TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Clark Beeker – Credit: Dennis Hubbard/Sports Cards N More
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) right-handed pitcher Clark Beeker has been named Twins minor league Player of the Week. Beeker made two starts for the Kernels, going 1-0, 0.00 ERA (17.2 IP) with no walks and 14 strikeouts. Before the season started, Class A Cedar Rapids pitching coach J.P. Martinez offered a steak dinner to anyone on the staff who could throw a shutout in 100 pitches or fewer. A hungry Clark Beeker made sure to cash in on the opportunity.
In 19 starts for the Kernels this season, his first season as a full-time starter, he has gone 10-3, 2.15 ERA (121.2 IP, 29 ER) with two complete game shutouts, 14 walks and 84 strikeouts. The man has never had an ERA for any pro team he has pitched for higher than 2.51.The North Carolina native was selected by the Twins in the 33rd round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Davidson College (NC).
I remember Yankee catcher Elston Howard well, he always seemed to find a way to beat our Minnesota Twins. Howard could do it all, he could hit, behind the plate he called a great game and he was a leader.
Do you remember how as a young child you used to “hate” certain ball players because they found ways to beat your favorite team? For me Ellie Howard was one of those players, it had nothing to do with the color of his skin, just the fact that he kept beating the Twins. As you grew up you realized that your ‘hate” for certain ball players was really respect in disguise.
To me Ellie Howard was always and always be a New York Yankee and I didn’t realize until a number of years ago that he was traded by the Yankees to the Boston Red Sox in August of 1967 and also played there in 1968. My time in the service from 1965-1968 limited my ability to follow baseball.
Ironically to me, it turns out that Elston Howard’s first game in a Boston Red Sox uniform took place at Met Stadium on August 5, 1967 against the Minnesota Twins. Howard went 0-3 that day and the Twins beat the Red Sox 2-1 on a complete game 3-hitter by Dave Boswell and the only Red Sox run scored on a Rico Petrocelli home run. Tony Oliva was 3 for 4 with an RBI and Zoilo Versalles was 2 for 4 with a home run that was actually the winning run.
The following players made their big league debuts in a Twins uni on August 6.
Andrew Albers on August 12, 2013 at Target Field
Andrew Albers (P) – August 6, 2013 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on March 10, 2011. Started the game against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium and pitched 8.1 scoreless innings allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk and earning his first big league victory in the Twins 7-0 whitewash of the Royals.
Oscar Munoz (P) – August 6, 1995 – Traded by the Cleveland Indians with Curt Leskanic to the Minnesota Twins for Paul Sorrento on March 28, 1992. Debuted in relief in the Dome pitching the final 3.2 innings allowing the Royals 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks in a Twins 11-1 defeat at the hands of the boys from KC.
Three players debuted in the big leagues as Minnesota Twins on August 5.
Tyler Duffey
Tyler Duffey (P) – August 5, 2015 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft. Duffey’s welcome to the “bigs” at Roger Centre against the Blue Jays in a Twins 9-7 loss was a rough one to put it mildly, just 2 innings pitched in the start and allowing 6 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks as he threw 60 pitches.
Jesse Crain
Jesse Crain (P) – August 5, 2004 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft. Debuted in a 8-3 Twins loss to the Anaheim Angels at the Humpty Dome pitching 1.1 scoreless inning allowing 2 hits and striking out two.
German Gonzalez (P) – August 5, 1988 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent on December 29, 1986. The Twins were whipping the Yankees 11-2 at Yankee Stadium II when Gonzalez was brought in to pitch the last inning which he did giving up just a hit and a walk but no runs.
Bartolo Colon went the distance for the Twins on Friday to earn his first win since signing with Minnesota last month. At age 44, Colon became the oldest player to record a complete-game win in the last seven seasons. The last player that threw a complete game and earned a win at an older age than Colon was Jamie Moyer, who was 47 years young when he held the Padres to two runs over nine innings for the Phillies on June 5, 2010. Colon did stake his claim as the oldest player with a complete-game win for the Twins/Senators franchise, besting Connie Marrero who was 43 at the time of his last complete-game victory for the Senators in 1954.
Including Friday’s performance, Colon has thrown a complete game for eight different major-league teams: the Indians, Expos, Angels, White Sox, Yankees, A’s, Mets, and Twins. Only two other pitchers that debuted in the modern era – that is, since 1900 – pitched a complete game for at least eight different ball clubs. Mike Morgan did so for nine different teams, and Doyle Alexander did so for eight teams.
Friday’s game marked Colon’s first win at Target Field, which is the 40th venue at which Colon has recorded a win. Only three other pitchers in the modern era have notched a win at 40 or more stadiums – Randy Johnson (43), Jamie Moyer (42), and Pedro Martinez (40). The all-time record holder is Tim Keefe, who won 342 games at 47 different stadiums from 1880 to 1893.
