Cabin Twelve

1967: Boston beats the Twins 6 – 4 to tie Minnesota for first place. Carl Yastrzemski’s 3-run home run gives him the American League-lead with 44th, but Harmon Killebrew answers with his 44th for the losers. Meanwhile, Detroit, which had games rained out on the 28th and 29th, plays two with the Angels. Mickey Lolich wins the opener, 5 – 0, his 3rd straight shutout, and Detroit takes a seemingly safe 6 – 2 lead into the 8th inning of the nitecap. The Angels then bat around, scoring six runs, to hand Detroit a devastating 8 – 6 loss. Detroit now trails Minnesota and Boston by a half-game.

1968: Cal Ermer is dismissed as manager of the Twins.

1979: Minnesota’s Jerry Koosman defeats Milwaukee 5 – 0 on the final day of the season for his 20th win of the year. It is the only time the Brewers are shut out the entire year, as they fail to tie a record set by the Yankees in 1932. The Brew Crew scored in 213 straight games.

1981: In the last ML game at Minnesota’s Metropolitan Stadium, Kansas City clinches at least a tie for the American League West 2nd-half title with a 5 – 2 win over the Twins. Next season, the Twins will play in the brand-new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis, MN.

2008: The White Sox complete their unlikely run to the postseason by blanking the Minnesota Twins 1-0 in a one-game playoff to determine the winner of the AL Central division. The White Sox tied the Twins in the standings by winning a make-up game one day earlier, forcing today’s contest. John Danks pitches 8 scoreless innings for the win, while Jim Thome homers off loser Nick Blackburn to lead off the 7th inning for the game’s only run.

(Much of this information comes from baseball-reference.com’s bullpen. See copyright information here.)

It turned into a relatively big news day for the Twins today – not to mention the big doubleheader against the Tigers, the Twins have reportedly made a rather impressive splash on the International Free Agent scene and announced a big Target Field deal. Oh, and Chuck Knoblauch.

I can’t be alone in being shocked that the Twins have agreed to terms with 16 year old Dominican shortstop Miguel Angel Sano on a contract with a cool $3.15 million bonus. When its made official, it will become the biggest bonus given to an International free agent this year and the 2nd largest ever. Wow. Bill Smith has had a rocky start, given the Santana & Bartlett/Garza trades, but he sure ain’t as gun shy as Terry Ryan.

No real surprise here, but Best Buy will have a presence at Target Field, as the Twins announced a marketing deal with them today.

And here’s the story about Chuck Knoblauch’s umm, “dispute” with his common-law wife. Also, the Wall Street Journal checks in with some commentary and some of the legalities behind common-law marriage in Texas. Hey, weren’t you wondering too?

And yeah, the paper in Ft. Myers did publish instructions for would be mascots written by Miss A-Miracle, the Ft. Myers Miracle mascot. Oookay. Its got nothing on the Miracle’s previously planned What Would Tim Tebow Do? Night earlier this summer.

2008 – In Chicago, rookie Alexei Ramirez’s fourth grand slam of the year leads the White Sox to an 8-2 win over the Tigers in a make-up game, forcing a one-game playoff with the Minnesota Twins. Gavin Floyd picks up his 17th win of the season, while Armando Galarraga, making a rare relief appearance, is the loser for the Bengals.

(Much of this information comes from baseball-reference.com’s bullpen. See copyright information here.)

A few random Twins related tidbits.

A lot of Twins fans get on Gardy, but you can count Sparky Anderson among his fans. Anderson pulled Gardenhire aside for a little chat in Detroit and Gardy had this to say: “”I was in awe, he really likes what we do here. That was pretty cool. It was honestly one of those times when you just melt.”

And Jeff Passan checks in with a nice column about Gardy this week too.

USA Today has two articles about the Twins stadiums today. One about “fancy” new Target Field and one about the Metrodome. I’ll be the first to agree with Ozzie Guillen’s opinion of the Dome, but a lot of cool things took place there.

And speaking of Target Field, the Star Tribune has an interesting article about the impact the current lending environment is having on development around the new park. If you’re into that kind of thing.

mlb.com brings us a good little profile of Max Kepler-Rozycki, the 16 year old from Germany that the Twins gave the biggest bonus for a European free agent to this summer. It’ll be interesting to watch his development, and I’m sure we’ll have a few years to watch.

In minor league news, this is about a week old now, but the Twins have let go of Rochester Red Wings manager Stan Cliburn.

I read Baseball America’s Prospect Blog on a regular basis. And one of the features that I’ve found mostly intriguing has been the weekly transactions log they post. Not so much to find out what prospects are on the move, but to stumble across names I haven’t heard or seen in awhile.

Last week I found out what happened to Lew Ford. This week J.D. Durbin and WIllie Eyre showed up.

The Real Deal Durbin, was drafted in the 2nd round by the Twins in 2000 out of an Arizona High School. He was named the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2002 and given a long look in Spring Training 2004 as a 22 year old. He got a brief look with the Twins in September of ‘04, getting one start and pitching 3 times out of the bullpen, logging a total of 7.1 innings with the Twins. Durbin spent 2005 and 2006 with Triple-A Rochester. He suffered an arm injury in July of ‘06 and missed the rest of the season. At the end of spring training in ‘07, he was placed on waivers. In the span of about 2 weeks, he was claimed by the Arizona Diamonbacks (he made one appearance for the D-Backs, giving up 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning against the Colorado Rockies), Boston Red Sox and finally the Philadelphia Phillies.  Durbin did manage to log 64.2 innings with the Phillies in 2007, before spending 2008 in the Phillies minor league organization and 2009 in the Dodgers system. He has a blog here, that hasn’t been updated since 2005

Willie Mays Hays Eyre was a 23rd round draft selection of the Minnesota Twins in 1999 out of the College of Eastern Utah. He eventually found himself appearing in 42 games out of the bullpen on the roller coaster that was the 2006 Twins team. He was granted free agency after the 2006 season. After signing with the Texas Rangers in 2007, he underwent Tommy John Surgery in August and missed all of 2008. He has pitched for both Triple-A Oklahoma and the Rangers in 2009. He was recalled by the Rangers on September 4, 2009.

Cabin Twelve’s official favorite former Twins player, Randy Bush, is an assistant General Manager with the Chicago Cubs. I had no idea.