This Day in Twins History – October 12, 1987

The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 9-5 and won their first American League pennant in 22 years as Bert Blyleven wins his second game of the series. The Twins, with the worst road record of any pennant or division winner in history (29-52), took two of three in Detroit to win the best-of-7 ALCS playoffs in five games. The Twins are greeted by over 50,000 fans waiting at the Metrodome (and I was one of them) following their victory in Detroit which gave them their first AL pennant in 22 years.

A nice piece about this day by Doug Grow can be found here. A 10 minute video of the event can be seen on this YouTube – http://youtu.be/jnWpdB9iXgk . Hall of Fame announcer Herb Carneal introduces the players.

Twins Trivia post season award winners

The 2012 baseball season was not a great season for the Minnesota Twins or their fans but there are teams, players and managers that had a great year and one that they will remember for a long time. Now that the regular season is complete, members of the Baseball Bloggers Association are voting for their post season award winners by picking who they feel deserved to bring home the hardware for their efforts. Here is how I see it.

American League

The Connie Mack (Top Manager) award goes to Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics for leading the A’s to a division championship (94-68) after the team finished with a 74-88 mark in 2011. On June 30th the A’s were 13 games out of first and had a 37-52 record after three consecutive losses to the Texas Rangers. From that point on the A’s went 57-26 and won the division title on the last day of the season. My runner-up award goes to the Baltimore Orioles Buck Showalter who took his team to a wild-card playoff spot and a second place finish in a tough division. My third place finisher was a true rookie manager, Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox who had never managed before and piloted his team to a second place finish when I had the White Sox picked to finish dead last in the AL Central.

The Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) award is the easiest pick of all, the award goes to outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Trout started the season in AAA and was called up at the end of April. Even with the late start Trout led the league in runs scored (129) and stolen bases (49) while finishing second in batting average hitting .320. Trout lead all AL rookies in every hitting category and even had the two longest rookie hitting streaks this past season. What an amazing season! My runner-up was the Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes who finished second to Trout in every AL hitting category except stolen bases (finishing fourth) and in any other season would have easily won the award. I have three pitchers rounding out the top 5 with the Oakland A’s Tommy Milone and  Yu Darvish finishing in a tie for third and the Minnesota Twins Scott Diamond rounding out the top five.

The Goose Gossage (Top Reliver) award goes to closer Fernando Rodney of the Tampa Bay Rays. The 35 year-old Rodney had a career year in his 10th season in the big leagues with 48 saves in 50 opportunities with 76 strikeouts in 74.2 innings and posting a 0.60 ERA with a 0.78 WHIP. Talk about lights out and to think he never had an ERA of under 2.68 any other season. The Rays signed Rodney as a free agent on January 4, 2012 for $1.75 million, what a bargain. The runner -up is the Baltimore Orioles Jim Johnson who led the league in saves with 51 in 54 chances. I have Rafael Soriano of the New York Yankees finishing third, Joe Nathan from the Texas Rangers in fourth and my fifth place vote goes to Tommy Wilhelmsen of the Seattle Mariners.

The Walter Johnson (Top Pitcher) award goes again this season to the Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander who pitched 238.1 innings in 33 starts and went 17-8 with an ERA of 2.64 and a 1.06 WHIP and a .217 batting average against to go with his 239 strikeouts. Tampa Bay Rays David Price was my runner-up by an eye lash, Price had a great season going 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA but I gave the nod to Verlander for innings pitched and strikeouts. My third place vote goes to the Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez, fourth goes to Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox and fifth goes to Jeff Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Stan Musial (Top Player) award goes to the American League’s first triple crown winner since 1967, the Detroit Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera. This was a very tough choice over my runner-up, outfielder Mike Trout of the Angels but in the end I think Cabrera earned it because of his triple crown and because he volunteered to move to 3B to make room for the recently acquired Prince Fielder. Both players had amazing seasons but I had to go with Cabrera this year. My third place vote goes to the Texas Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre, Twins catcher Joe Mauer gets my fourth place vote and my fifth place vote went to the shortstop from the New York Yankees because he played in 159 games and led the league in hits, and at bats at the age of 38.

