Category: This Day in Twins History

This Day in Twins History – August 25

8/25/1967 – Dean Chance pitches the second no-hitter in Twins history and defeats the Indians 2-1 in the second game of a double-header at Cleveland Stadium. The Indians actually scored first in this game when Chance walked Lee Maye and Vic Davalillo in the bottom of the first. Chance then struck out Chuck Hinton but Tony Horton reached on an error by SS Jackie Hernandez to load the bases. With Max Alvis batting, Chance threw a wild pitch and Maye scored the Indians first and only run. Chance then struck out Alvis and Joe Azcue flew out to end the threat. Chance then completed the game without allowing an Indian hit while striking out eight and walking a total of five batters. The Twins went on to score two runs and win this unusual no-hitter.

8/25/1970 – A bomb scare at Met Stadium delayed the Boston Red Sox vs. Minnesota Twins game forty-three (43) minutes. According to the Sporting News, a bomb scare forced a 43-minute delay in the fourth inning, but the only bomb that exploded was the homer by Tony Conigliaro off of Tommy Hall in the eighth giving Red Sox 1-0 victory over Twins. A crowd of 17,697 evacuated the stands after announcement over public address system stated that a telephoned warning had been received that bomb was due to go off. The evacuation was orderly and without panic with about 2,000 fans, players, police and vendors gathered in the center-field area. The rest milled about in the parking lot. The bomb was supposed to go off at 10:30 PM so after a 27 minute wait, the game was resumed at 10:57 PM. The Sox end the game with a double play, a 1-6 force at second base, then a throw home to nab Tony Oliva trying to score. Ken Brett is the winner in relief over Tommy Hall.

Bob Casey

Bob Casey who was the Twins public address announcer for a long time and a Minnesota legend was at times a curmudgeon. One of the best anecdotes about him occurred during this bomb threat. “Bob,” a team official told Casey, “there’s a bomb threat, and we need to clear the stadium. So could you make some sort of announcement for people to calmly leave the stadium.” Casey assured them that it would be no problem. Moments later, he grabbed the microphone and shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen, please don’t panic but there’s going to be an EXPLOSION in 15 minutes!”

8/25/1978 – Major League umpires stage a one-day strike in defiance of their union contract. Semipro and amateur umps are pressed into service until a restraining order forces the strikers to return. At Toronto at Exhibition Stadium, the Blue Jays beat the Twins 7 – 3, with two amateur umpires and two coaches officiating: Toronto coach Don Leppert was at 2B and Twins coach Jerry Zimmerman was at 3B. Since 1910, this was just the 5th time this century, and the first time since 1941, that active players or coaches have umpired. The umpires will walk out again at the beginning of the 1979 season

8/25/1998 – The Twins like many teams before them, send pitcher Mike Morgan packing, this time to the Cubs and pitcher Scott Downs heads to Minnesota. Morgan pitched for 12 different ML teams (13 if you count that he was traded to the Cubs twice) between 1978 and 2002 before he finally calls it quits.

8/25/2008 – The Twins make a deal with the Texas Rangers and reacquired relief pitcher Eddie Guardado and send pitcher Mark Hamburger to Texas.

Be sure to bookmark our Today in Twins History page so you can check out events like the ones mentioned above each and every day.

This Day in Twins History – August 8

1974 – The Royals – Twins game at Royals Stadium is briefly interrupted by President Nixon’s resignation speech. The speech is broadcast after it begins and the next inning is delayed until the conclusion of the speech. The Twins prevail over the host Royals‚ 3 – 2 in 14 innings when Tony Oliva’s sacrifice fly drives home Rod Carew. Bill Campbell pitches 7 innings of relief for the win.

1987 – The Twins beat the Oakland A’s 9-2 at the Metrodome as Twins pitcher Steve Carlton wins the 329th and final game of his Hall of Fame career. Carlton pitches 8 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs while striking out two batters

1988 – The Indians and the Twins were scoreless after 3 innings at the Metrodome with Allan Anderson on the mound for the local nine. In the top of the fourth inning with no one out, the Indians Ron Washington and Willie Upshaw singled to put runners on first and second and then Joe Carter smashed a long drive to the left field corner where Twins outfielder Dan Gladden snagged it for an out and wheeled and fired a strike to Steve Lombardozzi at 2B to nail Washington and then Lombo relayed the ball to Gene Larkin at first to get the runner there by at least 5 feet and completed the unusual 7-4-3 triple play. The Twins went on to win the game by a 7-2 score with Gladden going 3 for 5 with a run scored, a stolen base, and a RBI. Catcher Brian Harper was 4 for 4 but played second fiddle to Gladden on this day.

1998 – Paul Molitor stole his 500th base in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore to become only the fifth player ever with 3,000 hits and 500 steals. Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock.

2004 – The A’s beat the Twins 6 – 5 in 18 innings. It is the second-longest game in the 23-year history of the Metrodome. With the score tied 3 to 3, the A’s score 3 in the top of the 18th off Terry Mulholland to take a 6-3 lead. The Twins come back with 2 in the bottom of the 18th with a Morneau home run but leave Matthew LeCroy stranded on first when Koskie and Cuddyer fly out to end the rally and the Twins hope of a huge comeback victory. The game lasts 4 hours and 57 minutes.

