Tony, the Killer, and Carew

Few things have remained the same since the Twins came to Minnesota in 1961. The Met has turned into the Metrodome, which will soon turn into a ballpark-to-be-named-later. The team has had some good seasons (1965, 1987, 1991) and some forgettable ones (1982, the late 1990’s). One of the few things that have remained the same is the theme song that brings the Twins onto the field at each and every home game.

The Twins have attempted to freshen up the kitschy tune, but the hip-hop version that is still occasionally played at the Dome seems to fall a bit flat.

Interestingly, the music now so throughly associated with the Minnesota baseball team was originally designed for an entirely different purpose. Dick Wilson (not that Dick Wilson), now a famous commercial jingle writer (with “Let’s All Go to Dairy Queen” to his credit), was just starting out around the time the Senators moved west to Bloomington. He penned a jingle for Hamm’s beer, with the words:

Sing out for Hamm’s beer,
Sing out the name,
Sing out for Hamm’s beer,
Of sky blue waters fame

While the song never caught on to sell beer, the Twins liked the tune and hired Ray Charles (not that Ray Charles, the one from “The Ray Charles Singers“) to write new words for the old beer jingle.

We’re gonna win Twins,
We’re gonna score,
We’re gonna win Twins,
Watch that baseball soar!

To those of us who grew up in Minnesota, its as much a part of baseball as “Take me out the Ballgame“, only slightly cheesier.

If you were a manager, and you had to win just one game, which current or former Twins pitcher would you want to start and why?

3 years ago today…

5/30/2004: An 8-3 Twins win in Kansas City was highlighted by a crazy play in the bottom of fifth inning. The Twins were ahead 6-2, but the Royals had the bases loaded with just one out. Mike Sweeney hit a tough fly right along the foul line in short right. Doug Mientkiewicz chased the ball down, but as he arrived the ball bounced out of his glove. Nearly undetected, however, the first base umpire signaled that Sweeney was out on the infield fly rule. Mientkiewicz quickly recovered and fired the ball home to try and get the runner. His throw didn’t reach home because it struck Sweeney who was running to first although he had been called out. Catcher Henry Blanco quickly recovered the ball, and tossed it to Jacque Jones, the right fielder, who had run in to cover first. A confused Carlos Beltran tried to return to first, where he was tagged out by Jones. Though a run scored, the Twins got out of the inning with no further damage. If you are keeping score at home, the play went P3(iff), E3, 3-2-9.

9 years ago today…

5/30/1998- In a game at the Metrodome, Brad Radke was sharp against the Anaheim Angels. He allowed just one run on seven hits in seven innings pitched. Orlando Merced had three RBI and Ron Coomer added two in an 8-1 Twins victory.

25 years ago today…

5/30/1982- The 12-37 Twins played the Yankees tough in the Metrodome, but New York won in 10 innings, 8-6. Mickey Hatcher hit a three-run home run as part of the four run sixth inning for the Twins, but starter Albert Williams allowed six Yankee runs in less than four innings pitched. The game-winner came on a Willie Randolph single in the 10th.

34 years ago today…

5/30/1973- Bill Hands pitched a four-hit masterpiece against Milwaukee at County Stadium. He allowed the Brewers just four scattered singles in his first and only shutout in a Twins uniform. He got all the runs he needed before he ever threw a pitch. In the top of the first, Bobby Darwin hit a three-run home run. The Twins would add another to win the game 4-0.

43 years ago today…

5/30/1965- Camilo Pascual allows the Senators just four hits, all singles, while Zoilo Versalles and Harmon Killebrew each hit home runs in a 4-0 Twins win in Washington. The win, combined with a White Sox loss, put the Twins in first place by half a game.

Here’s your weekly dose of Tuesday Twins Trivia…TwinsCards style.  Each Tuesday, I will post 5 new questions as well as the answers to the previous week’s questions. Please leave your answers and/or discuss in the comments section below.  Note: All answers can be found on TwinsCards.com.