National League

The Connie Mack (Top Manager) award goes to the Washington Nationals skipper Davey Johnson who took over the manager reigns late in 2011 and took the Nats to their first division championship and 98 wins this past season. Previous to taking over the Nationals manager role in 2011, Johnson last manged the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2000. My runner-up for NL skipper of the year goes to rookie manager Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals. In his first job as a manager the former catcher Matheny took his team to a wild card playoff spot and 88 victories after losing his best player (Albert Pujols) to free agency and losing one of his best pitchers (Chris Carpenter) for all but 3 games in 2012. The third place vote goes to the Cincinnati Reds skipper Dusty Baker for leading that team to a 97 win division winning season in his fifth year on the job.

The Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) award goes to the Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. The Nationals rookie also started his big league career in late April after starting the season in AAA and hit .270 with 22 home runs, 59 RBI’s, scored 98 runs and stole 18 bases. My runner-up may surprise some people but I think catcher Wilin Rosario of the Colorado Rockies had a fantastic rookie season hitting .270 with 28 home runs, 67 runs scored and 71 RBI’s while playing in just 117 games with just 396 at bats. My third place vote goes to lefty Wade Miley of the Arizona Diamondbacks who was 16-11 in 29 starts and 194.2 innings with a 3.33 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP for a team that went 81-81. Fourth place goes to 1B Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs and my fifth place vote goes to 27 year-old rookie pitcher Lucas Harrell who won 11 games for the worst team in baseball, the Houston Astros who won a total of 55 games this year.

The Goose Gossage (Top Reliever) award easily goes to the 24 year-old Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel who had 42 saves in 45 opportunities and posted a 3-1 record with a 1.06 ERA and a 0.65 WHIP. In 62.2 innings Kimbrel struck out 116 batters allowing only 27 hits and 14 walks and allowed opposing hitters a .126 batting average. The man is a machine. My runner-up is Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds who also had 42 saves and struck out 122 batters in 71.2 innings while posting a 1.51 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. Hitters hit .141 against Chapman. Third place goes to Jason Motte of the St., Louis Cardinals, fourth goes to Jonathan Papelbon of the Philadelphia Phillies and my fifth place vote goes to Joel Hanrahan of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Walter Johnson (Top Pitcher) award is a tough call but I am going with the New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey as my choice. Dickey pitched a league leading 233.2 innings and struck out a league leading 230 batters. The 37-year-old Dickey was 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP for a team that won a total of 74 games. My runner-up is Gio Gonzalez of the division winning Washington Nationals who was 21-8 with a 2.89 ERA and an amazing 0.4/9 home runs allowed. My third place vote goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers Clayton Kershaw, fourth place goes to the Atlanta Braves Craig Kimbrel and my fifth place vote is for Cincinnati Reds Johnny Cueto.

The Stan Musial (Top Player) award goes to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun again this year. Yes, I know all about last years fiasco with Braun but what can I say, the man puts up the numbers and without him the Brewers are nothing. Look at the numbers, a league leading 41 home runs to go with a league leading 108 runs scored, second in RBI’s (112) and a .319 batting average. Top that off with 356 total bases and you have the best player in the NL this season. The runner-up this year is Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen who had a wonderful season. My third place vote goes to San Francisco catcher and part-time first baseman Buster Posey. Posey almost single handedly led the Giants to the NL Western Division title and if he had played as well the entire year as he did in the second half of the season he might have been my choice to win this award. Posey hit .385 and knocked in 60 runs during the last half of 2012 coming off a horrific injury in 2011. I will go with New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey fourth in the voting here because without Dickey the Mets would have been not worth watching. Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel gets my fifth place vote.

So there you have it, the players that I think deserve to bring home the hardware after another great season of baseball in 2012. You may agree or disagree with my choices but that is what makes baseball such a great game and so much fun for us as fans to enjoy. When the BBA announces their winners in the near future I will share them with you.

This Day in Twins History – October 7, 1965

The Twins win game 2 of the 1965 World Series when Jim Kaat beats Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in front of 48,700 delirious fans at the Met. Bob Allison makes a fantastic catch sliding across the LF line in the top of the fifth inning off the bat of 2B Jim Lefebvre and to this day this is one of the finest fielding plays ever seen in a World Series.

Box score

classicminnesotatwins.blogspot.com video clip of Allison’s catch

Radio broadcast of the game (2 hours and 33 minutes long)

Don’t forget to check out our Today in Twins History page on a daily basis.

Tough times in Twinsville

The Minnesota Twins season ended on Wednesday in Toronto with another loss, the 96th of the season and went into the record books as the second consecutive season that the team had the worst record in the American league. On Thursday the payment came due for a number of manager Ron Gardenhire’s coaching staff.

