Before the Twins’ Game 4 loss to the Houston Astros, there was a moment of fun between two ex-Twins and some good humor in the radio booth.
Former Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti threw out the first pitch to former left fielder and recent Twins Hall of Fame inductee Dan Gladden, who also does Twins radio with lead play-by-play voice Cory Provus.
Gaetti threw the ball to Gladden and he botched the catch big time, the ball shooting off to his right. Later, in the radio booth, Gladden caught some grief about it from Provus, who also was nice enough to say that he didn’t think that many people witnessed the moment.
As far as those two are concerned, it was comeuppance for Gladden because he is always giving Provus hell about his aversion to catching foul balls that come soaring in their direction during games. Provus is quick to respond by saying, “It’s not in my contract.”
Although Gladden said he could put up with the comments from his colleagues, the comment from a relative stung. I don’t recall if it was a grandson or nephew or some other relative, but when he saw Gladden, he said, “You’re playing like the Chicago White Sox.”
The White Sox had a terrible 2023, losing 101 games. Defensively, they weren’t much better. They ranked 11th out of 15 teams in the American League in fielding with a fielding percentage of .983. And they were only slightly better in team errors, committing 95 to place them 10th in the AL.
The Twins had an excellent fielding team, committing only 66 errors with a fielding percentage of .988 to rank them second in the AL. Leading the way was shortstop Carlos Correa, who committed only six errors in 135 games for a fielding percentage of .987. It would appear he is in line to win his second Gold Glove award because he won in 2021 with a fielding percentage of .981, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
To make another comparison, White Sox Shortstop Tim Anderson committed 15 errors in 121 games to give him a fielding percentage of .964.
I’ll admit I was surprised to see that the White Sox committed fewer than 100 errors because they seemed to make all kinds of goofs when they played the Twins. In fact, in the 13 games played between the two teams (the Twins won 9 of those games), the White Sox committed 12 errors.
Source: Baseball-Reference.com.