Happy Birthday–May 20

Walt Burnham (1860)
Joe Harris (1891)
George Grantham (1900)
Pete Appleton (1904)
Hal Newhouser (1921)
Herman Wedemeyer (1924)
Tom Morgan (1930)
Ken Boyer (1931)
Sadaharu Oh (1940)
Bobby Murcer (1946)
Ralph Bryant (1961)
David Wells (1963)
Todd Stottlemyre (1965)
Ramon Hernandez (1976)
Jayson Werth (1979)
Austin Kearns (1980)
Adam Rosales (1983)

Walt Burham was a minor league manager from 1885-1907, winning 1,164 games.

Outfielder Herman Wedemeyer played for Class C Salt Lake City in 1950.  He was a star running back in the All-America Football Conference and later appeared in over 300 episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O, playing Sergeant Edward “Duke” Lukela.

Right-hander Tom Morgan was with Washington at the end of 1960, appearing in fourteen games with them.  On January 31, 1961, before the franchise played a game in Minnesota, he was sold to the Los Angeles Angels.

Sadaharu Oh hit 868 home runs in Japan.

Outfielder Ralph Bryant was drafted by Minnesota in the thirteenth round of the January draft in 1981, but he did not sign.

This is not connected to the Twins or baseball in any way we're aware of, but we'd like to wish a happy 94th birthday to Bud Grant.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to hungry joe.

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

2021 Game 41: Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins

Wins are good. Maybe the Twins can get another today?

Lucas Giolito
vs
Matt Shoemaker

Well, can't lose tomorrow at least.

The Twins are 25% done with the season. FanGraphs has the Twins at 79 wins now, down nine wins from the preseason. I suspect the gap will increase by the All-Star break.

Crudely projecting out existing stats to 162 games gives us:
Record: 57 - 105
Runs scored: 745
Runs allowed: 871
Pythag prediction: 69 - 93

Lineup:
Arraez - 2B
Polanco - SS
Cruz - DH
Kepler - CF
Sanó - 1B
Larnach - LF
Astudillo - 3B
Garlick - RF
Rortvedt - C

Happy Birthday–May 19

Goose Curry (1905)
Gil McDougald (1928)
Curt Simmons (1929)
Larry McCoy (1941)
Dan Ford (1952)
Rick Cerone (1954)
Ed Whitson (1955)
Luis Salazar (1956)
Eric Show (1956)
Turk Wendell (1967)
Brandon Inge (1977)
Brian Anderson (1993)

Outfielder Goose Curry was a star in the Negro Leagues, batting over .300 several times.

This author's first baseball glove was a Gil McDougald model.

Larry McCoy was an American League umpire from 1971-1999.

Eric Show was drafted by Minnesota in the 36th round in 1974, but did not sign.

Brian Anderson was drafted by Minnesota in the 20th round in 2011, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 19

2021 Game Log 40: White Sox at Twins

Twins about to complete 25% of the season and I doubt few thought they'd be where they are right now. It's quite apparent that the Twins don't match up against the Whities as they have been outscored 42-17 over the past four games.

Big Mike on the mound, and like most of the pitching staff, he's been disappointing at worst and inconsistent at best. Whoa, late pitching change. Bailey Ober (?!?) in for the Twins, Pineda moved a day. Bailey Ober is a righty. that's all I got on the guy oh and he's 6'9". Lance Lynn for Chicago and he's been really good. Too bad he didn't pitch like that for the Twins a few years back.

Should still be a nice night for a ballgame and I think I need to get to one soon. Maybe next homestand. First pitch at 6:40p.

Twins Line-up
2b -Arraez
3B - Donaldson
DH - Polanco
CF - Kepler
1B - Sano
LF - Larnach
RF - Garlick
SS - Simmons
C - Rortvedt

NHL PLAYOFFS: Game 2 – Wild @ Vegas

Late night hockey for game 2 as the Wild look to take another game in Las Vegas.

Road teams that win games 1 and 2 in the NHL playoffs win 80% of the series (79 out of 99 historically).  Road teams that win game 1 and lose game 2 win 43.5% of the series (70 out of 161 historically). Unsurprisingly, it would be good to win this game. Continue reading NHL PLAYOFFS: Game 2 – Wild @ Vegas