Category: The 1967 AL Pennant Race

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 15 – Twins take a break to play an exhibition game – Billy Martin plays

The Minnesota Twins took a break for the rigors of a pennant race and flew from Baltimore to Indianapolis to play an exhibition game against the Indianapolis Indians before flying on to Detroit to play the Tigers the next day. Why the Twins were playing an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox AAA team is beyond me. I am sure that the MLB players union of today wouldn’t allow such exhibition games in the middle of a season.

Billy Martin

The Twins ended up losing the game 11-10. The most interesting part of the game was the fact that Twins coach Billy Martin played in the game. Martin last played in the big leagues in 1961 with the Twins and then became a scout from 1962-1964 before joining the Twins coaching staff in 1965. Martin entered the game as a PH and promptly doubled and then had a bunt single ending his night 2 for 3.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

 

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 14 – Tigers score 10 in the sixth, Carew and Boswell

AL Standings after play on June 15, 1967

Between June 1 and June 15 the Twins fired (Sam Mele) and hired a manager (Cal Ermer) and went 10-6 playing all but one of the games at the friendly confines of Met Stadium. The team managed to pick-up 2.5 games in the standings but they still find themselves trailing the Chicago White Sox by four games.

June 13 wasn’t a great day in spite of the fact that the Twins scored in double-figures for the third day in a row and found themselves on the losing end of a 15-10 game. The Twins and Dean Chance were up 5-1 going into the sixth inning against the Detroit Tigers at the Met when the “S%#@” hit the fan, Chance gave up four singles and walked two before skipper Cal Ermer had seen enough and brought in reliever Jim Ollom who promptly gave up a single and a walk and he too found himself headed for the shower as Mudcat Grant came in to stop the bleeding. Three singles later Grant was gone and Jim Roland took the mound and promptly threw a wild pitch to allow another run, a passed ball followed which led to a sac fly, another Twins error kept the nightmare inning alive before Roland finally got the third out of the inning. When the smoke cleared the Tigers had put a 10 spot on the Twins and led the game 11 to 5. That would be 10 runs on 8 singles, three walks, two Twins errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball and a partridge in a pear tree. OMG! What we had here was the first time in Twins history that an opponent had scored 10 or more runs against the Twins in a single inning. The Twins bounced back with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to make it an 11-10 game but the Tigers scored 3 in the seventh and another in the eighth inning and the final score was 15-10 for the Tigers.

Here a couple of clippings out of the June 14, 1967 Minneapolis Tribune Sports section describing the action.

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The June 10, 1967 Sporting News has a nice piece about Rod Carew and his base running problems and this time pitching coach Early Wynn puts Dave Boswell through his “wringer” method of fixing a pitchers problems.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 13 – Twins fire manager Sam Mele, hire Cal Ermer

Sam Mele is fired as the Minnesota Twins manager by owner Calvin Griffith and replaced by 43-year old Cal Ermer. Ermer played just one game in the major leagues for the Washington Senators as a 23-year old in 1947 and has no major league managing experience.

According to reports team owner Griffith felt that Mele had “lost control of his players”. Mele had managed the Twins since June of 1961 when he replaced Cookie Lavagetto and has compiled a 524-436 record and directed the team to the 1965 AL Pennant. 

 

Twins skipper in 1967-1968

Cal Ermer whose given name was Calvin Coolidge Ermer was born 3 months after Coolidge became President. Ermer was appointed as the Twins skipper over coach Billy Martin who many had expected to take over when Mele moved on.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

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The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 12 – Dean Chance and the no-hitter that wasn’t and the 1967 draft

Dean Chance is perfect for five innings

Dean Chance

The following story that was written for the SABR Games Project about Dean Chance’s five inning no-hitter that turned out not to be a no-hitter after the fact was written by local sports historian and Minnesota Twins official score-keeper Stew Thornley. 

Dean Chance is perfect for five innings – August 6, 1967

Close, but no cigar: No-hitters not officially recognized

 

 

The Twins drafted Oakland high school star third baseman Steve Brye on June 6, 1967 in round 1 and 17 overall. Over 7 seasons with Minnesota Brye appeared in just 537 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter or back-up outfielder.