1. We all know that Bert Blyleven was born in Zeist, Holland, but what former Twin was born in Zaragoza, Spain?
2. In 1986, he tied the MLB record with 2 inside-the-park home runs in one game. It was the first time this feat had been accomplished in 14 years. This player also just missed a third inside-the park HR when he tripled in his third AB.
3. The Twins have had two players (when teamed up with their brothers) that hold the top two spots in major league history in combined wins by brothers. Who are they and how many wins did they achieve as a Minnesota Twin?
4. So anticipated was his arrival in
   Minnesota that one local radio station would play Handel’s “Messiah” whenever announcers mentioned his name. Unfortunately, this early/mid ‘90s phenom never lived up to the hype.
5. This former Twin died of Leukemia in 1967 at the tender age of 29. Traded to the Twins in 1966, he played in only 10 games with the Twins in 1967 before the cancer came out of remission.

Last Week’s Answers:

1. Chuck Knoblauch was named A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1991, who finished second? (A) Juan Guzman, 1992 Score #792
2. When the Twins sent this popular Minnesota native to Tacoma in 1975, outraged fans started a petition to bring him back. The petition was never needed as his .320 mark in 178 ABs brought him back to the team. (A) Jerry Terrell, 1975 SSPC #222
3. This former Twins relief pitcher (early 80’s) from Venezuela had 6 brothers and 4 sisters. (A) German Gonzalez, 1990 Upper Deck #352
4. This former pitcher compiled an unusual record in his first 3 years in the league, winning 8 games and striking out 83 men in each of his first three seasons. (A) Ray Corbin, 1975 SSPC #209
5. When he signed a five-year contract in 1981 (1/28/81), it was the longest in Twins history. (A) Butch Wynegar, 1982 Donruss, #508

If I could make changes to the current state of major league baseball, one of the first things that I would do is bring back the holiday double headers (and I am not talking about the kind of double headers that you pay twice for; one ticket, two games). For years, every team scheduled twin bills on Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. This practice mostly died out in the 1950’s, before the Twins were the Twins. Still, there have been a few occasions in which the team has participated in two games on Memorial Day.

The first time it happened was on May 31, 1965. The Twins, with a 26-14 record, were set to take on the Orioles for two games at Memorial Stadium. Jim Kaat pitched a three-hit shut out in the first game. The Twins got two RBI each out of Zoilo Versalles and Tony Oliva in a 6-0 win. In the second game, the Orioles scored four runs off of Dick Stigman in the second inning to take an early 4-1 lead on the strength of a pair of two-run home runs. The Twins came back against a 19-year-old Jim Palmer to tie the score with a three-run fifth inning. The big blow was a Jerry Kindall two RBI double. The game remained tied until the bottom of the ninth when Sam Bowens led off the inning with a game-winning home run off of Johnny Klippenstein to earn the Orioles a double header split.

The same two teams met on Memorial Day a year later, this time in Minnesota. The Twins were coming off of a Sunday sweep of a twin bill in Cleveland and were in the midst of a stretch in which they would play 15 games in 13 days. After five scoreless innings for both team in the first game, some Little League-like fielding by the Twins turned a Brooks Robinson grounder, that should have been a double play, into a two-run home run (not officially, of course- the boxscore charged two Twins errors on the play). As it turned out, that would be enough for the Orioles. Steve Barber and Stu Miller combined to hold the Twins to just one run in the 5-1 Orioles’ victory. In the second game that day, Bernie Allen broke and eighth inning deadlock with a two-run home run, and the Twins held on to earn a split with a 7-4 victory.

The next, and last time that the Twins played a Memorial Day double header came in 1978 at Arlington, Texas. The Twins were already ten games below the .500 mark heading into the day, and the Rangers’ bats got to them early and often in game one. Twins’ starter Gary Serum allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings pitched in the 7-1 defeat at the hands of the Rangers. The Twins did the early scoring in game two, putting a four on the score board before the Rangers had a chance to bat. Jose Morales hit a bases-loaded double off of pitcher Jim Umbarger to score two of those runs. The Twins got a great pitching performance out of Roger Erickson, who won his fifth game of the season by allowing just two runs in 7 2/3 innings pitched.

Useless statistic/trivia: The Twins are 15-22 on Memorial Day since 1961.

Upon the exit of Ray Miller, Tom Kelly was named interim manager and led the team to a 12-11 record to finish the 1986 season. In November of that same year, Carl Pohlad named Kelly the permanent manager, to the delight of the players. Kelly was one of the organization guys that the Twins loved to have as manager. He played 49 games as a major league first baseman in 1975, but struggled at the plate. Cal Ermer was Kelly’s manager in AAA Tacoma that season, and he suggested early on that Kelly would make a great manager down the road.

