Sorry (not sorry) for playing Stevie again so fast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99gNYaz6YaM
1974
(2 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
Loading... Date: Saturday, May 20.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth. Roy Smalley was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Willie Norwood was 2-for-5 with a stolen base, his twelfth.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Freddie Patek was 4-for-4 with two stolen bases, his eighth and ninth. Hal McRae was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Amos Otis was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his eighth. George Brett was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Clint Hurdle was 2-for-4 with a double. Rich Gale pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one.
The game: Dan Ford drew a two-out walk in the first and scored from first on a Mike Cubbage double, putting the Twins up 1-0. That would be their only lead of the game.
The Royals loaded the bases in the second and did not score. In the third, however, Willie Wilson led off with a single, stole second, and scored on McRae's single. McRae went to second on the throw home and later scored on an Otis single, giving Kansas City a 2-1 lead.
The Twins got two singles and a walk in the fourth but failed to produce a run with them. It stayed 2-1 until the sixth, when Hurdle doubled and scored on Patek's single to make it 3-1. The Royals then took over in the seventh. McRae singled, George Brett doubled, and Al Cowens singled to make it 4-1. Otis walked to load the bases and Hurdle singled to give Kansas City a 5-1 advantage.
The Twins tried to get back into it in the eighth. Norwood singled and Carew hit a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 5-3. But the Twins gave a run back in the bottom of the sixth when Patek singled, stole second, and scored on McRae's double. In the ninth Jose Morales walked and Smalley doubled, bringing the tying run to the plate with none out. It came to nothing, however, as the next two batters fanned and a popup to the pitcher ended the game.
WP: Gale (4-0). LP: Paul Thormodsgard (1-6). S: Al Hrabosky (5).
Notes: Rob Wilfong was at second base. He platooned with Bobby Randall, kind of, but the right-handed Randall still got more playing time. One assumes Randall was considered the better defender, because there's not a lot to choose from offensively.
The Twins made liberal use of their bench, although it doesn't seem to have helped much. Rich Chiles pinch-hit for Wilfong in the eighth, with Randall coming in to play second. Larry Wolfe pinch-hit for Cubbage in the eighth and stayed in the game at third. Morales pinch-hit for Glenn Adams in the ninth. Bombo Rivera pinch-hit for Hosken Powell in the ninth. Craig Kusick pinch-hit for Randall in the ninth.
Carew was batting .397. He would falter, finishing the season at .333. Rivera was batting .341. He would finish at .271. Morales was batting .333. He would finish at .314. Cubbage was batting .321. He would finish at .282. The Twins finished fifth in batting at .267.
Smalley led the team in home runs with 19. The only other Twin in double figures was Dan Ford at 11. The Twins cleanup hitter in this game was Cubbage, who finished the season with 7 homers and a slugging average of .401. The Twins were dead last in home runs with 82, fifteen behind the next-to-last team.
Thormodsgard started and pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out one. The Twins' rotation wasn't bad: Roger Erickson (14-13, 3.96), Geoff Zahn (14-14, 3.03), Dave Goltz (15-10, 2.49), and Gary Serum (9-9, 4.10). Thor was the odd man out at (1-6, 5.05), but he would be replaced by Darrell Jackson (4-6, 4.48).
It was kind of fun hearing the names of those great Royals players of the seventies.
Clint Hurdle is regarded as a first-round bust, and I guess he was, but it was because of injuries, not a lack of ability. In 1980, his age twenty-two season, he batted .294/.349/.458. He then suffered a back injury and was never again the same player. He was never able to play more than 78 games in a season and never had more than 184 plate appearances. Had it not been for the back injury, he could have had a tremendous career.
This was the fifth game of a stretch in which the Twins won seven of eight. Random.org gave us their only loss in that stretch.
Record: The Twins were 14-24, in fifth place in the American League West, 9.5 games behind Oakland. They would finish 73-89, in fourth place, 19 games behind Kansas City.
The Royals were 19-16, in third place in the American League West, 3 games behind Oakland. They would finish 92-70, in first place, 5 games ahead of California and Texas.
Random record: The Twins are 38-34 in Random Rewind games.
I loooove a good sammich. Love em. So naturally my stomach started to rumble when I saw this tweet that I'm sure many of you saw as well:
https://twitter.com/ianmnoone/status/1270168431736885250?s=20
It's by no means exhaustive, but it's as good a list as any (here's a link to the chart if you don't Tweeter). It's so hard to limit oneself to just one choice, so how about we give everyone a bunch of choices:
What is your favorite sammich? (Six choices!)
