. The Tigers had a 5-1 lead.
The Twins put men on second and third with two out in the bottom of the fifth, but nothing came of it. Fielder homered leading off the seventh to make it 6-1. The Twins got one in the eighth on singles by Chuck Knoblauch and Mack and an infield out by Kirby Puckett, but that was all they could do.
WP: King (4-4). LP: Bill Krueger (10-5). S: None.
Notes: The only variation from the standard 1992 lineup is that Bush was in right field rather than Pedro Munoz, who was apparently just given the day off.
The Twins used their bench in the ninth, although it didn't help any. Jeff Reboulet pinch-ran for Bush. Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Scott Leius. Mike Pagliarulo pinch-hit for Greg Gagne.
Puckett was batting .329. He would finish at .329, which led the team. Mack was batting .325. He would finish at .315. Brian Harper was batting .305. He would finish at .307. As a team the Twins batted a league-leading .277, well ahead of second-place Milwaukee at .268.
The 1992 team was not a homerun-hitting team. Puckett led the squad with 19. Mack was second at 16, followed by Hrbek with 15 and Munoz and Chili Davis with 12 each. The Twins hit 104 home runs, which was tenth in the league.
Krueger lasted five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out six. He had a decent-enough year, going 10-6, 4.30, 1.31 WHIP, not bad for a fourth starter. The staff ace was John Smiley, who was 16-9, 3.21, 1.12 WHIP. At the time Smiley was considered somewhat of a disappointment, but that's unfair. The Twins were coming off a World Series win, and Smiley was supposed to be the guy to lead them back there again. When they didn't get there, he got some of the blame, but he more than did his part. The main reason the Twins didn't get back to the World Series is that Oakland improved by twelve games. The Twins had a good team. The Athletics just had a better team.
Anyway, the rest of the rotation was Kevin Tapani (16-11, 3.97, 1.25) and Scott Erickson (13-12, 3.40, 1.32). Another reason the Twins couldn't overtake Oakland is that they couldn't find a fifth starter. Pat Mahomes started and ended the season as the fifth starter, but in the middle it was Willie Banks. Neither of them got the job done. Mahomes was 3-4, 5.04, 1.58 WHIP. Banks was 4-4, 5.70, 1.65 WHIP.
The bullpen was extremely good, with five relievers with ERAs below three. Rick Aguilera was 2-6, 2.84, 1.16. Carl Willis was 7-3, 2.72, 1.06. Tom Edens was 6-3, 2.83, 1.32. Mark Guthrie was 2-3, 2.88, 1.09. Gary Wayne was 3-3, 2.63, 1.35. That's a reliable bullpen.
The Twins were third in ERA at 3.70. Milwaukee led at 3.43. The Twins were second in WHIP at 1.29. Milwaukee led there, too, at 1.22.
By game scores, this was the best game of the season for Eric King. He was a solid pitcher from 1988-1990, but was not any more by 1992. This was his last year, and he went 4-6, 5.22, 1.49. But he was too much for the Twins on this day. That's baseball.
August was the worst month of the season for the Twins, as they went 12-17. One could argue that this poor month cost the Twins the pennant, too.
Record: The Twins were 69-56, in second place in the American League West, 7 games behind Oakland. They would finish 90-72, in second place, 6 games behind Oakland.
The Tigers were 60-66, in fourth place in the American League East, 11.5 games behind Toronto. They would finish 75-87, in sixth place, 21 games behind Toronto.
Random Record: The Twins are 43-43 in Random Rewind games.
Bad news, guys. G.R.R. Martin came out of his hole and saw his shadow. That means (at least) one more year until The Winds Of Winter will come out.
(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... 
