Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Sam Mele – First Twins manager to take team to a World Series gone at the age of 95

Twins manager Sam Mele

Sabath Anthony “Sam” Mele was born in Astoria, New York on January 21, 1922 and passed away in his home in Quincy, Massachusetts this past Monday at the age of 95. Sam Mele‘s parents were born in Avellino, Italy although they met in America. Mele’s mother was sister to big league brothers Al and Tony Cuccinello. Sam Mele was a natural all-around athlete and a Queens Park baseball legend and went on to attend New York University where he excelled as a basketball and baseball 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 Eastern 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
Continue reading Sam Mele – First Twins manager to take team to a World Series gone at the age of 95

The Pen is Mightier says Tom Verducci……. Back in 1999

When you turn on the MLB channel which has replaced ESPN as the go-to baseball channel at any point in the day you will quickly learn that the trend according to today’s baseball so-called experts is that the bullpen is now the key to having a winning team that will do well in the playoffs. The Cleveland Indians and Andrew Miller are a prime example they say. But Tom Verducci wrote a story for Sports Illustrated back in September of 1999 expounding on the virtues of relief pitchers. 

Rangers manager Johnny Oates

The importance of the bullpen was not lost on managers back in 1999 either as this quote from then Texas Rangers skipper Johnny Oates attests –

“Getting from two outs in the sixth inning to the ninth inning is the most important part of the game,” Oates says. “That’s where you’ll win or lose the pennant. It’s even more important in the playoffs, when every run is magnified.”

I guess it just goes to show that what goes around comes back around but like everything else in life, the game of baseball is slow to learn from history.

Twins Express bus gets benched

I have taken the so-called Twins Express bus to Target Field numerous times over the last few years from 394 and County Road 373 and found it an easy and inexpensive way to get to Target Field and not have to worry about finding and paying for a parking spot. With the Minnesota Twins playing poorly since 2010 it turns out that ridership had dropped from about 100,000 a season to just 25,800 in 2016.

According to the Star Tribune article on March 30th:

Ridership on Route 679 is down so much that the agency has decided to drop the service that for the past six years has ferried fans between Target Field and the park-and-ride at Interstate 394 and County Road 73.
“We have done everything we can to get that route going,” Kelci Stones, a specialist in Metro Transit’s marketing department, told the Met Council this week. “We couldn’t continue the service this year any further.”

The service offering a round-trip ride for $5 debuted in 2010 with the opening of the new stadium and generated nearly 100,000 rides. Since the Twins won the division title that year, the team has struggled on the field and at the box office. Consequently, Metro Transit has seen a steady decline in fans taking the express bus. Last season, ridership fell to an all-time low of just more than 25,800 for the 81 home games.

It is a shame that this service has been discontinued, hopefully once the Twins start playing a better brand of baseball and fans start going to Twins games again that this service can be revived. I will miss this service.

Metro Transit drops Twins Express service for 2017 season

 

“Grin and bear it cause good things are a-comin”.

Like most baseball fans I can’t wait for the 2017 MLB season to begin. I have been excited for every baseball season to start for over 60 years now so that tells you that I am no rookie fan, you might compare me to the old veteran player that is looking to hang on for another season.

Spring brings hope as the weather warms, spring rains fall, the grass turns green, the leaves start to form on the trees and somewhere off in the distance you hear that yell that your ears have yearned for during the cold winter months, PLAY BALL!!

The home town Minnesota Twins ended spring training on Friday and flew to Minnesota after their final exhibition game which ended in a 3-3 tie against their AAA Rochester team. Spring training wins mean very little, in 2016 the Cubs finished their exhibition schedule with a 11-19 record and won the World Series. The 2016 Twins finished with a 19-11 record and when they looked at the standings when the season ended they saw a “59” in their W column. The 2017 Twins were 16-13 in this springs meaningless games.

This is the first season for the new Derek Falvey and Thad Levine regime and the third season as the Twins manager for Paul Molitor. Much has been said and written about Falvey and his approach to running a team and how appreciated he was in Cleveland. The consensus is that Falvey has taken over a tired old organization that time has passed by and a complete house-cleaning was in order. But Falvey and Levine have not done that, they have actually made very few moves both on the field and in the front office. I think that tells us something.

To me it sends a very clear message, the Minnesota Twins organization coming off a disastrous season in which they lost 103 games is not the pile of s*%# that everyone says it was and that the team has a bright future and all they need to do is fine tune it a bit and stay out of way to make sure they don’t screw it up. Falvey didn’t leave the Indians and Levine the Rangers to end up in some dead-end team with no hope, they came to Minnesota because they see what this team can and will be in the next few years. Believe me, the Twins organization is far from perfect and there will not be any playoff games played in Target Field in 2017 but this years team will not be the sad sack Twins of 2016.

The major weakness the Twins have is their relief pitching and Falvey and Levine did nothing to speak of to address that problem, that will come back to haunt the team this season. Can the starters be worse this year than last? I think not so I am expecting much more from that group in 2017. The young position players are just getting to the stage of realizing that they can play and compete at the big league level and they will be both fun and at times frustrating to watch. The Twins motto for this season should be “Grin and bear it cause good things are a-comin”.

