Tag: Tom Kelly

Manager ejections by the numbers

Back in December 2010 I did a post about Twins player ejections and determined that the Twins all time leader in player ejections was Torii Hunter with five. I mentioned in that article that I would look at manager ejections in the future and I have finally gotten around to doing it. Torii was ejected for the sixth time as a Twin on June 10, 2015 (updated 6/11/2015).

The Twins have had 12 managers since 1961 with some serving in that role for as little as 66 games but in the last 16 seasons they have had just two managers, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. According to the Twins, each player or manager ejected has to pay their own fines but I personally have my doubts about that. So let’s take a closer look at these managers and see how many times they ran afoul of an umpire. We will start at the bottom and work our way up the list of Twins managers career ejections.

0 –  Cookie Lavagetto managed in the majors for all or parts of five different seasons with the Washington Senators and the Twins managing a total of 657 games and during that time he was never ejected. Cookie was ejected once as a player (10 seasons) and twice as a coach (12 seasons).

1 – Johnny Goryl managed the Twins for just 73 games in the latter part of 1980 and early portion of 1981 and got the “out” sign from the umps just once as the Twins manager but he was ejected once as a player (6 seasons) and three times as a coach (13 seasons).

2 –  You wouldn’t expect to find the fiery Billy Martin this low on the ejection list but he only stayed around for one season as the Twins skipper and the umpires gave him the heave-ho just twice as the Twins manager but he was ejected a total of 46 times in his 16 seasons as a major league manager but he doesn’t even make the top 10 list. Billy also had 6 ejections during his 11 years as a player but as a coach (4 seasons) he never had to leave the game early.

3 – The mild-mannered players manager Sam Mele took the Twins to the 1965 World Series and was the Twins manager for all or parts of seven seasons. Mele hit the showers early just three times as the Twins manager and he did not have any run-ins with the umps during his 10 seasons as a player or two years as a coach.

4 – The only managing gig that Cal Ermer ever had was with the Twins for part of 1967 and all of 1968 and he had disagreements with umpires on four occasions that called for an early dismissal. Ermer spent 7 seasons in the minors as a player but never got the call to the big leagues as a player. Ermer coached for four seasons and was asked to leave the premises early in two games.

4 – Ray Miller was another Twins manager that didn’t last a full season, managing part of 1985 and most of 1986 but during that time he managed to find himself in the umpires cross-hairs four times and he clocked a total of 10 career ejections during his four seasons as a big league manager. Since he never played in the big leagues he had no ejections as a player but did get thrown out of one game while serving as a coach.

4 – Bill Rigney was a big league manager for 18 season between 1956-1976 and has notched 49 manager ejections, four of them were with the Minnesota Twins. Rigney was in the big leagues as a player for eight seasons and the umpires had him end his day early five more times. (SABR now has Rigney with 51 career ejections.)

5 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected. Last ejection April 20, 2017.

5 – Tom Kelly was named the Twins skipper late in 1986 and hung on to that role through the 2001 season before resigning. TK ended up winning two World Series and winning 1,140 of the 2,385 games he managed.  During this stretch TK was booted out of only 5 games, once each in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, and in 2000. He was sent packing for disagreeing on calls at first base twice and arguing balls and strikes three times. Kelly played in the big leagues during one season and coached for four more but he didn’t have any issues with the umpires that called for his dismissal.

5 – Frank Quilici took over from Bill Rigney as the manager about midway in 1972 and had that role through 1975. During Frank’s managing career the umpires asked him to head for an early shower five times. Frank played in the bigs during five different seasons and coached for two more without irritating any of the umpires, at least to the point of ejection.

7 – Gene Mauch managed for 26 seasons winning 1,901 of the 3,940 games with stops in Philadelphia, Montreal, Minnesota and California. The umpires saw fit to send Mauch packing a total of 43 times, seven of these early exits came as the Twins skipper. Mauch played in the majors for nine seasons and had a number of disagreements and the men in blue saw to it that Mauch was neither seen nor heard five times.

10 – Who would have thought that Billy Gardner would be so disagreeable that in his six seasons as a big league manager (five in Minnesota and one in KC) that umpires would send him home early 10 times (all as a Twins manager). I guess it was the fact that Gardner managed some pretty bad teams including the 1982 60-102 bunch that maybe drove him over the edge at times. It is Gardner however that is credited with molding these youngsters into ball players that would help the Twins win it all in 87 and 91. Gardner played big league ball in 10 different seasons and coached in five more but he never was ejected from a game until he became a manager.

 

Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.
Gardy is on his way to an early shower in 2006 as NIck Punto looks on.

63 – That bring us to the current Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy is a player and fan friendly manager that has had more than his share of disagreements with major league umpires, so many in fact that he has now moved up to a tie for 10th on the list of all-time MLB career manager ejections list. With just four more “your outta here” by the umpires Gardy will pass Joe Torre and have 9th place all to himself. The only active manager ahead of Gardenhire is Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland with 68 and you have to figure he will keep adding to his ejection total.  As Gardy prepares for his 12th season as the Twins manager he already had 63 ejections on his resume as a manager plus one additional early exit as a coach back in 1998. One of Gardy’s 63 ejections was during game 2 of the 2010 ALDS against the New York Yankees at Target field. The Twins have played in Minnesota for 52 seasons and had eleven managers prior to Gardenhire and when you add up all those manager ejections you get a total of 45. Gardy has managed a total of 1,773 Twins games so that means he gets ejected once every 28.14 games and averages just under 6 early showers a season. Gardenhire has a high of 8 ejections in a season twice and his low was just 3 ejections and that was in 2012, maybe Gardy is starting to mellow or he just realized he had a bad team last year and didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with the umpires.

