Great Moments
Posted by SBG on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
I've been feeling down about the Twins lately. I've known for a while that they wouldn't make it to the playoffs, and they've not played particularly entertaining baseball, what with no offense. Despite the disappointment of this season, I remain a Twins fan. But, more than that, I remain a baseball fan. I like the numbers, I like watching players and trying to figure out who's going to be good and who isn't.
But more than anything, I like to go to the ball park, eating a hot dog, and watching baseball. Tonight I thought I'd recount ten great moments of games that I saw at the ballpark. I'm not sure that these are the absolutely best moments I've ever seen, and as I write this, I'm not sure exactly what moments will make the list. So, let's get started and see what happens.
July 4, 1973 -- My first major league game
The Twins played the Kansas City Royals and lost 5-4. No matter. I was absolutely stunned by the whole scene. There was a then regular season record of 49,000+ at Metropolitan Stadium. The grass was green, the stadium scoreboard (which wasn't much, let me assure you) seemed huge. We sat on the third base line and I remember the first pitch of the game. Eddie Bane, making his major league debut spun around and delivered strike one. I was amazed at how hard he threw. I still remember how excited I was over 32 years later.
Sometime in the mid 1970s -- Back to Back Nights
Again, the Royals were in town and we were visiting Big Henk. We had gone to the Twins game the night before. I knew the Twins were playing again the next night and I would not relent. I mentioned the game about 200 times until Butch and Big Henk couldn't take it anymore. They poured a couple of beers into a coffee Thermos, which I carried into the stadium and we went to the game. I can't tell you a single thing about the action on the field. But, I can tell you I talked Twins with the guy sitting behind me and I was absolutely thrilled that I was in the ballpark again. Butch and Big Henk drank flat beer out of that Thermos and I had imposed my will upon them.
Labor Day Weekend -- 1987
My college roommate and I went to a couple of games against the Brewers. The Twins split the two games, but for the first time ever, I was watching the Twins in a pennant race. We sat in the upper deck in the left field corner. Really bad seats. But the euphoria of seeing the Twins in a pennant race was new and exciting. Little did I know that in about six weeks the impossible would happen.
Summer 1998 -- Phoenix Arizona
I had flown to Phoenix that afternoon and I got into town about an hour before game time. I decided on a whim to attend the game in town that night. I bought a seat right behind the plate ($55 in 1998? Ouch!) The D-Backs were playing the Cubs and Randy Johnson was pitching. Johnson gave up, I think two hits and doubled off the center field wall himself. To see Johnson pitch at that time was incredible. He was throwing 90 MPH breaking balls. Several times his fastball hit 100 MPH. Nasty. Oh yeah. One of the hits was Sammy Sosa's 47th homerun of the season and it was hit about 480 to left.
Game One -- 1991 World Series
The only World Series game I've ever seen. The Twins won 5-2 and Kent Hrbek and Greg Gagne homered. I was sitting in dead center field. After the game, I was talking to Big Henk at his house. We agreed -- the Twins were men and the Braves? Only boys. Little did we know that the greatest World Series ever was about to unfold before our eyes.
June, 1990 -- Busch Stadium
Beaner, Putzer and I, in game 3 of a nine-day, eight game stadium tour. We were sitting in the second row in left field. The Cardinals were playing the Phillies and some banjo left handed hitter for the Phillies comes up. I yell to Vince Coleman, who is playing way too deep. "Move in Vince! You are playing too deep!" Vince doesn't move a muscle. The guy dumps a hit right in front of Vince. The next time the guy comes up, Vince moved way in. Hee, hee!
September 1, 1990 -- Wrigley Field and County Stadium
Not satisfied to stop with the stadium tour, I head back out to Chicago. My buddy Leo and I head to Wrigley on a glorious late summer afternoon. I see the Cubs and Cardinals play. That night, we head to Milwaukee and watch the Brewers and the Orioles. Two games, two cities, one day.
Summer 2000 -- Yankee Stadium
Yeah, I hate the Yankees. And I can't stand Derek Jeter. But, I got a chance to see the Yanks at the stadium in a luxury box behind the plate. The Yanks played the Indians. Knobby made a two out throwing error to load the bases and Roberto Alomar promptly hit a grand slam. Of course, the Yanks fought back and won in the tenth on a Derek Jeter double. I pretended to be pulling for the Yanks, because I was the guest of Yankee fans. The Yankee stadium atmosphere was unbelievable. And it was hotter than hell.
