Monthly Archives: February 2022

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 12

Pants Rowland (1879)
Chick Hafey (1903)
Dom DiMaggio (1917)
Joe Garagiola (1926)
Pat Dobson (1942)
Mike Martin (1944)
Ray Corbin (1949)
Lenny Randle (1949)
Don "Full Pack" Stanhouse (1951)
Cam Bonifay (1952)
Chet Lemon (1955)
Greg Johnston (1955)
Joe Bitker (1964)
Ryan Lefebvre (1971)
Chris Snyder (1981)
Cole De Vries (1985)

Clarence "Pants' Rowland spent his life in baseball.  A catcher, he went on to manage the Chicago White Sox to the World Championship in 1917.  He was an American League umpire from 1923-1927.  He was also a minor league manager and executive, and was president of the Pacific Coast League from 1944-1954.  He is a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

Mike Martin won over 2,000 games as the head coach of Florida State.

Cam Bonifay was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1993-2001 and is currently working in the Cincinnati organization.

Ryan Lefebvre appeared in six minor league games for the Watertown Indians in 1993.  He was a Twins broadcaster in the 1997 and 1998 before moving to Kansas City in 1999, where he has been a broadcaster for the Royals ever since.

Joe Bitker was drafted by Minnesota in the sixth round in the 1984 January draft, but he did not sign.

This is a great day for players with colorful nicknames.  In addition to those listed above, we have Sweetbread Bailey (1895), Kiddo Davis (1902), Dutch Dietz (1912), Monk Dubiel (1918), and Woody Main (1922).

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 12 →

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty-seven

NEW YORK 6, MINNESOTA 0 IN NEW YORK (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Friday, August 28.

Batting star:  Rich Reese was 2-for-3 with a double.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Fritz Peterson pitched a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and one walk and striking out four.  Thurman Munson was 3-for-4 with two doubles.  Peterson was 2-for-3 with a double.  Gene Michael was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The game:  Cesar Tovar led off the game with a walk and Reese followed with a single, putting men on first and second with none out.  But Harmon Killebrew grounded into a double play and Tony Oliva bounced back to the pitcher, taking the Twins out of the inning.  The Twins would get only two more hits and only once again get a man to second, when Reese doubled with two out in the ninth.

The Yankees were held scoreless until the fifth.  Ron Woods led off that inning with a double and scored on Michael's single.  Peterson then singled.  With one out, Munson hit an RBI single and runners went to second and third on the throw home.  A wild pitch plated a run and a sacrifice fly brought home another, giving New York a 4-0 lead.  They added two in the sixth.  Bobby Murcer singled, John Ellis walked, and a bunt moved runners to second and third.  Michael then delivered a two-run single to make it 6-0.

And that was that, as they Yankees took a 6-0 victory.

WP:  Peterson (15-9).

LP:  Jim Kaat (10-10).

S:  None.

Notes:  Oliva was in center field, with Tovar in left and Brant Alyea in right.  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Bob Allison and Rick Renick pinch-hit for pitchers.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-3 and was batting .321.  Tom Hall retired both men he faced and had an ERA of 2.90.

The Twins had just three hits in the game.

I assume the configuration of Yankees stadium led Bill Rigney to change his outfield alignment.

I had forgotten that Munson was already the regular catcher for the Yankees in 1970.

In some ways, this was Peterson's best year.  He went 20-11, 2.90, 1.10 WHIP (leading the league), and made his only all-star appearance.  Arguably, though, he was better in 1969--he went 17-16, but with a 2.55 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP, which also led the league.  He also led the league in walks per nine innings and strikeout/walk ratio in both years.  For his career, he was 133-131, 3.30, 1.19 WHIP.  It was his misfortune to come to the Yankees in their worst years, or his won-lost record would be much better.

