Twins player, coach & manager Billy Gardner passes away at 96

Billy Gardner passed away peacefully January 3, 2024, at the age of 96 at home surrounded by family. He was born July 19, 1927, in New London, CT to father Leslie Garder and mother Eva Maynard. He married the love of his life, Barbara Carnaroli, in 1952. They were married 71 years.

Gardner was signed at the age of 17 by the New York Giants in 1944 after graduating from Chapman Technical High School. After spending one year in the minors Gardner was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1946. He returned to baseball in 1947. He worked his way up to the big leagues and debuted with the NY Giants on April 22, 1954 in Forbes Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates and singled in his first big league at bat. Gardner played in the majors for 10 years between 1954-1963 with the Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Gardner was a part of two World Series teams, the 1954 Giants and the 1961 Yankees. Gardner’s nickname was “Slick” because he “could turn a double play in a phone booth”.

Gardner was traded from the Orioles to the Senators on April 3, 1960 for Clint Courtney and Ron Samford and then became one of the original Minnesota Twins when the Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season. Gardner was the Twins starting second baseman in the first game the Twins ever played going 1 for 3 with a sacrifice in the Twins 6-0 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium I. On June 14, 1961 after playing in Minnesota in just 45 games he was traded to the New York Yankees for pitcher Danny McDevitt.

After his playing years, he spent more than 30 years scouting, coaching and managing in the Minors and Majors including managing the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals.

Billy Gardner

Calvin Griffith was looking for a third-base coach in 1981, an opening created when Gene Mauch abruptly resigned in August 1980 and Johnny Goryl moved from third base to the manager’s job. Gardner was hired to coach third but he didn’t keep that job for long as he was promoted to the Twins manager position on May 23, 1981 after Jonny Goryl was let go. He had a 268-353 record with the Twins, including a 60-102 mark in 1982, when many of the core players to the 1987 World Series championship team first came up to the major leagues. The Minnesota Twins, losers of 20 of their last 25 games in 1985, fired Manager Billy Gardner named pitching coach Ray Miller of the Baltimore Orioles to succeed him.

Gardner is survived by his wife Barbara: and four children, Thomas Gardner, Gwen (Bob) Lakowsky, Shelly (Rick) Kraetz and Billy Gardner Jr. (Kristie). He enjoyed spending time with his children, ten grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

We at Twinstrivia.com would like to pass on our condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Billy Gardner. Thank you for the memories Billy Gardner.

Slick

Billy Gardner Obituary

Former manager Ray Miller dead at 76

Raymond Roger Miller was born on April 30, 1945 in Takoma Park, Maryland and passed away on May 5, 2021 in Weirton, West Virginia.

Ray Miller attended Suitland High School where he played baseball, basketball and soccer earning All-State honors in basketball. MLB.com shows that Ray Miller served with the US Army’s First Armored Division after graduating from Suitland High School in 1963. According to Miller, he signed a professional contract with the San Francisco Giants in 1962 but he did not pitch professionally until 1964. Miller toiled in the minor leagues for ten season (1864-1974) but never got a chance to show his stuff as a major league pitcher and he retired as an active player at the relatively young age of 28. Why did he retire so young? Check out “Obituary: Ray Miller (1945-2021)” on the RIP Baseball site, a wonderful write-up you should not miss about a man that seemed to avoid publicity.

Long time Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek passes away

 

FT. MYERS, FL – MARCH 01: Bullpen Coach Rick Stelmaszek #43 of the Minnesota Twins poses during photo day at Hammond Stadium on March 1, 2010 in Ft. Myers, Florida. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Rick Stelmaszek, a fixture on the Minnesota Twins coaching staff from 1981-2012 passed away at the age of 69 after a courageous battle with cancer. His 32 seasons as a coach with one team (Twins) are the third longest such stint in major league history, and he had the longest tenure of any uniformed employee in Twins history.

Richard Francis Stelmaszek known to all his baseball friends as “Stelly”, was born in Chicago, IL on October 8, 1948 and passed away in the city where he was born on November 6, 2017.

According to baseball-reference.com Rick’s father, Raymond Stelmack was a pitcher and outfielder that played in the Yankees, Cardinals, White Sox, and Cubs farm systems from 1939 to 1946 but he never reached the big leagues.

Rick Stelmaszek was drafted after graduating from high school by the Washington Senators as a catcher in round 11 of the 1967 amateur draft and started his professional career in 1968 with the “A” ball Salisbury Senators in the West Carolinas League. Although not a great hitter by any means, Stelmaszek reached the big leagues in 1971 at the age of just 22 and made his big league debut on June 25 at Yankee Stadium when he entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for catcher Paul Casanova and finished the game going 0 for 2. The visiting Senators lost that game 12-2 and it was one of the six big league games he played in 1971.

Note that long-time Twins pitching coach Dick Such is also on the card.

The Washington Senators left Washington after the 1971 season and moved to Arlington, Texas where they became the Texas Rangers.  Stelmaszek spent all of 1972 in the minors perfecting his trade. In 1973 in his seventh game in a Ranger uniform and 0 for 17 in his big league career, Stelly finally got off the snide with a single off of future fall of famer Nolan Ryan of the California Angels for his first big league hit.

