Monthly Archives: November 2024

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 16

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Mike McGeary (1850)
Joe Quest (1852)
Cristobal Torriente (1893)
Henry Spearman (1909)
Paul Foytack (1930)
Frank Bolling (1931)
Harry Chiti (1932)
Don Hahn (1948)
Herb Washington (1951)
Glenn Burke (1952)
Curt Wardle (1960)
Dwight Gooden (1964)
Chris Haney (1968)
Pete Rose (1969)
Julio Lugo (1975)
Juan Centeno (1989)

I don't know whether Joe Quest had a relative named Jonny.

Sprinter Herb Washington played for Oakland for two seasons as a pinch-runner.  He appeared in 105 games but did not play in the field and did not bat.  He stole 31 bases in 48 attempts and scored 33 runs.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 16 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2003, Game 54

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SEATTLE MARINERS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, May 31, 2003.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and two RBIs.  Doug Mientikewicz was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.  Johan Santana pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.

Opposition star:  Ichiro Suzuki was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fifth), a triple, and two runs.  John Olerud was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Bret Boone was 2-for-5.  Edgar Martinez hit a home run, his thirteenth.  Ryan Franklin pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.

The game:  There was no score, and really no threat of a score, until the fourth.  Bret Boone led off with a single and John Olerud hit a one-out single.  A force out put men on first and third with two down, and Randy Winn and Jeff Cirillo hit consecutive RBI singles to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.  The Mariners added two more in the fifth when Ichiro Suzuki led off with a triple, scored on a ground out, and Edgar Martinez followed with a two-out home run.

The Twins got on the board in the fifth.  Torii Hunter led off with an infield single and Doug Mientkiewicz followed with a bunt single.  Dustan Mohr then singled home a run.  The Twins still had two on with none out, but could do no more, and so still trailed 4-1.

The teams traded solo homers in the seventh, with Ichiro Suzuki hitting one for Seattle and Dustan Mohr hitting one for the Twins.  But the Twins did not get a man on base after that.  Their last eight batters were retired, and the Mariners took a 5-2 victory.

WP:  Ryan Franklin (4-3).

LP:  Rick Reed (3-6).

S:  Kazuhiro Sasaki (9).

Notes:  Tom Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski.  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Bobby Kielty was the DH.  Matthew LeCroy got the most games at DH with 63, followed by Kielty (32), Jacque Jones (29), and Justin Morneau (23).

Jacque Jones was batting .330.  He would finish at .304.  Dustan Mohr was batting .322.  He would finish at .250.

LaTroy Hawkins had an ERA of 1.46.  He would finish at 1.86.  Johan Santana had an ERA of 2.68.  He would finish at 3.07.

As we’ve pointed out a couple of times, Jeff Cirillo, who went 1-for-4 in this game, played for the Twins in 2007.

As I recall, Ron Gardenhire really wanted to keep Johan Santana in the bullpen, but he was just too good, plus the Twins had too many needs in the starting rotation.  Their rotation that year, other than Santana, was Brad Radke (4.49 ERA), Kyle Lohse (4.61), Kenny Rogers (4.57), Rick Reed (5.07), and Joe Mays (6.30).  Leaving Santana, who as a starter went 11-2, 2.85, in the bullpen was simply a luxury the Twins could not afford.

Ben Davis, who caught for Seattle in this game, was a can’t-miss prospect who missed, although he did play in the majors for parts of seven seasons.  He was drafted second in 1995, behind Darin Erstad.  He reached the majors for one game in 1998.  He had three full seasons in the majors, but only one as a starter.  That was 2001, when he batted .239/.337/.357 for San Diego.  He was traded to Seattle after the season and was a part-time player the rest of his career.  The Mariners traded him to the White Sox in June of 2004, and his major league career ended after that season.  He kept trying, playing in the Yankees, Dodgers, Baltimore, and Cincinnati organizations through 2009.  He converted to pitching the last couple of years, and had a very good year in Class A in 2009.  He was thirty-two by then, though, and no one was interested in seeing if he could continue that success at a higher level.  It appears that he has been a baseball broadcaster in Philadelphia since his playing career ended.

Record:  Seattle was 36-18, in first place in the AL West, five games ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 93-69, in second place, three games behind Oakland.

The Twins were 31-23, in first place in the AL Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.  They would finish 90-72, in first place, four games ahead of Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins have lost four in a row and are 23-22 (.511)

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 15

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Tom Loftus (1856)
Pat Ragan (1883)
Mickey Livingston (1914)
Gus Bell (1928)
Big Brother A (1951)
Randy Niemann (1955)
Pedro Borbon (1967)
Dylan Bundy (1992)

Tom Loftus managed Cincinnati, Chicago, and Washington around the turn of the (twentieth) century.