Kelly’s chance to show it came when he was named player-manager of that same Tacoma team in 1977, at the age of 26. Kelly didn’t manage again until 1979, when he finally decided that he had a better chance to make the majors as a manager than a player. From 1979-1982 he had success managing Twins’ farm teams; he never had a losing season in the minors, and managed many of the players that he would see again in the majors. For four years, Kelly was a coach with the Twins until he was finally named manager at the age of 36, the youngest in the majors at the time.

His success was immediate, as he guided the franchise to its first World Series victory in more than 60 years in his first full season as manager. Five years later, he led the team to another World Series championship.

Kelly came across, at first glance, as very low key. He famously sat on the dugout bench and watched while his team celebrated its first championship in 1987. His public image aside, Kelly had a temper that his players knew well. He carefully avoided going after a player in public, but would let each player know when he was unhappy. At times, the public would get a glimpse of a surly TK when he would go after local writer Sid Hartman on their weekly radio show.

Kelly’s players were sure to get an education in baseball fundamentals, and nothing irritated him more than mental errors. In-game, Kelly would let the players play the game, though he wasn’t afraid to be aggressive and take a calculated risk on the base paths. Kelly was also well respected among his players for his use of every player; even the 25th man on the roster could expect to get into games on a regular basis.

Under TK’s watch, the Twins went through some hard times in the mid-to-late 90’s. From 1993-2000 the team was at or near the bottom of the division on a yearly basis. Sometime late in that run, the Twins began a rebuilding phase that brought a young crop of players through the system together, similar to the 1987 team. After things came together for the team in 2001, Kelly announced his retirement from managing after 16 seasons and a 1140-1244 record. Kelly still works for the organization as a special assistant the the General Manager.

With the team’s longest tenured manager gone, the Twins looked to Ron Gardenhire to continue the success that started in 2001. Gardenhire played five seasons as an infielder with the Mets in the early 80’s. He managed in the minor leagues for a few seasons after that, and joined Tom Kelly’s staff for the second championship season in 1991. The long time coach was named the 12th manager of the Twins for the 2002 season. Gardy, in contrast to his predecessor, wears his emotions on his sleeves during games. He has been ejected from more games in five seasons than Kelly was in his entire career. Like Kelly, Gardenhire is well liked by the players and generally respected by the local media. Under his watch, the team has had an unprecedented run on top of their division, winning four division flags in his first five years as manager. Through the 2006 season, the Twins are 455-354 under Gardy.

It’s bad enough when they misspell your name in the old school yearbook. Or when you finally appear on that nightime talk show and they dredge out the photo of you in your leisure suit days.

Imagine the joy when the card companies can’t tell the rookies apart from each other. Maybe they all look alike, with the too tight hats and the clean uniforms hoping for a spot in the starting 25 as the team moves north-south-east or west after spring training.

I found a couple of gaffs in the world of Twins baseball cards.

The first is Bud Bloomfield, drafted from the Cardinals minor league system and played ever so briefly as a middle infielder for the Twins in 1964. One hit in his seven trips to the plate. His Topps card (only one, in fact) actually shows a picture of Jay Ward with Bud’s name.

Bud happily informed me of this fact when I wrote him, telling me he is much better looking than Jay and that should have been the giveaway. I’ll let you judge for yourself. Here’s the real Bud Bloomfield in a fantasy card image.

Jay Ward did have a real card in 1964, the other showing him hatless.

Coming over to the Twins from the Los Angeles Dodgers system in a trade for Bert Cueto, Ward played 21 games in ‘63-’64, returning briefly to the majors six seasons later with the Cincinnati Reds before embarking on a career managing in the Indy leagues.

I did some bad homemade re-workings of the 1964 cards which can be seen in “Twinkies Autographs” section of the site.

To find another name/photo gaff, we have to jump all the way to 2002. That’s when Topps Total issued a rookie card for prospect Brian Wolfe, showing Grant Balfour.

Grant had already been carded by Bowman, Donruss and Fleer in 2001, and did have his own image with a Topps Total card that had the right name with the right-handers picture. Just for the heck of it, I had both players sigh the misprinted card.

