Grover Alexander (1887)
Rip Collins (1896)
Preacher Roe (1916)
Johnny Blanchard (1933)
Don Lee (1934)
Hiromitsu Kadota (1948)
Jack Brohamer (1950)
Rick Wieters (1955)
Kelly Gruber (1962)
Scott Service (1967)
J. T. Snow (1968)
Mark DeRosa (1975)
Hiromitsu Kadota is third on the Japanese professional baseball home run list with 567.
The father of Matt Wieters, Rick Wieters pitched in the minor leagues for five years, reaching AA.
Why not? Fun song, good choreography, live singing. what's not to love? I have to believe this will pull an easy 9.5 average here.
(4 votes, average: 5.50 out of 10)
Loading... Date: Friday, September 12.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 2-for-3 with a double. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a double. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5. Torii Hunter was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his twenty-fourth) and two walks.
Pitching stars: Juan Rincon pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: C. C. Sabathia pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks and striking out six. Travis Hafner was 2-for-3. Alex Escobar was 2-for-4 with a stolen base. Coco Crisp was 2-for-4. Jhonny Peralta was 1-for-2 with a three-run homer (his fourth) and a hit-by-pitch.
The game: Stewart led off the game with a double, but never moved off second base. Well, he went to the outfield when the half-inning was over, but you know what I mean. The Indians put men on second and third with one out in the third, but did not score, so it remained scoreless through three.
The Twins started the scoring in the fourth when Matthew LeCroy walked and Hunter hit a two-run homer. It stayed 2-0 until the fifth, when Victor Martinez walked, Halfner singled, and Peralta hit a three-run homer to make it 3-2 Cleveland. It went to 4-2 in the sixth when Escobar singled, stole second, and scored on a Martinez single.
The Twins put two on with two out in the seventh but stranded them. In the ninth Michael Ryan led off with a pinch-hit single, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on Stewart's single. They tying run was on base with none out, but a double play and a fly out ended the game.
WP: Sabathia (13-8). LP: Kenny Rogers (11-8). S: David Riske (7).
Notes: Stewart was in left with Dustan Mohr in right and Jacque Jones on the bench. Lew Ford pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the seventh, with Denny Hocking going to second base. Jones pinch-hit for Mohr in the eighth and stayed in the game in right field. Ryan pinch-hit for Cristian Guzman in the ninth.
Ryan was 1-for-1 and was batting .400. Ford walked in his plate appearance and was batting .333. Stewart was batting .313. Mientkiewicz was batting .306. A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-4 and was batting .303. Jones was 0-for-1 and was batting .302.
Rogers pitched well other than the three-run homer, but his line was 5.2 innings, four runs, six hits, one walk, three strikeouts.
Jesse Orosco relieved Rogers in the sixth and threw one pitch. He hit Hafner with it and came out of the game. His ERA remained 7.47.
Danys Baez was the Cleveland closer most of the season, but he lost the job to Riske in mid-August.
This was Sabathia's third season. He made his first all-star team and had his first ERA under four. He would have better seasons, but he was a good pitcher at this point, and it's certainly no disgrace to lose to him. The trouble, of course, is that there were only about two weeks left in the season, and every game was important in the pennant race.
The White Sox and Royals both lost, so while the Twins missed a chance to gain ground they didn't lose any, either. And as important as the games are this late in the season, you still can't win them all.
Record: The Twins were 78-69, tied for first with Chicago in the American League Central. They were 3.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.
I won't discount a surprise or two, but it looks like winter is on the way out. The sound of the sump pump basin emptying has been a welcome one.
Bob Bescher (1884)
Al Hollingsworth (1908)
Roy Weatherly (1915)
Monte Irvin (1919)
Andy Pafko (1921)
Syd Thrift (1929)
Johnny Schaive (1934)
Jerry Reinsdorf (1936)
Denny Lemaster (1939)
Danny Cater (1940)
Ron Santo (1940)
Stump Merrill (1944)
Ken Szotkeiwicz (1947)
Cesar Cedeno (1951)
Bob Brenly (1954)
Ken Dayley (1959)
Paul O'Neill (1963)
Shannon Stewart (1974)
Syd Thrift was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986-88 and of the Baltimore Orioles from 2000-02. He also held a variety of other front office positions, generally having to do with overseeing minor league player development.
