In this week’s edition of Lots O’ Stuff we take a look at some Minnesota Twins’ All-Star Game player history, the 2022 state champion JCC wrestling team will be honored at the Jackson County Fair, a Martin County West senior has made a verbal commitment to play college basketball, and a Wabasso graduate has added his name to the list of southwest Minnesota players selected in the Major League Baseball draft.
My humble apology for being late with LOS. Had a busy weekend.
On Saturday I ventured over to Wells to watch the Bulls play on a field named in honor of Bulls’ legend Pat (Ballpark) Frank
Pat has coached the United South Central High School team for a number of years, has been involved with the USC Legion program and guided improvements at the baseball field.
I then meandered through Dean Walters Country to St. James, where the Jackson American Legion baseball team was playing in the Division 2 Southwest Sub-State tournament. Didn’t get there until the fifth inning but did get to see three exciting innings as the Tarantulas beat Luverne 8-7.
After that game I had a chance to talk with Wayne Cook, who was the base umpire in that game. I’ve known Cookie since I was at the newspaper in Jackson and he was at the paper in Redwood Falls in the 1990s. We’d exchange pictures occasionally and since this was in the days before digital photos and email we’d meet up in Windom for the exchange.
I may have to make a point to catch up with him next year, which will be his 50th year as an umpire.
On Sunday the Bulls closed out their regular season at Wacker Field where I got a little overheated and that limited my ability to get more newsletters out.
And along the way Maren and I became grandparents for the fourth time.
Twins All-Star history
Luis Arraez and Byron Buxton are representing the Twins in tonight’s All-Star Game in Los Angeles. They are the 60th and 61st Minnesota players selected for the Mid-Summer Classic.
Your list may vary, but here’s my top two All-Star game moments for a Twins player. Both come from the 1970s.
The first was in 1971 when Harmon Killebrew hit one of three American League home runs in Detroit
It was Killebrew’s 11th (ninth straight) and final All-Star Game.
Norm Cash of the hometown Tigers started at first base so Killebrew watched from the dugout as the NL built a lead thanks to homers from Johnny Bench and Hank Aaron.
The American League would come back as Reggie Jackson (in his lone plate appearance of the game pinch-hitting for Oakland teammate Vida Blue) belted a mammoth two-run homer onto the Tiger Stadium roof. The next batter was Rod Carew, who walked, and later Frank Robinson hit the second two-run blast of the inning to give the AL a 4-3 lead.
Killebrew entered the game in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the frame Al Kaline drew a walk from Ferguson Jenkins to bring Killer to the plate.
Killebrew homered to deep left to give the Americans a 6-3 lead. According to baseballreference.com, that raised the American League's chances of winning from 78% to 92% but I don't imagine that kind of thing was talked about then.
Roberto Clemente would hit the NL’s third homer of the game in the eighth to close the gap to 6-4 but that was the end of the scoring.
And a fun fact about that game: It took only 2 hours, 5 minutes to play. The average time these days is 3:10
The other top moment on my short list is Rod Carew’s two triples in 1978 in San Diego in his final All-Star Game he played in a Twins uniform. He was and still is the only player to hit two triples in the All Star Game.
Carew led off the game with a triple and would score on George Brett's double. He tripled again in the third and would again score on a hit by Brett to give the AL a 3-0 lead. All of the scoring came against Vida Blue, who was now with San Francisco.
The NL scored three in the bottom of the inning to tie the game and there would be no more scoring until the Senior Circuit scored four in the eighth (all off of the Yankees’ Goose Gosssge) to win 7-3
Here’s a complete list of Twins players in the All-Star Game. There were two games played in 1961 and 1962.
