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Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-six

DETROIT 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, September 2.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a triple and a stolen base (his fifteenth), scoring once and driving in one.  Don Mincher was 1-for-3 with a home run (his eighteenth) and two walks.  Joe Nossek was 1-for-5 with a walk and two runs.

Pitching star:  Dave Boswell struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up three walks.

Opposition stars:  Don Wert was 2-for-4 with a home run (his ninth) and two walks, driving in four.  George Thomas was 4-for-5 with a double and a stolen base (his second), scoring three times.  Joe Sparma struck out nine in seven innings, allowing three unearned runs on six hits and eight walks.

The game:  It was a game of missed opportunities for the Twins as they stranded sixteen runners and went an incredible 1-for-17 with men in scoring position.  They took the lead 1-0 in the first, scoring on an error, but Wert's two-run single in the third put the Tigers on top 2-1.  Oliva singled in a run in the bottom of the third to tie it 2-2, but Wert struck again in the fifth, hitting a two-run homer to give Detroit a 4-2 advantage.  The Twins got one back in the fifth on a walk, an error, and two more walks, but left the bases loaded.  The Tigers got an insurance run in the top of the ninth and needed it, as Mincher homered in the bottom of the ninth to cut the lead to 5-4.  Fittingly, the Twins stranded two runners in that inning.  They had six innings in which they stranded two baserunners in addition to leaving the bases loaded in the fifth.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his eighteenth.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his eighth.  Jim Merritt pitched five innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and no walks with three strikeouts.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 85-51.  Chicago swept a doubleheader from Baltimore, making the Twins' lead 6.5 games.

Notes:  Oliva raised his average to .316...The Twins drew ten walks in the game...Jerry Zimmerman caught in place of Earl Battey.  Nossek played third base in place of Rich Rollins...George Thomas played for the Twins for part of 1971 and was the head coach of the University of Minnesota from 1979-81.

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)

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.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 19 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-five

MINNESOTA 5, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, September 1.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-4 with two doubles, scoring once and driving in one.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base (his seventh), scoring twice.  Don Mincher was 0-for-1 with three walks and a run.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and two walks with three strikeouts.  Al Worthington pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Ray Oyler was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.  Don Wert was 3-for-5 with a double.  Norm Cash was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.

The game:  Oliva made a successful return to the starting lineup, delivering an RBI double in a three-run first inning.  Earl Battey also singled in a run in that inning.  Oyler's two-run homer in the second made it 3-2, but a run-scoring double play gave the Twins an insurance run in the third.  The Tigers threatened in the third and fourth, putting two men on in both innings, but Perry settled down after that, allowing only three hits in innings five through eight.  The Twins made it 5-2 with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.  Mickey Stanley doubled to lead off the ninth, but Worthington came in to retire the next three batters.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Bob Allison was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.

Record:  The Twins went to 85-50.  Chicago did not play, so the Twins lead went to eight games.

Notes:  Oliva hit like he had never left the lineup, raising his average to .314...In a low-hitting era, Ray Oyler was the ultimate good field-no hit shortstop.  In six major league seasons, he hit over .200 only once (.207 in 1967).  His career high in OPS was .559 in 1965, which he achieved by hitting five home runs in 194 at-bats.  In 1968 he hit just .135, prompting the Tigers to move Mickey Stanley from the outfield to shortstop for the World Series.  1967 was the only year in which he was truly a regular, but he appeared in over half of his team's games in four of his six seasons and in 71 games in a fifth season.  He was with the Tigers from 1965-68, went to Seattle in the expansion draft in 1969, and finished his major league career with California in 1970, although he played in AAA for two more seasons.  His career numbers are ,175/.258/.251 in 1,265 at-bats.  His .175 average is the lowest of any player with over 1000 at-bats since the dead ball era.  He was, however, considered an excellent defender.

