Monthly Archives: July 2020

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1981, Game Ninety-six

TEXAS 6, MINNESOTA 0 IN TEXAS.

Date:  Saturday, September 19.

Batting stars:  Sal Butera was 1-for-3.  Hosken Powell was 1-for-4.  Those were the only two hits the Twins had.

Pitching star:  Bob Veselic pitched 6.2 scoreless innings of relief, giving up four hits and two walks and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Doc Medich pitched a two-hit shutout, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out four.  Mickey Rivers was 3-for-5.  Al Oliver was 2-for-4.

The game:  All the runs were scored in the second inning.  Twins starter Darrell Jackson struck out Leon Roberts to start the inning.  Then Jim Sundberg and Bill Stein singled, with Stein taking second on a throw to third.  That led to an intentional walk to Billy Sample.  Then Mark Wagner had an RBI single, Bump Wills had a two-run single, Rivers had an RBI single, and Oliver had a run-scoring single.  Veselic then came in and gave up a two-out double RBI double to Roberts, making the score 6-0.

And that was it.  The Twins, as stated above, had just two hits, and both were singles.  Butera broke up the no-hitter in the eighth inning.  Powell singled leading off the ninth.

WP:  Medich.  (9-5).  LP:  Jackson (3-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Tim Corcoran was at first base.  The Twins didn't really have a regular first baseman.  Danny Goodwin played 40 games there, Ron Jackson 36, Corcoran 16, Kent Hrbek (a September call-up) 13, and Pete Mackanin 10.

Ron Washington was at shortstop.  Roy Smalley had been the regular shortstop, but missed a month due to injury and was the DH when he came back.

Gary Ward, who normally was the left fielder, was in center in place of Mickey Hatcher, who was given the day off.  Rick Sofield was in left.  Powell was in right in place of Dave Engle, who was given the day off.

The Twins didn't have anyone come remotely close to batting .300.  John Castino led the team in batting at .268.  As I recall, Bill James referred to him as the team's "least inadequate player".  The Twins finished next-to-last in batting at .240.  Toronto was last at .226.  Boston led the league at .275.

Smalley led the team in home runs with seven.  That's right, seven.  Yes, it was a strike year, and the Twins only played 109 games (that's why game 96 is in September).  But seven?  I suspect you'd have to go back to the deadball era to find another time someone led their team in home runs with seven.  I suspect that even with a sixty-game schedule this year (assuming it's actually played), every team will have someone who hits more than seven home runs.  That's embarrassing.  Remarkably, the Twins were only next-to-last in home runs with 47.  Cleveland was last with 39 (their leader in home runs was Bo Diaz, who also had seven).  Oakland led the league in home runs with 104.

Jackson lasted just 1.1 innings, allowing all six runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out one.  The Twins' rotation really wasn't awful, although it was nothing to shout about.  Pete Redfern was 9-8, 4.07; Al Williams 6-10, 4.08; Fernando Arroyo 7-10, 3.93; Roger Erickson 3-8, 3.84; Jerry Koosman 3-9, 4.20; and Brad Havens 3-6, 3.58.  The bullpen had Doug Corbett, who posted an ERA of 2.57, a WHIP of 1.30, and 17 saves.  Koosman had five saves--for reasons I forget now, the Twins put him in the bullpen in August before trading him to Chicago in September. Veselic, who pitched so well in this game, was a September call-up who went 1-1, 3.18 in five games (22.2 innings).  He would never get another chance, though--he pitched poorly in AAA in 1982 and again in 1983 and was done.

The Twins were next-to-last in ERA at 3.98.  Seattle was last at 4.23.  New York led the league at 2.90.  The Twins were last in WHIP at 1.43.  New York led there, too, at 1.18.  I hadn't remembered that 1981 was such a pitchers' year, but apparently it was.

Doc Medich has been pretty much forgotten about, but he was a pretty fair pitcher.  124-105, 3.78, 1.33 WHIP in just under two thousand innings.  1981 was probably his best year:  10-6, 3.08, 1.18 WHIP, led the league in shutouts with 4.  I'm not nominating him for the Hall of Fame or anything, but he was a solid major league pitcher for several years.

