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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Twins History In Motion: The Famous '65 Bob Allison World Series Catch

 [POST EDITED, WITH EXTRA CONTENT, 2/21/12]

The gif below is my latest entry in  the photo series, honoring the great Bob Allison. The Sporting News excerpts to follow capture the quotes of that day, from principals such as Jim Kaat, Sam Mele, Billy Martin, and, of course, Allison himself. The full game box of Oct. 7, 1965 can be found here at BBRef. 



Max Nichols was an excellent baseball writer for the Minneapolis Star. He achieved notoriety for casting the lone vote that prevented Carl Yastrzemski from winning the MVP Award unanimously in 1967. His vote went to Twin Cesar Tovar (see Joe Posnanski's story at "Nichols" link).


Please be patient! It can be a slow download, depending on your system!


I've always loved the emphatic out call given by umpire Ed Vargo on 
Allison's catch! That, and the clapping spectators.  For the life of me, it 
gives me a kind of JFK Zapruder film vibe.Go to MLB.COM for the 
black and white NBC video version.




Twins manager Sam Mele called it probably...


(excerpt just above, and following: by eventual 
Baseball Hall of Fame inductee (Writers Wing)
 Milt Richmon (UPI) for TSN)





These three things, besides his attempted peace-making role in the 1969 Dave Boswell - Billy Martin fight, should be remembered about Bob Allison by all Twins fans :



  • He was the ultimate, humble team player, so it would follow that... 
  • He was a much loved, respected teammate - Michael Cuddyer is a modern clone 
  • He played with an all-out football player's mentality, laying himself out on the basepaths as well as in the outfield - in fact, he may have been the most feared baserunner in MLB


All three of the above are obvious in the photos and newspaper accounts above.

Allison's catch was selected by Twins
fans as the "Favorite Moment" in team 
history.( Source: Aug./Sept., 2000 Twins Magazine)
 
As our own Hall of Fame Twins Announcer Herb Carneal ended his broadcasts:

2 comments:

  1. Great site. Brought back memories. I was at game 6. All my memorabilia from that year I still have. A ball signed by the team. A ruler with the team, a pennit, a hat, a program and of course my ticket stub.

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