Tony, the Killer, and Carew

1991 World Series Game 7
Sunday October 27, 1991
HHH Metrodome

Just hours after Kirby Puckett took the team on his back to win Game 6, the Twins were back at the Metrodome preparing for Game 7. St. Paul native Jack Morris was brought in as a free agent for the 1991 season, and would now take the hill for the most important game of the season. Morris already had a reputation as a big game pitcher, mostly for his efforts in 1984 when he went 3-0 in three post season starts with the Detroit Tigers while holding the opposition to just five runs over 25 innings in that post season. Morris was prepared for another run in the post season, and had promised that “If I feel like King Kong, I’ll throw like King Kong” before the 1991 World Series started.

Morris and the Twins knew that it was likely he was going to need to throw like King Kong in Game 7, because runs weren’t going to come easy for the Twins. Taking the mound for the Braves that night was John Smoltz, then just a 24-year-old most famous for coming to Atlanta in the trade that sent Doyle Alexander to the Tigers for what turned out to be an unsuccessful run in the 1987 playoffs (a year when the Tigers were eliminated by the Twins). Of the big three pitchers for Atlanta, Smoltz may have been the less publicized, but he had quietly gotten the job done, including a very strong showing against the Twins in Game 4.

The game started with a handshake between Atlanta lead off man Lonnie Smith and Twins catcher Brian Harper, who had met earlier in the series under very different circumstances in a violent home plate collision. Whether it was a gesture by Smith to bury the hatchet, or more indicative of the battle that the Series had been up to that point is unclear, but it was a unique start to a baseball game.

Smoltz and Morris, as advertised, settled into a pitcher’s duel immediately. Both retired the side in order in the first inning, then worked around some trouble in the early innings. The Twins got a pair of two out singles off of Smoltz in the second inning, but a Pagliarulo ground out ended that threat. The Braves had runners at first and second with just one out in the third inning when Morris retired Pendleton and Gant in order to keep the score 0-0.

The Braves threatened again in the fifth. Series hero Mark Lemke led off the inning with a single, and had advanced to third on two bunts, the first a sacrifice, the second a bunt single by Lonnie Smith. With runners at the corners and one out, Pendleton and Gant had a chance to redeem themselves for the missed opportunity in the third inning. It was not to be, however, as Morris got an innocent pop up out of Pendleton, and caught Gant looking with a third strike that erupted the crowd and caused Morris to pump his fist as he jogged off the field.

The teams entered the eighth inning with the score still tied at zero. In the top of the frame, Smith led off with a single that brought Pendleton to the plate with Smith on first and no outs. Pendleton launched a drive to left center that should have easily scored Smith, but at the end of the play he had only made it to third. Replays showed Smith pull up when he saw short stop Greg Gagne fake a throw to Knoblauch at second. The bluff confused Smith long enough that he was unable to score the go-ahead run.

Still, the Braves had runners at second and third with no outs and the heart of the lineup due to bat against Morris, so a run seemed inevitable. After Morris induced a weak ground out from Ron Gant, the Twins decided to give David Justice and intentional pass to load the bases for Sid Bream. Bream hit a hard grounder to Hrbek at first who was playing in to cut down the run at home. He did that, then took the return throw from Harper to complete the double play and end the inning with no damage done.

In almost a mirror image of the Atlanta half of the eighth, the Twins loaded the bases with one out in their half. With Kent Hrbek ready to bat, the Braves had brought in Mike Stanton to intentionally walk Puckett and try to wiggle out of the inning. A hard line drive off the bat of the slumping Hrbek was hit right to Braves shortstop Rafael Belliard who easily stepped on second to complete the double play.

The Twins looked like they might end the game in the bottom of the ninth with two consecutive singles to start the inning, but Alejandro Pena came on and got a ground ball double play and a strikeout of pinch hitter Paul Sorrento to send the game into extra innings.

