My Encounter With Calvin Griffith

No, clotheshorse Calvin wasn't wearing argyle

 that night at the Dome. Too bad.
(from 1977 Minnesota Twins Yearbook)

I was introduced to Calvin by a former student of mine.  In case you weren't aware, Griffith was the first Owner of the Twins.  It was about 1996, a couple years before he passed on, and I was attending a Twins game versus Cleveland.  It was during a time of perennial losing for our home nine. Distressing times, watching a team vastly overmatched.  Especially against the powerhouse Indian squads of that period.  So, the distraction was pretty welcome.


I wasn't sure what to expect, though I didn't really think he would be curmudgeonly.  He was, actually, quite accessible, and down to earth.  I asked him several questions relating to his thoughts one the then-current Twins squad (Matt Lawton comes to mind: "He'll be a good one.") 

Mainly, I think he was pleased to be recognized and shown respect.  Which was his due, despite his well-publicized fiascoes in the print media (see Nick Coleman's 1978 article on Calvin who was speaking before the Waseca Lion's Club).  

It bears repeating...without Cal Griffith and his lobbying in 1960, there would be no Twins, and perhaps no Major League Baseball in Minnesota.  Period.

May Your Taters Fly Far!

TT

Earl Battey: June, 1962 Sport Magazine Feature

JUNE, 1962 ISSUE

Nice Feature in June '62 issue.  Details Battey's development as a catcher, trade to Twins from White Sox, his beaning in 1961. Ear flap photo from Photobucket.com.

Uh, was every post-game like this?







May Your Twin Taters Fly Far!

TT

P.S. - how about the "techy" '61 era earflap

(right)

For Ye Twins Fan, A Long, Long, Hard Fall Into Winter...

Leif Enger sums up the "disgruntledness," and sad longing for many of us. April is so damn far away...


Autumn for the Desolate Twins Fan from Leif Enger on Vimeo.

Dripping cold, the spare guitar of Robert Johnson, grainy black and white. Such sweet sorrow!

And to quote the great funk poet R. James, "[waiting for the Twins and winter to end] bums the *&%# otta me."

May Your Taters Fly Far...
Twinkler Out

The Tony Oliva Story: 1970 Topps Booklet Series!



Pages 2 and 3

 



Pages 4 & 5

Last pages

 Always loved these booklets, great series!

May Your Taters Fly Far!

Twinkler Out

The Argument Against Jim Thome's Hall of Fame Candidacy

I have problems with his argument against Thome. Interesting, anyway... Bob Coen's article at The Baseball Page website offers some food for thought.  Would like to have you weigh in!

May Your Taters Fly Far!
Twinkler Out

Game of The Week: Sunday, Oct. 1,1967 Twin vs. RedSox : "The Impossible Dream"

I'll tell ya now.  Sox won, 5-3. El Crappo! But this post is a nice vehicle for viewing the young Rod Carew, in his rookie year.  Sweet! Bad part: having to see dumb baserunning by Ted Uhlaender!  Ugh.

It was the final game in the season ending 3-game set.  One win (1) would have sent our Twins to the big dance.  And...the Sox swept! Guess it's an exercise in torture, my posting another feature on a late season big game Twins loss...but this one is of the "Sweet Sorrow" variety, with thanks to William "Billy Ball" Shakespeare.  It's art, I tell you.

1967 was the year the Red Sox trotted Carl Yastrzemski out to left field, and layed 8 athletic supporters at the other positions on the diamond.  He single-handedly won the pennant for them that summer. Sure, they did have Rico Petrocelli at short and Reggie Smith in center, solid, but not the players they would be. Sure,  George"The Boomer" Scott was in the upper echelon of the League's first sackers. But c'mon...with Harmon, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Cesar Tovar and Bob Allison in your lineup, you sort of like your chances! Not to mention a dang thing about that poor devil, Zoilo Versalles, playing in his last game as a Twin.

This game put the Sox over the top, and into the World Series. Dean Chance was the loser that day, in his last start in an otherwise great first season with the Twins.  The game also marked the last appearance of Jim "Mudcat" Grant, too, in a Twins uniform.

Carl Yastrzemski again came up big for the home team.  He went four for four in this game, and threw out Bob Allison at second on an attempted double in the top of the 8th.  He represented the go ahead run, had he stayed at first.  He tested Yaz' arm in left, and payed for it.  Essentially, Yaz would have thrown out The Savior Himself too, had He elected to run; so good was the Big Pole (if you'll pardon the expression) in big game situations, during his Triple Crown Year.

I'm sorry you had to see this, kids.

Go ahead, click on the line ups in the link above. DARE YA!  You would never have guessed the Red Sox were in any way a match for what was perhaps the best Twins team ever fielded.  The Twins were 3rd in the league in runs scored (.671), 4th in batting average (.240), 4th in homers (131), 6th in fielding (.978), and 2nd in team ERA (3.14). The Red Sox were 1st in runs scored (722), 1st in batting average (.255), 1st in homeruns (158), 9th?? in fielding (.977), and 8th in team ERA (3.36). Harrumph!

Ultimately, it set the scene for rebuilding for the great 1969 Twins team.  More on that later...

FYI: Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson in seven games in the World Series.  So there.

Nice face, Yaz!

