June 4, 1971: Tornadoes don’t twist Twins’ fortunes

The Minnesota Twins were competing with the Kansas City Royals for second place in the American League West Division as June 1971 arrived. After stumbling through a lackluster April, Minnesota went 16-12 in May and jumped from fourth place to second. The Twins were reigning AL West champions, winning both the 1969 and 1970 titles by nine games over the Oakland Athletics. Minnesota was selected to repeat as division champion in a poll of 307 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, edging out the California Angels and Athletics, but predicted to fall again to the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Championship Series.1 The 1971 Twins’ offense was led by future Hall of Famers second baseman Rod Carew and first baseman Harmon Killebrew, perennial All-Star outfielder Tony Oliva, and the underrated César Tovar. The pitching staff was anchored by veterans Jim Perry and Jim Kaat, with Bert Blyleven playing in his first full major-league season.

The Cleveland Indians were attempting to avoid the AL East basement after a dismal 6-14 April. The Indians improved in May and were percentage points behind the New York Yankees, fighting for fourth place in the division. Cleveland had finished next to last the previous season, 32 games out of first. The offense was led by All-Star catcher Ray Fosse, future star third baseman Graig Nettles, and veteran outfielder Vada Pinson, with stalwart veteran and five-time All-Star Sam McDowell spearheading the rebuilding pitching staff. Sportswriters had low expectations for the Indians, predicting another last-place finish.2

Twins manager Bill Rigney sent Blyleven to the mound. The right-hander had a 6-5 record and a 1.96 earned-run average. He had lost his last outing, against Baltimore, breaking a personal four-game winning streak. During those four starts, he had pitched at least eight innings, allowed one or no earned runs in each start, and struck out at least 11 batters three times. The 6-foot-3, 160-pound “Frying Dutchman” had been drafted two years earlier in the third round of the 1969 amateur draft.3 He threw a devastating curveball, fastball, and changeup.4

Rigney changed his infield for the game. After playing 42 games at second base, Carew was moved from second base to third and Steve Braun shifted from third to second. Rigney told sportswriters, “We talked it over before, and Rod has been working out at third for several days. I would have started him there sooner, but I didn’t want to have two men at new positions against teams like Baltimore and Detroit.” Carew offered that he would play “wherever Rigney wants me.”5

Indians manager Alvin Dark tabbed offseason acquisition Alan Foster for the matchup. Foster and Ray Lamb had been traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Indians for Duke Sims in December.6 The introspective Foster pitched one full major-league season for Los Angeles but never reached the Dodgers’ expectations after his 1965 signing.7 Dark, planning to use Foster third in the rotation, noted during spring training, “Alan is sneaky with good control, and most importantly, he knows how to pitch.”8 Through two months with Cleveland, Foster was 3-2 with a 3.54 ERA, though he was struggling with his control.

Blyleven struck out Nettles to start the game. With two strikes, he hit Pinson with a pitch. Fosse hit a tailor-made double play ball to shortstop Leo Cardenas; Pinson was out at second, but Braun’s high throw on the double-play pivot pulled Killebrew off the bag and Fosse was safe.9 Rookie Chris Chambliss had the game’s first hit, and the Indians had runners on the corners. Chambliss, playing in his seventh major-league game, extended his hitting streak to include all six games he had played since taking over first base.10 Ted Uhlaender singled to center field, scoring Fosse, and Ted Ford doubled to the wall into left field, scoring Chambliss and Uhlaender. A strikeout ended the inning with Cleveland ahead, 3-0.

Foster walked Tovar to start the Minnesota half. After two fly outs, Killebrew hit an infield single. Jim Holt put the Twins on the board by doubling to right, scoring Tovar and advancing Killebrew to third. After Braun was intentionally walked, Cardenas popped out to second, ending the inning with the score 3-1.

In the second inning, Blyleven improved upon his slow start by striking out the first two batters. He walked Nettles, the only walk he issued in the game, then picked him off for a quick inning. Foster also pitched better, allowing just a single by Tovar.

Both pitchers slightly switched gears while maintaining their effectiveness in the next two innings. Blyleven earned five of six outs on groundouts, with Fosse’s right-field double the only baserunner for either team in the third and fourth innings. Foster got three fly outs and three strikeouts to retire the Twins in order. Both pitchers had one-two-three fifth innings.

Both offenses broke though in the sixth inning. With one out, Chambliss singled for Cleveland’s first baserunner since Fosse’s third-inning double. With Uhlaender up, Chambliss went to second on Blyleven’s wild pickoff attempt. Uhlaender grounded out. Ford’s single to left plated Chambliss as Cleveland regained its three-run lead. Eddie Leon grounded out, and the Indians led 4-1.