Hunter Wendelstedt III
Hunter Wendelstedt III

So who is the man who has sent Gardy to the showers the most frequently over the years? The one and only Hunter Wendelstedt III has called for an early exit by Gardy on five occasions and he only has 63 career ejections so Gardy has 12.6% of Wendelstedt’s ejections. Isn’t it strange that Gardy has been ejected 63 times and Wendelstedt has 63 ejections on his career resume too. Next on the list are Chris Guccione and Gerry Davis with four Gardenhire ejections each. The first time that Gardy was run by Wendelstedt was on July 18, 2005 in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome. Gardy was not pleased and had this to say after the game but I should warn you that if you have young children near by you might want to “eject them from the room” before you hit the play button. If you are listening to this at work you might want to turn the volume down.

Gardy tirade

By the way, the umpire with the most career ejections is Bill Klem with 256 but he umpired 5,369 games between 1905-1941 and is in the Hall of Fame. The active umpire with the most career ejections is Bob Davidson with 156.

If you look back in franchise history the Washington Senators had  18 different managers from 1901 -1960 (Bucky Harris served in that capacity three different times)  and these managers were ejected a grand total of 43 times with Bucky Harris leading the pack with 12 heave-ho’s but he managed the Senators for 18 seasons and 2,776 games.

The best manager meltdown I think I have ever seen has to be Phillip Wellman on June 1, 2007 when he was the skipper for the AA Mississippi Braves. Here is a video clip of the epic ejection, Wellman ended up with a 3 game suspension for his efforts.

http://youtu.be/Ggy6WGUFaYs

Looking through various MLB record and stats and getting some help from David Vincent at SABR I was able to get a list of MLB managers that have been thrown out of a game at least 50 times during their career’s. I added in the number of games they managed and came up with a ratio of how often they get ejected. The lower the “games per ejection” the more often the manager has been ejected. You can see that Ron Gardenhire is in some pretty select company.

Managers with 50 or more ejections (through 2014 season)

  Ejections Manager Games Managed Games per Ejection
1. 161 Bobby Cox# 4,501 27.96
2. 118 John McGraw# 4,768 40.41
3. 94 Earl Weaver# 2,541 27.03
3. 94 Leo Durocher# 3,738 39.77
5. 86 Tony LaRussa# 5,094 59.23
6. 80 Paul Richards 1,837 22.96
6. 80 Frankie Frisch# 2,246 28.08
8. 72 Jim Leyland 3,496 48.56
8. 72 Ron Gardenhire 2,107 29.26
10. 66 Joe Torre# 4,292 65.03
11. 63 Lou Piniella 3,544 56.25
12. 63 Bruce Bochy* 3,222 51.14
13. 58 Clark Griffith# 2,917 50.29
14. 52 Charlie Manual 1,794 34.50
15. 51 Bill Rigney 2,561 50.22
16. 50 Mike Hargrove 2,350 47.00
* = active managers
# = in Baseball Hall of Fame as managers except for Frisch who is in as a player and Griffith who is in as an Executive

 

Let’s take a look at each baseball franchise and see which of their managers has the most ejections to his credit. You might note that some of these managers made the list more than once. Data is current through the 2013 season.

 

Rank Team Manager Ejections Games managed that team
1 Braves Bobby Cox 140 3,860
2 Giants John McGraw 105 4,424
3 Orioles Earl Weaver 94 2,541
4 Twins Ron Gardenhire 72 2,107
5 Pirates Frankie Frisch 47 1,085
6 Dodgers Tom Lasorda 43 3,040
7 Cardinals Tony LaRussa 39 2,591
8 Phillies Charlie Manual 41 1,415
9 Angels Mike Scioscia 36 2,430
10 Padres Bruce Bochy 33 1,926
11 Indians Mike Hargrove 29 1,312
12 White Sox Jimmy Dykes 28 1,850
12 White Sox Paul Richards 28 774
12 Mariners Lou Piniella 28 1,551
12 Blue Jays Cito Gaston 28 1,731
16 Rays Joe Maddon 27 1,134
17 Tigers Jim Leyland 30 1,294
18 Red Sox Terry Francona 25 1,296
18 Brewers Phil Garner 25 1,180
18 Brewers Ned Yost 25 959
21 Yankees Ralph Houk 23 1,757
21 Reds Sparky Anderson 23 1,450
21 Mets Joe Torre 23 709
24 A’s Tony LaRussa 22 1,471
24 Rockies Clint Hurdle 22 1,159
26 Rangers Bobby Valentine 20 1,186
27 Nationals/Expos Buck Rodgers 18 1,020
28 Cubs Leo Durocher 17 1,065
29 Diamondbacks Bob Melvin 15 677
29 Royals Buddy Bell 15 436
31 Astros Phil Garner 13 530
32 Marlins Fredi Gonzalez 11 555

I need to thank David Vincent from SABR and retrosheet.org for providing material for this article.

UPDATE April 28, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Rangers game earlier today giving him 64 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 63.

UPDATE May 25, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game earlier today giving him 65 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 64.

UPDATE July 13, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Yankees game earlier today giving him 66 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 65.

UPDATE August 29, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Royals game earlier today giving him 67 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 66.

UPDATE September 12, 2013 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/A’s game last night giving him 68 manager ejections or if you chose not to count playoff (1) ejections he stands at 67.

UPDATE May 11, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the Twins/Tigers game today giving him 68 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 69.

UPDATE June 22, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/White Sox game at Target Field giving him 69 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 70.

