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!"

Game Of The Week: Second-Guessing Harmon Killebrew, Aug. 6,1961

This is the latest in a series honoring the late, great Harmon Killebrew, who died on May 17, 2011.

NOTE: eventually, all killers
end up with their mug shot
on the post office wall, or
in the newspaper sports section .

I recently came upon this 51 year-old clipping, found in the subterranean archives at Classic Twins. Though incomplete, it was found on the back of an AP photo and news story of Warren Spahn, celebrating his 300th win. Its central figure is the dominant icon in Minnesota Twins history, and it's scant detail allows a glimpse at one of the few instances in which he was the receiver of something besides glowing endorsement. That it occured as it did could be attributed to the fact that he had only two full seasons under his belt, and was earning his stripes as a 25 year-old star for the fledgling '61Twins. Of course, it's happening in the media capital of the world helped make it water cooler fodder around the country. That criticism alone made it absorbing for me - a lifelong citizen of Twins Territory.

It was the last time the Twins would play in New York during the 1961 season. In a deflating series, the Twins lost four games that weekend to the eventual World Champs; the last three were by one run. The game in focus was the first of a Sunday doubleheader, which the Twins lost in extra innings on a fielding decision by Harmon Killebrew.

The Game

The Aug. 6, 1961 box at BBRef is a fine stop to catch the sequence of events. In short: right hander Ray “Old Blue” Moore was pitching for the Twins in the bottom of the 15th inning, the game tied at 6 each. The Yankees had loaded the bases for Yogi Berra with one out, following a walk to Mickey Mantle. The eventual Hall of Fame catcher slapped a grounder at fellow future Hall inductee Killebrew at first. The conventional play would have had him throwing home to cut off the winning run (Bobby Richardson).

The game record at BBRef says Killebrew, instead, chose to go for the inning-ending double play. It is likely he factored the old-timer Berra into the split-second decision;  the left fielder that day was playing his 1,927th game since 1946, the majority of which he played as a catcher. But The Baseball Gods made Killebrew pay for that...his throw to shortstop Zoilo Versalles forced out Mickey Mantle, but the gamer Berra wrested every bit of energy he could from his 36 year-old legs to beat the return throw. Richardson scored the winning run. The Bombers basked in their accustomed glow while the upstarts from Minnesota limped down the coast to begin a weekday series in Boston.

Killebrew with The Mick, Jim Lemon and Roger Maris at Yankee Stadium,
in August of 1961. I'm getting a Mount Rushmore effect!

In the process, it unleashed the Monday morning quarterbacks of the press, questioning Killebrew’s “wrong play.” The game and series helped propel New York to its winningest month that season, and dropped Minnesota to 25 games back of the Evil Empire. It was the “TC” boys sixth straight loss. Yes, for Twins fans accustomed to the Yankees seemingly endless domination in the 2000s, nothing much has changed under the sun in 50 years (1987 and 1991 notwithstanding...). The discussion lasted into the next weekend, at least, when the Spahn photo was published in the Minneapolis Star.

In Case You Were Wondering...

Killebrew's 1961 Fielding / Lifetime Statistics As First Baseman

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	Rtot	Rtot/yr	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	Awards
1961	MIN	AL	25	1B	119	115	102	997.1	1053	972	67	14	91	.987	1	1	9.38	8.73	.990	9.45	9.34	AS,MVP-11
	14 Seasons			1B	969	929	626	7810.2	8145	7521	555	69	678	.992	-6	-1	9.31	8.33	.991	9.71	9.57

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Generated 2/18/2012. Rtot: total zone fielding above average; RF/9: range factor per 9 innings RF/G: range factor per game. You are encouraged to match like-colored columns for comparison. Big chart! Try clicking on "original table" if partially obscured.

The "lg" prefixes  denote league averages for the same sets of criterion. These stats seem to suggest the idea that while Killebrew had average to poor range; on the other hand, he also made relatively few errors, was sure handed with the balls he could reach, and probably compensated for his deficits with good positioning the longer he was in the league.

The statistics show what we already knew by the eyeball test: Killebrew’s record as a fielder in 1961 and for his career confirms he was sub par in range (as compared to the league’s other first basemen) and foot speed. BBref and Fangraph's are in accord in assigning him a TZ (total zone) of 1 in 1961, which places him in the "extremely average/low average" in that oh-so-convoluted-yet-encompassing fielding construct. And I while I wasn’t around in ’61 (only being familiar with the Harmon of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s), it’s hard to imagine he’d been Juan Pierre-like in foot speed ten years earlier. Quite the opposite; think of a latter-day  Benjie Molina (whom, it has been said, runs “like he’s got a bear on his back”). I recall seeing Harmon with binoculars, during a game in the early '70s; the image of him sitting on the dugout steps, eating potato chips is etched upon my mind. That and that vicious swing of his.