Five years earlier, in Tom Kelly’s first World Series as manager, ace pitcher Frank Viola came to the dugout after the eighth inning of Game 7 with a 4-2 lead and wanted to continue. Kelly didn’t let him, explaining that Reardon had been the man in the ninth all season, and sent his closer out to finish the Series. After Game 7 of 1991, the same manager said the only way he could have removed his starter on that day was “with a shotgun,” and told pitching coach Dick Such after the ninth “it’s just a game, let him go” - so Morris took the mound for the tenth inning, and promptly retired the Braves in order.

Dan Gladden led off the Twins’ tenth with a broken bat looper to short left center. On what most likely should have been a single, Gladden made into a double by hustling around first while the Braves fielders played the ball on the high hop from the Metrodome turf. A perfectly executed sacrifice bunt from rookie Chuck Knoblauch sent Gladden to third, and the Braves opted to walk both Puckett and Hrbek to load the bases with Jarvis Brown on deck, who had entered the game to run for Chili Davis in the ninth.

Kelly called Gene Larkin’s name to face Pena with the bases loaded and one out. Larkin had a bad knee, and had only seen three previous at bats in the series. All that was meaningless, however, when Larkin drove the first pitch he saw over the heads of the drawn in outfield to clinch the World Series for the Twins.

1991 World Series Game 6
Saturday October 26, 1991
HHH Metrodome

The 1991 World Series returned to Minneapolis with a completely different feel than it had left five days before. The Twins returned home trailing in the series, three games to two, after the Braves defeated them in Game 5, the only blow out of the series so far. What’s more, Atlanta had Steve Avery on the mound for Game 6, the pitcher that had become something of a phenom in the NLCS. The Twins countered with Scott Erickson, who had been all but untouchable in June of that year, but had run into some post season problems. To many, the Braves seemed like the team of destiny, and Game 6 was when they were likely to achieve that destiny.

Prior to the game, Twins manager Tom Kelly had nothing but praise for Avery.

“You have to give the kid a lot of credit for poise and composure,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t look like he has any fear in his eyes. He’s going to be one of the great ones. We’re going to have to take the ball up the middle against him and scratch for some runs.”

 

Kelly’s reputation lent some doubt as to whether his praise for the Atlanta pitcher was genuine. There was open speculation in the local papers that it was a ploy to get into the young pitcher’s head.

Master plan or not, the Twins got to Avery early. After Scott Erickson worked around a single and a walk to get out of the first inning unscathed, the Twins offense started with one out in the bottom of the first. After Chuck Knoblauch singled, Kirby Puckett, who had told the rest of the team earlier in the day to “jump on his back,” tripled with a ground ball down the left field line. Puckett later scored when Shane Mack connected with his first base hit of the series two batters later. The Twins held a 2-0 lead over the Avery and the Braves.

Erickson maintained the lead through four innings, not necessarily with dominant pitching. He was helped along the way by some great defensive plays, including Scott Leuis’ jumping grab of a Brian Hunter line drive in the second, and Puckett’s leaping grab of Ron Gant’s drive in the third inning, which robbed Gant of an easy double.

The Braves finally cracked the score board in the fifth, when NL batting champion Terry Pendleton connected with a two-run home run to center field. No sooner had the Braves tied the game than the Twins took the lead again, this time on a sacrifice fly by Puckett in the bottom of the fifth. Erickson retired the Braves in order in the fifth inning, but was ultimately removed from the game after he allowed a lead off single to Mark Lemke, who had been an unlikely October hero for the Braves. Lemke ended up scoring later in the inning to once again tie the game. Erickson’s night was over. Though he wouldn’t get a decision in the game, he had performed well enough for the Kelly, allowing three runs over six plus innings pitched.

Avery, meanwhile, didn’t come out for the seventh inning, and ended his game with three runs on six hits over six innings pitched. The respective bullpens made relatively easy work of the batters over the next several innings, Puckett’s one out single in the eighth and subsequent stolen base notwithstanding. The Braves got a lead off single in the 11th, but it was immediately removed when Keith Mitchell was caught trying to steal second. The score remained tied into the bottom of the 11th.

