Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Minnesota Twins lower some concession prices – really?

The Minnesota Twins announced yesterday that they will now offer select concessions at family friendly prices in 2019 at Target Field. According to their March 6 Press Release (that you can read below) it states that it applies to concession stands located in sections 133 and 327.

I have been told it applies to everyone but the prices for the select products are only available in those two concession stands. What is the logic behind lowering prices on select products in select concession stands? Why possible create long lines at two concessions stands and inconvenience the fans? Why not lower the select products prices at all concession stands? I smell something fishy here but fish are not one of the select products being discounted.

I tried to get an answer from Twins President Dave St. Peter twice yesterday via Twitter but no reply in either case and we all know Mr. St. Peter watches and responds to Tweets all the time but in this case he chose not to comment.

Being the suspicious person I am I can’t help but think that there is more here then meets the eye. My best guess is that the products are different in some way, smaller in size maybe or fewer in number. Who knows? The Minnesota Twins are always looking to make or save an extra dollar so I can’t help but wonder. I may be way off base here but my gut says you can’t always believe what you read. 

I hope I am totally wrong here because the Twins should have done this years ago to reward Twins fans for their on the field play at Target Field since 2011.

 

Twins Press Release dated March 6, 2019

Target Field introduces family friendly concessions pricing for 2019 season

 

The Minnesota Twins and Delaware North Sportservice – the team’s exclusive food, beverage and retail partner – today announced Target Field will now offer select concessions at family-friendly prices during the 2019 season.

“The Twins are excited about partnering with Delaware North Sportservice to bring family-friendly concessions pricing to Target Field,” team president and CEO Dave St. Peter said. “The affordability of the Target Field experience remains paramount to our efforts to attract kids and families to the ballpark. Moreover, we believe the family-friendly concessions will only further enhance Target Field’s longstanding reputation for delivering the best in food and beverage.”

The family value pricing will be available at the State Fair concessions stands located in sections 133 and 327 and will be offered on some of the ballpark’s most popular food items. The concessions stand will also offer a more convenient self-checkout process with fans being able to purchase food using touchscreen kiosks. Included in the new pricing will be:

• Schweigert™ Hot Dog – $4

• Nachos – $4

• Soft Pretzels – $4

• Peanuts – $3

• Popcorn – $3

• 16oz Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew or Sierra Mist – $2

• 12oz Budweiser or Bud Light – $5

“Great food is essential for a great experience at the ballpark,” said Pete Spike, general manager for Delaware North Sportservice at Target Field. “We’re excited to offer some of our most popular food items at a price that allows the whole family to enjoy a great meal while taking in a game.

About Delaware North

Delaware North is one of the largest privately held hospitality and food service companies in the world. Founded in 1915 and owned by the Jacobs family for 100 years, Delaware North has global operations at high-profile places such as sports and entertainment venues, national and state parks, destination resorts and restaurants, airports, and regional casinos. Our 55,000 employee associates are dedicated to creating special experiences one guest at a time in serving more than a half-billion guests annually. Delaware North operates in the sports, travel hospitality, restaurant and catering, parks, resorts, gaming, and specialty retail industries and has annual revenue of more than $3 billion. Learn more about Delaware North, a global leader in hospitality and food service, at www.DelawareNorth.com.

He managed the Minnesota Twins to their first World Series in 1965

 Sabath Anthony “Sam” Mele 

Sam Mele managed the Twins for 1961-1967.

Sabath Anthony “Sam” Mele was born in Astoria, New York on January 21, 1922. Although they met in America, Sam Mele‘s parents were born in Avellino, Italy. Mele’s mother was sister to big league brothers Al Cuccinello and Tony Cuccinello. Mele, a natural all-around athlete and a Queens Park baseball legend attended New York University, where he excelled as a basketball player before serving his country in the Marines during World War II. But Mele wanted to play pro baseball and was signed as a free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1946. In his first year of organized ball, Mele played 119 games for Scranton (A ball in the Easter League) hitting .342 with 18 home runs before being moved up to Louisville in the AAA American Association where he played all of 15 games. Mele made his major league debut with the Red Sox the following year against the Washington Senators on April 15, 1947. His rookie season may have been one of the best of his career as Sam hit 12 home runs and knocked in 73 runs in 123 games while hitting .302. Mele would never hit over .300 again in his 10 year major league career. During his playing career spanning 1947 to 1956, Mele, who batted and threw right-handed, saw duty with six major league clubs: the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, batting .267 with 80 home runs in 1,046 games. Sam Mele played his final major league game as a Cleveland Indian on September 16, 1956. Mele played AAA ball with for the White Sox and Athletics in 1957 and 1958 but never returned to the majors as a player.