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)

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.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 18 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-four

DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 31.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 3-for-4 with three doubles and a walk, scoring twice.  Bob Allison was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-first) and three RBIs.  Don Mincher was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, driving in two.

Pitching star:  Johnny Klippstein pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Bill Freehan was 4-for-5 with a home run (his ninth) and a stolen base (his second), driving in three.  Norm Cash was 1-for-5 with a three-run homer (his twentieth) and two runs.  Jerry Lumpe was 4-for-5 with a run and an RBI.

The game:  The Twins again let one get away at the end.  Allison had an RBI single in a two-run first that put the Twins ahead 2-0.  It was 2-1 after four, but Cash hit a three-run homer in the fifth to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead.  The Twins responded in the bottom of the fifth, as Mincher hit a two-run triple in a three-run inning that gave the Twins a 5-4 advantage.  It was tied 5-5 when Allison hit a home run in the seventh that put the Twins up 6-5.  In the ninth, however, an error and Freehan's two-run homer off Mel Nelson put the Tigers in the lead for good at 7-6.  The Twins got a one-out single in the ninth from Earl Battey but could do nothing with it.

Of note:  Joe Nossek was 0-for-4 with a walk and two runs.  Rich Rollins was 2-for-5 with a run.  Battey was 1-for-5 with an RBI.  Mudcat Grant started and pitched well for four innings, but his line was 4.1 innings and four runs on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins dropped to 84-50.  The White Sox dropped a doubleheader to Baltimore, so the Twins lead moved to 7.5 games.

Notes:  Nossek played center field in place of Jimmie Hall...The Twins used six pitchers in the game, a high number for this era.  Grant, Dave Boswell, Dick Stigman, Klippstein, Bill Pleis, and Nelson all pitched...Klippstein had a tremendous year for the Twins, going 9-3, 2.24, 1.18 WHIP in 76.1 innings (56 appearances).  He was near the end of a long career, one which started with the Cubs in 1950.  He never pitched well as a starter, despite which he was allowed to make 161 career starts.  In that role, he was 42-77, 4.85, 1.55 WHIP.  As a reliever he was 59-41, 65 saves, 3.69, 1.40 WHIP, which isn't awesome but is significantly better.  He turned a corner when he went to Philadelphia in 1963 at age 35:  from 1963-66, he was 17-15, 2.37, 1.28.  One thing that helped was that he improved his control:  his walks per nine innings had consistently been in fours and fives, but dropped to the threes after that.

 

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.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 17 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-Three

MINNESOTA 3, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, August 30.

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 2-for-4 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-1 with a walk.  Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-2 with an RBI.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat struck out six in six innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk.  Al Worthington struck out six in three shutout innings, giving up three hits.  Johnny Klippstein pitched two perfect innings with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Hank Aguirre pitched 6.1 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) one two hits and five walks with four strikeouts.  Willie Horton was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.  Bill Freehan was 3-for-4.

The game:  Horton singled in a run in the first to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.  The Twins tied in on Mincher's RBI single in the sixth.  Each team scored once in the seventh to leave the score tied 2-2.  The Tigers got a pair of two-out singles in the ninth and the Twins left two on in the tenth, but there was no more scoring until the eleventh.  Mincher led off with a single and was pinch-run for by Mudcat Grant, who was bunted to second.  Jerry Kindall grounded out, but Valdespino delivered a two-out single to right to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5 with an RBI.  Joe Nossek was 0-for-3 with a run.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-5.  Earl Battey was 0-for-4 with a walk.

Record:  The Twins went to 84-49.  Chicago was idle, so the Twins' lead over the White Sox increased to seven games.