Summer 1991 -- Twins v. Brewers
I was driving down to the dome from North Dakota on a Friday afternoon listening to the radio on the day that the Jeffrey Dahmer story broke. It was an horrific story. The Twins beat the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth on a three run homer by Dan "Dazzle" Gladden off the foul pole. The stadium was full, the Twins were surging, and Gladden, fresh off the DL was off to a big weekend.
Summer 1991 -- Twins v. Oakland
The Twins were playing the A's on a Sunday night, the third game of a four game series. The Twins had won the first two games and this game was the ESPN game. The Twins gave out sweat socks that night with a little Twins logo. The Twins won the game big and over 45,000 people were furiously twirling those sweat socks over their heads. I went to the game and sat in the cheap seats. I happened to run into my cousin Henk there that night. We sat together and waved the socks and cheered loudly the whole night. I drove home to North Dakota after the game, tacked the socks onto my wall and never wore them. I think I still have them somewhere.
As I wrote this, I thought of a bunch more memories. Let me know about some of your favorite moments.
SBG
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Growing up in Bloomington in the 70s, I was able to bike to the Met to watch the Twins practice. Me & some buddies would bike over there in the mornings and sit out in the outfield stands grabbing as many BP HR balls as possible. It was a great way to watch for free and collect MLB baseballs.
From a game standpoint, my most memorable times were all of the Camera Day games I went to as a kid. We could go on to the field and stand right next to my "heroes" of that time...Rod Carew, Gene Mauch, Larry Hisle, Lyman Bostock, Dan Ford, Roy Smalley, etc. I still have those pictures and those memories will last a lifetime.
The Met was awesome!
I was there Labor Day weekend in '87, too. For my birthday, a relative had gotten me season ticket seats (she worked at one of Pohlad's banks). My favorite player (Tom Brunansky), hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth for a Twins win. Ahh, the good ole days.
And I made my firsts trip to non-Metrodome ballparks this year, catching games at Wrigley, Miller, and Kauffman. Good times.
That's right! Bruno with the walk off! I remember!
Twins moments off the top of my head.
My first game:
I remember being completely in awe of the expansive Metrodome. Being outside the dome was impressive, but the inside - the first glimpse of the field through an entryway was breathtaking. Sorry, but it's the stadium I grew up on. The game was either in 1984 or 1985. I was 7 or 8. I'm pretty sure it was against the Angels in August and we sat in the lower GA area. I'm also pretty sure I fell asleep at some point.
Being from rural Minnesota, and being that I was a little kid, I will admit the biggest thing I remember from the game. I remember this being the first time I up close and personal saw an African-American person. As a wee innocent child, it was the most foreign thing to me after the expanse of the stadium and the joy of seeing the Twinks live.
My second game:
This had to be in 1987 because I KNOW it was one of the infamous winningest-minor-league-pitcher-of-all-time games. Jeff Bittiger started. I could have swore it was a loss, but I also could swear it was versus the White Sox. Since Bittiger only had one start with the Twins, this must be the game (Labor Day weekend as well - weird). A blowout. Apparently I saw Brunansky's 29th homer and four stolen bases off Carlton Fisk. Oh, and a Tom Nieto triple.
Another game:
Went with a boyscout group. We got there early to see batting practice. We were sitting fairly close in lower GA. The boys were yacking and not paying 100% attention.
"Here one comes"
I look up and see Dome. I catch the ball's path a second too late. SLAM! It hits the seat right next to me and a free for all ensues. The ball is recovered by my most hated enemy on the junior travelling baseball team. If only I had been paying attention.
Randy Bush and his 8 RBI's:
This is cheating since I didn't attend the game. As a kid I kept score of Twins' games while listening to the radio ("For those of you scoring at home..."). Not every game, but a lot of them. I distinctly remember scoring Randy Bush's 8-RBI game against Texas. At one point I believe I had to do the dreaded radio transfer, jumping from the radio in our house, to my grandpa's truck radio, to the radio in my grandparent's house. But judging from the scorebook I found a couple years ago, all the stats were intact.
Being four hours from Minneapolis means a lot of my game attendance occurred after college when I moved closer. I do have other "young" memories. Going to one of the early crap team blowouts (1993?) while sitting in the upper deck in dead center field. The beginning of the end of a love affair that wouldn't rekindle until 2000. The strike put the 7-year nail in that coffin. Also, a park and rec department trip where the uninterested chaperones made us leave in the beginning of the 8th inning. We missed a Twins comeback, but it was equally enjoyable on the radio. GAH!