That hit must have impressed the Angels because the next day they acquired him in a five player trade with the Rangers. Stelmaszek spent the rest of 1973 with California but found himself in AAA when the 1974 season started. In July of 1974 Stelmaszek was packing his suitcase again, this time he was off to his home town of Chicago where he appeared in 25 games for the Cubs. Stelly hit his first and only major league home run wearing a big league uniform when hit the “tater” off future hall of famer Don Sutton in an 18-8 Cubbies loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field. Stelmaszek went 2 for 4 with a double when he played in his final big league game at the age of 25, a 3-2 loss at Wrigley to the Montreal Expos.

Stelmaszek spent all of 1975 with the Cubs AAA team and in January of 1976 he was on the move again, this time he was headed for the bright lights of New York City to play with the Yankees. However; Stelly never got to wear the Yankee pinstripes and he spent 1976 with the Yankees AAA team and in 1977 he was playing in AAA for the Rangers.

1978 found him with the Minnesota Twins organization as a player manager for the “A” ball Wisconsin Rapids Twins in the Midwest League. His record that season was only 62-76 but the only player that ever reached the big leagues that played on that team was Mark Funderburk and he only played in 31 major league games for the Twins. Stelmaszek retired as a player after the 1978 season but he continued managing at Wisconsin Rapids through the 1980 season.

After winning the Midwest League Manager of the Year award in 1980, Stelly joined the Twins big league coaching staff in 1981 as the bullpen coach under manager Johnny Goryl and continued in that roll for 32 years and coached under five managers, Goryl, Billy Gardner, Ray Miller, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire

When the Twins finished 2012 with the worst record in baseball, Rick Stelmaszek was one of the coaching casualties and lost his long time coaching job with the Twins. Stelmaszek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2016. The Twins talked him into returning to Target Field to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day in 2017. He also made it back to Target Field for the 30-year anniversary celebration of the 1987 World Series team in July. The team recently announced that Stelmaszek would receive the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented in January.

Here is the Twins’ statement after learning that their long time coach had passed away.

“The Minnesota Twins are deeply saddened by the loss of Rick Stelmaszek.  A true Twins legend, “Stelly” was widely respected throughout baseball. He was a professional who dedicated his life to Twins baseball and instilled a winning culture into generations of Twins players. The club, like many of his friends throughout the game, is thinking of his wife and son, Kathy and Michael, and the entire Stelmaszek family during this difficult time.”

 

Longtime Twins bullpen coach Rick ‘Stelly’ Stelmaszek dies at 69

Former Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek dies at 69

Stelmaszek was wondrous practitioner in noble art of baseball humor

Rest in peace, Rick Stelmaszek

Thank you for the memories Rick Stelmaszek and we here at Twinstrivia.com would also like to pass on our condolences to the Stelmaszek family and friends.

 

A vote for Torey Lovullo

Voted

Terry Ryan (courtesy of SI.com)
Terry Ryan (courtesy of SI.com)

Terry Ryan continues in his quest to find just the right man to become the Minnesota Twins thirteenth manager. Ryan has not had to perform this task since late in 2001 and this will only be his second hire of a Twins manager so he doesn’t have a lot of experience with the process but that is a good thing I think.

According to recent reports the list of potential candidates has been reduced to the final three, Paul Molitor, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Torey Lovullo. But who knows, the Twins keep their cards close to their vest so there is no way to know how accurate these reports are. If these indeed are the finalists I am fine with it.

Who would I hire if I was in Terry Ryan’s shoes? For me it would be between Mientkiewicz and Lovullo. I would eliminate Molitor because of the baggage he brings and the fact that he has been part of the Twins organization off and on for a number of years. My perception is that I don’t see Molitor as really wanting the job, I see him as thinking he is entitled to the job because he is a Hall of Fame player and that in his mind he is the most qualified. I don’t see him as having earned a big league managers job and I don’t see any passion from him for getting the job. I don’t see him as the “guy” that will lead the Twins back to respectability, I see him as the old guy that will bring more of the same.

I like Doug Mientkiewicz very much and think that down the line he will be a wonderful manager either here in Minnesota or somewhere else but right now I have to pass. I love his passion for the game and the fact that he is managing in the minor leagues, earning his stripes so to speak. But in the end it is his inexperience and the fact that he is part of the Twins organization right now that works against him.

I think it is great that the Twins have always rewarded loyalty but every now and then you have to bring in new blood to make your herd that much stronger and to look at things from a different perspective. Think about it, in each of our lives we have taken a new job at some point in time where we first felt that maybe we were not qualified, then over time we became more comfortable in the job as we learned the tricks of the trade. As we were learning we were open to suggestions on how to do the job but as time went along and as we gained confidence in our roles we tended to start to ignore or blow off suggestions because we have been doing this job for some time and no one knows how to do this job better than I, just ask me. Things get done the same way because that way has worked for me in the past and besides, it has always been done that way.

Change is difficult but life and baseball are all about change, once you quit changing you die and the Twins organization is on life support. It is easy to be comfortable because you have no assurance that the new will be better than the old, why go out on that scary limb when you can stay in your safe place? But staying in your safe place does not make you a leader or a winner, it keep you average at best. When change is instituted it will either make the situation better or worse, it will work or it won’t. There is a 50% chance that it will make things better. The Twins have lost 90 or more games for four consecutive seasons, how much worse can it get?