UPDATE July 5, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from today’s Twins/Yankees game at Target Field giving him 70 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 71.

UPDATE July 30, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Kauffman Stadium giving him 71 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 72.

UPDATE August 19, 2014 – Ron Gardenhire was ejected from yesterday’s Twins/Royals game at Target Field giving him 72 regular season ejections or if you chose to also include playoff (1) ejections he stands at 73. This ejection moved Gardy into a tie with Jim Leyland for 8th place on the all-time manager ejection list

Update June 11, 2015 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected.

Update July 26, 2015 – Paul Molitor earned his second managerial career ejection at Target Field yesterday when he was ejected by umpire Jeff Nelson for arguing an Aaron Hicks checked swing that was called strike three.

Update August 23, 2015 – Paul Molitor was ejected for the third time in his managerial career, this time in Camden Yards in a Twins win against the Orioles. Molitor loss his cool when Miguel Sano was called out on a check swing. Funny thing was that Molitor was sent packing twice because the home plate umpire ejected him when Molly came out to argue and the home plate umpire was not aware that the first base umpire had already ejected him.

Update May 4, 2016 – Paul Molitor ejected by Scott Barry for arguing balls and strikes at Minute Maid Park in a 16-4 loss to the Astros.

Update April 20, 2017 – Paul Molitor ejected by Alan Porter in the ninth inning for arguing balls and strikes at Target Field in a 6-2 loss to the Indians.

 

Make sure you stop by my new Twins Managers Ejections page.

Twins pitchers with great ERA’s

The Twins finished with a 66-96 record in 2012 and the teams starting pitching was blamed for the teams poor play. The teams starting pitching had a league worst 5.40 ERA and the starters posted a 39-75 record. As a whole the entire pitching staff posted a 4.77 ERA which is the seventh worst in team history. Previous Twins teams that had higher ERA’s than the 2012 Twins were –

The 1995 team had a 5.76 ERA and finished with a 56-88 mark.

The 1994 team had a 5.68 ERA and finished with a 53-60 mark.

The 1996 team had a 5.28 ERA and finished with a 78-84 mark.

The 2000 team had a 5.14 ERA and finished with a 69-93 mark.

The 1999 team had a 5.00 ERA and finished with a 63-97 mark.

The 1997 team had a 5.00 ERA and finished with a 68-94 mark.

It is easy to forget some of the horrendous pitching staffs that Tom Kelly managed in the mid to late 90’s. But this article is not about how bad the Twins pitching has been over the years but instead is just laying some ground work to highlite some of the Twins best pitching performances over the years based simply on ERA. I know that ERA is not necessarily the best way to determine pitching quality but ERA has been around for a long time and provides us with a measurement tool of sort. The Twins have used many pitchers since the team moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season  but I can only find 12 Twins pitchers, barely enough to comprise a pitching staff that have thrown 100 or more innings and posted an ERA of 2.50 or under in a single season. So lets take a look at who these pitchers were and the dominating season that they had.

1. Doug Corbett in his first season in the big leagues in 1980 pitched in 63 games, all in relief and posted a 1.98 ERA in 136.1 innings and had 23 saves to go along with his 8-6 record. Corbett was acquired by the Twins in December 1979 as a Rule 5 draftee from the Cincinnati Reds.

2. Bill Dailey in his first season in Minnesota and third in the big leagues in 1963 pitched in 66 games, all in relief and posted a 1.99 ERA in 108.2 innings and had 21 saves to go along with his 6-3 record.

3. Stan Williams in his 12 big league season and first as a Twin in 1970 pitched in 68 games, all in relief and posted a 1.99 ERA in 113.1 innings and had 15 saves to go along with his 10-1 record.

4. Jim Kaat was in his 12th season for the Twins and in 1972 had started 15 games before getting hurt in early July and sitting out the rest of the season. In this 15 games he pitched 113.1 innings and posted a 2.06 ERA to go along with his 10-2 record.

5. Ron Perranoski in his second season in Minnesota in 1969 appeared in 75 games, all in relief and posted a 2.11 ERA in 119.2 innings and had a league leading 31 saves to go along with his 9-10 record.

6. Francisco Liriano in his first full season as a Twin in 2006 appeared in 28 games starting 16 of them and posted a 2.16 ERA in 121 innings. Liriano put up a 12-3 record to go along with his first big league save.

7. Jim Perry in his 10th big league season and his 6th in Minnesota in 1968 appeared in 32 games starting 18 of them and posted a 2.27 ERA in 139 innings while notching 1 save to go along with his 8-6 record. Perry went on to win 20 games in 1969 and a league leading 24 wins in 1970 when he won the Cy Young award.

8. Ron Perranoski is the only pitcher to make this list twice. In 1970 Perranoski had a 2.43 ERA when appeared in 67 games throwing 111 innings and once again led the league in saves with 34 to go with his 7-8 won/lost record.

9. Allan Anderson had a breakout season in 1988 when he started 30 games throwing 202.1 innings and putting up a league leading 2.45 ERA to go along with his 16-9 record.

10. Camilo Pascual was in his 10th season with the Senators/Twins in 1963 when he started 31 games throwing 248.1 innings with a league leading 18 complete games and posted a nifty 2.46 ERA that went well with his 21-9 record.

11. Dave Goltz made the list in 1978 which was his 7th big league season with Minnesota when he had a 2.49 ERA when he started 29 games and pitched 220.1 innings going 15-10 and that was a season after he had won 20 games.

