Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – The 25th and final week

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. This is the 25th week and final installment of our recap of the Twins first season in Minnesota back in 1961.

The 1961 Minnesota Twins begin their final week of play at home with four games left in the 1961 season and their record stands at 70-86.

September 28 – Yesterday the fans at the Met almost witnessed a no-hitter and today neither starter can get out of the second inning. Twins starter Pedro Ramos was pulled after allowing four runs but just one earned as he gave up four hits while retiring just two of the seven batters he faced. Indians starter Mudcat Grant didn’t fare much better going just 1.2 innings allowing three runs on three hits and five walks. After two innings the Indians led 4 to 3. It turned out that on this day Cleveland’s bullpen was better as Wynn Hawkins relieved Grant and went the final 7.1 innings allowing just two runs on seven hits. Meanwhile; Don Lee who came in for Ramos allowed 7 runs in 3.2 innings. When the smoke cleared the Indians had a 12-5 win fueled by 13 hits, two walks and four Twins errors. Hawkins got the win for Cleveland and Ramos took the defeat for Minnesota and in the process became the first Twins pitcher to lose 20 games to go with his 11 wins. Indians shortstop Woodie Held has hit 23 home runs this season and seven of them have come against Minnesota including two today. Six of the seven home runs against the Twins have come at the Met. Harmon Killebrew hit his 46th home run of the year along with a single. Bill Tuttle had an odd day getting two hits and hitting into two double-plays in five plate appearances. Hal Naragon who entered the game in the fifth inning as a PH was 2 for 2. The 3,323 fans at the Met saw a lot of action today, all packed into a 2 hour and 40 minute game.  Box Score

September 29 – Camilo Pascual makes his 33rd start of the season for Minnesota in his quest for win number 16 as the Twins host the high-flying Detroit Tigers and starter Jim Bunning who have nothing to play for anymore (since the Yankees clinched the pennant) other than to try to get to 100 wins. Billy Martin takes Bunning deep in the first for a quick 1-0 lead and the Twins add on three more runs in the third to take a 4-0 lead. The Tigers get two back in the fifth inning and it appears that Pascual has things under control. Then the ninth inning happens, Pascual gives up a single to Norm Cash, retires Steve Boros on a fly to left, Jake Wood draws a walk and Dick Brown singles to load the bases. Charlie Maxwell pinch-hits for Hank Aguirre and hits one back at Pascual who can’t handle it cleanly and a run scores as Maxwell reaches first safely. Al Kaline is brought in to hit for Dick McAuliffe and he too hits one back at Pascual that hits his glove but Pascual recovers to thrown out Kaline for out number two but the tying run crosses the plate. Pascual retires Bill Bruton for the final out but the damage is done. Terry Fox retires the Twins 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth and it is time for bonus baseball. Not sure why Twins manager Sam Mele allows Pascual to go out for the tenth other than trying to do him a favor and allow him to win the game. But Pascual gives Bubba Morton a free pass, retires Rocky Colavito on a fly to right and Cash singles again putting runners at first and third. Boros draws a walk bringing up Jake Wood who singles in two runs putting the Tigers out front for the first time in the ballgame. Ray Moore is finally brought in and he retires the next two batters but again too little and too late and the Tigers win game 99 as they beat the Twins 6-4 handing the Twins their second straight loss in front of a small Friday afternoon crowd of 3,151 at Met Stadium. The Tigers committed two errors but out hit the Twins 12-6. Martin who had a home run, triple and a single had half of the Twins six hits and two RBI. Bob Allison had the other two. Instead of getting win number 16, Pascual got loss number 16 in a year in which he led the AL in strikeouts with 221 and tied for the league lead in shutouts with eight. Box Score

September 30 – 8,668 brave and hardy souls that apparently had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning (10:25 am start time) braved the rain and cool weather to watch the Twins battle the Detroit Tigers at Met Stadium. I am not positive on why such an early start time but I am guessing it was because the defending national champion Gold Gophers football team was opening their 1961 season at home at Memorial Stadium against Missouri that afternoon. You figured it might be a bad day when starter Jim Kaat was only able to retire just one batter on his own in the first inning as two Tigers runners were thrown out on the bases when Kaat gave up five hits and three runs to start out the ballgame. An error by Lenny Green didn’t help the situation. The Tigers gave rookie Howie Koplitz his first big league start and it didn’t go that all that well as he gave up four runs on four hits, a walk and an error but he survived the inning and went on to pitch a complete game albeit an abbreviated one. The Tigers put Kaat out of his misery in the third inning after he gave up two more runs and Lee Stange was brought in to see what he could do to stifle the Tigers. Stange walked in a run but managed to escape without further damage. With the score 6-4 in favor of the Tigers after three, the teams played for a couple more innings before the game was called on account of rain in the top of the sixth right after Stange had just retired Koplitz on a ground ball to short for the first out of the inning. Kaat earned the loss by allowing six runs (one unearned) on eight hits, a walk and a balk in 2.1 innings as he closed the books on a 9-17 season. Jose Valdivielso who was playing shortstop was the only Twins player with two hits. Fortunately for the fans in the stands and the players the game took just an hour and 46 minutes to complete. The win was number 100 for Detroit and the loss was number 89 for Minnesota as they lost their third in a row. The Twins finished September with a 13-15 record and will put a wrap on their first season tomorrow as they try to end their losing skid at three in a row. Box Score

October 1 – The Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers wasted no time playing their 1961 season finale at Met Stadium as the Twins came out on the short-end of a 8-3 ballgame that was played in a quick 1 hour and 57 minutes in front of 15,723 paying fans. The loss was the fourth in a row for the seventh-place Twins and put their final record at 70-90. It was a chilly 44 degrees when Al Schroll started his eighth game of the season but he didn’t last long as he was gone before the first inning ended giving up 5 runs, 2 earned on 4 hits, 2 walks and a wild pitch and an error. The game moved along quickly as do most final games of the season as players want to move on to the off-season. The Twins had 8 hits but did manage two home runs, both solo’s that were hit by reliever Pedro Ramos (3) and Bill Tuttle (5). Ramos relieved Schroll (4-4) and pitched 6.1 innings of stellar scoreless relief giving up just three hits. Jim Kaat went one inning and Don Lee pitched the final inning. Twins owner Calvin Griffith announced that manager Sam Mele would return in 1962 as a nice salary of around $22,000. In an unusual move he also announced that he would let Mele determine his coaching staff, something that Griffith had done in the past. As a harbinger of things to come in the future, the Twins finished the season with the Yankees with a 4-14 record. In other big news New York Yankee outfielder Roger Maris hit home run # 61 breaking Babe Ruth’s long-standing record of 60 in a season. Maris hit the home run off pitcher Tracy Stallard in a 1-0 Yankee win over the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Box Score

The Twins limped to the finish line this week with four straight defeats and seven losses in their last eight games finishing in seventh place 38 games behind the pennant winning New York Yankees.

The 1961 World Series matched the New York Yankees (109–53) against the Cincinnati Reds (93–61), with the Yankees winning in five games to earn their nineteenth championship in their last 39 seasons.