Later in the 1967 draft the Twins selected and signed RHP Dave Goltz in round 5, RHP Steve Luebber in round 13, and catcher Rick Dempsey in round 15. The Twins drafted LHP Al Hrabosky in round 11 but did not sign him.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 11 – Back-to-back walk-off victories & Bob Allison

LF Bob Allison played for the Senators/Twins from 1958-1970

June 4 – Bob Allison drove in Ted Uhlaender from third base with a squeeze bunt in the bottom of the 10th inning in an 8-7 win over the Angels after blowing a 7-3 lead in the seventh inning. Jim Perry got his first win of the season and Minnie Rojas took the defeat. Box Score

June 5 – Bob Allison is again the star as the Twins have their second walk-off win in two days, this time the victim is the Cleveland Indians. With the score tied at 4-4 since the sixth inning the Twins face Indians reliever Steve Bailey in the bottom of the ninth. Bailey gets pinch-hitter Ted Uhlaender to ground out but then walks Cesar Tovar, Rod Carew singles with Tovar advancing to second bring up Rich Rollins to advances both runners by getting thrown out C-1B. With two runners on and two out Tribe manager Joe Adcock decides to give Harmon Killebrew a free pass to first bringing up Bob Allison. Bailey throws a wild pitch past catcher Duke Sims and the Twins win game number 24 putting them one game over the .500 mark. Al Worthington gets the win in relief. At the end of the day the Twins find themselves in 5th place and five games behind the league leading Detroit Tigers. Box Score 

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 10 – Killebrew goes deep, REAL DEEP!

That famous Harmon Killebrew swing

Harmon Killebrew hit the longest home run ever hit by a Twin, estimated at 522 feet. The Killer crushed this 3 run blast against Lew Burdette of the Angels on June 3, 1967 in front of just 12,337 Twins fans. The ball landed in the sixth row of the upper deck at Metropolitan Stadium and Killebrew becomes the first player to hit a ball into the second deck of the left field pavilion. The ball cracked the seat, which was later painted orange to commemorate the event and the seat eventually found its way to the Hall of Fame. Box Score

Eyewitness to history: This Harmon Killebrew home run made a sound like no other

Hartman: Killebrew made himself into fabulous power hitter

 

The Mall of America’s unusual tribute to Harmon Killebrew

The ’67 summer was the most heartbreaking of that era for Twins fans. We were edged out for the pennant at the very end. Boston and Carl Yastrzemski prevailed. Historical annals show Harmon hitting tape measure blasts at his very best then. He came to bat on an early summer day, looking out to the mound and pitcher Lew Burdette of the Los Angeles Angels. It was early summer but the temperature felt like midsummer, making the atmosphere perfect at our beloved “Met.” The wind was gusting in the 25-35 MPH range. Legend has it Harmon may have caught a jet stream. Burdette vainly tried to fool “the Killer” with a knuckler. Killebrew launched the ball on a ride of 520 feet. The ball came down in the upper deck of the Met’s left field pavilion. Burdette was quoted saying “I threw him a knuckle ball that started out high. And all it did was get higher.”

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 9 – Chance, cold weather, injuries mount, “wringer cure” fails, Tovar, team mired in sixth place

 

 

Dean Chance

Between May 16 and June 1 the Twins went 10-7 playing all but three games on the road in Chicago, California, Kansas City, New York and Boston. During that same time period Twins starter Dean Chance was on a roll, he beat the White Sox with a complete game 1-0 shutout, beat the Angels 7-2 with another complete game, lost to the White Sox 7-2, beat the Kansas City A’s 4-3 with 7 plus innings, and shut out the Red Sox 4-0 with another complete game effort bringing his record to 9-2.

On May 21 the Twins putting a good whipping on the California Angels by beating them 12-3 at Anaheim Stadium. Cesar Tovar was the hitting star when he became the first Twins player to ever get four XBH in a game when he went four for six with two doubles and two home runs.

The Twins had three home games in the midst of 14 road games against the league leading Chicago White Sox and Sam Mele‘s boys lost two of three to the Pale Hose. When June 1 rolled around the Twins found themselves just one game under .500 at 21-22 and 5 1/2 games behind league leading Chicago who was just percentage points ahead of Detroit.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 8 – Chance, Ollom, Carew and cold weather

AL Standings as of April 15, 1967

 

On Monday, May 15, 1967 the Minnesota Twins found themselves on the way to Chicago to play the 18-7 first place Chicago White Sox. Sam Mele’s bunch had just completed a two-week home stand in the cold Minnesota weather and the team played 6-5 baseball. But now the Twins were now on a three-game losing skid and their record stood at 11-15, tied for eighth place and 7 1/2 games out of the league lead. The highest attendance at any of the 11 home games in early May against the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Senators and Athletics was just 11,864.

