Twins Walk Off Grand Slams!

"Mr. Becquer, meet Misters Allison, Green & Battey"

Yesterday, Francisco Mejia, Padres catcher, took Jeffrey Springs of the Rangers deep with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off grand slam to defeat the Rangers 7-3. You might recall Mejia was the prized trade chip in the Pad's trade of Minnesota (Chaska) native Brad Hand to the Cleveland Indians on July 19 of this season. So sad Cleveland won't have the benefit of his services in the foreseeable future (Twins fans, insert chuckle here)..

It was MLB's seventh walk-off grand slam of the 2018 season. All of which made me wonder "how many game-winning, walk-off grand slams have been hit in Minnesota Twins history* I thought, there must have been about 5, 6, at least.

* Grand slams hit in the home half of the last half inning that put the home club in the lead, and  which automatically end the game

 I wasn't far off! Basically right on...of course! :D

The actual result of my search? A grand total of FIVE times in 59 seasons of Twins baseball.  Or one every 12 years or so.

By the way aLI (average pressure index) is a Baseball Reference creation alluding to the average pressure factors upon the batter in their individual at bats. Which would say Becquer was feeling a HEAP of stress, perhaps thinking his status with the club in that inaugural Twins season might hinge on that very at bat (see Reusse story below!) . It's also interesting to note the 40 year span from Hall's 1966 bomb until Jason Kubel got the Twins back on the map in the 2000's.

Twins All-Time Walk-off Grand Slams, 1961-2018

Rk	Player	Date ▲	Opp	Rslt	HR	RBI	aLI	Pitcher	Batter
1	Julio Becquer	1961-07-04 (1)	CHW	W 6-4	1	4	6.990	Warren Hacker	Julio Becquer
2	Jimmie Hall	1966-08-02	BOS	W 7-3	1	4	2.372	Don McMahon	Jimmie Hall
3	Jason Kubel	2006-06-13	BOS	W 5-2	1	4	2.962	Julian Tavarez	Jason Kubel
4	Joe Crede	2009-05-13	DET	W 14-10	1	4	2.044	Brandon Lyon	Joe Crede
5	Brian Dozier	2018-07-15	TBR	W 11-7	1	4	5.570	Matt Andriesse	Brian Dozier

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/17/2018.

MLB'S 2018 Walk-off Grand Slams

Results

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	Pitcher
1	Francisco Mejia	2018-09-16	SDP	TEX	W 7-3	Jeffrey Springs
2	David Bote	2018-08-12	CHC	WSN	W 4-3	Ryan Madson
3	Daniel Robertson	2018-07-22	TBR	MIA	W 6-4	Kyle Barraclough
4	Xander Bogaerts	2018-07-14	BOS	TOR	W 6-2	Chris Rowley
5	Jose Bautista	2018-07-06	NYM	TBR	W 5-1	Chaz Roe
7	Jason Heyward	2018-06-06	CHC	PHI	W 7-5	Adam Morgan

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 9/17/2018.  - FOR SOME REASON, BBREF WILL NOT LIST DOZIER'S GS
ON JULY 15 IN THE GENERATED REPORT - I HAD TO DO IT MANUALLY
IN THE FIRST CHART.  #CONSPIRACY! #SAD

Yeah, those greedy Cubs have TWO already in 2018!!

See Patrick Reusse's July 3, 2010 Article about Becquer's Grand Slam via the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It is corkin' good!

"So long, everybody!" - Herb Carneal

Game Of The Week: First Home Opener In Minnesota Twins History, April 21, 1961

Twins center fielder Lenny Green, up against chain link fence. Later, a concrete 

grandstand would replace cheap bleachers, and the makeshift planking for steps.

The Met parking lot - the former cornfield was only partially 

filled for that very first game in The Land of 10,000 Lakes.