The crowd of 10,494 experienced a torrential 20-minute rain delay one pitch into the bottom of the sixth inning. Once play resumed, Oliva hammered his league-leading 12th homer, 443 feet into the bullpen area in right-center field.11 After Killebrew grounded out and Holt flied to center, the heavy rain returned, and, with a 2-and-1 count on Braun, play was delayed another 43 minutes before the game was called on account of a tornado touchdown in nearby Burnsville.12 Reports of tornado activity around the Twin Cities occurred throughout the evening, and about 60,000 homes lost electrical power.13 Cleveland won the weather-shortened game, 4-2.

Both pitchers went the distance, Foster, the winner, allowed two runs on four hits with six strikeouts. Blyleven gave up four runs on six hits and struck out six. Ford and Chambliss paced Cleveland’s offense, Ford with two hits and three runs batted in and Chambliss with two runs scored. Braun’s errant throw helped set up Cleveland’s three first-inning runs; he acknowledged his shortcoming by commenting, “I hurried my throw and should have taken more time.”14 Blyleven didn’t blame Braun for the loss, saying, “Missing the double play in the first inning didn’t shake me. I made some bad pitches. All their hits came on pitches above the belt. I’ve got to keep the ball down.”15

Rigney planned to keep playing Carew and Braun at their new positions. “It will take both Braun and Carew time to make an adjustment at their positions, but Carew is missing Saturday and Sunday because of a service commitment,” he said. “I’ll use Harmon Killebrew at third base Saturday and use Rich Reese at first base.”16 The experiment lasted barely a week when Rigney returned both players to their original positions.17

The Indians won 15 of 31 games in June, then endured a July swoon and never recovered. Cleveland finished in the AL East basement with a 60-102 record, 43 games behind the division champion Orioles. Foster finished with an 8-12 record and 4.16 ERA in 181⅔ innings. Chambliss won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, earning 11 of 24 first-place votes.18 Ford was the Indians’ fourth outfielder that season and was traded to Texas the next year, his only full season in the majors.

The Twins struggled throughout the 1971 season. After spending two weeks in second place in May, they dropped to fourth place in mid-July and bounced between fourth and fifth for the rest of the season. Minnesota finished fifth with a 74-86 record, 26½ games behind Oakland and 5½ games ahead of the last-place Milwaukee Brewers.

Blyleven led all Twins players with 6.5 Wins Above Replacement (for his pitching only)19 while leading the American League with a 3.797 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He finished fourth with 224 strikeouts, fifth with a 2.81 ERA, eighth with 17 complete games, and ninth with 278⅓ innings pitched, leading Minnesota pitchers in those categories. He compiled a 16-15 record in 38 starts in his first of 10 consecutive seasons pitching over 200 innings. Oliva led Minnesota hitters with a .337 batting average and a .915 OPS. Killebrew powered the offense with 28 home runs and 119 RBIs, while Tovar paced the Twins with 718 plate appearances and 18 stolen bases.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Almanac.com, and the following:

James, Bill. The New Bill James Historical Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001).

Ritter, Lawrence S. Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball’s Legendary Fields (New York: Penguin Books, 1994).

Smith, Ron. The Ballpark Book (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 2000).

Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer, et al. Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (New York: Viking Press, 2004).

Notes

1 Chris Roewe, “Writers Predicting Repetition in Races,” The Sporting News, April 10, 1971: 8.

2 Roewe: 8.

3 Gregory H. Wolf, “Bert Blyleven,” Society for American Baseball Research BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/86826f24. Accessed January 5, 2020.

4 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches (New York: Fireside Books, 2004), 137.

5 Dick Gordon, “Carew, Braun Keep New Jobs,” Minneapolis Star, June 5, 1971: 14.

6 Russell Schneider, “Tribe Trades Sims for 2 Hurlers,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 12, 1970: 25.

7 John Wiebusch, “Dodgers Get Catcher Duke Sims in Trade,” Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1970: 45.

8 Russell Schneider, “Loser Pascual Impresses Dark,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 31, 1971: 43.

9 Tom Briere, “Cleveland Inundates Twins 4-2,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 5, 1971: 11.

10 Russell Schneider, “Indians Jar Twins, 4-2,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 5, 1971: 22.

11 United Press International, “Weather, Indians Halt Twins,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Daily Times, June 5, 1971: 9.

12 Gordon.

13 “Storm, Winds Strike Area; Damage Slight,” Minneapolis Star, June 5, 1971: 1.

14 Gordon.

15 Briere: 12.

16 Briere: 11.

17 Tom Briere, “Kaat, Twins Bow 2-1 in 10,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 10, 1971: 33.

18 Russell Schneider, “Chambliss Tops,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 23, 1971: 37.

19 Baseball-Reference.com, “1971 Minnesota Twins Statistics,” baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/1971.shtml. Accessed January 10, 2020.