I have always considered 1981 the nadir of Twins baseball.  Yes, they've had teams with worse winning percentages, although not a lot of them.  But their other bad teams have had a star you could root for, or some young up-and-coming players to give you hope, or something.  The 1981 Twins had none of that until September, when they started calling up players like Hrbek and Gary Gaetti.  Here's the list of the nine players who played the most games for the Twins in 1981:  Castino, Hatcher, Rob Wilfong, Ward, Engle, Powell, Mackanin, Glenn Adams, Sal Butera.  A few of those guys weren't terrible, eventually, but none was good.  The highest OPS out of that group was Engle at .703.  Engle was also the only young player, at 24.  The rest were all 26-27 or older, and so were as good as they were likely to be (granted, Ward was able to develop into a good player for a few years).  It was just a really hard team to root for.

Record:  The Twins were 36-59 overall.  As you may recall, the strike resulted in the schedule being divided into two halves--the Twins were 19-22 in the second half at this point.  They would finish 24-29, in fourth place in the American League West, six games behind Kansas City.  Overall they would finish 41-68, in seventh (last) place, 23 games behind Oakland.

The Rangers were 49-42 overall.  They would finish 24-26 in the second half, in third place in the American League West, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.  Overall they would finish 57-48, in second place, five games behind Oakland.

Random record:  The Twins are 51-49 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 10

Jimmy McAleer (1864)
Bobby Lowe (1865)
John Heydler (1869)
Wayne Blackburn (1914)
Paul Pryor (1927)
Gene Alley (1940)
Hal McRae (1945)
Bob Bailor (1951)
Andre Dawson (1954)
Buddy Groom (1965)
Lee Stevens (1967)
Marty Cordova (1969)
ByungHo Park (1986)
Ryan Wheeler (1988)

John Heydler was the president of the National League from 1918-1934.

Wayne Blackburn was a minor league infielder from 1936-1956.  He drew over 1,400 walks in his career.

Paul Pryor was a National League umpire from 1961-1981 and is an alumnus of the author’s alma mater, the University of South Dakota.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–July 10 →

Cup of Coffee

July 10, 2020: Hot Dog!

36 Comments

Okay, I came across this picture, so let's do this again! What's your favorite hot dog, a thing that is definitely not a sandwich?

What is the best hot dog? (Pick 3)

  • New York (16%, 6 Votes)
  • Michigan (11%, 4 Votes)
  • Corn Dog/Pronto Pup* (11%, 4 Votes)
  • Chicago (8%, 3 Votes)
  • Coney (8%, 3 Votes)
  • "Doyer" Dog (8%, 3 Votes)
  • Half Smoke* (8%, 3 Votes)
  • Bagel Dog (5%, 2 Votes)
  • Sonora (5%, 2 Votes)
  • Germany (5%, 2 Votes)
  • Tijuana (5%, 2 Votes)
  • Korea (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Seattle (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Italian (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Dodger Dog (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Kansas City (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Montreal (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Japan (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Columbia (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Carolina (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 15

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(*I did add a couple choices that I know may upset some if they weren't included. I did not add all the other choices that people will be upset aren't included.)

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2008, Game One Hundred Twenty-five

2 Comments

MINNESOTA 13, OAKLAND 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 19.

Batting stars:  Brian Buscher was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), two runs, and five RBIs.  Justin Morneau was 3-for-4 with two doubles and three runs.  Brendan Harris was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.  Randy Ruiz was 2-for-4 with a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Nick Punto was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Carlos Gomez was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his sixth.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Slowey struck out twelve in seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and no walks.  Brian Bass pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Mark Ellis was 2-for-4.  Kurt Suzuki was 1-for-3 with a home run, his seventh.

The game:  Suzuki homered leading off the second to give the Athletics a 1-0 lead.  It was all Twins after that.  In the bottom of the second Jason Kubel singled, Buscher hit a two-run homer, Harris singled, and Denard Span tripled, giving the Twins a 3-1 lead.  In the third Joe Mauer singled, Morneau had an RBI double, Ruiz hit a run-scoring single, and Harris had an RBI double, putting the Twins up 6-1.

Oakland got one back in the fifth on a run-scoring double by Jack Hannahan.  In the fifth, however, Morneau doubled, Ruiz walked, Buscher had an RBI single, Harris hit a sacrifice fly, and Gomez delivered a two-run homer, making the score 10-2.  In the sixth, Punto doubled, Mauer walked, Morneau singled to load the bases, Ruiz had an RBI single, and Buscher drove in two with a single, bringing the score to 13-2.  The Twins apparently got tired of running around the bases at that point, because that's how the score ended.

