Smokey Joe Williams (1885)
Mickey Cochrane (1903)
Ernie Lombardi (1908)
Phil Regan (1937)
Marty Pattin (1943)
Bert Blyleven (1951)
Kenny Williams (1964)
Bret Boone (1969)
Lou Merloni (1971)
A star in the Negro Leagues, some say that Smokey Joe Williams was a better pitcher than Satchel Paige.
Four Hall-of-Fame players born on the same day is the record. It also happened on May 14. May 14 also has two non-players, Alex Pompez and J. L. Wilkinson.
Date: Tuesday, July 22.
Batting stars: Shannon Stewart was 3-for-5 with a home run, his eighth. Luis Rivas was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: James Baldwin pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up no hits and three walks and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Randy Winn was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer (his fourth) and two runs. Dan Wilson was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs. Mark McLemore was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and two runs. John Olerud was 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. Julio Mateo pitched 4.1 innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out three.
The game: The Mariners loaded the bases with none out in the second. They scored one on a ground out and Wilson then delivered a two-run double, giving Seattle a 3-0 lead. The Twins came right back with two in the bottom of the second. A. J. Pierzynski doubled and scored on a Jacque Jones single. Chris Gomez singled to put runners on the corners and a ground out cut the margin to 3-2.
The Twins appeared to take control of the game in the third. A single, a walk, and an infield single tied the score. A hit batsman loaded the bases, Justin Morneau walked to force in a run, another scored on a wild pitch, one more scored on a sacrifice fly, and Cristian Guzman hit an RBI single to give the Twins a seemingly comfortable 7-3 lead.
The Marines did not agree, however. Bret Boone hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 7-5. In the sixth, a walk and two singles loaded the bases. Olerud had a single-plus-error to bring home three runs and Winn followed with a two-run homer, putting Seattle up 10-7.
The Twins got one back in the bottom of the sixth when Stewart homered, but that was as good as it got. The Twins got only one more hit after that, Stewart's leadoff single in the ninth. A double play erased him and a ground out ended the game.
WP: Mateo (2-0). LP: Joe Mays (8-7). S: Shigetoshi Hasegawa (7).
Notes: Gomez remained at third in place of Corey Koskie. Stewart was in right field. Morneau was the DH.
Todd Sears, who was back up for a couple of weeks, pinch-hit for Rivas in the ninth.
Jones was 1-for-3 and was batting .307. Stewart went up to .306.
Rick Reed started and pitched five innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out five. His ERA was 5.06. Mays allowed five runs in two-thirds of an inning, raising his ERA to 6.77. Baldwin lowered his ERA to 2.57.
Freddy Garcia started for the Mariners but lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out two. His ERA jumped to 5.05. By game scores this was only his third-worst game of the season. His ERA would reach a high of 5.57 on August 1. He would then turn things around, and gave up just two earned runs in his last four starts of the season (27 innings) to end with an ERA of 4.51.
I can't think of Shigetoshi Hasegawa without remembering how Bert Blyleven struggled to pronounce his name.
The loss snapped the Twins' five-game winning streak and dropped them back below .500. It also dropped them back into third place.
Record: The Twins were 49-50, in third place in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Kansas City. They were a half game behind second-place Chicago.
DateL Sunday, August 26.
Batting star: Jim Holt was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Bert Blyleven struck out eleven in 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and no walks. Bill Hands retired all four men he faced, striking out two.
Opposition stars: Jim Slaton pitched 8.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out none. Bob Coluccio was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his tenth. Pedro Garcia was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.
The game: The Brewers put men on second and third with none out in the first, but Blyleven came back to strike out Johnny Briggs and George Scott before retiring Don Money on a liner to left. In the second, however, Tim Johnson hit a two-out single and Garcia followed with a two-run homer, putting Milwaukee ahead 2-0.
Holt had a leadoff double in the third but did nothing came of it. That was the only time either team got a man past first base until the sixth, when Coluccio doubled and Money delivered a two-out single to make it 3-0.
Brewers starter Slaton appeared to be in complete control. In the ninth, however, Larry Hisle led off with a triple and Tony Oliva singled him home, making the score 3-1 and bringing the tying run up to bat. Mike Adams came in to run for Oliva and got as far as second with two out. Chris Short came in to face Steve Braun, but when Bobby Darwin pinch-hit he was intentionally walked. That was the only man Short would face, as Carlos Velazquez came in to face pinch-hitter Eric Soderholm. Soderholm delivered an RBI single, cutting the margin to 3-2 and putting the tying run on third. Jerry Terrell fouled out to third, however, and the game was over.
