August 10, 1981: Twins down A’s to take second-half ‘reopener’

“If you think what goes on between the white lines has anything to do with running a baseball team today, you’ve got a lot to learn.” – Clark Griffith, Twins executive vice president and son of owner Calvin Griffith1

Entering the 1981 season an ongoing labor dispute between owners and players lingered over the issue of free-agent compensation. The owners demanded compensation for losing free-agent players. “I think compensation is basically mandatory,” asserted Giants owner Bob Lurie. “When a team like San Diego loses a player the caliber they did [Dave Winfield], they’re entitled to get something more than they did, an amateur draft choice.”2 The players maintained that any form of compensation undermined the value of free agency.

The result of this unresolved dispute led the players union to vote unanimously on May 29 for a strike, which began on June 12. On July 31 a compromise was reached under which a team that lost a premium player could be compensated by selecting a “nonprotected” player from any team. But the strangest part of the agreement to resume play was that the season was broken into two halves. The Yankees, Athletics, Dodgers, and first-time defending World Series champion Phillies, which were the division leaders when the strike began, were all guaranteed postseason berths. They would face the division winners of the second half of the season in best-of-five Division Series with the winners squaring off in a best-of-five League Championship Series.

The A’s were enjoying a renaissance thanks largely to an aggressive style of play dubbed implemented by their manager, Billy Martin, and dubbed Billy Ball. For the last-place Twins, losers of 39 out of 56 games and 18 games behind the division-leading A’s, it was a fresh start. “I think a lot of players feel as I do,” said designated hitter Glenn Adams, “that the first half of the season is like last year. This is almost like 1982, only the season is only seven or eight weeks long.”3

In their first game back after the strike ended, the Twins sent 24-year-old right-hander Roger Erickson against Oakland, while the A’s countered with Rick Langford, who led the American League in complete games in 1980 and 1981. The game didn’t start well for the host Twins: Rickey Henderson smacked the first pitch from Erickson into right field for a single. Henderson attempted to steal his league-leading 34th base, and catcher Butch Wynegar’s throw to second would have nailed him had shortstop Roy Smalley held on to the ball. With Henderson on second and no outs, “I said to myself, ‘Jeez, here we go,’” said Erickson.4 Dwayne Murphy grounded the next offering from Erickson to first baseman Danny Goodwin, who tossed to Erickson covering first base for the first out of the game as Henderson took third. Erickson walked Wayne Gross to put runners at the corners but escaped without any damage by striking out slugger Tony Armas and inducing Jim Spencer to fly out to left field.

After that there was not much action until the top of the fourth inning, when Oakland’s Gross led off with a line drive that right fielder Hosken Powell tried to make a shoestring catch on. The ball got past him for a triple. Gross scored on Spencer’s sacrifice fly to center field. The A’s added another run off Erickson in the top of the fifth when Mark Budaska led off with a double, went to third on Keith Drumright’s single to center, and scored on Rob Picciolo’s 1-6-3 double play. Erickson could have easily nailed Budaska at the plate but chose to go for the double play.

The Twins struck back with a vengeance in the bottom of the fifth. Goodwin and Wynegar led off with singles. Ron Jackson’s bunt moved them up a base, and Powell’s single to right field scored both runners and tied the game, 2-2. Rob Wilfong’s single to center field advanced Powell to third. Mickey Hatcher hit a grounder to third that Gross bobbled; Powell scored to give the Twins a 3-2 lead. Smalley walked, loading the bases. Adams lined a single to left, scoring Wilfong and Hatcher and putting the Twins up 5-2. Martin did something he rarely did while managing the A’s; he pulled starter Langford out of the game for reliever Jeff Jones to face John Castino. Castino lined a shot just out of the reach of Henderson for a double, scoring Smalley and extending the Twins’ lead to 6-2. Martin quickly replaced Jones with Tom Underwood, who struck out Goodwin and got Wynegar to fly out to right field for the final out of the inning.

It was an unexpected offensive explosion by one of the least explosive offenses in the American League; the Twins had sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning and scored six runs (five earned) on six hits. The Twins as a team ranked next to last in the American League in every major offensive category, including runs scored, team batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and home runs (47). Their rare offensive outburst allowed the Twins to accomplish something else that was uncommon for them in 1981: recover from a two-run deficit, something they had accomplished only twice before in the season. “It’s hard to express what it means, to me, to the team,” said Powell. “We’re not going to let the little things get us down anymore. We don’t want to beat ourselves anymore.”5

Perhaps the “reopener” was just what the Twins needed to exorcise their poor start to the 1981 season. Smalley told Minneapolis Star beat writer Paul Levy after the game that the 15,414 in attendance at Metropolitan Stadium were “a lot louder and more enthusiastic than the crowd of 42,658 that attended the home opener on April 9.”6

“Based upon what I saw tonight, I think our players realize they have a unique opportunity,” said Twins manager Billy Gardner. “It is a fresh start. They will wake up tomorrow with a share of first place. It is a nice feeling. It is up to them how they wake up two months from now.”7

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

Back To Baseball: backtobaseball.com/playballregularseason.php?page=45&IDindex=MIN198108100&date=August+10%2C+1981.

Verducci, Tom. “Inside the Chaos of 1981 – MLB’s Last Severely Shortened Season.” Sports Illustrated, May 29, 2020: si.com/mlb/2020/05/29/pete-rose-1981-baseball-strike.

Bumbaca, Chris. “Explaining the 1981 MLB Season: How Baseball Survived Shortened Year,” USA Today, March 15, 2020: usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/03/15/1981-mlb-season-coronavirus-delay-baseball/5054780002/.

Notes

1 Michael Lenehan, “The Last of the Pure Baseball Men,” The Atlantic, August 1981: theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/08/the-last-of-the-pure-baseball-men/305825/.

2 MLB Network. Baseball’s Seasons 1981 “A Season Interrupted.” Retrieved via YouTube April 26, 2020: youtube.com/watch?v=SAbPlbbrb9E.

3 Dan Stoneking, “6-2 Victory Means One Game … and More,” Minneapolis Star, August 11, 1981: 9B.

4 Paul Levy, “Opener II: Twins’ Play Eclipses Fireworks,” Minneapolis Star, August 11, 1981: 9B.

5 Levy.

6 Levy.

7 Levy.