Monthly Archives: February 2022

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-four

MINNESOTA 4, CALIFORNIA 0 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Friday, September 4.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 4-for-4.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, his twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth.  Brant Alyea was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer, his thirteenth.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and two walks and striking out four.  Ron Perranoski pitched 3.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jim Fregosi was 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk.  Alex Johnson was 2-for-4.  Eddie Fisher pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

The game:  In a matchup of the first and second place teams, the Twins jumped out early.  With two out and none on in the first, Harmon Killebrew walked, Oliva singled, and Alyea hit a three-run homer, putting Minnesota ahead 3-0.

The Twins put two men on in the third and the fourth but did not score.  The Angels, who did not have a baserunner in the first three innings, got a pair of two-out singles in the fourth but did not score.

With one out in the sixth, Tony Gonzalez singled, Fregosi walked, and Johnson got an infield single, loading the bases.  Bill Rigney brought in Perranoski, who struck out Billy Cowan and retired Tommie Reynolds on a grounder to end the inning.

California got only one hit after that, a two-out triple by Fregosi in the eighth.  The Twins added a run in the eighth.  A walk to Killebrew and a single by Oliva put men on first and third with none out, and a sacrifice fly brought the final score to 4-0.

WP:  Blyleven (9-6).

LP:  Rudy May (6-12).

S:  Perranoski (26).

Notes:  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Jim Holt replaced Alyea in the sixth and went to center, with Tovar moving to left.  Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the eighth and stayed in the game at second base, with Thompson going to third.

Oliva raised his average to .316.  Perranoski lowered his ERA to 2.18.

May pitched five innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out five.

Oliva broke out of his slump in a big way.  The four hits were as many as he'd had in the previous eight games.

With just a three-game difference going in, this three-game series was obviously an important one for both teams.  The two teams would play again, in a four-game series, in mid-September, so it's not like the Angels had to sweep.  I'm sure, though, that they felt they at least needed to win two of the three.  Taking the first one was a big advantage for the Twins.

Showing the importance of this game is pulling Blyleven in the sixth with a shutout going and bringing in the closer, Perranoski.  You can't always tell from a written play-by-play, but it does not appear that Blyleven was being hit hard.  Still, it was an important game.  Bringing your closer in that early was unusual back then, although certainly not unheard of.  But, as we've chronicled in this series, Perranoski was sometimes asked to pitch three or more innings, and he generally got the job done when he did.

Record:  The Twins were 79-55, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 19

John Morrill (1855)
Dick Siebert (1912)
Hub Kittle (1917)
Russ Nixon (1935)
Dave Niehaus (1935)
Jackie Moore (1939)
Walt Jocketty (1951)
Dave Stewart (1957)
Keith Atherton (1959)
Alvaro Espinoza (1962)
Miguel Batista (1971)
Juan Diaz (1974)
Chris Stewart (1982)

Hub Kittle’s baseball career spanned 68 years.  In 1980, he became the oldest player to appear in organized baseball, pitching a perfect inning for AAA Springfield on August 27 at age 63½.

Jackie Moore is a long-time major league coach and minor league manager.  He also was the manager of the Oakland Athletics from 1984-86,

Walt Jocketty was the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1995-2007 and was the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds from 2008-2015, when he became president of baseball operations.

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Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-three

MILWAUKEE 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Thursday, September 3.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-4 with a triple.  Brant Alyea was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his twelfth.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Roberto Pena was 3-for-4 with a two-run homer (his third), a double, and two runs.  Mike Hegan was 2-for-2 with a double, a stolen base (his eighth), two walks, and three runs.  Dave May was 2-for-4.  Phil Roof was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his tenth) and two walks.

The game:  The Brewers started the scoring in the second.  With one out, Hegan singled, Pena doubled, and Roof walked, loading the bases.  All they could get out of it was one run, on a Ted Kubiak single, but it gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.

The Brewers took control of the game in the fifth.  Tommy Harper led off with a walk and was bunted to second.  May singled him home and took second on the throw to the plate.  Following a ground out Hegan was intentionally walked, Pena hit an RBI single, and Roof hit a three-run homer, putting Milwaukee up 6-0.