Torey  Lovullo
Torey Lovullo

Bringing in Torey Lovullo as the Twins new manager along with a brand new coaching staff will bring new thinking into the organization and give the team a chance to break free of the bonds that have held them going down the same path for years. Why wouldn’t you bring in someone new, why should Twins fans have to continue to endure the same old boring brand of bad baseball the Twins have shown us since 2011? Give us a break, show us you are at least willing to try a new approach.

I know that hiring from the outside will have consequences, Molitor will probably leave the Twins organization and that Tom Kelly‘s may also cut back on his active role with the team as the new regime takes over. But is that all bad? Sometimes the best addition is through subtraction.

Terry Ryan and the Twins are at the fork in the road, will they take the same old path home they always do or will they try that other path that they have not traveled for a long time? The last time the team tried a new path they ended up in Ray Miller land and that was not fun. The newer path probably has some bumps and unexpected surprizes but who knows what they may find, maybe it is a shortcut to the promised land of playoffs and a World Series. I for one can’t wait to see what the Twins choice will be.

Manager ejections by the numbers

Back in December 2010 I did a post about Twins player ejections and determined that the Twins all time leader in player ejections was Torii Hunter with five. I mentioned in that article that I would look at manager ejections in the future and I have finally gotten around to doing it. Torii was ejected for the sixth time as a Twin on June 10, 2015 (updated 6/11/2015).

The Twins have had 12 managers since 1961 with some serving in that role for as little as 66 games but in the last 16 seasons they have had just two managers, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. According to the Twins, each player or manager ejected has to pay their own fines but I personally have my doubts about that. So let’s take a closer look at these managers and see how many times they ran afoul of an umpire. We will start at the bottom and work our way up the list of Twins managers career ejections.

0 –  Cookie Lavagetto managed in the majors for all or parts of five different seasons with the Washington Senators and the Twins managing a total of 657 games and during that time he was never ejected. Cookie was ejected once as a player (10 seasons) and twice as a coach (12 seasons).

1 – Johnny Goryl managed the Twins for just 73 games in the latter part of 1980 and early portion of 1981 and got the “out” sign from the umps just once as the Twins manager but he was ejected once as a player (6 seasons) and three times as a coach (13 seasons).

2 –  You wouldn’t expect to find the fiery Billy Martin this low on the ejection list but he only stayed around for one season as the Twins skipper and the umpires gave him the heave-ho just twice as the Twins manager but he was ejected a total of 46 times in his 16 seasons as a major league manager but he doesn’t even make the top 10 list. Billy also had 6 ejections during his 11 years as a player but as a coach (4 seasons) he never had to leave the game early.

3 – The mild-mannered players manager Sam Mele took the Twins to the 1965 World Series and was the Twins manager for all or parts of seven seasons. Mele hit the showers early just three times as the Twins manager and he did not have any run-ins with the umps during his 10 seasons as a player or two years as a coach.

4 – The only managing gig that Cal Ermer ever had was with the Twins for part of 1967 and all of 1968 and he had disagreements with umpires on four occasions that called for an early dismissal. Ermer spent 7 seasons in the minors as a player but never got the call to the big leagues as a player. Ermer coached for four seasons and was asked to leave the premises early in two games.

4 – Ray Miller was another Twins manager that didn’t last a full season, managing part of 1985 and most of 1986 but during that time he managed to find himself in the umpires cross-hairs four times and he clocked a total of 10 career ejections during his four seasons as a big league manager. Since he never played in the big leagues he had no ejections as a player but did get thrown out of one game while serving as a coach.

4 – Bill Rigney was a big league manager for 18 season between 1956-1976 and has notched 49 manager ejections, four of them were with the Minnesota Twins. Rigney was in the big leagues as a player for eight seasons and the umpires had him end his day early five more times. (SABR now has Rigney with 51 career ejections.)

5 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected. Last ejection April 20, 2017.

5 – Tom Kelly was named the Twins skipper late in 1986 and hung on to that role through the 2001 season before resigning. TK ended up winning two World Series and winning 1,140 of the 2,385 games he managed.  During this stretch TK was booted out of only 5 games, once each in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, and in 2000. He was sent packing for disagreeing on calls at first base twice and arguing balls and strikes three times. Kelly played in the big leagues during one season and coached for four more but he didn’t have any issues with the umpires that called for his dismissal.

5 – Frank Quilici took over from Bill Rigney as the manager about midway in 1972 and had that role through 1975. During Frank’s managing career the umpires asked him to head for an early shower five times. Frank played in the bigs during five different seasons and coached for two more without irritating any of the umpires, at least to the point of ejection.

7 – Gene Mauch managed for 26 seasons winning 1,901 of the 3,940 games with stops in Philadelphia, Montreal, Minnesota and California. The umpires saw fit to send Mauch packing a total of 43 times, seven of these early exits came as the Twins skipper. Mauch played in the majors for nine seasons and had a number of disagreements and the men in blue saw to it that Mauch was neither seen nor heard five times.

