Tag: Tony Oliva

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 33 – Elston Howard traded to Boston Red Sox

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.

There is a recent story by Dave Kaplan at thenationalpastimemuseum.com about Elston Howard called “Elston Howard made the difference for the ’67 Boston Red Sox” that you may enjoy reading. To learn more about Elston Howard you can check out his SABR Bio.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 30 – Race continues, five teams within five games

In their final July game the Twins were helpless against Lee Stange, a former Twins pitcher and current Red Sox starter. Stange had a perfect game going until Harmon Killebrew singled with two out in the seventh inning at Fenway Park. The Twins final two hits took place in the ninth but Stange retired Tony Oliva and Killebrew on fly balls and he and the Red Sox closed out the 4-0 win. The Boston crew had only 4 hits themselves but three of them including a 3 run home run belonged to Carl Yastrzemski and Stange had the other Boston hit. Even though the Sox lost the five game series three games to two they held on to second place just 2 games out of the lead.

Star Tribune Aug 1 1967

With 2/3 of the 1967 season in their rear-view mirror the Twins find themselves with a 53-47 record, good enough for fourth place tie and 5 games behind the league leading White Sox. With 17 wins and 13 losses in July the Twins scored 122 runs and held the opposition to just 94 runs.

 

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 25 – Twins KO the Kansas City A’s 3-2 – just 1 1/2 games out of the lead

The Minnesota Twins allowed the Athletics to steal a record-breaking seven bases but yet found a way to beat the last place bunch from Kansas City. The Twins proved that at least in this game, that power beats speed. 

In the first inning the A’s scored two runs on a single hit, an error, a walk and four stolen bases. The Twins came back on a home run in the bottom of the first to cut the lead to 2-1. The score remained 2-1 until Jack Aker relieved A’s starter Lew Krausse in the ninth inning. Harmon Killebrew greeted Aker with a game tying home run, his second of the game. Tony Oliva followed with another home run off Aker and the Twins walked off the running A’s 3-2. The Twins had but six hits but three were home runs and one was a double. Box Score

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By the way, do you what a KO line-up is versus an OK line-up in Twins history?

 

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 24 – Twins take two from White Sox

After the White Sox took the first two games from the Minnesota Twins, 31, 141 fans packed White Sox Park to see the home town nine take two more from the visiting Twins. But, it was not to be, after spotting the Whitey’s a one run lead the Twins tied it in the fourth inning and then scored 2 in the 5th, 6th, and 8th innings and held on for a 7-4 win in game one. Jim Kaat hit his first home run of the season.  Zoilo Versalles had 3 hits and Rich Rollins, Bob Allison and Jim Kaat each had 2 hits. Jim Kaat took home the win and Ron Kline registered the save. Box Score

In game two the Twins were out hit 8 to 6 but managed to out score the White Sox 5 to 1 and a double-header sweep was in the books. Dave Boswell was credited with the victory to even his record at 8-8 and Al Worthington notched his 12th save of the season. When the day was done the Twins still found themselves in third place but now only 2.5 games behind the league leading WSox but only a half game behind the Tigers at the All-Star break. Box Score

Pitcher Dean Chance along with Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Rod Carew (who missed the week-end series due to military obligations) left for the All-Star game in Anaheim after the DH was complete and were accompanied by manager Cal Ermer and owner Calvin Griffith.

 

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 23 – White (Sox) lightning strikes again

The Twins lost to the AL league leading Chicago White Sox for the second day in a row via a walk-off and again the White Sox did it with out the benefit of a hit. On Friday they lost on a walk-off error and today they lost on a walk-off Sac fly by Wayne Causey off Twins starting pitcher Jim Merritt.

Starting pitchers Tommy John and Jim Merritt was tied up in a scoreless pitching duel until the bottom of the ninth when the White Sox loaded the bases on a double and two intentional walks and Causey delivered the walk-off Sac fly. Merritt lost his first game of season and is now 6-1 and Tommy John who allowed just three hits, all to Tony Oliva upped his record to 8-5 and the White Sox stretched their lead over the now third place Twins to 4 1/2 games. The Twins and White Sox have a doubleheader scheduled for tomorrow.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 22 – Twins 8 game winning streak comes to an end on walk-off error

The Twins eight game winning streak came to an abrupt end at White Sox Park when the Mighty Whities walked off the Twins 2-1. The Twins scored one run in the first inning when Cesar Tovar led off the game with a double and Tony Oliva doubled him home with two out. These would be the only hits the Twins would get. Starters Gary Peters and the Twins Dean Chance dueled and after 8 innings it was still one to nothing Twins. But here the game seemed to take a turn in favor of the White Sox.

