April 25, 1979: Oakland’s Craig Minetto picks up only major league win

Making his seventh major-league appearance and only his second career start, Craig Minetto was summoned to start for the Oakland Athletics against the defending World Series champion New York Yankees after scheduled starter Rick Langford was injured.

After the game Minetto told sportswriters that he had said to himself, “So it’s the Yankees. It could be the Red Sox or Angels, they’re all major leaguers. I wasn’t real nervous. I pitched in bigger crowds in Bologna.”1

Minetto mentioned Bologna because after the Montreal Expos released him following the 1974 season, he spent the 1975 campaign playing for Fortitudo Baseball Bologna in the Italian Baseball League, where he struck out 253 batters that season.2 Minetto was allowed to play in the Italian league because his grandfather, Virgil Azzaro Minetto, who immigrated to the United States when he was 15, never became an American citizen, so Minetto was considered an Italian citizen.3 In the Italian league, a non-Italian citizen could be a position player, but a pitcher had to be an Italian citizen. Technically, through his grandfather (who was still living), Minetto was an Italian citizen.4

With Minetto on the mound for Oakland, Mickey Rivers popped out to first baseman Dave Revering to lead off the top of the first for the Yankees and Willie Randolph struck out. Minetto then surrendered singles to Thurman Munson and Lou Piniella but got Reggie Jackson to tap one back to the mound for a 1-3 putout to retire the side.

Ed Figueroa retired the first six men he faced before Dwayne Murphy led off the A’s half of the third inning with a base hit to right. He was left stranded and the game went to the fourth inning in a scoreless tie.

The Yankees threatened again in the fourth. Leadoff batter Munson grounded to second baseman Mike Edwards, who booted the ball. After Piniella flied out to Glenn Burke in left field for the first out, Jackson singled to shortstop, with Munson advancing to second. Munson went to third when Graig Nettles flied out to right, but Minetto got Chris Chambliss to ground out to first to end the inning.

The A’s threatened in the bottom of the fifth when leadoff batter Wayne Gross singled to right to start the inning. Figueroa got Mario Guerrero to ground to third baseman Nettles, who threw to Randolph at second to force Gross. Murphy followed with a single to center, with Guerrero advancing to third. With one out and runners at the corners, Figueroa retired Jeff Newman and Edwards on groundballs to retire the side.

Through five innings, the Yankees managed only four hits off Minetto, while the A’s had three hits off Figueroa.

Minetto retired Munson, Piniella, and Jackson in the top of the sixth. The A’s broke the tie in their half of the inning. Burke led off with a triple to left field. Joe Wallis walked. Burke scored when Mitchell Page grounded to second baseman Randolph for a force out on Wallis at second. Figueroa then retired Revering and Gross on groundouts.

A light rain had made the outfield grass slick. Burke’s triple appeared catchable by Yankees left fielder Juan Beníquez, but the ball skidded past him on the wet grass. Beníquez later said, “I couldn’t have caught it and it wasn’t my fault it got by me. Blame it on the wet field.” Figueroa shrugged, smiled, and said, “He knows better. The ball should have been caught.”5

Minetto struck out Nettles to start the Yankees’ seventh. Chambliss and Beníquez both singled to right, chasing Minetto. Jim Todd, who replaced him, got Jim Spencer to hit a comebacker that Todd turned into an inning-ending double play.

Figueroa retired the A’s one-two-three in the bottom of the seventh and Todd did the same to the Yankees in the top of the eighth, and Figueroa repeated in the bottom of the eighth.

In the Yankees’ ninth, Todd got Piniella on a grounder to short, Jackon on a popout to third, and Nettles on a grounder to second to end the game with the A’s eking out a victory in 1 hour and 59 minutes. The crowd of 7,135 was the third-largest of the season so far.

Minetto gave up seven hits in his 6⅓ innings. Figueroa gave up three singles and the triple to Burke. The Athletics’ Todd, who got Spencer to hit into an inning-ending double play in the seventh, faced seven batters, but retired eight Yankees and picked up his first save of the season.

Minetto’s victory came on his 25th birthday. “I couldn’t have asked for a better present,” he said. He continued, “Right now I’m pretty celebrated out. I’m going to go home, relax, and tell everyone how I beat the world champions. I especially want to go over the game with my grandfather. He couldn’t come out to see me because it was a little late for him. I hope he makes it next time. Just think, if he had bothered to become an American citizen, I wouldn’t have been able to pitch in Italy and my career might have been over a long time ago.”6

A’s manager Jim Marshall said, “He wasn’t afraid. He goes out and challenges. Once in a while he gets ripped, but he’s not afraid.”7

“The kid showed a lot of poise, Yankees manager Bob Lemon said. “He didn’t walk anybody, did he?”8

Minetto appeared in 33 more games for Oakland during the 1979 season, losing the five games that he was the pitcher of record. He pitched in 15 games during the 1980 and ’81 seasons for the A’s before he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles on February 24, 1982, for minor leaguer Allen Edwards.

He spent the 1982 and 1983 seasons with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings. On December 21, 1983, he was traded by the Orioles to the Houston Astros for Bobby Sprowl. His final season of professional baseball was with the Tucson Toros of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1984.

Minetto was invited to the San Francisco Giants spring training camp in 1985 but did not make the cut and retired from baseball. He returned to Stockton to manage the family’s nursery business until they closed the nursery in 2012.9 Since then, he has been an instructor at the Baseball Factory and a scout for the Giants.10

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for player and game information.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK197904250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1979/B04250OAK1979.htm

Notes

1 Joe Donnelly, “The Toast of Oakland: Rookie Blanks Yanks,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), April 26, 1979: 182.

2 “Craig Minneto,” Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame, accessed September 6, 2023, https://stocktonhalloffame.com/craig-minetto/.

3 United Press International, “A’s Minetto Gets Birthday Present,” Napa Valley (California) Register, April 26, 1979: 12.

4 Donnelly, “The Toast of Oakland: Rookie Blanks Yanks.”

5 Donnelly.

6 UPI, “A’s Minetto Gets Birthday Present.”

7 Tom Weir, “Minetto Pours Out Winning Tonic for A’s,” Oakland Tribune, April 26, 1979: 45.

8 Eric Prewitt, “A’s Blank New York,” Merced (California) Sun-Star, April 26, 1979: 17.

9 Reed Fujii, “Nursery Calls it Quits,” Recordnet.com (Stockton Record), June 29, 2012, https://www.recordnet.com/story/lifestyle/home-garden/2012/06/29/nursery-calls-it-quits/49579007007/.

10 “Baseball Factory,” BaseballFactory.com, accessed September 6, 2023, https://www.baseballfactory.com/training/spring-training-west-coast-hs/.