Rick Aguilera, (P): 1991, 92, 93
Bob Allison, (OF, 1B): 1963, 64
Luis Arraez (1B): 2022
Earl Battey, (C): 1962, 62, 63, 65, 66
Jose Berrios (P): 2018, 2019
Bert Blyleven, (P): 1973
Tom Brunansky, (OF): 1985
Byron Buxton (OF): 2022
Leo Cardenas, (SS): 1971
Rod Carew, (2B, 1B): 1967, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78
Dean Chance, (P): 1967
Ron Coomer, (1B): 1999
Doug Corbett, (P): 1981
Nelson Cruz, (DH): 2021
Michael Cuddyer, (RF): 2011
Brian Dozier, (2B): 2015
Dave Engle, (C): 1984
Scott Erickson, (P): 1991
Gary Gaetti, (3B): 1988, 89
Jim Grant, (P): 1965
Eddie Guardado, (P): 2002, 03
Cristian Guzman, (SS): 2001
Jimmie Hall, (OF): 1964, 65
Larry Hisle, (OF): 1977
Kent Hrbek, (1B): 1982
Torii Hunter, (OF): 2002, 07
Jim Kaat, (P): 1962, 66
Harmon Killebrew, (3B, 1B, OF): 1961, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71
Chuck Knoblauch, (2B): 1992, 94, 96, 97
Ken Landreaux, (OF): 1980
Tim Laudner, (C): 1988
Matt Lawton, (OF): 2000
Francisco Liriano, (P): 2006
Joe Mays, (P): 2001
Joe Mauer, (C): 2006, 08, 09, 10, 12, 13
Eric Milton, (P): 2001
Justin Morneau, (1B): 2007, 08, 09, 10
Jack Morris, (P): 1991
Joe Nathan, (P): 2004, 05, 08, 09
Eduardo Núñez, (SS): 2016
Jake Odorizzi, (P): 2019
Tony Oliva, (OF): 1964, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71
Camilo Pascual, (P): 1961, 62, 62, 64
Glen Perkins, (P):2013, 14, 15
Jim Perry, (P): 1970, 71
A.J. Pierzynski, (C): 2002
Jorge Polanco, (SS): 2019
Kirby Puckett, (OF): 1986, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95
Brad Radke, (P): 1998
Jeff Reardon, (P): 1988
Rich Rollins, (3B): 1962, 62
John Roseboro, (C): 1969
Miguel Sanó, (3B): 2017
Ervin Santana, (P): 2017
Johan Santana, (P): 2005, 06, 07
Roy Smalley, (SS): 1979
Kurt Suzuki, (C): 2014
Zoilo Versalles, (SS): 1963, 65
Frank Viola, (P): 1988
Gary Ward, (OF): 1983
Butch Wynegar, (C): 1976, 77
Gopher Rally Day
Look for a little more information in the future, but ‘Gopher Rally Day’ will be held during the Jackson County Fair on Friday, July 29.
The event will honor the state Class 1A champion Jackson County Central wrestling team. It is scheduled to run from 3-4:30 p.m. outside the show pavilion.
Head Coach Brandon Eggum, some assistant coaches and some current members of the University of Minnesota wrestling team will attend, as well as Goldy Gopher.
Anderson commits
Martin County West senior Zach Anderson announced on Twitter he has committed to attend Wayne State College and play men’s basketball for the Wildcats of the NCAA Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
The 6-foot-6 Anderson scored 520 in 28 games last season for the Mavericks, an average of 18.9 per game. He’ll start his final season at MCW with 1,316 career points.
Anderson also led the 23-5 Mavericks in steals (57) and blocked shots (36). He was second on the team in rebounds (176) and also assists (51).
For the season, Anderson shot 61.3% on two-point attempts (119-194) and 47.2% from three-point range (59-115). He was good on 85 percent of his free-throw attempts (114-134)
Southwest Minnesota player drafted
A player who was in Jackson playing amateur baseball a couple of weeks ago was selected in the Major League Baseball Draft today.
Wabasso graduate Nick Altermatt, a right handed pitcher, was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 17th round (521st overall). He has completed his baseball career at Minnesota State University.
Altermatt plays amateur baseball for the Lamberton Longsox.
As a senior with the Mavericks, Altermatt was 10-1 with a 2.92 earned run average. He struck out 75 batters in 58.1 innings.
Altermatt’s selection in the draft led to a discussion on Twitter started by Marshall Independent sports writer Josh VanKlompenburg looking for names of players from south Minnesota selected in the MLB Draft.
Former KDOM Radio legend Dirk Abraham took time from his busy retirement schedule to weigh in on the discussion.
Using a somewhat loose definition of southwest Minnesota, here’s the list. If you have a name to add, contact me at sportsdr44@hotmail.com.
Nick Altermatt, Wabasso/Minnesota State, 17th round by the Chicago White Sox in 2022.
Brandon Williamson, Martin County West/NIACC, Texas Christian, second round by the Seattle Mariners in 2019. He is now at Triple-A Louisville in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Williamson was also drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 36th round in 2018.
Jordan Milbrath, Springfield/Augustana, 35th round by Cleveland in 2013.
Mike Nesseth, Windom/Nebraska, 17th round by the Philadlphis Phillies in 2010.
Wade Wacker, Jackson, third round by the Minnesota Twins in 1987.
Barry Wohler, Bird Island-Lake Lillian/Minnesota, 14th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1983.
Dana Kiecker, Gibbon-Fairfax/Winthrop/St. Cloud State, eighth round by the Boston Red Sox in 1983.