WP: Slaton (9-11). LP: Blyleven (15-14). S: Velazquez (2).
Notes: Phil Roof caught in place of George Mitterwald, presumably because it was a day game after a night game.
Rich Reese was at first base, one of only four games he started for the Twins. He was at the end of his career, having been released by Detroit a couple of weeks earlier, and was apparently brought back to the Twins out of sentiment. Harmon Killebrew was still the primary first baseman, but he missed a couple of months due to injury. Joe Lis played the most games at first in 1973, with 96.
Terrell shared the shortstop position with Danny Thompson. Both were pretty much dead weight offensively. Terrell was a little better, at .265/.297/.315. Thompson batted .225/.259/.282. Thompson played more games at short, 95 to 81.
Darwin was the regular right fielder, but was given the day off. Holt, who played the most games in left (80), was in right, with Hisle in left. Hisle also played quite a bit of center field, but Steve Brye played the most games there and was there in this game.
All the substitutions came in the ninth inning and are mentioned above.
Carew, not surprisingly, was leading the team in batting at .347. He would finish at .350 and be the team's only .300 hitter. The Twins would actually lead the league in batting at .270. Carew was obviously a big part of that, but Holt batted .297, Oliva .291, and Braun .283. Soderholm also batting .297 in 111 at-bats.
Darwin led the team in home runs with 18. Mitterwald and Oliva each had 16, Hisle 15, and Holt 11. The Twins were seventh in home runs with 120.
Blyleven, of course, was the ace of the pitching staff, going 20-17, 2.52. Dick Woodson was 10-8, 3.95; Jim Kaat was 11-12, 4.41; Joe Decker was 10-10, 4.18. Others to make double digit starts were Hands (7-10, 3.49) and Dave Goltz (6-4, 5.25). Hands' record is deceiving. In his fifteen starts he went 5-7, 4.55. Moved to the bullpen, he was excellent, going 2-3, 1.34, 1.09 WHIP, and two saves in 47 relief innings.
The Twins didn't really have a closer. Ken Sanders started the year as the closest thing to one, but he often was used for two or three innings. He had eight saves, but also had an ERA of over six when he was waived in early August. Ray Corbin took over the closer role and actually was fairly good, getting 14 saves. The Twins preferred to have him in a longer role, so Bill Campbell was eventually made the closer near the season's end.
This was Bob Coluccio's rookie year. He was a regular for Milwaukee for two seasons but couldn't get his batting average out of the .220s. Presumably he was considered a fine fielder.
This was also Pedro Garcia's rookie year. He batted .245/.296/.395, which was good enough to place him second in Rookie of the Year voting behind Al Bumbry. That was as good as it would get for him, though. He slumped to .199 the next year and was never a regular again. His was a second baseman, and presumably was not all that good in the field, because while he spent a few seasons as a reserve he was never used at another position.
This was the end of a stretch in which the Twins lost eight out of nine. They would win seven of the next nine.
Record: The Twins were 60-68, in third place in the American League West, 16.5 games behind Oakland. They would finish 81-81, in third place, 13 games behind Oakland.
The Brewers were 62-65, in fifth place in the American League East, 12.5 games behind Baltimore. They would finish 74-88, in fifth place, 23 games behind Baltimore.
Random record: The Twins are 38-35 in Random Rewind games.
Smokey Joe Williams (1885)
Mickey Cochrane (1903)
Ernie Lombardi (1908)
Phil Regan (1937)
Marty Pattin (1943)
Bert Blyleven (1951)
Kenny Williams (1964)
Bret Boone (1969)
Lou Merloni (1971)
A star in the Negro Leagues, some say that Smokey Joe Williams was a better pitcher than Satchel Paige.
I haven't checked, but my guess is that four Hall-of-Famers born on the same day is the record.
I found this gem shortly after JeffA started his 1987 Rewind. This evening seemed like the appropriate time to share it. I didn't want to detract from Jeff's content, and in any case figured there were enough goodies that this would be worth its own post. Hope you don't mind, Chaps.
