The previous day, President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared a “major disaster” in 39 counties across the state. The Minnesota National Guard had been mobilized and was working side-by-side with thousands of people to sandbag towns along the rivers, desperately trying to save lives and property. The eventual toll would include several deaths and more than $200 million in property damage, plus many thousands of people displaced from their homes.

On Sunday night, the Minnesota Twins held their annual “welcome home” baseball dinner, with several players unable to make it because of flooding near their homes in Burnsville, on the south side of the Minnesota River. On Monday the high water made it impossible for those players – including starting pitcher Jim Kaat – to make it from their homes to Metropolitan Stadium. A call to the team’s traveling secretary, Howard Fox, was necessary, and he was able to make arrangements with local radio station WCCO to pick up the players in a helicopter – two at a time – and carry them to the parking lot outside the ballpark.2

Once the players, and a crowd of just 15,388, made it to the game, they sat in cold and windy conditions, with a temperature of 44 degrees at first pitch. The stadium was undergoing expansion, with the NFL Vikings building a $1.2 million double-deck grandstand in left field, meaning that section of the park was closed to spectators.3 The grounds crew had worked miracles to get the field ready for play, removing 40 inches of snow and ice from the field in the week prior to the game.4 The weather was bad enough that the Twins announced the cancellation of Tuesday’s game before Monday’s game began (with the visiting New York Yankees complaining that they did that only because they would get a much bigger gate during the summer).

The Yankees came in as defending American League champions, having won the flag five years in a row, and were favorites for another pennant, although they were aging and going through several personnel changes. After the Yankees lost the World Series in 1964 to the St. Louis Cardinals, they had fired manager Yogi Berra and surprisingly appointed former Cardinals manager Johnny Keane to take his place. Mickey Mantle was also making the full-time move from center to left field to try to give some rest to his aching legs.

The Twins were picked to finish in the first division, although they were not considered serious contenders for the pennant. A couple of years with 91 wins had been followed by a slump to 79 wins and sixth place in 1964, and there were questions about whether they could bounce back. Even manager Sam Mele wasn’t sure: “I think the Twins have to be better but I can’t say how much.”5

When the game began, Yankees starter Jim Bouton walked a couple of Twins batters in the bottom of the first, allowing one to score on a groundout. Then an error by new Yankees center fielder Tom Tresh gave the Twins a 2-0 lead in the second. That was the first of many errors this cold day, as the Yankees ended with five and the Twins with three. Meanwhile Kaat retired the first 10 batters he faced, and helped his own cause with a two-run single in the fourth. He gave up a solo home run to Elston Howard in the fifth inning (caught by one of the construction workers in the bleachers), and two more runs on a groundout and sacrifice fly in the seventh, but went to the ninth with a 4-3 lead.

Twins third baseman Rich Rollins had to leave the game early after wrenching his knee, and was replaced by Cesar Tovar, who was making his major-league debut. With two out in the ninth, Tovar dropped a Joe Pepitone pop fly, allowing Art Lopez (also making his debut, pinch-running for Mantle, who had singled to center) to score from second (he had advanced on a groundout) and tie the game. The game went into extra innings. Jerry Fosnow took over pitching duties for the Twins, after Don Mincher had pinch-hit for Kaat in the bottom of the ninth. Pedro Ramos entered the game to pitch for the Yankees in the bottom of the 10th.

Lopez returned the error in the bottom of the 11th, losing a fly ball in the wind in left field that let Twins leadoff hitter Bobby Allison go all the way to third. The Yankees intentionally walked the next two hitters, and then secured two outs on a pop fly and strikeout. Next, Tovar came to bat. He made amends for his earlier error, stroking a single to center – the umpire ruled that a diving Tresh trapped the ball, although many thought it was caught6 — to bring home the winning run and send the small crowd home happy. “I had to get a base hit,” said Tovar. “You could never find a better spot to make up for an error.”7

So the season was off to a winning start for the Twins, and for Jim Kaat the day ended with another helicopter ride, returning him and the other players across the rising floodwaters to their homes that evening.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Notes

Despite the loss, the Los Angeles Angels (the club officially changed its name to the California Angels on September 2, 1965, in anticipation of its move into the newly constructed Anaheim Stadium) had been playing their best ball of the season. After a slow start, they had won 11 of 15 games for skipper Bill Rigney, who had guided the club since its admission to the AL during the expansion year of 1961.

A sparse crowd of 10,711 showed up on a beautiful, 64-degree evening at Metropolitan Stadium, located in Bloomington, about 11 miles due south of downtown Minneapolis. The Twins’ faithful were treated to another exciting come-from-behind victory.

The game got under way when Jim “Mudcat” Grant took the mound. The hard-throwing 29-year-old right-hander had thrived since the Twins acquired him from the Cleveland Indians the previous season at the trading deadline, winning 14 of 23 decisions, including a clean 3-0 slate in ’65. The Angels’ light-hitting right fielder and former Rookie of the Year Award winner (1958), Albie Pearson, put LA on the board first against Grant with a home run in the first inning. Grant struggled with the gopher ball in 1965, surrendering a league-high 34; however, he still managed to lead the circuit in wins (21) and shutouts (6). The Angels increased their lead to 2-0 in the third inning on Jose Cardenal’s sacrifice fly which scored Bobby Knoop, who had doubled and stolen third.

The Twins’ home-run-bashing offense (they led the AL with 221 round-trippers in 1964) did not intimidate the Angels’ 20-year-old rookie southpaw, Rudy May, making just his fifth career start. A hard thrower who suffered from control problems, May had whiffed 10 in his major-league debut just about three weeks earlier, and sported an impressive 2-1 record and a 1.73 ERA. He retired the first seven batters he faced before yielding a walk and two singles, including one off the bat of second baseman Jerry Kindall that drove in catcher Jerry Zimmerman for the Twins’ first run.

The Angels maintained a 2-1 lead until the sixth inning, when first baseman Joe Adcock lined a two-out single to left field, scoring Cardenal. Still an offensive threat despite his bum knees, the 37-year-old Adcock had led the Angels in round-trippers with the 21 the previous year (even though he played home games in a pitcher’s paradise, Dodger Stadium) and became just the 23rd big leaguer to hit 300 home runs. Killebrew blasted a home run, his fourth of the season, in the bottom of the sixth to pull Minnesota back to within one. The “Killer’s” smash was music to the Twins’ ears. The 28-year-old slugger had clouted 48, 45, and 49 home runs in the three prior seasons to lead the AL in that department each year. However, he had an unexpected power outage to start the 1965 season, going homerless in his first 12 games. “When Harmon Killebrew’s bulging forearms snapped his bat through the strike zone and made full contact,” wrote the Star-Tribune years later, “there was nothing else like it in baseball.”1 Standing just 5-feet-11, Killebrew generated his power from a short, compact swing.

The Twins entered the bottom of the eighth inning trailing 3-2. Pinch-hitter Frank Kostro drew a one-out walk from reliever Bob Lee, who had taken over from May to start the seventh. Lee was no slouch; as a rookie in 1964, the hard-throwing righty posted a 1.51 ERA in 137 innings. He went on to earn a berth on the AL All-Star team in 1965, and posted similar numbers (1.92 ERA in 131 innings). Lee registered the second out by striking out Oliva, who had led the AL in batting as a rookie the previous season with a .323 average but had been mired in a slump thus far in 1965, entering the game batting only .267. Next up was Killebrew, who lived for these situations. The stocky Idahoan with a rapidly receding hairline launched an estimated 450-foot blast that cleared the center-field fence and gave the Twins the lead, 4-3. “That was no pop-gun Harmon Killebrew used on the Angels,” wrote Dick Couch of the AP.2

Righty Al “Red” Worthington, a 36-year-old journeyman, relieved Grant to start the eighth inning and held the Angels scoreless in the final two frames to pick up the victory. The game, which was finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes, was typical for the mid-1960s – good pitching and low scoring. Each team managed just seven hits, three of which were home runs. There were no double plays and no errors.

The Twins are “going like gangbusters,” wrote George C. Langford of UPI.3 Minnesota won its fifth consecutive game, but the club’s lead in the standings shrank by a half-game in light of the Chicago White Sox’ doubleheader sweep of the Kansas City A’s.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

BaseballReference.com

Retrosheet.org

SABR.org

Notes

In the first six weeks of the 1965 American League season, pitcher Jim Perry was given little opportunity to show the Minnesota Twins the truth in that adage.

