George Stallings (1867)
Mike Garcia (1923)
Orlando Pena (1933)
Gary Bell (1936)
Tom Seaver (1944)
Brad Havens (1959)
Mitch Williams (1964)
Paul Sorrento (1965)
Jeff Nelson (1966)
Eli Marrero (1973)
Darnell McDonald (1978)
Ryan Braun (1983)
Nick Markakis (1983)
Shane Greene (1988)
Elias Diaz (1990)
George Stallings managed in the major leagues for thirteen years. He is best remembered as the manager of the 1914 Miracle Braves.
Rick lost his first tooth today(/yesterday). I went out and got the crispest tener I could find (I'm waiting for Pete to complain, but inflation, man). Where do you stand on the various American demigods (Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy, etc.)? I've always tried non-denial denials.
TORONTO BLUE JAYS 3, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN TORONTO
Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2001.
Batting star: Doug Mienkiewicz was 2-for-4. Jacque Jones was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Kyle Lohse pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and a walk and striking out two. Todd Jones pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Brad Fullmer was 3-for-3 with a home run (his twelfth) and a double. Carlos Delgado hit a home run, his twenty-ninth. Roy Halladay pitched eight innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk and striking out two.
The game: The Twins had men on first and second with one out in the first, thanks to singles by Jones and Mientkiewicz, but nothing came of it. The scoring started in the second, when Delgado led off with a home run. Fullmer doubled later in the inning, but was stranded at second. Toronto scored again in the fourth when Shannon Stewart led off with a double, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly, making the score 2-0.
Meanwhile, the Twins had only one hit in innings two through six. They got on the board in the seventh, though. Doug Mientkiewicz singled and Corey Koskie walked, putting men on first and second with none out. A double play almost took them out of the inning, but David Ortiz delivered a double, cutting the lead to 2-1.
The Blue Jays got the run right back in the bottom of the seventh, when Brad Fullmer led off with a home run. The Twins got the tying run up to bat in both the eighth and the ninth, but they did not score again, and Toronto won 3-1.
WP: Roy Halladay (1-1).
LP: Kyle Lohse (3-4).
S: Billy Koch (22).
Notes: Denny Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman. Chad Allen was in right field in place of Matt Lawton, who had been traded to the Mets a couple of days earlier for Rick Reed.
Doug Mientkiewicz was batting .329. He would finish at .306.
Shannon Stewart went 1-for-4 in this game. He would be traded to the Twins two years later and would play for them through 2005.
Todd Jones had been traded to the Twins a few days earlier for Mark Redman. He would only stay through the end of 2001, leaving as a free agent. He would play in the majors through 2008.
It was the rookie year for Kyle Lohse. He had made his first start on June 22. 2001 was a struggle, as he went 4-7, 5.68. He would do better, but would not have an ERA under four until 2008, when he was with St. Louis.
Roy Halladay was still in the process of establishing himself as a major league pitcher. He’d had a full season in the majors in 1999 and done pretty well, but 2000 was a struggle for him and he was back in AAA for part of the season. He came back to the majors about a month before this game. The next year he would be an all-star, and the year after that would win the Cy Young Award.
Record: Toronto was 50-58, in third place in the AL East, 15.5 games behind New York. They would finish 80-82, in third place, 16 games behind New York.
The Twins were 60-47, in second place in the AL Central, 1.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 85-77, in second place, 6 games behind Cleveland.
Random Record: The Random Twins have lost five consecutive games and are 23-23 (.500).
Mike McGeary (1850)
Joe Quest (1852)
Cristobal Torriente (1893)
Henry Spearman (1909)
Paul Foytack (1930)
Frank Bolling (1931)
Harry Chiti (1932)
Don Hahn (1948)
Herb Washington (1951)
Glenn Burke (1952)
Curt Wardle (1960)
Dwight Gooden (1964)
Chris Haney (1968)
Pete Rose (1969)
Julio Lugo (1975)
Juan Centeno (1989)
I don't know whether Joe Quest had a relative named Jonny.
Sprinter Herb Washington played for Oakland for two seasons as a pinch-runner. He appeared in 105 games but did not play in the field and did not bat. He stole 31 bases in 48 attempts and scored 33 runs.
(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Loading... (1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... How do you take your water? I like mine as ice cold as ice cold gets. I know there are room temperature people out there, but I don't know why.
SEATTLE MARINERS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, May 31, 2003.
