Tag Archives: Brant Alyea

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Four

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MINNESOTA 8, CALIFORNIA 2 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Wednesday, April 15.

Batting stars:  Brant Alyea was 1-for-2 with a grand slam (his third homer) and a walk.  Leo Cardenas was 1-for-4 with a home run.  Cesar Tovar was 1-for-5 with a home run.

Pitching star:  Jim Perry pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Jay Johnstone was 2-for-4 with a home run.  Alex Johnson was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.

The game:  The Angels put two on with two out in the first, but nothing came of it.  They broke through in the fourth, though.  Johnson singled and stole second.  Johnstone had an infield single and Roger Repoz grounded out, bringing Johnson home for a 1-0 Angels lead.

That changed in the sixth.  The Twins had managed only one hit through the first five innings, but Tovar led off the sixth with a home run to tie it 1-1.  Rod Carew reached on a two-base error and scored on Tony Oliva's single to put the Twins up 2-1.  Harmon Killebrew walked, Rich Reese was hit by a pitch, and Alyea hit a grand slam to make it 6-1 Twins.  The grand slam did not kill the rally, although it did knock starter Andy Messersmith from the game.  Mel Queen came in and gave up a single to George Mitterwald and a two-run homer to Cardenas to increase the lead to 8-1.

That was pretty much it.  Jim Fregosi hit a one-out double in the sixth but was stranded at second.  Johnstone led off with a homer in the seventh to make it 8-2.  But that was the last baserunner California got, and it ended 8-2.

W:  Perry (2-0).

L:  Messersmith (2-1).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jim Holt replaced Alyea in left field in the sixth.  Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the seventh and stayed in the game at third base.

Alyea was batting .600.  Carew was 1-for-5 and was batting .375.  Mitterwald was 1-for-4 and was batting .375.  Oliva was 1-for-5 and was batting .350.  Quilici was 0-for-1 and was batting .333.  Holt was 0-for-1 and was batting .333.  Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .308.

Perry had an ERA of 1.00.

Reese was 0-for-3 and was batting .133.

Alyea must have been endearing himself to Twins fans with that kind of start.  6-for-10 with three home runs and eleven RBIs.  Hard to do much better than that.

I wonder, though, if Alyea was a butcher in the field.  In all three of those games he was replaced for defense with Holt.  It's a long time ago, of course, and to be honest I don't understand defense stats very well.  But I certainly don't recall Holt being regarded as some sort of defensive wizard.  I don't doubt that he might have been better than Alyea--I'm just thinking that might have been a low bar, sort of like when Pedro Munoz replaced Gene Larkin for outfield defense under Tom Kelly.

The Twins did not keep to their one-day-on, one-day-off schedule.  Instead, they had three days off before their fourth game.  I assume it was some combination of bad weather and planned off days.

It's very early, obviously, but this was a matchup between the first and second place teams in the division.

Wally Wolf pitched a scoreless ninth for the Angels.  It was one of 7.2 major league innings that he pitched.  2.1 of them were in 1969 and 5.1 in 1970.  He would appear in three more major league games one in April and two in May.  He had basically topped out in AA--his career AAA numbers are 1-12, 6.66, 1.81 WHIP in 104 innings.  He had a strong AA season in 1969, which got him a September call-up and a chance to open 1970 in the majors, but that was as good as it would get for him.  1970 was his last professional season.  But, hey, he got 7.2 major league innings, which is 7.2 more than I'll ever get.

Record:  The Twins were 4-0, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One

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MINNESOTA 12, CHICAGO 0 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Tuesday, April 7.

Batting stars:  Brant Alyea was 4-for-4 with two three-run homers and seven RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a double and three runs.  George Mitterwald was 2-for-5 with a double.  Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a stolen base and two runs.

Pitching star:  Jim Perry pitched a complete game shutout, giving up six hits and four walks and striking out six.

Opposition star:  Bill Melton was 3-for-4 with a double.

The game:  The Twins jumped on White Sox starter Tommy John early, scoring three runs in the first inning.  Cesar Tovar led off the game with a triple and scored on Carew's single.  Carew stole second and went to third when Oliva reached on an error.  A pickoff error scored Carew and moved Oliva to second.  Alyea followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.

The White Sox started the first with two walks, but could not do anything with them.  Each team got a pair of singles in the fourth, but it stayed 3-0 until the fifth.  Two-out singles by Harmon Killebrew and Oliva were followed by Alyea's three-run homer to make it 6-0 Twins.

Chicago put men on first and third with two-out in the sixth but again did not score.  The Twins put it completely out of reach with a six-run seventh.  With one out, Carew singled, Killebrew walked, and Oliva hit an RBI double.  Alyea followed with another three-run homer to make the score 10-0.  Rich Reese then singled, Mitterwald doubled, Leo Cardenas drove in a run with a single, and Perry hit a sacrifice fly, bringing it to 12-0.  The White Sox got a man into scoring position in each of the last three innings, but did not advance any of them past second.

WP:  Perry (1-0).

LP:  John (0-1).

S:  None.

Notes:  Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the seventh and remained in the game at third base.  Jim Holt replaced Alyea in left in the eighth.

Killebrew mostly played third base in 1970, with Reese at first.  Tovar, who had played all over the diamond, settled in mostly in center field.  He did play a substantial number of games in left as well, but rarely played in the infield.

With the release of Johnny Roseboro, Mitterwald became the regular catcher, although Paul Ratliff also played a significant number of games behind the plate.

Alyea was acquired in a trade with Washington, with Joe Grzenda and Charley Walters going to the Senators.  It would be hard to have a better debut with your new team than what he had:  4-for-4, two three-run homers, seven RBIs.  He would go on to have what was easily the best season of his career, although he had just 290 plate appearances.

It has to be discouraging to lose on opening day at home 12-0 with your best pitcher on the mound.  John was an excellent pitcher, and he would go on to have a fine season.  But he apparently didn't have it on this day.

We don't have pitch counts for games in 1970.  It goes without saying that today, no pitcher would be left in to finish a 12-0 game, but I said it anyway.  It was Bill Rigney's first game as manager of the Twins--he had to be thinking this was going to be an easy job.

Record:  The Twins were 1-0, tied for first in the American League West with California and Oakland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 8

Jack Rowe (1856)
Jimmy Austin (1879)
Sam Zoldak (1918)
Jim Pagliaroni (1937)
Brant Alyea (1940)
Ed Brinkman (1941)
Ken Roy (1941)
Masahiro Doi (1943)
Alan Foster (1946)
Jeff Grotewold (1965)
Mike Mussina (1968)
Garvin Alston (1971)
Reed Johnson (1976)
Vernon Wells (1978)
Josh Donaldson (1985)

Ken Roy was a minor league umpire for two years before becoming a Catholic priest.  He said that his umpiring career helped him in ministry because it gave him more patience with people and made him a better listener.

Masahiro Doi was a fifteen-time all-star in the Japanese Pacific League, playing from 1962-1981.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to AMR’s son, HPR.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 8 →