The current version of the Twins have provided me with some great moments. Here are three I specifically remember.
Stopping Oakland:
Attending the game in 2002 when the Twins stopped Oakland's 20-game winning streak in the first game of a three game set. The atmosphere was playoff level. Probably as loud a game I've attended save for that one playoff win I saw against Anaheim.
Eddie:
A game with a great Twins comeback, a win in 10, my first live witnessing of a 5-player infield, and Mr. Eddie G's Diving Catch. Twins found themselves down by 5. I felt a little bad as I had convinced a friend of mine to come to the game. He's a fan, but isn't able to attend many games. We started sitting in the Upper Baggie GA section, but we spied another friend in the cool section that juts out into right field and snuck down to sit with him and his wife.
After moving seating positions it was time for the Twins to comeback. Twins score 4 (down 5-4). Anaheim scores 1 in the 8th. Twins back with 2 in the bottom half, Mr. Troy Percival came in, giving up a walk and a single to tie it up. Of course, those weren't earned runs on his part. Don't even think it was a blown save.
The best part of the game was in the top of the 9th. Eddie had come in to the tune of Eddie. Tim Salmon hit a foul pop heading toward the stands. Eddie, and only Eddie, noticed that the ball had hit a speaker. On a dead run Eddie laid out parallel to the ground and caught the foul out. Being in the right-field jut, we had a great view down the first base line of Eddie's best play ever.
The 10th saw the Twins on first and third with one down. Adam Kennedy got his first chance in "CF," with Erstad coming in to 1B, Spiezio moving to 2B and Kennedy moving to the gap between 2B and SS ("CF"). Guzman hit a SAC fly and the game was over.
A glimpse into the future:
Very excitedly, a friend and I attended Johan Santana's first start of 2003. Boston Red Sox. Pedro Martinez. We have a win on our hands. Twins erupt for five versus Pedro and knock him out in the 5th. Johan, of course, is limited to five innings of shut out ball since he isn't really a starter. His starter splits in 2002 certainly didn't peg him as an option. And you all think Fransisco Liriano is a starting choice for 2006? Ha!
My friend Luke was also selected for Dodgeball, a mean feat in the 28,000+ crowd. He failed very, very miserably.
First game: 1963, don't remember the date. My dad took me to the Met, I was 5 years old. I remember seeing the field, and thinking how absolutely perfect it was.
August, 1987: My family and I are at Anaheim Stadium and see Joe Niekro get tossed for having the finger nail file on the mound. As I recall, the Twins won that game.
Oct, 1991: I, too, was at the first game of the 1991 WS (and game 2, as well). My wife gave me game tickets and and airplane tix and said "There, now stop whining about not seeing the '87 series." Did I marry a great woman or what? I came THIS CLOSE to catching Gagne's HR ball in game one. In game 2, my seats were somewhere about 20,000 feet above the field, so I wandered down behind home plate and in about the 5th inning, some rich-looking guy came storming out the steps, into the concourse and pulling his screaming kid towards the exit doors. I yelled at him "Leaving?" and he gave me his ticket stub, so I ended up right behind the plate about 15 rows up. Tapani, Scotty Leius! and the rest is history.
March, 1996: My family and I drove down to Denver to see the Twins (in town to play the Rockies in their final spring training games before the regular season started). We learned Kirby Puckett wouldn't be playing...when we got the whole story my kids started crying. Their favorite player was gone.
June, 2001: I was on temporary duty in New Jersey and took the train to Penn Station, then the subway to the Bronx, scored a great seat from a scalper and saw Roger Clemens pitch in Yankee Stadium against the Expos... I then took some leave to come home and visit relatives, and stopped in Chicago to see the Twins lose to the Cubs at Wrigley. I did get great seats again, though. If I remember correctly Lohse was on the mound, but I could be wrong. I remember Wrigley was neater than Yankee Stadium.
I remember thinking how perfect the infield was, too. They had the chain link fence in part of the outfield. I remember one game someone sitting in the right field bleachers held up a sign that said "We need more beer out here." I thought that was funny and I was probably about 10.
I am too young to remember the 1965 World Series, but the whole promotion this year and accompanying footage from the Met has made me wax nostalgic for the good old days in Bloomington before there was an enormous shopping mall.