The first Major League Baseball game in Minnesota history took place just four days after the U.S.-led Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. On the day of the game, President Kennedy was receiving communiques from Chairman Khrushchev, with ominous warnings against future interventions in Latin America. Also portentious that week was the Kennedy Administration's promise to the government of Laos to send about 300 U.S.military advisers into combat zones to help turn back communist insurgents in that country and others in the region; a ceasefire was in effect in Laos (Salt Lake Tribune) while the politicos assessed strategy. JFK this week also sent a private memorandum to Vice-President Johnson asking "Is there any space program that promises dramatic results that would represent a victory against the Soviets?" This would be the kick start for the greatest engineering, technical, and scientific undertaking in history - the Apollo program.

(Clover Leaf Twins card, 1961)

Don Mincher is the trivia answer to the

question "Who hit the first Twins regular-season 

home run at Metropolitan Stadium?" For the other 

Twins ballparks, Gary Gaetti (1982, the H.H.H. 

Metrodome) and Jason Kubel (2010, Target Field)  will do. 

Alas, the only sure win that week for Washington was secured by it's brand new American League entry. The Senators's invasion of Twins territory produced a 5-3 win that was decided in the ninth inning (BBRef). It was a sterling, close affair, with standout efforts by Minnesota's Lenny Green, Don Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Senators's slugger Dale Long, Washington starter Joe McClain, and reliever Dave Sisler. The latter escaped a bases-loaded, one out situation against Minnesota in the final frame. 

First, however, it was preceded by a gala welcome home for the Twins players and representatives:

Brainerd Daily Dispatch, April 19, 1961

The parade on Wednesday was joyful...

ABOVE: Don Mincher (left, crewcut) and Ron Henry, in Welcome Home Parade

The University Of Minnesota Marching Band arrives from center field for lineup

 introductions...and stayed lined up in the infield for the National Anthem. Note lack 

of seating in the foul territory behind first base. Construction of seating came to   

a halt when the game commenced, and would resume after the last out.

Note: signature walk-up path not yet constructed, from dugout to homeplate 

The Met as it looked on April 21, 1961 (BBRef), with Camilo Pascual on the mound; watching near the home team dugout were dignitaries such as  AL President Joe Cronin, MLB Commisioner Ford Frick, former NL President Will Harridge, Minnesota governor Elmer L. Andersen, and the mayors of Minneapolis of St. Paul (but not Bloomington Mayor Gordon Miklethun - the home ballpark in the city's limits apparently didn't confer upon him any special status!). Go to The Sporting News of May 3, 1961, and you'll read a rather pessimistic summary by George Moses of the Associated Press. You might think he took his lead from AL club owners still unhappy with Twins owner Calvin Griffith's push to move the franchise out of the nation's capitol. If Moses had taken the time to get the Minnesota fan's perspective (accessible in this account in the Winona (MN) Daily News of April 22, the tone would been much truer to the reality at the ballpark that day. Jim Wallace of the Brainerd Daily Dispatch ("It Wasn't That Bad") also had a nice rebuttal in his column the next day.

FIRST PITCH!

Winona (Minn.) Daily News 4/22/61

That the game only attracted 24,606 was a curious circumstance, however, given the lead-in hoopla. The forecast for that day was for temps in the 50s, with clear skies. It ended up an an overcast day, 63 D., but with no rain. So - what was up? A contributing factor may have been the absence from the starting lineup of Harmon Killebrew, who had pulled his left hamstring muscle running out a grounder in the Saturday, April 15 game at Baltimore (Twins game #4 in the '61 schedule). It was thought he would miss three weeks, but he rested for only two, reappearing in the April 29 game versus the Angels.

Minnesotan's may well have taken the attitude that without a big fly in the offing from Killebrew , the effort just wasn't worth it. Otherwise, I would posit that, despite the joy evident from acquiring a big-league team, rank and file Minnesotans just didn't have it in their mindset to take time off from work in that era, or to pull their kids out of school just to see what we now regard as history. Part of a region's character, you might say. Nevertheless, the opening ceremony was a fun spectacle, as this historic video makes clear. 