12. Tom Burgmeier was in his 9th big league season and third with the Twins in 1976 when he appeared in relief in 57 games when he pitched 115.1 innings posting a 2.50 ERA to go along with his 8-1 record.

So what kind of ERA did the Twins World Series teams have? The 1965 Twins pitching staff had a 3.14 ERA, the 1991 Twins put up a 3.69 ERA and the 1987 world champs had a 4.63 ERA.

How Twins have fared against other AL opponents

The Washington Senators played in Washington D.C. from 1901 through 1960. During those 60 years the team played 9,188 games and had 4,223 wins, 4,864 losses and 101 ties to show for their efforts. Excluding the tie games the Senators had a .460 winning percentage.

Since the Minnesota Twins took the field for the first time as a major league team back on April 11, 1961 against the New York Yankees the Minnesota Twins have played 8,293 games and have 4,138 wins, 4,147 losses and 8 ties for a .499 winning percentage. Their home record stands at 2,241-1,913 for a .539 win percentage and on the road they have 1,897 wins and 2,234 losses for a .459 winning percentage.

I have put together a chart that shows how the Twins have fared against their American League brethren from 1961-2012 under Gardy, under TK, and the other 10 Twins managers combined that preceded TK and Gardy from 1961-1986, I know that TK managed briefly in 1986 but I have not included those few games in TK’s stats.

It comes as no surprise that the Kansas City Royals have been Twins patsies for a long time or that the New York Yankees have caused the Twins to get into a fetal position in the corner and cry. But a .276 winning percentage against the Bronx Bombers since Gardy took over as the Twins skipper is just plain atrocious, how can one team be so dominant?  That number truly amazes me. You have to understand, I like Gardy as a manager but a .276 winning percentage means that if the Twins played the Yankees under Gardy in every game of a 162 game schedule, the Twins would end up with a 45-117 record under Gardy’s leadership. There is an old baseball axiom that states that if you play 162 games, odds are that you will win at least 60 games and lose at least 60 games, at that rate even if you lost all of the remaining 42 games you would sill have a .370 winning percentage. YIKES!

The only Central division team to hold a winning record over the Twins is the Cleveland Indians. The Twins have beat 8 teams more often than they have lost and 6 teams hold a winning percentage over Minnesota.

Team Wins Losses Win % Pre 1987 Under TK Under Gardy
Royals 361 315 .534 .500 .492 .621
Senators/Rangers 360 321 .529 .561 .444 .550
Tigers 391 349 .528 .500 .569 .542
White Sox 420 383 .523 .545 .481 .517
Oak/KC A’s 358 335 .517 .523 .500 .520
Tampa 60 56 .517 n/a .447 .551
Brewers/Pilots 226 215 .512 .528 .472 .545
Red Sox 293 290 .503 .503 .512 .478
Indians 361 377 .489 .478 .463 .532
Mariners 196 211 .482 .508 .449 .505
Angels 326 353 .480 .487 .497 .421
Orioles 270 317 .460 .443 .472 .513
Blue Jays 153 197 .437 .518 .395 .410
Yankees 247 338 .422 .436 .463 .276

Twins fill coaching vacancies

Twins General Manager Terry Ryan announced today that he had filled the three open coaching staff positions by naming Tom Brunansky as the hitting coach, Bobby Cueller as the bullpen coach and Terry Steinbach as the bench coach and catching instructor.

Brunansky who had a 14 year big league career played for the Twins from 1982 – 1988 and has been a hitting coach for AA New Britain in 2011 and AAA Rochester this past season. The 52 year-old Brunansky also played for the Angels, Cardinals, Red Sox and Brewers replaces Joe Vavra who will serve as the 3B coach and infield instructor in 2013. Vavra has served as the Twins hitting coach since 2006.

Cueller, 60 has only pitched in 4 big league games (Texas Rangers in 1977) but he pitched in the minors for 11 seasons from 1974 to 1985. Cueller just wrapped up his ninth season in the Twins’ organization and fourth consecutive as the Red Wings pitching coach after serving as Double-A New Britain’s manager in 2008. Cueller has also served as a major league coach for the Seattle Mariners in 1995-1996, the Montreal Expos in 1997-2000, the Texas Rangers in 2001 and for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006-2007. Over the years Cueller has coached Cy Young award winners Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and is credited with teaching Johan Santana is change-up. Cueller also has a history with Carl Pavano. Cueller replaces Rick Stelmaszek who served as bullpen coach for five different Twins managers since 1981. The fact that Cueller is fluent in Spanish will also help the staff to better communicate with their Spanish-speaking players.

Terry Steinbach will take over the bench coach position from Scott Ullger. The 50 year-old former big league catcher spent part of 14 seasons with the Oakland Athletics (1986-96) and Minnesota Twins (1997-99), after playing college baseball at the University of Minnesota. Steinbach has been a guest instructor in spring training for the Twins for the last 13 years.I find it interesting that the Twins would give Steinbach who has not coached or managed in the big leagues the bench coach role that is normally given to experienced coaches and managers. Scotty Ullger will coach 1B and instruct the outfielders. Ullger has no big league outfield experience but he did play some outfield back in the minors back in the 80’s. Ullger has also served as the Twins manager in the past when the umpires have decided that Gardy needs a time-out, I wonder who fills that role now. I guess I just don’t see Ullger managing from 1B.