Big Brother A is one of the two people–Dad A being the other–from whom I got a love of baseball and a love of the Twins.  I don’t know how it’s possible that I have a brother who’s seventy-three years old when I’m still so young, but happy birthday, Big Brother.

We also wish a happy birthday to spookymilk’s brother.

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Cup of Coffee

November 14, 2024: Cosmic Coincidence

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The new word on the street is Uranus actually does have plasma in its magnetosphere. Voyager 2 spent a scant 5 hours flying past it (which is still where almost all of our data on the planet is from) and it seems like it may have coincided with a "co-rotating interaction region" from the sun. Or, in a period of increased solar activity, the sun ejected long streams of plasma to the edge of the solar system. This caused a strong but temporary drop of plasma in the planet's magnetosphere. It just so happened that around this time is just when Voyager 2 scuttled past. Hope we get a closer look soon.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1969, Game 109

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DETROIT TIGERS 4, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN DETROIT (13 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, August 5, 1969.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-7.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5 with a walk.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-6 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-6.

Pitching stars:  Dean Chance pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.  Ron Perranoski pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Dick Woodson pitched 3.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Norm Cash was 3-for-5.  Mickey Stanley was 3-for-6.  Don Wert was 2-for-6.  Gates Brown hit a home run, his first.  Denny McLain pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eleven hits and two walks and striking out four.  Don McMahon struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Pat Dobson pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  Each team scored once in the first inning.  For the Twins, singles by Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, and Rich Reese produced a run.  In the bottom of the inning, singles by Mickey Stanley, Tom Tresh, and Norm Cash tied the score.

The Twins took the lead in the fourth.  Cesar Tovar reached second on a single-plus-error and scored on a Leo Cardenas single.  Ted Uhlaender led off the fifth with a home run, giving the Twins a 3-1 lead.

But that was as good as it got.  In the sixth, Gates Brown led off with a home run.  Later in the inning Willie Horton walked, went to third on a throwing error, and scored on a wild pitch to tie it 3-3.

Each team had chances.  In the seventh the Twins loaded the bases on two singles and a walk.  In the eighth a single and a walk put Tigers on first and second with one out.  The Twins got a single and a walk with two out in the ninth and got a man as far as third in the eleventh.  

The Tigers finally pushed the winning run across in the thirteenth.  In his fourth inning of relief, Dick Woodson gave up a leadoff walk to Al Kaline and a single to Norm Cash, putting men on first and third.  Even though first base was occupied, Billy Martin ordered an intentional walk to Willie Horton, loading the bases.  It looked like the strategy might work, as Woodson struck out Bill Freehan and Dick Tracewski.  But Don Wert got an infield single to bring in the deciding run in a very frustrating loss for the Twins.

WP:  John Hiller (3-3).

LP:  Dick Woodson (6-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Cesar Tovar was in center field, with Ted Uhlaender in left.  Uhlaender was the regular center fielder.  The Twins didn’t really have a regular left fielder.  Bob Allison played the most games there (58), followed by Graig Nettles (54), Uhlaender (44), Charlie Manuel (41), and Tovar (40).  Yes, the Twins took a future Gold Glove third baseman and played him in the outfield.  The Twins, throughout their history, have put third basemen in the outfield.  Trevor Plouffe! and Miguel Sano are two names that come to mind.

Rod Carew was batting .363.  He would finish at a league-leading .332.  Tony Oliva was batting .333.  He would finish at .309.  Rich Reese was batting .320.  He would finish at .322.

Dean Chance had an ERA of 2.51.  He would finish at 2.95.  Ron Perranoski had an ERA of 1.65.  He would finish at 2.11.

There were no players for Detroit who had or would play for the Twins, but Don McMahon was the Twins’ pitching coach from 1976-1978 under Gene Mauch.

In the “Things that would probably never happen today” file, we have a thirteen-inning game (which does still happen, but it’s pretty rare) and each team using a reliever for three or more innings (and not as primary pitcher following an opener).

The Twins ran wild on the bases in 1969, but did not steal any bases in this game.  They did have one caught stealing.

This was one of fourteen games Gates Brown played in the field in 1969, as he played left.  He appeared in sixty games, but generally was used as a pinch-hitter.  For his career, he had 500 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter and batted .251/.356/.421 with sixteen home runs in those plate appearances.  That’s another thing that would never happen today:  a player on the roster who’s chief responsibility was to pinch-hit.

This was Tom Tresh’s last year in the majors.  He had been with the Yankees since 1961, but was traded to Detroit on June 14, 1969.  I don’t remember him as a home run hitter, but he hit over twenty four times and had 153 for his career.

Record:  Detroit was 59-47, in second place in the AL East, fourteen games behind Baltimore.  They would finish 90-72, in second place, nineteen games behind Baltimore.

The Twins were 67-42, in first place in the AL West, three games ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 97-65, in first place, nine games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 23-21 (.523).