One of the highlights of their recent home-stand was watching Rod Carew go 5 for 5 on May 8 against the Washington Senators but unfortunately the Senators scored six in the top of the seventh inning and won the game 7-4. Carew became the first Twins player to go 5 for 5 at Met Stadium.

The Twins were struggling, they had five hitters (Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Russ Nixon, Rich Rollins, Early Battey) hitting under 2.25. Starter Dave Boswell had a 9.50 ERA in four starts. Rumors were flying that manager Sam Mele’s job was at risk.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 7 – Carew, Tovar, Oliva, Versalles,

After 15 games had been played in the 1967 season the Minnesota Twins found themselves five games under .500 with a 5-10 mark and in last place in the American league 4.5 games behind the high-flying Detroit Tigers when they lost a double-header to the Washington Senators on the months final day. In game 2 of the double-header loss at D.C. Stadium Senators starter Barry Moore held the Twins to just one hit, a single by Cesar Tovar in the sixth inning. The game lasted just two hours as Moore walked two batters and struck out none of the 29 batters he faced.

RF Tony Oliva played for the Twins from 1962-1976

On April 21, Tony Oliva of Minnesota lost a home run due to a base running blunder. Playing in Detroit in the third inning, Cesar Tovar was the runner at first base. Oliva hit the ball out of the park off Denny McLain, but then passed Tovar between first and second. He was credited with a single and one RBI for scoring Tovar. In the ninth inning Oliva hit another home run and this one counted. The Twins ended up losing the game 12-4.

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The Twins were road warriors in April playing 11 of their first 15 games on the road, the good news however; was that a long home stand that would last until mid-May was on the horizon. One of the problems the Twins faced that they needed to remedy was the fact that they were out scored 71-50 in the month of April. The Twins pitching staff was last in the league with a 4.54 ERA and the hitters was last in the league in hitting with a .225 average.

Sporting News AL stats for April 1967

MLB scores and standings as of April 30, 1967

Sam Mele the Minnesota Twins manager at this time back in 1967 just passed away at the age of 95 this past Monday, you can read the story I did on Sam Mele’s passing here.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

The 1967 Twins are off to a slow start – Part 6

The Minnesota Twins finished their 1967 Grapefruit League season with a 12-17 record and only the Kansas City Athletics had a worse record. The Twins started the season on the road in Baltimore where they lost two games before coming home to face the Detroit Tigers for their home opener at Met Stadium. 

With 21, 347 fans in the stands Twins starter Dave Boswell faced off against Tiger starter Earl Wilson. Boswell kept the Tigers off the board in the first inning and when the Twins came to bat in the bottom of the first they were ready, Cesar Tovar singled to left and advanced on a passed ball and Rich Rollins then doubled to left scoring Tovar. Wilson walked Tony Oliva but Wilson induced Harmon Killebrew to hit into a double play with Oliva reaching second. Wilson wild pitched Oliva to third and up stepped rookie Rod Carew who quickly singled and had his first big league RBI when Oliva scored. Bob Allison stepped up to the plate but the rookie Carew got picked off first by Wilson and the Twins had their first lead of the season.

Jim Merritt

The Tigers scored three runs off Dave Boswell in the third inning and kept their 3-2 lead until the bottom of the sixth inning when Bob Allison hit his first home run of the season to tie the game at three. The Twins took the lead for good when Zoilo Versalles scored on a Jerry Lumpe error on a Tovar ground ball to second off reliever Larry Sherry. Versalles led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a home run off Johnny Podres to end the scoring. Jim Merritt who pitched the final four inning of scoreless relief was credited with the win and Tiger starter Earl Wilson took the loss. Box score

The Twins then lost their next two games by identical 4-3 scores to the Tigers and the Indians and on April 18 their record stood at 1-4. Their 1-4 start matched their 1963 start which was the worst start they have had since they started play in Minnesota.

April 18, 1967 AL Standings

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A very interesting SABR article about Earl Wilson

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My previous 1967 pennant race articles can be found here.