Sam Mele in his playing days

Mele turned to coaching and served under manager Cookie Lavagetto in 1959 and 1960 for the Washington Senators before the team moved to Minnesota in 1961 and became known as the Twins. With the ‘61 Twins struggling, Calvin Griffith asked Lavagetto to take a week off in early June and during this period Mele filled in as manager. When Cookie Lavagetto was fired on June 23, 1961, Sam Mele stepped in as manager full-time and became the Minnesota Twins second manager. The Twins moved up two places in the standings under Mele, finishing seventh when the 1961 season ended.

But the Twins, building with young home-grown players like future Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, Jim Kaat, Zoilo Versalles and Bob Allison, challenged the powerful New York Yankees in 1962 before finishing second. After finishing third in 1963, the team suffered through a poor season in 1964, leading to speculation that Mele would be replaced by his new third base coach, Billy Martin.

Finally, in 1965 the Twins broke the Yankees’ string of five World Series appearances by winning their first ever American League pennant and sent the Bronx Bombers on a tailspin where the New York Yankees would not appear in another World Series for 12 years. Led by Zoilo Versalles, who was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player, batting champion Tony Oliva, and pitcher Mudcat Grant, who won 21 games, Minnesota won 102 games and coasted to the league title. The Yankees finished sixth, 25 games out. No Twins team has ever won 102 games since and Mele was named as the 1965 Sporting News Manager of the Year and back then there was only one manager of the year named for both the AL and NL. Minnesota took a two-game lead in the 1965 World Series, but the superior pitching of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen took its toll, and Los Angeles won in seven games. During the 1965 season Mele was involved in a an incident with home plate umpire Bill Valentine. The usually mild-mannered Mele’s hand apparently hit Valentine’s jaw and he was fined $500 and suspended five days.

The 1966 Twins won 13 fewer games, and ended up as runners-up to the Baltimore Orioles. Mele had clashed publicly with two of his coaches, Hal Naragon and pitching tutor Johnny Sain and both were fired after the 1966 season much to the dismay of star pitcher Jim Kaat who wrote an “open letter” to Twins fans voicing his displeasure on the Sain firing. The “letter” made national news and caused a ruckus during the 1966 World Series when major league baseball wanted the World Series front and center. The club swung a major trade for pitcher Dean Chance during the offseason and unveiled star rookie Rod Carew in 1967. Hopes and expectations were high in Minnesota, but when the Twins were only .500 after 50 games, Mele was fired. His successor was not Martin, as had been anticipated, but long time minor league manager Cal Ermer. Mele’s record as a manager was 524-436 (.546). He never managed again, but returned to the Red Sox as a scout for 25 years.

Sam Mele passed away on May 1, 2017 at the age of 95. I was lucky enough to interview Sam Mele back in May of 2009 and the interview is about a 1/2 hour-long so grab the beverage of your choice, sit back, relax and listen to Sam tell you a little about himself and what it was like to manage the Minnesota Twins.

Sam Mele New York Times Obituary

Sam Mele interview

The Sam Mele SABR Baseball Biography is available here.

 

The Minnesota Twins All-Time Team – picked in 1969

Back in 1969 the Minnesota Twins were playing their ninth season of baseball in Minnesota after moving from Washington after the 1960 season where they were known as the Washington Senators. That 1969 team was a very good team and it was managed by Billy Martin who was getting his first shot as a big league manager. The team eventually won the AL West division title with a 97-65 record and went on to lose the ALCS  to the 109-53 Baltimore Orioles three games to none. Billy Martin ended up getting fired shortly there after and the rest is history. 

During that 1969 season at the request of baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Major League Baseball Promotions, Inc ran a contest to determine each MLB teams “Greatest Team” and “Greatest Player”. This would eventually lead to the naming of the “Greatest Player Ever” and the “Greatest Living Player” at the 100 year anniversary celebration of professional baseball at the All-Star game at Washington on July 22.

As a part of baseball’s 100 year anniversary festivities a special logo was designed to be worn on all uniform sleeves and that patriotic looking logo remains the MLB logo today – the batter who looks a lot like Harmon Killebrew, but isn’t. (That, according to the designer, Jerry Dior).

