Tag: Bob Lemon

Former Twins catcher & coach Hal Naragon passes away at age 90

Hal Naragon with Cleveland

Harold (Hal) Richard Naragon was born on October 1, 1928 in Zanesville, Ohio but grew up and spent most of his life in Barberton, Ohio where he passed away on August 31, 2019. Hal was a star high school baseball player and in 2000 the Barberton High School baseball field was named “Naragon Field” in his honor. Naragon, a catcher, was 6’ and weighed about 160 pounds and batted left handed. After signing as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians in 1947 after graduating from high school, Hal started working his way up the minor league chain and made his major league debut on September 23, 1951. Hal missed the 1952 and 1953 season while serving our country in the Marine Corps. Hal was a part of the 111-43 Cleveland Indians team in 1954 that went on to the World Series only to get swept by the New York Giants. When Naragon played in Cleveland he caught future Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn until he was traded to the Washington Senators in 1959.

Hal Naragon

After the 1960 season the Senators relocated to Minnesota and Naragon played with the Twins in 1961 and 1962. After being released by Minnesota after the 1962 season he was offered a coaching position under manager Sam Mele and he coached with the Twins from 1963 through 1966. After the 1966 season Naragon moved on to coach for the Detroit Tigers between 1967 and 1969 before he hung up his spikes once and for all. Hal caught in the big leagues for all or parts of 10 seasons with the Indians, Senators and the Twins compiling a career batting average of .266 in 424 games but he was never able to achieve full-time playing status. Never the less, Naragon was a valuable asset behind the plate and swung a good left handed stick and in 985 at bats had 262 hits, 6 home runs and 87 RBI. 

Hal leaves behind his wife of seventy-one years, Joanne; his daughter, Pamela (Jeff) Yeck of Canton; grandsons, Chad (Noel) Bradley of Massillon and Evan (Amber) Bradley of Massillon; great-grandchildren, Whitney and Maverick Bradley; his brother, Thomas (Barbara) Naragon; as well as many nieces, nephews and many many friends. He is preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Barbara Cole and brother, Jim Naragon. RIP Hal Naragon and thank you for all the memories. About ten years ago I did an interview with Hal that you can listen to here.

The SABR Baseball Biography Project write-up on Hal can be found here.

Hal Nargaon Obituary

Should the Twins President, GM and Manager keep their jobs?

When the Minnesota Twins hired Hall of Famer Paul Molitor to manage the Twins starting with the 2015 season they had to know that they were swimming up-stream and that the baseball gods were against them. The list of “modern” MLB Hall of Fame players that tried their luck as managers is relatively short and none of them have turned out to be Hall of Fame managers.

Frank Robinson

Robinson, Frank ExposFrank Robinson may have been the best of the skippers that had Hall of Fame on his resume. Robinson managed four different teams (Indians, Giants, Orioles, Expos/Nationals) over 16 seasons from 1975-2006. Robinson took over the Orioles manager duties in 1988 after they had an 0-6 record and he managed them to 15 more consecutive losses before they won their first game of the season after an 0-21 start. The next season (1989) Frank Robinson was selected as the AL Manager of the year after leading his team to a second place finish and a 87-75 record. Although he may have been the best manager of the Hall of Fame group, he finished his managing career with zero playoff appearances. His career mark as a manager was 1,065-1,176 (.475).

Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra managed for all or parts of five season with two New York clubs, the Yankees and the Mets. Although his career managing record was 484-444, he did take both the Mets and Yankees to a pennant.

Bob Lemon

Bob Lemon managed for all or parts of eight seasons between 1970-1982 and had a lifetime managing record of 430 and 403 with the Royals, White Sox  and Yankees. He does have two pennants and a World Series championship on his resume but in both of these cases he took over the job during the season and never managed a team to a pennant from start to finish.

Ted Williams

Ted Williams managed the Washington Senators from 1969 through 1972 when he called it quits. He led the Senators to a 86-76 record in his first season (1969) as the Senators skipper but in 1970 his team was 70-92, in 1971 the team was 63-96, and in 1972 he was 54-100. Do you see a trend here? His career mark as a manager was 273-364 (.429) and zero play-off appearances.

Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Sandberg took over as skipper of the Phillies 44 games into the 2013 season and left after a 26-48 start to the 2015 season. Sandberg had a 119-159 mark as a skipper during his Phillies tenure.

Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor was hired to be the Twins manager prior to the 2015 season and todate his record as a manager stands at 94-113 (.454). Molitor took over a team that had not won more games than it lost since 2010 and in 2015 he led them to a 83-79 record. At first glance does not seem that bad over all, but, there is always that but.  In May of 2015 the Twins were 20-7, if you subtract that month Molitor managed the team to a 63-72 record. This year Molitor’s record is 15-35, the team is playing at a lousy .300 winning percentage but even that starts to look good when you look at their road record of 7-20 (.259). You want to see more? The Twins are 0-6 against the White Sox, 0-6 against the Tigers, and 1-5 against the Royals but on the positive side they are 4-2 against the Indians. A record of 5-19 in your own division does not cut it, it is totally unacceptable even if you are playing just for fun and the Twins are certainly not playing for the fun of it.

Continue reading Should the Twins President, GM and Manager keep their jobs?

How often do the Twins lose when they score 9 runs?

After the Twins lost 12-9 to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Saturday I wondered how often the Twins had lost games when they scored 9 runs. After Saturday’s defeat their 2014 record was 32 wins and 34 losses and their historical won/lost record (since the team moved here in 1961) stood at 4,236 wins and 4,277 losses.

After doing a bit of research here is what I found.

13 runs – The Twins have scored 13 runs or more in a game 137 times and their record when they score 13 runs or more is 135-2. This is the most runs that the Twins have scored and still lost the game and it happened on two occasions. The first time it happened was on September 29, 1970 in a 14-13 loss in 12 innings to the Kansas City Royals at Met Stadium. The Twins led 9-5 after eight innings but KC scored 6 in the top of the 9th to take a 11 to 9 lead but the Twins tied it with 2 in the bottom of the ninth off Royals reliever Ted Abernathy to send the game into extra innings. No one scored in the 10th inning but both teams scored twice in the 11th inning and the game continued. The Royals scored once in the top of the 12th and the Twins came up empty in the bottom of the inning and lost the game 14-13. You need to check out the boxscore from the game as Twins manager Bill Rigney and Royals manager Bob Lemon had the wheels turning. Rigney used 27 players in the game and Lemon used 22 players. Who knocked in the winning run? 37 year-old relief pitcher Ted Abernathy.

The second time the Twins scored 13 runs and walked away losers was on July 20, 2009 when the Twins lost to the Oakland A’s 14-13 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Gardy and his Twins had a 12-5 lead after 3 innings and 13-7 after 6 innings but the A’s scored 7 in the bottom of the 7th inning and held on for a come from behind 14-13 victory. Current Twins fans will certainly recognize many of the players in this Boxscore.

12 runs – The Twins have scored 12 runs and lost 6 times in their 4,277 losses.

11 runs – The Twins have scored 11 runs and lost 9 times in their 4,277 losses.

10 runs – The Twins have scored 10 runs and lost 17 times in their 4,277 losses.

9 runs – The Twins have scored 9 runs and lost 32 times in their 4,277 losses. So here was my answer, it does not happen very often, in just 00.75% of the losses.

8 runs – The Twins have scored 8 runs and lost 63 times in their 4,277 losses.

7 runs – The Twins have scored 7 runs and lost 121 times in their 4,277 losses.

6 runs – The Twins have scored 6 runs and lost 200 times in their 4,277 losses.