Five years prior, Charlie Leibrandt was on the hill for Kansas City in a must-win late season game against the first place Minnesota Twins. With a man on and one out in the bottom of the first inning, Kirby Puckett launched a home run to left center that set the tone for an 8-1 Twins win and ultimately a season’s end for the Royals. Now, in an even bigger situation, Bobby Cox called on Leibrandt to extend the game another inning. The first batter he would face: Kirby Puckett.

A 2-1 hanging change up from Leibrandt was the catalyst for arguably the most memorable moment in team history. Puckett launched the ball to left center field where it landed among the 55,155 fans in the Metrodome. As he rounded the bases, fists pumping, Jack Buck made his famous call that set the stage for a memorable Game 7.

Kirby Puckett had been in some way responsible for each of the four Twins runs, and in all likelihood took away an Atlanta run with his catch in the third inning. The Twins went on to win the series in seven, but Kirby Puckett almost single-handedly got them there with his performance in Game 6.

This is the 18th 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.

September 11, 1999
HHH Metrodome
Minneapolis, MN

Just about everything was negative for the Twins in 1999. They were well on their way to a seventh consecutive losing season, and hadn’t really had anything to get excited about in recent memory. On a Saturday morning in September, Eric Milton gave the Twins’ organization and its fans something to cheer about.

The game started at 11 AM local time due to a scheduling conflict with the University of Minnesota football team. The early start, combined with the Twins’ performance over the past few years added up to an announced crowd of just over 11,000, despite the fact that the game was not being televised due to MLB rules. The early start had an effect on the game as well. The Angels, who were far from an offensive juggernaut in 1999, had most of their best players watching from the bench, including Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, and Jim Edmonds.

The Twins’ offense did its part early, scoring four runs off of Anaheim starter Ramon Ortiz in the first two innings. Milton walked Orlando Palmiero in the first inning, and walked Jeff Davanon in the third, but worked around those walks and was looking pretty good with five strikeouts through three innings.

In about the sixth inning, catcher Terry Steinbach got a feeling, quoted here by LaVelle E. Neal III in the Star Tribune:

I was sitting there and I had this feeling that anything can happen,” said Steinbach, who was with Oakland in 1990 when he caught Dave Stewart’s no-hitter. “You don’t want to get too carried away with it. Just keep doing what you’re doing, keep moving the ball in and out and see where it goes.”

 

The sixth inning was when the crowd began to buzz as well. When Milton finished off a pesky at bat against Andy Sheets by blowing him away with a high fastball for the strikeout, the Metrodome crowd started to get the same feeling as Steinbach.

Neal noted that Milton’s fastball was in the low 90’s the entire game, and that his control was near perfect throughout. Denny Hocking’s two-run home run in the fifth had given the Twins a 6-0 lead, so the drama rested solely on Milton’s shoulders.

Milton sent down the Angels in order in the seventh inning, including two more strikeouts to bring his game total to 11. The eighth was another quick inning, and Milton added one more strikeout to the total when he caught Matt Luke looking.

In the middle of the eighth inning, the Twins did their regular trivia promotion. The question: “Who threw the first no-hitter in Twins history?” The bit gave Tom Kelly some negativity for the post game.

“That was quite upsetting,” Twins manager Tom Kelly said. “I know it was for the players. I don’t know if [Milton] saw it, but the players were very upset. I don’t know what possessed them to do that today of all days, unless it was a coincidence.”

 

If Milton saw it, the question didn’t seem to bother him, as he went about his business of getting Angels out. The lefty recorded the first two outs of the ninth inning, and only Jeff Davanon stood between Milton and a no-hitter.

With the count full, Milton blew his money pitch by Davanon, a fastball for strike three to end the game.