Rick Anderson will retain his pitching coach role and will be the only coach that will be doing the same job as he has done in the past. Over the past month or so Hall of Famer and former Twins DH Paul Molitor has mentioned that he would be open to a coaching role but GM Ryan quickly put a kibosh on that stating that “Molitor was not a fit at the present time” but no other reasons have been provided. My guess is that the Minnesota Twins who always like to project a squeaky clean image don’t feel that Molitor who has had substance abuse issues and other personal problems in the past fits in their plans at the current time. I personally have no issue with that and when I have observed Molitor during his spring training stints he seems to prefer to do his job and interact as little as possible with Twins fans who would like to spend some time chatting with him or getting his autograph. Heck, Tom Kelly spends way more time interacting with the fans then Molitor does. I asked Molitor to stop for a quick picture after spring training practice one day this spring and he acted like I asked him for 2 hours out of his busy schedule.

Congratulations to Tom Kelly

Jay Thomas Kelly will have his number 10 retired on Saturday and we here at Twins Trivia would like to add our congratulations for a well deserved honor. Kelly was originally drafted by the Seattle Pilots in round 8 of the 1968 amateur draft but the Seattle Pilots relocated after just one season in the Emerald city and moved to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers.  Within days of being released by the Brewers in April of 1971, Kelly signed as a free agent with Minnesota. With the exception of 1976, Kelly has been in the Twins organization since 1971. Kelly has played for, coached and managed the Minnesota Twins and on occasion has even taken his turn at the microphone to describe Twins action on television.

Actually, over the years Tom Kelly has worn several different numbers with the Minnesota Twins. When he played 49 games for the Twins in 1975 he wore the number 16. When he coached the Twins from 1983-1986 he wore the number 41 and he wore that same number for the remainder of the 1986 season after being named as the Twins interim manager replacing Ray Miller who was relieved of his duties on September 12, 1986. Kelly then switched to the number 10 prior to the 1987 season and wore that number for the remainder of his Twins managing career through the 2001 season.

Who else has worn the Twins number 10 you ask? Here is the complete list now that no other Minnesota Twin will wear that number again.

 1961-1967 – catcher Earl Battey
1968 – catcher John Roseboro
1868-1972 – 3B/OF Rick Renick
1973-1974 – 1B Joe Lis
1974 – 1B Pat Bourque
1975-1977 – OF Lyman Bostock
1978-1981 – OF Hosken Powell
1982-1983 – OF Bobby Mitchell
1984-1986 – catcher Jeff Reed
 

Since Tom Kelly last wore the number 10 in 2001, no other Twins have ever that number.

This Day in Twins History – September 5

9/5/1978 – The Twins Danny Ford costs his team a run during a 4-3 loss to the White Sox at Met Stadium. Trailing 4-0 in the seventh, Ford is on third with the bases loaded when Bombo Rivera singles, Ford backpedals homeward, signaling Jose Morales who was on second to follow him home. Morales arrives there ahead of Ford, and is called out for passing Ford on the bases.

9/5/1997 – The Atlanta Braves send 1B Steve Hacker to the Twins for catcher Greg Myers.

9/5/2010 – As part of the Minnesota Twins 50th anniversary celebration week-end, the Twins played a 3 inning “Legends” game. The Minnies played the Paul’s and the managers were Tom Kelly and Frank Quilici. The Minnies won the game 5-1. Kent Hrbek was a huge hit with the fans when he took out a huge divot in the Target Field turf while going for a foul pop-up. Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington took part in the game as a member of the Minnies but Twins manager Ron Gardenhire passed up the chance to play. The “real” game was played after the Legends game and the Twins beat the Rangers by a score of 6-5 but it was how this game ended that had everyone buzzing. Let me set the stage because we were there to witness this first hand. After 8 innings the Twins led 6-2 and appeared to have the game well in hand but in the top of the ninth with Jon Rauch on the mound for the Twins starting his second inning of relief after Nick Blackburn had pitched the first 7 innings, Ian Kinsler started the 9th inning with a single. Rauch then retired Mitch Moreland and Matt Treanor on strikeouts but Julio Borbon doubled to left scoring Kinsler. Gardenhire then brought in his closer Matt Capps who proceeded to give up a single to former Twin Christian Guzman and Borbon scored the second run of the inning. Michael Young singled and David Murphy then walked to load the bases. Vladimir Guerrero reached on an infield single up the middle that Twins 2B Orlando Hudson fielded behind the bag. Young came running around third and, in the view of third base umpire Alfonso Marquez, briefly tapped hands with Texas 3B coach Dave Anderson. Young then stopped and scrambled back to the bag. He made a dive and appeared to beat Hudson’s throw to third baseman

Matt Capps

Matt Tolbert. But standing near the base, Marquez pointed and made the interference call for the third out and the Twins walked away winners as Texas manager Washington and Young pleaded their case to the umps to no avail. Also strange was the fact that Twins closer Matt Capps came in with 2 out in the ninth and faced four batters, giving up a single, another single, a walk and yet another single and never really retiring anybody but yet ended up with the save and credit for 1/3 of an inning pitched.

It turns out that September 5 can be a strange day on the base paths.

Spending some time with Dave McCarty

Dave McCarty

Dave McCarty was born in Houston, Texas on November 23, 1969. Dave grew up playing the three major sports and attended Sharpstown High School in Houston. Like most Texas athletes, McCarty grew up thinking he would attend the University of Texas but while on a recruiting trip to Stanford he fell in love with the campus, the weather and the quality of education offered there and before he knew it he had accepted a baseball scholarship and became a Stanford Cardinal. In 1991 after hitting .420 with 24 home runs, 66 RBI’s with a .828 slugging percentage McCarty was named as a first team All-American and the NCAA National Player of the Year.