10 – Who would have thought that Billy Gardner would be so disagreeable that in his six seasons as a big league manager (five in Minnesota and one in KC) that umpires would send him home early 10 times (all as a Twins manager). I guess it was the fact that Gardner managed some pretty bad teams including the 1982 60-102 bunch that maybe drove him over the edge at times. It is Gardner however that is credited with molding these youngsters into ball players that would help the Twins win it all in 87 and 91. Gardner played big league ball in 10 different seasons and coached in five more but he never was ejected from a game until he became a manager.

 

Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.
Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.

63 – That bring us to the current Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy is a player and fan friendly manager that has had more than his share of disagreements with major league umpires, so many in fact that he has now moved up to a tie for 10th on the list of all-time MLB career manager ejections list. With just four more “your outta here” by the umpires Gardy will pass Joe Torre and have 9th place all to himself. The only active manager ahead of Gardenhire is Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland with 68 and you have to figure he will keep adding to his ejection total.  As Gardy prepares for his 12th season as the Twins manager he already had 63 ejections on his resume as a manager plus one additional early exit as a coach back in 1998. One of Gardy’s 63 ejections was during game 2 of the 2010 ALDS against the New York Yankees at Target field. The Twins have played in Minnesota for 52 seasons and had eleven managers prior to Gardenhire and when you add up all those manager ejections you get a total of 45. Gardy has managed a total of 1,773 Twins games so that means he gets ejected once every 28.14 games and averages just under 6 early showers a season. Gardenhire has a high of 8 ejections in a season twice and his low was just 3 ejections and that was in 2012, maybe Gardy is starting to mellow or he just realized he had a bad team last year and didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with the umpires.

Hunter Wendelstedt III
Hunter Wendelstedt III

So who is the man who has sent Gardy to the showers the most frequently over the years? The one and only Hunter Wendelstedt III has called for an early exit by Gardy on five occasions and he only has 63 career ejections so Gardy has 12.6% of Wendelstedt’s ejections. Isn’t it strange that Gardy has been ejected 63 times and Wendelstedt has 63 ejections on his career resume too. Next on the list are Chris Guccione and Gerry Davis with four Gardenhire ejections each. The first time that Gardy was run by Wendelstedt was on July 18, 2005 in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome. Gardy was not pleased and had this to say after the game but I should warn you that if you have young children near by you might want to “eject them from the room” before you hit the play button. If you are listening to this at work you might want to turn the volume down.

Gardy tirade

By the way, the umpire with the most career ejections is Bill Klem with 256 but he umpired 5,369 games between 1905-1941 and is in the Hall of Fame. The active umpire with the most career ejections is Bob Davidson with 156.

If you look back in franchise history the Washington Senators had  18 different managers from 1901 -1960 (Bucky Harris served in that capacity three different times)  and these managers were ejected a grand total of 43 times with Bucky Harris leading the pack with 12 heave-ho’s but he managed the Senators for 18 seasons and 2,776 games.

The best manager meltdown I think I have ever seen has to be Phillip Wellman on June 1, 2007 when he was the skipper for the AA Mississippi Braves. Here is a video clip of the epic ejection, Wellman ended up with a 3 game suspension for his efforts.

http://youtu.be/Ggy6WGUFaYs

Looking through various MLB record and stats and getting some help from David Vincent at SABR I was able to get a list of MLB managers that have been thrown out of a game at least 50 times during their career’s. I added in the number of games they managed and came up with a ratio of how often they get ejected. The lower the “games per ejection” the more often the manager has been ejected. You can see that Ron Gardenhire is in some pretty select company.

Managers with 50 or more ejections (through 2014 season)

  Ejections Manager Games Managed Games per Ejection
1. 161 Bobby Cox# 4,501 27.96
2. 118 John McGraw# 4,768 40.41
3. 94 Earl Weaver# 2,541 27.03
3. 94 Leo Durocher# 3,738 39.77
5. 86 Tony LaRussa# 5,094 59.23
6. 80 Paul Richards 1,837 22.96
6. 80 Frankie Frisch# 2,246 28.08
8. 72 Jim Leyland 3,496 48.56
8. 72 Ron Gardenhire 2,107 29.26
10. 66 Joe Torre# 4,292 65.03
11. 63 Lou Piniella 3,544 56.25
12. 63 Bruce Bochy* 3,222 51.14
13. 58 Clark Griffith# 2,917 50.29
14. 52 Charlie Manual 1,794 34.50
15. 51 Bill Rigney 2,561 50.22
16. 50 Mike Hargrove 2,350 47.00

 

Let’s take a look at each baseball franchise and see which of their managers has the most ejections to his credit. You might note that some of these managers made the list more than once. Data is current through the 2013 season.

