Monthly Archives: November 2021

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Forty-eight

MINNESOTA 4, WASHINGTON 2 IN WASHINGTON

Date:  Saturday, June 6.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifteenth) and four RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.  Jim Perry was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Perry pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Lee Maye was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifth) and two RBIs.  Ex-Twin Joe Grzenda pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out two.  Horacio Pina pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up a walk and striking out two.

The game:  With two out in the first, Tony Oliva singled and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  The Senators had men on second and third with two out in the bottom of the first but did not score.  In the second, singles by Ed Brinkman and Jim French and a hit-by-pitch of Jim Hannan loaded the bases with one out, but all Washington could get out of it was an RBI ground out to cut the lead to 2-1.  In the fourth, however, Maye hit a two-out home run to tie it 2-2.

The Twins responded in the fifth.  Perry singled. Cesar Tovar was hit by pitch, and Rick Renick walked, loading the bases with one out.  Oliva struck out, but Killebrew hit a two-run single to put the Twins back in front 4-2.

Perry took over from there.  The Senators got only one hit after Maye's homer, a one-out single by Mike Epstein in the eighth inning.

WP:  Perry (7-5).

LP:  Hannan (0-2).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jim Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea, who would not return until June 12.  Paul Ratliff remained at catcher in place of George Mitterwald.  Frank Quilici remained at second in place of Rod Carew.  Renick pinch-hit for Holt in the fifth and stayed in the game in left field.

Oliva was batting .328.  Killebrew was batting .321.  Renick was 0-for-2 and was batting .308.  Perry had an ERA of 2.90.  He also was batting .300.

Quilici was 0-for-2 and was batting .184.

Killebrew drove in all of the Twins' runs.  It looks like it was important for the Twins to get men on in front of Killebrew, so teams didn't feel as free to just walk him.

Three players with Twins ' connections were used by the Senators:  Bernie Allen (0-for-4), Johnny Roseboro (0-for-2). and Grzenda.

It was Perry's fifth complete game in 13 starts.

Record:  The Twins were 33-15, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.  The difference was all in the loss column--each team had won 33 games, but the Angels had 19 losses.  They had played four more games than the Twins, mostly due to Twins' rainouts.  Seems it never rains in Southern California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 22

Harry Rice (1901)
Dick Bartell (1907)
Lew Burdette (1926)
Wade Blasingame (1943)
Rich Chiles (1946)
Greg Luzinski (1950)
Lyman Bostock (1950)
Wayne Tolleson (1955)
Lee Guetterman (1958)
Mike Benjamin (1965)
Jay Payton (1972)
Ricky Ledee (1973)
Joe Nathan (1974)
Jonny Gomes (1980)
Yusmeiro Petit (1984)
Adam Ottovino (1985)
Drew Pomeranz (1988)
Griffin Jax (1994)

Mike Benjamin was drafted by Minnesota in the seventh round in January, 1985, but did not sign.

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WGOM Videos

Dhafer Youssef – Delightfully Odd

Video

Youssef’s grandfather was a muezzin in his native Tunisia, and that influence is a strong draw for me. For a couple of months, once upon a time, I would end my twelve hour night watches with one last Sumer, savored as the muezzin announced the adhan for Fajr about 75 meters away. Those were some of the most peaceful moments I’ve known.

Youssef’s vocals are incredible — the finesse of his phrasing, the extreme upper falsetto and how cleanly he accesses it, the warmth of his lower range.

Here he’s joined by a knockout trio of future legends — Matt Brewer on bass, Ferenc Nemeth on the kit, & Aaron Parks on the keys.

3 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 103 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10 (3 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
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Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Forty-seven

MINNESOTA 2, WASHINGTON 1 IN WASHINGTON

Date:  Friday, June 5.

Batting stars:  Frank Quilici was 2-for-3.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven struck out seven in seven innings, giving up one run on five hits and a walk.  Ron Perranoski pitched two perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Lee Maye was 2-for-3 with a home run, his fourth.  Casey Cox pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out three.  Darold Knowles pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Cesar Tovar led off the game with a walk, stole second, and scored on an Oliva single to put the Twins up 1-0.  Maye led off the bottom of the first with a home run, tying it 1-1.

The Twins put men on second and third with two out in the fourth, but it stayed 1-1 until the fifth.  Quilici led off with a single, was bunted to second, and scored on a Tovar single to put the Twins up 2-1.

And that was it.  The Senators only twice got a man to second and never got a man to third, as the Twins held the 2-1 victory.

WP:  Blyleven (1-0).

LP:  Cox (3-4).

S:  Perranoski (13).

Notes:  Jim Holt was in left field in place of Brant Alyea.  Quilici was at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Carew would not return until June 9, so he apparently was dealing with some minor injury or illness.

Oliva was batting .325.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 and was batting .317.  Blyleven had an ERA of 1.29.  Perranoski had an ERA of 1.80.

Quilici was batting .191.

As you have probably figured out by now, this was Blyleven's major league debut.  He had been 4-2, 2.50 at AAA Evansville.  The story he told so often was true--the first man he faced, Lee Maye, hit a home run off him.  And in fact, he did strike out Frank Howard in the sixth.

We're in early June, and neither Tovar, Killebrew, nor Oliva has been given a game off yet.  I know this is the old days when men were men, but I suspect Bill Rigney was somewhat of an old-school manager even for his time.

The Senators played two ex-Twins:  second baseman Bernie Allen, who was 1-for-3, and John Roseboro, who pinch-hit and was 0-for-1.

Casey Cox was a pretty fair pitcher for several years:  39-42, 3.70, 1.32.  I suspect his won-lost record is affected by the fact that he spent his entire career with bad teams:  the Senators/Rangers and the early-seventies Yankees.  He appeared in 308 games, starting 59 of them.  Slightly more than half of his starts--30--came in 1970.

Record:  The Twins were 32-15, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.

 

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 21

Bobby Mathews (1851)
Charlie Bennett (1854)
Billy Clingman (1869)
Andy High (1897)
Freddie Lindstrom (1905)
Paul Richards (1908)
Stan Musial (1920)
Warren Hacker (1924)
Tom McCraw (1940)
Bill Almon (1952)
Rick Peters (1955)
Mike Mason (1958)
Mark Eichhorn (1960)
Dick Schofield (1962)
Ken Griffey (1969)
Todd Erdos (1973)
Brian Meadows (1975)
Hank Blalock (1980)
Ryan LeMarre (1988)

Rick Peters was drafted by Minnesota in the eighteenth round in 1973, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 21 →