Parker Hageman

On this week's NO JUICE PODCAST, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman discuss the playoffs, bat flips (#PimpEverything) and the beginning of the offseason for the Minnesota Twins. LISTEN UP.The guys talk about the 2015 MLB playoffs, including Jose Bautista’s internet-breaking bat flip. They discuss the forthcoming Twins Daily interview with Terry Ryan for the Offseason Handbook and rehash a five-year-old interview with Twins assistant GM Rob Antony. And they answer the all-important question of where and when you should BYOB. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #72: PLAYOFFS, BAT FLIPS AND THE OFFSEASON Click here to view the article

The nickname “Wrench” -- short for “Mr Goodwrench” -- came from Kent Hrbek. Hrbek said that Dan Gladden looked like he finished performing an oil change on a car. “He reminds you of a guy who took four auto-shop classes in high school,” Hrbek explained to Sports Illustrated’s Austin Murphy. ''Dan could strike out four times and somehow get dirty. The guy is a piece of work.'' “Wrench” was the perfect description for how Gladden played the game. With his speed, grit and hustle, it sometimes felt like he was hitting you with one.Gladden had a dour demeanor that rubbed some people the wrong way. While with the Giants, he had exchanged blows with teammate Jeffrey Leonard during an on-field batting practice. The scuffle stemmed from Gladden’s tendency to take long batting practice sessions, fouling off balls and taking extra cuts. This practice irked Leonard and one day Leonard let Gladden know it. Gladden, not one to back down from a fight, jumped Leonard. According to Hank Greenwald, the Giants play-by-play announcer who witnessed the melee from the booth, the two went at it next to the batting cage and ended up rolling in the dirt before being separated by other teammates. Brunansky, who faced Gladden in the minors, said that he “hated” the way Gladden played the game back then. “He seemed arrogant,” the Twins right fielder said. “He didn't seem to care how he went about it.” In spite of the reputation, the Twins front office felt that the team needed some of that hard scrabble attitude. Unsatisfied with the performance of veteran Mickey Hatcher, McPhail looked elsewhere for help and targeted Gladden, but the transaction took forever to complete. "Every time I talked to (Giants general manager) Al Rosen, he asked for either Jeff Bumgarner or Steve Gasser,” McPhail told the Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman. “I wasn’t going to give either one up.” “We talked about the deal at least once every week until we made it. Atlanta and the Dodgers were very interested in Gladden. The Giants had made a deal with the Reds for Eddie Milner, and they had an abundance of outfielders. Rosen was reluctant to trade him to a team in the National League. He didn’t want Gladden to come back and hurt him.” McPhail said that the trade discussions started early in the offseason during the winter meetings, but the back and forth prolonged the deal until well into spring training. “Rosen finally called one day late in March and said he was going to deal Gladden that day. He said he was willing to make the trade for three of our young pitching prospects. He gave me a list of five, I took two out, and we made the trade.” With Gladden acquired, the Twins cut Hatcher on March 31. It was a shock to the fan base. Hatcher, who had played with the Twins for the last six years with a .284 average but inconsistent playing time, saw the writing on the wall as spring training played out and manager Tom Kelly used him less frequently in the exhibition games. “After two weeks of being here I knew it was over for me,” Hatcher told reporters. “When you’re only playing once every four days, you get the idea. It was obvious they wanted to look at the younger players.” McPhail said he wanted speed. Gladden, who had nabbed 94 bases in 138 attempts with the Giants and was capable of playing center field, would provide that dimension. Additionally, he was tabbed to assume the leadoff hitter role in place of Puckett, who had a breakout power year in 1986, allowing him to hit in the middle of the order where he was better suited and where Tom Kelly wanted him to bat. (Once he assumed the interim manager title the previous September, Kelly shifted Puckett out of the leadoff and into the third spot.) Kelly, however, wasn’t sure what to do with Gladden initially. In the season’s first game Gladden led off but was the designated hitter. It wasn’t until five games later that he got his first start in the outfield, only it was in right field. Kelly preferred Randy Bush and Mark Davidson while spot starting Gladden on occasion. It was not until mid-May that Gladden solidified his role as the team’s starting left fielder and leadoff hitter. Almost immediately, Twins players took notice of Gladden’s attitude. “We didn’t know much about him but we found out soon,” said left-handed reliever Dan Schatzeder. “In one of the first games he played for us, he got into a jawing match with an umpire. He was asserting himself right away. We thought, ‘This guy’s going to be interesting.’” Interesting is right. It would be another eight months before his infamous fight with Lombardozzi, but Gladden was about to provide a very memorable punch against the Cardinals. **** In his second at-bat of Game 1, Gladden grounded into a fielder’s choice, erasing Tim Laudner at second. The at-bat was a microcosm of who Gladden was as a leadoff hitter. Magrane struggled with his command, walking three of the last four hitters he faced. Common baseball sense would be to exert patience and make the rookie pitcher sweat through his polyester. However, rather than making Magrane squirm, Gladden took a cut at the the first pitch -- a big curve, no less -- and bounced the ball harmlessly to Lawless at third who fired to Herr at second to retire Laudner. That was the frustrating part of Gladden as a leadoff hitter. Of course, even though Gladden ignored standard practice like making a pitcher throw a glutton of pitches, on the bases he was able to set up camp right in the pitcher's mind. In spite of eliminating the lead runner, Gladden, now at first base, became all-consuming to the Cardinals’ rookie lefty who struggle to hold runners. Magrane paid extra attention (and then some) to the irritating long-haired runner who had taken 25 bases on 34 attempts during the regular season. What's more, Gladden was 18 for 21 in attempts in the Metrodome that year. And Magrane was terrible when it came to slowing down the run game -- runners had swiped 18 bases on 21 tries. His big body and lack of a slide step gave runners ample time to trot to the next base. Gladden, with one foot on the turf and one foot in the dirt cut-out, was an itch that Magrane needed to scratch constantly. Before even throwing a pitch to Gagne, he thew over to first nine consecutive times. Afterwards, Magrane admitted the obvious that he had obsessed over Gladden. “I messed around with him too much,” Magrane said. “I felt if he was going to go, it was going to be on the first pitch. I should have gone after the hitter a lot more. But I just messed around with him too much.” A batter later, Gladden