Since injuring his shoulder and sitting out the 2005 season, Grant was picked up by the Cincinnati Reds who were hoping he could bolster their depleted bullpen in 2006, but it was another year of rehab. Balfour is now with the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

Brian Wolfe, shown in this 2002 Bowman card, was drafted by the Twins in 1999 and played in the system thru 2005 when he was given his release. He was picked up by the Brewers organization, who included him in the Corey Koskie trade with Toronto before the 2006 season. He is currently with the Blue Jays AAA club.

Of course, the other fun in collecting Twins player cards is when you run across guys labeled as Minnesota Twins players and go “who are these guys?” There were rookies (Mo Ogier for one) who shared card space in the early days. Nowadays, with the need for card companies to produce the first image of any prospect, so many players that will never see a major league ballpark are often on team labeled cards, but it wasn’t always so.

In the first couple of decades of Twins cards, we had a few players traded to the team in the offseason that were expected to be major league participants, but never showed. Ken Retzer had a 1965 Topps card, he came over in a trade of catchers (Joe McCabe) with the Washington Senators. Larry Cox has a 1975 SSPC card labeled “Minnesota Twins” on the back. He was a catcher obtained from the Philadelphia Phillies for Sergio Ferrer. And Ken Reynolds, 1973 Topps, obtained from the Phillies for Cesar Tovar and then traded to the Brewers before spring training ended.

But a couple of real oddities are:

Eduardo Perez from the 1994 Fleer Ultra series. He played 13 big-league seasons, but never remember him once donning a Twins uniform, going near a Twins training camp, or being any part of the organization. Yet there it is….Minnesota Twins.

And Pascual Perez, another 11-year veteran who has “Twins” on the team glove in this 1983 Donruss release.

If there are any others out there, please feel free to share, as so many cards have great secondary stories!

1 year ago…
5/23/2006- Johan Santana allowed five runs and nine hits over seven innings pitched against Cleveland, but the Twins managed to score five off of Cliff Lee and the Cleveland bullpen to force extra innings. Justin Morneau’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth inning won the game for the Twins. Despite the win, the team seemed well out of the AL Central race in fourth place and 11 games out of first.

8 years ago…
5/23/1999- The Twins scored five runs in the first inning and eventually coasted to an 8-3 win over the Oakland A’s. Eric Milton pitched five innings to earn his second victory of the year, and Marty Cordova knocked in three runs in the game. The win was only the Twins’ 16th of the season, and they were in last place in the division.

21 years ago…
5/23/1986- The Twins carried a 7-3 lead into the seventh inning, but the Brewers scored two runs in both the seventh and the eighth innings to tie the score, the final two runs charged to Ron Davis, whose ERA ballooned to 10.43 as a result. Greg Gagne won the game for the Twins in the ninth innings with and RBI single off of Dan Plesac. The win kept the Twins a half game above Seattle for last place in the AL West.

32 years ago…
5/23/1975- Bert Blyleven held the Brewers to just one run in nine innings pitched, but he didn’t get any run support from his team until the final inning. Down 1-0, the Twins offense put together four consecutive singles in the top of the ninth to take a 2-1 lead. Blyleven worked around a lead off walk in the ninth to close the game out for his fifth win of the season. The win improved the Twins to an 18-17 record.

43 years ago…
5/23/1964- Lee Stange earned his first victory of the season in Baltimore by pitching a complete game, allowing just one run on seven Oriole hits. Zoilo Versalles knocked in two runs in the Twins’ victory. Though the Twins were in fifth place in the AL after the victory, they were only 2.5 games behind first place Chicago.

In what I hope (please don’t hold me to this) to be a weekly feature, here is some Tuesday TwinsCards Trivia for your enjoyment. Each Tuesday, I will reveal the previous weeks answers as well as five new questions. Please leave your answers in the comments. All answers can be found on TwinsCards.com

1. Chuck Knoblauch was named A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1991, who finished second?
2. When the Twins sent this popular Minnesota native to Tacoma in 1975, outraged fans started a petition to bring him back. The petition was never needed as his .320 mark in 178 ABs brought him back to the team.
3. This former Twins relief pitcher (early 80’s) from Venezuela had 6 brothers and 4 sisters.
4. The former pitcher compiled an unusual record in his first 3 years in the league, winning 8 games and striking out 83 men in each of his first three seasons.
5. When he signed a five-year contract in 1981 (1/28/81), it was the longest in Twins history.

*Based on Bill James’ game scores. The formula can be found here.

