Article: Former Rule 5 pick is most underrated player in Minnesota Twins history

[Seth Stohs]

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1228-Former-Rule-5-pick-is-most-underrated-player-in-Minnesota-Twins-history

[nicksaviking]

Mack played long before the influx of bloggers and social media and during his time, the local media was ruled by team lap dogs that would never speak ill of the organization. I always wondered why Mack's tenure with the Twins was cut short and why another MLB team didn't pick him up after a tremendous run. Injuries rarely stopped teams from offering a player as productive as he was another chance. Does anyone know anything about him personally?

 

I always wondered if he was a jerk that burned his bridges. I would like to think not because he was one of my favorites but I realize that if he was a clubhouse cancer, Sid likely would have never wrote it for all of us to see.

[JCinNWMN]

I registered for the site this morning just to say Amen! Shane Mack was one of my favorites. Mack and Puckett in the same outfield was awesome for those few years.

[Jim H]

I don't believe Mack was any kind of clubhouse cancer. He may of been sort of a high maintainence kind of guy. I remember a comment by Tom Kelly or perhaps it was some other Twins offical. When Mack signed with the Japanese team, it was suggested Mack better take the Twins hitting coach with him if he expected to have any success after he left the Twins.

 

I also agree that he was very good with the Twins. He could hit and was actually good enough defensively to be part of the reason Puckett moved to right field.

[gil4]

"Other deserving Twins Hall of Fame candidates, Dave Goltz (0) and Brian Harper (4) are not racking up twitter mentions either."

 

 

I saw maybe a half-dozen games at the old Met, and by far the most memorable was a 1-hitter by Goltz vs. the Red Sox. (Solid single to left by Jim Rice, I think it was in the top of hte 7th.) He was a very good pticher and I hated to see him leave as a FA, but that was near the low point of the Griffith ownership.

 

The worst game I went to (although not the least memorable) was also a Goltz start - it was supposed to be the first game of a twi-night double-header, but it was finally called in the 6th inning after 3 long rain delays. The Twins lost 5-1 and it was such a miserable night that it was seared into my memory. I went and found the box score for it - Aug 1st 1975 - and it reminded me of a few other things about the game.

Wilbur Wood was the winning pitcher (the fascination with knuckleballers was pretty close to its peak then, thanks to Ball Four). Tony O was still playing and had an OPS of .848 despite barely being able to walk. (Not that we kne what OPS was back then.)

And this play (from Baseball reference): Baserunner Out Advancing; Nyman out at 1B/1B. The Twins pulled the hidden ball trick, the only time I've seen it work at the MLB level. Retrosheet had a better description: "Jerry Terrell caught Nyls Nyman with a variation of the hidden ball trick; after two throws to 1B by the pitcher, Terrell faked his throw back to the mound the third time; Nyman moved off bag too quickly; White Sox Coach Alex Monchak ejected by 1B umpire Bill Kunkel" I thought the game might have been played under protest as well, but I couldn't find any mention of it.

[Shane Wahl]

I loved Shane Mack.

[boney]

Glad to read this. Shane Mack is one of my all time favorite Twins.

[Seth Stohs]

THanks for the feedback everyone... I was kind of proud of this story, and it's kind of been pushed to the background today with some fairly big stories. Ha!