It is never a good thing when someone loses their job, we all need to work in order to earn money to put food on the table and to support our  families. It is easy to say that so and so should be fired because the results are not what we want to see but I still find myself feeling sorry for the individuals involved. The coaches let go by the Twins yesterday didn’t make a single error, they didn’t throw any gopherballs and they certainly didn’t strikeout when the bases were loaded but yet today they still find themselves unemployed. When the team that you are coaching loses 90+ games for the second year in a row someone has to pay the price if for no other reason than to send a message to its paying customer fan base that the team is doing what it can to turn things around. But in reality the firing of bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek, or 3B coach Steve Liddle, or 1B coach Jerry White or even head trainer Rick McWane won’t add a single win to the Twins win column in 2013.

What it does do is send a message to everyone in the Twins organization that the Pohlad family views baseball as a business like any of their other businesses and if the Minnesota Twins are to be successful and profitable then everyone needs to work harder to be the best that they can be. When the Twins let these three coaches go, they lost 58 years of Twins coaching experience and head trainer Rick McWane has been in the organization for 24 years. Don’t think for a moment that this was a hasty decision, the team gave this matter a lot of thought, you don’t arbitrarily fire people with that much experience on a whim. Having said that, you also need to understand that it is natural for people to do things that have worked for them in the past and it is difficult for someone who has been with the organization for that many years to think outside of the box and come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things. In business it is a fine line between rewarding loyalty and making changes that bring new blood and new and fresh thinking into the organization. I am retired now but I worked for a single organization my entire 38 working years and I can tell you for a fact that there were many times over the years that either a new manager or a new employee would bring up a different way of doing something and we “old timers” in the company would say “stop right there, that is not the way we do it here at this company, we have been successful for many years doing it this way” so butt out and learn our ways of doing things or you will find yourself on the outside looking in. It is just the way that most of us think, change is difficult to accept and we don’t like to leave our comfort zones.

I feel the reason that the Twins have fallen on hard times is that they have neglected to accept change, the organization has gotten stale and they have gotten stuck in a rut with what has proven to work for them in the past and doing things the “Twins way”. There is always risk associated with any change but if you stand still and keep doing business as usual you will find out that your competitors not only have caught up to you but left you in their dust. It is easy to look at your team and say that we have some very good players and if we give them some time and experience they will continue to improve. That is true to a degree but you constantly need to look for better ways and better players. Over the year the Twins have been a model of stability but that only takes you so far, if you don’t take big risks at times you will not reap huge rewards. The Twins organization has been too conservative over the years and unwilling to take a risk, their “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” approach has now bit them in the butt. Sometimes change will pay off and other times it will come back to haunt you as we all have witnessed in the recent Tsuyoshi Nishioka situation. But if you let the fear of failure keep you from taking a risk to get better, your are done, it is time to move on. Failure to take solid calculated risks will certainly lead to mediocrity and we are all paying for that now.

A lot has been made of the Twins letting Rick Stelmaszek and his 32 years with the team go but let’s be realistic here, what has Stelmaszek contributed recently to help the team? Stelmaszek has had health issues over the several years that have name it difficult for him to fulfill all his coaching duties. It is time for Stelmaszek to retire and give someone else a chance. As for Steve Liddle, the rumors have been out there for some time that he was thinking of retiring, if you are not 100% committed it is time to move on. I have not heard much about Jerry White either from a positive or a negative stand point so maybe it is just time for a change there too. Bench coach Scott Ullger and hitting coach Joe Vavra have been reassigned and their future roles are not yet clear if they will have a job on a major league or minor league level.

I have no issue with Gardy keeping the managers title but I am not as convinced that Rick Anderson should have been retained as the pitching coach. Both of these guys have a year left on their contracts and it seems very clear to me that both of their jobs are at risk going forward. GM Terry Ryan holds the key here and if he doesn’t get some players this off-season both Gardenhire and Anderson will be history. Fair or not, that is life in professional baseball. You can make a case that Gardy should resign at this point and just walk away but I don’t think that is the way that Gardy is wired, the man wants to win but right now he does not have the horses in the barn that will allow him to do so. I like GM Terry Ryan a lot and respect what he has accomplished over the years but he too is at the crossroads coming into 2013, he has to come up with a way to get some players that will help the Twins win or he will be riding off into the sunset after next season. Twins president Dave St. Peter is not in the clear here either, when you are in charge of the entire organization you need to accepts responsibility for the negatives as well as the positives. Yes, the times are changing in Twinsville and the fans will speak their minds over the next few weeks as they chose to either renew or not renew their season tickets and I think their voices will be loud and clear and the Twins organization will probably not like what they hear.