Record:  The Twins were 75-52, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 11

Jimmy Ryan (1863)
Kenjiro Tamiya (1928)
George Alusik (1935)
Downtown Ollie Brown (1944)
Ben Oglivie (1949)
Tom Veryzer (1953)
Todd Benzinger (1963)
Scott Pose (1967)
J. R. Towles (1984)

Kenjiro Tamiya is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, playing from 1949-1963.  He began as a pitcher, and came within one out of pitching the first perfect game in Nippon Pro Baseball history.  A shoulder injury required him to switch to the outfield in 1952.  He was a seven-time all-star.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Moss.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 11 →

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty-six

MINNESOTA 5, BOSTON 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, August 27.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Jim Perry was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Jim Holt was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third.  George Mitterwald was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his thirteenth.

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

Opposition stars:  Billy Conigliaro was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.  Rico Petrocelli was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-first.  Chuck Hartenstein struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Mike Nagy pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  In the first inning Rich Reese hit a one-out single and scored on an Oliva double, with Oliva taking third on the throw home.  Harmon Killebrew then hit a sacrifice fly, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.  The Red Sox came right back to tie it in the second.  Petrocelli led off with a home run.  Conigliaro then got an infield single, stole second, and scored on Mike Andrews' two-out single.

Boston loaded the bases in the fourth but did not score.  In the bottom of the fourth, Holt led off with a single and Mitterwald hit a two-out two-run homer.  Perry then doubled, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Cesar Tovar single, giving the Twins a 5-2 lead.

The Red Sox did not threaten again.  Carl Yastrzemski led off the fifth with a single but was erased on a double play.  That was the last baserunner Boston had.  Perry was in total control, and the Twins cruised to a 5-2 victory.

WP:  Perry (19-11).

LP:  Sonny Siebert (13-7).

S:  None.

Notes:  Holt was in center with Tovar in left and Brant Alyea on the bench.  Danny Thompson remained at second in place of Rod Carew.  Frank Quilici went to second in the eighth inning, with Thompson going to third and Killebrew going to the bench.

Oliva was batting .323.

Perry hit four doubles in 1970, half of them in this game.  He hit twenty-two doubles in his career.  Four was his career high in a season--he also hit four in 1966.

Perry had thirteen complete games in 1970, which was his career high.  He had 109 complete games in his career.

Billy Conigliaro had a really good year in 1970.  At age 22 he batted .271/.339/.462.  The Red Sox must have thought he would become as big a star as his brother Tony.  But he went backward in 1971, was traded to Milwaukee, and was out of baseball after the 1973 season.

Record:  The Twins were 75-51, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 10

Horace Wilson (1845)
Jim Keenan (1858)
Curt Welch (1862)
Billy Evans (1884)
Herb Pennock (1894)
Bill Adair (1913)
Allie Reynolds (1917)
George Sobek (1920)
Randy Jackson (1926)
Billy O'Dell (1933)
Dick Bogard (1937)
Jim Barr (1948)
Larry McWilliams (1954)
Lenny Dykstra (1963)
Lenny Webster (1965)
Jayhawk Owens (1969)
Alberto Castillo (1970)
Bobby Jones (1970)
Kevin Sefcik (1971)
Lance Berkman (1976)
Cesar Izturis (1980)
Alex Gordon (1984)
Duke Welker (1986)
Jeanmar Gomez (1988)
Liam Hendriks (1989)
Max Kepler (1993)

Horace Wilson was an American professor English at Tokyo University.  He is credited with introducing baseball to Japan in either 1872 or 1873.

Billy Evans was the youngest umpire in major league history, starting his career at age 22.  He was an American League umpire from 1906-1027.  He would later become general manager of the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers, and was president of the Southern Association from 1942-1946.

Bill Adair was a long-time minor league player (1935-1956) and manager (1949-1973).  He also was the scout credited with signing Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.

George Sobek was a long-time scout for the White Sox, credited with signing Denny McLain, Steve Trout, and Mike Squires.  He also played in the NBA and was a long-time college basketball referee.

Another long-time scout, Dick Bogard played in the minors for six years, managed for three, and was a scout for nearly thirty years, mostly for Houston and Oakland.  He is credited with signing Walt Weiss, Jason Giambi, and Ben Grieve.

Jim Barr was drafted six different times before finally signing.  Minnesota drafted him in the sixth round of the January Secondary draft in 1970, but he did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 10 →