McCarty was the Twins first round pick (third overall behind Brien Taylor and Mike Kelly) in the 1991 June amateur draft and he signed with Minnesota a few weeks later for a $390K bonus. McCarty started his baseball career in “A” ball with Visalia and quickly moved up to AA Orlando. In 1992 McCarty spent most of the season with Orlando but was promoted at the end of the season to AAA Portland where he played in 7 games. McCarty started the 1993 season with Portland but in May the Twins called him up and on May 17, 1993 Dave McCarty made his major league debut at the Metrodome as an outfielder against the New York Yankees. McCarty was 1-4 in his first big league game but the Twins lost 11-5. McCarty stayed with the Twins for the rest of the 1993 season but his relationship with manager Tom Kelly left something to be desired. McCarty started the 1994 season with Minnesota but appeared in only 44 games through the end of June and was sent back to Portland where he finished the 1994 season. McCarty again started the 1995 season in Minnesota but played sparingly and on June 8, 1995 the Twins traded their 1991 first round pick to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher John Courtright who as it turned out would never spend a day in a Minnesota Twins uniform. McCarty never played for the Reds either and just 6 weeks later they sent him to the San Francisco Giants in a big seven player trade. McCarty played for the Giants 1995-1996, the Mariners in 1998, the Royals in 2000-2002, the Tampa Devil Rays in 2002, the Oakland A’s in 2003 and finished his big league career with the Boston Red Sox between 2003 and 2005 where he ended up earning a World Series ring in 2004 though he did not appear in the playoffs or the World Series that season.

McCarty played 1B/outfield in the major leagues for all or parts of 11 seasons but the most at bats he ever accumulated in a single season was during his rookie year in Minnesota when he had 350. Though he had a strong college hitting career he quickly became labeled as a utility player in the big leagues and was known more for his glove work that his work with the stick. In his big league career McCarty hit .242 in 1,493 at bats with 36 home runs, 175 RBI’s, and had 9 stolen bases. A right-handed hitter, McCarty threw left-handed and was used as a pitcher on 3 occasions with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 pitching a total of 3.2 innings against the Blue Jays, Dodgers and the Orioles. Although he posted a 0-0 record he did have a nice 2.45 ERA and he struck out 4 batters while walking just one batter.

After retiring from baseball as an active player in May of 2005 Dave McCarty joined NESN as the Red Sox baseball analyst where he stayed until the end of the 2008 season. Now days Dave McCarty works in commercial real estate for Lee & Associates in Oakland and lives in the Piedmont, California area with his wife Monica and two children. Monica McCarty is a well-known Scottish historical romance writer who has published numerous books and has been on the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. In his spare time Dave enjoys playing golf and spending time traveling with his family.

Earlier this month I had a chance to interview Dave and you can listen to that interview here. Be sure to check out our other interviews with former Twins players by going to the Interview Archives page, there are 37 different interviews you can check out.

Checking on the minor league side

 

When I arrived at Hammond Stadium today there was not a lot going on the big league side with a lot of the Twins preparing to play Tampa at Port Charlotte today. A little BP for a couple of players, several pitchers were getting some throwing in and the rest of the pitchers that didn’t go to Port Charlotte were shagging fly balls during BP. I wandered of to the minor league side where all the fields were in use in one fashion or another and a couple of the lower level teams were bussed over to the old Red Sox complex so they could get there work in before coming back in the afternoon for a quick-lunch and a ball game this afternoon. I didn’t have the time to stay for the game but I did get some pictures of the minor leaguers that were there this morning.

Miguel Sano

On one of the fields coaches Tom Kelly and Paul Molitor were working with two infielders at a time teaching then the proper techniques for back handing a ball, flipping the ball to second and turning the double play etc. I saw Miguel Sano being put through his paces there, Adam Pettersen was there as well as several others. The attached picture of Sano fielding a ball at shortstop kind of says it all as to why he will not be a shortstop in the big leagues, he is just too big. I found it a bit more difficult shooting pictures today now that we are on EDT with the sun angle at this hour of the day. I found myself shooting into the sun all day and that is never a good thing.

So, not much for me to report today but I hope that you enjoy the pictures I took on the back fields. The first picture I took today is of Anthony Swarzak getting his throwing in, I am shocked at how much weight Swarzak has lost since last year. If you have not been checking out our “Today in Twins History” page, please stop by and check it out, there is a lot of cool stuff out there.

Another beautiful day at the ballpark

A new day, a new month and another trip to the ballpark and another great day in Southwest Florida. I parked my car on Kelly avenue today and walked over to the nearest field and I saw Gardy conducting a drill where the pitcher runs off the mound and takes a throw to make a tag play at the plate. I watched that for a bit and then I saw GM Terry Ryan and I wanted to say hello but he was talking with some other Twins execs so I kept moving.  I walked to one of the back fields and came across coach Tom Kelly on a field with another unidentified coach and a third baseman that was taking some ground balls and practicing his back-hand and then the footwork necessary to get a good throw over to first. Unfortunately, I don’t know who the third baseman or the coach were because I had forgotten my roster numbers at home and I didn’t want to buy another one.

I then wandered over to a field where a handful of the minor league regulars were going through their daily drills and I wanted to say hello to Max Kepler and get a picture but Max was in the outfield shagging fly balls out of my camera range and I waited for a while but apparently it was not time for him to come in to take BP. You have to give credit to these guys, they are out there day after day going through the same drills, rain or shine with coach Tommy Watkins and they were doing this when I got here on February 1st and the minor league players don’t report I think for another week or 10 days. These guys should get a gold star next to their names for putting in the work necessary to make themselves better ball players.