Box

Minnesota Twins            IP     H   R  ER   BB  SO  HR    ERA    
E Milton, W (7-11)          9     0   0   0    2  13   0   4.64    

		           BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS
			   28  122-78     4-9     98    - 

Anaheim’s interim manager Joe Maddon was the subject of a lot of criticism for leaving his big bats on the bench late in the game. To his credit, he managed to the best interests of his team, rather than to break up a no-hitter. Down 7-0, he didn’t feel that bringing in the starters who were supposed to have a day off was the best move for the team.

Milton took care of those batters he did face, however, and recorded the top Bill James Game Score in team history, a 98.

This is the 17th 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.

Wednesday June 24, 1992
HHH Metrodome
Minneapolis, MN

Kevin Tapani had been somewhat of a forgotten man in 1991. Though he had a career year and was the most consistent starter for a team that won the World Series, Tapani was overshadowed the entire season by the story lines surrounding Jack Morris, Scott Erickson, and Rick Aguilera; partially due to a lower win total than the first two. 1992 started out much the same for Tapani. The buzz at the beginning of the season seemed to surround new acquisition John Smiley and Erickson, leaving Tapani to the familiar spot as the third most popular starter on the team.

Tapani didn’t have a great start to the 1992 season. After winning his first start, he lost four straight and had to work to keep his ERA below six. Coming into a the late June game against the Angels, Tapani had a 6-5 record with a 5.08 ERA. Tapani’s slow start mirrored that of his team. The defending World Series champions struggled through the early months of the season. After hovering just below .500 for most of April and May, the Twins seemed to settle in just above the .500 mark until late June. It was then that the Twins put together a streak, and had won six of seven games heading into the final game a 13-game home stand.

Tapani took the mound against the Angels and Chuck Finley. Finley had a history of looking good against the Twins, and was one of those pitchers that Twins’ fans expected a tough game against regardless of Finley’s tough start in 1992 (he was 2-6 with a 5.71 ERA as of June 23).

The Twins got to Finley early in front 0f 30,000 fans at the Metrodome. Chili Davis’ fifth home run of the season gave the Twins a quick 2-0 lead in first inning. Tapani worked around a two-out single in the top of the first, then went on a string in which he retired 18 in a row, including the fourth inning, in which he struck out the side. Jeff Lenihan summarized the performance in the next day’s Star Tribune:

Tapani’s complete-game two-hitter represented the finest pitching performance by a Twins starter this season and perhaps the best start of Tapani’s 82-start major league career. Tapani, a righthander, did not walk a batter, allowed only three baserunners and struck out a career-high 10. After the Twins scored twice in the first off Chuck Finley - or someone giving a poor impersonation of the pitcher that used to dominate the Twins - Tapani was never in trouble as the Twins recorded their fifth consecutive victory.

 

In his past two starts, Tapani has thrown 17 1/3 innings and given up only six hits, two walks and one earned run. That gives him two quality starts in the team’s current streak of eight straight. But before Friday’s 1-0 loss to Dave Fleming of the Mariners, Tapani had given up 100 hits and 46 earned runs in only 75 innings, and the Twins were having to score six or seven runs for him to win.

 

The game ended up being quite void of drama thanks to an offensive outburst by the Twins, led by Brian Harper who went 4-for-4 with four RBI in the game. The final score was 11-0.

Minnesota Twins            IP     H   R  ER   BB  SO  HR    ERA   
K Tapani, W (7-5)           9     2   0   0    0  10   0   4.58 

			   BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS
			   30  115-79    11-6     93   -	 

Box

The AJ Pierzynski Trade: November 14, 2003

At the time, the focus was on the beginning of the Joe Mauer era. AJ Pierzynski had been the starting catcher for the Twins for the last five seasons, and his departure cleared the way for the top pick in the 2001 amateur draft to start behind the plate for the Twins. For some players, however, the focus was on the end of an era rather than the beginning of the new one. The most outspoken was Doug Mientkiewicz (not surprisingly).

