Category Archives: Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seventeen

MINNESOTA 4, CLEVELAND 3 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Sunday, August 15 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

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

Pitching star:  Mudcat Grant pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Luis Tiant pitched eight innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.  Leon Wagner was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his twenty-first) and a walk.  Vic Davalillo was 1-for-2 with two walks and a run.

The game:  With one out in the second, Hall doubled and scored on an Earl Battey single to put the Twins ahead 1-0.  That was it for the scoring until the ninth inning.  In fact, from the third through the eighth, each team managed only one hit, each a single.  In the ninth, however, Zoilo Versalles and Valdespino greeted reliever Bobby Tiefenauer with singles, and with one out Mincher delivered a two-run double.  Hall had an RBI single off Don McMahon to make it 4-0.  The Twins would need every one of those runs, because the Indians opened the ninth with a walk and a Wagner's two-run homer.  That brought in Al Worthington, who promptly gave up a double to Rocky Colavito.  He retired the next two batters, but Chuck Hinton's pinch-hit RBI single made it 4-3.  Pedro Gonzalez came up representing the winning run, but he popped up to short to end the game.

Of note:  Versalles was 1-for-4 with a run.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Battey was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Record:  The win made the Twins 75-42 and increased their lead over Cleveland to nine games.  The Indians were now in a tie for second with Detroit, which won the first game of a doubleheader with California and was also nine games back.

Notes:  Battey raised his average to .311.  Oliva dropped to .306.  Hall pushed his average back over the .300 mark at .301...Another forgotten star from the 1960s is Leon Wagner.  He started his career with the Giants in 1958 but did not become a regular until he went to the Angels in 1961.  He was an all-star for the Angels in 1962 and 1963 and finished fourth in MVP voting in 1962, when he hit 37 home runs.  He also received MVP consideration in 1963, 1964, and 1966.  The year in-between, 1965, was arguably his best year, as he set career highs in batting average (.294) and on-base percentage (.369) and also hit 28 homers.  The Angels traded him after the 1963 season for Barry Latman and a fading Joe Adcock--either he got crosswise with management somehow or the Angels just made a really dumb trade.  He appeared in a couple of movies in the 1970s and later owned a clothing store, but eventually fell on hard times.  He was living in an abandoned electrical shed next to a dumpster in Los Angeles when he passed away in 2004.

Happy Birthday–January 31

Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson (1845)
Zane Grey (1872)
George Burns (1893)
Pinky Hargrave (1896)
Pedro Cepeda (1906)
Don Hutson (1913)
Jackie Robinson (1919)
Ernie Banks (1931)
Hank Aguirre (1931)
Nolan Ryan (1947)
Fred Kendall (1949)
Ted Power (1955)
Ed Wade (1956)
Francisco Oliveras (1963)
Yuniesky Betancourt (1982)
Caleb Thielbar (1987)

Better known as an author of western novels, Zane Grey played outfield for two years in the low minors, batting .323 in 86 games.  He also wrote several books about baseball.

Pedro Cepeda is the father of Orlando Cepeda and is considered by some to have been a better player; he was known as the Babe Ruth of Puerto Rico.

Don Hutson, a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, played in the low minors from 1936-1937, hitting .301 in 194 games.

Ed Wade was the general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1998-2005 and the Houston Astros from 2007-2011.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 31

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Sixteen

CLEVELAND 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Saturday, August 14.

Batting stars:  Andy Kosco was 1-for-4 with a home run.  Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Al Worthington pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Sam McDowell pitched a complete game, allowing one run on three hits and two walks with eleven strikeouts.  Chuck Hinton was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a double.  Larry Brown was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.

The game:  Kosco homered leading off the second to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Allison followed with a double, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple.  The Twins would get only one hit the rest of the game, a two-out single by Joe Nossek in the sixth.  The lead held until the fifth, when Brown hit a two-run homer and Hinton had a solo homer later in the inning.  That was it for scoring.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-1.  Earl Battey was 0-for-3.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 74-42.  Baltimore lost to Washington 8-5 in eleven innings, so Cleveland moved into second place, eight games behind Minnesota.