Toru Suzuki

Then I slipped over to another field and here I saw Tsuyoshi Nishioka with another group of Twins going through some infield drills with runners on the bases. Next to the field I saw Nishioka’s personal trainer and his agent Toru Suzuki. I introduced myself to Mr. Suzuki, gave him my card and asked him if he had time for a couple of questions. He didn’t say no so I asked him why Twins fans should have any hope for Nishioka playing better in 2012 than he did in 2011. Mr. Suzuki looked at me and said he (Nishioka) will be better because he was hurt last year and never really recovered and it was after all, his first year in the United States. I then asked him why Nishioka seemed to prefer working out on his own versus working with his teammates and he told me that Nishioka is working out with his teammates right now and he had a point there. By this time, we were walking away from the field back to the big league clubhouse and I had the feeling that my interview was over but being as pushy as I am, I had to ask one more question. I asked Mr. Suzuki if he felt that Tsuyoshi Nishioka had a chance to win a starting infield job with the Twins and without any hesitation he replied, “yes, I think he can, he is working hard”.  Then he and the trainer started walking away from me so I took the hint and let them walk.

Later on I got a chance to spend about 15 or 20 enjoyable minutes alone with GM Terry Ryan watching some BP and talking Twins baseball. We talked about Jamey Carroll, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Justin Morneau, JR Towles, Steve Pearce, and the bullpen. I asked about Joel Zumaya but he has not heard from Zumaya at this point on what his plans are. It was fun chat, we in Minnesota are very lucky to have a GM that is willing to talk baseball with Twins fans. The thing I think I enjoy most about Terry Ryan is that he listens to what you have to say and then he tells you what he thinks, he doesn’t beat around the bush. He always makes you defend your position with facts. But when a 9-year-old boy walked up to Terry when we were talking Twins baseball and asked him what it would take to be a Twins ball boy, Ryan took the time to explain to the young man that the bat boys were chosen by the Twins and that you had to be 16 years of age. “You are not 16 are you”?, Terry asked the boy, but by then the young man was already running back to his Dad. Later in the day I had a chance to talk with the young mans Dad and he said that his son had tears in his eyes because Terry Ryan had told him he had to be 16 years old to be a Twins ball boy. Baseball is like that, it can break your heart.

After all this fun you would think my day would be over wouldn’t you? You would be wrong, I still had a Twins “B” game to watch. It was kind of interesting because there was no admission charge for the game that was played in Hammond Stadium and there was free parking. The game was fairly well publicized in the local press but yet I don’t think there couldn’t have been 1,000 people at the game. The scoreboard was not used  and there was no one to announce the players. So as Twins fan in the second deck behind home plate took it upon himself to scream out the Twins players name and position as they stepped up to the plate. The game was actually delayed and did not start on time because, drum roll please, the umpires had not arrived. A few minutes later managers Gardenhire and Valentine met behind home plate and Twins coach Steve Liddle donned a mask and became the home plate umpire still wearing his number 9 Twins uniform. There was also someone in civ’s acting as the base umpire but I do not know who he was or which team he belonged to. The Twins and home plate umpire Liddle built up a 2-1 lead before the real umpires showed up for the top of the third inning.

The game started with Sox shortstop Jose Iglesias hit Twins starter Scott Baker’s first pitch for a hard single up the middle and it just missed hitting Baker. Iglesias was eliminated on a double play but catcher Ryan Lavarnway pulled a Baker pitch over the fence down the left field line for a 1-0 lead. In the bottom half of the first, Revere singled, Tosoni doubled and Revere scored on a ground out by Joe Benson. Blackburn was unscored on in the second inning and catcher JR Towles threw out a Sox runner at second base and in the bottom half of the same inning, Towles knocked in Brian Dozier who had doubled down the LF line and the Twins were up 2-1. Jeff Manship pitched a scoreless third and Liam Hendriks did the same in the top of the fourth. In the home half of the fourth the Twins scored on a two run homer to straight away centerfield off the bat of 1B Aaron Bates after Brian Dinkelman had singled off of lefty Red Sox pitcher Jesse Carlson who has a distinctive little hop after each delivery.  So after 4 innings the Twins were up 4-1 and at that point I had to leave the game for another engagement. It was a fun day, catching the Twins first game of 2012, albeit a “B” game on a beautiful day in Fort Myers. It is to bad that so few people were there to enjoy it. And yes, I was able to get some pictures that I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure, check out how few people there were in the stands and how Steve Liddle looks as the home plate umpire.

Checking on the Twins progress

It is a warm and sunny day here in Fort Myers with the temperatures in the mid 80’s and as I check out the Minnesota weather forecast I find it says that the area could get a foot or more of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. A foot of snow? It is darn near time for baseball, oh well, better there than here.