eventually did swipe that base but was stranded there when Puckett grounded out to second. It would be in his next at bat, with the bases loaded and Magrane out of the game, that Gladden would break the game wide open. Gladden was rejuvenated during the Detroit series after the second half of the year saw his production drop off a cliff. After hitting .283/.337/.405 in the first half, he went .195/.273/.290 the rest of the way after the break. In the ALCS Gladden went 7-for-20 (.350), scored five and drove in another five. He did miss out on the opportunity to add to his RBI total when he failed to convert during a bases loaded appearance in Game 4: With the bags filled and two outs in the second inning, the Tigers’ Frank Tanana threw Gladden three straight breaking balls and ended the threat without the ball being put into play. In the bottom of the fourth inning of Game 1 of the World Series, with Hrbek, Lombardozzi and Laudner occupying the bases, Gladden was given a second chance to do some damage. With his golden hair escaping out of the back of his navy helmet by several inches, Gladden assumed his standard closed stance at the plate -- his front foot almost touching the plate-side batter’s box chalk and his back foot splayed out behind him -- and teased his bat several times in Cardinals' reliever Bob Forsch’s direction. Forsch started Gladden off with a fastball up and away for ball one. On the 1-0 count, the pent-up party atmosphere of the Dome’s left field bleachers released a beach ball onto the field, causing a break in the action while Willie McGee grabbed and tossed the ball over the plastic wall in center. “What’s a ballgame without a beach ball these days,” Michaels inquired to the audience during the brief delay. Dome announcer Bob Casey took that moment to remind the crowd not to throw things on the playing field. After the brief delay, Forsch tried to hit the outside corner again with a fastball but it drifted back over the plate. Gladden was behind and fouled into the first base stands. Forsch then went to the breaking ball on the outer half that Gladden spun down the first base line. Similar to the Detroit series, Gladden now had the bases loaded with two strikes. Then Forsch made a critical mistake. He went back to the curveball. Maybe it wasn’t so much that Forsch went back to the curveball but that he didn’t bury the breaking ball as much as he should have. Forsch’s curve was a looper that started at the belt and broke to the knees. Gladden was out over his front leg when he greeted the pitch and lifted it towards left field. Off the bat, it looked like a chip shot. But it carried. http://i.imgur.com/HRGSXL8.gif “High in the air to deep left field,” Michaels bellowed as Gladden’s shot drifted toward the plexiglass-guarded fans. “Coleman goes back...a grand slam!” The 55,171 people in attendance fell into hysteria. Reports later said that the decibel level reached 118. At that level, it was similar to sitting next to an ambulance siren or a jackhammer, a level of exposure that is only recommended for less than 30 seconds. The Metrodome crowd roared like that for several minutes. The first grand slam in a World Series game since 1970 put the Twins squarely ahead 7 to 1. Gladden later joked to the media that he should have put his “flap” down, the act of keeping one arm motionless while rounding the bases. “I was pretty excited running around the bases” said Gladden, a former Giant. 'I thought about putting my flap down like Jeffrey Leonard, but I thought twice about it.” Had Gladden opted for the flap-down look, it would have been a solid troll move to start the opening game of the series. The St. Louis Cardinals had seen plenty of Leonard’s “one flap down” routine during a contentious National League Championship Series. “I don’t like Jeffrey Leonard,” said Cardinals pitcher John Tudor. “It’s no secret to him or anyone else.” That feeling was shared by most of Tudor’s teammates. In Game 3, Bob Forsch dotted him with a pitch that Leonard felt was intentional. In Game 4, Leonard had already launched a home run deep to left field when later he tried to score from first on a misplayed fly ball. The relay reached home plate and the waiting Cardinals’ catcher Tony Pena in plenty of time. Rather than sliding, Leonard came in high and Pena took the opportunity to place a “tag” right in Leonard’s mug. The Twins were now firmly in the driver’s seat and the stadium was rocking off its hinges. Greg Gagne, who followed Gladden at the plate, said afterwards that the volume of the crowd was unbelievable. “After Gladden hit that grand slam, I was in the batter's box and my ears were ringing. I asked Tony (Pena) if his ears were ringing and he couldn’t even hear me.” **** As bedlam overtook in the Dome, the action outside throughout the Twin Cities was just as Twins-centric. With tickets difficult to obtain, fans waited around the Metrodome ticket offices for over an hour after the start of the game in hopes of landing an unclaimed ticket. At the Orpheum Theater, singer-songwriter Warren Zevon performed in front of 1,500 fans and provided them with continuous updates of the score for Game 1. Zevon worked Kirby Puckett’s name into one of his songs and disparaged the Cardinals in another. For an encore, he returned to the stage with a Twins jersey. Back on the mound Frank Viola remained a magician. Viola was unsolvable for the majority of the game. Having a 10-1 lead didn’t hurt either. Outside of the Puckett misplay that led to the Cardinals’ only run, he was virtually flawless. Prior to being pulled after eight innings, he retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced and did not allow a baserunner past first from the fourth inning on. Interestingly enough, if things had gone differently and the Twins were inclined to shop Viola during the lean years, he may have been in the other dugout. “I’ve always like Viola,” Whitey Herzog told the Star Tribune’s Steve Aschburner. “We’ve tried to get him for years. He’s a premier pitcher. He knows how to pitch, he changes speeds real well. He pitched an outstanding ball game.” Gladden added an RBI double in the seventh inning, cementing his spot as the game’s most valuable offensive player. His five RBI in one game topped the five he drove in through the entire ALCS series. He had gone from a roster afterthought to a celebrity in the span of two and a half hours. The crowd was delirious leaving the ballpark. Outside the Metrodome, each local TV newscast positioned a reporter on the scene and each reporter was inundated with fans chanting “we’re number one” or the Twins fight song. No doubt that the lopsided results of Game 1 had people thinking that this series would be over after the next three games. With the area’s population all clamoring to participate in the largest screamfest the state had ever seen, Kent Hrbek offered up words that every Twins fan unable to join the party thought. “I wished they had built a bigger stadium.” **** Previous installments... Tame The Tigers Dealt The Cards Click here to view the article

If you believe Al Michaels' account, some of that noise was artificially created. You might have a class action lawsuit on your hands. Then again, Dave St. Peter has denied that happening.