6 (tie). May 3, 1972; Twins 7, Brewers 0. Game Score: 88
The first batter 21-year-old Bert Blyleven faced, Dave May, hit a double to center field. He retired the next nine Brewers he faced in a row. Blyleven only allowed three more hits in the game, all singles, and struck out 10 Brewers on his way to a shutout victory at County Stadium.
9 IP 4 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 10 K

6 (tie). May 24, 1974; Twins 9, Rangers 0. Game Score: 88
Blyleven scattered five hits, all singles, to the Rangers through a complete game shutout. He struck out 11 batters in the process, including five K’s over the last three innings.
9 IP 5 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 11 K

6 (tie). July 13, 1986; Twins 5, Yankees 0. Game Score: 88
At the age of 35, Blyleven showed that he could still dominate. Through the first eight innings, he allowed just one Yankee hit, a single in the fourth inning. After the hit, Blyleven retired 13 Yankees in a row on his way to a 5-0 shutout victory.
9 IP 3 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 8 K

3 (tie). May 24, 1973; Twins 2, Royals 0. Game Score: 90
In front of the 4,585 in attendance at the Met, Blyleven allowed just three base runners and one hit, a single, over nine innings pitched. The only hit came on an Ed Kirkpatrick bunt single in the top of the fifth inning.
9 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 2 BB 7 K

3 (tie) September 14, 1973; Twins 6, White Sox 0. Game Score: 90
Pat Kelly singled off of Blyleven to start the game for the Sox, but was thrown out trying to steal second. The Sox probably didn’t realize he would be one of only five base runners Blyleven would allow, or manager Chuck Tanner may not have sent him. The Sox didn’t have much of a chance to make up for the lost base runner, as Blyleven struck out 12 on his way to another shut out victory. In the fifth inning, Blyleven got all three men he faced to strikeout looking.
9 IP 4 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 12 K

3 (tie). September 26, 1973; Twins 4, Athletics 1. Game Score: 90
Later that same month, Blyleven had his third dominant game of the season. Once again he allowed the opposition only one hit, this time, however, that hit turned into an unearned run. After retiring the first 12 batters, Blyleven faced Reggie Jackson to open the fifth inning. Jackson hit a fly ball that center fielder Steve Brye misplayed, allowing Reggie to reach on an error. He was sacrificed to second, reached third on a fly ball, and finally scored on the A’s only hit, a single by Angel Mangual. The run gave the A’s a lead that held until the Twins scored in the eighth. Blyleven faced the minimum the rest of the way.
9 IP 1 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 8 K

2. August 1, 1986; Twins 10, Athletics 1. Game Score: 93
Though the Twins were well out of the race by August 1986, one of the highlights of the year came at the Metrodome on the first of that month. It wasn’t just that Blyleven was dominant against the A’s, and make no mistake about it, he was about as good as a pitcher can be; there was, however, more significance to this particular game. Coming into the game, Blyleven sat at 2,995 career strikeouts. When he struck out Mike Davis in the fifth, Blyleven had reached 3,000; but he wasn’t finished yet. After allowing a home run to Alfredo Griffin in the eighth, only the second Oakland hit allowed, Bert struck out Tony Phillips to equal a career high for K’s in a single game with 14. In the ninth, he got Canseco swinging for his personal best 15th of the game. Still, the headlines didn’t all belong to Blyleven. Kirby Puckett hit for the cycle, only the seventh Twin to do so (and the last).
9 IP 2 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 15 K

1. August 27, 1975; Twins 1, Brewers 0 (11 innings). Game Score: 97
Bert Blyleven and Milwaukee’s Bill Travers engaged in an August 1975 pitcher’s duel that was reminiscent of Walter Johnson’s performances in the early part of the century. After nine innings, the board at County Stadium showed only zeros. Blyleven had allowed no runs on four hits, Travers looked slightly better allowing no runs on only two hits. The Twins weren’t able to capitalize on a single and a walk in the top of the 10th, and Blyleven pitched around a single with three strikeouts in the bottom of the frame. The Twins finally got to Travers in the 11th. With men at first and second (courtesy of a walk and a hit batsman), Tony Oliva singled, scoring Steve Brye with the only run of the game. Blyleven allowed a single in his half of the 11th, but coaxed fly balls out of three men to end his 11-inning shutout victory.
11 IP 6 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 13 K