Tyler Herr to play for Sydney Blue Sox

Tyler Herr

The Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League have announced that Twins farm-hand Tyler Herr will be their first import player from the United States and will join the team as they prepare to start their season. ABL teams are allowed to have up to six import players on the 35-man roster, and a maximum of four import players in the lineup at any given time. The 21-year old right-hander was a Twins 44th round pick in 2009 and has been in the Twins organization for 3 years playing for the GCL Twins in 2010-2011 and for the Elizabethton Twins this past season. With the E-Twins this year the 6’8″ Herr came out of the bullpen 21 times and posted a 3-0 record with a 2.56 ERA and struckout 29 batters in 31.2 innings.

Sydney’s ABL team will be working under new manager Jason “Pops” Pospishil, a current coach with the Minnesota Twins minor league system. Penrith local Pospishil will be preparing the Blue Sox for a three-game exhibition series against Australia from the 26th-28th of October. The Australia Series will serve as a warm-up for the forty-nine game Australian Baseball League schedule, with the three-game home opener against the Brisbane Bandits from November 9-11th.

This Day in Twins History – October 2

10/2/1974 – Harmon Killebrew wears the Twins uniform for the last time as a Twins player and appears as a pinch-hitter with two out in the bottom of the ninth but takes a called third strike from Steve Foucault for the final out of the game and the 1974 season. Only 2,570 fans see Harmon play his last game as a Minnesota Twin. Texas Rangers manager Billy Martin elects not use a designated hitter, and allows starting pitcher Ferguson Jenkins to bat for himself. Although Fergie gets a hit in the Texas 2-1 victory over the Twins at Metropolitan Stadium, the Rangers manager refusal to use a DH prevents the position from being employed for the entire game according to the rules.

10/2/1981 – The HHH Metrodome is inflated for the first time. It took two hours to inflate over 310 tons of fabric, covering the world’s largest air-supported multi-use stadium.

10/2/1988 – The Twins draw 35,952 fans in their season finale against the California Angels to become the first American League team to pass 3 million in attendance in a single season. They finish the season with a total attendance of 3,030,672. By the way, the Twins won the game 3-2.

10/2/1992 – Chili Davis hits home runs from each side of the plate against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium in a 5-1 Twins victory and becomes only the second Twins batter to accomplish this feat.

10/2/2002 – The Twins lose game 2 of the 2002 ALDS in Oakland to the A’s by a score of 9-1. Joe Mays was the losing pitcher and the Twins scored their only run on a Christian Guzman home run.

10/2/2004 – The game against the Indians at the Metrodome was suspended after 11 innings with the game tied at 5 because the playing surface had to be prepared for a Gophers football game. I was there and walked away feeling like I got cheated, baseball games are not supposed to end in a tie. The Twins won the game 6-5 in the 12th inning the next day. Kyle Lohse who pitched the 12th inning was the winning pitcher and he went on to start the regularly scheduled game for that day but he only lasted 4 innings and was the losing pitcher. Box score for suspended game.

10/2/2009 – Joe Nathan recorded his 46th save of the season and in the process broke the club single season save record held by Eddie Guardado who had 45 saves in 2002. Joe finished the 2009 regular season with 47 saves

Don’t forget to stop by daily and check out what transpired on our Today in Twins History page.

This Day in Twins History – September 30, 1981

Metropolitan Stadium in 1979. Note the Met Sports Center, home of the Minnesota North Stars in the background.

The Minnesota Twins played their final home game at Metropolitan Stadium in front of 15,900 fans on a drizzly and cloudy 52 degree day and lose to the Kansas City Royals 5-2. DH Roy Smalley makes the final Twins out at Met Stadium. John Verhoeven was the last Twins pitcher to toe the rubber at Met Stadium. Box score.

Home plate went missing just before the Minnesota Twins last game at Metropolitan Stadium in 1981. Ballpark access was apparently a little easier back in the day and a couple of presumably young pranksters dug it up and it was never heard from again. The Twins managed to locate a new one, though, and it was used in the final game against the Kansas City Royals. After the game, the historic plate and the three bases were given away in a raffle to those in attendance. The winner of the plate was a college kid named Bill Schnobrich, who worked part-time as a peanut vendor at the Stadium.