From the start of spring training through the first 35 games of the regular season, the right-handed Perry tossed just 10⅔ innings: 7 in three spring-training appearances and 3⅔ innings in four regular-season appearances. Uninjured, but relegated to far end of the bullpen, Perry had been mentioned in trade rumors since the start of spring training.  

At the start of the game against the Red Sox in Boston on May 26, it didn’t seem likely anything would change for the little-used right-hander, who had been mentioned in numerous trade rumors since the end of the 1964 season.

Twins workhorse Camilo Pascual was scheduled to start for the 22-13 Twins, who went into the game in second place, one game behind the league-leading Chicago White Sox. The Red Sox were in seventh place with a 17-19 record.

Pascual, who had averaged 256 innings a season in the Twins’ first four seasons in Minnesota, took a 5-0 record and a reputation as a warm-weather pitcher into the game, played on a day when the high temperature in Boston was 92.

The Twins, who had collected 20 hits in a 17-5 victory over the Red Sox the previous night, came out swinging. They scored four runs in the first inning – three on a two-out home run by Bob Allison off Earl Wilson – to stake Pascual to a 4-0 lead. But Pascual didn’t make it out of the second inning.

The Red Sox scored one run in the first, then erupted for five in the second to take a 6-4 lead. The scoring all came after Pascual had gotten two outs. Carl Yastrzemski’s bases-loaded double cleared the bases and chased the hard-throwing Cuban.

Perry, who was in his seventh big-league season, replaced Pascual. The first batter to face him was Felix Mantilla, who lifted a popup in front of home plate.1 Catcher Earl Battey dropped the ball and Yastrzemski, running with two outs, scored the fifth run of the inning before Mantilla was thrown out trying to advance to second on the play. While Perry was holding the Red Sox scoreless over the next three innings, the Twins made it 6-5 on a solo home run by Harmon Killebrew in the third and then regained the lead with four runs in the fifth. The Red Sox got one run back in the sixth to cut the Twins’ lead to 9-7, but also had a runner thrown out at the plate. Tony Conigliaro opened the inning by reaching first on an error. Eddie Bressoud followed with a double, with Conigliaro stopping at third. Bob Tillman singled to score Conigliaro, but Bressoud was tagged out at home by Battey (on a throw by center fielder Jimmie Hall). Left-hander Bill Pleis relieved Perry and went on to pitch 3⅓ scoreless innings before giving way to Al Worthington with two out in the ninth. Worthington got the final out to save Perry’s first victory of the season.

Perry had pitched 3⅔ innings (matching his season total to that point), allowing three hits and an unearned run.

“Perry pitched very well, especially when you consider he has not had much work,” said Twins manager Sam Mele. “His control might have been bad with so little work. He had good control and threw hard.”2

The victory, just their fifth in 10 games, moved the Twins (23-13) into first place in the AL standings by percentage points over the White Sox (24-14), who lost to Cleveland, 3-1, in Chicago.

Perry said the speculation about his job security and the trade rumors didn’t distract him.

“I figured I would get my chance,” Perry remembered years later. “I just kept in shape. I worked in the bullpen. I threw all the time. I’d throw a lot of b.p. (batting practice). Hal Naragon, our bullpen coach, would say, ‘You can’t throw that much.’”3

The opportunity was a steppingstone for Perry, who was a valuable member of the Twins pitching staff in the second half of the season.

“After I got the chance to pitch [May 26] I won seven straight,” said Perry. “Camilo got hurt and I started [19 games] in the second half of the season. I always pitched the same. I pitched like I had a one-run lead, even if I had a six-run lead.”

During the stretch in which Perry won seven straight, the Twins went 34-20 to open a 3½-game lead over Cleveland on July 19.

Perry gave credit to Johnny Sain, who was in his first season as the Twins pitching coach. “Johnny Sain was great. He stressed control. He really built confidence in you. He always said, ‘Don’t talk [bad] about my pitchers.’”

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

Author’s phone interview with Jim Perry, August 2014

Minnesota Twins 1965 media guide

Minneapolis Tribune

Minneapolis Star

Notes

Heading into the game, the last before the three-day All-Star break, the Twins were hitting on all cylinders. Sitting atop the AL standings (52-29) by four games over the Cleveland Indians and 4½ games over the Baltimore Orioles, the Twins had played mediocre ball in June (16-13), and had slipped briefly out of first place. But manager Sam Mele’s resilient club responded by reeling off nine consecutive victories in July before losing to the Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader, on July 10. One concern to the club was the loss of slugging left fielder and inspirational leader Bob Allison, who had fractured his wrist when he was hit by a pitch from Jerry Stephenson of the Boston Red Sox on July 6, and was expected to miss three weeks.

Winners of the last five AL pennants, the New York Yankees were trudging through a season their fans had not seen in two generations. Manager Johnny Keane, the former St. Louis Cardinals skipper whom the Yankees had hired after their stunning seven-game loss to the Redbirds in the World Series the previous year, inherited an aged squad. In sixth place (41-45), New York was en route to its first losing season since 1925.

Both teams received good news prior to the game. The AL announced that Killebrew would start at first base in place of the injured Moose Skowron of the Chicago White Sox in the All-Star Game, to be played at Metropolitan Stadium in two days. Meanwhile, the Yankees’ gregarious 24-year-old star, Joe Pepitone, was added to the AL roster.2

On a beautiful, 74-degree summer afternoon, 35,263 fans packed the “Met” expecting to see a well-pitched game featuring two of the brightest young southpaws in the league. Minnesota’s 26-year-old Jim Kaat had established himself as one of the best young hurlers in the AL, as well as the premier fielding pitcher in baseball. He had led the team with 17 wins the previous season; his 42 starts would pace the league in 1965. New York’s hard-throwing 24-year-old http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/2cf1aca0

had struck out a league-leading 217 in 1964 and was set to replace Whitey Ford as the club’s left-handed ace. He was also the first African American pitcher to start consistently for the Yankees.

The Yankees came out swinging in the first inning. Four of the first five batters managed a hit but produced just one (unearned) run. After leadoff batter Bobby Richardson was erased on a 5-4-3 double play, Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard singled. Mantle, who had been out of the lineup since June 22 because of a leg injury, raced toward home on Hector Lopez’s single to right field. Tony Oliva’s throw was in time, but Mantle scored when Twins backstop Earl Battey misplayed the ball at the plate for an error.

Shortstop Zoilo Versalles put the Twins on the board in the third inning when he belted his 10th home run of the season, a solo shot with two outs, to tie the game at 1-1. Oliva and Killebrew led off the fourth inning with consecutive singles. Oliva, who had been on a tear in his previous 14 games, batting .375 (21-for-56), scampered home on Jimmie Hall’s sacrifice fly; Battey drove in Killebrew on a line-drive single to left field to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.“This club is a bunch of fighters,” Bob Allison told Minneapolis sportswriter Max Nichols about his club’s relentless attack.3

Kaat encountered problems in the fifth inning when he yielded a one-out single to Phil Linz and walked Mantle. He had the Commerce Comet picked off at first base, but his errant throw to Killebrew enabled both runners to move into scoring position. Both scored on Howard’s long double to center field as the Yankees tied the game at 3-3, and sent Kaat to the showers. With the run, Mantle became the 34th major leaguer to score 1,500 runs. In the bottom half of the frame, the Twins took a one-run lead on Rich Rollins’s double, which scored Versalles.

Coming on in relief of righty Al Worthington with one out and two on in the seventh, Twins southpaw Bill Pleis fielded Pepitone’s grounder and threw to first for the second out. Playing the odds, he intentionally walked Clete Boyer to load the bases and faced rookie left-handed center fielder Roger Repoz. The plan backfired as Pleis uncorked a wild pitch, enabling Howard to score as the Yankees tied the game yet again, 4-4.

The stage was set for an exciting, controversial ninth inning. Jerry Fosnow, the Twins’ fifth pitcher of the day, surrendered a leadoff single to Howard. Pepitone hit what appeared to be an inning-ending double-play grounder, but third baseman Rollins muffed the ball. After Howard moved to third on a line out to right field by Boyer, Pleis fielded Repoz’s grounder down the first-base line. As he applied the tag to Repoz, he dropped the ball; Howard romped home.