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and two RBIs. Doug Mientikewicz was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits. Johan Santana pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition star: Ichiro Suzuki was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fifth), a triple, and two runs. John Olerud was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Bret Boone was 2-for-5. Edgar Martinez hit a home run, his thirteenth. Ryan Franklin pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.
The game: There was no score, and really no threat of a score, until the fourth. Bret Boone led off with a single and John Olerud hit a one-out single. A force out put men on first and third with two down, and Randy Winn and Jeff Cirillo hit consecutive RBI singles to give Seattle a 2-0 lead. The Mariners added two more in the fifth when Ichiro Suzuki led off with a triple, scored on a ground out, and Edgar Martinez followed with a two-out home run.
The Twins got on the board in the fifth. Torii Hunter led off with an infield single and Doug Mientkiewicz followed with a bunt single. Dustan Mohr then singled home a run. The Twins still had two on with none out, but could do no more, and so still trailed 4-1.
The teams traded solo homers in the seventh, with Ichiro Suzuki hitting one for Seattle and Dustan Mohr hitting one for the Twins. But the Twins did not get a man on base after that. Their last eight batters were retired, and the Mariners took a 5-2 victory.
WP: Ryan Franklin (4-3).
LP: Rick Reed (3-6).
S: Kazuhiro Sasaki (9).
Notes: Tom Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Bobby Kielty was the DH. Matthew LeCroy got the most games at DH with 63, followed by Kielty (32), Jacque Jones (29), and Justin Morneau (23).
Jacque Jones was batting .330. He would finish at .304. Dustan Mohr was batting .322. He would finish at .250.
LaTroy Hawkins had an ERA of 1.46. He would finish at 1.86. Johan Santana had an ERA of 2.68. He would finish at 3.07.
As we’ve pointed out a couple of times, Jeff Cirillo, who went 1-for-4 in this game, played for the Twins in 2007.
As I recall, Ron Gardenhire really wanted to keep Johan Santana in the bullpen, but he was just too good, plus the Twins had too many needs in the starting rotation. Their rotation that year, other than Santana, was Brad Radke (4.49 ERA), Kyle Lohse (4.61), Kenny Rogers (4.57), Rick Reed (5.07), and Joe Mays (6.30). Leaving Santana, who as a starter went 11-2, 2.85, in the bullpen was simply a luxury the Twins could not afford.
Ben Davis, who caught for Seattle in this game, was a can’t-miss prospect who missed, although he did play in the majors for parts of seven seasons. He was drafted second in 1995, behind Darin Erstad. He reached the majors for one game in 1998. He had three full seasons in the majors, but only one as a starter. That was 2001, when he batted .239/.337/.357 for San Diego. He was traded to Seattle after the season and was a part-time player the rest of his career. The Mariners traded him to the White Sox in June of 2004, and his major league career ended after that season. He kept trying, playing in the Yankees, Dodgers, Baltimore, and Cincinnati organizations through 2009. He converted to pitching the last couple of years, and had a very good year in Class A in 2009. He was thirty-two by then, though, and no one was interested in seeing if he could continue that success at a higher level. It appears that he has been a baseball broadcaster in Philadelphia since his playing career ended.
Record: Seattle was 36-18, in first place in the AL West, five games ahead of Oakland. They would finish 93-69, in second place, three games behind Oakland.
The Twins were 31-23, in first place in the AL Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City. They would finish 90-72, in first place, four games ahead of Chicago.
Random Record: The Random Twins have lost four in a row and are 23-22 (.511)
Tom Loftus (1856)
Pat Ragan (1883)
Mickey Livingston (1914)
Gus Bell (1928)
Big Brother A (1951)
Randy Niemann (1955)
Pedro Borbon (1967)
Dylan Bundy (1992)
Tom Loftus managed Cincinnati, Chicago, and Washington around the turn of the (twentieth) century.
Big Brother A is one of the two people–Dad A being the other–from whom I got a love of baseball and a love of the Twins. I don’t know how it’s possible that I have a brother who’s seventy-three years old when I’m still so young, but happy birthday, Big Brother.
We also wish a happy birthday to spookymilk’s brother.
The new word on the street is Uranus actually does have plasma in its magnetosphere. Voyager 2 spent a scant 5 hours flying past it (which is still where almost all of our data on the planet is from) and it seems like it may have coincided with a "co-rotating interaction region" from the sun. Or, in a period of increased solar activity, the sun ejected long streams of plasma to the edge of the solar system. This caused a strong but temporary drop of plasma in the planet's magnetosphere. It just so happened that around this time is just when Voyager 2 scuttled past. Hope we get a closer look soon.
