Tonight is the 50th anniversary of one of the more memorable July 4 games in the history of the Minnesota Twins.
Not only were fireworks scheduled for after the game, but the Twins were sending their 1973 first-round draft pick, Arizona State’s Eddie Bane, to the mound for his major league debut as the Twins hosted the Kansas City Royals at Metropolitan Stadium.
A couple of weeks earlier Minnesota had been on the other end of a similar situation as the Twins were the visitors in Texas as the Rangers ran out their first-round pick (also the first overall), David Clyde. That game drew a crowd of 35,698 in Arlington, well above the Rangers average crowd of 8,470.
Bane, a left-hander, was a college All-America at Arizona State, had a collegiate record of 40-4 and was the 1973 college Player of the Year.
Arizona State lost the 1973 College World Series championship game to USC.
Bane did not pitch in the championship game. He had pitched the semifinal game, winning over the Dave Winfield-led Minnesota Gophers. Winfield was the fifth pick of the 1973 draft by the San Diego Padres. Bane was the 11th pick.
Three days after that game, he signed a $55,000 contract with the Twins and would go directly to the major leagues to make his debut on July 4.
Only 12,000 advance tickets had been sold and the Twins were expecting a crowd of 30,000, far above their 1973 average attendance. In addition to the fireworks, the team announced it would pass out 30,000 photos of Bane to fans attending the game.
The game would exceed the Twins’ expectations as a crowd of 45,890 made its way to the Met. The late-arriving crowd was not expected by Twins officials, so fans had difficulty getting parked and into their seats by game time.
The Twins decided to delay the start of the game by 15 minutes.
“I was well into my warmup when they said the game would be delayed,” Bane said. “I didn’t care but Kitty (Jim Kaat) went crazy. He was yelling, “You can’t do this to the kid. He’s already loose, sweated up.”
The delay didn’t bother Bane, who allowed only one run in seven innings.
Bane allowed his only run in the third on a single by Hal McRae and a double by Fran Healy. He allowed a single in the fourth inning by Kurt Bevacqua, who was then erased in a double play. Bane retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings.
In the seventh inning, Lou Piniella reached on an error by third baseman Steve Braun and was sacrificed to second. Paul Schaal walked, but Bane got out of the jam by striking out McRae and getting Jim Wohlford on a liner to left.
Meanwhile Minnesota was held scoreless by Royals starter Dick Drago for seven innings.
Twins manager Frank Quilici brought in Ray Corbin to start the eighth and Corbin pitched a scoreless inning.
In the bottom of the eighth the Twins scored three runs off Drago on a double by Braun followed by Larry Hisle’s single and a home run by first baseman Joe Lis to take a 3-1 lead.
Then, in the top of the ninth, the Royals put together a comeback off Corbin.
After striking out Piniella, Corbin allowed a single to Bevacqua, and walked Paul Schaal and pinch-hitter John Mayberry to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Gail Hopkins hit a foul pop to third on which Bevacqua was able to score, but then walked pinch-hitter Ed Kirkpatrick to load the bases and then walked Patek to tie the score.
Bill Hands relieved Corbin and allowed a two-run single to Rojas that gave Kansas City the lead. Steve Hovley flied out to left to end the inning.
Rod Carew and Jerry Terrell led off the bottom of the ninth for the Twins with singles. Gene Garber relieved Drago and allowed a sacrifice fly by designated hitter Tony Oliva that scored Carew. Garber struck out Bobby Darwin, allowed a single to Braun, and got Larry Hisle to fly out to center to end the game.
Bane made five more starts and had a total of 23 appearances as a rookie. He got back to the big leagues for four starts in 1975 and 15 in 1976 after starting the season at Triple-A Tacoma. He then became a journeyman, including a couple of years in the Mexican League.
After spending 1977 with Tacoma, Bane was released by the Twins. He attempted comebacks with the White Sox and Royals, he never pitched in the major leagues again.
In 1984 Bane accepted an offer to scout for Cleveland. He turned that job into a career, working for the Dodgers, Rays, Angels, Tigers, and Red Sox.
He was scouting director for the Angels from 2004 to 2010 and was the man responsible for making Mike Trout the 25th selection in the 2009 draft.
Sources for this newsletter include the Society for American Baseball Research, Baseball-Reference.com, and the Star Tribune.