Cool of the Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins
Posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Cool of the Evening
The 1965 Minnesota Twins
by Jim Thielman
Copyright © 2005, Kirk House Publishers
hardcover, 254 pages, several b/w photos
Meet the Author: Jim Thielman
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from the dust jacket: "Snow, rain, floods and tornadoes slid through the upper Midwest in the spring of 1965. For the first two months of the baseball season, fans stayed away form Metropolitan Stadium, where Minnesota Twins' manager Sam Mele was transforming the most powerful lineup in the American League into an aggressive, running team.
"Future Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew was leading a nucleus of players that was poised for victory after a dismal 1964 season. A pitcher the team had considered releasing was welding together a suspect pitching staff. Then injuries struck."
"Killebrew and star pitcher Camilo Pascual left the lineup at the same time. Catcher Earl Battey was constantly hurt. Outfielder Bob Allison fell into a horrendous batting slump."
"Fiery Billy Martin, the team's new third-base coach, was sparking mercurial shortstop Zoilo Versalles to a dream season. But Martin also ignited clashes among the coaching staff."
"Mele was one of the younger managers in the game. He withstood it all, blending rookies and veterans into patchwork lineups. John Sain, part psychologist, part coach, coaxed victories froma four-man pitching rotation -- and molded a reliable bullpen led by a veteran who was once demoted to the minor leagues for his honesty."
"Before it was over, fans forgot about their weather-beaten lives and flocked to Met Stadium to watch the Twins race to a team-record 102 victories. When the Twins took the field for Minnesota's first World Series, the team had five rookies on the roster -- and a comradeship that survived for decades."
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Personal notes:
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Some choice excerpts can be found here.
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The index at the back of the book is excellent; one can look up with ease a reference to any of the players throughout the book.
- Looking to buy this book? purchase directly from the author (Jim penned a fine note in the front of my copy, which was much appreciated)
Please drop an email to SBGLibrary (at) hotmail (dot) com if you have a suggestion or a submission for the SBG Library.
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Does anyone know why Sam Mele never managed in the majors again? I don't know enough to say he was a good manager or a bad manager, but he made it to one World Series and nearly made it to another. I'd have thought someone would look at that and give him another chance.
The displaced managers stayed in the Griffith organization as he looked out for his own (believe it or not) - Cal Ermer, for example, stayed on the payroll for a long time. I would assume that other clubs were dissauded from any compensation Griffith may have wanted.
In the fine book, "Cool of the Evening," you can not only learn this, but the solution to world peace.
Mele called managing a lonely life and said he let things bother him. He gave Dick Williams as an example and said Williams let stuff roll of his back, while Mele took it all too seriously.
He was good friends with Tom Yawkey, who owned the Sox, and Yawkey hired him immediately.
I ordered my copy this morning. Looking forward to reading this book.
It's a great read for the dog days.
I've been meaning to order this forever as well. I bought a copy for my kid brother for Christmas two years back and thumbed through it at the time. About time I got one for myself.
It's a great read. I bought it for my dad and read a bit of it. I ended up not giving it to him until after I had read the whole book.