“In about three or four years, our group will get its due,” Mientkiewicz said. “People will look back and say, `Damn, that group we had in ‘01, ‘02, and ‘03 was pretty good.

 

“This franchise is looking toward the future, which is fine. But if this franchise ever goes back to the days when .500 was a good season, our group will get the credit it deserves.

 

“It’s not fair to the Mauers and [Justin] Morneaus to bring them up and expect to win. It’s hard enough to play in this league as it is, as a young guy. To learn and win at the same time? The game’s not going to let you do it.

 

“And that’s coming from someone who thinks Joe Mauer will be a very good player.”

 

-Star Tribune 11/14/2003

 

 

Lost in most of the discussion at the time was the names of the players that the Twins got in return. Those names wouldn’t remain forgotten for long.

Joe Nathan

Before: Nathan had four years of major league experience, the best of which was the just-completed 2003 season, in which he went 12-4 with a 2.96 ERA. He was universally recognized as the best major league player in the trade.

Since: Almost immediately upon his arrival, Nathan was installed as the team’s new closer to replace Eddie Guardado, despite the fact that Nathan had no experience in that role. All he has done since is become one of the elite closers in baseball, posting a 1.96 ERA in four seasons with the Twins (230 ERA+).

Boof Bonser

Before: The 22-year-old starting pitcher was a product of the 2000 draft. In 2003, he was 7-10 with a 4.00 ERA in AA, 1-2 3.13 in AAA.

Since: Bonser got his first major league start in the spring of 2006. He had a solid season, and was one of the Twins few options to start in the playoffs. He has struggled a bit on 2007, and many (including the manager) place the blame for his struggles on his size (listed at 6′4″, 260 lbs). In two seasons, Bonser is 14-18 with a 4.65 ERA (96 ERA+).

Francisco Liriano

Before: LaVelle E. Neal simply said this about Liriano the day after the trade: “The lefthanded Liriano, 20, was limited to five games in the low minors because of a muscle strain.”

Since: Liriano showed a flash of brilliance in the 2006 season, going 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA (207 ERA+) before his season was prematurely shut down due to injury. He has been out all of 2007 after having Tommy John surgery, and Twins fans are hoping that he will return to form to start 2008.

The Pierzynski trade represented Terry Ryan at his best: trading a known major league quantity for prospects. In this case, the prospects panned out for the Twins, and it is likely that other GM’s took notice, making it difficult for Ryan to repeat his success in later trades.

The last major change to the Twins uniform came prior to the historic 1987 season. The team dropped the synthetic-looking uniform that came into vogue in the mid-1970’s in favor of the more traditional, button-down look. Gone were the powder blue road uniforms. In their place, the Twins returned to the classic road grays with the addition of pinstripes to both home and away uniforms. While the “Twins” written across the front had a slight font change from the previous year (with the word “win” underlined in “Twins”), the most drastic change came to the road jersey, where the name of the state appeared along the front for the first time, in red letters above the player’s number.

The writing along the front of the jersey became the only place where the color red was used so predominantly. The Twins stopped wearing red shoes, and caps and batting helmets became blue again. An “M” replaced “TC” as the logo on the cap, though the “TC” remained as a shoulder patch on the home uniform, while the new Twins logo (sadly replacing the Twins shaking hands over the river) was the patch worn on the road.

For those who wanted to show some team spirit on their stirrups, as Bert Blyleven liked to do, the “M” replaced the “TC” there as well.

The Twins, of course, won two World Championships in these uniforms. That might be the reason why very little has changed to the basic pattern in 21 years, although baseball styles have changed a great deal. In general, uniforms have trended toward the looser fitting side in the past decade, and sock styles have changed dramatically, almost eliminating the stirrup entirely. Today, a player has two major options with their socks: cover up completely, or show the socks all the way to the knees - no stirrups necessary.