2005 – One time Minnesota Twins manager (1976-1980) Gene Mauch passes away at the age of 79. Mauch was the seventh manager in Twins history. I think one of my favorite Gene Mauch quotes was “I’m not the manager because I am always right, but I am always right because I am the manager”.

2009 – The Twins third manager, Cal Ermer passed away at the age of 85 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Ermer replaced the fired Sam Mele in June 1967 with the Twins in sixth place with a 25-25 record. The Twins went 66-46 the rest of the season but lost the American League pennant on the final day of the season. Ermer was fired after the Twins finished in seventh place in 1968 with a 79-83 record.

This Day in Twins History – August 3

1969 – Pinch-hitter Rich Reese hit a grand slam to power the Minnesota Twins to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles and ends Dave McNally’s 15 game winning streak. His two victories at the end of 1968 had given him 17 straight wins.

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1987 – One of my favorite moments in Twins history occurs when Twins pitcher Joe Niekro is caught with a fingernail file on the mound at Anaheim Stadium and is ejected by umpire Tim Tschida during the 4th inning of Minnesota’s 11-3 win over California. He was suspended for 10 games by AL president Bobby Brown, who doesn’t buy Niekro’s story “that he had been filing his nails on the bench and stuck the file in his back pocket when the inning started”. On August 14th, Niekro appears on the “Late Night” show with David Letterman wearing a workman’s belt that contains a power sander, nail file, clothes brush, toenail and fingernail clippers, sandpaper, tweezers, scissors, Vaseline, emery boards, and two bottles of Kiwi Scuff Magic.

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1999 – The Astros and Twins swap catchers, Houston gets George Williams and Minnesota gets Josh Dimmick.

This Day in Twins History – July 25, 1977

Coming off a double header sweep (with the 2nd game going 12 innings) of the A’s the day before, the Twins are again going up against the boys from Oakland at Met Stadium. The game goes 11 innings before the Twins prevail 2-1 on a bases loaded single by Larry Hisle. But, the real story of the game is Twins starter Dave Goltz who pitches all 11 innings throwing 180 pitches. Goltz improves his record to 12-6 as he faces 41 batters giving up 8 hits and walking 1 while striking out 14 Oakland A’s. In spite of all of this, the game is over in 2 hours and 39 minutes. Goltz goes on to finish the season with a 20-11 record and 303 innings pitched in 39 starts and a 3.36 ERA. The SABR bio for Mr. Goltz can be found here.  Box score

Check out the other events that happened on July 25th by going to the Today in Twins History page.

This Day in Twins History – July 23, 1961

Catcher Earl Battey with special batting helmet

Minnesota catcher Earl Battey is beaned in the 7th inning by Cleveland Indians pitcher Bobby Locke at Met Stadium, fracturing his cheek. Battey returns to action less than two weeks later at Yankee Stadium on August 4th wearing a special batting helmet. Back in the day, players were tough. Be sure to check out the SABR Biography piece on Battey here.

This Day in Twins History – July 15, 1964

Jim “Mudcat” Grant

Jim “Mudcat” Grant pitches a complete game and shuts out the Washington Senators 6-0 at Met stadium and strikes out 6 in the process. However; what makes this game unique is that Grant gives up 13 hits (all singles) and a walk and still manages to pitch a complete game shutout. Jimmie Hall, Jim Snyder, and Rich Rollins homer for the home town Twins. Boxscore

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the days Twins events on our Today in Twins History page.

This Day in Twins History – July 11, 1965

With the Twins AL lead at only 4 games and the All-Star game break coming up the next day, the Twins took on the New York Yankees at the Met and after 8 innings the score was tied at 4 apiece. The Yanks scored one in the top of the ninth and the Twins had their backs to the wall. In the bottom of the ninth, Zoilo Versalles grounded out to the pitcher but Rich Rollins coaxed a walk from Pete Mikkelsen and the Twins had the tieing run on base with Tony Oliva due up. Oliva flew out to center and the Twins were down to their last out but the last Twins hitter was Harmon Killebrew and he took Mikkelsen to a full count before hitting a walk-off 2 run homer and the Twins fans celebrated. The Twins players never looked back and ended up winning the league pennant by 7 games over the White Sox. Killebrew’s described his home run as “It’s one of the sweetest of the sweet” and it stands in Twins lore as one of their most famous home runs. The box score can be found here.

By the way, how the Yankees scored the run in the top of the ninth to take the lead in this game is a story in itself. If you want to read more about that and this game, you can read Chapter 8 of Jim Thielman’s book Cool of the Evening here. It is a wonderful book about the 1965 Twins championship season, if you have never read this book, I would recommend it highly.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the things that happened to the Twins on this day by visiting our Today in Twins History page.

