Monthly Archives: January 2022

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 13

Ernie Calbert (1887)
Fred Schulte (1901)
Ron Brand (1940)
Makoto Matsubara (1944)
Mike Tyson (1950)
Bob Forsch (1950)
Odell Jones (1953)
Gene Roof (1958)
Kevin Mitchell (1962)
Kevin McClatchy (1963)
Elmer Dessens (1971)
Oliver Drake (1987)

Ernie Calbert won six minor league home run titles.  He also once pitched a minor league no-hitter.

Makoto Matsubara was an eleven-time all-star in Japan.

Kevin McClatchy was the CEO of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1996-2007.

When Elmer Dessens made his major league debut in 1996, he was the first big leaguer in thirty-five years to have the first name "Elmer".  There have been none since.

Gene Roof is the brother of ex-Twin Phil Roof.

We would like to wish a happy birthday to The Dread Pirate.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 13 →

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Ninety-six

CLEVELAND 9, MINNESOTA 8 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Wednesday, July 29.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth) and four RBIs.  Rich Reese was 3-for-4 with two runs.  Danny Thompson was 2-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a home run, his thirty-second.

Pitching star:  Stan Williams struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit and one walk.

Opposition stars:  Dean Chance was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.  Graig Nettles was 1-for-3 with a home run (his sixteenth), a walk, and two runs.  Vada Pinson was 1-for-5 with a grand slam, his tenth homer.

The game:  Killebrew homered leading off the second to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  With one out in the bottom of the second, Larry Brown walked, Eddie Leon singled, and Chance delivered an RBI single.  With two out, Lou Klimchock walked to load the bases and Duke Sims walked to force in a run, putting the Indians up 2-1.

Cleveland appeared to take control of the game in the third.  Nettles led off the inning with a walk.  With one out walks to Brown and Leon filled the bases.  Chance then delivered another RBI single, followed by Pinson's grand slam.  The Indians led 7-1 after three.

The Twins got a couple of hits in the fourth, but did nothing with them.  Nettles homered in the fourth to make it 8-1.  In the fifth Leon walked, was bunted to second, and scored on Buddy Bradford's double, making it 9-1.

Then the Twins came back.  In the sixth Reese singled and Oliva homered to make it 9-3.  They wasted a one-out double in the seventh.  In the eighth, however, Cesar Tovar walked, Reese singled, and Oliva singled home a run.  A pickoff error brought home another run and it was 9-5.

Come the ninth.  Singles by Thompson, Brant Alyea, Charlie Manuel, and Tovar cut the lead to 9-7 and put the tying run on base with none out.  Reese bunted to move the tying run to scoring position.  Oliva hit a sacrifice fly to make it 9-8, but Rick Renick grounded out to end the game.

WP:  Chance (6-5).

LP:  Dave Boswell (3-7).

S:  Phil Hennigan (3).

Notes:  Jim Holt started in left in place of Alyea.  Thompson was at shortstop in place of Leo Cardenas.  Frank Quilici was at second in place of Rod Carew.

Paul Ratliff pinch-hit for the pitcher in the fifth.  Renick went to third in the sixth in place of Killebrew.  Manuel pinch-hit for the pitcher in the seventh.  He stayed in the game in left field, with Holt moving to center, Tovar moving to second, and Quilici coming out of the game.  Alyea pinch-hit for the pitcher in the ninth.

Oliva was batting .327.  Killebrew was batting .310.  Tovar was 1-for-4 and was batting .304.  Williams had an ERA of 1.58.

Manuel was 1-for-2 and was batting .182.  Boswell allowed five runs in 2.1 innings and had an ERA of 6.42.  Pete Hamm made his major league debut and allowed three runs in 1.2 innings, giving him an ERA of 16.20.

Killebrew was pulled in the sixth with the Twins down 9-3.  I have no problem with that move.  I suspect, though, that Bill Rigney regretted the move when Renick came up in the eighth with the score 9-5 and a man on second and struck out.  He probably regretted it further in the ninth, when Renick came up with the tying run on second and two out and grounded out to end the game.  Again, I don't mean to imply Rigney did anything wrong--he was trying to get the big guy off his feet in what was then a blowout game.  But that's baseball.

If you know anything about Dean Chance, you know he was a terrible batter.  His career line is .066/.113/.069.  He had sixteen RBIs in his career.  I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only two-hit game or two-RBI game in his career.  He had three hits and three RBIs in all of 1970.  But that's baseball.

There were several ex-Twins in this game.  Nettles and Chance, of course.  Also Ted Uhlaender, who was 0-for-4, and Fred Lasher, who allowed three runs in one inning of work.

Hamm was twenty-two when he made his major league debut.  He would make ten appearances for the Twins in 1970 and thirteen in 1971.  He didn't do well in the majors, but he had a very good year in AAA Portland, and at age twenty-three, one would've thought this was a promising young pitcher.  Instead, the Twins sold him to Chicago after the 1971 season and they sent him to AA.  He dominated the Eastern League, as you'd expect, but he never got promoted and his playing career was done after the 1972 season.  I've always thought there has to be some sort of story there, but I've never been able to find out what it is.