Total Voters: 30
Loading ...Joe Hornung (1857)
Sol White (1868)
Red Dooin (1879)
Matty McIntyre (1880)
Otto Knabe (1884)
Bill Foster (1904)
Dutch Rennert (1930)
Gerry Arrigo (1941)
Jim Strickland (1946)
Scott Aldred (1968)
Damon Buford (1970)
Ryan Klesko (1971)
Damon Hollins (1974)
Hideki Matsui (1974)
Sol White was a Negro League player, manager, and executive. He wrote the first history of African-American baseball, "Sol White's History of Colored Baseball", in 1907.
Bill Foster was a star pitcher in the Negro Leagues. He was the stepbrother of Rube Foster.
Dutch Rennert was a National League umpire from 1974-1992.
We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Eric B. B. Wherever he may b.
Date: Friday, May 17.
Batting stars: Ehire Adrianza was 2-for-3 with a home run (his third), two runs and two RBIs. Max Kepler was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Marwin Gonzalez was 2-for-5 with two runs.
Pitching stars: Martin Perez struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up one run on five hits and four walks. Matt Magill struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a walk. Mike Morin pitched a scoreless inning.
Opposition stars: Austin Adams retired all six men he faced, striking out four. Edwin Encarnacion was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Dee Gordon was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his twelfth. Mitch Haniger was 0-for-1 with three walks.
The game: The Mariners put men on second and third with one out in the first, but a pair of strikeouts ended the inning. The Twins started the scoring in the third on Adrianza's solo home run. In the fourth, the Twins opened the inning with consecutive singles by Gonzalez, C. J. Cron, Willians Astudillo, and Kepler, making the score 2-0. They added one more on Adrianza's sacrifice fly to take a 3-0 lead.
The Twins built their lead some more in the fifth. Jorge Polanco and Gonzalez singled and Cron walked, loading the bases with one out. Astudillo hit a sacrifice fly, and an error moved everyone up a base. Kepler then delivered a two-run single, making it 6-0 Twins.
Seattle got their lone run in the bottom of the fifth. With two out Gordon singled, Haniger walked, and Encarnacion had an RBI single. They had only one hit after that, a two-out double by J. P. Crawford in the sixth. The Twins added a run in the ninth when Adrianza singled and scored from first on a two-out double by Jonathan Schoop.
WP: Perez (6-1). LP: Marco Gonzales (5-3). S: None.
Notes: Astudillo was the catcher in this game, one of 21 games he caught. Mitch Garver and Jason Castro split the catching duties almost evenly, with Garver catching 82 games and Castro 78.
Adrianza was at third base. Miguel Sano, who would become the third baseman, was just getting back from injury. This was his second game of the season, and he was the DH. Nelson Cruz, the regular DH, missed a few weeks due to injury.
Gonzalez was in left field in place of Eddie Rosario, who was apparently just given the day off.
The Twins did not make any position player substitutions.
Polanco was leading the team in batting at .331. He would finish at .295. Luis Arraez, who had not been brought up yet, would lead the team in batting at .334. Cruz would be the only other .300 hitter, at .311. The Twins were second in the league in batting at .270.
Cruz would lead the team in home runs with 41. The Twins would have eleven batters who hit double-digit home runs: Kepler (36), Sano (34), Rosario (32), Garver (31), Cron (25), Schoop (23), Polanco (22), Gonzalez (15), Castro (13), and Byron Buxton (10). As you know, the Twins would set a new record for home runs in a season with 307.
Perez was 6-1, 2.89 at this point of the season. Unfortunately, he couldn't sustain that, and ended up at 10-7, 5.12. The Twins had three solid starters: Jose Berrios (14-8, 3.68), Jake Odorizzi (15-7, 3.51), and Michael Pineda (15-11, 4.01). They struggled after that, though, with Perez and Kyle Gibson (13-7, 4.84). When Pineda was suspended they really struggled, which led to Randy Dobnak making a start in the playoffs.
The Twins used 31 pitchers in 2019. So they won't be forgotten, let's tip our cap to Andrew Vasquez, Chase DeJong, Jorge Alcala, and Austin Adams, each of whom pitched one or two games for the Twins last season.
