Tag Archives: Minnesota Twins

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 7

George Moriarty (1885)
Double Duty Radcliffe (1902)
Satchel Paige (1906)
Billy Herman (1909)
Sammy White (1927)
John Gordon (1940)
Bill Melton (1945)
Tommy Moore (1948)
Len Barker (1955)
Dan Gladden (1957)
Glenn Hoffman (1958)
Tim Teufel (1958)
Dave Burba (1966)
Jeff Shaw (1966)
Chuck Knoblauch (1968)
Matt Mantei (1973)
Cory Provus (1978)
John Buck (1980)
Brandon McCarthy (1983)

Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe played in the Negro Leagues for many years.  He got his nickname because he would sometimes catch one game of a doubleheader and pitch the other.  He played professionally until 1954, when he retired at age 52.  He is the oldest player to ever appear in a professional baseball game, throwing one pitch for the Schaumberg Flyers of the Northern League in 1999 when he was 96.  I'm no expert on the Negro Leagues, but it seems to me that he should be in the Hall of Fame.

John Gordon was a radio broadcaster for the Twins from 1987 through 2011.

Tommy Moore was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-eighth round in 1966, but did not sign.

Cory Provus has been a radio broadcaster for the Twins since 2012.

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Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 1

Roger Connor (1857)
John Clarkson (1861)
Jack Quinn (1883)
Ben Taylor (1888)
Bob Prince (1916)
Frank Baumann (1933)
Brian Sabean (1956)
Jamie Walker (1971)
Nelson Cruz (1980)
Matt Carson (1981)
Justin Huber (1982)
Charlie Blackmon (1986)
Michael Wacha (1991)
Aaron Sanchez (1992)
Jaylin Davis (1994)

First baseman Ben Taylor was a star in the Negro Leagues, batting over .300 in fifteen of his sixteen seasons.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Prince is best remembered for his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1948-1975.

Brian Sabean was the general manager of the San Francisco Giants from 1997-2014 and has been their executive vice president of baseball operations since that time.

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Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 29

Wilbert Robinson (1863)
Harry Frazee (1880)
Bobby Veach (1888)
Ollie Carnegie (1899)
Ken Blackman (1911)
Dizzy Trout (1915)
Cal Drummond (1917)
Bob Shaw (1933)
Katsuya Nomura (1935)
Harmon Killebrew (1936)
John Boccabella (1941)
Larry Stahl (1941)
Bruce Kimm (1951)
Rick Honeycutt (1954)
Pedro Guerrero (1956)
John Wehner (1967)
Trey Hodges (1978)
Dusty Hughes (1982)
Brooks Raley (1988)
Jose Miranda (1998)

Harry Frazee was the owner of the Red Sox from 1916-1923 and is best remembered for selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Ollie Carnegie is the all-time home run king of the International League with 258.  He started his minor league career at age 32.

Ken Blackman was a minor league player, college coach, minor league executive, and major league scout.

Cal Drummond was an American League umpire from 1960-1969.

Katsuya Nomura hit 657 home runs in Japan during his twenty-five-year career.

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2023 Twins Game Logs

2023 Game Log 81 — Twins at Atlanta

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Game 81, halfway through the season so we can take stock of the 2023 Twins team: Good starting pitching. Ass bats. ok bullpen. (Imagine you all get insight like that without a subscription to the Athletic.)

Twins in the second game against the first place Atlanta team. Bryce Elder on the mound for Atlanta and he's a rookie who's done a real nice job this year. It's the Joe Ryan Express for the Twins and let's hope he continues with his excellent ways.

First Pitch 6:20p

2023 Twins Game Logs

2023 Game Log 74 – Red Sox at Twins

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It looks the the summer of our discontent is settling in on this 2023 Twins team. Third worst record since May 1 (behind the Royals and A's), 23 games under .500 since 2021, etc. But what's worse the Twins are just playing bad unfun baseball. Bonehead plays in the field, stupid baserunning, poor approaches at the plate, head-scratching match-ups and moves by the manager, former Twins tearing up the league in new uniforms. If the Twins were in any other division other that the AL Central, we'd be GOSOing the team already. Oof.

Bailey Ober on the mound tonight and he's been a nice little addition to the starting rotation. 0.99 WHIP, almost a K per inning. Looks like he could be a positive contributor for years to come. Kutter Crawford -- who has a name that should have been given to a minor character in Field of Dreams -- is "starting" for the Sox, but it looks like this may be a bullpen game for them.

First pitch at 6:40. Should be toasty warm at the ballpark if you head out.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 20

Ned Cuthbert (1845)
Jim Delahanty (1879)
Cum Posey (1890)
Namon Washington (1894)
Billy Werber (1908)
Andy Etchebarren (1943)
Dave Nelson (1944)
Paul Beeston (1945)
Dickie Thon (1958)
Doug Gwosdz (1960)
Paul Bako (1972)
Juan Castro (1972)
Carlos Lee (1976)
Kevin Gregg (1978)
Kendrys Morales (1983)
Adalberto Mejia (1993)
Ronny Henriquez (2000)

Cum Posey, played for, managed, and owned the Homestead Grays in the Negro National League.

Paul Beeston has been president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989-1997 and from 2010-2016, at which time he became president emeritus.

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2023 Twins Game Logs

2023 Game Log 73: Boston Red Sox at Minnesota Twins

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Twins open a four game series at Target Field against the Red Sox. While the Sox have one more win than the Twins, they play in the AL East, which makes that figure mean something entirely different.

The Twins' offense is, uh, not good right now...

And as Rhu_Ru noted, in yesterday's game, "Gallo, Buxton, Kepler, and Jeffers K'd in all their ABs". So yeah, that's not great! We're getting one of those years where we do things like have a promising road trip then trip onto our faces against lesser teams. I fear this is going to be the type of team we have this year. Again. Rays of sunshine, bracketed by frustration. Uh, play ball!

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–June 19

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Eddie Cicotte (1884)
Lou Gehrig (1903)
Bill Swift (1908)
Don Gutteridge (1912)
Archie Ware (1918)
Mom A (1925)
Chet Boak (1935)
Bob Aspromonte (1938)
Isao Harimoto (1940)
Jerry Reuss (1949)
Duane Kuiper (1950)
Jim Slaton (1950)
Johnnie LeMaster (1954)
Doug Mientkiewicz (1974)
Alex Prieto (1976)
Dustan Mohr (1976)
Bruce Chen (1977)
Blake Parker (1985)
Collin McHugh (1987)
Jacob de Grom (1988)
Austin Brice (1992)
Casey Legumina (1997)

Archie Ware was a star first baseman in the Negro Leagues.

Infielder Chet Boak played for the Twins’ AAA affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs, in 1961, but does not appear to have actually been a part of the Twins’ organization, as records show him belonging to the expansion Washington Senators. One assumes he was loaned to the Twins’ for part of that season.

Isao Harimoto is the only person to have 3,000 hits in Japanese baseball.

I would like to wish a very happy 98th birthday to Mom A. She was never a big baseball fan (she felt I'd had a good game if she didn't have to wash my uniform, which unfortunately happened quite a bit because I sat on the bench a lot), but she came to every game and often worked in the cramped little concession stand even on the hottest days.  The federal government has made her birthday a national holiday, and she certainly deserves the honor.  Happy birthday, Mom.

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