Bert Blyleven’s time in baseball and with the Twins goes back so long that it’s easy to forget where it all began. This week, though, Blyleven celebrates the 39th anniversary of his very first big league game, at the tender age of 19. After just a season and a half of preparation in the minors, he was called up from the American Association’s Evansville Triplets to start against the Washington Senators on June 5, 1970. Tellingly, neither the Triplets, nor the Senators, nor the Triple-A American Association still exists today.
In his debut, Blyleven pitched a gem, and an RBI single from Cesar Tovar in the fifth was enough for him to eek out a 2-1 victory. Blyleven lasted seven innings and allowed only one run on five hits, walking one and striking out seven. His game score of 69 was the best ever for a Twins pitcher in his major league debut; the second best, 68, belongs to new Twin Anthony Swarzak.
As most fans know, Blyleven was born in Holland. He is one of only eight Dutchmen to play in the major leagues, and the only Twin. Looming on (or over) the horizon, however, is 7’1” Loek van Mil, a minor league pitcher in Fort Myers.
In six and a half seasons in Minnesota, Blyleven developed into a dominating pitcher, leading the league with nine shutouts, a 3.85 K/BB, and a 158 ERA+. All good things must come to an end, though, and on June 1, 1976, he was included in a big trade with the Texas Rangers. In return for Blyleven and Danny Thompson, the Twins received Roy Smalley, Mike Cubbage, Jim Gideon, Bill Singer, and $250,000. Singer, Gideon and Thompson never produced anything for their new teams, but Cubbage and Smalley were stalwarts for Minnesota’s infield in the late 1970s.
Smalley in particular flourished, and made the All-Star team in 1979. He was likely very comfortable playing for manager Gene Mauch, his uncle. Smalley’s father, also named Roy Smalley, had married Mauch’s sister, and played in the majors from 1948-58 with the Cubs, Braves and Phillies.
As for Blyleven, he spent the next 19 years with Texas, Pittsburgh and Cleveland before returning to Minnesota in 1985. He was a key member of the 1987 championship team, winning 15 games despite allowing a league-worst 46 homers. Only seven pitchers have allowed more home runs against in their career than Blyleven’s 430; thankfully, none of them were Twins.
The 1987 staff featured another graybeard to keep Blyleven company. On June 7 of that year, the Twins traded hot-hitting catcher Mark Salas to the Yankees for 42-year-old Joe Niekro. In parts of three previous seasons, Salas had only posted a .305 on-base percentage, yet he started off 1987 hitting .378/.431/.622 for Minnesota in 22 games. With his value at its peak, the Twins palmed him off for help on the back end of the starting rotation. Niekro made 18 starts for them, and also pitched two scoreless innings in the World Series. In New York, Salas hit .200/.279/.313 the rest of the year.
If the Twins had good luck in the catching department with Salas, they did even better on June 5, 2001, when they chose Joe Mauer with the first overall pick in the draft. The team was criticized initially for bypassing Mark Prior, but the results have long since been in.
Another strong draft was in 1990. On June 5 of that year, Minnesota selected Texas A&M shortstop Chuck Knoblauch, (25th overall pick), University of Minnesota lefty Denny Neagle (85th), University of Arizona righty Scott Erickson (112th), Orange Coast College third baseman Marty Cordova (269th), Duke righty Mike Trombley (373rd), and, with pick number 1314, El Camino College catcher Denny Hocking. Those six players went on to appear in over 3,000 combined games for the Twins.
Hocking, who is 18th all-time in team history with 876 games, is the only 52nd round selection to ever make it to the big leagues, and also apparently the only Twin to actually have twin children himself. Drafted as a catcher, he never played that position in the major leagues. He did, however, play all seven other spots.
This, of course, is not to say that the Minnesota brass is infallible when it comes to drafting. A weaker harvest was reaped on June 5, 2000, when the Twins used the second overall pick to select pitcher Adam Johnson. The Cal State-Fullerton product pitched only 26.1 innings in his big league career. Later in the day, however, Minnesota did manage to snag Jason Kubel with the 342nd overall pick.
Three Twins pitchers from the 1960s celebrate their birthdays this week. Dean Chance (68 on June 1) won 20 games and lead the league in innings pitched in 1967, earning himself a spot on the All-Star team. When he was traded away, to Cleveland in 1969, he went along with 24-year-old Graig Nettles, who went on to a great career with the Yankees.
Jack Kralick (74 on June 1) pitched in Minnesota from the franchise’s inception until 1963, when he was traded for future Cy Young Award winner Jim Perry. One of his teammates in those three years, Ray Moore, shares his June 1 birthday, and will turn 83 this year.
Catchers George Mitterwald (64 on June 7) and Randy Hundley (67 on June 1) were traded for one another between the Cubs and Twins on December 6, 1973, and were both born this week. J.C. Romero turns 33 on June 4, while early 1980s pitcher Jack O’Connor is 51 on June 2. O’Connor is the only big leaguer ever from the town of Twentynine Palms, California.
Until next week, Twins fans.
Topics: Adam Johnson, Anthony Swarzak, Bert Blyleven, Bill Singer, Cesar Tovar, Danny Thompson, Dean Chance, Gene Mauch, George Mitterwald, Graig Nettles, J.C. Romero, Jack Kralick, Jack O'Connor, Jason Kubel, Jim Gideon, Jim Perry, Joe Mauer, Joe Niekro, Mark Salas, Mike Cubbage, Minnesota Twins, Randy Hundley, Ray Moore, roy smalley, This Week in Twins History
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