On June 3rd the Minnesota Twins announced their All-Time Twins team and to no ones surprise, Harmon Killebrew was voted as the Greatest Twins Player ever. Since there was no internet back then, the vote counts were much smaller.

Harmon Killebrew

 

The All-Time Twins Team

The Twins All-Time team.pdf

Baseball author and historian Marty Appel wrote a nice story about this called “National Pastime Museum: Baseball’s Centennial “Greatest Players Ever” Poll” that you might want to check out. I am pretty sure you will enjoy it.

Minnesota Twins open first spring training camp in Orlando

Manager Cookie Lavagetto explains how it will be done in 1961. (Credit Star Tribune) Click on image to make it larger

The Twins opened their first spring training on this day back in 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando with manager Cookie Lavagetto at the helm. Back then the team had just three coaches, Eddie Lopat, Clyde McCullough and Sam Mele. The team brought in Floyd Baker and Tony “Angelo” Giuliani as spring training coaches to help out.

The number of players in camp was different back then too, in their first camp the Twins had 33 big leaguers and 14 farmhands as they called their minor league invites back then. The PDF below will show you who was invited to the Twins first spring training at Tinker Field.

1961 Twins Spring Training Roster

The Twins of course had a medical staff made up of Dr. William E. Proffitt Jr. and Trainer “Doc” George Lentz. Some of their techniques might be questioned today. The main tool trainers used back then was ethyl chloride, which had long been used by physicians as a local skin anesthetic to reduce pain when lancing boils and making small incisions. The numbness is produced by freezing the skin, however; the use of too much ethyl chloride results in frostbite.

Click on image to make it larger

The Twins have 28 spring training games scheduled with the first game to be played at Tinker Field on March 11.

Eddie Lopat (credit Getty Images)
Clyde McCullough
Sam Mele

 

 

 

 

 

Floyd Baker
Angelo Giuliani (credit newspaper archives)

 

Best starters against the Minnesota Twins over the years

Mark Buehrle started more games against the MN Twins than any other pitcher.

The Minnesota Twins have faced a lot of good pitchers since they started play as the Minnesota Twins in 1961. There are eight pitchers that have beaten the Twins 20 or more times during their careers and one of them is still pitching. One opposing pitcher has beaten the Twins 30 times. The Twins have beaten one pitcher 20 times but they have also lost to him on 19 occasions. Who are these guys? Follow the link below to see how the best opposing starting pitchers have fared against the Minnesota Twins over the last 58 seasons. Data courtesy of B-R Play Index.

Most starts against Minnesota Twins

 

Punxsutawney Phil predicts the Twins to be winners

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and that means that the Minnesota Twins will win more games than they lose in 2019.

On Friday morning, Phil was yanked from his burrow by men in suits and top hats to make his forecast via his shadow. After seeing it, Phil’s handlers announced amid much hoopla that there will be a winning team playing at Target Field in 2019.

Spring Training is just around the corner and your favorite team is ready to start playing some baseball. Thank God I have not heard the Twins slogan from 2018 “This is how we baseball” for months now and if I never hear it again it will be too soon.

This is the year that Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton bust out and show Twins fans it was worth the wait because if they don’t it could be six more years of waiting. Phil has been doing this for 131 years and he has been right………… twice. All right, those aren’t the best odds but they are better than winning the Powerball or the Minnesota Vikings winning the Super Bowl.

PLAY BALL!

Error (E)

The Official WasWatching.com Scorecard of the Longest 9 Inning Game In Major League History.

The Major League Baseball definition of an error is: A fielder is given an error if, in the judgment of the official scorer, he fails to convert an out on a play that an average fielder should have made. Fielders can also be given errors if they make a poor play that allows one or more runners to advance on the bases. A batter does not necessarily need to reach base for a fielder to be given an error. If he drops a foul ball that extends an at-bat, that fielder can also be assessed an error.

Defensive errors are a vital tool in many statistical equations. For instance, batters do not receive RBIs for any runs that would not have scored without the help of an error and pitchers are not assessed any earned runs for runs that would not have scored without the error.

According to several sources the official scoring for MLB games was primarily done by home town newspaper writers that covered the games prior to 1979 when most major newspapers banned their writers from doing official scoring. 

Since there are no official records kept of who official scorers have been for Minnesota Twins home games in the past I have put together a list as best I can by using the Sporting News and Star and Tribune archives. The best information I garnered though was by talking with Laurel Prieb from MLB and Stew Thornley and Howard Sinker who either have been official scorers or currently are performing that function.