The Metropolitan Stadium scoreboard during Senator 

Willie Tasby's ninth inning at bat  on that April 21, 1961.

Enable audio - hover cursor near lower R-hand corner - click speaker icon

The Sporting News, May 3, 1961

Pascual pitched 8 innings that day, giving up three runs with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts (he would lead the league in that figure, 221). After giving up a long ball to first baseman Dale Long in the first, he appeared to right the ship. When Lenny Green homered to what would later become the right field bullpen to tie the game at 3, the Twins looked poised for a 9th inning rally. It wasn't to be. Washington pushed across 2 in their half of the ninth off trusty, "Old Blue" Ray Moore. Green was also the first Twins player to score in a home game, jogging home unfettered on Mincher's fourth inning bomb over the center field fence.

There are 8,000 things worth commenting upon in this short piece. But, the one I

most enjoyed was the narrator's pronunciation of "Minna-SO-tah" at the very end.

As if he was hip to the fact we have 10,000 Norwegians per acre in these parts.

Yes, a disappointing start, with nary a stampede through the turnstiles - but it wasn't a disaster. The Twins would win the next two games and the series that weekend, Sunday's game being a 1-0 shut out for Jack Kralick. Minnesota would eventually reach that coveted 30,000 attendance figure in game number 34 - a doubleheader on May 21 (BBRef, the 20th & 21 home games) versus Cleveland. Overall, they drew 1,256,723 for the 1961 season, third-most in the AL (of ten teams). Minnesota would go on to become a perennial home attendance leader in the American League, in fact, for the decade of the 1960's.

As Herb Carneal would phrase it: "So long, everybody!"

Baseball Digest Feature - Ken Landreaux And His 1980 Hitting Streak

Ken Landreaux hit in 31 straight games for the Twins in 1980, which is still the team record. Brian Harper had hit in 25 games in 1990, followed by Lenny Green's 24 in 1961. John Swol's Twins Trivia site posted an excellent list of the top 45 in team history last July 27.


You should go to a Baseball Digest spread on Landreaux from August of '80 - the version is here at my Google docs page. There is one other pdf newspaper linked below, with facts from the game his streaked ended (May 31, 1980, BBRef.)

An inset box (below) taken from the Hutchinson (KS) News of June 1, 1980, details Landreaux's attitude after the streak was stopped by Baltimore's Scott McGregor with a nice group of quotes, and a list of hitting streaks.

For me, Ken Landreaux was a lot of fun to watch. He had a smooth swing, could take the pitch the other way, and had occasional pull power as a left handed batter. He partially filled the offensive void, if only for one strong season, following the trade of Rod Carew (the transaction which included Ken) to the Angels in February, 1979. Nearly eclipsing the feat in importance was the fact that by then, Kenny's super afro and mutton chops placed him near the top of Minnesota's All-Time Sideburn and Hair-Do Roll Of Fame - and bests Brian Dozier's in overall effect.

                  Indiana (Penn.) Gazette, May 30, 1980

Hutchinson (KS) News, June 1, 1980

To borrow from the great old broadcaster, I say:

"So Long, Everybody!" - Herb Carneal

Jack Kralick & The First Twins No-Hitter, August 26, 1962

This post is the companion piece to "1962 Camera Day." It is one of my more enjoyable posts personally, and I hope you can take something away from it as well!

* * *

Here is my favorite photo from the whole endeavor: a picture and a piece from The Sporting News, detailing Jack Kralick's 1-0 no-hitter versus the Kansas City Athletics:

 

The entire Sporting News Story of "Jittery" Jack's gem can be found in PDF form here in page one and here in page 2. Make sure you read the bottom of page one, to view the description of the Allison catch to save the no-hitter. Below is his line as seen at BBReference:

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Jack Kralick, W (10-8)	9	0	0	0	1	3	0	4.02	28	89			0.736	1.22	4.6
Team Totals	9	0	0	0	1	3	0	0.00	28	89			0.736	1.22	4.6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/4/2013.

