Monthly Archives: February 2021

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 21

Jouett Meekin (1867)
Dummy Taylor (1875)
John Titus (1876)
Tom Yawkey (1903)
Mark Scott (1915)
Joe Foy (1943)
Jack Billingham (1943)
Tom Shopay (1945)
Charley Walters (1947)
Rick Lysander (1953)
Alan Trammell (1958)
Franklin Gutierrez (1983)
Sam Hilliard (1994)
The birthday list (2009)

Tom Yawkey was the owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 until his death in 1978.

Mark Scott was the host of “Home Run Derby”.

Sam Hilliard was drafted by the Twins in the 31st round in 2014 but did not sign.

I've been doing this for twelve years now.  How time flies.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 21 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-two

MINNESOTA 5, TEXAS 4 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, September 7.

Batting stars:  Michael Ryan was 2-for-3 with a home run (his third), a double, a walk, and two runs.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Grant Balfour pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Rick Reed pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Gerald Laird was 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs.  Michael Young was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Alex Rodriguez was 1-for-4 with a home run (his forty-second) and two walks.

The game:  Rodriguez homered with two out in the first to put the Rangers up 1-0.  Ryan countered with a home run leading off the bottom of the first to tie it 1-1.  In the third, Texas opened the inning with three singles, loading the bases with none out.  A home-and-first double play gave the Twins hope of getting out of the inning, but an intentional walk to Rodriguez was followed by an accidental walk to Rafael Palmeiro, putting the Rangers back up 2-1.

The Twins tied it in the fourth when Torii Hunter hit a two-out double and scored from second on a wild pitch (Twins Baseball!).  They went ahead 3-2 in the fifth when Denny Hocking hit a two-out double and scored on Mientkiewicz' single.  Texas went back in front in the sixth when Mark Teixeira was hit by a pitch, Hank Blalock reached on an error, and Laird delivered a two-run triple to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead.

The Twins tied it in the seventh when Ryan doubled and scored on a Mientkiewicz single.  It stayed tied through nine.  In the tenth Mientkiewicz walked, Matthew LeCroy singled, and Jacque Jones reached on an error, loading the bases with none out.  Hunter then hit a sacrifice fly to win the game for the Twins.

WP:  Reed (6-12).  LP:  Francisco Cordero (4-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Ryan was in left with Jones in right.

Lew Ford pinch-hit for Cristian Guzman in the seventh.  Chris Gomez came in to play short in the eighth.  Michael Cuddyer pinch-hit for Ryan in the ninth and stayed in the game in left field.  Justin Morneau pinch-hit for Hocking in the ninth.  Alex Prieto came i to play second in the tenth.  Michael Restovich pinch-ran for LeCroy in the tenth.

Ryan raised his average to .391.  Ford was 0-for-1 and was batting .321.  Jones was 1-for-5 and was batting .306.  Pierzynski was 0-for-3 and was batting .302.  Mientkiewicz raised his average to .301.

This was Prieto's first appearance for the Twins since August 2.  It was Restovich's first appearance since August 17.

Kenny Rogers started and pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks and striking out four.  J. C. Romero retired both men he faced to lower his ERA to 5.10.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out the only man he faced to lower his ERA to 1.97.  Reed lowered his ERA to 5.02.  This was his first appearance since August 17.

This was Laird's first career triple, and it came in his ninth major league game.  He would play 790 more games and hit eight more triples.  His season high was three, in 2007.

The Twins had won five in a row, eight of ten, and ten of thirteen.  Chicago and Kansas City both won, so there was no change in the standings.

Record:  The Twins were 76-66, tied with Chicago for first place in the American League Central, three games ahead of Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 20

Sam Rice (1890)
John Wesley Donaldson (1892)
Muddy Ruel (1896)
Pete Monahan (1902)
Tommy Henrich (1913)
Frankie Gustine (1920)
Jim Wilson (1922)
Roy Face (1928)
Shigeo Nagashima (1936)
Clyde Wright (1941)
Bill Gullickson (1959)
Shane Spencer (1972)
Livan Hernandez (1975)
Ryan Langerhans (1980)
Justin Verlander (1983)
Jose Morales (1983)
Brian McCann (1984)
Johnny Field (1992)

John Wesley Donaldson pitched in the Negro Leagues and averaged nearly twenty strikeouts per game for the All Nations team in the 1910s.  He pitched three consecutive no-hitters in 1913.

Pete Monahan played in the minors from 1921-1940, batting .301 and collecting 2,462 hits, but never played in the major leagues.

Third baseman Shigeo Nagashima played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1958-1974 and is considered by some to be the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to CarterHayes' daughter.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 20 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-one

MINNESOTA 5, TEXAS 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, September 6.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 3-for-5.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his tenth.

Pitching stars:  Brad Radke pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out four.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Shane Spencer was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Rafael Palmeiro was 2-for-4 with a double.  Ryan Drese pitched 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up three hits and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins started the scoring in the second.  Jones led off the inning with a single and scored on Torii Hunter's triple.  With two out Stewart singled to put the Twins up 2-0.

The Twins added to their lead in the third.  Mientkiewicz singled and Matthew LeCroy walked.  A balk moved the runners up, a ground out scored one, and Pierzynski hit a two-run homer to give the Twins a 5-0 lead.

The Rangers had only one hit through the first four innings.  They scored in the fifth, however, when Mark Teixeira singled and scored from first on Spencer's double.  They added another run in the seventh when Laynce Nix doubled and scored on Spencer's single.

But that was it.  They got a hit in each of the last two innings but did not bring the tying run up to bat.

WP:  Radke (11-10).  LP:  R. A. Dickey (8-7).  S:  Guardado (33).

Notes:  Stewart was in left and Jones in right.  Lew Ford pinch-ran for LeCroy in the seventh.

Stewart raised his average to .314.  Jones went up to .308.  Pierzynski was at .304.

With Santana's short start yesterday, the Twins needed someone to step up.  As so often happened back then, the someone was Radke.  He got his ERA below five, this time to stay, at 4.93.  Hawkins got his ERA below two, also to stay, for the first time since July 13 at 1.98.

Dickey lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.  He was also called for two balks in the game.  I'm sure that's nowhere near the record, but it is somewhat unusual.

The Twins were just 2-for-16 with men in scoring position.  They made the two count, though.

This has to be one of the best games for Ryan Drese in his career.  In 2003 he was 2-4, 6.85, 1.85 WHIP in 46 innings (11 games, 8 starts).  For his career he was 34-39, 5.31, 1.57 WHIP in 565.2 innings (105 games, 96 starts).  He wasn't any good in AAA either:  17-11, 4.68, 1.45 WHIP.  Teams obviously saw something in him to keep giving him chances, but whatever they saw did not translate into getting batters out consistently.

The Twins had won four in a row, seven of nine, and nine of twelve.  The Royals dropped both ends of a doubleheader, but the White Sox won.

Record:  The Twins were 75-66, tied for first with Chicago in the American League Central, three games ahead of Kansas City.