Monthly Archives: July 2020

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 24

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Tommy McCarthy (1863)
Jack Clements (1864)
Joe Schultz (1893)
Cotton Nash (1942)
Mike Port (1945)
Shigeru Takada (1945)
Mike Adams (1948)
Jerry Augustine (1952)
Barry Bonds (1964)
Joe Oliver (1965)
Jim Wolf (1969)
Shawn Wooten (1974)
Brent Stentz (1975)

Outfielder Joe Schultz, who played in parts of eleven major league seasons, is the father of the Joe Schultz made famous by Jim Bouton in Ball Four.  He is also a cousin to big-leaguers Hanz and Frank Lobert.

Mike Port is a long-time major league baseball executive, serving as the general manager of the California Angels from 1984-1991.

Shigeru Takada was a star in Japan from 1968-1980.  He also was a manager, general manager, and television commentator.

Jim Wolf has been a major league umpire since 1999.

Pitcher Brent Stentz did not play in the majors, but was in the Twins’ minor league system from 1997-2001.  In 1998, he set an Eastern League record with 43 saves.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–July 24 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1961, Game Forty-five

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DETROIT 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN DETROIT

Date:  Saturday, June 3.

Batting star:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Pedro Ramos pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits and five walks and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Don Mossi pitched a complete game, giving up one run on seven hits and one walk and striking out four.  Rocky Colavito was 1-for-4 with a home run (his fourteenth), two walks, and two runs.

The game:  The Tigers put two on in the second and the Twins put two on in the third, but there was no score until the sixth.  Colavito drew a one-out walk and Norm Cash followed with a single-plus-error, putting men on second and third.  Steve Boros was intentionally walked, but Charlie Maxwell was accidentally walked, forcing in the first run of the game.

The Twins got a pair of two-out singles in the eighth, but could not get on the board.  Colavito homered leading off the bottom of the eighth to make it 2-0.  Bill Tuttle led off the ninth with a single and Jim Lemon drew a one-out walk.  A forceout put men on first and third with two down.  Bob Allison singled, making it 2-1 and putting the winning run on base, but Billy Martin hit into a forceout to end the game.

WP:  Mossi (6-0).  LP:  Ramos (3-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Allison was at first base, with Harmon Killebrew at third.  Killebrew normally played first in 1961, and when he didn't Don Mincher was usually at first--Allison played the vast majority of his games in right field.  I don't know why the Twins went with this arrangement in this game.  Tuttle, who did most of the third basing, was in center field, a position normally manned by Lenny Green.  With Allison on first, Lemon moved from left to right and Green was in left.

When the bases were loaded with one out in the sixth, manager Cookie Lavagetto switched Green to right and Lemon to left.  After the walk forced in the run, he moved them back.  After Chico Fernandez fanned for the second out, he switched them around again.  I'm sure he had very good reasons for it.

Billy Gardner pinch-hit for Earl Battey in the ninth.  Jose Valdivielso pinch-ran for Lemon.  Jim Kaat pinch-ran for Gardner.

Killebrew was batting .328.  He would finish at .288.  Versalles was batting .316.  He would finish at .280.  Green was batting .305.  He would finish at .285.

We've been through the Twins 1961 stats at least a couple of times, so there's no need to repeat it.

This was Don Mossi's best year.  He went 15-7, 2.96 with a WHIP of 1.18.  He had 12 complete games.  He was better than I realized:  101-80, 3.43, 1.21 WHIP.  He appeared in 460 games, 165 of them starts.  He spent his first five years with Cleveland and the next five with Detroit, finishing up with a year in Chicago and one in Kansas City.

Charlie Maxwell had a pretty long career, too.  He first came to the big leagues in 1950 with Boston, but he never got a chance at regular play until mid-1955, when he was sold to Detroit.  He responded in 1956 with a tremendous season, batting .326/413/.534 and making the first of two all-star teams.  He was a regular through 1960, but he slumped to .237 that season and became a reserve in 1961.  He kept playing through 1964 and batted .264/.360/.451 for his career.  One wonders what he might have done if he'd gotten a chance to play regularly before he was 29.  yes, the Red Sox had Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio at that time, but they were also giving regular play to people like Faye Throneberry and Tom Umphlett.  It might have been worth giving Maxwell a shot.