At least not having the Twins in the World Series made the famous Jose Feliciano*  rendition (see below vid) of the "Star Spangled Banner" possible.  Who would the Twins have forwarded for the job? Merv Griffin?  Oooooooh! Maybe a Jimi Hendrix appearance at Met Stadium, coming on the heals of the Monteray Pop Festival...?  Nothing wrong with dreamin."
OK, maybe that would have heralded an outbreak of reefer madness on the great state of Minnesota, allowing the likes of him into sunny Bloomington.

*not to be confused with the Red Sox' Jose,  hurler Jose Tartabull (the father of Danny Tartabull, FYI).






May your taters fly far!

Twins Twinkler is OUT!

Snapshots From Twins Territory: Bernie Allen 1962

Everybody's All-American: Bernard Keith Allen, looking as 

if he was fresh out of Boy Scout Camp. Why his

mother let him out of the house, I'll never know.



 Use your imagination, and you can almost hear it...
Rookie Twins announcer Herb Carneal: "And Kaline grounds it to Rollins-he fields it, over to Allen, steps on second..on to Vic Power at first, and Kaline...he-eeesss's OUT, a double play..."
The Twins that summer, along with Bernie Allen,  were still fresh out of the box that summer of 1962. It was also the year of the Telstar Communications Satellite, The Cuban Missle Crisis, the release of the first Beach Boys single, "Surfin," the first African-American, James Meredith, to enroll and attend the University of Mississippi, and, by the way, the birth year of the blogger guy you know as The Twins Twinkler.

Second baseman Allen placed third in the American League Rookie of The Year Award voting in '62 (behind future Twin Buck Rodgers (2nd) and Tom Tresh (1st)). He was an All-American shortstop out of Purdue University, where he was also the Boilermakers starting QB.  He and his crew beat the Gopher football squad in 1960 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis by a score of 23-14. This game gave him an insight into Minnesota sports fans, with fair, good-natured treatement given him and his teammates as they left the field.  This factored into his thinking when he chose to sign with Calvin Griffith and the Twins.

He took Billy Martin's place at second, having a fine year , as the Baseball Reference site shows.  This was an accomplishment in that he merely avoided having the demure Martin bash his lights out.  But factored in too were his twelve homers and otherwise excellent offensive and defensive numbers, and you then had a candidate to fill the organization's ongoing second base vacuum. He was chosen for the 1962 Topps Rookie All Star Team. He appeared to have "the right stuff." Or, so it seemed...

Bernie Allen 1963 Volpe Portrait, Twins

Team Set. Disembodied heads frighten me.



Bernie Allen, 1963 Topps Card

 This May 21, 1962 article from Sports Illustrated, written by Walter Bingham, gives a fascinating insight into Allen, Rich Rollins, Sam Mele, and the early season Twins of that year.

 Unfortunately, the league pitchers adjusted to him, and his output dropped the next year, in '63.  Not surprising, as might be expected for a guy having only 327 plate appearances in 80 games.  It's a tough game! In 1964, he was injured while receiving a lousy throw* on a double play ball from the mercurial Zoilo Versalles, leaving him vulnerable to the hard slide from the baserunner, Don Zimmer.

*as described by Jim Thielman in "Cool Of The Evening"

His knee was shredded.  It eerily predated the injury Rod Carew would suffer six years later, ; on a similar play, the '69 Batting Champion was taken out by Brewers first baseman, Mike Hegan. Only after surgery and rigorous workouts did Sir Rodney resurrect his career!

Calvin Griffith's team doctor decreed that Allen didn't need surgery. As it turned out, quite the opposite was true.  Allen eventually was put under the care of orthopedic specialist Dr. Don O'Donoghue.  The same fellow eventually worked wonders with Gayle Sayers, Willis Reed and scores of other athletes. Looking back, it's tempting to slam the cork and yarn stuffing out of Griffith, but his inactivity was rather in line with the way club owners conducted in player affairs back in those days, going on the cheap. Months after the injury took place, Allen was finally put under the knife.



Fellow Purdue teammates and alumni

Joe McCabe and Bernie Allen,

Spring, 1964. PINSTRIPES!

 So out of sync with the current state of sports medicine, and giving the professional athletes every benefit of the doubt with each flinch and facial tic.  Sports teams today do everything possible to avoid risking permanent injury to one of their "investments." Now, it's not considered unusual for a current Twin like J.J. ("The Iron Horse") Hardy to start only 95 games out of 162 during the 2010 season, with his various ailments.




          A-Ha! Does my little eye spy Harmon Killebrew (3)
          and Vic Power (28)in the background?

 











  Ultimately, Allen's story is a one of a man who fought his way back. Only through intelligence, grit, and positive thinking did he return to baseball and the Twins. Pitching coach Johnny Sain bolstered his attitude with what we would today call "self-help books," a mode that had proven successful with Twin pitchers like Jim Kaat.  Sain was ahead of his time!

Allen's career never sulfilled the promise that it hinted in that summer of '62, but he did sustain a long career. He finished his career with the Yankees and then a few games with the Expos, in 1973 (see link above for stats). John Swol on his excellent Twins Trivia  site has posted an interview he conducted with Allen from a while back.  Not especially a man of many words at this time of his life!

May Your Taters Fly Far!

Twinkler Out