On August 16, 1975, neither the Twins nor the Indians were going anywhere in particular. The Twins were 17.5 games back of Oakland in the AL West, and the Indians were 19 games behind Boston in the East. A game between them, however, featured record-setting offensive fireworks from the home Twins.
On that day, all nine Minnesota batters recorded at least two hits off Cleveland pitchers. It was the first time that had ever happened in the majors. Eric Raich started for the Tribe, but was pulled in the second inning after allowing six runs on eight hits. Reliever Jackie Brown went the remainder of the game. He allowed only three runs, but did so on 12 hits. For the Twins, Dan Ford and Phil Roof both had three base knocks, and Roof also homered. Jim Hughes, the Twins’ starting pitcher, had an easy night; the Twins won 9-1.
On August 19, 1961, the pitchers chipped in a bit more. In a victory over the Angels, both starter Jack Kralick and reliever Al Schroll homered in a 9-7 victory. It had never happened before in the American League, and isn’t likely to happen again as long as the designated hitter rule is in place. In his career, Kralick hit four home runs, while Scholl only had the one. That season, their staff mate Pedro Ramos knocked three balls out of the yard.
On August 22, 1975, Dave McKay hit an equally auspicious home run—in his first big league at-bat. That homer, off the Tigers’ Vern Ruhle, made McKay one of four Twins to go yard in his first at-bat. The others are Gary Gaetti, Andre David, and Rick Renick. In 645 career games over 8 seasons, McKay hit 21 total home runs. Gaetti turns 51 on August 19.
Another interesting Twins debut came on August 21, 1990. Minnesota’s Paul Abbott took the mound for the very first time in his career. His opponent: the Royals’ Jim Campbell, who was also making his first appearance in the bigs. Campbell and the Royals won, and Abbott went 0-5 that year before finally notching his first victory in 1991.
In 1997, Roberto Kelly was in his second season with the Twins, and had cooled off slightly after hitting .323/.357/.457 in 1996. He was, however, 32 years old, and GM Terry Ryan saw fit to package him off to Seattle on August 20 for a player to be named later. That player became Joe Mays, a 21-year-old pitching in High-A Lancaster. In 1998, though, he shot through the Twins system and debuted the following year. His best year was 2001, when he won 17 games with a 3.13 ERA. Kelly was 36-121 for the Mariners, but they lost to Baltimore in the ALDS, and he was gone in the winter.
Besides Gaetti, fellow late-‘80s Twin Tom Brunansky (49 on August 20) has a birthday this week. In 1987, Brunansky tied a career-high with 32 homers and slugged .489. Mid-‘70s utility man Luis Gomez (58 on August 19) had 1251 career at-bats without a home run; since 1920, only four non-pitchers had more homerless at-bats.
There have been 13 players who scored a run for the Twins without ever getting a hit, and seven of them–Jason Pridie (three runs), Boof Bonser, Danny Morris, Bert Cueto, Ed Palmquist and Bucky Guth) never had a hit in their careers. Guth, whose career spanned three games in 1972, turns 62 on August 18.
Paul Molitor, the St. Paul native who ended his Hall of Fame career in Minnesota, is 53 on August 22. He’s currently a coach in the Twins’ system. Another coach, Rochester’s Bobby Cuellar, turns 57 on August 20. His big-league career consisted of 6.2 innings in 1977 with the Rangers.
Graig Nettles started his long career with the Twins, playing in 121 games from 1967-69 before being included in a trade with the Indians. He went on to play in 2700 games, mostly with the Yankees. Rick Reed (45 on August 16) won 15 games for the Twins in 2002 after coming over in a trade for Matt Lawton. Alex Cole (44 on August 17) stole 29 bases in 1994 as the everyday centerfielder.
Until next week, Twins fans.
Topics: Al Schroll, Alex Cole, Andre David, Bert Cueto, Boof Bonser, Bucky Guth, Dan Ford, Danny Morris, Dave McKay, Ed Palmquist, Eric Raich, Gary Gaetti, Graig Nettles, Jack Kralick, Jackie Brown, Jason Pridie, Jim Campbell, Jim Hughes, Joe Mays, Luis Gomez, Matt Lawton, Minnesota Twins, Paul Abbott, Paul Molitor, Pedro Ramos, Phil Roof, Rick Reed, Rick Renick, Roberto Kelly, Terry Ryan, This Week in Twins History, Tom Brunansky, Vern Ruhle
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