Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 12

Henry Larkin (1860)
Tom Kinslow (1866)
George Browne (1876)
Joe Hauser (1899)
Lee Allen (1915)
Alfredo Ortiz (1944)
Ron Polk (1944)
Paul Reuschel (1947)
Randy Jones (1950)
Terry Whitfield (1953)
Mike Marshall (1960)
Tim Hulett (1960)
Casey Candaele (1961)
Andy Fox (1971)
Luis Ayala (1978)
Dontrelle Willis (1982)

Joe Hauser twice hit over 60 home runs in a season in AAA.

Historian and writer Lee Allen contributed much to the Hall of Fame and to the first edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia.

Alfredo Ortiz won 287 games in the minor leagues, mostly in the Mexican League, and 104 more in the Mexican Winter League.

Ron Polk was a very successful college baseball coach, most notably at Mississippi State.

The Mike Marshall listed above is the outfielder/first baseman who played mostly for the Dodgers.

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WGOM Videos

David Bowie – Young Americans

Video 11 Comments

Aww, screw it, let's play a few more cuts, eh?


4 Dec 1974

Sorry, the mix is really bad for this the song. No, your speakers aren't screwy, that saxophone is clipping way the funk out. Sampling several videos for this performance leads me to believe this is the fault of that sneaky Dick Cavett...

2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 102 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10 (2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
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WGOM Videos

David Bowie – Heroes

Video 7 Comments

While freealonzo gets situated, we obviously must take the time to recognize an amazing soul that graced us with his time on this planet. We are all so much richer for it. The list of contributions are far too long to try to tick off, and I'm sure many words far more meaningful than mine will be spoken in the coming weeks, but I can imagine how cathartic it was for all those kids growing during his rise to have someone to turn to and think, hey, I don't have to fit into a box. This isn't weird. This is cool.


1977

Let us know your favorite remembrances below.

6 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 106 votes, average: 9.67 out of 10 (6 votes, average: 9.67 out of 10)
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Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-seven

MINNESOTA 8, BALTIMORE 2 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Monday, July 26.

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his twelfth) and a double.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twentieth) and two runs.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Pitching stars:  Mudcat Grant pitched 6.1 innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts.  Garry Roggenburk pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and one walk.

Opposition stars:  Dick Brown was 2-for-4 with a home run, his third.  Brooks Robinson was 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.  Russ Snyder was 2-for-4 with a walk.

The game:  Mincher hit a three-run homer in the first inning to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  Brown homered leading off the third and Robinson singled in a run later in the inning to cut the margin to 3-2.  A run scored on a passed ball in the fifth and Killebrew homered in the sixth to put the Twins up 5-2.  The Twins put it away in the seventh on an RBI single by Grant and a two-run single-plus-error by Oliva.  The Orioles had the bases loaded with two out in the seventh, but Roggenburk retired Boog Powell on a fly to center and Baltimore did not threaten again.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.

Record:  The win made the Twins 61-36 and gave them a split in the four-game wraparound series with the second place Orioles.  Baltimore dropped to 4.5 games out of first.

Notes:  Hall's average dropped to .307...Garry Roggenburk came up in 1963 at age 23 and had a fine season out of the bullpen, posting 2.16 ERA in fifty innings.  He was out all of 1964, presumably due to injury.  He started 1965 in the minors but came up in late July and though he wasn't used a lot he pitched fairly well in twelve appearances.  He pitched poorly in 1966, was sold to Boston in 1967, and finished his career with Seattle in 1969...Dick Brown was in the last year of a nine-year career in which he was almost always a part-time catcher.  He was a backup for Cleveland from 1957-59, went to the White Sox for 1960, went to Detroit for 1961-62, and spent the rest of his career with Baltimore.  His one shot as a starter was 1962, when he started 122 games.  He wasn't terrible, but he wasn't particularly good, either, hitting .241 with an OPS of .631.  Bill Freehan came along in 1963, which is why Brown was traded to the Orioles.  He started the most games of anyone for Baltimore in 1965, but it was only 73, as he split time with John Orsino and Charlie Lau, with a few games going to a young Andy Etchebarren.  He likely would have played longer, but was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was forced to retire after the 1965 season.  He became a scout for the Orioles until his death in 1970.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 11

George Pinkney (1859)
Silver King (1868)
Elmer Flick (1876)
Max Carey (1890)
George Trautman (1890)
General Crowder (1899)
Schoolboy Rowe (1910)
Don Mossi (1929)
Gene Cook (1932)
Jim McAndrew (1944)
Jack Zduriencik (1951)
Rocket Wheeler (1955)
Lloyd McClendon (1959)
Donn Pall (1962)
Warren Morris (1974)

George Trautman was the president of the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs from 1947 until his death in 1963.

Gene Cook was the general manager of the Toledo Mud Hens from 1978-1998.  He is credited with convincing Jamie Farr to wear a Mud Hens cap on M*A*S*H.

Jack Zduriencik was the general manager of the Seattle Mariners from 2008-2015.

Rocket Wheeler has been a manager in the low minors for twenty-three seasons.  He was the manager of the Danville Braves in 2015.