The Twins have made some changes recently, including wearing “TC” on their caps (and the brief use of red caps on Sunday home games). Like every other team in this decade, the Twins have also experimented with alternate jerseys. Some have caught on, like the blue jerseys with red lettering that have been around since the late 90’s; while others have not, like the ill-advised vests introduced last year and worn only enough times to count on one hand.

Here are all of the uniforms from 1987-2006 on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame online exhibit.

Notes:

The Twins haven’t had a lot of starters in the past few decades not named Kirby Puckett. In fact, only Torii Hunter has started based on fan vote.

Kirby Puckett and Harmon Killebrew are the only Twins to have hit home runs in All Star play.

I wonder how many seasons Kent Hrbek might have been considered for the All Star Team had he not publicly stated that he would never accept an invitation. As it stands, he had exactly as many appearances as the most infamous Twins selection: Ron Coomer.

Tom Kelly showed more restraint the second time he managed the game, only naming two Twins in 1992 to join Kirby Puckett (who was voted in), while he named five in 1988, including Tim Laudner.

Bold indicates starter

1981:
Doug Corbett DNP

1982:
Kent Hrbek 0-1

1983:
Gary Ward 0-1

1984:
Dave Engle DNP

1985:
Tom Brunansky 0-1

1986:
Kirby Puckett 1-3

1987:
Kirby Puckett 0-4

1988:
Gary Gaetti 0-1
Tim Laudner 1-1
Kirby Puckett 0-1
Jeff Reardon DNP
Frank Viola W, 2 IP 0 H 0 R 1 K

1989:
Gary Gaetti 0-1
Kirby Puckett 1-3, R

1990:
Kirby Puckett 1-1

1991:
Rick Aguilera 1.3 IP 2 H 0 R 3 K
Scott Erickson DNP
Jack Morris 2 IP 4 H 1 R 1 K
Kirby Puckett 0-1

1992:
Rick Aguilera 0.7 IP 1 H 1 R
Chuck Knoblauch 0-1
Kirby Puckett 1-3, R

1993:
Rick Aguilera 1 IP 2 H 0 R 2 K
Kirby Puckett 2-3, HR 2 RBI - MVP

1994:
Chuck Knoblauch 0-3, R
Kirby Puckett 1-3, RBI

1995:
Kirby Puckett 0-2

1996:
Chuck Knoblauch 1-1

1997:
Chuck Knoblauch 0-0

1998:
Brad Radke 1 IP 2 H 1 R 1 BB 1 K

1999:
Ron Coomer 0-1

2000:
Matt Lawton 1-2, R, RBI

2001:
Cristian Guzman 0-1
Joe Mays 1 IP 0 H 0 R
Eric Milton DNP

2002:
Eddie Guardado 0.7 IP 0 H 0 R 2 K
Torii Hunter 0-2
AJ Pierzynski 0-3

2003:
Eddie Guardado 0.3 IP 2 H 1 R

2004:
Joe Nathan 1 IP 0 H 0 R 2 K

2005:
Joe Nathan 1 IP 2 H 1 R
Johan Santana 1 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB 0 K

2006:
Francisco Liriano DNP
Joe Mauer 0-2
Johan Santana 1 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 1 K

2007:
Torii Hunter 0-2
Justin Morneau 0-2
Johan Santana 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 BB 2 K

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.

As the spring of 1991 started to turn into summer, the Twins found themselves right in the middle of the AL West pack. A loss at Kansas City on the last day of May dropped the team’s record to 23-25, 5.5 games out of first place.

Though there had been some high hopes for the Twins out of spring training, there are several reasons that the team had not lived up to them in the first two months of 1991. The offense was sputtering a bit, scoring about half a run per game less than the league. While guys like Kirby Puckett and new acquisition Chili Davis were producing as expected, others were not hitting so well.

Kent Hrbek had a tough start, going .239/.340/.370 with only four home runs in the first two months of the season. The third base platoon of Mike Pagliarulo (.232/.246/.330, 2 HR) and Scott Leuis (.182/.368/.295, 1 HR) seemed like a failed experiment. Though Shane Mack was starting to turn things around, he had dug himself a deep hole with a horrible April (.143/.189/.343, 1 HR), and stood at .247/.313/.442, 3 HR as June began.