Schnobrich has moved to southern California but he was back in the Twin Cities recently and picked the plate up from a friend who’d been holding onto it. No doubt familiar with the prices some stadium memorabilia has been fetching in recent years, the Bible teacher is now thinking about selling it.

The first major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Dale Long of the Washington Senators on April 21, 1961. The last major league home run hit in Metropolitan Stadium came off the bat of Clint Hurdle of the Kansas City Royals on September 30, 1981. Harmon Killebrew hit two-hundred forty-six home runs in The Met (the most by any player in history) & the total number of major league home runs hit in Metropolitan Stadium was 2,866.

Don’t forget to check out the Today in Twins History page to see other exciting Twins events that occurred on this day in Minnesota Twins history.

First and only hit a bunt single

Cesar Tovar played for the Twins from 1965-1972

The only hit Baltimore pitchers allowed on Friday night in a game against the Boston Red Sox was a bunt single by Scott Podsednik to lead off the first inning. Podsednik ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly but the O’s ended up winning the game 9-1. The last player to get his only team’s hit on a bunt single to lead off a game was Cesar Tovar for the Twins at Washington’s RFK Stadium on Aug. 13, 1970. Tovar’s bunt single was the only hit off the Senators’ Dick Bosman, who outdueled Jim Kaat. Kaat allowed only five hits in a 1-0 Washington win, in a game that took only 2:02 to play. Box score of Twins/Senators game.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka is history

A Minnesota Twins Press Release today states that Tsuyoshi Nishioka has been given his unconditional release as of today at his request. Nishioka’s release saves the Minnesota Twins $3.25 million in salary and buyout in 2013.

Nishioka who has been in the Twins organization for the last two seasons released the following statement. “I would like to thank the Twins organization for helping me fulfill my dream of playing in Major League Baseball. I take full responsibility for my performance which was below my own expectations. At this time, I have made the decision that it is time to part ways. I have no regrets and know that only through struggle can a person grow stronger. I appreciate all the support the team and the fans in Minnesota and Rochester have shown me. Arigatou gozaimasu.”

Nishioka was not able to achieve the expectations that the Minnesota Twins organization had for him when they purchased and signed him back on December 16, 2010 from the Japanese League Chiba Lotte Marines. Nishioka suffered a broken league on April 7, 2011 while playing second base in a game at Yankee Stadium II in just his sixth big league game. Nishioka played in just 71 games (68 in 2011 and 3 in 2012) for Minnesota and hit .215 in 254 plate appearances while scoring 14 runs, knocking in 20 and stealing 2 bases in 6 attempts. Nishioka spent most of 2012 in AAA Rochester where he hit .258 in 431 plate appearances.

Nishioka had his problems with the stick but he also looked bad in the field playing both 2B and shortstop. In observing Nishioka in spring training in 2011 and 2012 he seemed to spend most of his time working out on his own and did not seem to really take any interest in being a part of the team. The way I see it, the Twins lucked out when Nishioka asked for his release and I’m sure they wasted no time granting his release before Nishioka had time to change his mind. Now the Twins can put that money to a better use and also have a roster spot open for a player that has at least some chance to help the Twins organization down the line. The Tsuyoshi Nishioka signing will go down in Twins lore as one of the worst player decisions that the Twins organization has ever made. Bill Smith who was the GM at the time paid his dues for his part in his fiasco and the scout(s) that recommended this signing should also pay with their jobs. Loyalty is a good thing and people make mistakes but the Twins have gone out of their way to hide the names of the scouts involved in the Nishioka signing and it is about time that those involved take some responsiblity for their actions before the book is closed on this chapter for the final time.

According to Elias

New York Yankee pitcher CC Sabathia struck out Joe Mauer three times in yesterdays 8-2 loss at Target Field on a total of nine pitches. There have been only three other games this season in which a pitcher stuck out a batter three times, on nine total pitches: Hisashi Iwakuma against Brett Lawrie on July 30; James Shields versus Wilson Betemit on July 26; and Yu Darvish facing Bobby Wilson on June 2. Prior to Wednesday’s game, Mauer had struck out three times against the same pitcher in one game only twice, and Sabathia was one of them, on July 29, 2007. The other was Ryan Dempster earlier this season (June 10).