Monthly Archives: June 2020

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 26

Topsy Hartsel (1874)
Babe Herman (1903)
Debs Garms (1907)
Willard Brown (1915)
Howie Pollet (1921)
Bill Robinson (1943)
Dave Rosello (1950)
Mike Myers (1963)
Rodney Myers (1969)
Derek Jeter (1974)
Jason Kendall (1974)

Outfielder Willard Brown was a star for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1935-1948.  He played briefly for the St. Louis Browns in 1947.

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.  I haven't checked but this may be the only time we have two consecutive days with no Twins birthdays.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1961, Game Twenty-nine

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CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Tuesday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Pedro Ramos was 3-for-3 with a home run (his second) and three runs.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Pedro Ramos pitched a complete game despite allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits and four walks and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Cam Carreon was 2-for-4.  Minnie Minoso was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifth), a walk, and two RBIs.  Early Wynn pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on six hits and five walks and striking out seven.

The game:  Ramos led off the third with a home run, putting the Twins up 1-0.  In the bottom of the third, Carreon singled, Al Smith reached on an error, and walks to Nellie Fox and Minoso forced home a run to tie it 1-1.

In the fifth Ramos singled, Lenny Green drew a two-out walk, a wild pitch moved the runners up, and Killebrew delivered a two-run single to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.  Once again the White Sox tied it in the bottom of the inning.  Wynn walked, Smith singled, and Fox hit a two-run triple to make it 3-3.

Ramos led off the seventh with a single, was bunted to second, and scored on Green's double.  But once again, Chicago tied it in the bottom of the inning, as Minoso hit a two-out home run to make the score 4-4.

The White Sox took their only lead of the game in the eighth. Jim Landis walked, Carreon singled, and Wynn delivered a two-out RBI single to make the score 5-4 Chicago.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Wynn (4-1).  LP:  Ramos (3-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Billy Gardner was the second baseman in this game.  We've discussed the 1961 Twins' second base situation a couple of times, and there's no need to do so again.

Reno Bertoia was at third.  He was the regular third baseman until he was traded at the end of May.  Eventually, Bill Tuttle took over at third base.

Dan Dobbek went to left field in place of Jim Lemon in the seventh.  Don Mincher pinch-hit for Bertoia in the ninth.  Elmer Valo pinch-hit for Ramos in the ninth.  I suppose that last move made sense, but given how he had done, it would've been nice to see Ramos get one more chance to bat.

Killebrew was batting .371 on the young season.  He would finish at .288.  Ramos was batting .364.  He would finish at .172.  Earl Battey was batting .333.  He would end up leading the team in batting at .302.  Green was batting .314.  He would finish at .285.  The Twins were seventh in batting at .250.  Cleveland and Detroit tied for the league lead at .266.

Killebrew led the team in home runs with 46.  Bob Allison hit 29, Battey 17, and Lemon 14.  The Twins were four in home runs with 167.  New York led the league with 240.

Ramos led the staff in starts, and while his won-lost record doesn't look good he had a fairly good season.  He went 11-20, 3.95 ERA, 1.30 WHIP.  Camilo Pascual was the ace of the staff, going 15-16, 3.64, 1.21.  Jack Kralick was 13-11, 3.61, 1.33.  Jim Kaat rounded out the rotation at 9-17, 3.90, 1.35.  The only other pitcher with double-digit starts was Don Lee with exactly ten.  He went 3-6, 3.52, 1.11.  The Twins had a poor bullpen, though, and that left them seventh in team ERA at 4.28.  Baltimore led at 3.22.  The Twins were fifth in WHIP at 1.39.  Baltimore led there, too, at 1.25.

Despite his big day, Ramos was not a particularly good batter, going .155/.182/.240 for his career.  He hit 15 home runs in 703 at-bats.  Wynn was a better batter, going .214/.274/.285 in 1704 at-bats.  He hit 17 home runs.

It was kind of an odd game, in that each time the Twins would score in the top of the inning, the White Sox would score the exact same number of runs in the bottom of the inning.  In the end, of course, Chicago cheated and scored in an inning when the Twins did not score, and that was the difference in the game.

This game snapped a four-game winning streak by the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 16-13, in third place in the American League, five games behind Detroit.  They would finish 70-90, in seventh place, 38 games behind New York.

The White Sox were 12-16, in eighth place in the American League, 8.5 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 86-76, in fourth place, 23 games behind New York.

Random Record:  The Twins are 43-42 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 25

Joe Kuhel (1906)
Don Demeter (1935)
Dick Drago (1945)
Clay Kirby (1948)
Bob Shirley (1954)
Alejandro Pena (1959)
Mike Stanley (1963)
Aaron Sele (1970)
Michael Tucker (1971)
Carlos Delgado (1972)
Aramis Ramirez (1978)
Paul Maholm (1982)

First baseman Joe Kuhel played for the franchise for several years while it was in Washington and later managed the team there. However, there do not appear to be any players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1984, Game One Hundred Twenty-four

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MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MILWAUKEE (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Wednesday, August 22.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a triple, a double, and two RBIs.  Houston Jimenez was 2-for-4 with two runs.  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-sixth.