  • Prior to 1979 – BBWAA home town newspaper writers
  • 1979 thru 1987 – Bob Beebe
  • 1988 – Bob Beebe and Howard Sinker (Glenn Gostick did a game in 1988)
  • 1989 – June 1991 – Howard Sinker and Tom Briere
  • June 1991 to May 2007 – Tom Mee with Barry Fritz filling in when Mee was unavailable.
  • Remainder of 2007 – Barry Fritz, Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Howard Sinker
  • 2008 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
  • 2009 thru 2012 – Gregg Wong, Stew Thornley and Kevin Hennessy did a few games each year
  • 2013 – Stew Thornley and Gregg Wong
  • 2014 thru 2018 – Stew Thornley, Gregg Wong and Dr. Kyle Traynor

According to MLB the official scorer is permitted to change a judgment call for up to 24 hours after a game concludes or is suspended. A player or team can request that the executive vice president of baseball operations review a call in which said player or team participated. This request must come within 72 hours after the conclusion or suspension of that game, or 72 hours after the official scorer’s call in the event a post game change is made.

 A Glimpse Into The Life Of An Official Scorer

Hit or Error? : A Question of Judgment : Fans and Players Don’t Really Notice Official Scorers — Until Controversy Arises Over One of Their Decisions

 

It is time for us to take a look back in Minnesota Twins history with the help of Baseball-Reference.com and see how the Twins have fared in this important baseball statistic. Or are errors just another thing that happen during a game playing a minor role in terms of wins and losses? How often have you heard “that you have to be strong up the middle” to be a good team? Probably more often than you have heard that “liars figure and figures lie”. Take the 1965 Minnesota Twins for example, we all know that they played in the World Series that year and lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers but did you know that they led the American League with 172 errors that season? 

Twins play-off teams and where they ranked in errors

  • 1965 – ranked 10th out of 10 teams with 172 errors
  • 1969 – ranked 9th out of 12 teams with 150 errors
  • 1970 – ranked 3rd out of 12 teams with 123 errors
  • 1987 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 98 errors
  • 1991 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 95 errors
  • 2002 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 74 errors
  • 2003 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 87 errors
  • 2004 – ranked 6th out of 14 teams with 101 errors
  • 2006 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 84 errors
  • 2009 – ranked 1st out of 14 teams with 76 errors
  • 2010 – ranked 2nd out of 14 teams with 78 errors
  • 2017 – ranked 2nd out of 15 teams with 78 errors

So it appears that it helps to have a strong defense to be a play-off team but it there are no guarantees as five Twins teams over the years had the fewest or second fewest errors (82, 84, 88, 94 and 99 and still spent October at home. The most errors the Twins team committed was in their first season (1961) when they had 174 errors.

Zoilo Versalles

So what Minnesota Twins players had the most errors in a single season? That would be shortstop Zoilo Versalles with 39 errors in 1965, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award. Last Twins player to have 30 or more errors in a season? That would be Roy Smalley in 1977 with 33 boots. The Twin have committed 6,699 errors since they started play in 1961, that averages out to 114 per season. The first Twins error was made by outfielder Jim Lemon in the Twins first ever game.

 

Twins errors thru 2018.PDF

 

 

Twins minor league pitcher Alex Schick suspended 50 games

Alex Schick

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced yesterday that three Minor League players have been suspended following their violations of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

One of the three was Minnesota Twins Minor League pitcher Alex Schick, who is currently on the roster of the Single-A Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Midwest League, has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Amphetamine, a stimulant in violation of the Program.

Schick is a 24-year-old RHP drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 6th round of the 2016 June amateur free agent draft and signed for a reported $400,000. Schick last pitched in 2017 for Cedar Rapids and spent 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell to be inducted in Twins Hall of Fame

Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell

The Minnesota Twins announced today that closer Joe Nathan and former Twins Executive Jerry Bell will be inducted in the Twins Hall of Fame on August 3-4. 

I would like to see the Minnesota Twins be more transparent about the voting process and the voting results. It would be nice to see who received how many votes and where they ended up when the voting was completed. 

It is no secret that I think Cesar Tovar belongs in the Twins Hall of Fame and I did my best this year to try to get him in and so did a number of others. But I have no idea where he ended up in the voting or what the total voting process entails. Seems to me that the fans should be more in the know here. Just saying……