The Twins Almanac for August 25

[Matt Johnson]

Today's Twins Almanac is a one-cup-of-coffee read, featuring Dean Chance, "Everyday" Eddie Guardado, and Minnesota native Mark Hamburger.

August 25, 1967: Second No-Hitter in Team History

Dean Chance pitched the second no-hitter in Twins history in the second game of a doubleheader in Cleveland on this date in 1967.

Interestingly, Cleveland led the game 1-0 at the end of the first inning. Chance walked the first two batters of the game before getting a strikeout for the first out. Cleveland’s cleanup hitter then reached on an error to load the bases, and Chance unleashed a wild pitch allowing a run to score without the benefit of a hit. Chance issued five walks altogether in the narrow 2-1 no-hit victory.

The first game of the doubleheader was a tight one, too, with the Twins winning 6-5 in 10 innings. It was actually 4-4 going into the extra inning. After the Twins scored twice in the top of the 10th, Cleveland hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning before the Twins nailed down the win. 

Chance had actually pitched a rain-shortened five-inning perfect game on August 6th of that season. Though Major League Baseball considers a game official after five innings, in 1991 MLB dictated that a pitcher only gets credit for a no-hitter if the game goes the full nine innings. Chance—along with 35 other pitchers—thus had their no-hitters retroactively wiped from the record books. 

Fun fact regarding Dean Chance and no-hitters: As a high schooler in Ohio, he pitched SEVENTEEN of them (I’ve also read 18), including eight in one season. He posted a 52-1 high school record overall. 

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August 25, 2008: Guardado Traded for Hamburger

In the midst of an intensely close pennant race with the White Sox, the Twins traded minor league pitcher Mark Hamburger to Texas for veteran reliever Eddie Guardado on this date in 2008. Hamburger was born in St. Paul in 1987, graduated from Mounds View High School, and attended Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Virginia, Minnesota before signing with the Twins out of an open tryout at the Metrodome in 2007.

He made it to "The Show" in 2011, making five appearances out of the Rangers bullpen. He bounced around in the minors in 2012. In 2013, he was playing independent ball with the St. Paul Saints. That September, the Twins signed him again, and he spent the 2014 and '15 seasons down in the Minnesota farm system. Over the next few seasons, he played in Mexico, Venezuela, Australia, and again with the independent St. Paul Saints. His final season of professional baseball was in 2018 (age 31) with the independent New Britain Bees out in Connecticut. I'm sure some of you have some great Mark Hamburger stories and memories. Please share them in the comments section below. What is he up to today? Does he want to join my 35+ team? 

Eddie Guardado made his major league debut with the Twins in 1993. He pitched for the team until 2003, leading the league with 45 saves in 2002 and representing Minnesota at the 2002 and 2003 All-Star Games. He signed with the Mariners after the ‘03 season and made a stop in Cincinnati before ending up in Texas. It was exciting to have "Everyday" Eddie back in Minnesota for the 2008 pennant stretch, but he only wound up making nine appearances, mostly working the eighth inning. (Of course the Twins wound up losing to the White Sox in a thrilling Game 163.)

Guardado re-signed with the Rangers for the 2009 season—his final season at age 38. Guardado pitched in more games than any other pitcher in Twins history, and it’s not even close, appearing in 648 games for Minnesota. Rick Aguilera is second at 490. Guardado was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2013. He was the Twins bullpen coach from 2015 to 2018.

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[Karbo]

Great article. Keep them coming!

[twinstalker]

tl;dr

1967 was before my time, but it goes down as probably the Twins most disappointing regular season.  They should have won the pennant that year.  1992 might be second after backing up their 1991 title with a fantastic four months (almost) that might have been enough had the powerful A's not been their main competitor.  After those two, I think 2001 and 1977 might be 3 and 4.  2001 was a young team, but they had a big lead and choked with LaTroy Hawkins as an inadequate closer. 

1977 held a lot of hope after a great run to end 1976, but a first week car accident thinned an already thin pitching staff, including starter Mike Pazik.  Still, the Twins with Carew (.388), Bostock (.336), Hisle (.302, 119 RBI), Adams (.844 ops), Goltz (20 wins, 3.36), and Tom Johnson (16 wins, 3.03 in 71 G, all relief) got out early and were (42-31) up one game after the famous 19-12 win vs the Whities and two more vs Mil.  They went 42-46 to finish the season.  And Bostock and Hisle were impending free agents.  Very disappointing.

1984 might have had a disappointing finish, but the division was really bad, the team wasn't nearly ready to win a lot of games, and there was a lot of excitement about Kirby, Herbie, Gaetti, Bruno, Teufel, Viola, Smithson, Butcher, and even an old but exciting Ron Washington.  Detroit was far and away the best team that year, probably followed by 4-5 other teams in the East.  Winning the West was a death sentence.  It wasn't a lot different in 1987, actually.  The 1984 and 2001 teams were both young, but 2001 was really pretty good while 1984 wasn't yet.

The Twins weren't good in 2008 and had lost Johan and Hunter after the previous season.  It was more surprising that they played in a Game 163 than it was disappointing they lost the division. 

2009 was probably the most pleasantly shocking team after they disappointed nearly the whole season but came back from 7 down on Sept 6, only to fall two games under .500 (5.5 GB) on Sept 12 before bouncing back to three games back with four to go.  Twins won their last four, Tigers lost three and won on the final day to create a Game 163.  Twins had gone 16-4 to finish and then took down the Tigers in Game 163.  Not disappointing.