 

Rank Team Manager Ejections Games managed that team
1 Braves Bobby Cox 140 3,860
2 Giants John McGraw 105 4,424
3 Orioles Earl Weaver 94 2,541
4 Twins Ron Gardenhire 72 2,107
5 Pirates Frankie Frisch 47 1,085
6 Dodgers Tom Lasorda 43 3,040
7 Cardinals Tony LaRussa 39 2,591
8 Phillies Charlie Manual 41 1,415
9 Angels Mike Scioscia 36 2,430
10 Padres Bruce Bochy 33 1,926
11 Indians Mike Hargrove 29 1,312
12 White Sox Jimmy Dykes 28 1,850
12 White Sox Paul Richards 28 774
12 Mariners Lou Piniella 28 1,551
12 Blue Jays Cito Gaston 28 1,731
16 Rays Joe Maddon 27 1,134
17 Tigers Jim Leyland 30 1,294
18 Red Sox Terry Francona 25 1,296
18 Brewers Phil Garner 25 1,180
18 Brewers Ned Yost 25 959
21 Yankees Ralph Houk 23 1,757
21 Reds Sparky Anderson 23 1,450
21 Mets Joe Torre 23 709
24 A’s Tony LaRussa 22 1,471
24 Rockies Clint Hurdle 22 1,159
26 Rangers Bobby Valentine 20 1,186
27 Nationals/Expos Buck Rodgers 18 1,020
28 Cubs Leo Durocher 17 1,065
29 Diamondbacks Bob Melvin 15 677
29 Royals Buddy Bell 15 436
31 Astros Phil Garner 13 530
32 Marlins Fredi Gonzalez 11 555

UPDATE August 29, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Royals game earlier today giving him 67 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 66.

UPDATE September 12, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/A’s game last night giving him 68 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 67.

UPDATE May 11, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game today giving him 68 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 69.

UPDATE June 22, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/White Sox game at Target Field giving him 69 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 70.

UPDATE July 5, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/Yankees game at Target Field giving him 70 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 71.

UPDATE July 30, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Kauffman Stadium giving him 71 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 72.

UPDATE August 19, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Target Field giving him 72 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 73. This ejection moved Gardy into a tie with Jim Leyland for 8th place on the all-time manager ejection list

Update June 11, 2015 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected.

Update July 26, 2015 – Paul Molitor earned his second managerial career ejection at Target Field yesterday when he was ejected by umpire Jeff Nelson for arguing an Aaron Hicks checked swing that was called strike three.

Update August 23, 2015 – Paul Molitor was ejected for the third time in his managerial career, this time in Camden Yards in a Twins win against the Orioles. Molitor loss his cool when Miguel Sano was called out on a check swing. Funny thing was that Molitor was sent packing twice because the home plate umpire ejected him when Molly came out to argue and the home plate umpire was not aware that the first base umpire had already ejected him.

Update May 4, 2016 – Paul Molitor ejected by Scott Barry for arguing balls and strikes at Minute Maid Park in a 16-4 loss to the Astros.

Update April 20, 2017 – Paul Molitor ejected by Alan Porter in the ninth inning for arguing balls and strikes at Target Field in a 6-2 loss to the Indians.

 

Make sure you stop by my new Twins Managers Ejections page.

Congratulations to Tom Kelly

Jay Thomas Kelly will have his number 10 retired on Saturday and we here at Twins Trivia would like to add our congratulations for a well deserved honor. Kelly was originally drafted by the Seattle Pilots in round 8 of the 1968 amateur draft but the Seattle Pilots relocated after just one season in the Emerald city and moved to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers.  Within days of being released by the Brewers in April of 1971, Kelly signed as a free agent with Minnesota. With the exception of 1976, Kelly has been in the Twins organization since 1971. Kelly has played for, coached and managed the Minnesota Twins and on occasion has even taken his turn at the microphone to describe Twins action on television.

Actually, over the years Tom Kelly has worn several different numbers with the Minnesota Twins. When he played 49 games for the Twins in 1975 he wore the number 16. When he coached the Twins from 1983-1986 he wore the number 41 and he wore that same number for the remainder of the 1986 season after being named as the Twins interim manager replacing Ray Miller who was relieved of his duties on September 12, 1986. Kelly then switched to the number 10 prior to the 1987 season and wore that number for the remainder of his Twins managing career through the 2001 season.

Who else has worn the Twins number 10 you ask? Here is the complete list now that no other Minnesota Twin will wear that number again.

 1961-1967 – catcher Earl Battey
1968 – catcher John Roseboro
1868-1972 – 3B/OF Rick Renick
1973-1974 – 1B Joe Lis
1974 – 1B Pat Bourque
1975-1977 – OF Lyman Bostock
1978-1981 – OF Hosken Powell
1982-1983 – OF Bobby Mitchell
1984-1986 – catcher Jeff Reed
 

Since Tom Kelly last wore the number 10 in 2001, no other Twins have ever that number.

Some old newspaper clips about the Twins

The Minnesota Twins have had their ups and downs over the years and I ran across a variety of press clippings that pertained to the home-town nine and I thought that I would share them with you. Some are sad, some stupid, some funny and some historical but they are all part of Twins lore and history. Some will bring back some bad memories and other will cause you to to say, oh yes, I remember that. The clipping come from a variety of newspapers including the Boston Globe, Orlando Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

April 12, 1985 – There will be no more spitting on the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse floor. Nor will there be any more gum wrappers lying around or cramped dressing areas. The Twins Thursday unveiled the remodeled Metrodome clubhouse, done in the team’s colors of red, white and blue, with ash wood trim — the same color as baseball bats.”Some of these players make $800,000 a year, and they come in five or six hours before a game,” said architect David Shea, who was the principal designer for the remodeling.