This Day in Twins History – July 2

1969 – In a very unusual 3 game series against the Chicago White Sox, the Twins play the first and last game against the White Sox in White Sox Park but play the middle game in County Stadium in Milwaukee. This is the second year in a row that the Twins have played a game against the mighty whitey’s in Milwaukee and the Twins win the game again, this time by a 4-2 score. The game started at 10:02 PM due to a 1 hour 39 minute rain delay and the game was called in the middle of the ninth inning due to rain. In 1969, Bud Selig again arranged with White Sox ownership for them to play some home games in Milwaukee County Stadium. The league had expanded from 10 teams to 12 that season and the White Sox schedule in Milwaukee was likewise expanded to include 11 home games (again, one against every opponent) as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

LHP Jim Kaat pitched for the Senators/Twins from 1959-1973

1972 – The Twins split a twin-bill at White Sox Park winning the first game 6-4 and losing the second game 2-1. The big story here was in game one. Jim Kaat (9-2) and the AL leader in ERA was facing knuckleballer Wilbur Wood (12-7). The Twins were leading 5-2 after 5 innings. In the top of the 6th inning Kaat reached based on a fielder’s choice and was forced at 2B on Tovar’s ground ball to the shortstop. Sliding into 2B Kaat jammed his left wrist but stayed in the game and pitched into the 8th inning before his swollen hand prevented him from going any further. After the game it was determined that Jim had broken a bone in his pitching wrist and he was out for the rest of the season. Wow, pitchers were tough in those days. When I asked Jim about it, his response was “Adrenalin is an amazing hormone”!

1982 – The Twins trade 2B Larry Milbourne to the Indians and in turn the Indians send outfielder Larry Littleton to the Twins.

2007 – With skipper Joe Torre watching from his Yankee Stadium dugout, Roger Clemens, throws eight innings of two-hit ball in a 5-1 win over the Twins and becomes the eighth pitcher to record 350 career victories. The New York manager was the catcher for Warren Spahn’s 350th win making him a participant of the only two occasions that a pitcher has reached the milestone since 1928.

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This Day in Twins History – June 26

1964 – Gerry Arrigo pitches the Twins first ever one hitter when Mike Hershberger singles to right leading off the ninth inning and breaks up Arrigo’s no hit bid but the Twins prevail 2-0 over the White Sox at Met Stadium in the first game of a doubleheader. This is the first time a Twins pitcher has thrown a one hitter and the first time a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat at the Met.

1985 – Minnesota’s Ken Schrom one-hits Kansas City at the Metrodome, but needs a 2-run single from Roy Smalley in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 2-1 victory. Willie Wilson’s 3rd-inning single is the only Royals hit. The is the first one-hitter that a Twins pitcher has thrown in the Metrodome.

Maybe Liam Hendriks can make history tonight by becoming the Twins first hurler to get a one hitter at Target field, I will be out there watching. Twins pitchers have thrown 15 one hitters over the years and the last one was thrown by Scott Baker on August 31, 2007. Bert Blyleven has thrown the most one hitters, three, while pitching in a Minnesota Twins uniform. There have been 26 one hitters thrown against the Twins over the years with the last one thrown by Zach Stewart of the Mighty Whitey’s at Target Field last September.

This Day in Twins History – June 24

June 24th has been an interesting day in Minnesota Twins history over the years, here are some of the events that occurred on this day.

1955– Harmon Killebrew hit his first major league homer, off lefty Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators 18-7. Killebrew would later say that, of all the home runs he hit at Griffith Stadium, the home run off Hoeft was the longest he ever hit in Griffith. Twenty years later, on September 18, 1975 Harmon, wearing a KC Royals uniform hit his last career home run, a blast to left field off Twins hurler Eddie Bane in a Royals 4-3 victory at Met Stadium over the home town Minnesota Twins. In his career, Killebrew smashed 246 home runs at Met Stadium.

1968 – In a one game series, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game called after 5 innings due to rain. The reason the game was played in Milwaukee was that in 1968, Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves who had been unable to stop the relocation of his team three years earlier, contracted with the Allyn brothers who owned the White Sox to host nine home games (one against each of the other American League clubs) at Milwaukee County Stadium as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1977 – Ralph Garr of the White Sox homered off Minnesota’s Paul Thormodsgard in Minneapolis. It came in the third inning with two men on and no one out. Jim Essian, the runner on first, thought the ball might be caught by the Twins’ right fielder, Dan Ford, so he retreated towards first base. Garr was watching the flight of the ball and passed Essian after rounding the bag. He was credited with a single and two runs batted in.

1984 – 2B Tim Teufel gives the Twins a 3-2 win over the White Sox with a three-run inside-the-park walk off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth at the Metrodome.

1989 – Twins outfielder John Moses is asked to pitch at Fenway Park in an 11-2 loss to the Red Sox. John threw one scoreless inning giving up a walk but only faced 3 batters with the team turned a double play behind him. John is the fourth Twins position player to pitch and this is the fifth occurrence of a Twins position player pitching for the Twins.

Don’t forget to check out This Day in Twins History each and every day.