This was the seventh game of a thirteen-game losing streak for the Twins.  The also lost 18 of 19.  Six of the first seven losses were by two runs or one run.

Record:  The Twins were 19-26, in eighth place in the American League, 11 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 70-90, tied for seventh, 38 games behind New York.

The Tigers were 31-16, in first place in the American League, two games ahead of Cleveland.  They would finish 101-61, in second place, eight games behind New York.

Random record:  The Twins are 59-54 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 23

Ginger Beaumont (1876)
Hod Ford (1897)
Jimmie Wilson (1900)
Ival Goodman (1908)
Ray Scarborough (1917)
Pee Wee Reese (1918)
Johnny Groth (1926)
Anthony Gubicza (1928)
Bert Convy (1933)
Don Drysdale (1936)
Dean Look (1937)
Hank Allen (1940)
Chuck Crim (1961)
Nomar Garciaparra (1973)

Anthony Gubicza, a pitcher in Class D and C leagues from 1950-1951, is the father of Mark Gubicza.

Actor/singer/game show host Bert Convy was an outfielder in Class D and C leagues from 1951-1952.

White Sox catcher Dean Look is the brother of ex-Twin Bruce Look.

Outfielder Hank Allen, who played for Washington, Milwaukee, and the White Sox, is the brother of Dick Allen and Ron Allen.

There do not appear to be any major league players with connections to the Minnesota Twins who were born on this day.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2005, Game Thirty-seven

TORONTO 10, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 17.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his fifth) and two walks.  Justin Morneau was 1-for-4 with a home run (his seventh) and two runs.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Reed Johnson was 3-for-4 with a double, a hit-by-pitch, and three runs.  Shea Hillenbrand was 3-for-5 with three RBIs.  Alex Rios was 3-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Vernon Wells was 2-for-5 with a home run (his sixth) and three RBIs.  Orlando Hudson was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his second.

The game:  Rios led off the game with a double and scored on Johnson's single.  Wells hit a two-run homer and it was 3-0 Blue Jays before the Twins even came to bat.  The Twins did very little on offense for the first three innings, but in the fourth Joe Mauer singled and Hunter hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 3-2.

That was as good as it got for the Twins.  in the fifth Ken Huckaby walked, Johnson doubled, and Hillenbrand delivered a two-run single.  The Twins loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth but did not score.  In the sixth Frank Menechino doubled and Hudson hit a two-run homer to make it 7-2 Toronto.

Morneau homered leading off the sixth for the Twins, but that was the end of the good news.  The Blue Jays opened the seventh with singles by Rios, Johnson, and Hillenbrand to make it 8-3.  In the ninth Johnson was hit by a pitch, Hillenbrand singled, Wells had an RBI single, and a pair of wild pitches brought home another run to make it 10-3.

WP:  Josh Towers (5-1).  LP:  Johan Santana (5-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Luis Rivas was at second base.  He would eventually be replaced by Nick Punto as the starter.  Juan Castro was at short--he would eventually be replaced as the starter by Jason Bartlett.  Lewwwwww Ford was the DH--he and Matthew LeCroy shared the position, although LeCroy played there more often.

Terry Tiffee pinch-hit for Stewart in the ninth.

Morneau was batting .375--he would finish at .239.  Mauer was batting at .321--he would finish at .294.

We've been through the 2005 team's stats a few times recently, so there's no real need to repeat them here.  I'll just note that Morneau batted .439 in April and did not bat more than .237 in any other month.

Record:  The Twins were 21-16, in second place in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 83-79, in third place, 16 games behind Chicago.

The Blue Jays were 21-18, in third place in the American League East, 4.5 games behind Baltimore.  They would finish 80-82, in third place, 15 games behind New York.

Random Record:  The Twins are 59-53 in Random Rewind games.