At first, home-plate umpire Ed Hurley ruled Repoz out on interference, and skipper Johnny Keane burst onto the field. After a heated exchange with Keane, Hurley consulted first-base umpire Red Flaherty, and reversed his call. Fosnow was charged with an error (the Twins’ fourth of the game), the run counted, and the Yankees led, 5-4. Now it was Mele’s turn to storm onto the field. With AL President Joe Cronin in attendance, Hurley stood by his call. Mele announced that the Twins would play the game under protest.

The Yankees brought in righty Pete Mikkelsen, the game’s 10th pitcher, to face the top of the Twins’ order, stacked with right-handers. With two outs and Rollins on first via a walk, Mikkelsen faced Killebrew. According to Joesph Durso of the New York Times, Killebrew fouled off two pitches with a 3-and-2 count, before he “ripped a fastball” that traveled an estimated 360 feet into the left-field bleachers, giving the Twins a dramatic 6-5 win.4

“The New York Yankees wear the scars today to prove that Harmon Killebrew belongs among the stars,” wrote Fred Down.5 The “Killer’s” 16th home run made a winner out of Fosnow and saddled Mikkelsen with the loss. He finished with three hits in four at-bats, scored twice, knocked in two runs, and walked once; coincidentally, that was the same batting line for Elston Howard, who had integrated the New York Yankees in 1955.

Twins skipper Mele maintained a level head in spite of the thrilling victory. Told that his club was in its best position since 1933, when the Washington Senators (the team relocated to Minnesota for the 1961 season) won the pennant, Mele responded cautiously, “It’s a long season and it’s going to be a struggle. There are a lot of good teams.”6 Mele reminded the reporter that the Twins lost 18 of 22 games shortly after the All-Star Game the previous summer to fall out of contention by late July.

Sources

BaseballReference.com

Retrosheet.org

SABR.org

The Sporting News

Notes

Toward the end of the decade another development, the overwhelming dominance of pitching, manifested itself. Successive scores of 2-1, 2-1, and 1-0 from 1966 through 1968 reflected regular-season play where the equilibrium between hitting and pitching had gone out of balance.1

Another factor, born of expansion, was that new facilities and venues influenced the selection of where games took place. While venerated ballparks such as Fenway Park and Wrigley Field hosted contests, baseball’s hierarchy determined it prudent to showcase recently built stadiums, too. New facilities for the expansion Houston Astros, New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels, and Washington Senators were the site of All-Star contests.2 Older franchises with new stadiums were chosen as well: San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in 1961 and Busch Stadium in 1966. A true anomaly took place in 1965 when the Minnesota Twins’ Metropolitan Stadium became the site for the 36th contest. Neither the franchise nor the ballpark was new.

Metropolitan Stadium (“The Met”) was nine years old, originally built for the minor-league Minneapolis Millers of the American Association. The Minnesota Twins franchise had shifted from Washington after the 1960 season, after being in the nation’s capital since 1901. That Minneapolis was a new location for the majors helped lure the All-Star Game to the Twin Cities. Twins president Calvin Griffith’s determination to make sure his club was duly recognized ensured that the game would take place in Minnesota. He had campaigned for Minnesota to host the game almost as soon as his team moved west. According to The Sporting News, Griffith was almost successful in 1963, when at the last moment Cleveland gained selection.3 Undeterred, Griffith continued his quest and because of that persistence he gained approval for the game to take place in Minnesota in 1965.

Griffith had several tasks before him. The seating capacity of the Met was substandard. Construction of double-deck bleachers down the left-field line increased the capacity from 40,000 to 45,000.4 The Minnesota Vikings of the NFL paid the bill and received terms for lower rent in return.5 The seats would be completed mere days before the All-Star Game.6 Griffith also undertook another enterprise, working with Twin City officials and business interests to ensure that visiting baseball fans and officials would get a favorable impression of the Twin Cities. This endeavor took on a life of its own, requiring a great deal of effort in the area of public relations.

The team itself unexpectedly boosted local interest in the All-Star Game. Pegged by many to finish fifth in 1965, the Twins got off to a quick start and by the end of April they and the Cleveland Indians were tied for first.7 Starting pitcher Jim “Mudcat” Grant and veteran relievers Johnny Klippstein and Al Worthington, acquired at midseason the previous year, bolstered the staff. Future Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and the 1964 batting champion, Tony Oliva, led a potent offense. (Oliva would repeat in 1965.) Two off-field acquisitions also proved key to the team’s success. Johnny Sain, perhaps the best pitching coach in the game, joined the club, as did Billy Martin. Martin’s fiery style contributed toward a more aggressive baserunning game. Manager Sam Mele ably molded the players into a cohesive unit that played to its full potential.

On July 5, after being near the top of the standings all season, the Twins climbed back into first place and held the lead from then on. The following Sunday, July 11, Minnesota faced the New York Yankees, their last game before the All-Star break. The Yankees were in sixth place, 13½ games out, but their reputation (they had won the pennant the five previous seasons) was such that many felt they still had the ability to charge back into contention. Playing at the Met, where Griffith’s project to add bleacher seats had been completed just two days before, Minnesota went into the bottom of the ninth down 5-4. With a runner on, two outs, and two strikes on Killebrew, he blasted a game-winning home run into the left-field seats. The blow proved fatal to New York, and confirmed the Twins as the team to beat. Two days later the 36th All-Star Game took place.

Griffith not only got the bleachers completed on time, his efforts to engage Minnesotans in the process of welcoming baseball to the state also came to fruition. Governor Karl Rolvaag and fellow citizens went out of their way to make visitors to the state feel welcomed. Local businessmen donated golf shirts, dinnerware and briefcases to guests and newsmen. Women received Betty Crocker cookbooks.8 A smorgasbord was scheduled at the Met on the day of the game featuring over 120 local delicacies, including mooseburgers and roast pheasant.9 Griffith had the pool at baseball’s lodging headquarters stocked with fish and made sure visiting officials were provided with poles to catch them.10

Fans began gathering outside the stadium the night before the game hoping to obtain standing-room tickets, which would go on sale noon. Their wait included weathering a passing rainstorm that gradually gave way to morning clouds, which cleared just before game time.11 Griffith’s efforts to generate enthusiasm worked; an over-capacity crowd of 46,709 fans showed up to watch the game.

An underlying drama of the game was that after 35 contests (including the 1961 tie) each league had won 17 games. This development would have been largely unimagined after the 1949 All-Star Game, at which point the American League held a 12-4 advantage over the senior circuit. The tide began to turn in 1950 when the Cardinals’ Red Schoendienst hit a 14th-inning home run for a 4-3 come-from-behind NL victory. The momentum carried forward as the National League proceeded to win 12 of the next 18 contests.

Of key importance in this surge of victories was the National League’s early embrace of black players. Aaron, Banks, Campanella, Clemente, Marichal, Mays, Newcombe, Robinson (Frank and Jackie), and others more than outnumbered their American League counterparts, who for much of the 1950s largely consisted of Larry Doby and Minnie Minoso, only gradually increasing as the 1960s began.12 This imbalance of black talent at the All-Star Game in favor of the National League would prove telling in the game at Minnesota.

Managers for each league did not come to their selection through the traditional process, that of having led the previous year’s World Series representatives. Johnny Keane, manager of the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, had resigned after winning the Series. The Yankees at season’s end had fired his counterpart, Yogi Berra. In their place, Philadelphia’s Gene Mauch and White Sox skipper Al Lopez, who had guided their teams to second-place finishes in 1964, led the squads.

Twins fans not only boasted of their first-place club but also crowed that Minnesota had more players on the squad than any other American League team as Lopez added Jim Grant, Jimmie Hall, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, and Zoilo Versalles to the roster. Twins catcher Earl Battey started at catcher; he was selected by a poll of players, managers, and coaches for that honor. Minnesota’s Mele and coach Hal Naragon were members of the coaching staff. Twins reliever Bill Pleis was called on to throw batting practice on a field where the infield foul lines were colored red, white, and blue, and then white to the fences. Bases were red, white, and blue and the fungo-hitting circles contained red, white, and blue stars.13

Charley Johnson, sports editor of the Minnesota Star and Tribune, threw out the first pitch. He was a significant force in drumming up support to build Metropolitan Stadium and then later succeed in bringing major-league baseball to Minnesota. Johnson and the rest of the folks at the game did not have to wait long for the fireworks to begin.

