The Twins Almanac: March 2 (Happy Birthday Glen Perkins, Terry Steinbach)

[Matt Johnson]

It's the birthday of four Minnesotan major leaguers, hailing from New Ulm, Stillwater, Faribault, and St. Paul Central high schools. 

Happy Birthday, Terry Steinbach: Happy 63rd birthday 1980 New Ulm High School graduate, Golden Gophers all-time great, and three-time American League All-Star Terry Steinbach.

Here’s a fun story: the Gophers moved hotshot Edina third baseman Greg Olson to catcher to make room for up-and-coming New Ulm third baseman Terry Steinbach. Steinbach was later converted to catcher in the Oakland A’s organization to make room for third baseman Mark McGwire. McGwire, of course, ultimately wound up at first base while Olson and Steinbach each developed into All-Star major-league catchers.

Steinbach made his major-league debut as a 24-year-old September call-up in 1986 and homered off future Twins teammate Greg Swindell in his very first at-bat. He wasn't the first Minnesota-raised catcher to homer in his major league debut—1976 Park Center graduate Tim Laudner had done it in August 1981.

After being maligned by the press as an unworthy starter in 1988, Steinbach homered in his first All-Star at-bat en route to being named the game's MVP. He also drove in the AL's only other run in the 2-1 win with a sac fly. The AL only carried two catchers in the game, with the other being fellow Minnesota high school graduate Tim Laudner. 

Steinbach played in three-straight World Series with the A's, winning a ring in 1989. 

In 1996, he hit 35 home runs, which still stands as the A's single-season record for a catcher. That offseason he signed with Minnesota, where he played his final three seasons at a hometown-discounted rate. In his final few weeks in major league baseball, he caught a no-hitter by Eric Milton. (He had previously caught Dave Stewart's no-hitter while playing for Oakland in 1990.) The final at-bat of his 14-year major league career was an RBI double driving in Matt Lawton.

Fun Fact: The Oakland A's scout responsible for drafting and signing Terry was none other than 1970 AL Cy Young Award winner Jim Perry. (On a related note, Camilo Pascual was the scout who signed Jose Canseco for Oakland). There were actually three Steinbach's selected in the 1983 draft: Terry, his big brother Tom (also a Golden Gopher), and believe it or not, another Tom Steinbach from New York. Terry and his brother Tom were both assigned to the Northwest League that season and their teams actually faced each other in the league championship game, with Terry hitting a 16th-inning RBI single for a 1-0 Medford win over Bellingham. How storybook is that?! 

If anybody has any fun facts or interesting stories about Terry's townball career, please share them in the comments section at the bottom of the page. 

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Happy Birthday, Glen Perkins: Happy 42nd birthday to 2001 Stillwater Area High School graduate, Golden Gophers all-time great, and former Twins closer Glen Perkins.

He played 12 seasons with the Twins, peaking with three-straight All-Star seasons from 2013 to 2015 (age 30 to 33) when he averaged 34 saves per season. Unfortunately, a torn labrum limited him to just 10 appearances over the next two seasons and he retired in January 2018. His 120 saves rank third in Twins history behind Joe Nathan and Rick Aguilera, and four saves ahead of Eddie Guardado.

In two season at the University of Minnesota, he struck out 230 batters in 216 1/3 innings. His 117 strikeouts in 2003 and 113 in 2004 are still the top two totals in Golden Gophers history. Dave Winfield is fifth on the list with 109 strikeouts in just 82 innings in 1973. (Perkins averaged 108 1/3 innings in his two seasons.) Perk was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year in 2004.

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Happy Birthday, Mike Johnson: Happy 74th birthday to 1969 Faribault High School graduate and former San Diego Padres pitcher Mike Johnson. He was signed by Cincinnati Reds scout Bill Clark out of his annual tryout camp at Bell Field in Faribault.

After six seasons in the minors, he made his major league debut in a pretty pressure-packed situation in July 1974, entering with the bases loaded (Hank Aaron on second base) and two out in the bottom of the ninth of a scoreless game and induced an inning-ending groundout from Atlanta first baseman Davey Johnson. 

He walked Darrell Evans leading off the bottom of the tenth, and Dusty Baker bunted Evans up to second. He then intentionally walked Mike Lum to set up a potential inning-ending double play. It was not to be, however, as Rowland Office came through with a walk-off single, saddling Johnson with the loss in his MLB debut. After pitching a 1-2-3 top of the tenth, Tom House—throwing guru to the stars, including Nolan Ryan and Tom Brady—earned the win for Atlanta. 

In total, Johnson made 18 relief appearances with the Padres in 1974—his final season of professional baseball. (Worth noting fellow Minnesotan Dave Winfield was in his second season in San Diego.) Johnson returned to Faribault where he pitched for the Lakers townball team.

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Birthdate of Mickey Rocco: Former major-league first baseman Mickey Rocco was born in St. Paul on this date in 1916. In addition to baseball, Rocco also played basketball and was a violinist in the St. Paul Central school orchestra according to biographer Gregg Omoth.

After spending time in the Pirates, Braves, White Sox, Dodgers, and Tigers farm systems, Rocco made his major league debut with Cleveland in June 1943 at age 27. He went 2-for-4 with a triple, double, RBI, and run scored in his MLB debut (a 6-5 loss in Philadelphia). He started 107 of Cleveland's remaining 114 games that season.

The following season, he led the American League and tied for the MLB lead with 653 at-bats. If you ask me, being able to say you got more at-bats than anybody else in the American League is pretty frickin' cool. 

In total, Rocco played 440 games over four seasons with Cleveland, with his final major league game coming in June 1946 at age 30. He stuck it out in the minors through 1952.

He remained active in baseball, coaching various Twin Cities teams throughout the 1950s and '60s. According to biographer Gregg Omoth, "a Rosetown team he coached won the Minnesota Legion championship in 1965."

Rocco passed away in 1997 at age 81.

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[theBOMisthebomb]

Oh wow, I played for Rosetown in the late 1980s and didn't hear anything about Mickey Rocco. The dad of one of my teammates played for Rosetown and they told me once that the dad's team won the state Legion title. I wonder if my teammate's dad played for Mickey Rocco's team? The timeline matches. I have some research and digging to do.