WP:  Slowey (10-8).  LP:  Sean Gallagher (4-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Punto was at second in place of Alexi Casilla, who was out for three weeks.  That put Harris at shortstop--Punto played 61 games at short and Harris 55, with Adam Everett playing 44.  Kubel was in left in place of Delmon Young, who was given the day off.  That put Ruiz at DH.

The only position-player substitution was Mike Lamb pinch-hitting for Morneau in the eighth.  He stayed in the game at first base.

Ruiz was batting .379 at this point (29 at-bats).  He would finish at .274.  Mauer was batting .324.  He would lead the team at .328.  Span was batting .318.  He would finish at .294.  Buscher was batting .314.  He would also finish at .294.  Morneau was batting .309.  He would finish at .300.  The Twins batted .279, which was third in the league.  Texas led at .283.

Morneau led the team with 23 homers.  Kubel was second with 20 and Young hit ten.  The Twins hit 111 homers, which was dead last in the league.  Chicago led with 235, more than twice the Twins' total.

Scott Baker was the staff ace, going 11-4, 3.45, 1.18 WHIP.  Slowey did well, going 12-11, 3.99, 1.15.  Nick Blackburn led in starts with 33 and went 11-11, 4.05, 1.36.  Glen Perkins was 12-4, 4.41, 1.47.  Livan Hernandez was 10-8, 5.48, 1.63.  Francisco Liriano did well when he could pitch, but made just 14 starts, going 6-4, 3.91, 1.40.  The only other starter was Boof Bonser, who was 3-7, 5.93, 1.48.

Joe Nathan had a tremendous year, posting an ERA of 1.33, a WHIP of 0,90, and 39 saves.  Dennys Reyes had a 2.33 ERA and a WHIP of 1.19.  Jesse Crain posted an ERA of 3.59 and a WHIP of 3.72.  The weak link was Matt Guerrier, who appeared in 76 games but went 6-9, 5.19, 1.59 WHIP.  He had started pretty well, but completely imploded in the last two months of the season, going 0-5 with an ERA over ten and a WHIP over two in 25 games.  Of course, some responsibility has to go to Ron Gardenhire for continuing to send him out there when he clearly wasn't getting the job done.

The Twins were seventh in ERA at 4.16.  Toronto led at 3.49, which was well ahead of second-place Tampa Bay (3.82).  The Twins were also seventh in WHIP at 1.35.  Toronto led there, too, at 1.24.

In addition to Suzuki, Oakland also used ex-Twin Rob Bowen.

Jack Cust was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.  It seems probable that Jack Cussed.

Athletics starter Sean Gallagher was allowed to go five innings, allowing ten runs on eleven hits and three walks.  They had used four pitchers for multiple innings over the last two games, so presumably Bob Geren just felt he needed some innings out of Gallagher whether he was getting anything accomplished or not.

I don't think I could've told you that the Twins once had a player called Randy Ruiz.

This was the first of a four-game winning streak and the sixth game of a stretch in which the Twins would win eight of nine.

Record:  The Twins were 71-54, in second place in the American League Central, a half game behind Chicago.  They would finish 88-75, in second place, one game behind Chicago after losing game 163,

The Athletics were 57-68, in third place in the American League West, 19.5 games behind Los Angeles.  They would finish 75-86, in third place, 24.5 games behind Los Angeles.

Random record:  The Twins are 51-48 in Random Rewind games.  This is the first time they've been three games over .500 for some time.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 9

Jack Powell (1874)
Buck Herzog (1885)
Glenn Myatt (1897)
Wally Post (1929)
Marty Springstead (1937)
Mike Andrews (1943)
Hal Haydel (1944)
Sonny Jackson (1944)
Steve Luebber (1949)
Willie Wilson (1955)
Miguel Montero (1983)

Marty Springstead was an American League umpire from 1966-1986.  He later was a supervisor of umpires.

We would also like to extend our best birthday wishes to Pepper.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–July 9 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1967, Game Sixty-six

MINNESOTA 1, CHICAGO 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, June 23.

Batting stars:  Bob Allison was 2-for-3.  Jerry Zimmerman was 2-for-3.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a home run, his twenty-second.

Pitching star:  Dean Chance pitched a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and one walk and striking out four.