June 30, 1985 (Peter Gammons – Boston Globe) – Billy Gardner got fired because (1) the Twins’ pitching fell apart, and (2) he simply is not in the mold of owner Carl Pohlad and GM Howard Fox. What can one say about a staff on which the only pitcher with an ERA under 4.20 was Frank Euefemia? Or when Ron Davis became so afraid of pitching that he hyperventilated in the bullpen and created excuses to beg out of games? Ray Miller was brought in to straighten out the pitching, and he is a man who deserves the chance. He needed to leave Baltimore, where his rapport with writers and his ambition had turned off pitchers and alienated fellow coaches.

September 20, 1985 – Baseball, as a business, is not for those with weak stomachs, says Carl Pohlad, who is completing his first full season as owner of the Minnesota Twins. Pohlad: ”I live and die every game. When I bought the team, I knew sports had more ups and downs than other businesses, and I thought I could cope. In my other enterprises, I can cope. But I have difficulty coping with a tough loss on the ball field.” Pohlad bought the Twins from long-time owner Calvin Griffith a little over a year ago. ”I used to think I was pretty good at managing stress,” the 69-year-old banking magnate told the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

July 29, 1986 – Amid rumors of his firing, Minnesota Twins Manager Ray Miller met Monday with top club officials to discuss the team’s poor performance and how to solve the problem. ”I’m not satisfied with the way the team’s been playing,” Twins President Howard Fox said in New York, where Minnesota faced the Yankees. ”I thought we’d be better than we’ve been. We’re re-evaluating the whole thing.” Fox said Twins owner Carl Pohlad has given him the authority to make any managerial change.

July 4, 1986 – Former Minnesota Twins’ farm director George Brophy, who resigned last January because of illness, will become a special assistant scout for the Houston Astros Aug. 1, he said. Brophy, 59, was struck in June 1985 by aplastic anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder. When Brophy still wasn’t back to work in January, Twins president Howard Fox asked him to take early retirement as part of a program established by owner Carl Pohlad for longtime employees. Brophy said he began to respond to a new form of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

July 31, 1986 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad says he’s ”disappointed” with his struggling American League club but says he won’t comment on the future of Manager Ray Miller. Pohlad said ”we’re all disappointed” at the team’s record, which stood Wednesday morning at 43 and 57. ”I don’t like it, the fans don’t like it and neither does anybody else. We’re doing the best we can.”

September 13, 1986 – Tom Kelly, who guided the Orlando Twins to the Class AA Southern League pennant in 1981, was named manager of the Minnesota Twins on Friday for the remaining 23 games after Manager Ray Miller was fired. Kelly, 36, took over Friday night as interim manager after Minnesota President Howard Fox announced, ”It would be in the best interest of everyone concerned that the termination of Ray Miller’s position would take place at this time.””Our record games behind is exactly three games worse than it was last year at this time without a bullpen,” Miller said.

October 23, 1986 – The Minnesota Twins, who have said they hope to name a new manager by next week at the latest, have interviewed former Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs manager Jim Frey. Frey met for almost three hours Tuesday with Twins owner Carl Pohlad, said Pohlad’s son, Jim, a team director who was also in on the meeting. Jim Pohlad said the only candidates who have been recommended by Twins Vice President Andy MacPhail are Frey and Tom Kelly. Kelly, the Twins’ third-base coach for the last three years and former Orlando Twins manager, served as interim manager for the final three weeks of the 1986 season after Ray Miller was fired.

May 19, 1988 (Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel) – The way I understand it, the Minnesota Twins will honor Orlando with their presence each spring only if the city gives them some choice property, presumably a chunk with a lakefront view. The Twins want freebie land to develop for economic opportunities outside of baseball, and if they don’t get it they’ll leave for Fort Myers in 1990.To the Twins, I say so long, goodbye and don’t let the door hit you in your pinstriped behinds. Baseball fans, calm yourselves. City fathers want the Twins to stay.

November 1, 1988 (Tim Povtak, Orlando Sentinel) – The ”privatization” of Tinker Field, which would give the Minnesota Twins almost total control of the baseball complex, is key to an arrangement that has brought Orlando and the major-league team close to signing a 10-year contract for spring training.Twins owner Carl Pohlad and much of his administrative staff met for an hour with city officials Monday in Mayor Bill Frederick’s office, discussing major points in the agreement.The Twins, who have one more year on their contract, and the city have been negotiating for more than a year.

January 10, 1989 – The Minnesota Twins will continue making Orlando their spring training base, at least for the next 10 years, if the professional baseball team agrees to a settlement offered Monday by the Orlando City Council.The council offered to pay $3 million over the next three years for the Twins to build new major and minor-league clubhouses, batting tunnels and a grandstand at Tinker Field. The city also relinquished its rights to concession and parking revenues associated with Tinker Field and agreed to provide 6,000 square feet in office space for team officials at the Florida Citrus Bowl.

January 26, 1989 (Larry Guest, Orlando Sentinel) – Spring baseball long has been a time of charm and grace, a respite of innocence when reality gave way to fantasy. It was six weeks of green grass and a warming sun, a genteel preamble of wind sprints and good will before the hard competition and grim business of the regular season took over.It was a ritual for the romantics, a flashback to the simpler times.Never has the passing of that poppycock been made more crystal clear than by the hard capitalists in charge of today’s Minnesota Twins.

