Tony, the Killer, and Carew

Please check out Twins Trivia and John Swol’s interview with former Twins’ pitcher, Dick Woodson. John does a great job with the interview and it’s a great read. Dick played with the Twins in the late ’60s and early ’70s and was the first MLB player to go through arbitration.

Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson played for the Twins from 1979-1981 and in parts of three seasons put up a respectable line of .268/.325/.409. Jackson came to the Twins in a trade that sent him and Danny Goodwin to Minnesota for “Disco” Danny Ford. While with the Angels, Jackson saw more time at third than first, but got the unenviable task of replacing Twins’ legend, Rod Carew at first base. While impossible to match the output of Carew, Ron put up career highs in most offensive categories and played a very solid defensive first base. During the summer of 1981, Jackson was traded to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for Tom Corcoran and was subsequently granted his free agency at the end of the 1981 season. “Papa Jack” joined the Angels for one more stint that ran from 1982-1984 before finishing his career playing 12 games for the Baltimore Orioles.

After his retirement, Jackson didn’t wander far from the game and since leaving the majors has served as a coach for many different minor and major league teams. Jackson was also part of the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association. Ron played for the Fort Myers Sun Sox and knocked around the elderly pitching at a .344 clip with 36 RBIs. For those of you not familiar with the SPBA, it played a full schedule of games in 1989 but folded only 9 games into the 1990 season.

I did have the opportunity to see Jackson play for the Twins when I went to see a 1979 game between the Twins and the Angels. I remember it so vividly because we had front row seats along the first base line and spent the whole game cheering Ron on as Angel base runners reached first. I can’t remember whether the Twins won the game or even if Jackson got any hits, but I do remember that Ron kept giving us slight glances and smiles as we taunted each base runner.

Jackson’s 1981 Donruss card was one of 23 Twins in the set that marked Donruss’ first entry into card market after the courts broke up the Topps monopoly, allowing other manufacturers to enter the market. Interestingly, Topps was the only company allowed to include gum into their packs, so in 1981 Donruss included cookies before going to puzzle pieces in 1982. The entire set was pretty bland in nature with posed shots and terrible color, but I do like the backs of the cards which included career highlights along with a season/career stat line.

Why I like this card: Isn’t it obvious? Pete’s 1979 Topps card depicts him sporting the classic white-man afro and strikes a remarkable resemblance to actor Gene Wilder.

Random Pete Redfern Stat: Pete was absolutely terrible with the bases loaded! Hitters knocked him around for an .889 average, a 1.611 Slugging Average and a astronomical 2.405 OPS! Opponents rapped out 16 hits and Pete dished up 10 base on balls. Opposing teams managed to score 55 times in those 34 plate appearances. Check out all the ugliness here.

The Dixie Championship

Having escaped the semi-final series with year-long rival Asheville, the Hornets started play in the first and only Dixie championship series with a home game at Griffith Park against the Arkansas Travelers. Arkansas, a Cardinals farm team, earned a semi-final spot by winning the Central Division with a 75-64 record, good enough to outdistance Memphis by six games at season’s end despite a several week slump by the entire team down the stretch. They broke out of their slump at the right time, and swept the best-of-three series against West Division champion Amarillo.

On paper, Charlotte had a huge advantage over Arkansas, having won 7 of 8 meetings in the regular season; and that it exactly how it played out in the finals as well. Mark Wiley had a perfect game going into the fifth inning of Game 1 against Arkansas, but had to leave the game early because of an injury to his arm. No matter, as Vic Albury picked up right where he left off and carried the shut out the rest of the way, allowing just one hit. Rick Dempsey’s double scored Ezell Carter in the fourth inning, and Albury added an insurance run for himself with a home run in the bottom of the eighth to wind up the scoring in a 2-0 Hornets’ win.