This was the fourth game of a five-game winning streak for the Twins. After a loss they would win six more in a row, meaning they won eleven of twelve.
Record: The Twins were 29-15, in first place in the American League Central, 5.5 games ahead of Cleveland. They would finish 101-61, in first place, 8 games ahead of Cleveland.
The Mariners were 22-25, in fourth place in the American League West, nine games behind Houston. They would finish 68-94, in fifth (last) place, 39 games behind Houston.
Rewind Record: The Twins are 38-33 in Random Rewind games.
Roger Bresnahan (1879)
Ernie Nevers (1902)
Dan Topping (1912)
Frank Thomas (1929)
Jimmy Stewart (1939)
Danny Morris (1946)
Dave Cash (1948)
Tom Austin (1951)
Mike Fuentes (1958)
Brian Gorman (1959)
Mike Davis (1959)
Odalis Perez (1978)
Bobby Keppel (1982)
Jose Reyes (1983)
Football great Ernie Nevers, born in Willow River, Minnesota, pitched for the St. Louis Browns for parts of three seasons (1926-1928).
Dan Topping was part-owner of the New York Yankees from 1945-1966.
Tom Austin is a long-time college baseball coach at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Outfielder Mike Fuentes was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round in 1980, but did not sign.
Brian Gorman has been a major league umpire since 1993.
We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to UncleWalt.
Welcome to the Twins, Aaron Sabato!
Also, congratulations to Gophers pitcher Max Meyer going 3rd overall.
DON'T FORGET TO PUT IN YOUR SUMMER MIX NOMINATIONS!!!
NSFW
(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 10)Loading... Date: Friday, August 6.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Ron Coomer was 3-for-5 with a home run (his thirteenth), three runs, and three RBIs. Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a stolen base (his fifth) and two runs. Chad Allen was 3-for-5. Todd Walker was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
Pitching stars: Dan Perkins pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk. Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit. Hector Carrasco pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk. Mike Trombley allowed three walks but still pitched a scoreless inning, striking out two.
Opposition stars: Jeremy Giambi was 3-for-5. Mike Sweeney was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs. Rey Sanchez was 2-for-4. Joe Randa was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Johnny Damon was 2-for-5 with a walk and a stolen base, his twenty-second. Carlos Febles was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his ninth) and a stolen base (his eighteenth). Carlos Beltran was 1-for-6 with a home run, his seventeenth.
The game: In the top of the first Guzman had a one-out single, went to second on a Walker walk, took third on a sacrifice fly, and scored on Koskie's single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Royals came right back in the bottom of the first. Damon led off with a single and Febles followed with a two-run homer, making it 2-1 Kansas City.
Kansas City added to their lead. In the second Sanchez reached second on a single-plus-error and scored on Damon's single. Beltran led off the third with a home run, Sweeney singled, Jermaine Dye walked, and Randa had an RBI double. The first out followed, but then Giambi had an RBI single and a sacrifice fly plated another run. The Royals led 7-1 after three innings.
The Twins did not start their comeback until the sixth. Walker led off with a double and went to third on Coomer's single. Koskie had a sacrifice fly for the first out, but Chad Allen singled and Matt Lawton walked, loading the bases. Terry Steinbach had an RBI single and a ground out plated another run, cutting the margin to 7-4.
Kansas City scored a two-out run in the sixth when Sweeney doubled and scored on Dye's single. The Twins came right back with two in the seventh. Coomer homered for one run, and consecutive two-out singles by Koskie, Allen, and Lawton made the score 8-6. They took the lead for the first time since the first inning in the eighth. Torii Hunter and Guzman had one-out singles. With two down Coomer hit a two-run single to tie it. Koskie singled him to second, and Allen had another single, bringing home the go-ahead run.
The Royals did not go away quietly. In the bottom of the ninth, pinch-hitter Scott Pose walked and stole second. With two out, Tom Kelly gave an intentional walk to Damon, putting the potential winning run on base. An accidental walk to Jed Hansen (who?) loaded the bases, but Beltran struck out to end the game.
WP: Miller (2-0). LP: Scott Service (4-4). S: Trombley (17).
Notes: Jacque Jones was in center field, rather than Hunter. Both had center field as their primary position in 1999, with Hunter playing 107 games then and Jones 82. Clearly, then, there were games when each of them played in center field at some point, and that was the case in this game. Jones started, but Hunter pinch-hit for him in the sixth and stayed in the game in center field.
