You never know when you’re going to have a Minnesota Twins moment.
There I was, watching episodes of Lou Grant on You Tube when it happened: Reporter Joe Rossi, played by actor Robert Walden, perhaps best known for playing Donald Segretti in “All the President’s Men,” is assigned to write what the newspaper biz used to call a “bright,” a slightly humorous story about something relatively innocuous.
In this case, following an earthquake, he has to write about two cockroaches that their scientist-owner says predicted the temblor. In fact, they predict two quakes and then whiff on the third, prompting Rossi to quip that’s not so bad. If you went 2-for-3 in baseball, he says, you’d “be better than Rod Carew.”
Lou Grant, a Mary Tyler Moore spinoff that sees Grant join the Los Angeles Tribune after he is fired by the television station in Minneapolis, debuted in 1977. Carew was the American League MVP that season, so it’s no surprise that he might be top of mind among a bunch of writers sitting around a table trying to gin up ideas for the new show.
Carew had a season for the ages. Get a load of these numbers: He slashed .388/.449/.570 with 239 hits, 128 runs, 100 RBI, 38 doubles, 16 triples, and 14 home runs against 55 strikeouts across 155 games.
Not only was Carew ripping the ball to all fields, the 1977 Twins were a run-scoring machine and led the American League that season with 867 runs.
No game probably exemplified their run-scoring prowess more than a late June tilt at home against another good-hitting team, the Chicago White Sox.
On June 26, 1977, the Twins scored 19 runs on 18 hits, including a 4-for-5 day with five runs scored and 6 RBI from Carew. He also doubled, homered and had a hand in turning a double play, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
The Chicago Tribune was there.
“All it did was drop the White Sox one game behind Minnesota in the revolving-door battle for first place in the wobbly American League West.
“But what an afternoon it was for the Twins — and their lost legions of fans who came back to them in record numbers Sunday.
“Lured by free jerseys to youngsters 16 and under, 46,963 watched the powerful Twins rout the equally powerful Sox, 19- 12. The throng was the largest the Twins have drawn for a regular-season game in their 17-year history, eclipsing the July 4 mob of 45,890 of four years ago on a night when fireworks and the Kansas City Royals were the draw. It was fireworks again Sunday, too.
“There were 28 hits on the board before the fifth inning was half over. Four of them were home runs by the White Sox, who also had two doubles, two triples, and, indeed, enough offense to last them an entire series with any kind of pitching at all. ‘Our pitchers don’t dare pitch up,’ said Bob Lemon when viewing the ruins later. ‘But everybody was up today.’ Minnesota combed Sox hurling for 18 hits — only two of which were home runs. One was by Rod Carew, who became a .403 hitter this breezy afternoon with four hits.”
A few days later, Carew and the Twins blasted the Cleveland Indians by a score of 11-1.
“The condition of the patient, already critical at best, continued to worsen Sunday and no relief appears in sight,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.
“The latest setback was an 11-1 defeat administered by the torrid Minnesota Twins, and the Indians have lost four straight, 11 of the last 14, 13 of 18 since the All-Star break, and 29 of 49 under Jeff Torborg. Also, the Indians are 14 games under .500, as they move into Baltimore for a two-game series with the equally hot Orioles tonight and Tuesday night.
“Torborg had little to say after the debacle.
“I have no explanation for anything,” he murmured, shrugging helplessly.
“They just smacked us good. They hit everything we threw up there. I agree, we didn’t look very good, but the Twins made us look even worse. They attacked us. They beat our brains out.”
Carew and the Twins would remain hot for most of the season. They produced winning records in April, May, July and August, then — and this is going to sound familiar — stumbled badly in September, winning only seven of 25 games to finish in fourth place.
On July 1, Carew was hitting .411. He was hitting .384 with three games left in the season, then went 7-for-13 against Brewers pitching with five runs scored to reach .388.
Sources: Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com