Game Thread Twins @ Athletics 5/16/22 8:40 PM CDT

[Dave The Dastardly]

 

 

Catfish. Now there’s an ugly fish. But they’re fun to catch, at least a neighbor told me that. We were whacking fresh rhubarb out of the patch that straddled our property line, sweating in the sun, throwing lies and fairy tales about so he might’ve been exaggerating a little. I’ve never done that myself.
Anyway, he claimed he once caught a thirty-pound catfish out of the Minnesota River and took most of an hour to relate the complete tale. I wasn’t sure who got the worst of it; me or the catfish. Anyway, fighting the fish so exhausted my neighbor he claimed his arms were about to fall off before he landed the brute. He’s been hooked on the catfish sport ever since. I guess you could say the experience turned him into a catfish hunter.

Speaking of which (notice the smooth transition), Charles Finley, the colorful former owner of the Kansas City Athletics, was also a catfish hunter; in his case “thee” Catfish Hunter.

“Catfish” was born just plain old James Augustus Hunter, before Finley hooked him with a baseball contract. Finley, always a showman, thought the nineteen year-old pitcher needed a flashy nickname that would help sell tickets, so he re-christened his new player “Catfish” and thus the legend began.
Catfish, though he never played for the Minnesota Twins, did have a few Minnesota connections, one rather ignominious for him; his brother shot him in the foot while the boys were hunting; a second connection ignominious for the Twins and the third a Bob Dylan song written in his honor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eql7x6AYTM4

Finley sent the injured young Hunter to Mayo Clinic here in Minnesota to get the foot-shooting damage repaired, but Hunter still lost a toe as a result of the accident. Sort of reminiscent of Hall of Fame pitcher Mordecai “Three Fingers” Brown, twice World Series Champion with the Cubs, so named because he’d lost a finger in a farm accident as a kid. Hunter, however, never became “Nine Toe” Hunter. At least he could thank Finley for that much.

Signed right out of high school, Catfish never played in the minors. He won his first professional game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in 1965 and was named to the American League All Star team in both 1966 and 1967. Not a bad start for a young fella.

Finley moved the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968 and on May 8 of that same year (here it comes), ahem, against the Minnesota Twins, Hunter pitched the 9th perfect game in baseball history. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh inning when Hunter laid down a run-scoring bunt and drove in two more runs with a bases-loaded single in the eighth. Yeah, the “eighth” inning. You know, when today’s pitchers have long been tucked away and wrapped in cotton to to “protect” their arm from falling off.

There are four things I find remarkable about Hunter’s perfect game; one, of course, it was a perfect game; secondly, Hunter had three hits; third, he had three RBI’s; and fourth, he bunted, successfully, a mostly forsaken art in today’s launch angle game.

Despite Hunter’s numerous awards as a pitcher (Cy Young, multiple All Star selections, multiple 20-win seasons, multiple complete games, World Series Championships, Hall of Fame, etc) Catfish is also remembered as being the first free agent in professional baseball. After a $50,000 salary dispute with Finley, Hunter was ruled a free agent and was quickly signed by the Evil Empire for what was then the highest salary in baseball; 5 years for $3.5 million.
That first year with the Yankees Hunter led the league in wins (23) for the second year in a row, innings pitched (328) and complete games (30) but still finished second (to Jim Palmer) for the American League Cy Young Award.

Think about that and compare those numbers to today’s pitchers. You may  then ponder, as I (I’m a professional ponderer), why some of today’s managers (not mentioning any one in particular) fear letting a pitcher throw 100 pitches, or more than five innings in a particular outing, or do 200 innings in a season without breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of his “stud” pitcher throwing a complete game without needing a couple weeks off.
But that was then, this is now.

Fortunately for us, the Athletics no longer have a Catfish Hunter to skunk the Twins, but it is May and the Twins have been known to stink up the occasional stadium, especially when playing a team they should readily beat. Let’s hope instead they’ll cast their bait upon still water tonight and pull in their own Perfect Game, getting a little historical revenge against the A’s. But like most of you I'm fishing for a win of any kind. Let’s just hope it isn’t too ugly, you know, two or three more Twins headed for the IL.

Today’s Pitchers

Twins  Chris Archer   RHP  0-1  ERA 4.43   22 K

Athletics  Zack Logue   LHP  2-1  ERA 1.35  12 K

Line-ups

Not yet posted

 

And by the way, my baseball novel, the one I’ve been working on for 30 years, has finally been published as a Kindle book on Amazon. It’s free for the next five days, one of those book promotion things. You can read it on just about any device if you download the right software from Amazon and of course if you already own a Kindle. So have a go at it. It’s based on the Twins with some “fictional” characters us old-timers might recognize mixed in. Give it a shout out on Amazon if you like it.
Here’s the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Prospect-Dave-Gehrke-ebook/dp/B09YS7GG7N/ref=sr_1_1crid=YBYEF1IIM0TG&keywords=The+Prospect+Dave+Gehrke&qid=1652483919&sprefix=the+prospect+dave+gehrke%2Caps%2C562&sr=8-1