“I’ve been reading about some people who have said that it’s a disgrace to have us representing the American League,” Gary Gaetti told reporters not long before the start of the 1987 World Series. “The way I figure it, we might as well go ahead and disgrace the whole game by winning it.” Yes, while the Twins were heavy underdogs facing the powerful and experienced Tigers in the previous round, sentiments shifted as the battered and bruised Cardinals landed in town. For as much as they wanted to continue to play the role of the dark horse, suddenly people believed in the Twins’ chances. On display in the ALCS was power, pitching and solid decision-making by the rookie manager. More national media types were throwing their weight behind the team that had torn the stuffing out of Detroit in five games. “Now that the Twins have become America’s team, I’ll say Minnesota in six games,” ESPN’s Chris Berman predicted. “Twins in six,” speculated the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gerry Fraley. “Their pitching staff is in order. They have the first two games at home. They’re relatively healthy. The series is set up perfectly for them.” Tim Kurkjian, who had written that the Tigers would trounce the Twins in the American League Championship Series, now saw them as the superior team. He still threw shade by saying “the Twins will win in seven because the Cardinals are so banged up and because of the Metrodome factor.” While the Twins shifted to favorites, no one was counting St. Louis out. Were the Cardinals injured? Yup. Were they offensively depleted? Of course. But they had speed and speed never slumps. They were battle-tested with recent World Series experience. And they had Whitey Herzog at the helm. Herzog had guided his team to the best record in the National League and pulled them through a bloodbath of a playoff series against the San Francisco Giants. At 95-67, the Cardinals had finished with the National League’s best record. Yet, in many ways, they had lost the magic from the first half of the season. At the All Star Break St. Louis led all of baseball with 56 wins. Despite pitching well and playing good defense throughout the year, it was the offense that was ablaze in the season’s first half, scoring an MLB-best 486 runs. Even though speedsters like Vince Coleman, Ozzie Smith and Tommy Herr were getting on and getting over, the vast majority of the lumber was supplied by first baseman Jack Clark, who was hitting .311/.459/.645 with an MLB leading 86 RBI at that point. His loss would be monumental to the Cardinals' lineup. On September 9, while playing at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, his season all but ended. In the top of the sixth, Clark hit a harmless grounder off of Dennis Martinez that third baseman Tim Wallach fielded cleanly only to make a wide throw to Andres Galarraga at first. In an attempt to avoid Galarraga’s tag, Clark rolled his ankle. Herzog would later say that he knew that Clark’s season was finished right then and there. Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch wrote in his biography that the injury was one of the “ugliest” he had ever seen, describing Clark’s foot grossly swollen and the color of an eggplant. ''Without Jack Clark in the lineup we’re missing a big weapon,'' Jim Lindeman, Clark’s replacement, told reporters. “When he walks up to the plate, he's the only guy who gets the crowd buzzing and the other team fidgeting. He's the only guy who intimidates people with his bat.'' Indeed. After Clark's bat in the lineup, there was a prolific drop-off in power for St. Louis. And to make matters worse, the next closest power contributor had also just injured himself. Terry Pendleton, who had the most home runs on the team behind Clark, pulled a muscle in his rib cage during the final game of the National League Championship Series and was not expected to participate much in the World Series. “Right now it is doubtful that he will play at all,” Herzog said addressing the media before the series. Clark and Pendleton’s absence was no doubt felt throughout the Cardinal lineup. Rather than having Clark, a hitter with a 1.055 OPS that season, Herzog was forced to choose from the rookie Lindeman, who possessed a .632 OPS over his last two seasons, or the 35-year-old Dan Driessen, who had spent most of the year in AAA and posted a .625 OPS in 24 games with the Cardinals. In place of Pendleton, who had posted a respectable .772 OPS that year, it was the 30-year-old Tom Lawless, owner of a career .549 OPS. “Two hundred RBIs,” Herzog answered when asked if they team would miss Clark and Pendleton in the heart of the order. “I’d say that is a hole.” Clark led the team with 35 home runs during the regular season. After that, Pendleton’s 12 was a distant second followed by center fielder Willie McGee’s 11. McGee, a light-hitting speedster, sadly represented St. Louis’ biggest long-ball threat. In fact, no other Cardinals starter managed more than five that year. Prior the series, the Star Tribune’s Doug Grow marveled at the juxtaposition of the two teams. “The Twins dig in at the plate and grunt as they play long-ball. Watch ‘em in batting practice. They love that time in the cage. They stand there and laugh and measure how far they hit it,” Grow observed. “When the St. Louis Cardinals step into the batting cage, the walls are safe from baseballs. Batting is something the Cardinals do only so they can get a chance to run.” With so few options Herzog decided to use the right-handed part-time player in Lindeman -- who had nine career home runs to his name -- as his cleanup hitter against left-handed pitching in the postseason. In Game 3 of the NLCS, Lindeman responded by hitting a 1-1 fastball from San Francisco’s Atlee Hammaker over the left-center field fence for a two-run shot (one of two home runs the Cardinals hit that entire seven game series). It was his first cleanup duty since April of that year. "I think the last time I batted cleanup I probably went oh for four and broke three bats," he told reporters after the game. With another left-hander on the mound from Minnesota in Game 1 and the switch-hitting Pendleton unable to swing from the right-side, Herzog went forward with a lineup card that included Lindeman in the middle of the order, another rookie at DH (Tom Pagnozzi and his .583 OPS) and Lawless, who had a .080 batting average in the regular season, at third. They would meet the man affectionately known in Minnesota as Sweet Music. *** On the night of October 17, 1987, 27-year-old Frank Viola was at work and not at his brother’s wedding in New York where he was supposed to be the best man, like he had committed to a year prior. In 1986 the Twins were well out of postseason contention and the left-handed starter figured that if 1987 were anything like the previous year, he would have his October wide open to participate in his brother’s nuptials. After all, how could a team that won just 71 games make up that much ground? “I thought it would be a little far-fetched. I told ‘em, yeah, I shouldn’t have any problem making it. That was last year, when we were 20 games under .500. It’s unbelieveable,” said Viola. Viola was heavily responsible for the Twins making this postseason run. He had finished the year 17-10 with a solid 2.90 ERA (a career-best 159 ERA+). It was a coming out party of sorts. Viola went from a very good pitcher in 1986 to a great one in 1987. When people asked how he was able to shave an entire run off his ERA over the previous year, he attributed it to his changeup. Viola’s development of the changeup was the difference maker from the good pitcher that arrived with the Twins in the early 1980s into the great one towards the end of that decade. In 1983, Viola was a lefty who used a solid fastball and a slider-curveball combination to retire hitters (or not retire them when you consider his 128 earned runs that season was the most in baseball). That same year, Twins pitching coach Johnny Podres taught Viola how to throw a changeup, keeping his arm action consistent with his fastball delivery. When Podres left and Dick Such took over pitching coach duties, Viola’s changeup became a significant weapon. “I had been working on it for 3 ½ years under Podres but was using 15 or 20 grips. None of them worked. When Such joined us, he made a few adjustments and all of a sudden I found myself comfortable throwing a changeup,” Viola said in spring training before the 1986 season. By 1986, he had mastered command of the pitch and scrapped his slider in favor of the off-speed pitch. "The changeup I use now is the one I felt most comfortable with, but it took me two years to throw it over the plate," Viola told the LA Times in August 1987. Because the Twins were pushed out of the pennant race early in 1986, Viola said he was able to experiment with the pitch until he got it right. It was working swimmingly -- after striking out 5.3 hitters per nine innings over his first four seasons, he was now whiffing 7 per nine, a massive jump. Most notably, the changeup also gave Viola an advantage over right-handed hitters he did not have before. From 1982 through 1985, Viola struck out 13 percent of right-handed hitters but saw that rate jump to 19 percent in 1986 through 1987. That's one reason why that, on October 17, 1987, Frank Viola was standing on the mound at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and not at his brother's wedding ceremony. The game started off with a failed bunt attempted by Cardinals' leadoff hitter Vince Coleman on Viola’s first-pitch curve. That brought shortstop Ozzie Smith to the plate. Smith took his stance in the right-handed batters’ box. With the exception of Bill Buckner, no hitter was more difficult to strike out than the Wizard of Oz. From 1982 through 1987, Smith had struck out in just 4.9% of his total plate appearances. If there was one thing Ozzie was going to do, it was put the ball in play. In his first appearance against Viola in his career, the left-hander shot a low-90s fastball on the inner-half of the plate at Smith's knees for strike one and then missed wide on a big curve that skipped in the dirt to even the count. Viola now turned to that off-speed weapon that the National League was not accustomed to. The first changeup he threw split the plate in half while falling rapidly, leaving Smith waving over the top of it. Viola followed that one with a near clone of it that Smith once again swung over for strike three. Up to that point in his career, Ozzie Smith had 55 World Series plate appearances