As I noted in my previous post, the Twins, although they couldn’t pitch in 1996, they certainly could hit and score runs, racking up 877 of them by season’s end.
Not only did they score a lot of runs, they also came in bunches, including on April 24 when the Twins scored a team record 24 runs against the Detroit Tigers. But it didn’t stop just there. By my count, the Twins scored 10 or more runs 19 times that season.
Some numbers:
- Five times they scored 11 runs.
- Four times they scored 16 runs.
- Three times they scored 13 runs.
- Three times they scored 10 runs.
- Two times they scored 12 runs.
- One time they scored 14 runs.
- And one time they scored more than 20 runs.
In that 24-11 win over the Tigers at Tiger Stadium, Matt Lawton had four hits, Paul Molitor knocked in five runs and catcher Greg Myers had a 5-for-6 day at the plate, scored three runs and drove in five runs as well.
Is a 35-run game something to cheer about?
Twins manager Tom Kelly didn’t see it that way, according to the Star Tribune.
“That wasn’t very pretty,” Kelly said. “All we can do is apologize to the fans who were at the ballpark and watched that exhibition of so-called major league baseball. The only good thing is that we won.”
Molitor hadn’t played in that kind of game in a long time, he told the newspaper.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. “I think the last time I did that was in my second year in the bigs. It took me 18 years to match it. You look up in the fourth inning, and it’s 10-7, and you just shake your head.”
The only problem with the ’96 Twins is they couldn’t stop other teams from scoring, so although they scored 877 runs, they allowed 900, including 19 to the Cleveland Indians on July 13.
There wasn’t much of a game story in the July 14 issue of the Star Tribune because the sports pages were dominated by Kirby Puckett’s recent retirement. However, the paper had this to say after the Cleveland loss.
“So far, this current homestand isn’t one they will want to reflect on. The Twins began the 11-game stretch, interrupted by the All-Star break, 10½ games behind Central Division leader Cleveland and 6½ games out of the American League wild card spot. After Saturday’s loss, those deficits became 13½ and 10½ games respectively.”
Extra innings…
–Is investigative reporter Seymour Hersh a Twins fan? Hersh, who is best known for breaking news about the Vietnam War massacre My Lai, a story he broke as an unpaid freelancer — an incredible feat on its own — is the focus of a new Netflix documentary called “Cover-Up.”
It’s worth watching. As part of it, we learn that Hersh, who is from Chicago, grew up watching Negro League baseball games in the city, and most likely became a fan of either the White Sox or Cubs. But late in the movie, there’s an image of him and his wife where he is clearly wearing a classic Navy Twins cap.
Source: Newspapers.com