Game 2 was the next day in Charlotte. This time the Hornets put the game away early with a five-run fourth inning highlighted by Ezell Carter’s two-run double and a parade of Travelers’ pitchers who couldn’t seem to be able to get the final out. Dick Rusteck went the distance for the Hornets despite running into some trouble in the sixth when he allowed two runs on three consecutive singles by Arkansas. Charlotte took a commanding lead in the best-of-five series with a 6-2 win as the teams headed to Arkansas for Games 3 and 4 (if necessary).

As it turned out, three would be enough, though it wasn’t easy at Ray Winder field in Little Rock. The home team had a 3-2 lead heading into the final frame. In fact, the lead was 3-0 before Tom Kelly’s home run and Buck Guth’s RBI double cut the lead to one in the sixth inning. Arkansas’ Danny Napolean was responsible for all three of the Travelers runs with a single in the first and a double in the fifth. The lead must have felt reasonably safe for Arkansas, who counted their bullpen as the team’s strength. The Hornets got to Ike Brookens in the top of the ninth, however, first with game-tying RBI single by Jerry Terrell. Minnie Mendoza put on the finishing touches with a two-run double that gave the Hornets a 5-3 lead that held up as the final score.

The Charlotte Hornets had swept their way to a Dixie title, and have a claim as the most successful professional baseball team in 1971. Harry Lloyd had his theory as to what the turning point was in the season, from the October 2, 1971 issue of The Sporting News:

The Hornets really proved they were championship material on June 5, certainly the longest day of the year for them.

 

The team was riding back from Montgomery when its 19-year-old bus lost its transmission somewhere south of Atlanta. Efforts to find another bus failed, and some three hours later another ride was found - a rental moving van.

 

So, with Warner and trainer Wayne Hattaway in the front seat with driver Jack Gilley, and 23 sweltering players in the back, the van creaked into Charlotte at mid-day.

 

That night, Rusteck beat Arkansas 6-2.

The Playoffs

With the Dixie Eastern Division Title in tow, the Hornets got to host the first of a best-of-three against the team they fought neck and neck with for the majority of the season: The Asheville Tourists. Asheville was an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and boasted the league’s best pitcher during the regular season (Jim MacDonnell) and probably its most feared hitter (Ken Hottman .302 37 HR 116 RBI).

Asheville scored in the first inning when lead off man Hugh Yancy singled to start the game. The run scored when a bloop single by Hottman got by Joe Pactwa in left field. Charlotte pitcher Dick Rusteck struggled in the first, but ultimately got out of the inning with just the one run scored. Charlotte took the lead in the second inning when Jerry Terrell lined a two-run triple to left field. With a 2-1 lead, Rusteck ran into problems in the fifth, but managed to catch Bruce Miller looking with runners at second and third and two out. Miller had worked the count to 3-1 before fouling off 11 straight pitches before the strikeout. Charlotte added three more runs, including a solo home run off the bat of Pactwa, to take Game 1 by a 5-1 count.

Game 2 took the teams to Asheville and once again the Tourists struck first. This time, Asheville took a 5-0 lead by the end of the fifth inning. In the top of that frame, it looked as though the Hornets would score when, with no outs, Asheville starter Jim Geddes walked the bases loaded. Relief pitcher George Weimer came into the game and somehow managed to end the inning without allowing a Charlotte run. More opportunities would come for the Hornets, who cut into the lead in the eighth inning when an infield hit by catcher Glenn Borgmann scored both Terrell and Minnie Mendoza thanks to a throwing error. Terrell and Mendoza combined again to continue the rally in the ninth when the former doubled and the latter singled. With two outs, Ashville turned to their ace pitcher MacDonnell, who ended the game and tied the series by retiring Tom Kelly.

Charlotte’s Game 3 starter was Greg Jaycox, whose only shut out of the regular season came in the important late-season match up against Asheville. Jaycox did it again, this time in the clinching game of the semi-final series. He allowed the Tourists seven hits, but did not allow a single run. The only run of the game came in the first inning when center fielder Ezell Carter doubled off the left field wall to score Mendoza. The 1-0 lead would hold up, thanks to Jaycox and the Charlotte defense, highlighted by a couple of great plays in center by Carter, and a pair of gems by short stop Buck Guth. The Hornets were set for the first and only Dixie League Series against Arkansas, who had defeated Amarillo in two straight.