under his belt without a strikeout. If their first match-up was any indication, Frank Viola was showing the Cardinals hitters and viewers across America that something special was afoot. **** When you consider the personnel loss the Cardinals had, it was a near miracle that they were able to overtake the Giants in the NLCS. ABC’s Al Michaels’ suggested that Herzog reached baseball’s pinnacle series by virtue of “paste and glue and tacks and the rest of it”. They were missing Clark. Pendleton had a strained rib cage that kept him from being able to hit right-handed. Everything about the lineup felt patchwork. Following his tendon tear Clark attempted to do everything possible to make it back for the postseason to face his former team. He made a pair of pinch-hitting appearances in the regular season and was kept on the roster for the NLCS despite the inability to put much weight on his right leg. Prior to games, he and some of the coaching staff took private on-field batting practice, away from the attention of his teammates and onlookers. It did not go well. He lunged and lurched at balls and produce off-balanced swings with mediocre contact. "It's going to take a while longer," he said in response to an inquiry about his injury status, "and I don't know how much longer it will be. This is more than just a little twisted ankle. There isn't any medicine I can take. If there were shots or pills that would help, I'd have had them by now.” Herzog used Clark once in the seven game series against San Francisco -- a pinch-hit appearance in Game 3 -- where Clark struck out looking with runners on first and second. Before the start of the World Series, the Cardinals ran Clark through a simulated game. Clark went down looking in his at-bats, barely able to transfer his weight off his front leg. That was enough for Herzog to decide not to keep him on the roster for the series, instead opting to carry reliever Lee Tunnell. Surprisingly, it was Clark’s replacement who got the Cardinals on the board first. Leading off the second inning, Viola ran a fastball off the inside edge of the plate, inciting the right-handed Lindeman to flinch. Naturally, the next offering after going hard in was to throw something soft away. Viola spotted a changeup just off the outside corner but left it too far up and Lindeman, now swinging off his front foot, was able to lift toward center field. Puckett, who enjoyed playing a deep center in order to defend the wall and takeaway would-be home runs, initially froze. Perhaps Puckett misjudged the contact, or lost the ball momentarily in the sea of white Homer Hankies; either way, by the time he made his furious break back toward the infield and the landing spot, the ball hit the artificial turf and Lindeman gained second. Following a Willie McGee fly out to right center that moved him up a base, Lindeman later scored on an RBI groundout by Tony Pena, putting the Cardinals up 1-0. As it turns out, the run proved to be as harmless as a minnow bite. Although Magrane had kept the potent Twins hitless through the first three innings, his habit of falling behind hitters and issuing free passes eventually catch up to him. The Twins offense also used their first plate appearances to calibrate themselves against the young pitcher. After their first looks, they were ready to pounce. Magrane had relied mainly on his sinking fastball -- one that didn’t find the zone consistently. In the bottom of the fourth, he started Gaetti with a fastball inside which the reigning ALCS MVP rapped on the ground down the third baseline. Lawless, playing deep for the power hitter, laid out to snare the ball well behind the bag and came up firing. In a bang-bang play, Gaetti beat it by a step -- the Twins’ first hit of the 1987 World Series was an infield hit. After Gaetti’s single, veteran DH Don Baylor did the same. Ditto for Tom Brunansky. *** Brunansky didn’t know it at the time but he was showcasing his talents his future employer. It was no secret that the Cardinals lacked power. When Clark left as a free agent after the 1987 season, St. Louis was left with a pile of toothpicks for bats. Internally, they hoped that Lindeman would progress in the power department but they looked for more of a proven presence, adding beefy Bob Horner to the mix, much to manager Whitey Herzog’s chagrin. The 30-year-old Horner had averaged 24 home runs in his ten seasons in Atlanta but had spent 1987 in Japan playing for the Yakult Swallows where he smacked another 31 home runs. In his exit interview, Horner took parting shots at the Japanese version of the game, calling out the pitchers for not throwing him strikes, chastising the fans for their choice of whistles and noisemakers, and saying the umpires’ strike zones were prejudice against foreigners. His words nearly incited an international incident. While he never was asked about Horner’s remarks, the Redbirds’ manager wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of adding him based on his pool of play. “I don’t like Horner,” Herzog told reporters where rumors surfaced that Cardinals’ GM Dal Maxvill was targeting the large first baseman. “Of his lifetime homers, about seventy percent were hit in Atlanta. He never could hit in St. Louis. He can’t hit, and he can’t field.” It was true that the bulk of Horner’s home runs had come in Fulton County Stadium -- 174 of his 218 homers came in Atlanta. Herzog’s words, however, eventually reached Horner who had signed with St. Louis on a one-year, $960,000 deal, significantly lower than the $10 million multi-year deal that Yukult offered him to stay. “Obviously it’s not something you want to read,” Horner said. “But even though Whitey had criticized me in making those statements, I would still enjoy the challenge of proving him wrong.” With a need for more power, the Cardinals turned to the Twins. On April 22, 1988, the two sides agreed to swap the outfielder Brunansky for St. Louis’ switch-hitting second baseman, Tommy Herr. According to Sid Hartman, who had learned of the trade on the radio while driving his close, personal friend Bobby Knight to his hotel in Bloomington, he immediately called McPhail at home in the middle of the night to ask “what the hell is going on?” The Twins GM told the Star Tribune columnist that they were convinced Brunansky couldn’t throw the ball from right field any more and was turning into a defensive liability. What’s more, Brunansky was hitting .184 with just a lone home run through the season’s first 14 games. And, more importantly, the Twins were 4 and 9 and looking for a spark. Herr reportedly cried when he heard the news. His desire to play for the Twins was questioned by fans, the media and teammates when he was continually sidelined with injuries. In his autobiography, Kent Hrbek called Herr the only teammate he ever played with that he really didn’t like. Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Brunansky brought with him some of the Twins’ loosy-goosy clubhouse attitude that involved various pranks which endeared him to his coworkers -- possibly with the exception of pitcher Joe Magrane. Later that summer, with the help of Ozzie Smith, the outfielder orchestrated a prank on the pitcher. Magrane, who had a reputation as being a pretty-boy clotheshorse, was sent a telegram from GQ magazine requesting a photoshoot. Smith had been profiled in the April issue so it seemed somewhat plausible that the magazine was interested in more St. Louis subjects -- this time to display winter fashion. On a day in which the heat reached 105 degrees, a photographer and Magrane, along with five winter suits, took to the Busch Stadium field and began a photoshoot that lasted over an hour in the oppressive Missouri summer heat. In his book, Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch described Magrane as “sweating like a stuffed pig” as he ran from the field to the clubhouse for an attire change. Several days later, Magrane received another telegram that said “because of your subpar season, we’ve decided not to use your session in GQ.” A day later, a follow up telegram arrived. It read: “Roses are red, violets are blue. You’ve been had. There’s no GQ.” *** While wearing winter knits in 105 degree heat sounds uncomfortable, it probably was nothing for Magrane compared to the pressure on the mound at the Metrodome with the bases now at maximum capacity (in the form of Gaetti, Baylor and his future teammate Brunansky) and Kent Hrbek coming to the plate looking for a meal. People worried about Hrbek. After all, he went 1-for-20 in the ALCS against Detroit. Fans expressed frustration with their team's best run producer's inability to produce. Was the pressure to carry his hometown team -- his childhood rooting interest -- to their first World Series victory be too much? Throughout the regular season, Hrbek did little against left-handed pitching. While he finished with 34 home runs, all but six came against right-handed pitchers and he posted a .225/.290/.370 line against southpaws in 155 plate appearances. So it was no surprise that the first baseman was batting seventh in the game against Magrane. Magrane had been tough on left-handed opponents, limiting them to a .226 average and just one home run. Given that Magrane held the platoon advantage, it shouldn’t come as surprise that Hrbek’s contact on the 0-1 pitch wasn’t solid. The ball hit the ground inches in front of home then again just beyond second base -- a classic Dome ball that found its way between Smith, arguably the best defensive shortstop in the game, and Herr at second to score Gaetti and Baylor, putting the Twins ahead 2-1. “I just looked at it on the TV, and it was a high fastball away,” Hrbek told the Star Tribune. “I was just trying to hit it to the outfield and go to the left field to get the run in. It’s the old Randy Bush theory. You try to swing as hard as you can in case you hit it.” When Steve Lombardozzi walked, the fifth consecutive Twins hitter to reach base, Whitey Herzog emerged to tell Magrane his night was over. Magrane exited to a chorus of “Happy Trails” by Twins fans. Herzog called on the veteran Bob Forsch, in hope of coaxing a double-play grounder out of catcher Tim Laudner. Forsch did get the grounder but the right-handed hitting Lauds was able to will it through the left-side of the infield between Herr and Lindeman, scoring Brunansky from third and loading the bases once again. That’s when outfielder Dan Gladden came to the plate. ****Come back to TwinsDaily.com tomorrow for more of the "1987 Revisited" series**** View full article

