The Twins Almanac for April 26: Deflation at the Metrodome, Disco Dan, and Boof!!

[Matt Johnson]

Today's Almanac features a memorable collapse (in more ways than one), as well as notes on "Disco" Danny Ford, Boof Bonser, Steve Lombardozzi, Wayne Terwilliger, and Chaska native Brad Hand. 

Image courtesy of © Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images (photo of Morneau, Redmond), © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

 

On This Date in 1986: Dome Deflates, Twins Collapse
With the Twins beating the Angels 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth on a stormy night in Minneapolis, a tear caused the Metrodome roof to deflate. The L.A. Times described “80-m.p.h. winds tearing holes in the fiberglass dome and whipping through the stadium, sending speakers and light standards swaying on their cables like yo-yos in a wind tunnel... Above the third base line, a geyser of water shot through a drainage hole in the roof, dousing a handful of spectators.”

Remarkably, the roof was re-inflated with the game only being delayed nine minutes. The Twins went on to score once more in the eighth for a 6-1 lead going into the ninth.

Frank Viola gave up a leadoff double to Brian Downing and a two-run homer to George Hendrick before giving way to closer Ron Davis, still up 6-3. Davis gave up a single and two-run homer to the first two men he faced. With one out, he walked pinch-hitter Reggie Jackson, representing the tying run. After striking out Bobby Grich for the second out, Ron Davis gave up a go-ahead two-run homer to Wally Joyner, who had made his major league debut less than three weeks earlier.

Tom Brunansky, Roy Smalley, and Gary Gaetti went down in order in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-6 Twins loss.

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Despite allowing 17 baserunners, the Twins shut out the Royals for 11 innings on this date in 2007. Starting pitcher Boof Bonser and relievers Glen Perkins, Matt Guerrier, and Joe Nathan combined to allow the 17 baserunners through the first 10 innings on just five hits, but TEN walks, a hit-by-pitch, and a reached-on-error. Juan Rincón pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 11th, and earned the win when Mike Redmond drove in Justin Morneau with a walk-off single in the bottom of the inning.

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"Disco" Dan Ford knocked in seven runs in a 9-8 loss in Oakland on this date in 1978. It was the seventh 7+ RBI game in team history. There wasn't another one until Randy Bush tied the team record with an eight-RBI game 11 years later. To date, there have been 19 seven-plus RBI games in team history, most recently by Nelson Cruz in 2020. Brant Alyea and Kirby Puckett are the only players to have two such games.

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Happy 65th birthday to former Twins second baseman Steve Lombardozzi.

He went 7-for-17 (.412) with a home run in the 1987 World Series. 

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Here's a clip of Chaska native Brad Hand striking out Carlos Correa with a filthy slider to save a Cleveland win in Houston on this date in 2019.

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Here's a great photo of Minneapolis Millers second baseman Wayne Terwilliger attempting to turn a double play on this date in 1957.

 

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[Guest]

There were some truly soulless stadiums back in the 80’s. The Metrodome and Seattle Kingdome come to mind.

[Teflon]

I was at the game when the roof tore in 1986. I first noticed that something was flickering in my eye. Looking up, I saw that the lights and the speakers were swaying. I thought, "this isn't good." When a mini-waterfall started falling in right field. I was getting a "Poseidon Adventure" vibe. The game was stopped and Bob Casey then told us to go to the concourses. People didn't leave right away because they wanted to watch what was happening. It took Casey invoking some of his "No Smoking" attitude to get people moving.

I read that the incident was caused by the blowers that were supposed to keep the dome rigid not compensating correctly when the outside wind increased. Some facilities person manually turned them up to high and the roof went back up in a matter of minutes. I know the Twins used to manipulate the blowers for their own benefit from time to time so I was wondering if the auto-compensating function had been turned off for some reason during that game.