Notes:  Oliva batted in the first inning, grounded out, and was immediately replaced by Nossek.  One wonders if that caused some panic among Twins fans, as the lineup was already missing Harmon Killebrew.  Oliva would be back in the lineup the next day...This was the first major league start for Kosco, who had made his major league debut the previous day.  He was immediately put in the fourth spot in the lineup and, as shown above, homered.  It was his only home run of the season in fifty-five at-bats.  He would hit seventy-three in his career, with a high of nineteen for the Dodgers in 1969...Battey had his average drop to .310.  Oliva was now at .309...Another largely forgotten player, Chuck Hinton was pretty good.  He made the all-star team in 1964 and was mentioned on a couple of MVP ballots in 1962.  Primarily an outfielder, he played from 1961-71, although his last year as a regular was 1967.  He hit .264 for his career, which for a career played mostly in the 1960s is not bad at all.  He hit 113 home runs, with a high of eighteen in 1965...For some reason, when great pitchers of the 1960s are mentioned, Sudden Sam McDowell is at best an "Oh, yeah, him, too."  The fact that he spent most of his career with Cleveland and never appeared in the post-season probably has something to do with that.  Like Bert Blyleven, he had high strikeout totals and low ERAs but not high win totals.  He won twenty games only once, in 1970.  Not coincidentally, that was the only time he received significant Cy Young consideration, although it was not his best season.  He was a six-time all-star and led the league in strikeouts six times (topping 300 twice).  He also led in ERA once (1965) and in innings once (305 in 1970).  He had an ERA under three six times, with his best coming in 1968 (1.81).  He also led the league in walks five times, leading one to believe he must have thrown a huge number of pitches.

Happy Birthday–January 30

Tony Mullane (1859)
General Stafford (1868)
Walt Dropo (1923)
Sandy Amoros (1930)
Charlie Neal (1931)
Davey Johnson (1943)
Matt Alexander (1947)
Roger Cador (1952)
Joe Kerrigan (1954)
Dave Stegman (1954)
Jorge Cantu (1982)
Jeremy Hermida (1984)

Roger Cador was an outfielder in the Braves organization, reaching AAA.  He has been the head baseball coach at Southern University since 1984.   He was the first coach of a historically black university to win a game in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament, beating #2-ranked Cal State Fullerton 1-0 in 1987.

Dave Stegman was drafted by Minnesota in the tenth round in 1972, but did not sign.

We would like to wish a very happy birthday to Rowsdower's father and to Mrs. Nibbish.

There do not appear to be any other players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Fifteen

CLEVELAND 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Friday, August 13.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a home run, his sixteenth.  Earl Battey was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched five innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and one walk with one strikeout.  Garry Roggenburk pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Larry Brown was 2-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch and two runs.  Bobby Tiefenauer pitched three shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks.  Max Alvis was 2-for-3 with a walk.

The game:  Rocky Colavito's RBI single put the Indians up 1-0 in the first.  It stayed 1-0 until the fifth, when three consecutive singles and a wild pitch produced two Cleveland runs for a 3-0 advantage.  The Twins did not get a man past first until the seventh, when Oliva led off with a home run.  The Twins never got the tying run on base.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-4.  Bob Allison was 0-for-4.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 74-41.  Baltimore lost 4-2 to Washington, so the Twins' lead remained 8.5 games.

Notes:  Battey raised his average to .314.  Oliva went up to .310...Cleveland starter Sonny Siebert pitched only one inning and was removed, presumably due to injury.  He would not start again until August 31, although he did make a couple of relief appearances...Siebert has been largely forgotten now, but he was a fine pitcher in his day.  He posted double digit wins every year from 1965-72, with an ERA under three from 1965-68 and again in 1971.  He pitched over two hundred innings four times in that span and never had fewer than 177.  He made the all-star team twice, with Cleveland in 1966 and with Boston in 1971.  For his career, he was 140-114, 3.21, 1.21 WHIP in twelve seasons.

Happy Birthday–January 29

Ray Hayworth (1904)
Pancho Coimbre (1909)
Bill Rigney (1918)
Hank Edwards (1919)
Frank Gravino (1923)
Bobby Bolin (1939)
Sergio Ferrer (1951)
Steve Sax (1960)
Mike Aldrete (1961)
John Habyan (1964)
Jason Schmidt (1973)

Pancho Coimbre was a star in the Caribbean Leagues and the Negro leagues in the 1940s.  Roberto Clemente said that Coimbre was a better player than Clemente was.  Coimbre played two full seasons in the Puerto Rican League in which he did not strike out.