Heading into 1971, the Minnesota Twins were the two-time defending AL West champions. While the major league club came down to earth that year and finished below .500; the Twins’ AA affiliate in Charlotte put together a memorable season, and won the only pennant in the history of the short-lived Dixie Association.

In 1970, as a member of the Southern League, the Hornets had finished a disappointing sixth place. The main problem that year according to The Sporting News was the bullpen, which seemed to surrender just about every lead the Hornets had in 1970.

Still, there was some enthusiasm for Charlotte heading into the 1971 season. In addition to returning veterans like third baseman Minnie Mendoza, the Hornets boasted a collection of top prospects that put up some nice numbers at single-A Orlando the previous year. The list was topped by Steve Luebber, a top starting pitching prospect who dominated in Orlando with a 1.78 ERA and outfielder Elmore “Moe” Hill who promised to bring with him some power after smacking 22 home runs the year before.

The new look Hornets would play their game in a new look league. The Southern League and the Texas League both found themselves with only seven members after the 1970 season, and decided to temporarily merge into the Dixie Association for the 1971 season, a league that ended up stretching from Jacksonville on the Atlantic all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the west. The 14 member teams were divided into three divisions geographically, with Charlotte landing in the six-team Eastern Division. Long time organization manager Harry Warner got the call to manage in 1971, returning to the team he manged from 1966-1968 and for the first half of the 1970 season.

Despite outstanding pitching in the first few weeks of the season, the Hornets started off slowly for several reasons. First, Moe Hill, who was supposed to be the centerpiece of the lineup, showed early that he was not ready for AA pitching. In 11 games, Hill went 5-for-36 with 15 strikeouts and no home runs. Hill would not see the AA level for another eight years. Hill’s departure answered the other main problem in the Charlotte lineup, a complete lack of left-handed hitting. The entire lineup hit from the right side of the plate until Hill’s demotion. Around the same time, the organization addressed that weakness by adding a couple of left-handed hitters who were dropped by their previous organizations.

Joe Pactwa had been let go by the Yankees and was quickly swiped up by the Twins. The outfielder would replace Hill as a regular in right field and be one of the key hitters for the Hornets in1971. The other addition was a first baseman from the Brewers’ organization by the name of Tom Kelly.

Charlotte’s pitchers dominated the circuit in the early months, and with the help of the new hitters began to win games. Through May 31, three Charlotte pitchers sat in the league’s top ten in ERA. Along with Luebber (5-1 2.60) were right-handed pitcher Tom Norton (3-5 2.57) and a veteran of the minors who had pitched in eight games for the New York Mets in 1966, Dick Rusteck (5-2 2.10) who remained one of the league’s best pitchers throughout the season. By the end of May, it looked to be a two team race for the East between Charlotte and Asheville, though the Hornets were four games behind the Tourists.

The Hornets started pulling out games that looked to be in the loss column. On June 14, the team failed to hold onto a three run lead in the ninth inning, but won the game anyway when starting catcher Rick Dempsey knocked in two runs with a single in the 12th inning. Luebber and Rustick continued to dominate the league, and seemed to have a competition going between them for individual numbers. Through June 14, Luebber was 8-1 with a 2.22 ERA, while Rustick was 7-2 with a 1.82 ERA. The starting pitchers’ duel ended quickly, however, when the Twins needed a starter for a June 27 double header. The 21-year-old Luebber was called up to start the second game, and he did not return to Charlotte.

The team didn’t miss a beat with the loss of the young pitcher. Among the heroes as June turned to July was second baseman Jerry Terrell who had 23 stolen bases before the half way point of the season (the league leader had 24 the year before), and relief pitcher Vic Albury, who joined Rusteck and Norton among the league’s ERA leaders. Outfielder Bob Storm also emerged in July. He had a two home run, seven RBI game against Savannah on July 16.