February 3, 1989 – Minnesota Twins General Manager Andy MacPhail says the Twins should not be portrayed as ”Northern carpetbaggers” in their negotiations with the city of Orlando. MacPhail says the Twins simply are keeping up with the business of modern baseball.Orlando has been the spring-training home of the Twins for 53 years, but that relationship is in jeopardy. The Twins want the city, which is asking for a 10-year commitment, to upgrade facilities at Tinker Field to accommodate both their minor and major-league players.

October 8, 1991 – He says his job is tougher because he works in one of the smallest baseball cities, but Vice President/General Manager Andy MacPhail has excelled, and Monday he was given a new 3-year contract that will carry through the 1994 season.The contract is the first MacPhail has had with the Twins, having worked the past six years on 1-year agreements.”I’m very grateful to owner Carl Pohlad,” MacPhail said. ”There is no one I would rather work for than Carl Pohlad or nowhere that I would rather live and work than where I am.’MacPhail, 38, said the difference between making decisions in Minnesota rather than in New York or Los Angeles is that ”we have to balance everything in terms of affordability”.

October 16, 1995 – Thelma Griffith Haynes, the former co-owner and executive of the Minnesota Twins baseball club, died Sunday, Oct. 15. She was 82. Haynes of Lexington Parkway, Orlando, who co-owned the team with her brother, Calvin Griffith of Melbourne, sold it to Carl Pohlad in 1984. Her father, Clark Griffith Sr., founded the Washington Senators in the early 1920s. The family moved the ball club to Minnesota in 1961. Orlando was the team’s spring training site from the 1930s until 1990. Born in Montreal, Canada, she moved to Central Florida in 1982.

May 28, 1997 – Angered that the Minnesota Legislature took no action on their stadium proposal during this year’s regular session, the Minnesota Twins reiterated Tuesday that they will ask for permission to sell or move the team.The club hopes to get that approval at the June 10-12 owners meetings in Philadelphia and immediately would begin taking offers. ”We set out to get an answer from the people of Minnesota. We were told that answer was to be given through the Legislature,” said Bob Pohlad, son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad.

October 7, 1997 – Major league baseball would allow the Twins to leave Minnesota, Gov. Arne Carlson said after meeting Monday in Milwaukee with acting commissioner Bud Selig. Carlson made the comment after he and a group of legislators flew to Milwaukee to ask Selig how Twins owner Carl Pohlad’s deal to sell the Twins to North Carolina businessman Don Beaver would fare with team owners. Pohlad has said he can’t afford to lose any more money in the Metrodome, and that the team must have a baseball-only stadium with revenue from suites, club seating, and other amenities.

November 19, 1997 – The Twins moved a step closer to North Carolina when baseball appointed a five-man committee Tuesday to guide the team through the sport’s relocation rules. The Minnesota Legislature last week defeated a proposal to finance a new ballpark, and Pohlad has an agreement with North Carolina businessman Don Beaver to negotiate a sale unless stadium financing is approved by Nov. 30. Beaver has said he would apply to move the team to North Carolina following the 1998 season.

December 4, 1997 – Paul Molitor, who returned home to the Twins in 1996 and became the 21st player in history to top 3,000 hits, is expected to play elsewhere in 1998, which could be his final season. Ron Simon, Molitor’s agent, said Molitor probably will sign with Toronto or Baltimore by Monday because he is unwilling to play for the Twins in what could be a lame-duck season in Minnesota. Owner Carl Pohlad has an agreement to sell the team to a North Carolina businessman, and the team could move after ’98 unless it gets a new stadium.

July 20, 1998 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad plans to work out a lease that will keep his team playing at the Metrodome for the next two years, according to a published report. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cited an unnamed source close to Pohlad, who said Pohlad would work out the lease in the hope of finding a way to build a new baseball stadium.The Twins and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission are scheduled for a settlement hearing today. The commission has filed a lawsuit trying to block the Twins from exercising an escape clause that would let them out of their Metrodome lease after this season.

November 7, 2001 (Phil Rogers) – In a move almost certain to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, Major League Baseball owners voted Tuesday to authorize Commissioner Bud Selig to fold two teams before the 2002 season. If the plan goes through, it will mark the first time since 1899 that Major League Baseball has closed an existing franchise. “We’re plowing historic ground here,” Selig said. Selig said the teams to be dissolved were not identified specifically during a meeting of owners and that there are more than two under consideration.

November 17, 2001 – JUDGE: TWINS MUST PLAY – Baseball was barred from eliminating the Minnesota Twins next season when a judge Friday ordered the team to play its 2002 home schedule in the Metrodome. Twins owner Carl Pohlad also was ordered not to sell the team unless the new owner agrees to have the team play its 2002 home schedule in the ballpark. The decision by Hennepin County District Judge Harry Seymour Crump throws into question last week’s vote by baseball owners to eliminate two major-league teams next season.