As a staff, the Twins pitching looked pretty good. Jack Morris was starting to rebound from a terrible start to the season to provide the solid starts the Twins expected from him when they acquired him in the off season. Scott Erickson had pitched much better than expected, and carried a seven game winning streak into June. Kevin Tapani provided a third very good starter. It seemed that if the team could score some runs, the Twins might be able to put together a winning season.

Starting June 1, it seemed like someone flipped a switch to turn on the offense. The Twins finished the series in Kansas City with two wins. Chili Davis homered twice in an 8-4 victory on June 1, and Scott Erickson won his eighth decision in a row in a 4-1 victory on June 2.

Following the series win in Kansas City, the Twins had a 10-game home stand at the Metrodome, where they where they were 14-12 so far in the season. A Kent Hrbek home run helped Jack Morris and the Twins take the first game from Baltimore, 3-2. It took ten innings and a walk-off single by Randy Bush to win game two of the series, 4-3; and the Twins completed the series sweep with a 4-3 win on a Wednesday, June 5.

The Twins had won five in a row when Cleveland came to town for a weekend series. Allan Anderson and Rick Aguilera combined for a two-hit shutout in game one of the series, helped by Chili Davis’ 12th home run of the season. Erickson won his ninth decision in a row the next night, a 2-1 victory over the tribe. After several close games in a row, the Twins finally had a bit of a cushion in a 9-2 win on Sunday, another Jack Morris win. The four game sweep was completed on Monday, when the Twins won 8-5 thanks to two RBI by Hrbek and three by Mike Pagliarulo.

The Yankees were the next victims of the streaking Twins, and were dispatched in three games: 5-3, 6-3, and 10-3. Scott Erickson earned his 10th straight decision in the last game of the series. The Twins had finished the 10-game home stand with a perfect record, and were in second place when they headed to Cleveland for a three-game series.

Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek both homered in a 7-0 win on June 14; Jack Morris and Carl Willis combined for the shutout. The Twins scored 11 on Cleveland the next day, thanks in part to a four RBI game for Scott Leius. It took extra innings to earn the win on Sunday, but the Twins did so, 4-2 in 10 innings, to extend the team winning streak to 15 games.

The standings on May 31, 1991 looked like this (Retrosheet):

Team Name           G  W  L  T  PCT   GB   RS  RA
Texas Rangers      43 26 17  0 .605    -  229 194
Oakland Athletics  47 28 19  0 .596    -  242 233
California Angels  47 26 21  0 .553  2.0  213 178
Seattle Mariners   48 25 23  0 .521  3.5  199 195
Minnesota Twins    48 23 25  0 .479  5.5  196 202
Chicago White Sox  44 21 23  0 .477  5.5  177 213
Kansas City Royals 46 21 25  0 .457  6.5  173 184

by June 16th, the AL West looked a lot different:

Team Name           G  W  L  T  PCT   GB   RS  RA
Minnesota Twins    63 38 25  0 .603    -  283 241
Oakland Athletics  62 37 25  0 .597  0.5  320 302
Texas Rangers      57 32 25  0 .561  3.0  290 257
California Angels  61 33 28  0 .541  4.0  267 246
Seattle Mariners   62 33 29  0 .532  4.5  275 261
Chicago White Sox  60 29 31  0 .483  7.5  244 274
Kansas City Royals 60 29 31  0 .483  7.5  241 254

The team finally lost in an extra-inning game in Baltimore (more on that in a different post). Following that loss, the Twins won four more in a row, and finished a stretch in which they won 22 out of 26 games from May 28 to June 22.