Charlotte had narrowed the Asheville lead to just one game by July 4th, and blew past them to claim a four game lead by July 26. Though Asheville was able to close the gap, the Hornets continued to get some dominant starting pitching. On August 1, Greg Jaycox struck out 14 Savannah hitters in 10 innings, and finally won the game 3-1 when pinch hitter (and relief ace) Vic Albury knocked in the winning run with a single in the 10th. The win was part of Jaycox’ six game winning streak. On August 12, the team was in a 7-0 hole to Birmingham when center fielder Ezell Carter led a charge in which the Hornets scored eight unanswered to win the game.

Through July and August, Asheville also continued to win, and the two teams stayed within a few games of each other throughout the final months of the season. The teams played head to head for five games scheduled between August 19 and August 21. After splitting a pair of double headers on the 19th and 20th, Charlotte won the series when Jaycox out dueled the best pitcher in the league, Jim MacDonnell. Though he was the best throughout the season, MacDonnell had his worst outing against the Hornets, who won the game 7-0.

The race went down to the last day of the season. Charlotte held a slim half game lead over Asheville. Though both teams were guaranteed to make the four-team playoffs, there was some pride involved in bringing home the East division title. The Hornets clinched before their evening game even started. In the afternoon, Asheville lost to Montgomery 3-2. The 12-6 victory that night insured that the Hornets could not be accused of backing into the title. The team finished the regular season 92-50, and would have home field advantage throughout the Dixie playoffs.

While doing some research on Jerry Terrell, I found the following note in The Sporting News from December 15, 1973 in regards to tickets at Met Stadium:

Ticket prices have been raised 50 cents to $4.50 for box seats and $2.00 for general admission. Reserved grandstand prices remain at $3.50.

 

Huge increase aside, that’s about a sixth of what I pay for upper deck seats today.

Several months ago, I wrote a short bio on Bombo Rivera. One of Rivera’s friends and his former bat boy from Puerto Rico named Roberto Mercado emailed TwinsCards owner Blake with, among other thing, the lyrics to the “Ballad of Bombo Rivera.” Roberto also provided some information that filled in some of the gaps from my original post, which was heavy on his major league experience and light on just about everything else. I decided to revist Bombo’s career with this new information.

“A chart of numbers that would put an actuary to sleep can be made to dance if you put it on one side of a card and Bombo Rivera’s picture on the other.” Bill James, 1982 Baseball Abstract

“We drive on to Minneapolis. We are all relaxed at the game, cheering the Twins to an easy win, chanting “Bombo! Bombo! Bombo!” each time the Twins’ right fielder Bombo Rivera is announced. He is a good young player, but not great. It is his name that intoxicates the crowd.” - from Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

Bombo, Bombo
Bombo Rivera
What other guys get one of
Bombo, he gets a pair-a
It takes two to tango and two to mambo
But you can do it all with just one Bombo
Bombo Rivera will carry us to victory.

Rivera spent the bulk of the 1970’s working his way through the Expos’ farm system. He never had great batting numbers. His breakout season in the Expos’ organization came at AA Quebec City in 1974, where he hit .290 with 7 HR and 42 RBI. He finally got the call to Montreal the following season, where he batted just .111 (1 for 9) in five mid-April games before he was moved to AAA Memphis where he spent the rest of the season.

With all the outfielders in Montreal, Rivera was certainly expendable, and was purchased by the Minnesota Twins following the 1977 season. He immediately began to play, and was functionally the fourth outfielder for the team, batting .271/.362/.355 for 1978. His best game was a 4 for 4 effort in Kansas City on May 19th, a game in which he hit one of his three home runs of the season, and one of only 10 career home runs in the majors.

This is the 13th post in a series detailing the 20 21 22 best pitching performances in Twins history based on Bill James’ game scores. The games are posted in chronological order.

Tuesday August 31, 1976
Metropolitan Stadium
Bloomington, MN

Dave Goltz was a native of Pelican Rapids, MN and became the first native Minnesotan drafted by the Twins to make it all the way to the major league club. He was drafted in 1967 and found success at every level up to and including his rookie season with the Twins in 1972. It took Goltz a while to settle in to a major league starting role after that, and he actually bounced back down to the minor leagues a couple of times in the early 70’s, but by 1976 he had established himself as one of the team’s consistent pitchers, posting a record of 10-10 in 1974 and 14-14 in 1975.