Suffice it to say, while he was an exceptional athlete with superior throwing arm strength, he was sub par in those other, essential attributes.

Doing what comes naturally: Harmon being harmful on the Senators and catcher Gene Green, 1961 (Sports Illustrated Archive Photo). I can watch video of him regularly from the '60s and still feel awe at how hard he swung. Paul Bunyan indeed.

OK, I'm A Homer, But...

While there was no mistaking Harmon’s role as Minnesota's slugger extraordinaire, there is that other issue which has been part of the Killebrew story – his defensive position in the field. Killebrew played 119 games at first and 65 at third in 1961. Then, he was shuttled, more or less continuously during the 1960’s, between third, first, and left field. The only exception to this was 1967, when he played160 games at first.  After ’61, Harmon didn’t play first at all (save for 4 games in ’62) until 1965, when Manager Sam Mele penciled him in for 72 at first, and 44 at third. The presence of slick fielding Vic Power on those early Twins teams, Don Mincher in mid-decade, and Rich Reese at the end of the 1960’s made it incumbent on Killebrew to move over to help other teammates find a defensive position, a stronger glove, or to add another strong bat to the lineup. 

The point of this filibuster, you ask? The constant jockeying between positions had to affect his fielding instincts for the worse. Whether it’s licking envelopes, yelling at office subordinates, or driving a fork truck, it’s hard to gain the rhythm and instincts to be effective at what you do without the constant reps, the daily security of routine. Little things aren't so automatic, like positioning for certain game situations, or, say, choosing the best percentage play to get a putout.

Athletes are notorious creatures of habit. The Nick Puntos of the world, who can thrive defensively without positional security, are rare animals. Here was Harmon Killebrew, the dominant power hitter of his team and of the entire decade of the 1960’s moving around the diamond for the betterment of his team – It would be unthinkable to ask Albert Pujols to find another slot out of respect for Kendrys Morales and his glovework now in 2012. Not that Pujols has ever been compared to a Dick "Dr. Strangeglove" Stuart as a fielder.

No debate here. Harmon gets a posthumous pardon for his error in judgment.

If it was good enough for Herb Carneal, so it goes for me:
"So long, everybody." - TT

Twins Card Spotlight: The 1961 Peters Meats Set

Normally, I don't like to go all materialistic.

I'd like to think I've moved away from the instinct of hoarding and never being satisfied with my lot. 

But if a little, old man approached me in the street with a handful of these for free, I wouldn't turn him down. 

(See this Page Link for a description of this set's origins)

As may be inferred, the copy writers for this 1961 Twins set took liberal literary license in their player profiles. The de facto staff ace, "Pete" Ramos here is hung with a nickname that is a pure reflection of a less worrisome time, where using ethnic references from TV shows like "Zorro" were commonplace.  I, for one, have a hard time seeing Pedro arriving in the Twins locker room on the team's very first Opening Day in 1961* (Fergus Falls MN Daily Journal April 12, 1961 newspaper pdf link), and announcing "Boys, go right ahead and jump on my back - The Gay Caballero's bringin' it home for ya today!" ( a la Kirby Puckett before Game 6 in 1991). But that's just me.

*Twins 1961 Opening day box score at Baseball Reference

It may be argued that such insertions make this perhaps the most interesting and compelling Twins card set of all time. Pedro did in fact, pitch the new North Star heroes to victory over the mighty Yankees and Whitey Ford that day.  That Pedro served prison time after being caught running contraband over the border should in no way cover up the fact that this bird was, along with Pistol Packin' Dave Boswell, easily the most all-round goofy and interesting character in Twins history. Actually, that would only add to his legend. Maybe the whole mishap could have been avoided if the winner of the first Twins game (Sporting News pdf)* had asserted himself thusly with the border police: "Don't you guys know who I am?"

The Gay Caballero, indeed.
*Page 2 of that same Twins related coverage, 4/19/61 TSN

Just as obvious is the need of the Twins resident Bill Shakespeare to paint Ray "Old Blue" Moore as a character right out of the children's classic "Where The Red Fern Grows." It's rather ambiguous for me, from the folksy "Moore is no stranger to these parts" (what...did he just wander in from an episode of "Gunsmoke"?) to the nebulous meaning of this clause in the final paragraph: "Although a right hander, he is very tough on liking to pitch." Is this in some way equating "Farmer Ray" with left handers of dubious morality, like an ambidextrous Bill "Spaceman" Lee? Or is it an implication that he'd just as soon chuck this baseball thing for a go at a-pickin' and a-grinnin' on the back porch down in old Virginny? 

Fact of the matter, "Old Blue" gave stability and professionalism to the Twins 'pen at a time in its history when it needed it most.  You can put that one in your corncob pipe an' smoke it.

More prettiness:

Would have loved to hear good ol' Herb Carneal describe the pitching of the above two hurlers, from back in the day.
"...And the count rides along."
TT