Here we go, gang!
20 Feb 2013
(2 votes, average: 5.50 out of 10)
Loading... Harry Howell (1876)
Jim Piersall (1929)
Jim Brewer (1937)
Willie Hernandez (1954)
Curt Schilling (1966)
Kent Bottenfield (1968)
Ruben Rivera (1973)
Xavier Nady (1978)
Clete Thomas (1983)
That's no moon!
Fair thee well, folks. I've nothing left to say.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... Date: Friday, May 22.
Batting stars: Greg Gagne was 1-for-3 with a triple, scoring once and driving in one. Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a run. Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-3 with a stolen base, his second.
Pitching stars: Frank Viola took a complete game loss, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks with one strikeout.
Opposition stars: Jack Morris pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and no walks with four strikeouts. Alan Trammell was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his third. Eric King pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits with two strikeouts.
The game: Trammell hit his two-run homer in the first inning, putting the Tigers up 2-0. In the third, Gagne had an RBI triple and scored on a ground out to tie it 2-2. It remained tied until the seventh, when doubles by Larry Herndon and Chet Lemon brought home the go-ahead run for Detroit. The Twins had men on first and second with one out in the seventh and again in the ninth but could not tie the score.
Of note: Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with an RBI, making his average .333...Gene Larkin was 1-for-4, making him 3-for-8 since his callup.
Record: The Twins were 20-21, in fifth place, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.
Notes: Larkin was the DH, with Roy Smalley out of the lineup...The Twins had three runners caught stealing: Gary Gaetti twice and Gladden once. In his first few years, Gaetti was not a bad percentage base stealer, going 31-for-42 (74%). In 1987, however, he was 14-for-29 (48%) and for his career he was 96-for-161 (60%). Gladden had his best base stealing numbers when he was with the Twins, going 116-for-158 (74%). For the rest of his career, he was 104-for-165 (67%).
Player profile: Who was Eric King? Well, he was a starter most of his career, and actually had a couple of pretty fair seasons. He came up to the Tigers in 1986 and went 11-4, 3.51, 1.24 WHIP as a rookie. He split his time between a starter and reliever that season, then went to the bullpen the next two years, struggling in 1987 but doing better in 1988. He was traded to the White Sox after that season and put in a couple of good years for them as a starter, going 21-14, 3.34, 1.23 WHIP in 50 starts. The White Sox traded him to Cleveland following the 1990 season and his career went downhill after that. He spent one year with Cleveland, came back to Detroit for 1992, but pitched poorly and his big league career came to an end. Six years later he pitched for Pacific in the Western League, but that was it for his playing career. Wikipedia notes that he is best known for giving up Ken Griffey, Jr's first career home run, which I guess it's better than not being known at all.
Johnny Kling (1875)
Jackie Price (1912)
Ted Wilks (1915)
Jim Delsing (1925)
Steve Bilko (1928)
Wes Parker (1939)
Mel Stottlemyre (1941)
Gene Garber (1947)
John Sutton (1952)
Dan Petry (1958)
Pat Hentgen (1968)
Jason Simontacchi (1973)
Gerald Laird (1979)
Jackie Price played one season in the major leagues, but was better known as a baseball entertainer. He is sometimes called a "baseball clown", but that's not really accurate, because he really performed tricks more than actually clowning.
Date: Thursday, May 21.
Batting stars: Tim Laudner was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his second. Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a double. Gene Larkin, in his first major league game, was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Pitching star: Mark Portugal, who had pitched 2.2 innings two days earlier, pitched three innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk with two strikeouts.
Opposition stars: Greg Swindell pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on nine hits and no walks with seven strikeouts. Cory Snyder was 3-for-4 with three solo homers, his seventh, eighth, and ninth. Mel Hall was 2-for-4 with a home run, his sixth. Tony Bernazard was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.
The game: Bert Blyleven left a pitch up to Sndyer in the second, Joe Carter singled in a run in the third, and Blyleven left pitches up to Snyder and Bernazard in the fifth and Hall in the sixth. All the home runs were solo shots, but I guess solo home runs can hurt if you give up enough of them. Trailing 5-0, the Twins got on the board when Laudner hit a two-run homer in the seventh, but never got closer than three runs.
Of note: Puckett raised his average to .335...Laudner got his average into triple digits for the first time in nearly a month and was batting .122...Blyleven pitched five innings, giving up five runs on eleven hits and one walk with four strikeouts.
Record: The Twins were 20-20, in fifth place, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.
Notes: Mark Davidson played right field, with Tom Brunansky at DH and Roy Smalley out of the lineup.
Player profile: 1987 was easily the best year of Brook Jacoby's career. He had an OPS of .928 that year--he never topped .800 in any other. He hit 32 homers that year--his next highest was 20. He came up with Atlanta, but the Braves had Bob Horner to play third and did not have room for him, so he was traded to Cleveland after the 1993 season as a player to be named later (along with Brett Butler) for Len Barker. The Indians made him their starting third sacker in 1984 and he stayed in the lineup into 1991, although he started playing quite a bit of first base in 1990. He was twice an all-star, in 1986 and in 1990. Oddly, he did not make the team in 1987, losing out to Wade Boggs and Kevin Seitzer. That last one seems strange, but Seitzer batted .323 that year, so one can understand it. In 1988 he had a pretty substantial regression to the mean, hitting only nine homers and batting .241. He bounced back, though, and remained a productive player through 1990. He havd a poor year in 1991 and was traded to Oakland at the July deadline, but came back to the Indians as a free agent in 1992. He went to Japan for 1993, then his playing career was over. He has remained in baseball and is the batting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.
I've been sitting here trying to think of a header for a while now but can't think of anything. I guess there's not enough going on in the world or something.
Jack Ryan (1868)
Moonlight Graham (1877)
Carl Mays (1891)
Joe Hoerner (1936)
Bruce Bochte (1950)
Jody Davis (1956)
Donnie Hill (1960)
Greg Gagne (1961)
Jeff Reed (1962)
Randy Knorr (1968)
Sammy Sosa (1968)
Aaron Heilman (1978)
Aaron Heilman was drafted by Minnesota in the first round in 2000, but did not sign.
We would also like to wish a happy anniversary to Mr. and Mrs. FT"HM"LT.
Oh, how much I'll miss your voice Mr. Cohen. RIP.
(3 votes, average: 9.67 out of 10)Loading... 