A major attraction of the game for Minnesotans besides having a chance to see their local favorites play was the opportunity to view the National League stars, none of whom shined brighter than San Francisco Giant Willie Mays. Mays had played for the Millers in 1951. He was hitting a torrid .477 when called up to the Giants, much to the unhappiness of resident fans. The outcry at his being taken from the Millers was so great that Giants owner Horace Stoneham found it necessary to buy ads in Minneapolis newspapers apologizing for taking the gifted outfielder from their midst.

Mays, as usual, was having a great season. Leading the majors in home runs with 23 and batting at .339, he had just passed Stan Musial in career home runs with his 476th, placing him sixth on the all-time list. In the last game before the All-Star break, however, he and catcher Pat Corrales of the Phillies had collided in a bone-jarring play at the plate, and both players had to be from the game. There was legitimate concern that Mays might not be able to play.14

Mays did indeed play, and batting leadoff, promptly reminded Minnesotans why Stoneham had brought him to the majors 14 years earlier. On the second pitch of the game from Orioles starter Milt Pappas, Mays ripped a 415-foot home run into the left-field pavilion.15 Musial was dinged once again; Mays’s homer was his 21st hit in All-Star Game competition, breaking a tie with the St. Louis Cardinals great.

Mays’s homer was just the initial blow. With two outs and Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell on first, the Braves’ Joe Torre launched a home run, barely fair, into the left-field pavilion to make the score 3-0 against a stunned American League. Pappas gave way in the second to Minnesota’s Grant, who at 9-2 was in the midst of his best season. Grant was as unsuccessful at holding the National League at bay as Pappas. Willie Stargell came to bat with a runner on third and homered into the right-field bullpen, making the score 5-0.

Meanwhile, the almost effortless pitching of San Francisco’s Juan Marichal shut down the American League through the first three innings. He faced the minimum nine batters; Cleveland’s Vic Davalillo’s single in the third was erased when Battey grounded into a double play. Marichal, having pitched the maximum three innings allowed in the All-Star Game, gave way to Cincinnati’s Jim Maloney to start the bottom of the fourth.

Maloney gave up one run that inning and was on the verge of getting through the fifth when disaster struck. With two outs, he walked Hall. Detroit’s Dick McAuliffe homered over the center-field fence. Mays injured his hip when he slammed into the fence in an unsuccessful attempt to catch McAuliffe’s drive but stayed in the game, a key development as it turned out. Brooks Robinson beat out an infield hit, which brought Killebrew to the plate. Having thrilled Twins fans with his game-winning homer over the Yankees two days before, he brought them out of their seats again, connecting off Maloney for a game-tying homer into the left-field pavilion. Maloney departed after allowing five runs in 1⅔ innings. It proved the only All-Star Game appearance of his career.

The game remained tied until the top of the seventh. Once again Mays proved to be the catalyst. Leading off, he drew a walk off Cleveland’s Sam McDowell and advanced to third on Hank Aaron’s single. Cubs third baseman Ron Santo came to bat and chopped the ball up the middle. Shortstop Versalles corralled the high chopper but there was no chance to get Mays at home or Santo at first. It proved to be the game-winning hit. (Santo had joked just the day before, “As a .258 hitter, I felt I was pretty much on the squad on a rain check.”16) Mays’s 17th run, the most in All-Star Game competition, merely extended a record he already held.17

There would be one more moment of drama. Versalles walked with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and moved to third on a single by Tigers catcher Bill Freehan, who took second on Mays’s throw to third. Hall came to bat, Twins fans willing him to win the game. He flied to deep center, where Mays would normally have caught the ball with little effort, except that on contact Mays appeared to misjudge the ball. Recovering, he leaped to make a backhand catch, ending the inning. After the game he said, “I slipped as I started to go back. I was scared to death.”18

Tony Oliva doubled to lead off the ninth, giving Twins fans hope for a rally, but Bob Gibson finished off the inning, getting the last two outs on strikeouts.

Sandy Koufax, who was pitching when Santo drove in the deciding run, got the win. Marichal edged out Mays for the Most Valuable Player of the game with his three innings of shutout ball, but the big news was that the National League had edged ahead of the American League in wins for the first time since the games began in 1933. As of 2014, their lead remains intact.

Killebrew’s home run represented a consolation prize of sorts for Twins fans; however, an even greater reward awaited them on September 26, when the Twins beat the Washington Senators, 2-1, to clinch the pennant.

The All-Star Game represented Minnesota’s ability to support major-league baseball; the Twins’ triumph represented their ability to play better than anyone else did in the American League that year. Twenty years later the All-Star Game took place at the Metrodome and in 2014, the 85th summer classic (including two ties) took place at Target Field. Minnesota subsequently won two pennants and two World Series championships after their encounter with the Dodgers. While these contests generated tremendous excitement, they could not recapture the first-time thrill of watching baseball’s finest in July 1965 or the continuing pleasure of the locals achieving an unexpected pennant.

This article originally appeared in “A Pennant for the Twin Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins” (SABR, 2015), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.

Notes

Minnesota had built a seemingly comfortable lead with a record of 61wins and 40 losses after Camilo Pascual blanked the Washington Senators, 6-0, on May 30. Throughout the campaign, the Twins picked up for each other when slumps or injuries required it. In critical series against their hottest pursuers, the White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, they had a knack for winning by one run or in their last at-bat. They won three of four games against the Orioles July 30-August 2, each victory by one run. Jimmie Hall’s August 2 walk-off homer off rookie Jim Palmer punctuated the series and occurred on the same day that Harmon Killebrew dislocated an elbow that kept him out of the lineup until September 21.

A major change from the previous years was a new approach that combined the Twins’ traditional home-run slugging with sound fundamentals – hitting the cutoff man, taking the extra base and stealing bases to create more scoring chances. Shortstop Zoilo Versalles became a star and won the American League Most Valuable Player award, fulfilling manager Sam Mele’s prediction after the showdown series.1 Pitcher Jim “Mudcat” Grant learned how to make his fastball and curveball spin and won 21 games. Southpaw Jim Kaat led the league with 42 starts, won 18 games, and beat the White Sox four times without a loss in 1965. Relief pitcher Al Worthington, a National League castoff with 10 seasons in the big leagues and a few minor league stops along the way, saved 21 games. Injuries to Killebrew, Pascual, right fielder Tony Oliva, catcher Earl Battey, and left fielder Bob Allison meant that youngsters had to step up, too. Rich Rollins took over at third base, Don Mincher started at first with Killebrew out, and left fielder Sandy Valdespino, signed in 1956 when the Twins were the Washington Senators, made some dazzling catches in the outfield and got key hits during the stretch drive. Twenty-year-old Dave Boswell and 21-year-old Jim Merritt combined to win11 games in their rookie seasons while Pascual nursed an injured back.

By September it was clear that the White Sox employed the same team-oriented formula that had worked for Minnesota. They won 26 of 39 games from July 29 to September 2, including a 10-game winning streak from August 14 to August 22 during which seven different pitchers got credit for victories and knuckleball relievers Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher combined for five saves. On September 2 Chicago swept a doubleheader from Baltimore to pull within 6½ games of the leaders. “My pitching is right again, we’ve got the balance I like,” said Chicago manager Al Lopez, who had three starters with 60 or more RBIs going into the showdown series and four others with between 40 and 52 RBIs. “Early-season injuries killed us,” general manager Ed Short said. “I’m amazed we still have a shot but we do have a shot. The thing I like best is the balance. It’s not a one-man deal. … Everybody is taking a turn at picking somebody else up.” The “ex-cripples, zombies, and also-rans” who once trailed by 11½ games were breathing down the Twins’ necks.2

The White Sox had invaded Metropolitan Stadium on Labor Day weekend and beat the league leaders two games out of three. The Twins won the Friday night opener, 6-4. On Saturday, September 4, journeyman John Buzhardt – having his best season (13-8, 3.01) – beat Grant, 5-4, before 27,078 fans. The next day, Joe Horlen pitched a three-hit shutout to beat Jim Perry with 39,136 fans on hand. “The Twins have been out in front too long,” said White Sox relief specialist Eddie Fisher, who made 82 appearances in 1965, winning 15 and saving 24 with his signature knuckleball. “Nobody has really challenged them. Now that we’re closing in, let’s see if they can take it.”3

They took it. On Wednesday night, September 8, Mudcat Grant again took the mound against Buzhardt and struggled from the start. Don Buford walked and Floyd Robinson reached on second baseman Jerry Kindall’s error. Buford moved to third on Earl Battey’s errant pickoff throw and then scored when John Romano lofted a deep fly ball to Sandy Valdespino in left, with Robinson taking second. The Sox led, 1-0. Pete Ward’s single to center scored Robinson with an unearned second run before Moose Skowron, the White Sox’ RBI leader at the time, bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. The Twins trailed, 2-0.