So it must have been that Herndon's legs were so bad at that time that Sparky would remove him for Morris while saving his bench bats.

I haven't found anything that directly says Herndon was pulled because of injury but in January 1988, an article insinuated that Herndon was a "sore-legged" DH and "it remains to be seen if he can run well enough" to occasionally play OF. So he must have been in bad shape if he was not running well enough to be lifted for a pitcher and nobody addresses that fact in their gamer.

Since no one knows/responding... It's Jack Morris. It finally occurred to me what happened: Detroit had used pinch hitter Larry Herndon for the DH Dave Bergman. By taking out Herndon, the Tigers would lose their DH for the remainder of the game. I suppose Sparky did not want to lose another potential bench player in the event the game went into extra innings.

It was a lot closer than that. http://i.imgur.com/iOP0Rkw.gif

I have been searching the archives for why he was asked to pinch hit. No quotes from Spark on that one. Interesting choice.

The play right before that -- prior to bringing Berenguer into the game -- Steve Lombardozzi tried to catch Pat Sheridan napping on second with the hidden ball trick while Keith Atherton wandered around the mound. Sheridan didn't bite. After the pitching change, the Twins (Gaetti/Laudner) tried a different tactic. Very smart to alert Brinkman to that play.

While I understand your overall point (pitchers need more than just velocity to succeed), the connection between an "ace" (which is another conversation altogether) and velocity is much stronger than you think. The real claim should have been the myth of the below-average velocity "ace" as they are harder to find than the hard-throwing ones. http://i.imgur.com/KT51g2N.png

Yup, the Twins' wives brought whistles to Detroit too. They encountered some flak from the fans that required some security intervention.

