You never know when you’re going to have a Minnesota Twins moment.
Well, I had one more the other day as me and my son, a junior golfer, settled in to watch a new golf drama on Apple TV+ called “Stick,” which features Owen Wilson as a former golf pro who discovers a potential golf prodigy on the driving range.
I’d say more about the show but we’re only two episodes into the thing.
But I enjoyed the first episode enough to look it up online and discovered it was created by a guy named Jason Keller whose father Ron Keller, believe it or not, pitched for the Twins, mostly in relief.
He was drafted by the Twins out of Indiana University in 1965 and later made nine major league appearances for the club spread across two seasons, 1966 and 1968, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
Keller made his major league on July 9, 1966, in an 8-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. He allowed three runs on four hits, including a home run, across three innings with a walk and a strikeout.
He also made one start against the California Angels on July 23, 1968, and didn’t pitch too poorly as he scattered 11 hits across six innings with limited damage. He allowed three runs, but only two runs were earned, and he fanned five in the 3-1 loss to the Halos.
The Minneapolis Tribune was there:
The big question after the Twins’ 3-1 first-game loss to California was not whether Ron Keller is good enough to help the Twins. The question is: Are the Twins good enough to help Ron Keller?
The husky right-hander, just up from Denver, made his first major league start yesterday and committed one unpardonable sin and a variety of lesser ones.
The big one involved getting behind 2-0 before his teammates had a chance to bat. The lesser ones came in the form of 11 hits over six innings, a high for one Twins pitcher.
I also like this description of Keller on the mound as reported by the Tribune.
Fregosi popped a single to short right. Keller, whose deliberate windup is remindful of Camilo Pascual, allowed Fregosi to steal second. Two infield outs later, the Angels led 2-0.
Extra innings…
–Why doesn’t Jason Keller create a show about Twins baseball in the 1960s? I’d sure watch it.
–The Twins have dropped their third straight series after a 3-2 loss to the Houston Astros on Saturday. But at least they weren’t blown out. The 16-4, 16-3 and 10-3 losses to the Rangers and Astros were getting old, so the Twins hung in there until the ninth inning when Jhoan Duran surrendered the game-winning hit.
–The Twins’ best pitcher Joe Ryan battled the Astros for seven innings, allowing just two runs with seven strikeouts. The problem is that the Twins lineup whiffed 17 times against Houston pitching. The free-swinging ways of Trevor Larnach, Willi Castro, Carlos Correa and Brooks Lee were responsible for 12 of the 17 strikeouts.
–The assassination news out of Minnesota Saturday morning was shocking, terrifying and so sad for a state and its people who have always made us feel welcome whenever we make our annual visit to Target Field to see the Twins. As a longtime Twins fan, I have an affinity for the state that makes me feel like its my second home. Thinking and wishing nothing but the best for Minnesota tonight.