I made another trip out to the ballpark this morning and I arrived about 10:15 AM and everyone was hard at work. The first field I stopped to check out had a group working on situational plays in the infield. A couple of runners were on the base paths and the fielders were given situations to either get a runner out on via a run down play or maybe to get the batter at first and hold the runner at 3B or any number of similar plays. We all watch the game of baseball but very few of us really understand all the inner workings of what really takes place on the field. I think we can blame TV for a lot of that because the TV cameras focus on the pitcher, the hitter and the fielder that is going to get the ball. But there is so much else going on that you don’t see on TV, like what the other runners are doing and most importantly what each of the other fielders are doing depending on the situation. It is only at the ball game itself that you get to see all the action that is taking place like the catcher backing up first base, or the pitcher backing up 3B or home plate, or the cut-off infielders manning their positions. It is like a choreographed ballet what so many different things going on around the field that it is hard to grasp all of what is taking place. Some people will tell you that baseball is really a simple game, pitch the ball, hit the ball and field the ball but the devil is really in the details in what we all call America’s pastime. As we watched the Twins do run down after run down, you could hear the fans commenting among themselves saying things like “Mauer (playing 1B) needs to throw the ball to the middle infielders quicker versus chasing him all the way to 2B”. Another fan “hoped all this practice would allow them to better execute run downs then they did last season”, I for one could not agree more, they seemed to have no clue last year. On one play, closer Capps tried to field a bunt halfway between the mound and home and slipped and landed pretty hard on his butt as a man of Capps size is prone to do and you heard a groan go through the crowd. Another injury? Nope, not this time as Capps got up laughing and a few of the Twins laughed as their gloves covered their faces. Coaches Gardenhire, Kelly and others looked on the action and periodically wandered over to one of the players and explained what they might do to improve their play and their chances of making the team. The Twins are spending a lot of time on fundamentals down here this spring and hopefully it will payoff once the season begins.

One thing that struck me today as I was out at the ballpark today was how few fans there were watching the Twins go through their paces. There could not have been more than a couple of hundred people here today. If you counted the players, photographers, and the journalists, they probably out-numbered the fans. Normally at this time of the year I find the area between the fields being clogged with fans going to and fro from field to field and if you wanted to get next to the fences, you would have to fight through the fans 6 or 8 deep but that was not the case today or any day this year that I have been out to the ballpark. Last years 63-99 record appears to have caused many Twins fans to pursue other interests and if this attitude continues into the regular season, you are going to see lots of empty seats at Target Field. If the news out of Fort Myers continues to be negative due to injuries or a bad Grapefruit league record, it could be a long summer for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins need some good news or a hot start to get Minnesotan’s and other Midwesterners talking Twins baseball and heading out for Target field.

I saw Like Hughes take a few rounds in BP this morning after getting a cortisone shot last week. He looked a little tentative but he did get ahold of a couple of nice drives. GM Terry Ryan was sitting on the bench of one of the back fields watching his troops being put through their paces. Later coaches Rick Stelmaszek, Tom Kelly, and Ron Gardenhire joined him and they chatted about the days activities. TK brought up the fact the Chris Parmelee was not having a great day in the field and that he would have a chat with him. A little while later Parmelee rotated to the field that TK was on and TK casually mentioned to Parmelee that he wanted to “see him in his office when Chris had a minute”. A minute later Chris joined TK on the bench and TK explained to Parmelee what he saw on the field this morning was not what he expected of him and that he wanted to know why Chris did what he did. Chris explained his side of the story and then TK explained to him what he thought should have happened. No yelling, no screaming, just a man to man conversation that hopefully provided a “now I understand” moment for the young Parmelee. As Chris walked away deep in thought, TK mumbled, “he knows better, I know he does”.

Joel Zumaya

I need to touch on the Joel Zumaya situation, I met Joel for the first time a couple of days ago and I was surprised at how friendly he was as we chatted as he walked back towards the main clubhouse from one of the back fields. He talked about how anxious he was to pitch for the Minnesota Twins and how he was really looking forward to this spring. Now, less than a week later after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament on Saturday and facing Tommy John surgery, the season is over for Joel Zumaya before he even had a chance to put on a Minnesota Twins uniform in a regular season game and more than that, his career may also be over. How often can a man get back up after getting knocked down? The TJ surgery would make what, his sixth surgery and the man is just 27 years of age. You have to feel terrible for Zumaya and his family. We as baseball fans see how a player performs and we either like him as a player or we think the guy stinks and we hope he gets benched, cut, sent to the minors, or traded for a bucket ball and a couple of bats. What we forget sometimes is that these ball players are real people with real feelings and real families that love them no matter what happens at the local ballpark. I know the players make a lot of money but it is not just the money, these guys want to play baseball. They grew up with the goal of being a professional baseball player and have worked hard to get where they are and when injuries keep  them from achieving what they think they are possible of, it is a hard pill to swallow. What do you do with the rest of your life when you know you are good enough to compete in the big leagues but your health won’t allow it and you have to walk away from the game at 27 years of age? Baseball can be a cruel game, some would give up their right arm to have the ability to play, some have the ability but choose not to pursue it, some have the ability but choose to let it slip through their fingers because of drugs or alcohol, some have the ability but health issues prevent them from achieving their goal and a few are blessed with the ability and health to have long and fruitful baseball careers. In this case you have that very rare pitcher with the unique ability to throw a baseball over a 100 MPH and yet his career may be over before it really left the starting gate. They say there is no crying in baseball but it is things like this that make you wonder why things happen the way they do. We at Twins Trivia send our best wishes to Joel Zumaya no matter what he chooses to do.

As always, I managed to get a few pictures at the ballpark today and you can check them out on the right hand side of the page under 2012 Spring training pictures.

UPDATE MARCH 4 – The agent for Joel Zumaya notified the Twins yesterday this his client has decided to have Tommy John elbow ligament surgery and will attempt yet another comeback. Zumaya tore the ligament while throwing batting practice on February 25th. The TJ surgery will be the sixth surgery for Zumaya, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since June of 2010. The surgery will take place at the end of the month and be preformed by noted specialist Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama. It is still not determined if the rehab will be under the Twins auspices or if Zumaya will do it on his own. Either way, the Twins will pick up the cost and pay Zumaya $400K during 2012.

UPDATE MARCH 28th – The Twins released RHP Joel Zumaya on March 28, a day before the reliever was scheduled to have season-ending Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Zumaya, 27, tore the ligament during his first session throwing to batters on March 4