Coomer was the DH rather than Marty Cordova. This was one of only seven times Coomer was at DH in 1999. He played 71 games at first base, which he shared with Doug Mientkiewicz, and 57 games at third base, which he shared with Koskie. He was, of course, the Twins' "all-star" in 1999.
Cordova pinch-hit for Mientkiewicz in the sixth inning, with Denny Hocking then going to first base. Brent Gates replaced Walker at second base in the eighth.
Terry Steinbach led the team in batting at .309. He would finish at .284. Koskie was batting .308. He would finish at .310, which would lead the team at the end. The Twins were eighth in team batting average at .264.
Coomer led the team in home runs at 16. Koskie followed with 14. Koskie had 11 and Allen 10. The Twins were dead last in home runs with 105, forty below the thirteenth-place team, Tampa Bay.
Twins starter Eric Milton did not retire a man in the third inning. In two official innings, he allowed seven runs (six earned) on seven hits and two walks. He did strike out four. You couldn't tell it from this game, but he actually pitched pretty well over the last four months of the season, going 5-7, 3.86, 1.10 WHIP. Other than Milton, Brad Radke, and Joe Mays (6-9, 3.72 as a starter), the Twins' starters were pretty terrible. LaTroy Hawkins (10-14, 6.66), Mike Lincoln (6-10, 6.84), and Dan Perkins (1-7, 6.54). The Twins had 66 starts made by pitchers who had ERAs over 6. It's hard to win very many games that way, and of course in 1999 the Twins didn't.
Trombley became the closer when Rick Aguilera was traded in May. He did okay, saving 24 games and getting only one blown save. He wasn't used the way closers are now, or even the way closers usually were then. He came into a lot of tie games and came into a number of games in the eighth inning. It was his only shot at being a closer--he signed with Baltimore in 2000. The Twins didn't really have a closer in 2000, Hawkins was given the job in 2001, and eventually Eddie Guardado took over.
Jed Hansen played in parts of three seasons for the Royals, mostly at second base. He played in 87 games, had 208 plate appearances, and batted .256/.342/.375. Most of his positives were in his first season, 1997, when he batted .309/.394/.426 in 111 plate appearances--the rest of the time he was around the Mendoza line. He was a good hitter in the low minors but basically topped out at AA. In just over a thousand AAA games he batted .255/.342/.433. Not embarrassing or anything, but not something that projects as a good batter in the majors, either. Had he been a really good fielder he might have been able to have a career as a utility infielder, but one gets the impression that he was nothing special as a defender. He kept playing until 2006, but 1999 was his swan song in the majors.
The was the first game of a three-game series which the Twins would sweep. They were coming off a four-game losing streak.
Record: The Twins were 45-62, in third place in the American League Central, 19.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 63-97, in fifth (last) place, 33 games behind Cleveland.
The Royals were 45-63, in fourth place in the American League Central, 20 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 64-97, 32.5 games behind Cleveland.
Rewind Record: The Twins are 37-33 in Random Rewind games.
Jack Graney (1886)
Garland Braxton (1900)
Danny McFayden (1905)
Vic Harris (1905)
Mike Kreevich (1908)
Frank Demaree (1910)
Chuck Thompson (1921)
Hank Foiles (1929)
Carmen Cozza (1930)
Ed Palmquist (1933)
Kazuhisa Inao (1937)
Johnny Edwards (1938)
Ken Singleton (1947)
Elias Sosa (1950)
Gerry Hunsicker (1950)
Francisco Barrios (1953)
Floyd Bannister (1955)
Scott Ullger (1955)
Pokey Reese (1973)
Al Alburquerque (1986)
Jack Graney had a few unusual "firsts". He was the first major leaguer to bat against Babe Ruth. He was the first player to wear a number on his uniform. He as also the first player to become a broadcaster.
Outfielder Vic Harris was a long-time Negro League player and manager, leading the Homestead Grays to nine Negro National League pennants.
Chuck Thompson was a long-time broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles.
Outfielder Carmen Cozza played in the low minors in 1952-1953, batting .242. He later became a college football coach, most notably at Yale. Upon his retirement in 1996, he held the record for most coaching victories in the Ivy League (179) and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
Kazuhisa Inao is one of the greatest pitchers in Japanese baseball history.
Gerry Hunsicker is a long-time baseball executive, working for the Mets, the Astros, and the Rays.