Minnesota’s first scoring threat came when Rich Rollins, starting at third base with Killebrew still nursing a dislocated elbow, opened the third inning with a single to center. Kindall’s poke to left put the tying runs aboard for Grant, who batted .155 that season but had five extra-base hits and would stroke a homer in the World Series. Grant whiffed but Zoilo Versalles brought Rollins home from third with a fly ball to left fielder Tommy McCraw to slice the White Sox’ edge to 2-1.

In the fourth Grant pitched his first perfect inning and kept the White Sox off the scoreboard for the rest of the night, though he had to retire Ron Hansen on a comebacker with Skowron and McCraw on base in the sixth. Minnesota failed to provide any offensive help through the sixth inning. It would take another come-from-behind victory. So far, the Twins had won 20 games in the seventh inning or later, not including an 11-5 record in extra-inning games.

Mincher led off the seventh. A large, bespectacled man (6-feet-3, 205 pounds) with deadly left-handed power who originally signed with the White Sox in 1956, he had one thought in mind: Tie the game. Instead, he bounced easily to Skowron at first base. But Battey singled to center. Jimmie Hall, who had portside power similar to Mincher’s and had hit 76 home runs for the Twins in nearly three seasons, drove a hanging curve from Buzhardt over the wall for his 19th home run and 75th and 76th RBIs – his first round-tripper since August 2. It gave the Twins a 3-2 lead. For nearly a month, Hall had complained of a “tired bat,” with 21 hits in 77 at-bats during one stretch but no home runs. Flirting with .300 for much of the season, Hall said, “I don’t really care about the average. I just want to bat in some runs and help the club. That’s what we need right now – runs.”4

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Grant faced pinch-hitter Smoky Burgess, a master at the craft who in 1965 led the majors with 20 pinch hits in 65 at-bats, a .308 average. He had been in baseball since 1944, when Grant was 9 years old. Burgess “whirled like a merry-go-round in fishing for the first pitch,” Chicago Tribune columnist Dave Condon reported. Eventually Smoky met the ball and it carried to the opposite field but right into the glove of Valdespino for the second out. Lopez’s decision to use Burgess was all about Grant. “Well, if I didn’t use him at that opportunity, I might not have had the chance to use him at all,” the skipper said.5 Next, Buford – a former football player at the University of Southern California and the White Sox leadoff hitter – bounced to Kindall and Grant got ready to lead off the eighth inning.

Hoyt Wilhelm, on in relief of Buzhardt, struck out Grant, who took a dazzling knuckler for a third strike. The V&V Boys – Versalles and Valdespino – went down easily and Grant took the hill for the eighth with a 3-2 lead. Romano walked with one out, and with two out, Grant faced Skowron with pinch-runner Al Weis on second. A .205 lifetime hitter against Grant with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs, Skowron flied out to Oliva to bring yet another one-run game into the ninth inning, fertile ground for late-season Twins victories.

Oliva and Mincher both popped out on Wilhelm’s fingertip specialties. Battey singled to left but Hall grounded out to Buford, leaving it up to Grant and the defense to give the Twins a six-game lead. McCraw bounced to Kindall and Hansen flied out to Valdespino. With one out left, Lopez sent Danny Cater up to hit for Ken Berry, despite the light-hitting center fielder’s recent tear of four home runs in seven games. Cater popped to Kindall, who squeezed the baseball with his glove to preserve the 3-2 victory. Minnesota led by six games.

“We were lucky to get even two runs,” Lopez lamented. “That Grant can sure turn over the ball.”6 Grant had learned from pitching coach Johnny Sain to add spin to his pitches. On the occasion of his 18th victory of the season, Grant said, “I don’t throw the fastball any harder but the spin does something for it.”7

Joe Horlen, who had shut out the Twins just four days earlier, got the starting call the next day for the White Sox against Jim Kaat, who had beaten Chicago three times in ’65 and was seeking his 15th win. A small Thursday afternoon gathering of 5,786 would witness perhaps the most important game of the pennant race.

The Twins “cannonaded their pursuers with a 10-4 drubbing,” wrote Condon.8 Oliva delivered a sacrifice fly to center field in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. Versalles had singled, moved to second on Valdespino’s sacrifice bunt, gone to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Oliva’s drive. Maximum efficiency; whatever it took to win. Kaat set Buford, Robinson, and Danny Cater down in order.

In the second inning the Twins broke the game open against a beleaguered Horlen. Battey and Hall singled to center and Rollins – a .249 hitter for the season – singled to left, scoring Battey and sending Hall to third. Kindall went the other way on Horlen and his sacrifice fly to Floyd Robinson in right field was his sixth and final one of the season to make it 3-0. Kaat grounded out to shortstop Hansen, sending Rollins to second, and then Versalles delivered a single to center for a 4-0 lead. Valdespino’s opposite-field single sent Horlen to the showers.

What was different from Horlen’s shutout just four days before? Sam Mele observed that his hitters were pounding Horlen’s low curves into easy outs in the first encounter. “I told my players to move up to the front of the plate on him,” Mele said. “His ball was higher down here in Chicago.”9

The White Sox finally scored on Kaat in the bottom of the fifth. Romano walked and Skowron singled to right. Ward forced Skowron at second. On Hansen’s bouncer to the mound, Kaat’s Gold Glove flicked the ball to Kindall, who nailed Hansen at first. Romano scored Chicago’s first run and Ward reached second. With a chance to cut the Twins’ lead in half, Berry popped out to Rollins.

Typical of that season, Minnesota responded with two more runs in the sixth. With two down, Rollins singled, Kindall walked, and Kaat helped himself with his second hit of the game, off Buford’s glove. The runners scored when Buford made a wild throw. It was 6-1 when White Sox pinch-hitter Jim Hicks led off the White Sox sixth with a double to right field and scored on Robinson’s sacrifice fly after Buford beat out a dribbler to the mound. Kaat bore down, retired Cater on a fly to right and caught Romano looking at strike three.

The cannonading continued in the seventh inning. Valdespino and Oliva hit back-to-back doubles off Fisher. The slugging cleanup hitter Mincher then shocked the baseball world with a sacrifice bunt. Oliva moved to third and, yes, scored on Battey’s single, an opposite-field hit to right. Hall’s single sent Battey to third. With second base open, Hall stole. Rollins got fooled on a knuckler and Kindall flied out. It was now 8-2.

When Hansen and Berry singled to put runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Mele summoned Al Worthington to wrap up the sweep. Gene Freese, purchased to platoon with Ward at third base, was due to pinch-hit against Kaat but Burgess, a lifetime .455 hitter against Worthington, got the call instead. Lopez must have known about his veteran catcher’s track record against the Twins’ closer. Burgess smoked a double to center field, scoring Hansen, making it 8-3, and sending Berry to third. Worthington took it as another day against Smoky Burgess and calmly struck out Don Buford, leaving Burgess at second. The White Sox threatened again in the bottom of the eighth when Floyd Robinson pulled a single to right and Skowron singled to left two outs later. Now Worthington had to face Pete Ward, tough in the clutch despite a .249 average and a 2-for-10 career record against the Twins closer. Ward smacked a line drive toward right but Kindall speared it for the third out.

Greg Bollo, who made his major-league debut on May 9 against the Twins, retired five batters in a row before backup catcher Jerry Zimmerman walked and Hall hit his second home run of the series, his 20th (and last) of the season, and the lowest total of his three-year career.

