Twins Almanac (9/28): Calvin Griffith Said What? Kirby Puckett Hit by Pitch, Breaks Jaw

[Matt Johnson]

Today's Almanac features the Twins clinching the 1987 AL West division championship, an epic collapse in '84, a pitchers' duel in 1993, Dave Winfield's pursuit of a batting title, Kirby Puckett's final regular season plate appearance, heroics from a Blaine High School grad, and Calvin Griffith's notorious appearance at the Waseca Lions Club. 

Image courtesy of Tommy Tomsic (1977 photo of Carew), RVR Photos (photo of Puckett)

Twins owner Calvin Griffith made a notorious appearance at the Waseca Lions Club on this date in 1978. When asked why he moved the team from Washington DC to Minnesota, he stated, "I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here ... We came here because you've got good, hard-working, white people here."

According to a Star Tribune article printed online the next day and archived online, Griffith denigrated many players over the course of a 40-minute diatribe, including Waseca's native son Jerry Terrell. It's really pretty wild to read about if you feel like googling the article. Needless to say, reaction among Twins players was emphatically negative. 

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The Twins had an epic collapse in 1984. They had a five-game lead in the AL West as late as August 25th. They were just a half game back on September 24 before losing their final six games of the season ... it was White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver who beat them on September 25 and Cleveland pitcher Bert Blyleven who beat them in the final game of the season. 

On this date, they were three games back, but jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the top of the third in Cleveland—with the first five runs coming off Hermantown native Jerry Ujdur—but wound up losing 11-10.

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St. Paul native Dave Winfield went 2-for-5 on this date in 1984, raising his average to .342 to overtake teammate Don Mattingly, putting him in position to win the AL Batting Title with only two games left to play. Mattingly wrestled the crown away from Winfield on the final day of the season, however, surpassing him with his fourth hit of the game leading off the bottom of the eighth.  

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The Twins clinched the American League West Championship on this date in 1987. I don't recognize the voice of the play-by-play announcer here. If anyone knows who that is, let us know in the comments below. 

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Quite a pitchers' duel at the Metrodome on this date in 1993, with Twins starter Kevin Tapani and Angels starter Mark Langston both going the distance.

The Twins trailed 1-0 after just the second batter of the game (leadoff single, steal, RBI double), but that's the only run Tapani would surrender.

Langston, meanwhile, was pitching a three-hit shutout going into the bottom of the ninth. After Chuck Knoblauch walked and Jeff Reboulet reached on an error, Kirby Puckett hit a double to left driving in Knoblauch, but Reboulet was thrown out at the plate. Two batters later, Brian Harper knocked in Kirby for the walk-off win.

The Twins walked off the Angels again the next night, this time with Pedro Munoz driving in Puckett in the 10th inning.

They won 4-3 the day after that, completing the four-game sweep, and giving them three-straight one-run wins.

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Kirby Puckett was hit in the face by a Dennis Martinez fastball on this date in 1995, shattering his upper jaw. Frankie Rodriguez plunked Albert Belle with the first pitch the next inning. Apparently Belle considered charging the mound until on-deck hitter Eddie Murray ran up to him and said, “Get to first base; we just hit Kirby Puckett in the face."

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With the Rays down to what could have been their final strike of the season, Minnesota native Dan Johnson came up, pinch-hitting for Sam Fuld, and hit a game-tying homer on this date in 2011! Rays won in 12 to clinch the Wild Card spot.

Johnson was only hitting .108 at the time. Ballsy move by manager Joe Maddon, but Johnson, who didn't have a very splashy MLB career, had a knack for hitting clutch home runs in his time with the Rays. Safe to say the Blaine graduate is a cult hero down in Tampa Bay.

 

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[jmlease1]

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And yet, some people will still claim that Calvin Griffith wasn't "really" racist.

[NYCTK]

Effectively two owners in it's history and both were wicked men. Twins fans deserve so much better. 

[S Bart]

Aaron Gleeman of THE ATHLETIC

“While it would be nice — and some might argue, smart and logical — for ownership to recognize the damage they did and reverse course with a payroll increase to 2023 levels, that’s wishful thinking. Revenues are well short of the team’s internal projections because Target Field attendance is about 300,000 lower than they hoped, the TV situation hasn’t improved and there won’t be any money from playoff games. If the Twins were willing to wreck last season’s goodwill and fan excitement over $30 million, it stands to reason more cuts could be coming.

[CharlieDee]

Intentional or not, I hated Dennis Martinez for drilling Kirby.

[Patrick Slator]

The broadcaster calling the clinching game in 1987 was Harmon Killebrew.

[big dog]

I remember that game in 1984. The team was mostly young guys, trying to figure out how to hold it together. One of my favorite quotes ever from Gary Gaetti, who had a bad game: "It's hard to throw to first with both hands around your throat."

This team has a bunch of guys who could say the same thing about hitting with runners on base, I guess.