Keeping Track

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)
Tyler Kinley (1991)

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 →

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Game of January 29

MELBOURNE 22, BRISBANE 2 AT BRISBANE

Brisbane led 1-0 through three.  Melbourne then scored four in the fourth, seven in the fifth, four in the seventh, five in the eighth, and two in the ninth.  Darryl George was 4-for-7 with two grand slams (his second and third homers), a double, four runs, and ten RBIs.  Gift Ngoepe was 3-for-6 with a double.  Kyle Perkins was 2-for-4 with two walks and three runs.  Melbourne had sixteen hits but drew eleven walks.  Gunnar Kines struck out seven in five innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks.

Stats:  Colin Willis was 1-for-3 and is batting .342.  George is batting .327.  Damek Tomscha was 0-for-2 and is batting .313.  Ex-Twin Delmon Young pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Record:  Melbourne is 16-7, in first place in the Australian League, three games ahead of Perth.

Next game:  Melbourne is again at Brisbane tonight.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty-one

CLEVELAND 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, August 14.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-4 with a home run, his twelfth.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Joe Mays pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Brian Anderson pitched 8.1 innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks.  Travis Hafner was 4-for-5 and hit for the cyle, including his eighth home run.  He scored three times and drove in two.  Ben Broussard was 3-for-5 with a double.  Jhonny Peralta was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs.  Angel Santos was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base.  Casey Blake was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourteenth), a double, and three RBIs.

The game:  Hafner homered in the second to put the Indians up 1-0.  In the second, Peralta and Blake doubled to make it 2-0.

It stayed 2-0 until the seventh, when Cleveland took control.  Hafner had an infield single-plus-error, was bunted to third, and scored on Peralta's double.  Santos then doubled to make it 4-0.  With two out, Blake hit a home run to make it 6-0.

The Indians added to their lead in the eighth.  Broussard singled, Hafner had an RBI triple, and Josh Bard had a run-scoring single to increase the lead to 8-0.

The Twins avoided the shutout in the ninth.  LeCroy hit a one-out home run.  Jacque Jones doubled, Michael Restovich had an infield single, and a sacrifice fly made it 8-2.  An error put men on second and third and Guzman singled home a run to conclude the scoring.

WP:  Anderson (9-9).  LP:  Brad Radke (8-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was behind the plate in place of A. J. PIerzynski.  Denny Hocking was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Shannon Stewart was in left, Dustan Mohr in right, and Jones at DH.

Michael Ryan replaced Stewart in left in the ninth.  Michael Restovich went to right in the ninth, with Mohr moving to center and Torii Hunter coming out of the game.  Rivas pinch-ran for Jones in the ninth.

Ryan made an out for the first time all year and was batting .667.  Stewart was 0-for-4 and was batting .314.  Restovich was 1-for-1 and was batting .308.  Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .307.

Radke pitched pretty well for six innings, but his line was 6.1 innings, five runs, nine hits, no walks, and three strikeouts.  His ERA was 5.09.  James Baldwin allowed three runs in one inning and his ERA went to 5.40.  Mays lowered his ERA to 6.33.

Rick Reed made his first relief appearance of the season, pitching two-thirds of an inning and giving up no runs.

Santos' stolen base was the only one of his major league career.  An infielder, he appeared in 41 games and had 99 plate appearances.  He batted .207/.245/.370.

With a three-game losing streak, the Twins were in danger of dropping back to .500.

Record:  The Twins were 61-60, in third place in the American League Central, four games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.

Keeping Track

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 was the head baseball coach at Southern University from 1984-2017.   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.

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The World’s Greatest Online Magazine Half-Baked Podcast: 06. The World’s Greatest Online Marwin Podcast

10 Comments

We're back! We recorded this Tuesday night, and thankfully and unsurprisingly, there wasn't much breaking news this week to date it.

Topics include:

  • Happ-y: A welcoming of Jdot Adot to the team
  • Who's going to win the AL Central, and our predictions for the rest of the MLB, why not?
  • More warm welcomes to Andrelton Simmons
  • What to do with Jorge Polanco? Arraez? Astudillo!?
  • Hungry Joe "was gonna say"
  • We can haz Boomstick? And if not, what to do with the DH?
  • Filling out the roster
  • A three-way tie for featured video, Robert Fripp & Toyah Willcox's cover of Julien Baker's cover of "Fell On Black Days":

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Game of January 28

MELBOURNE 10, BRISBANE 8 AT BRISBANE

Brisbane had leads of 2-0, 7-3, and 8-7.  Melbourne had leads of 3-2 and 9-8.  All that happened in the first four innings.  There was only one run scored after that, an insurance run for Melbourne in the ninth.  Chris Burke was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), a walk, three runs, and four RBIs.  Blake Gailen was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fifth) and two RBIs.  Ex-Twin Delmon Young was 2-for-6 with a two-run homer, his third.  Starter Tyler Beardsley lasted just three innings, allowing eight runs on seven hits and five walks and striking out four.

Stats:  Young is batting .418.  Colin Willis was 1-for-3 and is batting .343.  Damek Tomscha was 1-for-5 and is batting .321.  Darryl George was 1-for-6 and is batting .309.  Jon Kennedy pitched three shutout innings and has an ERA of 1.65.  Josh Tols pitched a scoreless inning and has an ERA of 2.31.  Drew Anderson struck out five in two shutout innings and has an ERA of zero.

Record:  Melbourne is 15-7, in first place in the Australian League, 2.5 games ahead of Perth.

Next game:  Melbourne is at Brisbane this afternoon.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.