Have baseball, will travel
Jaime Garcia
Jaime Garcia’s winning streak ended on Friday night after allowing six runs (five earned) in his debut with the Yankees against the Indians. Garcia, who earned a win in his final start for the Braves on July 21 as well as his only start for the Twins on July 28, did put his name in the record books in another way, becoming the first pitcher in major-league history to start a game for three different teams over a span of 15 days. The previous shortest span for a pitcher making a start for three different teams was 23 days, a mark set by Ed Daily in 1890 (Brooklyn Gladiators of the American Association, New York Giants, Louisville Colonels of A.A.) and tied by Ron Darling in 1991 (Mets, Expos, Athletics).
I worked for several years to acquire a copy of all the Minnesota Twins media guides and completed the set last year. I have scanned and created a PDF of the 1967 Minnesota Twins Media Guide for everyone to enjoy. There is a lot of interesting data about the players and their records but the guide was pretty simple back then. The Twins media guide has obviously grown over the years and I believe the 2017 Twins media guide has 446 pages.
One player made his big league debut wearing a Twins uniform on August 4.
Don Williams (P) – August 4, 1963 – Acquired from Kansas City A’s in 1960. Debut was at Municipal Stadium in a Twins 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City A’s. Williams pitched 1.1 innings of relief allowing 2 hits and 3 walks but no runs.
I believe that Don Reid Williams is the only Twins player I do not have a picture of, if anyone out there does have any kind of picture of him, digital or hard copy, I would very much appreciate getting a copy.
Found in today’s Twins Notes, How can you not love stuff like this?
DID YOU KNOW?
Former Twins reliever Travis Bowyer is celebrating his 36th birthday today. Bowyer, a Twins 20th round pick in 1999 appeared in eight career games for the Twins, all in 2005. Bowyer, along with left-handed pitcher Scott Tyler were traded to the Florida Marlins in 2005, in exchange for second baseman Luis Castillo . Castillo was traded to the New York Mets in 2007, in exchange for catcher Drew Butera and outfielder Dustin Martin. Drew Butera was traded to Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013 in exchange for left-handed pitcher Miguel Sulbaran. Sulbaran was traded to New York Yankees in 2014 in exchange for infielder Eduardo Nunez. Nunez was traded to San Francisco Giants in 2016 in exchange for tonight’s starter Adalberto Mejia.
The 1967 Detroit rebellion, also known as the 1967 Detroit riot or as the 12th Street riot, was a violent public disorder that turned into a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan. It began in the early morning hours of Sunday July 23, 1967.
There was a recent article “Black Tigers: Detroit and the 1967 Rebellion” written by Andrew Linden Louis Moore and posted on the Sports in American History site that is worth reading. Check it out, it might make you wonder how much progress we have really made in the last 50 years.
Lenny Green who played for the Senators/Twins from 1959-1964 is one of the players in the article.
I got a little busy with some other activities yesterday and didn’t get the August 2 debuts out here so today we will do August 2 & 3.
Danny Ardoin (Credit: Getty Images)
Danny Ardoin (C) – August 2, 2000 – Traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Minnesota Twins for Mario Valdez on July 31, 2000. Debut was at Camden Yards in a Twins 10-6 win over the Orioles and Ardoin was 0 for 2 but scored a run and walked three times.
Bob Gebhard
Bob Gebhard (P) – August 2, 1971 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 44th round of the 1965 amateur draft. Debuted at White Sox Park in a 7-5 loss to the White Sox. He pitched 2 innings of scoreless, hit-less relief and allowed just the single walk.
Jim Merritt (P) – August 2, 1965 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1961 first-year draft. Debuted as a starter against the Orioles at the Met and had a 5-2 lead after 8 innings but in the ninth inning he retired Brooks Robinson on a ground ball, gave up a single to Bob Johnson, induced Carl Warwick to pop-up before giving up another single to Jerry Adair and that brought up catcher Dick Brown who proceeded to hit a 3 run home run, his only home run of the season and tied the score at 5-5. Johnny Klippstein was brought in and struck out Jim Palmer to end the threat. In the bottom of the ninth inning the first Twins batter was Klippstein and Jimmie Hall pinch-hit a walk-off home run for him off Palmer and Twins fans went home happy, Merritt probably was not in such a merry mood as he did the heavy lifting and Klippstein earned the “W”.
Jason Bartlett
Jason Bartlett (SS) – August 3, 2004 – Traded by the San Diego Padres to the Minnesota Twins for Brian Buchanan on July 12, 2002. Debuted as a sub for Cristian Guzman at the Dome and struck out in his only plate appearance but at least he got to shake hands on the field after the Twins 10-0 shellacking of the Angels.