Opposition star:  Joel Horlen pitched seven innings, giving up one run on six hits no walks and striking out two.  He was also 1-for-2 at the plate.

The game:  It was a pitchers' duel.  No one got past first base until the third, when Horlen singled with two out and went to second when Tommie Agee reached on an error.  Don Buford struck out to end the inning.  No one got past first after that until the sixth, when Agee hit a one-out double.  He was stranded on second.

With one out in the seventh Killebrew hit a home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  And that was pretty much it.  Chance retired the last eight men he faced and the Twins won 1-0.

WP:  Chance (10-5).  LP:  Horlen (8-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Cesar Tovar was at third base in place of Rich Rollins.  Rollins played 97 games at third compared to Tovar's 72, so this was not an unusual arrangement.  Tovar also played 64 games in center and 35 at second base, as well as a handful of games at short and each of the corner outfield positions.  He's mostly forgotten now, other than by old Twins fans, but you can make the argument that Tovar is among the greatest multi-position players ever.

Sandy Valdespino came in for defense in the ninth, replacing Allison in left field.

Carew was batting .319.  He would finish at .292, which still led the team.  On the other end, Zimmerman was batting .157.  He would finish at .167 with an OPS of .436.  He was the regular catcher this year due to injuries to Earl Battey.  He was reputed to be a superior defensive catcher, and I certainly hope he was, because he contributed nothing on offense.  The Twins batted .240, which was tied for third in the league.  Boston led at .255, well above second-place Detroit, which batted .243.

Killebrew naturally led the team with 44 home runs.  Allison hit 24 and Tony Oliva 17.  The Twins hit 131 home runs, tied for fourth in the league.  Boston led there, too, with 158.

We went through the 1967 pitching staff a couple of weeks ago, so we won't repeat that.  The Twins had 58 complete games in 1967.  Chance led with 18.  Jim Kaat had 13, and Jim Merritt and Dave Boswell each had 11.  Jim Perry, who made 11 starts and relieved 26 times, had three complete games.  Mudcat Grant, who battled injuries all season, still had two complete games.  Al Worthington was the relief ace, going 8-9, 2.84 with 16 saves.  Ron Kline went 7-1, 3.77 with 5 saves and Jim Roland posted a 3.03 ERA with 2 saves.  The Twins were second in ERA at 3.14, although that was well behind league-leading Chicago at 2.45.  The Twins were third in WHIP at 1.19.  Chicago led there, too, at 1.12.

In the sixth, with the game still scoreless, Zimmerman led off with a single and then was caught stealing second.  Zimmerman had one career stolen base, in his rookie year of 1961.  He had two stolen base attempts that season.  He had only one more stolen base attempt in his career, this one.  My guess is that the batter, Chance, was supposed to bunt and missed.  I have no real evidence for that, but I can't think of any other reason you'd have Zimmerman try to steal.  You'd have the element of surprise on your side, I guess, but that's about it.

I wonder if, in 1968, manager Cal Ermer made a statement to the effect that who they really missed was Jerry Zimmerman.

This was Horlen's best year.  He went 19-7 and led the league in ERA at 2.06.  He also led in shutouts with 6 and WHIP at 0.95.  It was the second time he'd led the league in WHIP (1964, 0.94).  He made the all-star team for the only time in his career.  He was second to Jim Lonborg in Cy Young voting.  You can make the argument that he should have won the award, but Lonborg won 22 games and played for the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox.  He finished fourth in MVP voting, ahead of Lonborg but behind Carl Yastrzemski, Killebrew, and Bill Freehan.

Record:  The Twins were 33-32, in fourth place in the American League, six games behind Chicago.  They would finish 91-71, tied for second with Detroit, one game behind Boston.

The White Sox were 38-25, in first place in the American League, three games ahead of Detroit.  They would finish 89-73, in fourth place, three games behind Boston.

People who read carefully may have noticed that this is the Twins 66th game, but their record was 33-32, which only adds up to 65.  Why, you ask?  Two days earlier they had played a tie game with Detroit, 5-5.  They would play another tie game on July 25 with New York, 1-1, so they actually played 164 games in 1967.  Tovar played in all 164 games despite not having a regular position.  The record is 165, by Maury Wills in 1962.  That total includes a best-of-three playoff.

Random record:  The Twins are 50-48 in Random Rewind games.