Bob Veale, a hard-throwing lefty for the Pittsburgh Pirates who led the majors in strikeouts in 1964 and finished second to Sandy Koufax in whiffs the following season, died last week. He was 89, the New York Times reported.
When a major leaguer dies, particularly a pitcher, I usually check to see whether they ever faced the Twins over their careers. Fernando Valenzuela did, and he pitched well against them, and so did Veale after he signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox in the early 1970s. He appeared in eight games against the Twins, including back-to-back extra-innings Twins wins, one in Boston and another days later in Minnesota.
On May 29, 1974, the Twins and Sox battled for 13 innings at Fenway Park. Veale, a reliever by then, got two outs in the seventh inning, but also allowed a run on one hit. He then handed the ball to closer Diego Segui who worked six additional innings.
In the top of the 13th, the Twins went to work. They singled, grounded out, singled again — which sent Rod Carew to third base — and then designated hitter Jerry Terrell came to the plate and induced Segui to balk and score Carew and the go-ahead run from third base.
The Boston Globe was there:
“For four hours, and 12 innings, the Red Sox and Twins battled it out in the usual fashion. Base hits. Good pitching. Fine fielding.
“But in the end, the game was decided on a high school trick telegraphed from ‘the man above.’
“He (God) gave me the thought,” said Jerry Terrell after finessing Sox relief pitcher Diego Segui into a balk in the 13th inning that resulted in a 5-4 win for Minnesota.
“When I was sitting on the bench earlier in the inning, a thought came to me” from the man above. I told myself that if we had a man on third, and I got up, I’d make him balk. I tried the same thing once in amateur ball as a kid and it worked.”
“Terrell carried out his plan. He stepped into the batters box, Segui took his stretch, holding the runners in place. As he did, Segui took his eyes off the plate for a moment. When he did, Terrell, still staying in the batters box, reached down and scooped up a handful of dirt. When Segui looked back, he saw Terrell bending over head down, and tried to back off the rubber. Before he did, he moved his hands causing the balk.”
Days later, the Twins and Red Sox tangled at the Met. Again, they went to extra innings, Veale made another appearance and so did closer Segui.
In the bottom of the 12th, the Twins singled, stole a base, walked (Tony Oliva was intentionally walked), hit a flyball out, walked and singled again for the 5-4 walk-off win against the Sox and Segui.
The Boston Globe and Peter Gammons were there:
“Segui, who has now lost two marathon lampooneries to Minnesota in five days, in the end was outpitched by Bill Hands. Or it must have been son of Bill Hands, because before last night, he had a 6.97 earned run average and had allowed 55 hits in 33 innings. He promptly went four hitless innings with eight strikeouts.”
Extra innings…
-How about that Brent Rooker? Rooker, an ex-Twin who found himself without a job in Minnesota because the Twins were deep at first base and in the outfield, has signed a five-year extension with the Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s that’s valued at $60 million. He earned it, according to MLB Trade Rumors.
“He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a pair of triples with a massive .293/.365/.562 batting line across 614 plate appearances.”
Additional sources: Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com