Many of those who were struggling for the first two months were the key players in the streak. Kent Hrbek batted .353/.433/.529 with two home runs during that 15-game stretch. Scott Leius went 10-for-21 in limited time over the stretch, and Shane Mack batted .342/.390/.579 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Chili Davis had five home runs and 13 RBI during the streak, while Kirby Puckett added three home runs and 12 RBI.

Not to be forgotten, Scott Erickson allowed only four earned runs in 24 innings pitched. His winning streak continued until he had won 12 consecutive decisions. Jack Morris allowed only three earned runs over 23 innings pitched, and Kevin Tapani allowed only four earned in 22 2/3 innings pitched. Rick Aguilera had seven saves over the stretch that vaulted the 1991 Twins into first place.

Minnesota baseball fans love their backup catchers. As far back as Jerry Zimmerman in the 1960’s, all the way to Mike Redmond today, the backup catcher is almost always among the most popular players on the team.

My favorite was Junior Ortiz. The quirky Puerto Rican wasn’t just a backup catcher, he was Scott Erickson’s personal catcher during the 1991 World Series season.

Adalberto Colon Ortiz was originally signed by Pittsburgh in 1977 after a tryout camp in San Juan. He played a few games for the Pirates in 1982 and 1983 before he was traded to the Mets in June of ‘83. After a couple of tough seasons in New York, the Pirates took him back in the 1984 Rule V draft. Ortiz stayed with the Pirates until he was traded to the Twins following the 1989 season, his only season as a regular.

In 1989, the regular Pirates catcher, Mike LaValliere went down with an injury in the first couple weeks of the season. From April to July, Junior was the starting catcher for a major league team. It was an uncomfortable spot for Junior, who was quoted in a Star Tribune profile by Patrick Reusse (7/1/90):

“It had been a long time since I had played every day - back in the minor leagues in 1982,” Ortiz said. “You really have to prepare in spring training to play every day.”

LaValliere returned to the lineup in July, and the Pirates traded Ortiz in the spring of 1990 after acquiring Don Slaught to fill the back up role.

Through his career, Ortiz backed up some pretty good catchers, including Tony Pena, Mike LaValliere, Brian Harper, Sandy Alomar, and Ivan Rodriguez.

As with a lot of career backups in baseball, Ortiz’s numbers fluctuated greatly from year to year (due to small sample size). Though he never hit for power, he had two seasons (1986, 1990) in which he batted over .335; he also had two seasons (1984, 1991) in which he finished near or below the Mendoza line. His career numbers evened out, however, and Ortiz was a .250/.296/.279 hitter.

When Tim Laudner left the Twins in the spring of 1990, it opened up a space for Ortiz on the Minnesota roster. He played with the Twins for two seasons, had the aforementioned great season at the plate in 1990 (.335/.384/.388), and slumped through 1991 (.209/.293/.261).

During a particularly bad stretch in 1991, Junior, very publicly, changed his name to Joe. He abandoned his new name a short time later when he didn’t immediately come out of his slump.

That was Junior, though. He had a slight stutter, but refused an offer by the Pirates to pay for therapy, saying that the stutter was his trademark. On occasion, he would offer Yogi Berra-like gems, such as this one on his five plus years in Pittsburgh:

“I remember a lot of things, but I can’t remember them,”

Always a clown in the clubhouse, Junior became famous in Pittsburgh for his personalized T-shirts, one of which read “Ortiz, you are not playing today”. He named his son Junior as well, though he went by J.J. for short (Junior Junior). When Ortiz was placed on the DL in mid-June of 1991 for an ankle injury, he quipped “the MVP is out now, so we could be in big, big trouble”.

For all of his quirks, Ortiz was a pretty good catcher. He was given a lot of credit for Scott Erickson’s emergence as a pitcher in 1991. Ortiz was a proud member of that championship team, and got a hit and an RBI in three World Series games that fall.

Ortiz was granted free agency by the Twins after the Series, and finished his career with two seasons in Cleveland and one in Texas. As was the case for so many players, Ortiz didn’t see another game after the strike of 1994-1995.