Frank Gravino played in the minors from 1940-1942 and 1946-1954.  He has been called the greatest slugger in Northern League history, hitting 108 home runs in two seasons there.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 29

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Fourteen

MINNESOTA 8, NEW YORK 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Thursday, August 12.

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his sixteenth), a double, and a walk, scoring twice.  Zoilo Versalles was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a walk, scoring twice.  Earl Battey was 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice.

Pitching star:  Jim Merritt pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on ten hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Clete Boyer was 3-for-4 with a home run (his eleventh) and a double.  Hector Lopez was 2-for-4 with a home run, his sixth.  Mickey Mantle was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

The game:  It was scoreless until the fourth, when Mincher hit a two-out two-run homer.  Tony Oliva's sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 3-0.  Each team scored once in the seventh.  The Twins put it away in the eighth when they got a pair of two-out walks and Frank Quilici circled the bases on a triple-plus error to make it 7-1.  Each team scored once in the ninth.

Of note:  Rich Rollins was 3-for-5 with a stolen base (his second, scoring once and driving in one.  Oliva was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Bob Allison was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-5.

Record:  The win made the Twins 74-40.  Baltimore beat Boston 5-3, so the Twins' lead remained 8.5 games.

Notes:  Battey took over the team lead in batting with .310.  Oliva went to .308.  Hall dropped below .300 for the first time since May 31 at .299...Quilici's triple was the first of his major league career.  He would hit six in his career, four in 1968 and one in 1969...Battey hit seventeen triples in his career.  He never hit more than three in a season, but he had at least one every year from 1959-1967.

Happy Birthday–January 28

George Wright (1847)
Ducky Holmes (1869)
Bill Doak (1891)
Lyn Lary (1906)
Bob Muncrief (1916)
Pete Runnels (1928)
Harry Dunlop (1933)
Bill White (1934)
Fredi Gonzalez (1964)
Kevin Tolar (1971)
Jermaine Dye (1974)
Magglio Ordonez (1974)
Lyle Overbay (1977)

Harry Dunlop caught in the minors for fourteen years and was a coach for seventeen years.  He caught the minor league no-hitter in which Ron Necciai struck out twenty-seven batters and the back-to-back minor league no-hitters of Bill Bell.

Fredi Gonzalez managed the Florida Marlins from 2007-2010 and has managed the Atlanta Braves since 2011.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 28

1965 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirteen

NEW YORK 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Wednesday, August 11.

Batting stars:  Earl Battey was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs.  Don Mincher was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice.  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Garry Roggenburk pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit with one strikeout.  Dick Stigman struck out four in two perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Mel Stottlemyre pitched a complete game, allowing four unearned runs on eight hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  Ray Barker was 1-for-3 with a double.  Clete Boyer was 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

The game:  The Twins jumped out to an early lead.  A single, an error, and a two-out intentional walk to Mincher were followed by a two-run single by Battey and an RBI single by Rich Rollins to make it 3-0.  The lead held until the fifth, when the Yankees scored all five of their runs.  A double, five singles, and an error did the damage.  The Twins cut it to 5-4 in the sixth when Jerry Zimmerman's single-plus-error brought home a run.  The Twins had the tying run on second, but a line drive double play ended the threat and the Twins did not get a man past first after that.

Of note:  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a run.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4.  Bob Allison was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Mudcat Grant pitched four innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on six hits and no walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The win snapped the Twins' six-game winning streak and made their record 73-40.  Baltimore lost to Boston, so the Twins' lead remained 8.5 games.

Notes:  Battey was replaced by Zimmerman in the sixth inning following an RBI single by Joe Pepitone.  One suspects Battey may have been shaken up on a play at the plate.  Battey would be back in the lineup the next day...Oliva and Battey were now each batting .306, with Hall dropping to .303.

Happy Birthday–January 27

Andy Lotshaw (1880)
Milt Gaston (1896)
Bibb Falk (1899)
Fred Heimach (1901)
John Lowenstein (1947)
Tom Trebelhorn (1948)
Eric Wedge (1968)
Phil Plantier (1969)
Angel Berroa (1980)
Gavin Floyd (1983)

Andy Lotshaw had a thirteen-year minor league career as an outfielder/first baseman, leading his league in triples four times and in home runs five times.  He also played professional basketball.  He then became the trainer for the Chicago Cubs from 1922-1952.

Tom Trebelhorn managed the Milwaukee Brewers from 1986-1991 and the Chicago Cubs in 1994.

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.