May 24, 1963:  Twins defensive sub Jimmie Hall uses bat to beat White Sox in 9th

On May 24, 1963, the Minnesota Twins used two dramatic home runs to extend their winning streak to five games. Harmon Killebrew’s grand slam put the Twins ahead in the fifth inning, and after the Chicago White Sox tied the score, Jimmie Hall ended the game with a two-run blast in the bottom of the ninth. Twins fans expected heroics from the 26-year-old Killebrew, the 1962 American League home-run champion with 48, and RBI leader with 126, but who was this Hall fellow?  

Hall was on the Triple-A roster when he arrived at the Twins’ Orlando spring-training camp in 1963. He had played in the minor leagues since signing out of high school with the original Washington Nationals in 1956.1 Hall’s slow climb through the minors was marked by a switch from infield to outfield; time missed because of tonsilitis and a hernia; and two hitches in the US Army.

Military commitments limited the left-handed-hitting Hall to 54 games and 141 at-bats in Triple-A during the 1961 and 1962 seasons, and he connected for just four home runs. Hall earned an invitation to spring training by hitting .351 in the Rookie Instructional League in December, 1962.2 One sportswriter’s dispatch said the 25-year-old Hall was given the least chance of any minor-league position player to make the Twins.3

Nevertheless, the quiet, soft-spoken Hall became a last-minute addition to the Twins’ Opening Day roster,4 beating out Tony Oliva, who was sent to Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth. Hall was described by a sportswriter as someone who “swings the bat hard, runs better than average, and has a good arm.”5 Ultimately it was Hall’s aggressiveness and determination that persuaded Twins manager Sam Mele to bring him north.6

Hall pinch-hit in four of Minnesota’s first five games without getting a hit. On Opening Day he batted for starting pitcher Camilo Pascual, flying out. When Killebrew’s ailing knee filled with fluid before an April 16 game against the Los Angeles Angels, Hall replaced him in the lineup. Starting for the first time, he doubled, tripled, and scored four runs.

Hall started 18 more games in April and early May, but on May 24 had not started since May 12. With Killebrew finally healthy enough to return to the lineup, Hall – hitting .178 without a home run – was relegated to the bench during Minnesota’s road trip to New York, Cleveland, and Boston.

Hall was benched, but not forgotten. He appeared in eight of the nine road games as either a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, or late-inning defensive replacement for Killebrew. On May 19 in Cleveland Hall slugged a pinch-hit home run – his first major-league round-tripper.7

The Twins and White Sox opened a three-game series at Metropolitan Stadium on May 24. Minnesota’s fans were delighted to have the team back in town. The Friday-night crowd of 26,765 was the Twins’ fourth largest home gate of the young season, exceeded only by three games with the New York Yankees.

Chicago (24-15) arrived in the Twin Cities on a four-game winning streak, and sat a half-game behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles in the 10-team AL. The Twins (17-21) – who in 1962 had finished second to the World Series champion Yankees – inhabited the AL cellar on May 15, but with Killebrew and Rich Rollins healthy, had won six of seven, including their last four, to move into eighth place, percentage points out of seventh.  

The pitching matchup featured Chicago’s Ray Herbert (5-1), a 20-game winner in 1962, against Twins lefty Dick Stigman (2-5), a Minnesota native. Both of Herbert’s wins had been shutouts.8 But he had not won since April 27 despite a 2.92 ERA. (By season’s end he won 15, two more than Herbert.)

Stigman and Herbert had easy first innings. Stigman struck out Jim Landis and retired Nellie Fox on a fly to short and Mike Hershberger on a grounder. Herbert got Lenny Green to ground out, snuck strike three past Vic Power, and retired Killebrew on a foul popup.

Things did not go as well for Stigman in the second. After an out, Ron Hansen walked, Pete Ward singled, and Joe Cunningham walked, filling the bases. Camillo Carreón fouled out near first base, but Herbert came through with a two-out single, scoring Hansen and Ward, to give himself and his teammates a 2-0 lead.

Chicago maintained that margin until the fourth, when Power doubled and scored on Killebrew’s single to cut Chicago’s advantage to 2-1. Killebrew – who had missed 18 games with his knee problems, and entered this game hitting .213 – chalked up his ninth RBI. Mele credited Killebrew as “the guy who’s picked us up”9 since he returned to the lineup.

In the fifth inning both teams faced bases-loaded threats; one wiggled out of trouble, while the other did not. Stigman opened the inning by walking Herbert, the fired strike three past Landis. Singles by Fox and Hershberger loaded the bases. Stigman bore down, striking out Dave Nicholson and Hansen to keep Chicago from extending its lead.

Herbert gave up singles to the first three Minnesota batters in the fifth: Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, and Bernie Allen. Stigman was allowed to hit and struck out. A double play would preserve the lead, but Green walked on four pitches, forcing home Rollins with the tying run.

Power battled Herbert, flying out on the eighth pitch.10 With two down, Killebrew drove Herbert’s next pitch 413 feet over the wall in center for his fourth career grand slam and his fifth home run of the season.11 The Twins led 6-2, and Herbert was done, relieved by Gary Peters, who got the third out.

