July 5, 1980: Twins’ Geoff Zahn grounds Rangers into submission

“More than 50 percent, and you’re a ground-ball pitcher. More than 55 percent and you’re an extreme ground-ball pitcher.”1

By baseball analyst Rob Neyer’s research-based formulation above, the Texas Rangers were the victims, and the 9,398 spectators in attendance the accidental onlookers, of extreme baseball extremism on July 5, 1980, at the hands of the seemingly mild-mannered Minnesota Twins left-hander Geoff Zahn.

Zahn was a product of the Dodgers’ farm system who found himself as a major-league pitcher at age 32 in 1977 with the Twins, after brief tenures with the Dodgers and Cubs. He was a bargain, averaging 13 wins per year from 1977 to 1979 and adding 14 more in 1980. His start on July 5 found him with 6 wins, 10 losses, and a less-than-satisfactory 4.13 earned-run average. The Twins were in fifth place in the American League West Division, with a record of 33 wins and 44 losses, 12½ games behind Kansas City. They were in decline compared with 1979, when they were eight games over .500 at the same stage. The club’s hemorrhaging of free agents had continued in the offseason, when 20-game winner Dave Goltz, despite being a Minnesota native, left for the Dodgers.

The local press still paying attention to the beleaguered franchise was nonetheless, at least for the time being, in an optimistic frame of mind. Sid Hartman’s July 5 column in the Minneapolis Tribune reprinted manager Gene Mauch‘s upbeat assessment of the club’s play in recent weeks, including wins in four of its last six games and his hopes that Zahn and Jerry Koosman, a 20-game winner in 1979, would heat up.2

Zahn may have been pleased to see the Texas Rangers come to town. His record against Texas was a cumulative four wins and no losses. Also, he told the Tribune’s Tom Briere, since the Twins had pitched another lefty, Darrell Jackson, against the Rangers the previous night, a 4-3 loss in 12 innings in which Jackson stymied Texas for seven innings, he was able to update his strategy for facing their hitters by watching the video.3

The Rangers were otherwise not every pitcher’s delight. Their team batting average of .276 at game time ranked fourth in the league. Al Oliver and Buddy Bell were All-Stars near the top of the league in batting, and Mickey Rivers and Bump Wills supplied speed at the top of a lineup of savvy veterans. Nevertheless they were bumping along at 37 wins and 40 losses, second in the West Division but 8½ games back. More veterans inhabited their pitching staff, led by Zahn’s opponent, future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, who began the day with seven wins, five losses, and an ERA of 3.14.

Texas scored in the top of the first with two out, on Oliver’s walk and singles by Bell and Richie Zisk. More portentously, as it turned out, all three outs in their inning were recorded on groundouts. Texas’s second inning produced three more of the same. Jenkins, meanwhile, kept the Twins off the scoreboard until the fourth, as Rick Sofield was caught stealing after a single in the first and Hosken Powell, after hitting a triple, was erased on an unsuccessful squeeze attempt in the third.4 Then Sofield singled again in the fourth, and Roy Smalley Jr. followed with a two-run home run, a liner that nicked the right-field foul pole.

Zahn still had jams to work out of. The Twins’ infield made an adventure of the sixth, loading the bases with one out on two errors and a walk before converting a groundball third-to-second-to-first double play. In the eighth Rivers and Wills singled with one out, again putting the tying run on third, but Zahn helped himself by picking Wills off first base. Zahn’s groundball outs meanwhile continued to mount, and when John Ellis closed the ninth and the contest by grounding into the Twins’ third double play, the total had reached 19, 70 percent of the Rangers’ outs in the game.

Zahn’s performance was encouraging, but the relatively small turnout for a midseason Saturday matinee was probably more on the minds of Twins brass. The Twins’ attendance was the lowest in the major leagues. On July 6 the St. Paul Pioneer Press printed the results of a survey of “Pioneer Press Super Fans” on the question, “What do (the Twins) need to do – other than win – to attract some customers?” Noted the first respondent: “A team lacking a superstar which plays poorly in a ballpark of minimal attractiveness is in trouble. … Since most Twins stars seem to disappear via the free agency route, these attendance boosters are not available.” The same respondent thought that contemporary players deserved blame, describing them as “arrogant businessmen at war with management.”

Another thought the Twins could take fans’ minds off the quality of the team with “extra entertainment or incentives,” such as ladies’ nights, free admission for kids, and reduced-price or free parking. Yet another called on the club to take better care of the fans who did show up, by making sure that there were enough vendors on hand and plenty of ticket-sellers and ticket-takers. A final interviewee didn’t think giveaways or new faces on the roster would help long-term and simply felt that more fans were needed who would be loyal regardless of the club’s fortunes on the field.5

Discouragingly for the Twins and their fans, answers were not found in 1980. The team resumed its struggles on the field, Mauch resigned in August, and after the season Zahn joined the exodus of free agents, departing for the California Angels.

Notes

1 Rob Neyer, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Ground-Ball Pitchers,” Baseball Nation, 2012.

2 Sid Hartman, “Sid Hartman,” Minneapolis Tribune, July 5, 1980: 2C.

3 Tom Briere, “Twins Beat Texas with Zahn Rerun,” Minneapolis Tribune, July 6, 1980: 1C.

4 Briere.

5 “Poor Attendance: Any Solution?” “SuperFans,” St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press, July 6, 1980: Sports 2.