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Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-six

1 Comment

MINNESOTA 8, BALTIMORE 5 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Sunday, July 25.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice and driving in three.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk, driving in four.  Jimmie Hall was 3-for-5 with a home run, his seventeenth.

Pitching stars:  Dick Stigman struck out four in three innings, giving up one run on one hit.  Mel Nelson struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  John Miller struck out seven in seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks.  Norm Siebern was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.  Brooks Robinson was 1-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

The game:  Miller struck out the side in the top of the first.  Curt Blefary singled in a run in the first and the Orioles got three more in the second, two scoring on a Bob Johnson triple, to take a 4-0 lead.  Hall homered in the fourth to get the Twins on the board at 4-1, but Baltimore got the run back in the fifth when Robinson homered.  It was still 5-1 going to the eighth.  The Twins led off the eighth with singles by Frank Quilici, Sandy Valdespino, and Versalles, with Zoilo knocking in a run to make it 5-1, and the Oliva hit a three-run homer to tie it 5-5.  In the ninth, a single by Earl Battey, a bunt, and an intentional walk to Rich Rollins put two on with one out.  Versalles then hit a two-run triple and Oliva followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Twins an 8-5 advantage.  The Orioles did not get the tying run up to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Of note:  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-5.  Battey was 1-for-4.  Jim Kaat pitched only 1.2 innings, giving up four unearned runs on five hits and no walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins salvaged one of the three-game series against the second-place Orioles.  The win made their record 60-36 and increased their lead to 3.5 games.

Notes:  The first three batters in the Twins' lineup (Versalles, Oliva, and Hall) went 6-for-12 with two home runs, a triple, and two walks, scoring four runs and driving in all eight...Hall raised his average to .310...Battey fell below .300 for the first time since July 3 as his average dropped to .299...Kaat had his shortest start of the season and had gone six innings only once in the month of July.  In fairness to him, it was his fourth start in eleven days, as he had started on the 15th, the 18th, and the 21st.  He would start again on the 27th.  As you might have guessed, he led all of baseball in games started in 1965 with 42, meaning he started 26% of all Twins games in 1965...John Miller got cups of coffee with the Orioles in 1962 and 1963.  He came up in late June of 1965 and was a spot starter for them the rest of the season, making 16 starts.  He had a good season, going 6-4, 3.18 (although with a WHIP of 1.43.  It was the only good major league season he would have.  He was with the Orioles for all of 1966, spent most of 1967 in the minors, and was out of baseball after the 1968 season at age 27.

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Ninety-five

BALTIMORE 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Saturday, July 24.

Batting stars:  Joe Nossek was 1-for-2 with a double and a run.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his tenth.  Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Camilo Pascual pitched 5.1 innings, giving up only one run despite four hits and five walks with two strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Boog Powell was 3-for-4 with a home run (his eighth) and two RBIs.  Dave McNally pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts.  Norm Siebern was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.

The game:  It was scoreless until the fifth, when Zoilo Versalles delivered a two-out RBI single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Powell answered with a run-scoring single in the sixth to tie it 1-1.  The Orioles almost took the lead in the seventh, but Jimmie Hall threw out Siebern at the plate as he tried to score from second on a single.  The Twins loaded the bases with two-out in the eighth, but Sandy Valdespino, pinch-hitting for Earl Battey, grounded out to end the threat.  Powell gave Baltimore the lead in the eighth with a leadoff homer and relief pitcher Dick Hall drove in an insurance run with a two-out double to left.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

Of note:  Versalles was 1-for-4 with an RBI.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Battey was 0-for-2 with a walk.  Hall entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and was 0-for-2.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 59-36.  They remained in first place, but their second straight loss to Baltimore cut their lead over the Orioles to 2.5 games.

Notes:  Battey's average dropped to .310...Hall fell to .305...Pinch-hitting Valdespino for Battey seems a curious move, but Valdespino was hitting .286 at the time and they did gain a platoon advantage.  There may have been other reasons for the move, too--it's hard to second-guess the manager fifty years after the fact...In my memory Boog Powell was a great slugger, and some years he was, but he was not very consistent.  He hit over thirty homers four times, but he also had five seasons of more than four hundred at-bats in which he hit fewer than twenty.  1965 was one of those seasons.  in 556 at-bats, he hit only seventeen home runs and posted a slugging average of .407.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 10

Harry Wright (1835)
Chick Stahl (1873)
Del Pratt (1888)
Ziggy Sears (1892)
Max Patkin (1920)
George Strickland (1926)
Jim O'Toole (1937)
Willie McCovey (1938)
Chuck Dobson (1944)
Wilfredo Sanchez (1948)
Richard Dotson (1959)
Kelvin Torve (1960)
Wally Bell (1965)
Kevin Baez (1967)
Gary Rath (1973)
Adam Kennedy (1976)

 Outfielder Ziggy Sears played in the minors for sixteen years, mostly in the Texas League.  He once drove in eleven runs in a game.  He was a National League umpire from 1934-1945.

Max Patkin was a well-known baseball clown from 1944-1995.

Wilfredo Sanchez was a star in Cuba from 1968-1986, winning five batting titles.

Wally Bell was a major league umpire from 1992-2013, when he passed away from a heart attack.

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Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.