December 23, 2001 – Alabama businessman Donald Watkins, who wants to buy the Twins, shook hands with nearly 200 avid fans Saturday at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. “The weather may be cold up here, but the reception is warm,” said Watkins, who hopes to meet with officials of the commissioner’s office on Jan. 10 to discuss a possible purchase of the team. Current owner Carl Pohlad wants out after failing to gain approval of government financing for a new ballpark.

March 31, 2002 – An enjoyable summer could follow the lousy winter. After dealing with Commissioner Bud Selig, Carl Pohlad and other embarrassments to the grand old game during the offseason, it’s the fans who needed to hit the showers. They wanted to feel clean again. Along the way, the Twins became America’s Team, gamely fighting off contraction and vowing to contend. Everyone loves the underdog, so people from all over will be pulling for the plucky Twins. Pulling for the Minnesota ball club feels good because it’s like casting a vote against big, corrupt business — as represented by the owners who tried to make the franchise disappear.

August 17, 2002 – The axe is now hovering over Cinderella’s head, ready to ruin baseball’s best story. But for what it’s worth, sports fans, the executioners feel your pain. “It’s not the players who are hurting,” Denny Hocking said. “It’s not the owners who are hurting. It’s the fans.” If fans were paid by the lip service they receive, they’d all be Alex Rodriguez. For all the supposed angst, players started the Doomsday Clock. T-minus two weeks until the ninth work stoppage since 1972.

 

Manager longevity

November 28, 2010 – I thought it would be interesting to see where the Twins managers stood in terms of games managed and to also take a look at the last fifty years in the American League to see how many managers the various teams have had since 1961.

The Twins have only had 12 managers in their entire history and only two since Tom Kelly took over from Ray Miller late in the 1986 season. Kelly is still far and away the longest tenured Twins manager and on the other end of the spectrum, Cookie Lavagetto only managed the Twins for 66 games in their inaugural season but it needs to be mentioned that he coached the Washington Senators from 1958-1960 before the team relocated to Minnesota. Kelly himself has managed almost 30% of the games the Twins have played and when you look at Kelly and Gardenhire together, these two men have managed 48.3% of all the Twins games since 1961.

Rank Manager Twins game managed
1 Tom Kelly 2,384
2 Ron Gardenhire 1,459
3 Sam Mele 953
4 Gene Mauch 772
5 Billy Gardner 621
6 Frank Quilici 567
7 Bill Rigney 392
8 Cal Ermer 274
9 Ray Miller 239
10 Billy Martin 162
11 John Goryl 72
12 Cookie Lavagetto 66

When you look at the rest of the AL Central Division between 1961 and 2010 the longest tenured managers were Tigers skipper Sparky Anderson with 2,473 games between 1980-1995, Indians skipper Mike Hargrove with 1,227 games between 1992-1999, current White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen with 1,135 games between 2004-Present, and Royals skipper Dick Howser with 769 games between 1981-1986.

Looking at the entire American League for the last fifty years, the Twins rank first, meaning they have had the least amount of managers per years played and thus have the highest average numbers of years managed per manager. I am not sure that means anything when you see the New York Yankees sitting at the bottom of the list with 25 managers in 50 years but it is still fun to look at. I didn’t count some interim managers that managed just a handful of games for their teams when the regular managers were away for a variety of reasons. It just shows that managers are hired to be fired and it is rare when a manager gets to walk away from the game by his own choosing. 

Rank Team # of managers Average years per manager Comments
1 Minnesota Twins 12 4.17  
2 Tampa Rays 4 3.25 Joined league in 1998
3 Detroit Tigers 17 2.94  
4 Toronto Blue Jays 12 2.83 Joined league in 1977
5 Boston Red Sox 18 2.77  
5 Chicago White Sox 18 2.77  
5 Baltimore Orioles 18 2.77  
8 Los Angeles Angels 22 2.27  
9 Kansas City Royals 19 2.21 Joined league in 1969
10 Cleveland Indians 23 2.17  
11 Seattle Mariners 16 2.13 Joined league in 1977
12 Texas Rangers 19 2.05 Joined league in 1972
13 Oakland A’s 25 2.00  
13 New York Yankees 25 2.00  

 

Twins managers playing careers

December 30, 2009 – The Minnesota Twins have had 12 managers since the team moved here from Washington after the 1960 season. I thought that it would be interesting to see how many games each of them had played at the major league and minor league level before they moved into “management” so to speak and to see if there is any correlation between playing experience and managing a team at the major league level. The games listed below are strictly games played and not coached or managed either in the minors or majors.

Name Major league positions played Major league games Minor league games
Cookie Lavagetto ** 3B, 2B, 1B, SS 1,043 523
Sam Mele OF, 1B 1,046 340
Cal Ermer 2B 1 904
Billy Martin * 2B, SS, 3B, OF 1,021 510
Bill Rigney * 2B, 3B, SS, 1B 654 641
Frank Quilici 2B, 3B, SS, 1B 405 715
Gene Mauch 2B, SS, 3B 304 1,061
John Goryl 2B, 3B, SS 276 1,266
Billy Gardner 2B, SS, 3B 1,034 1,150
Ray Miller P 0 371
Tom Kelly 1B, OF 49 1,143
Ron Gardenhire SS, 2B, 3B 285 659

* = made one All-star team

** = made four All-star teams