My 2017 American League Central Division prediction

Here is how it is going to look after the 2017 season ends.

 

The 2017 American League pennant winners will be the Cleveland Indians and the National League pennant winning Washington Nationals will play in the 2017 World Series with the Indians winning in 6 exciting games. Enjoy the season.

Does QS=BS?

Everyone talks about their starting pitcher putting up a Quality Start which means they want their starter to go at least 6 innings and give up 3 earned runs or less. The best team in baseball in 2016 the World Champions Chicago Cubs won 103 games and had 100 QS’s of which the team won 74 of those games or 74%. On the other end of the National League spectrum we had the Los Angeles Dodgers who won the NL west with a 91-71 record had the NL fewest QS’s with 60 and they won 46 of those games for a 76.7%. The Dodgers had one more QS than the worst team in baseball, the Minnesota Twins who won 59 games and had 59 QS’s of which the Twins won 35 of those games for a 59.3%. Hard to believe but the Dodgers had one more QS than Minnesota and yet they almost made it to the World Series and won 32 more games than did the Twins. WOW!

I see Quality Starts as one of those baseball numbers that does not mean a lot, it is one of the contributing factors to a win but a QS in itself doesn’t ensure an addition to the “W” column. Looking over the entire history of the Minnesota Twins since 1961 I found that they have had 4,401 QS’s and the team has won 3,024 of those games for a 68.71%. That appears to mean that when your pitcher puts up a QS you will win about 2/3 of your games and that is not bad at all, if your team has .666 winning percentage you are in fat city because your baseball team has won about 108 games. But we all know that the Twins have lost more games than they have won since they moved to the Land of Sky Blue Waters in 1961.

The 2016 Minnesota Twins had the fewest Quality Starts in their history with 59 in the years that they have played the full schedule of games. The Twins have had three seasons when they have had 100 or more Quality Starts, in 1968 they had 100 QS’s and yet they finished 79-83, in 1967 they had 105 QS’s and finished 91-71, and in 1972 they only played 154 games finishing with a 77-77 mark but had 114 QS’s.

2016 American League Quality Start totals

2016 National League Quality Start totals

 

Bottom line? Kind of shows you that QS=BS.

59 wins and yet no starting position player battles for jobs

What is going on here? L-R – Jim Pohlad, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Falvey, and ?

The Minnesota Twins find themselves in a strange position this spring. The team is coming off a record-setting 59-103 season and yet there are really no position battles waging in Ft. Myers this spring. All the starting position players are pretty much the same as last season except for the catcher Kurt Suzuki who left via free agency and the Twins signed free agent Jason Castro to replace him and handed him the starting job.

How often does that happen? Usually you lose 103 games and everyone is fighting for a job but that is not the case in the spring of 2017 at the CenturyLink Sports complex where the Twins are preparing for the 2017 season. As I watch the team go through its spring routines there doesn’t seem to be much urgency and the players are acting as if they are all veterans just waiting for the bell to ring in a new season. I can see the players going through the drills but I just don’t see that they are working hard to get better. This team is young, and talented but have they had enough sand kicked in their face yet to really want to win? I hope so.

I am still convinced that Joe Mauer playing first base limits the Twins from taking that next step. Mauer is the grey-beard among the position players at 33 and then Brian Dozier and Jason Castro follow at 29 and the rest of the starting line-up is 25 or under. 

If you look at the spring training stats and I know they don’t mean a hill of beans when the season starts BUT this team appears to be a team that can score some runs but will hit for a lower average than what fans might expect. Mauer’s .300 plus days are in his rear view mirror and I am not expecting Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, or Brian Dozier to hit .260 or above. I expect a higher average from Eddie Rosario this year but he too is still unproven.

In spite of what I have written this team should be fun to watch but you must be prepared for those “what the hell just happened” moments. This team will continue to improve as the season progresses and but so much will depend on the teams pitching staff both from the starters and the relievers. 

I was used to seeing GM Terry Ryan out next to the fields checking out the action but this year I have not seen Thad Levine at all and Derek Falvey just once and that was this morning. A different style I guess, particularly since all I heard early on about Falvey was how closely he worked with his manager. But you are right, it is still early.

After horrible starts to the season the last two years, how will the Twins leave the starting gate in 2017? Another bad start could would be a serious problem for Paul Molitor and his boys. 

What goes on back at the ballpark when there is a road game

I was back out at the ballpark to check on the Twins yesterday to see what the rest of the team was up to when the Twins had a game in Jupiter, Florida scheduled for that afternoon. Jupiter is almost due east of Ft. Myers across the state and although it is only about 140 miles it takes almost three hours to get there. Lake Okeechobee is between Ft. Myers and Jupiter so you end up going around it to the north as you head towards the Atlantic ocean.

Apparently skipper Paul Molitor felt that drive is way too much for most of the Minnesota Twins regulars so he sent the following line-up to play the game at Roger Dean Stadium.