“What an unlikely bunch of champions we’re looking at here.” Those were the words NBC’s Bob Costas offered overlooking the on-field scrum of Minnesota Twins players as they pushed from the initial contact point near first base and moved as a horde toward second base across the historic Tiger Stadium infield. Costas’ assessment couldn’t have been more accurate. Most experts believed the Twins would be vastly outgunned by baseball’s winningest team in Detroit. The Tigers had the ability to score runs, they had the starting rotation depth, and they had the experience, having just won the World Series in 1984. Most believed the contest would last five games and end in the Tigers favor, not Twins.Across the board, pundits anticipated a Detroit Tiger filled World Series. Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell picked the Tigers in five saying that “this series isn’t going to be worth watching unless the Twins can get a game ahead somehow.” In Detroit, Tom Gage of the Detroit News summarized the baseball world’s opinion on the Twins by saying “the Twins really aren’t a good team.” Tim Kurkjian with the Baltimore Sun wrote Tigers in five because “they’re simply the better team.” So when closer Jeff Reardon speared the Matt Nokes comebacker and ran it toward the imposing Kent Hrbek before flipping him the ball and following his throw into his first baseman’s arms (before their teammates joined them in the infield, creating a mess of grey pinstriped jumping jubilation at the corner of Trumball and Michigan), the Twins had virtually done the near impossible. They had outscored Detroit 34-23 and manhandled the Tigers’ vaunted pitching staff. A staff that included trade deadline acquisition Doyle Alexander, who went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA in 11 regular season starts including two wins against the Twins. “The Twins did everything better than we did this series,” Alexander said after going 0-2 with a 10.00 ERA against them in the postseason. The Twins also roughed up Jack Morris at the Metrodome after he had gone 2-0 in his two regular season starts against Minnesota. While the Tigers bullpen pitched well, rookie stopper Mike Henneman got touched for six runs in five innings while issuing six walks. For their part, Minnesota's pitchers kept Detroit’s big bats quiet throughout the series. Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson were held silent, to Michigan’s dismay. “It’s obvious that I’ve stunk in this series,” said Gibson who finished 6-for-21 (.277) with 8 strikeouts. “I didn’t try to strike out, contrary to some people’s beliefs.” “I wished we would have showed what kind of offensive team we were,” Trammell added. The Tigers averaged the most runs per game, hit the most home runs, and held the highest slugging percentage of all American League teams -- it just wouldn’t show in the five-game series. "We were prepared for the series, mentally and physically," said Tigers centerfielder Chet Lemon. " We sent our guys out there. The Twins just outplayed us." “They were overwhelming underdogs,” NBC’s Tony Kubek said in analyzing the Twins’ victory over the heavily favored Tigers, “but they put together a championship series, taking advantage of every mistake the Tigers made.” No, fortunately for Minnesota fans, the overwhelming underdog was celebrating on the field that afternoon. **** Moments later, the Twins were ushered into the creaky and leaky bowels of Tiger Stadium, where cameras and reporters followed the team’s alcohol-soaked celebration. The questions from the media revolved around the team’s ability to prove doubters wrong. With each inquiry, a Twins player or coach responded that while outsiders may have not respected their capabilities, the team had every ounce of faith that they were good enough to play with the best. Gary Gaetti, who was announced as the series’ MVP, was inundated with post-game interview requests. He was not entirely thrilled by the process. “I’ll tell you the truth,” the Twins’ award-winning third baseman shared with the Star Tribune’s Dennis Brackin, “Winning this award spoils a lot of the fun that I wanted to have after the game. I got led around like a dog on a leash: ‘Go do this, go do that.’ I really wanted to be with my teammates. Even now, I can’t be with my team, doing what I want to do, because I have to answer the questions.” It took almost an hour after the game for Gaetti to pull himself away from the media horde and join his teammates in the jubilation. In tow, Gaetti had the ALCS MVP award trophy, a bronze bowl that he used as a large chalice to consume the celebratory bubbly. When he finally spotted outfielder Tom Brunansky, Gaetti sidled up next to him and demanded his teammate pour some of the champagne into the trophy. Gaetti took a swig and then shared it with Brunansky. “I thought it was still up in the air. I didn’t know a final decision had been made,” Gaetti said after finding out he was chosen by the writers for the honor. “I thought maybe they were going to grab Bruno, too. I felt pretty sad afterward because I really felt like he deserved it. Maybe they saw something that I didn’t.” The decision to give the award to Gaetti had not been made easy by Brunansky. After all, Bruno matched The Rat’s home run total (2) but had driven in nine to Gaetti’s five and gone 7-for-17 (.412). Voters pointed to Gaetti’s intangibles that separated him from Brunansky which included starting the scoring off in Game 1 with a big blast off Alexander and -- the play that Tigers’ manager Sparky Anderson considered the most crushing of the series -- the pickoff of Darrell Evans in Game 4. **** When you review why most writers favored Gaetti's candidacy over Brunansky, it was the pivotal Game 4 pickoff of Evans at third base that most consider as the difference-maker. In the sixth inning of Game 4, the Twins were up 4-3 but the Tigers had just tacked on a run and had sacrificed the 40-year-old Evans to third base with one out and the top of the lineup due up. In that scenario, Baseball Prospectus’ Run Expectancy Chart said the Tigers were likely to score 0.94 runs -- almost a guaranteed tie game. Tom Kelly had brought in his strikeout pitcher Juan Berenguer -- Senor Smoke, El Gasolino -- to dispatch Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell. With Berenguer on the mound facing the left-handed Whitaker, inspiration struck Gaetti. There was an inherent risk that ran with trying to throw the ball down the line with ninety feet separating the Twins from a tied ballgame, a lot could go wrong including throwing the ball away that could result in Evans trotting home uncontested. But that’s the attitude the 1987 Twins brought with them: To hell with it, it’s just a game. He gave Tim Laudner a signal that alerted his catcher to throw the ball down to third. ''Gary and I have a predetermined signal, and he put it on,'' Laudner said later. ''If he puts it on, I'm going to throw it down there.” Once on the same page as his catcher, Gaetti then turned to third base umpire Joe Brinkman to be ready for a play. Gaetti added that he was having a “nice little conversation” with Evans right before putting the play on, lulling him into a false sense of security. “I gave Laudner the sign because I’ve seen Darrell off there a long way before. You’ve got to know your runners. He was about 20 feet off.” Evans was no further off the base than Gaetti as runners are directed and as Berenguer delivered his pitch, he shuffled closer towards home for his secondary lead. Evans, however, was still moving in that direction when Laudner sprung up from his crouch, rescuing a fastball from a date with the dirt. It was only when Laudner cocked his arm that Evans’ weight slammed down hard on his right leg and he tried in vain to scramble back to the safety of the base. Laudner’s throw was head-high and Gaetti, Evans and the ball reached the base at the same time. Gaetti snared the ball and in one motion slammed it on Evans’ back as he stretched for the bag. Brinkman raced in from his position on the third base line closer to the cut of the outfield grass. As he reached the scene, Brinkman gave an emphatic "out" signal. http://i.imgur.com/HhNLYXU.gif From his vantage point, you could certainly question whether Brinkman had the best angle to see the play. On his knees, the veteran Tiger pleaded his case and kept his hands on his hips to display his frustration. Without any replay, the argument fell on deaf ears but any argument was moot: NBC cameras situated along the third base line captured the play which showed