Twins sign pitcher Eric Hacker

Eric Hacker

November 10, 2010 – The Minnesota Twins have signed 27 year old free agent pitcher Eric Hacker to a major league contract and placed him on the 40 man major league roster. The 6’1” right handed Hacker, a Texas native, was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the 23rd round of the 2002 amateur draft. Hacker spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons in the Yankees minor league system and then sat out all of 2004 due to right elbow surgery. Hacker only pitched 10 games in 2005 in the Yankee system and then sat out 2006 with shoulder inflammation. Hacker was back with the Yankees system in 2007 and 2008 but was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in May of 2009. Hacker made his major league debut with the Pirates in September of 2009 but only pitched in relief in 3 games throwing 3 innings while giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and 2 earned runs. At the end of the 2009 season Hacker was granted free agency and signed with the San Francisco Giants and he spent the entire 2010 season with Fresno in AAA where he started 29 games and was 16-8 with an ERA of 4.51 and a WHIP of 1.47 in a hitter’s league. Hacker allowed 185 hits in 165 innings and struck out 129 while walking 62. His average start lasted less than 6 innings. After talking with some members of the Twins organization it seems that the Twins scouts like Eric Hacker a lot and the Twins management trusts their scouts and have full confidence in them to find players that will help to make the Twins a better team. Only time will tell if Eric Hacker is that diamond in the rough that everyone is looking for or another pitcher that is just hanging on.

Did you know?

 

Aerial view shows a jam-packed Dodger Stadium--record crowd of 55,934--at third game of World Series. Photograph dated: October 11, 1965.

 November 7, 2010 – That prior to the advent of interleague play, the Twins were the only team in MLB history to play a regular season game and a World Series road game in the same ballpark. The American League Los Angeles Angels/California Angels played in Dodger Stadium from 1962 through 1965. In 1965, the Twins were 4-5 against the Angels at Dodgers Stadium but when they played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers stadium in the 1965 World Series they lost all three games in that same stadium.

Former Twins 1B Joe Lis passes away

Joe LisOctober 19, 2010 – Joseph Anthony Lis Sr., 64, passed away Sunday, October 17, 2010, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. Lis was born August 15, 1946, in Somerville, N.J.

Joe Lis signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 and ended up playing in the major leagues with the Phillies 70-72, the Minnesota Twins in 73-74, and the Cleveland Indians in 74-76 and the Seattle Mariners in 1977. Lis also spent some time in the White Sox and Tigers minor league systems.

Lis played in the minors for all or parts of 12 season’s and put up some decent numbers in 1,337 games, getting 4,492 at bats, and hitting 236 home runs while getting 604 RBI’s to go along with a .277 batting average. Lis was really never able to land a full time starting job in the big leagues. Lis’s best season may have been with the Minnesota Twins in 1973 when he appeared in 103 games, getting 253 at bats and hitting .245 with 9 home runs, 25 RBI’s and 37 runs scored. When his major league career ended after the 1977 season, Joe had played in all or part of 8 big league seasons, appearing in 356 games with 780 at bats and hitting 32 home runs and knocking in 92 RBI’s while hitting for a .233 average.

After retiring from baseball, Lis coached youth baseball for over 30 years and in his spare time he enjoyed golf, fishing, and spending time with his grandchildren. Joe Lis owned and operated the Joe Lis Baseball School since 1991 and also worked in insurance since 1989. The obituary for Joe Lis can be found in the Evansville Courier & Press. You can also find a very nice SABR biography about Joe Lis by clicking here. We at Twinstrivia.com would like to pass on our condolences to the Joe Lis family in their time of sorrow.

The Killer

October 15, 2010 – A nice article about Harmon Killebrew written by Barbara Heilman for Sports Illustrated’s Baseball issue back in April 8, 1963. A nice piece, it is well worth your time and you might even learn a few things about the Twins greatest slugger that you never knew before. Just click on the Sports Illustrated cover to read the article

Did you know?