Closing out the game continued to be a struggle for Worthington, Minnesota’s gray-flecked redhead who had pitched briefly for the White Sox in 1960. Versalles booted a grounder to start the ninth but Worthington recovered and struck out Berry. Marv Staehle, called up in September and with one official major-league at-bat, singled to right field as Hansen went to third. Buford’s fly ball to center field scored Hansen to make it 10-4. Robinson hit a line drive right at Worthington, who gloved it for the final out. The Twins led by seven with 19 games to play.

“We’re not in,” said Mele. “We’re still in it,” said Lopez.10

Mele enjoyed the attention the Chicago showdown received and hoped to reach his first World Series after missing his opportunity as a player for the 1948 Boston Red Sox, who lost a one-game playoff to the eventual world champion Cleveland Indians. “It’s different when you’re a winner,” he said. “You walk down the main streets and they call you Mister.”11 Mele not only dealt with injuries and the repeated question of whether the Twins would win the pennant. His wife, Connie, was expecting her fifth child. “She’s got more on her mind than I have,” Mele said from the shower in Comiskey Park’s visiting locker room. “They’d better reserve a bed for me at a Minnesota hospital,” a confident Connie said from the couple’s nine-room home in Quincy, Massachusetts, “because I’m not going to miss [the World Series] for anything.”12

The two victories at Chicago started a seven-game winning streak and the Twins clinched the pennant on September 25. They won two of three games at Baltimore on September 28-30 that no longer mattered. The White Sox dropped their next two games but won 11 of their last 13, including an anticipated three-game sweep of the Kansas City Athletics that some thought would give Chicago a pennant. As it was, they finished seven games out and failed to gain any ground in the standings after those back-to-back losses to Minnesota.

The Chicago showdown was a culmination of the Twins’ consistent play throughout the season. They had a winning record every month and winning records in extra-inning games, one-run games, and against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers. They also did not care where they played: The Twins won 51 games at home and 51 games on the road, and had winning records against seven of nine teams while outscoring their opponents more on the road than at home. The home-run total dropped from 221 in 1964 to 150 but the Twins scored 37 more runs and allowed 78 fewer runs than in 1964 while stealing 92 bases in 125 attempts (.736). The 1965 pitching staff had 12 shutouts to 3 for opponents, compared with 1964 when the Twins were blanked 14 times and recorded only 4 shutouts. The 1965 team did whatever it took and took everything it could get. And it gave the Twins and their fans, who led the league in attendance, their first pennant.

The night of Kaat’s victory in Chicago, the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. The Twins, focused on winning the franchise’s first pennant in 32 years, probably paid little attention but they would witness the same pitching dominance a month later with a World Series championship on the line.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

The Sporting News

Baseball-Reference.com

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Notes

Forty miles away in Baltimore, the Orioles kept the magic number at three on Friday, winning the first game of a scheduled doubleheader against the Angels, before the rains came. With their backs to the wall, the Orioles had won four consecutive games. In Baltimore, as in Washington, there would be a doubleheader on September 25. The Twins’ lead over Baltimore, which had been 10 games on September 20, had been reduced to 7½ games. The Chicago White Sox were also barely alive. They were one loss or one Minnesota win away from elimination.

The Twins’ best pitchers, Mudcat Grant, Camilo Pascual, and Jim Kaat, were set to go in the three-game set – and they were ready.

Jim “Mudcat” Grant (19-6) went into the opener on Saturday seeking his 20th win of the season. He was on the verge of becoming the first African American pitcher to win 20 games in the American League, as well as the AL’s first 20-game-winner in 1965. He was opposed by Frank Kreutzer. Kreutzer had only a 2-5 record coming in but manager Gil Hodges chose the left-hander as the starter to keep the Twins’ Tony Oliva and Don Mincher in check. The lefty pitcher also kept left-handed-hitting outfielders Jimmie Hall (.287) and Sandy Valdespino (.254) on the bench. Righties Joe Nossek (.234) and Bob Allison (.239) got the starts.

The game was scoreless for the first four innings and the closest Washington could get to a threat against Grant was in the third inning. An error by second baseman Frank Quilici allowed Washington’s Jim French to get on base. The next two batters hit into force plays. Kreutzer stood at first with two outs as Don Blasingame strode to the plate. Blasingame’s double moved Kreutzer to third, but Grant stranded the two runners as he induced Ken McMullen to ground out.

Zoilo Versalles helped his MVP credentials by hitting a home run with Grant aboard in the fifth inning to put the Twins in front, 2-0. It was his 18th homer of the season. Grant wouldn’t need any more runs, but Versalles was not the least bit finished. The shortstop, who had four hits in the game after a first-inning strikeout, banged his 11th triple of the season in the seventh inning. It ignited a three-run rally that wrapped up the Twins’ scoring. An RBI double by Oliva and a two-run pinch-hit single by Valdespino provided the additional three-run cushion for Grant.

Meanwhile Grant was rolling along. He walked Jim French with one out in the fifth inning, then proceeded to retire the final 14 batters to register the 5-0 win in 2:27. The third-inning double by Blasingame was the only hit he allowed.

A win in the nightcap would clinch a tie for the pennant.

The Twins sent veteran Camilo Pascual to the mound. His career with the team began when they were the original Washington Senators. The Cuban right-hander was 9-3 for the season after missing the entire month of August with arm problems that required surgery on August 2, performed by the Twins’ team physician, Dr. George Resta. (The original diagnosis was a benign tumor towards the back of Pascual’s shoulder, but surgery revealed that three frayed muscles had snapped, like severed rubber bands, and formed an egg-sized lump.1) The two-time 20-game-winner had gone without a win from June 9 through September 10.2 Washington countered with right-hander Jim Duckworth. Duckworth, who had been inserted into Washington’s starting rotation late in August, was 2-1 in six starts, and had two games in which he struck out 10 or more batters. In all, he had struck out 43 batters in 36 innings as a starter – and for Duckworth the best was yet to come.

In the bottom half of the first inning in the nightcap, Washington’s Fred Valentine, on first base with a single, tried to steal second base. In the process, he collided with Versalles, as the throw from catcher Jerry Zimmerman was off-line. Valentine was called safe on the play and awarded a stolen base. But he sustained a cut over his right eye, left the game, and was taken to the hospital where he received two stitches to close the wound. Jim King came into the game for Valentine and was stranded at second base.

Versalles, somewhat bruised, remained in the game until the fourth inning, when he was replaced at shortstop by Jerry Kindall. Versalles was taken to the hospital, where he remained overnight.

The Senators took an early lead, scoring three runs in the second inning. The key hit was a double by Eddie Brinkman that scored McMullen, who had singled to open the inning, and Mike Brumley. Brinkman advanced to third on a throwing error by Versalles and scored on a first-pitch suicide squeeze bunt by Duckworth. Only one of the runs was earned as, prior to the Versalles error, Twins catcher Zimmerman, who was not having the best of days, misplayed a foul ball to extend Brumley’s at-bat.

The Twins broke into the scoring column in the fourth inning. Singles by Oliva and Harmon Killebrew put runners on first and third. Hall delivered Oliva with a sacrifice fly. The single by Oliva was his second of the game and his third hit of the doubleheader. At the end of the day, his league-leading batting average stood at .322. The following day, he went 1-for-4 and wound up with a .321 batting average to earn his second consecutive batting title.

In the seventh inning, Mincher’s 22nd homer of the season cut the Washington lead to 3-2.

Pascual was near perfect after the second inning, retiring 14 of the last 15 batters he faced, allowing only a fifth-inning walk to King.  He was pulled for pinch-hitter Rich Reese in the top of the seventh and was replaced by Jim Merritt. Merritt shut down the home team with only one hit in three innings and didn’t allow any further scoring.

Meanwhile, the Twins had some punch left in their bats. With one out in the eighth inning, Valdespino (2-for-4) singled, bringing up Oliva. Manager Hodges removed Duckworth, who had struck out 13 Twins in 7⅓ innings, and brought in lefty Mike McCormick, who had begun as a bonus baby with the New York Giants in 1956. McCormick got Oliva to fly out to center field, but walked Killebrew with the potential lead run. Twins manager Sam Mele sent the right-hand-hitting Joe Nossek up to pinch-hit for lefty Jimmie Hall and Hodges countered by bringing in right-hander Ron Kline to face Nossek. It was Kline’s 74th appearance of the season. Nossek’s double plated Valdespino with the tying run and put runners on second and third. An intentional walk to Mincher loaded the bases.