Gaetti applying the tag with several inches to spare between Evans and third base. After the game, Evans told reporters that he was completely caught off-guard by the play. ''I wanted to get a good jump on a ground ball or have a chance to score if the ball's in the dirt,'' Evans said in the Tigers clubhouse, trying to justify why he was so far off of third base. ''I kind of hesitated because the ball was almost in the dirt. I was trying to read it. That's why I didn't get back right away. I would have liked to have been back another foot. Then I would've gotten back. He had a little trouble catching the ball, but when he did, he came up throwing.'' Gaetti, no doubt a fierce competitor, had mixed emotions about the play considering Evans had been one of his heroes. “[Evans] is a guy I have looked up to for a long time, so you hate to embarrass him,” Gaetti said. “But because I like him, I have watched him a lot in the past. He has a habit of wandering off the base. So we tipped off umpire Joe Brinkman so he would be ready and knew the play was coming. There is no doubt we got him and that play might have won the game for us.” In spite of the baserunning blunder, Evans’ 1987 season was special and he was one of the reasons the Tigers had won the AL East. During the regular season, Evans became the first 40-year-old to hit 30 home runs in a year. But with the combination of the baserunning gaffe and a muffed ground ball at third that led to a Twins run, Detroit fans turned on Evans and booed him. That emotion would be short-lived, however, as fans gave Evans a standing ovation when he came the plate for his first at-bat in the deciding Game 5. "I think it was well-deserved," Kirk Gibson said of the adulation. "Let's put it this way. A select few fans booed him last night. I don't expect it to happen to me when I swing at a bad pitch. I didn't expect it to happen to Darrell. It was a nice gesture." **** The in-series decision-making by the Twins’ skipper would turn out to be critical, too. Tom Kelly’s juggling of his rotation was met with at least some bit of resistance. For Game 5, Kelly opted to go with veteran Bert Blyleven on three days rest rather than Joe Niekro. Had it backfired and the Tigers come away with a win, Kelly would have been forced to use either Niekro or Les Straker in Game 6 and have Frank Viola as the insurance policy in the event of Game 7, rather than just set his rotation for a more conventional Blyleven/Viola combination for the series’ last two games. Following the game, NBC’s Marv Albert pointed out that Kelly had been aggressive throughout the series. Kelly, in his always low-key manner with the media, agreed. “We try to be aggressive, we try to entertain the people, that’s one of our philosophies coming into spring training. We’re gonna try to take the game to them.” One example of the team's aggressiveness came in the former of Randy Bush. Bush, a career platoon player who had just turned 29 days before Game 2, found himself feeling frisky on the bases. Up until this point in his career, the part-time outfield had swiped 19 bases in 28 tries in 641 games with the Twins. Of those 19 stolen bases, 10 of them came under Kelly's watch in 1987. So when Bush laced a single to center in the bottom of the fourth, Kelly saw an opportunity to catch the Tigers sleeping. Tigers' ace Jack Morris had a big leg kick and a darting split-finger that made it difficult for his catchers to handle and throw. As such, his battery mates were able to only nab 9 of the 40 runners. While the Tigers owned the league's third-lowest caught stealing rate (26 percent), Detroit's catcher that day, Mike Heath, had been very good at thwarting base larceny. Heath had caught 39 percent of would-be base-stealers, fourth-best in the American League that year. On the first pitch to Brunansky, Morris barely comes set before going into his high leg kick. Bush bolted on first movement. Morris’ fastball runs in hard to his arm side and Heath almost picks it off of Brunansky’s back foot. To his credit, Heath fires a strike down to second but the big leg kick and pitch location gave Bush an advantage. His head first slide beats the play. Now on second, with a 2-1 count to Brunansky, Bush surprises everybody by heading to third. While the steal of second was predetermined from the dugout, Bush said later that he had confidence that he could take third. Bush gave third base coach Rick Renick the signal alerting him that Bush felt he could take the base and waited for the green light, which he got on the 2-1 pitch. Again, Morris’ delivery to the plate resulted in a ball running in on Brunansky. For a moment it appeared that Heath was going to receive the ball and throw in one motion behind Brunansky’s back but the Tigers catcher bobbled the ball in the exchange and that fraction of a second gave Bush the base. How surprising was the move? “Well,” Kelly told reporters later, “[bush] very rarely gets to second base.” The commotion rattled Morris. He would walk Brunansky and then Greg Gagne before striking out Launder. With the bases loaded and two out, Morris was especially careful when pitching to Dan Gladden. His darting and diving repertoire had resulted in 24 wild pitches in 1987, ten more than the next closest pitcher. After falling behind Gladden 2-0, Morris threw two fastballs for called strikes. The location of those strikes, had it happened today, would have prompt people on Twitter to screengrab the Statcast strike zone and snarkily demand robot umpires. After fouling off several fastballs off the plate to stay alive, Morris finally hung Gladden a curveball that caught too much of the zone and Gladden happily pulled it through the 5.5 hole, scoring both Bush and Brunansky and giving the Twins a lead that would put Game 2 out of reach. The Minnesota Twins would take a 2 game lead into Tigers Stadium. They certainly took the game to the Tigers. The veterans from the Motor City were outgunned by the young offensive upstarts from the Twin Cities. While the Tigers beat their opponents into submission by scoring 5.53 runs per game (roughly 13 percentage higher than the league’s average), the Twins scored 6.8 runs per game in the series. Kelly’s 1987 squad was no slouch when it came to the long ball either -- they mashed 196 home runs, fifth in the league but 29 fewer than the AL East-winning Detroit club. Opponents pitched around many in the heart of the order but no one more than Hrbek. That year, teams opted to put Hrbek on first 12 times rather than tangling with him. Only Wade Boggs, George Brett and Don Mattingly garnered more respect that season. Still, Kelly knew what type of club he had, one that was built for power not for speed and had some weaknesses past the meat of the order. He would have the likes of Gagne, Lombardozzi and Newman sacrifice runners along to set up Puckett, Hrbek, Gaetti and Brunansky to drive them in. "Tom Kelly is a manager who worked hard in the minor leagues and came forward and taught these players to go out and have fun and play," Tigers manager Sparky Anderson remarked about his managerial compatriot in the opposing dugout. **** Following the game, Anderson complimented the Twins on their series, noting that they were the superior team over the course of those five games. Anderson also paused and gave a word of advice for the Twins’ next challenger: “And those Minnesota fans? Good luck to those two National League teams that have to go listen to that noise.” Fans had been at the forefront for the entire season, helping in the team’s 56-25 home record. The fans were front and center during the ALCS, making racket, waving the white Homer Hankies and adding to the Tigers’ on-field confusion. In addition to the noise, the white roof and lighting added to the lethal combination for visiting players. Don Baylor, whom the Twins acquired at the waiver deadline in August had plenty of experience playing in the stadium as a guest before calling it home. "The lighting here is something you never get accustomed to if you're a visiting player. You can always see a fluctuation of lighting. By the time you get over that feeling, you're down by two runs." As the post-game celebration continued -- with the Twins’ roster and coaching staff dripping in champagne and cheap beer -- KARE11, the local NBC affiliate broadcasting the game, notified viewers that the team would host a welcoming party that night at the Metrodome. The gates would be opening at 9 PM. It would be a homecoming that a generation of Minnesota Twins fans would never forget. Click here to view the article