Record:  The Twins were 62-34, in first place in the American League West, seven games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 12

Henry Larkin (1860)
Tom Kinslow (1866)
George Browne (1876)
Joe Hauser (1899)
Lee Allen (1915)
Alfredo Ortiz (1944)
Ron Polk (1944)
Paul Reuschel (1947)
Randy Jones (1950)
Bill Madlock (1951)
Terry Whitfield (1953)
Tim Hulett (1960)
Mike Marshall (1960)
Casey Candaele (1961)
Andy Fox (1971)
Luis Ayala (1978)
Dontrelle Willis (1982)
Ivan Nova (1987)

Joe Hauser twice hit over 60 home runs in a season in AAA.

Historian and writer Lee Allen contributed much to the Hall of Fame and to the first edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia.

Alfredo Ortiz won 287 games in the minor leagues, mostly in the Mexican League, and 104 more in the Mexican Winter League.

Ron Polk was a very successful college baseball coach, most notably at Mississippi State.

The Mike Marshall listed above is the outfielder/first baseman who played mostly for the Dodgers.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 12 →

WGOM Videos

Brittany Spencer – Sober and Skinny

Video 8 Comments

Over the last year, due almost entirely to the podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones, I have found myself revisiting county music.

If you haven't listened, you should. I would start with the  three part series on "Harper Valley PTA" or the episode on the Kershaw Brothers, especially if you love Neil Young (E-6 signal).

I preface with that as a way of saying for the best of 2021 I would have liked to post any number of the songs I discovered from that podcast. Maybe one day I can get a month to share some of these things. Then again I may get booed out by jobu if I try that.

Instead here is something from 2021 that makes me think of the best parts of classic country music with the best parts of today's music. This song is tragic and funny in a way that only country music can be. It feels like John Prine or Bobby Braddock could have written this song and no one would question it

Just great stuff. I hope you enjoyed.

 

 

5 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 105 votes, average: 9.20 out of 10 (5 votes, average: 9.20 out of 10)
You must be a WGOM Citizen to rate WGOM Videos.Loading...
Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Ninety-five

MINNESOTA 5, CLEVELAND 2 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Tuesday, July 28.

Batting stars:  Danny Thompson was 3-for-4 with a double.  Brant Alyea was 2-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his thirty-first.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out two.  Tom Hall struck out four in three perfect innings.

Opposition star:  Tony Horton was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Indians scored in the first, as Graig Nettles singled, Roy Foster walked, and Horton delivered an RBI single.  The Twins loaded the bases with none out in the third, but a force out and two popups kept them off the board.  In the fourth, however, Alyea homered to tie it 1-1.

It stayed 1-1 until the sixth.  With one out, Foster, Ray Fosse, and Horton all singled, loading the bases.  All Cleveland could get was a Buddy Bradford sacrifice fly, but it was enough to put the Indians up 2-1.

But in the bottom of the sixth the Twins went into the lead to stay.  Thompson led off with a single.  With two out Rick Renick hit an RBI double and Killebrew hit a two-run homer, putting the Twins up 4-2.  They added an insurance run in the eighth when Rich Reese singled, went to third on a Thompson double, and scored on a ground out.

Cleveland did not get a hit after the sixth inning.

WP:  Kaat (10-7).

LP:  Sam McDowell (15-5).

S:  Hall (2).

Notes:  The Twins won with a B lineup.  Frank Quilici was at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Rick Renick was at third, with Killebrew moving to first and Reese on the bench.  Bob Allison was in right field, with Oliva moving to center and Cesar Tovar on the bench.  Danny Thompson was at shortstop, with Leo Cardenas on the bench.

Tovar pinch-hit for Kaat in the seventh and stayed in the game in left field.  Jim Holt went to right field and Reese went to first base in the seventh, with Killebrew moving to third and Allison and Renick coming out of the game.

Oliva was batting .323.  Killebrew was batting .310.  Tovar was 0-for-1 and was batting .304.  Hall had an ERA of 2.83.

Allison was 0-for-3 and was batting .157.

Alyea made his first start since July 18.  He had pinch-hit twice in that time.

Hall bounced back nicely from three sub-par outings.

McDowell pitched seven innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out four.  It was his only loss to the Twins in 1970:  he went 3-1, 2.70 against them in four starts.  For his career against the Twins, he was 11-11, 3.70 in 38 games (30 starts).

In consecutive games, the Twins had faced Dave McNally, Jim Palmer, and Sudden Sam McDowell.

Ex-Twins in this game were Nettles and Rich Rollins.  Nettles was 1-for-3.  Rollins pinch-hit and was 0-for-1.

Record:  The Twins were 62-33, in first place in the American League West, seven games ahead of California.  The seven game lead was their largest to date.