  • Granite – RF
  • Santana – LF
  • Paulsen  – 1B
  • Hague – DH
  • Shuck – CF
  • Fields – 2B
  • Escobar – SS
  • Murphy – C
  • Adrianza – 3B
  • Gibson – P

Not exactly the 1965 Twins but they did manage to keep the game interesting until they allowed the Cards to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-1 loss. Ticket prices for the game on the internet were between $46 and $180. Fans pay prices like this to see a spring training game and the Twins send zero starting position players. CRAZY! Both the Cardinals and the Twins should be embarrassed and MLB should start fining these teams for this kind of behavior.

Continue reading What goes on back at the ballpark when there is a road game

Former Twins pitcher Bill Hands dead at 76

 

Former Giants, Cubs, Twins and Rangers pitcher Bill Hands and a 20-game winner for the 1969 Cubs, died Thursday, March 9 in a Orlando, Florida hospital after a brief illness at the age of 76.

William Alfred Hands was born May 6, 1940 in Hackensack, New Jersey and signed with the San Francisco Giants as an amateur free agent prior to the 1959 season. Hands started his pro career at the age of 19 in class D ball in Hastings, Nebraska in the Nebraska State League and worked his way up the big-league ladder. The right-handed Hands made his major league debut on June 3, 1965 in a Giants 10-3 loss to the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium. “Froggy” as he was known to his teammates appeared in just four games as a San Francisco Giant before he was traded by the San Francisco Giants with Randy Hundley to the Chicago Cubs for Don Landrum and Lindy McDaniel in December 1965. 

Bill Hands pitched for the Cubs for seven season posting a 92-86 record with a 3.18 ERA including a 20 win season in 1969. In November 1972 he was traded by the Chicago Cubs with Bob Maneely (minors) and Joe Decker to the Minnesota Twins for Dave LaRoche. Hands was not happy in Minnesota under the Calvin Griffith ownership team and requested to be traded but instead found himself waived by the team and claimed by the Texas Rangers in September of 1974 where he finished out that season and then again pitched for the Rangers in 1975 but suffered a back injury that essentially ended his career at the age of 35. In February of 1976 Hands was again on the move, this time traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Mets for George Stone but as far as I know he never pitched pro ball again after his final big league game on August 10, 1975. 

With baseball salaries being what they were back in the 1960’s, Hands started driving a fuel truck in Lyndhurst, New York during the off-season for what is now Keller Depken Oil. That planted the seed for a post-baseball job as an oil company salesman on Long Island, and eventually the service station that he ran in Orient, New York for a quarter century with his son Billy III. 

So Orient was home, where he lived with his wife Sandra, after his first wife passed away. Besides his son, he also has two daughters (Heather, Heidi) and nine grandchildren.

Orient’s Bill Hands, pitcher for ’69 Cubs, rooting against the Mets again

Where are they now? Rutherford’s Bill Hands

Orient resident, MLB 20-game winner Bill Hands dies at 76

Ex-Cub Bill Hands, 20-game winner in 1969, dies at 76 – Chicago Tribune obituary

 

I wonder how many ballplayers still chew

Despite health warnings and minor league prohibition, Major League players continue to chew tobacco on the field and in the dugout. A number of years ago I remember being near one of the back fields watching the Twins minor league players getting ready to play a minor league game and I saw catcher Wilson Ramos reach into his bag for some tobacco to chew when Twins GM Terry Ryan spotted him and ran over and told him that the Twins don’t want their players chewing “that stuff”. Ramos put the can pack in his bag and that was the end of it. I don’t know if Ramos chews today or not but that little episode stuck with me as I remember the health problems that former Twins player Bill Tuttle had with “chew”.

Anti-spit tobacco crusader Bill Tuttle (please be aware that some of the images you may see can be disturbing)

SABR Baseball Cards recently did a piece they called “Chaw Shots” showing baseball cards with players chewing. I think it is surprising how many of the former players pictured were Minnesota Twins at one time or another.

MLB: Violators of new tobacco laws face baseball penalties

Even on a day off the CenturyLink Sports Complex is buzzing with activity

Tuesday was a scheduled day off for the Minnesota Twins big league side of camp but the minor league side was just beginning to buzz with activity. Tuesday was reporting day for all Twins organization minor league players, Wednesday is physical and photo day. Players will then workout for three days before minor league games start being played on Sunday, March 12. This year the Twins minor league players will be playing their equivalent teams from the Orioles, Red Sox, and Rays.

Johan Quezada

When I was there on Tuesday there were minor league players working out on three different fields but without uniforms and numbers it is hard to identify them. I took a few pictures and will share them in my 2017 spring training photo link in the next day or two. One of the interesting players I did get to meet yesterday was 22 year-old 6’10” Johan Quezada, a right-handed pitcher from the Dominican.

Just a tip for those of you coming down to watch spring training at the CenturyLink Sports Complex, if you are interested in watching the minor league players go through their paces and you want to know who is who, the Twins have spring training work groups hand-out sheets and the 2017 minor league spring training schedule sheets available to be picked up for free next to the minor league complex on the back fields. These games are all free and fun to watch as you use your training work groups roster sheet to identify the players. The beauty of the layout of the fields makes it easy to wander from one game to another. Hope to see you down here.