This Week in Twins History: July 12-19

Written by: Justin Murphy on 12th July 2009

This Week in Twins History: July 12-19 | read this item

July 17, 1990, Twins and Red Sox at Fenway Park. In the fourth inning of a tie game, with the bases loaded, Tom Brunansky slaps a hard ground ball to Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti. Gaetti steps on the bag for a force and fires to second baseman Al Newman for another. Newman in turn makes the pivot and fires to Kent Hrbek, beating the lumbering Brunansky. Triple play, inning over.

Later that game. Twins trailing 1-0 in the eighth. Reliever John Candelaria is in, and he’s allowed two men on with none out. The batter, Jody Reed, shoots another ball to Gaetti, and again, three Red Sox trot back to the dugout shaking their heads. Two triple plays in one game? Odd, but it happened.

What happened next is odder. The Twins and Sox played again the next day, July 18. There were no triple plays in that game. There were, though, a record-setting 10 double plays. The Twins turned six, the Red Sox four. Boston won both games.

Apologies for the rushed beginning—all those serial killings will take your breath away. This week in Twins history is memorable mainly for two reasons. First, on July 12, 1996, Kirby Puckett announced his retirement due to glaucoma. He hadn’t appeared in a game since September 28 of the previous season, when he was hit in the face with a pitch. In that final season, he hit .314 with 23 home runs and was named to his tenth consecutive All Star team.

At the end of the week, Puckett’s successor, Torii Hunter, celebrates his 34th birthday on July 19. You might find think it is odd that such a talented player was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, but you’d be wrong. In fact, five Hall of Fame players were born in the Natural State: Brooks Robinson, Lou Brock, George Kell, Arky Vaughan, and Travis Jackson, not to mention the Indians’ Cliff Lee and former Twin Terry Tiffee.

Hunter celebrated his big day a few hours early in 2002 in a game against Cleveland. After Danys Baez hit him with a pitch in the fifth inning, Hunter did the only reasonable thing—he picked the ball up and threw it back at Baez, hitting him in the leg. After the game, he’d returned to his senses, saying, “I just lost it, man.”

One Twin known for a cool head was Jim Kaat, who made only 56 errors in 25 big league seasons. On July 17, 1969, though, he showed that anyone can have a bad day at the offense, committing three errors against the White Sox. Fortunately, the Twins still got the victory—their 10th in a row—and Kaat still got the Gold Glove, his 8th out of 17. The day before, Rod Carew stole home for the seventh time that season in the first game of a doubleheader.

Nine years ago on July 15, the Twins packaged burly Butch Huskey and sweet-hitting second baseman Todd Walker to the Colorado Rockies for prospect Todd Sears. The latter appeared in only 31 games with the Twins, while Walker went on to post a .349 on-base percentage over the next eight seasons. In his absence, the Twins turned to Luis Rivas, whose OBP from 2000-2005 was .307.

Other Twins birthdays this week: catcher Tom Tischinski (65 on July 12), who played in 82 games from 1969-71; infielder Jerry Terrell (66 on July 13), a Waseca, Minnesota native and a Twin from 1973-1977; Glenn Williams (32 on July 18), an Australian who played in 13 games with Minnesota in 2005 as part of a long baseball career. Adam Johnson, the legendary first round bust, turns 30 on July 12. He pitched in nine games with the Twins over two seasons. Laugh if you will, but he undoubtedly has fond memories of striking out Mark McGwire, Juan Gonzalez, and Jim Thome (twice).

Three former Twins passed away on a day this week. Georges Maranda died on July 14, 2000 in his native Levis, Quebec. His main claim to fame is being the only major leaguer named ‘Georges.’ Ted Sadowski was a teammate of Maranda’s in the franchise’s first years, and was one of three Sadowski brothers to make it to the big leagues. He died July 18, 1993.

Lastly, Cesar Tovar died fifteen years ago on July 14. Tovar is third all-time in Twins history with 186 stolen bases. He’s also 10th all-time among Venezuelan major leaguers with 1488 games played.

Until next week, Twins fans.

Topics: Adam Johnson, Al Newman, Arky Vaughan, Brooks Robinson, Butch Huskey, Cesar Tovar, Cliff Lee, Danys Baez, Gary Gaetti, George Kell, George Maranda, Glenn Williams, Jerry Terrell, Jim Kaat, Jim Thome, Jody Reed, John Candelaria, Juan Gonzalez, Kent Hrbek, kirby puckett, Lou Brock, Luis Rivas, Mark McGwire, Minnesota Twins, Rod Carew, Ted Sadowski, Terry Tiffee, This Week in Twins History, Todd Sears, Todd Walker, Tom Brunansky, Tom Tischinski, Torii Hunter, Travis Jackson