Pitching star:  Mike Smithson pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Ben Oglivie was 2-for-3 with a home run (his tenth) and a walk.  Cecil Cooper was 2-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.  Mike Caldwell pitched a complete game despite allowing five runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out two.

The game:  Oglivie homered in the second to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.  It didn't last long, as the Twins came back with two in the third.  Jimenez singled and Puckett doubled, putting men on second and third with none out.  Sacrifice flies by Dave Meier and Mickey Hatcher brought home the runs.

Milwaukee got a single, a walk, and a hit batsman in the fourth, but a double play took them out of the inning.  In the seventh, Brunansky led off with a home run.  The next two batter went out.  Tim Laudner then struck out, but reached base on a wild pitch.  Jimenez doubled and Puckett delivered a two-run triple, giving the Twins a 5-1 lead.  Cooper homered with two out in the ninth, but the Brewers did not get the tying run up to bat or even come close to doing so.

WP:  Smithson (13-9).  LP:  Caldwell (6-11).  S:  None.

Notes:  Laudner was behind the plate, as you would expect.  He and Dave Engle shared catching duties in 1984, with Engle playing in slightly more games (86-81).  Neither hit all that well, with Engle providing a higher batting average and Laudner providing more power, but their OPS numbers were .661 (Engle) and .647 (Laudner).

Meier was in left field in this game.  Hatcher was the regular left field, but he was the DH in this game, with regular DH Randy Bush out of the lineup.

Neither team made any substitutions and both pitchers threw complete games.  I suspect that didn't happen very often even back then.  Now, of course, it's nearly unheard of.

Hrbek led the team in batting at .318.  He would finish at .311, a figure which would still lead the team.  Hatcher was batting .311--he would finish at .302.  Puckett, in his rookie season, was batting .305--he would finish at .296.  The Twins were tied for sixth in batting at .265.  Boston would lead the league at .283.

Brunansky would lead the team in home runs with 32.  Hrbek was  next at 27, followed by Tim Teufel (14), Bush (11), and Laudner (10).  The Twins hit 114 home runs, which was next-to-last in the league.  Detroit led with 187.  I would not have guessed that the 1984 Twins were next-to-last in home runs.

Smithson led the team in starts with 39 and was one of three reliable starters the Twins had, going 15-13, 3.68, 1.19 WHIP.  Frank Viola was the staff ace, going 18-12, 3.21, 1.16.  John Butcher was 13-11, 3.44, 1.31.  After that it was pray for rain, which doesn't work very well when your home field is a dome.  Ken Schrom, who had pitched well the year before, was 5-11, 4.47, 1.44.  Ed Hodge, in his rookie year (which turned out to also be his last year), was 4-3, 4.77, 1.45, and Al Williams, the Nicaraguan guerrilla fighter, was 3-5, 5.77, 1.41.  If the Twins could've found even a fourth starter, they might well have won the division.

Of course, the bullpen wasn't much help, either.  The two relievers who appeared in the most games were Ron Davis (7-11, 4.55, 1.45) and Pete Filson (6-5, 4.10, 1.35).  Even the guys with better ERAs allowed a ton of baserunners:  Rick Lysander (3.49 ERA, 1.57 WHIP), Len Whitehouse (3.16, 1.47), and Mike Walters (3.72, 1.55).

On the strength of their three good starters, the Twins were fourth in ERA at 3.85.  Detroit led with 3.49.  They were also fourth in WHIP at 1.32.  Detroit led there, too, at 1.26.

Surprisingly, with players like Cooper, Oglivie, Robin Yount, and Ted Simmons, the Brewers finished last in home runs with just 96.  Yount led the team with 16.

The Twins would sweep the doubleheader, their fifth win in six games.

Record:  The Twins were 66-58, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of California and Kansas City.  They would finish 81-81, tied for third with California, three games behind Kansas City.

The Brewers were 52-73, in seventh (last) place in the American League East, 30.5 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 67-94, in last place, 36.5 games behind Detroit.

Random Record:  The Twins are 43-41 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 24

Billy Nash (1865)
George Harper (1892)
Rollie Hemsley (1907)
Jim Mills (1919)
Wally Yonamine (1925)
Don Mincher (1938)
Ken Reitz (1951)
Doug Jones (1957)
Tom Klawitter (1958)
Doug Bernier (1980)
Phil Hughes (1986)

Jim Mills spent almost his entire adult life involved in baseball in the Carolinas.  He played college ball at North Carolina State, played minor league ball for nine seasons in the Carolinas, managed in Carolina minor leagues for six seasons, umpired in the Carolina League for two seasons, was in minor league front offices in the Carolinas from 1956-1971, and was president of the Carolina League for seven years.

Born in Hawaii, Wally Yonamine was a star in Japan from 1951-1962, stealing home eleven times.

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