The Twins struck out looking 21% of their strikeouts. That was below the MLB average of 23%.

A broken clock is right twice a day too. Again, I think we're saying roughly the same thing regarding his regression. But the conversation is not "how much regression" but "why" and, to me, simply saying because his three or four year sample size indicated a pattern that should result in another bad year isn't good enough to answer the "why" question. I tip my cap to your ability to foresee Suzuki's terrible season.

It's not surprising but the majority of the in-zone damage was on sinkers that were left up in the zone. It's not that it is an particular count but hitters have attacked sinkers that don't stay down.

I think you are rifling through a lot of words and numbers to say basically the same thing: Regression was inevitable. Where I disagree with you is on the method that you reached that conclusion. If you looked at Suzuki's four seasons prior to 2014, you would have wRC+ of 83, 90, 64 and 67. Yes, 2014 was a jump but it also came with a change in his approach at the plate (http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins/kurt-suzuki-makes-changes-at-the-plate-r2553) that began when he was traded back to Oakland in late 2013. If you were looking at his body of work prior to the 2014 season, you could easily take a gamble that Suzuki might perform close to the league-average (which he wound up doing over that year). If you are going off of four seasons, you know have wRC+ of 90, 64, 67, 107. Now you have two seasons of average to above average sandwiching two bad years. Based on that, there is really no reason to suspect a sudden drop-off based on your methodology. Yes, age, second-half decline and wear & tear as a catcher were reasons to expect a drop in production in 2015 but it doesn't really answer the question why he was able to produce at his career best one year and drop off to one of the career worst the next.

Yes and no. Suzuki's career has been inconsistent but 2014 wasn't necessarily that big of an outlier for him. He's had four seasons when he's had a wOBA of .320 or higher (above average for a catcher over the last five years) and he's had three seasons of a wOBA of .275 or lower (well below average for a catcher). Now you could easily say his numbers were going to come down from 2014 but the fact that it turned into his second worst season in his career has more to do with injuries and approach than the mystical workings of baseball regression.

This was asked on Twitter but I thought I'd share here: No question that Suzuki's 2015 season was disappointing. The drop in offense versus right handed pitchers is a product of his inability to go the other way as well as he did last year. In 2014, he hit .271 (.163 well-hit average) with seven doubles when going to right field. This year he hit just .145 (.095 well-hit average) with a lone double the other way. Why this happened is unclear. Pitchers seemed to use the same weapons and attacked him in a similar manner. Looking over some of his swings, you see that he was often pulling off on his swing (particularly with his head). Here is an example of two similar pitches that Suzuki hit to right field. The top is 2014 and the bottom is 2015. http://i.imgur.com/uwfvhW3.png While the point of contact looks almost identical in the swing from 2014, Suzuki laces a liner to right. In the 2015, he flies out to right. Now, watch what Suzuki's head does on these two swings. 2014 http://i.imgur.com/KFDUd0r.gif 2015 http://i.imgur.com/tSe53n8.gif In the example above, the head stays still and follows the pitch to right field. In the one below, he is pulling off, which explains why he "just missed" that pitch. I believe this is a microcosm for what has happened to him all season in that scenario.

You can find a lot of stats on Buxton's season in my last post: http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/behind-byron-buxtons-struggles-r4198

You typically don't see good hitters not being able to hit fastballs. Some good hitters have had bad seasons vs fastballs (Mike Moustakas was bad two years in a row then had a good one this year). Most will tell you having success vs sliders/curves is unsustainable.