Some box scores (see the August 26, 1962 near-perfect game link) flow so well that they give you a good sense of the game's rhythm. Dare I say it - this game is very eye-catching in print (or on the screen, as it were) - not as pretty as say, 1960's pin up favorites Mamie Van Doren or Brigitte Bardot, but still damn pretty in the numeric, aesthetic sense. You might not believe me, especially if you clinked on the last two links, but I'm thinking ground ball hound Tommy John when I view the innings that must have flown by frustratingly quick for the Athletics batters. We all get our kicks in different manners.

The economy and effectiveness of Jack Kralick's performance are apparent - a very worthy and signature performance for the Minnesota Twins first no-hitter in Minnesota. The time of game was a 1:57, and as Kralick and Kansas City starter Bill Fischer were tossing so many 1-2-3 innings, it had to be a challenge for the stations broadcasting the contest to fit in their ads and promos. Damn!! Not enough time to advert the Thunderbird Motel, right across the parking lot on Cedar Avenue!! 

Playing into the rapid pace of this game was the fact that the K.C. batters were actually swinging away, typical of 1960's hitters - this was over  thirty years before money ball, after all. In their average lineup in '62, only Norm Siebern demonstrated above-average plate discipline, earning 110 walks; the next-highest total, 54, belonged to Ed Charles (who would go on to achieve cult hero status with the Amazin' Mets in 1969.

It was Charles who nearly ended the no-hit bid in the fourth inning,with his opposite-field drive that forced Bob Allison to reach above the right field fence in front of the bullpen (description, PDF page one above). There went the one, serious threat.

Besides Allison, also important to Kralick's success was having, quite possibly, the best defensive first baseman in modern baseball history backing him, Vic Power. As opposed to shortstop Zoilo Versalles, who was credited with handling the baseball ONCE, on a fourth inning 6-3 groundout by Bobby Del Greco (just preceding Charles's threatening flyball), Power was involved in plays resulting in 17 of the 27 outs in the ballgame. This was spectacularly achieving the goal the Twins management had in mind to stabilize the Twins infield by trading for Power (discussed in the post "A Maestro At First: Trading For Vic Power, April 2, 1962"). See the chart below for the full rundown:

[BELOW] Plays involving Twins first baseman Power,
 inning play occurred, fielder designated on 
play (pitcher 1, catcher 2, etc.)

Groundout-unassisted	third out-1st inn
Groundout: 1-3	second out-2nd inn
Groundout: 1-3	third out-2nd inn
Groundout: 5-3	first out-3rd inn
Groundout: 4-3	third out-3rd inn
Groundout: 6-3	first out-4th inn
Groundout:3-1	third out-4th inn
Groundout: 4-3	second out-5th inn
Groundout: 3-1	third out-5th inn
Foul fly: unassisted	second out-6th inn
Groundout: 5-3	first out-7th inn
Groundout: 1-3	third out-7th inn
Groundout: 4-3	first out-8th inn
Groundout: 1-3	third out-8th inn
Groundout: 4-3	first out-9th inn
Foul fly: unassisted	second out-9th inn
Foul fly: unassisted	third out-9th inn

                                                                          

It was obvious to both Battey and Kralick that he didn't have control of his curveball early in the contest, as seen in the Winona Daily News PDF. My pet theory is that Kralick focused much better, bereft of his "yellow hammer," so that he was even more on point spotting his sinking fastball and slider. Of course, none of this would have meant anything without Lenny Green's sacrifice fly, driving home Bernie Allen in the 7th inning.

As noted in the previous post "'62 Twins Camera Day," Kralick had been absent from the fan photo-taking activities, pregame. In keeping with his "lone wolf" persona...

This game somewhat parallels the Francisco Liriano no-hitter on May 3, 2011:  the same score, & each were thought to be either sub-par or VERY sub-par in their performance of late prior to their classics. 

Hope you enjoyed this look at the first great pitching performance in Minnesota Twins history!!

As the great broadcaster ended his post-game shows, I also say:

"So long, everybody!"