Notes:  Nossek started in place of Hall.  Andy Kosco started in right...The first five batters in the Twins' starting lineup went a combined 1-for-21 with two walks...Battey threw out three attempted base stealers--Horton (twice) and Bill Freehan.  Horton had his personal best in base stealing in 1965 with five, but was caught nine times.  He was 20-for-58 in stealing bases for his career.  Freehan stole four bases in 1965, one shy of his career best.  For his career, he was 24-for-45 in stolen bases.  The Tigers did have one successful stolen base in this game.  It was by Jim Northrup, his only steal of the season.  His career high was seven, and his career totals are 39-for-77.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 16

Alex Ferguson (1897)
Parnell Woods (1912)
Creepy Crespi (1918)
Atsushi Aramaki (1926)
Bobby Darwin (1943)
Terry Crowley (1947)
Bob Didier (1949)
Glenn Abbott (1951)
Jerry Hairston (1952)
Barry Foote (1952)
Bill Pecota (1960)
Eric Bullock (1960)
Dwayne Henry (1962)
Jerome Bettis (1972)
Eric Byrnes (1976)
Tommy Milone (1987)

Parnell Woods was an infielder in the Negro Leagues for fourteen years.  He later became the business manager for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Atsushi Aramaki was a dominant pitcher in Japan in the 1950s and is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Better known as an NFL running back, Jerome Bettis is a part-owner of the Altoona Curve and the State College Spikes.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 16 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-two

CLEVELAND 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, August 29.

Batting stars:  Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-5 with a double.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-2 with two walks.  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run.

Pitching stars:  Jim Merritt pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and four walks with five strikeouts.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Steve Hargan pitched eight innings, allowing one run on seven hits and six walks with five strikeouts.  Chuck Hinton was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run.  Fred Whitfield was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.

The game:  It was a game of missed opportunities for the Twins, as they stranded twelve and went 0-for-9 with men in scoring position.  They scored first, as Earl Battey's sacrifice fly put them up 1-0 in the third.  But they stranded two in the first, two in the fourth, and two in the fifth, and it cost them as in the sixth, Rocky Colavito hit an RBI double and Whitfield had a sacrifice fly to put the Indians up 2-1.  The Twins stranded two more runners in the sixth and Whifield singled in a run in the eighth to make it 3-1.  The Twins did not threaten after that.

Of note:  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-2 with two walks.  Battey was 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly.

Record:  The Twins went to 83-49.  Chicago swept a doubleheader from Boston, so the Twins lead dropped to 6.5 games.

Notes:  Battey watched his average fall to an even .300...We wrote about Sam McDowell once already, but it should be noted that he got the save in this game, coming in after Hargan issued a leadoff walk in the ninth and retiring the last three batters.  He had just pitched 6.1 innings two days earlier and would pitch a one-hitter two-days later.  It was the third of four saves he would get on the season.  For his career, McDowell had fourteen saves...Steve Hargan was a twenty-two-year-old rookie in 1965.  He had come up in early August and was making his seventh start.  This was easily his best start of the season; he would make one more before going to the bullpen for the rest of the year.  He posted an ERA under three three times (1966-67 and 1970), which is impressive even for that era.  He had poor years in 1971 and 1972, spent all of 1973 in the minors, and then was traded to Texas, for whom he had three fairly good seasons.  1977 was his last year in the majors, but he played in 1978 at AAA before ending his playing career.  One of the teams he played for in 1978 was the Twins' AAA team, the Toledo Mud Hens.  We don't have a bio of him in our birthday list, an oversight we plan to correct next year.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 15

Sliding Billy Hamilton (1866)
Charlie Irwin (1869)
Jimmy Ring (1895)
George Earnshaw (1900)
Larry Goetz (1900)
Lorenzo Ponza (1915)
Chuck Estrada (1938)
Ron Cey (1948)
Rick Auerbach (1950)
Joe Hesketh (1959)
Mark Davidson (1961)
Melido Perez (1966)
Ugueth Urbina (1974)
Alex Gonzalez (1977)
Luis Ugueto (1979)
Russell Martin (1983)

Lorenzo Ponza invented the modern pitching machine.

Larry Goetz was a National League umpire from 1936-1957.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 15 →