The Twins did try to come back.  In the sixth Tovar tripled and scored on a ground out to get them on the board.  In the seventh, Rich Reese hit a one-out single and, with two out, Alyea hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to cut the lead to 6-3.

But that was as good as it got.  In the bottom of the seventh Hegan hit a two-out double and Pena followed with a two-run homer, making it 8-3.  The Twins got a pair of one-out singles in the eighth, but that was it.

WP:  Marty Pattin (11-11).

LP:  Bill Zepp (7-4).

S:  Ken Sanders (7).

Notes:  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Steve Brye was in left field in place of Alyea.  Jim Holt went to center in fifth as part of a double switch, with Tovar moving to left and Brye coming out of the game.  Alyea pinch-hit for Stan Williams in the seventh.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Jim Kaat in the ninth.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .311.  Williams gave up one run in 1.1 innings and had an ERA of 2.16.

It was the major league debut for Brye.  He'd batted .308 with an OPS of .849 in AA Charlotte.  He was, of course, a September call-up.  He was often mixed up with Steve Braun, who was with the Twins for most of the time Brye was.

Oliva was in a 2-for-26 slump over his last seven games.  His average fell from .323 to .311.

Zepp started for the Twins and pitched 4.2 innings, giving up five runs on five hits and five walks and striking out two.

Following three sub-par starts, the last of which was August 28, Kaat was sent to the bullpen.  He would both start and relieve the rest of the season.  Here, he pitched two innings, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk and striking out two.

Marty Pattin was one of the stars of "Ball Four", pitching in the Seattle Pilots rotation for most of the 1969 season.  He wasn't very good then, but he a solid rotation starter from 1970-1973 for Milwaukee and Boston.  He both started and relieved the rest of his career, a career that lasted until 1980.  He was 114-109 for his career, with a 3.62 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.  He made one all-star team, with the Brewers in 1971.  He appeared in 475 games, starting 224 of them, and pitched 2038.2 innings.  He clearly isn't worth of the Hall of Fame or anything, but for most of his thirteen year career he was a guy you were happy to have on your team.

Record:  The Twins were 78-55, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.

 

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 18

Ray Ryan (1883)
George Mogridge (1889)
Sherry Smith (1891)
Jake Kline (1895)
Huck Betts (1897)
Joe Gordon (1915)
Herm Wehmeier (1927)
Frank House (1930)
Manny Mota (1938)
Dal Maxvill (1939)
Bob Miller (1939)
Jerry Morales (1949)
John Mayberry (1949)
Bruce Kison (1950)
Marc Hill (1952)
Rafael Ramirez (1958)
Kevin Tapani (1964)
John Valentin (1967)
Shawn Estes (1973)
Jamey Carroll (1974)
Chad Moeller (1975)
Alex Rios (1981)
Didi Gregorius (1990)

Ray Ryan was involved in minor league baseball for six decades.  He had one baseball card, a part of the T206 tobacco series.  This is the series that produced the famous Honus Wagner card.

Jake Kline was the baseball coach at Notre Dame from 1934-1975.

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Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 17

Pat Pieper (1886)
Nemo Leibold (1892)
Wally Pipp (1893)
Ed Brandt (1905)
Red Barber (1908)
Rod Dedeaux (1914)
Roger Craig (1930)
Cliff Gustafson (1931)
Dick Bosman (1944)
Dave Roberts (1951)
Jamie Easterly (1953)
Mike Hart (1958)
Michael Jordan (1963)
Scott Williamson (1976)
Cody Ransom (1976)
Juan Padilla (1977)
Josh Willingham (1979)

Pat Pieper was the public address announcer for the Chicago Cubs from 1916-1974.  For the first sixteen of those years, he made the announcements with a megaphone.

Rod Dedeaux and Cliff Gustafson were highly successful college baseball coaches, Dedeaux with USC and Gustafson with Texas.

Already known as a basketball star, Michael Jordan played one year of minor league baseball for AA Birmingham in the White Sox organization before returning to the less-challenging sport.

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