The stage was set for Quilici. The utility infielder, who had joined the team in mid-July, had come into the game batting .211 and was hitless in six at-bats so far this day. He would never have a more important turn at the plate. He singled home two runs, giving the Twins a 5-3 lead. The RBIs were Quilici’s sixth and seventh of the season. He would have no RBIs during the season’s remaining games, but it mattered little. He had come through with the hit that clinched at least a tie for the pennant.

Merritt retired the Senators in order in the final two innings, striking out Don Lock for the game’s final out, to put his record at 5-4 for the season. Only 9,373 fans had paid their way in to see the sweep of the single-admission doubleheader as the Twins finished their second game win in 2:53.

If Baltimore, the only team still with a chance to catch the Twins, lost either game in their twi-night doubleheader at Memorial Stadium against the Angels, the Twins would go to bed on Saturday night as American League champions. The Birds did not cooperate. While the Twins were completing their sweep of the Senators, the Orioles won the opener in dramatic fashion, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning when Jerry Adair singled with one out and the bases loaded to drive in Russ Snyder.

It was now time for some good old-fashioned scoreboard watching. In this case, the Twins, in various stages of undress, elected to order in food and listen on transistor radios, to the broadcast of the second game of the Orioles-Angels doubleheader from Baltimore. At times the broadcast signal was weak and only Harmon Killebrew, with his ears glued to the radio for the entire nine innings, could hear Chuck Thompson describe the action. The Orioles won the nightcap, 2-0, behind the three-hit pitching of Milt Pappas, in his last win for the Orioles. Everyone dressed and rushed to the team bus. Sam Mele said, “We’ll have to do it ourselves, tomorrow.”3

The magic number remained at one.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

Thielman, Jim, Cool of the Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins (Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2005).

Whittlesley, Merrill, “Twins Take 2, Clinch Flag Tie: Grant Wins 20th with 1-Hitter, 5-0,” Washington Sunday Star, September 26, 1965, F-1.

Baseball-Reference.com

Daily Journal (Fergus Falls, Minnesota)

The Sporting News

Sunday Star (Washington)

Washington Post

Winona (Minnesota) Sunday News

Notes

The scene, ironically, was the nation’s capital. Only seven of the 1965 Twins had been with the Senators when they departed Washington for the Twin Cities after the 1960 season. Griffith Stadium was history and the teams were playing at D. C. Stadium. In 1965, Washington had been a home away from home for the transplanted Twins. Going into this game they had won seven and lost only one in their old hometown, and had gone 14-3 overall against the Senators.

The assemblage was small; only 8,302 were on hand to witness history in a town where late September had far more to do with the beginning of the football season, and most folks stayed home to watch the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys on television.

The irony was not lost on the Boston Globe’s Harold Kaese, who wrote after the game, “The Washington Senators have won their first pennant since 1933, but nobody is dancing on the steps of the Capitol. There will be no pennant-raising next spring in District of Columbia Stadium. The Senators are now known as the Minnesota Twins. All the frolicking will be in Minneapolis, St, Paul and the land of sky blue waters. The pennant the Twins clinched Sunday should belong to the fans of Washington. For the Twins to clinch it in Washington – their original home – was the cruelest of ironies. Simply diabolical.”1

Early in the year the Washington club had determined that a home-run-hitting contest before the opening game of the final series of the season between the Senators and the Twins was a good idea. With Friday night’s rainout and Saturday afternoon’s doubleheader, the contest was moved to Sunday afternoon. The Twins sluggers were somewhat preoccupied. Nevertheless, the event was held and Twins Jimmie Hall and Bob Allison tied the Senators’ Don Lock.

The Sunday game’s hero, Zoilo Versalles, one of the seven Twins who had been with the Senators in 1960, was wrapping up his 1965 MVP season as the Twins took to the field for the clincher after sweeping a doubleheader and clinching a tie the day before. In the second game of that doubleheader, Versalles had collided with the Senators’ Fred Valentine in a play at second base, and had been hospitalized overnight for observation.

Jim Kaat took a 16-11 record to the mound for the Twins. Washington manager Gil Hodges was not about to give the game away. He had set up his pitching for the series and scheduled his ace, Pete Richert (15-10), for the Sunday finale. It was hoped that the lefty would keep Tony Oliva in check.

The game was scoreless in the first two innings. Washington broke the ice by scoring a run in in the bottom of the third. Ken McMullen singled. Frank Howard followed with another hit. Oliva’s throw trying to get McMullen at third got past third baseman Harmon Killebrew. Kaat fielded the overthrow poorly and was charged with an error as McMullen scored and Howard went to second base.2 Richert was able to make the run stand up until the sixth inning. Through five innings, the only hit he allowed as an infield hit by Oliva in the first inning.

Versalles led off the sixth with a triple to left-center field. Don Zimmer was catching for the Senators that day. (The one-time Dodger shortstop of the future caught 33 games for the Senators in 1965 in a utility-player role.) With the right-handed hitting Joe Nossek at the plate, a pitch from Richert went off Zimmer’s glove. The ball went just a short distance, but Versalles scampered home with the tying run.3

In the eighth inning Frank Quilici led off with a double and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Versalles came to the plate with one out and launched a fly ball to center field that was deep enough to score Quilici with the deciding run. It capped a great campaign for Versalles who had been fined $300 by the club during spring training for insubordination. The fine was not rescinded.4

The Senators had two more at-bats but couldn’t do any more scoring against Kaat. The Twins lefty stranded a runner in the eighth inning. Ed Brinkman led off the inning with a single but was erased on a double play. A single by Howard proved harmless as Kaat struck out Woodie Held to end the inning.

Kaat set the Senators down in order in the ninth inning to earn his 17th win. The final batter was Zimmer, who struck out, becoming Kaat’s 10th strikeout victim of the game. Richert, who allowed two tainted runs and gave up only three hits, was tagged with his 11th loss.

And when it was all over and the champagne was flowing, the telephone rang. On the other end, speaking with manager Sam Mele, was Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a former mayor of Minneapolis and US senator from Minnesota. “I just wanted to congratulate you, Sam, and tell you I’ll be in a front-row seat when the World Series starts,” said Humphrey.5 Afterwards, Humphrey, accompanied by his Secret Service detail, visited the locker room of the victors.6

The clubhouse was rocking. The Twins were drinking champagne, throwing food, and tearing the uniforms off one another’s backs. Amid the jubilation Mele exclaimed, “We’re in, and we went right through the front door winning three straight. That’s the way to do it.”7

And Killebrew, who had first played with the Twins when they were the 1954 Washington Senators, reflected, “It’s hard to get used to the taste.”8

Not at the celebration in Washington was team owner Calvin Griffith. He dared not set foot in the city as there were subpoenas waiting for him and members of his family. They were being sued by H. Gabriel Murphy, a 40 percent shareholder in the team, who was still angered by the team’s move to the Twin Cities in 1961.9 Murphy made his way to the clubhouse for the celebration, stood in a corner, and mused, “It’s a great day, isn’t it?”10

Back in Minneapolis, the fans at the Minnesota Vikings game cheered the news of the win in Washington, but there was no champagne to flow in the Twin Cities – liquor sales were banned on Sunday in Minnesota.11

That night, Mele went to his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, for yet another celebration. His daughter Cheryl, remembering how her dad’s job had been in jeopardy at the end of the previous season, greeted him with a homemade sign stating for all to see – “We Eat Again Next Year!”12

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

Thielman, Jim, Cool of the Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins (Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishing, 2005).

Baseball-Reference.com

Boston Globe

Washington Evening Star

Washington Post

The Sporting News

Winona (Minnesota) Daily News

Notes

New York Yankee pinstripes were nowhere to be found in the fall classic for the first time in six years. The Bombers finished sixth in 1965 with a 77-85 record, the first time since 1925 that they had finished below .500. This season marked the end of a dynasty that had accounted for 29 American League pennants and 20 World Series titles since 1921.

Also missing from Game One was Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax, who led the National League with a 26-8 record and a 2.04 earned-run average. Game One fell on October 6, the same date as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in the Jewish calendar. Jewish law forbids anyone working on that day, and Koufax, as a Jewish player, refused to pitch.