Killebrew’s grand slam impressed Chicago manager Al López, who described it this way: “He hit the hell out of that ball. The wind was blowing in, but it just kept carrying.”12

In the sixth both teams squandered scoring chances. Chicago put runners on first and second with one out, but a strikeout and force out ended the rally. Hoyt Wilhelm, in relief of Peters, got into trouble when Earl Battey singled, Rollins was hit by a pitch, and Versalles singled, filling the bases with no outs. But Wilhelm recovered, striking out Allen and Stigman and getting Green for the third out.

Stigman recorded two outs in the seventh before facing Nicholson, who was playing the first of three seasons for Chicago. He, Wilhelm, Hansen, and Ward had come to Chicago from Baltimore for Al Smith, and Louis Aparicio.

The 23-year-old Nicholson was enjoying the best of his seven big-league seasons despite an AL record 175 strikeouts.13 In 126 games he established career bests in doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs, and walks. He connected off Stigman, sending the ball over the left-field fence for his ninth home run to bring Chicago within three.

Hall replaced Killebrew in left field to begin the eighth. This marked the fourth consecutive game in which Hall substituted for Killebrew to bolster late-inning defense. The White Sox did not score and turned to Eddie Fisher (3-5), who blanked Minnesota in the bottom of the inning.

Stigman returned to the mound in the ninth with a three-run cushion. It proved to be insufficient. Landis slapped a leadoff single; Fox flied out to right, and Hershberger forced Landis for the second out. Stigman needed just one more out, but Nicholson singled, sending Hershberger to second.

That brought up Hansen with two aboard.14 In the fifth he had struck out, stranding three runners. He did not strand anyone this time. His fourth home run of the season tied the game, 6-6.

With Fisher still pitching for Chicago, Green started the Minnesota ninth with a single. Power hit back to Fisher, who forced Green at second. The third spot in the batting order – from which Killebrew drove in five runs – was next. But instead of Killebrew, Hall – batting .184 with one home run in 76 career at-bats – stepped to the plate. Press-box observers thought Mele had outsmarted himself.15

But Hall saved his manager from criticism, slamming Fisher’s first pitch into the right-field bleachers to win the game, 8-6. “I kind of figured it was out of the park when I hit it,” a grinning Hall told reporters. “It was a low breaking pitch, and I hit it good.”16 The term “walk-off” was not in vogue in 1963, but the Twins walked off with their fifth straight win.17

Despite Hall’s heroics, he did not make the starting lineup until June 1. On June 8 and 9 he started and went 4-for-8 with two home runs. Beginning June 13, Hall replaced Green in the outfield, appearing in every Twins game, starting all but three. From that date to season’s end, Hall smashed 29 home runs,18 drove in 65 runs, and raised his batting average from .233 to .260.19 The spring-training longshot finished third in Rookie-of-the-Year balloting.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Jimmie Hall, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent statistical information and play-by-play. The author relied on game coverage in the Chicago Daily News and St. Paul Dispatch, and reviewed SABR BioProject biographies for several players participating in the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B05240MIN1963.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN196305240.shtml

Notes

1 The Washington franchise  moved to Minnesota in 1961 and Hall became part of the Twins minor-league system.

2 Mark Tierney, “Injury Bugaboo Jolts Twins Start,” St. Paul Dispatch, April 16, 1963: 28.

3 Tierney.

4 According to SABR biographer Norm King, Hall signed a major-league contract on the day rosters had to be finalized.

5 Tierney, “Injury Bugaboo Jolts Twins Start.”

6 Tierney, “Injury Bugaboo Jolts Twins Start.”

7 Hall homered in the first game of a doubleheader. Minnesota lost that game.

8 Herbert went on to top the AL in 1963 with seven shutouts. Sandy Koufax led the National League with 11.

9 John Kuenster, “Pale Hose ‘Killed’ in Northland,” Chicago Daily News, May 25, 1963: 31.

10 Kuenster, “Pale Hose ‘Killed’ in Northland.”

11 Kuenster, “Pale Hose ‘Killed’ in Northland.”

12 Kuenster, “Pale Hose ‘Killed’ in Northland.”

13 Nicholson received much criticism over his strikeouts at the time, but as of 2025 the major-league record was 223 by Mark Reynolds, set in 2009 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nicholson’s 175 strikeouts are no longer in the top 100 of single-season strikeout totals.

14 Hansen hit 22 home runs while winning AL Rookie of the Year in 1960 but never hit that many again. He finished 1963 with 13. Hansen is best known for completing the major leagues’ first unassisted triple play in 41 years, on July 30, 1968.

15 Arno Goethel, “Killer Dons Old Togs as Twins Executioner,” The Sporting News, June 8, 1963: 8.

16 Lew Ferguson (Associated Press), “Hall Uses Bat, Not Glove to Help Twins,” Austin (Minnesota) Daily News, May 25, 1963: 8. Hall was able to recover the ball for a souvenir. “Breaks White Sox Bubble,” St. Paul Dispatch, May 25, 1963: 8.

17 The winning streak reached seven, which at the time was the longest winning streak since the club came to Minnesota.

18 Hall hit 13 home runs in August, tying a team record for home runs in one month.

19 Hall finished the season with 5.4 WAR and a .863 OPS, third among Twins regulars behind Killebrew (.904), and Bob Allison, who topped the AL at .911. He finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting behind Peters and Ward, and his 33 home runs topped Ted Williams’s previous AL record of 31 for rookie home runs.