October 11, 2010 – Don’t tell anybody but Minnesota’s home town hero Twins catcher Joe Mauer has lost each of the nine postseason games he’s played in his major-league career. Three other men have played on the losing team in at least nine postseason games without ever playing in a postseason win: Jody Reed (0-11), Don McMahon (0-10) and Leo Cardenas (0-9). Source: Elias

Elias says

October 7, 2010 – Twins take the lead, Yankees come back and win – same old script. The Yankees have won seven consecutive postseason games against the Twins, despite the Twins owning a lead in all seven games. That’s the longest such winning streak in postseason history. The next best belongs to the Indians, who won five straight games in that fashion against the Red Sox from 1998 to 1999.

October 9, 2010 – The bad news for Twins fans is that the team extended its postseason losing streak to 11 games on Thursday; the good news is that they cannot, this year, equal the major league record of consecutive postseason losses. The Red Sox lost 13 consecutive postseason games from 1986 to 1995, a streak that started with the Bill Buckner game.

The Twins did match 1 major-league record on Thursday night. The team that won World Series in both 1987 and 1991 by going a combined 8-0 at home has now lost its last 10 postseason home games (a streak that began in 2002); that ties the record set by the Phillies in a streak that lasted from 1915 to 1978 (or from Woodrow Wilson to Jimmy Carter).

A nice season for Delmon Young

October 3, 2010 – After hitting his 20th home run Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium, Delmon Young joins Justin Morneau (2008), Torii Hunter (2007), Michael Cuddyer (2006) and Kirby Puckett (1988) as the only players in club history to hit at least 20 home runs, collect at least 40 doubles and drive in at least 100 runs in a single season. Among those five, Morneau and Puckett are the only players to finish those seasons with a plus-.300 batting average. Source: Twins Press Pass

Homer Hanky History

October 1, 2010 – Do you remember 1987 and the first time that the Homer Hanky made its appearance? Check out this first hand recollection by Tim McGuire who was managing editor of the Star Tribune at the time. The story is a fun read and worth a few minutes of your time and it may even surprise you as to how it all came about. Click here to see the story.

Gardy wins game number 800

September 21, 2010 – Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire won his 800th game today in the Twins 6-4 win over Cleveland and now has a career record as a manager of 800-648. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last manager to reach 800 wins in 1,448 decisions or fewer was Davey Johnson. Johnson reached 800 wins in 1996 in his 1389th decision (800-589). The active manager with the fewest decisions to 800 career wins is Mike Scioscia (1452 decisions, 800-652). Congratulation to Gardy on a job well done!

1995 “Replacement Players”

September 16, 2010 – When the major league baseball lockout of 1994 dragged into the spring of 1995, the owners announced that they would start the season with “replacement players,” made up of minor leaguers and even some current or former major leaguers were willing to cross picket lines. Those that did would be ineligible to be members of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). These players do not pay union dues, but will receive full pension benefits from MLB. They also can use the Player’s Association’s grievance procedure. They do not receive a share of the collective royalties from the sale of baseball merchandise, such as baseball cards, but are free to make their own deals (this is why Rick Reed and others only appear on Topps cards as they have historically only signed individual players rather than work with the player’s union).

The strike was settled before any “regular season” games were played in 1995 and these replacement players were sent packing. There is a nice write-up on Baseball Almanac about this situation and the list of players that participated and that have seen major league service since that time. There are four players on the list with ties to the Minnesota Twins and one of the four actually played for the Twins the last two seasons, Ron Mahay. Oddly enough, Mahay was an outfielder at the time and didn’t start to call the mound home until 1996. The other players that were replacement players and played for the Twins were Chris Latham, Damian Miller, and Rick Reed.

The list on Baseball-Almanac is probably not all-inclusive as you can find various lists on the internet that name other players and I have seen former Twins Junior Ortiz and Dan Mastellar also listed as replacement players. The fact that some players played under an “alias” makes it even more difficult to determine a complete list of these replacement players.

It was a tough time and each of these players had their own reasons for crossing the picket line and I am not here to judge if what they did is right or wrong, you can only say that they did what they thought they had to do for themselves and their families in a stressful time for all. Mark Beech did a short piece for Sports Illustrated back in 2002 showing some of the consequences for players that did cross the picket line that you can read here. Hopefully we will not see another situation like this in our lifetime again.