Infielder Johnny Schaive was in the Washington organization from 1955-1960, reaching the majors for parts of the 1958-1960 seasons. He was selected by the new Washington franchise as the 36th pick in the 1960 expansion draft.
Jerry Reinsdorf became part-owner of the Chicago White Sox in 1981.
Stump Merrill was the manager of the New York Yankees from 1990-91. A catcher, he was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-third round in 1965, but did not sign.
Shortstop Ken Szotkiewicz was chosen by Minnesota with the third pick of the 1967 June Secondary draft, but did not sign.
Smashing Pumpkins are really a one album band for me -- but what an album. Easily top 5 for me. There's nothing even approaching weak song on it, and when it's REALLY firing on all cylinders...
Best album opener ever? It's in the mix for me.
(4 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)Loading... This is some amazing stuff right here:
Date: Thursday, September 11.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs. Torii Hunter was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Brad Radke pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out five. He threw 126 pitches, the most he would throw in a game all season.
Opposition stars: Jose Valentin was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-fourth) and a stolen base (his sixth). Frank Thomas was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fortieth.
The game: Thomas homered in the first inning to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. The Twins came back with a big third. Jacque Jones and Pierzynski singled and Cristian Guzman was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with none out. Shannon Stewart then hit a three-run double-plus-error and Denny Hocking followed with a sacrifice fly, giving the Twins a 4-1 lead.
Chicago opened the fifth with two singles but did not score. The Twins added a run in the sixth when Pierzynski doubled and scored on a Hocking single. The White Sox added a run in the ninth on Valentin's homer, but did not threaten to get back into the game.
WP: Radke (12-10). LP: Esteban Loiaza (19-7). S: None.
Notes: Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Stewart was in left and Jones in right. The Twins made no in-game substitutions.
Stewart was 1-for-5 and was batting .312. PIerzynski was batting .306. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-3 and was batting .305. Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.
Radke had not walked a man in his last two starts (16 innings). He walked just four in six August starts (38.1 innings). For the season he walked just 28 in 33 starts (212.1 innings). That may not be Carlos Silva, but it's pretty good.
Loaiza pitched seven innings for Chicago, giving up five runs on seven hits and one walk and striking out nine. He pitched very well other than in the third inning, but of course the third inning counts just as much as the other eight.
The win was the Twins' second in a row. It gave them a split in the series and moved them back into a tie for first. The two teams would meet again for three games the next week, bur first the Twins had four games in Cleveland while the White Sox would go to Boston for three. The Royals lost to Cleveland and were starting to fall out of the race.
Record: The Twins were 78-68, tied for first with Chicago in the American League Central. They were 3.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.
Honus Wagner (1874)
Wilbur Cooper (1892)
Del Wilber (1919)
Bubba Phillips (1928)
Jim Rantz (1938)
Wayne Hattaway (1940)
Dave Edwards (1954)
Eddie Murray (1956)
Nick Esasky (1960)
Mike Lowell (1974)
Randy Keisler (1976)
Bronson Arroyo (1977)
Dewayne Wise (1978)
Rob Bowen (1981)
Nick Blackburn (1982)
J. D. Durbin (1982)
Chris Parmelee (1988)
Jim Rantz was in the Twins' organization in some capacity from the birth of the team until his retirement in 2012, serving as farm director from 1986-2012. He was also the winning pitcher in the deciding game of the 1960 College World Series.
Wayne Hattaway joined the Twins organization in 1963 and was been employed by the team as an equipment manager, trainer, or clubhouse attendant, either in the majors or the minors, until his passing in April of 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKeFTOo4NlY
The video doesn't seem keen to embed for some reason?
I'm not always in the mood for Coachwhips, but when I want twenty minutes of maximum volume, redline, speaker blowing scuzz, they might just be the greatest band ever.
Looks like they put on an....intimate live show, too.
(3 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... 