By the closing days of August in 1976, Goltz was carrying a losing record, thanks mostly to a three-game losing streak from August 4-August 14 in which he allowed only seven earned runs over 25 innings pitched but received very little run support. On August 27 Goltz lost his 13th game of the season in one of his worst outings, allowing six earned runs over eight innings against the Cleveland Indians. With just three days rest, Goltz took the mound again on August 31 in the first game of a double header against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Milwaukee was far from an offensive juggernaut. In fact, the Brewers were among the worst offenses in baseball in 1976. Goltz took advantage of that fact early, and was perfect through the first five innings with seven outs coming by way of strikeout and seven coming by groundout (and just one fly ball out).

The Twins offense did their part, scoring once in the first inning off of Bill Travers, and adding three in the fourth on Steve Brye’s three run home run to take a 4-0 lead.

Goltz lost his bid for a perfect game when he walked a 20-year-old Robin Yount to open the sixth inning. Yount didn’t make it far, however, and was retired as part of a ground-ball double play hit by the very next batter.

With one out in the seventh, Goltz lost his no hitter when Bill Sharp singled. A walk later in the inning moved Sharp to second, where he was stranded, only notable because he was the only Brewer to make it to second base in the game.

Goltz worked around another single in the eighth, but retired the final four batters he faced to wrap up the two-hit shut out. He ended the game with 11 strikeouts and 10 ground ball outs, and was never really in danger through the entire game.

Minnesota Twins            IP     H   R  ER   BB  SO  HR    ERA   
D Goltz, W (11-13)          9     2   0   0    2  11   0   3.52   

				BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS
				30     -      10-5     92    - 

Box

In his very next start, Goltz pitched another shut out, scoring an 88 game score in a three-hitter against the Texas Rangers. His scoreless innings streak came to a halt on September 14th against the A’s when Claudell Washington homered off of him to lead off the top of the fourth inning. All in all, Goltz pitched 21 1/3 scoreless innings in a row.

By 1972 most baseball uniforms were made of synthetic fabrics, and the classic look that had been a part of baseball for decades was becoming more and more rare. The Twins first major change in uniform since the move west happened prior to the 1972 season. The team lost the pinstripes, and instead added blue and red piping down the sides of both the home and the road pants. The old-style belt was replaced with a red, white, and blue elastic band, and the same color scheme trimmed the V-neck jerseys, which remained button-down for the first season of the change. The stirrups and the cap remained the same, and the team continued to wear black shoes both at home and on the road.

The logo patch worn on the left sleeve in 1972 was a slightly modified version of the classic Twins shaking hands across the river. In 1973, the design on the patch changed, and was more closely related to the updated version of the team logo.

In 1973 the Twins finished eliminating all aspects of the classic uniform when, among other things, they got rid of the buttons on the jersey and went with the powder blue road uniforms. The team also added the uniform number under the lettering on the front of the jersey. The team didn’t touch the cap until 1976, when the home version became red with a blue bill while sporting the same “TC” lettering on the front. At some point the team also started wearing batting helmets with a white triangle in the front where the logo goes and a red bill (modeled by Lyman Bostock on the left). The uniform didn’t change much for the rest of the 70’s and the early part of the 80’s. The only difference I have spotted is that the team went with red shoes at home for a number of years.

I feel it only fair to mention that the team didn’t win much of anything during the powder blue era. The franchise won before and won after, but struggled in the blues.

While the trend in baseball during this period was for players to show as little of their stirrups as possible, the Twins seemed to enjoy being the exception to that rule. A lot of players showed a lot of blue in their socks, and some even managed to sneak in a logo (like Dave Engle, to the left, one of my new favorite cards of all time).

Here is a link to the 1972-1986 Twins uniforms at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Next time: back to the classics.