“It was a reflexive decision to do what was right in deference to his own family, in deference to his own tradition and in deference to recognition that, as a public figure, setting an example mattered,” said Jane Leavy, author of a biography on Koufax.1

Fortunately for the Dodgers, pitching was the team’s strength; they led the National League in team ERA (2.81), complete games (58), and shutouts (17). Therefore Dodgers manager Walter Alston had no qualms about starting the team’s second best pitcher, Don Drysdale, in the first game. Drysdale’s 23-12 record and 2.77 ERA would have made him a staff ace on any team that did not have a Koufax in the rotation. He was also in a groove, having pitched complete-game shutouts in his last two starts of the season.

The Twins countered with their best pitcher, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who led the American League in wins with 21 (the only 20-win season of his career) and shutouts, with six.

Naturally, with this being the first game of the Series and a battle looming between two 20-game winners, everyone expected a pitching duel; but in the grand tradition of great expectations gone awry everywhere, this game had 20 hits, a bat-around inning, a rare hitting feat from an unlikely source, a heroic stroke from Zorro, and, possibly, one manager wishing his pitcher would change religions.

Anyone who has watched NFL films of Minnesota Vikings playoff games in the 1970s may be excused in thinking that the Dodgers and Twins played in a blizzard. Such was not the case in Game One, as the temperature reached 68 degrees that afternoon (yes, afternoon). The pitchers copycatted each other in the first two innings; both retired the side in order in the first, while striking out the leadoff hitter (Grant struck out Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills while Drysdale returned the favor with Twins shortstop Zoilo Versalles). In the second, both pitchers gave up solo home runs. Dodgers right fielder Ron Fairly smacked one to deep right field off Grant, while Twins first baseman Don Mincher tied the game in the bottom of the inning.

Grant retired the side in order in the top of the third and then the Twins reached down inside themselves for their inner disc jockey because the hits just kept on coming during their turn at bat. The team’s number-eight hitter, second baseman Frank Quilici, started the fun with a double. Grant reached on an error while trying to sacrifice Quilici to third (second baseman Jim Lefebvre dropped Drysdale’s throw to first), and with two on, Versalles, nicknamed Zorro, swung his rapier-like bat and belted a three-run homer to left field. Another double followed, this time by left fielder Sandy Valdespino, before Tony Oliva grounded out. Drysdale then loaded the bases by giving up a single to third baseman Harmon Killebrew and walking Mincher (with a strikeout of center fielder Jimmie Hall sandwiched in between). Catcher Earl Battey singled to score Valdespino and Killebrew. Coming up for the second time in the inning, Quilici, who hit only .208 during the regular season, performed the rare feat of getting two hits in one frame during the World Series. His single scored Mincher, making the score 7-1.

After Quilici’s hit, manager Alston came to the mound to take Drysdale out of the game. As he was leaving, Drysdale is reported to have said, “I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too.”2

The six-run, six-hit inning buried the Dodgers. Versalles drove Grant in with the Twins’ eighth run in the sixth, and Wills’ bunt single scored second baseman Lefebvre with a too-little, too-late run in the ninth. The 8-2 final allowed the Twins to take a 1-0 lead in the Series.

Even though he pitched a complete game and scattered ten hits – nine of them singles – Grant wasn’t happy with his performance. He even went over to the box where US Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota was sitting, and told the senator that he (Grant) was not pitching well because he didn’t have his curveball. Humphrey told him to stick with the fastball.

“I didn’t have as good a fastball [today] as I had during the season,” Grant said after the game. “Most of the game I had control trouble. I was 2-and-2 and 3-and-2 on most of the hitters.”3

Alston, of course, put on as positive a spin on the loss as he could. “We got 10 hits, they got 10 hits, but theirs came in a bunch and scored runs. Ours didn’t,” he said.4 He also pointed out that the Dodgers lost the first game of the 1959 World Series to the White Sox, 11-0, and came back to win the championship.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

almanac.com/weather/

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B10060MIN1965.htm

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN196510060.shtml

Notes

The weather was cool and wet – the high reached only 58 and it drizzled throughout the game. Despite the conditions, fans expected a pitcher’s duel between Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax and 18-game winner Jim Kaat. And for the first 4½ innings, that’s exactly what they got. Then came the top of the fifth and a play that changed the course of the game.

The Dodgers’ Ron Fairly led off the frame with a single to right. Jim Lefebvre followed with a liner to left that was drifting away from left fielder Bob Allison and looked like a sure double. But Allison ran a long way to the foul line and made a spectacular diving catch that left the Dodgers with one out and a runner on first instead of two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Good thing, too, because Wes Parker then grounded a single into right field that would probably have scored two runs. Instead, Kaat got the next two batters on foul pop-ups and the game remained scoreless.

“I don’t know when I’ve seen a catch like that,” said Twins manager Sam Mele. “It was a tremendous catch. It could have meant something big for the Dodgers if the ball had dropped in there.”1

The game then proceeded from Allison’s sublime to Dodger third baseman Jim Gilliam’s ridiculous.

Anyone who ever did something because it seemed like a good idea at the time, only to regret it afterward, would know how Gilliam felt after the sixth. Gilliam started the 1965 season as a Dodger coach, but then went back on the active roster in May. He may have wished he was back in the coaching ranks after Zoilo Versalles’s grounder bounced off him for a two-base error to lead off the inning. After center fielder Joe Nossek sacrificed Versalles to third, the Twins shortstop scored on Tony Oliva’s double to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Killebrew’s single then drove in Oliva, and the Twins led 2-0.

It was still anybody’s game in the top of the seventh, when Fairly and Lefebvre singled to open the inning. After the runners advanced on a sacrifice by Parker, catcher John Roseboro singled to score Fairly; Lefebvre and Roseboro moved up on the throw to the plate. Dodgers manager Walter Alston then made a move that said a lot about his team’s lack of scoring punch. Koufax was the next scheduled batter, and Alston made the standard move by pinch-hitting for him because his team was behind in the late innings. The Twins were probably surprised when Don Drysdale, the loser of Game One, came out of the dugout swinging a bat. On the surface it seemed a bizarre move, but Drysdale was, in fact, an excellent hitting pitcher. His .300 batting average was the highest on the team that season. Drysdale also hit seven homers, an astounding total for a pitcher, in just 130 at-bats. By comparison, Lefebvre and left fielder Lou Johnson tied for the team lead in home runs with 12. The gamble didn’t pay off, however, as mighty Drysdale struck out. Maury Wills followed and flied to center to end the threat.

Reliever Ron Perranoski replaced Koufax on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and started off well enough by getting the first two batters out. Leadoff hitter Versalles then tripled to right and while he was on third, he began dancing up and down the line in the tradition of Jackie Robinson. This rattled Perranoski, who threw a wild pitch with Joe Nossek at the plate, allowing Versalles to score. Nossek reached first on another error by poor Gilliam, but was stranded.

The Twins put the game away in the eighth. Killebrew walked and advanced to third on an Allison double. Killebrew was tagged out at the plate on a fielder’s choice by first baseman Don Mincher. Allison advanced to third and Mincher to second on a balk by Perranoski. The Dodgers walked number-eight hitter Frank Quilici to load the bases and bring Kaat to the plate, and while Kaat was no Drysdale at the plate, his numbers weren’t that bad (.247 average, one home run). His single brought two runners home and put the game away. Los Angeles threatened in the ninth with two runners on and one out, but didn’t score.

The Dodgers were 7-5 favorites going into the Series and there had been some talk of a sweep. That talk continued, except that now the wags were speculating on the possibility of the Twins getting the brooms out. Suffice it to say that the Twins surprised everyone by beating both Drysdale and Koufax.

However, Alston knew from experience that being down 2-0 doesn’t mean the Series is over. In 1955 his Brooklyn Dodgers were in this situation and won it all. The following year they were up 2-zip on the Yankees and lost. He was also the manager of a veteran team whose players knew what it took to get the ring.

As for Gilliam, it was simply one of those days. He had committed only one error in his previous 108 World Series chances, and didn’t make any miscues the rest of this Series.

Now it was on to Los Angeles for Game Three.

• Related link: Read more game stories from SABR’s book on the 1965 Minnesota Twins by clicking here

Sources

wunderground.com

Winona (Minnesota) Daily News

San Bernardino (California) Sun

Notes