In the 8th inning Sox coach Kerby Farrell seemed to notice “a black substance on Dean Chance’s pitching hand” and Eddie Stanky complained to umpire Al Salerno who told Chance to wipe his hands clean. Chance stated that it was just resin build-up but all of a sudden Chance seemed to lose his control. After walking none through 7 innings Chance walked one in the 8th and 2 in the ninth before being lifted for reliever Al Worthington who inherited a bases-loaded one out situation. Worthington retired Don Buford on a foul pop-up to third but then Ron Hansen hit a ground ball to the left of second base but shortstop Zoilo Versalles was playing deep in the hole and the ball bounced off of Versalles glove and bounced into right field allowing two runs to score. Box Score.

Some things in baseball never change

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 21 – Twins sweep Yankees, win streak now at 8

The Twins jumped on the Yankees scoring in each of the first five innings and held on for a 10-4 win over the Bronx Bombers. Jim Kaat pitched a complete game allowing 12 hits while striking out 6 and allowing the 4 runs. Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, and Ted Uhlaender supported Kaat with home runs. Reese (4) and Uhlaender (3) had 7 of the 10 RBI between them.

The eighth win in a row puts the Twins in lone possession of second place in the AL just 3 games back as they prepare to hit the road to play the league leading Chicago White Sox.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 19 – Twins beat Red Sox as Boswell strikes out 13, four Twins named to AS team

Dave Boswell

The Twins scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning on George Scott‘s second error of the game and went on to win 3-2 at the Met. Twins starter Dave Boswell struck out a personal best 13 batters and evened his record at 5-5 in pitching a complete game even though he gave up home runs to Jerry Adair and Reggie Smith in the fifth that tied the game at the time. The Twins took the well pitched series two games to one as no team scored more than 3 runs in any of the three games. The 36-34 Twins who are still seven games out of first now await the arrival of the 32-41 Washington Senators.

MLB announced the Minnesota Twins players Dean Chance, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and rookie Rod Carew had been selected for the 1967 All-Star game scheduled for July 11 in Anaheim.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

The 1967 AL pennant race – Part 16 – Twins and Tigers play nine and end up in a tie

The Twins had a 5-2 lead after five innings of play at Tiger Stadium but the Tigers scored one in sixth and two in the seventh to tie the game at 5 apiece. The game was finally called a draw in the top of the ninth with Harmon Killebrew at the plate with two strikes and one out after Rod Carew led off the top of the ninth with a single but was caught stealing. The game had four rain delays and was called around midnight CDT. Box Score.

The Star Tribune pages below will tell  you more about the Twins/Tigers game, a brawl in New York between the Yanks and Red Sox and more about the disagreement on the Twins bus between Tony Oliva and Ted Uhlaender that was supposedly instigated by Dave Boswell. At the end of the day the Twins were 32-31 and 6.5 games behind the high-flying Chicago White Sox.

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A nice picture of Tiger Stadium

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 15 – Twins take a break to play an exhibition game – Billy Martin plays

The Minnesota Twins took a break for the rigors of a pennant race and flew from Baltimore to Indianapolis to play an exhibition game against the Indianapolis Indians before flying on to Detroit to play the Tigers the next day. Why the Twins were playing an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox AAA team is beyond me. I am sure that the MLB players union of today wouldn’t allow such exhibition games in the middle of a season.

Billy Martin

The Twins ended up losing the game 11-10. The most interesting part of the game was the fact that Twins coach Billy Martin played in the game. Martin last played in the big leagues in 1961 with the Twins and then became a scout from 1962-1964 before joining the Twins coaching staff in 1965. Martin entered the game as a PH and promptly doubled and then had a bunt single ending his night 2 for 3.

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.