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.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.