[shortround81]

8 minutes ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

And by the way, my baseball novel, the one I’ve been working on for 30 years, has finally been published as a Kindle book on Amazon. It’s free for the next five days, one of those book promotion things. You can read it on just about any device if you download the right software from Amazon and of course if you already own a Kindle. So have a go at it. It’s based on the Twins with some “fictional” characters us old-timers might recognize mixed in. Give it a shout out on Amazon if you like it.
Here’s the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Prospect-Dave-Gehrke-ebook/dp/B09YS7GG7N/ref=sr_1_1crid=YBYEF1IIM0TG&keywords=The+Prospect+Dave+Gehrke&qid=1652483919&sprefix=the+prospect+dave+gehrke%2Caps%2C562&sr=8-1

Congratulations on your novel!!!

[Squirrel]

Very cool, @Dave The Dastardly, on your book!

And one thing I enjoy is pan fried catfish … yum!

oh, and rhubarb! Rhubarb custard pie is great!

Why do these threads always make me hungry?

[Drunk_Goose]

I have a good feeling we will sweep this series and hopefully gain a bit more on those below us. Though I do hate watching us play at Oakland(Even on TV); just a crap stadium lol.

And also I did not see an introduction thread? Sorry if I missed it, but just to introduce myself. Twins fan from NC, teach psychology at a local community college,and became a fan due to going to grad school at the University of Iowa back in 2014 and being able to make several Kernels games(Roommate worked in ticket office there). Being our affiliate just made sense.

Not a big baseball fan until started going to those games, but now bask in everything lol Twins and baseball related. Also a lot of my family are Braves fans, and therefore I somewhat follow them as well but Twins are my number one, hope that won't be an issue lol?

[Dave The Dastardly]

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

Very cool, @Dave The Dastardly, on your book!

And one thing I enjoy is pan fried catfish … yum!

oh, and rhubarb! Rhubarb custard pie is great!

Why do these threads always make me hungry?

Ironically, my wife wants me to have a go at our rhubarb patch today. She has three recipes she uses, one from her mother, one from my mother and one from a former secretary of mine and all three are to die for. Can't wait! She also does a rhubarb pie with meringue that a California business acquaintance of mine, originally from Wells, MN, has actually flown back to Minnesota to sample. Claimed Californios don't know how to make good rhubarb desserts.

Can't say as I have ever tried catfish though.

[CRF]

Congrats on the book Dave! You should be very proud. I will definitely give it a read. As for the game tonight...most of it is going to be past my bed time. I'll watch the first few innings, then the tv is gonna be off and it's lights out. I'm old and broken, and can't do these west coast games anymore. Unfortunately, I'm one of those early to bed, early to rise fossils. Hopefully, we can at least win the series out there. Archer needs to start showing something besides dancing around the mound for 3-4 innings. 

[Dave The Dastardly]

1 minute ago, Drunk_Goose said:

I have a good feeling we will sweep this series and hopefully gain a bit more on those below us. Though I do hate watching us play at Oakland(Even on TV); just a crap stadium lol.

And also I did not see an introduction thread? Sorry if I missed it, but just to introduce myself. Twins fan from NC, teach psychology at a local community college,and became a fan due to going to grad school at the University of Iowa back in 2014 and being able to make several Kernels games(Roommate worked in ticket office there). Being our affiliate just made sense.

Not a big baseball fan until started going to those games, but now bask in everything lol Twins and baseball related. Also a lot of my family are Braves fans, and therefore I somewhat follow them as well but Twins are my number one, hope that won't be an issue lol?

Welcome, but your handle just about gave me a heart attack. I thought I was maybe being called to that Big Dugout in the Sky. I had a brother, nicknamed Goose, who drank a lot. Passed away four years ago. Thought maybe he was summoning me until I read your post. Now I'm headed for the liquor cabinet.

[Squirrel]

13 minutes ago, Drunk_Goose said:

I have a good feeling we will sweep this series and hopefully gain a bit more on those below us. Though I do hate watching us play at Oakland(Even on TV); just a crap stadium lol.

And also I did not see an introduction thread? Sorry if I missed it, but just to introduce myself. Twins fan from NC, teach psychology at a local community college,and became a fan due to going to grad school at the University of Iowa back in 2014 and being able to make several Kernels games(Roommate worked in ticket office there). Being our affiliate just made sense.

Not a big baseball fan until started going to those games, but now bask in everything lol Twins and baseball related. Also a lot of my family are Braves fans, and therefore I somewhat follow them as well but Twins are my number one, hope that won't be an issue lol?

Welcome to TD! We don't have a separate 'get to know you' thread running currently, but this, a game thread, is really the best place to jump in, with both feet! If you have any questions about posting and navigating on the site, just ask me or one of the other community leaders or moderators and we'll help you out.

Oh, and if you want to start a game thread ... we are always looking for eager volunteer! Just hit up @stringer bell ... and he'll get you into the schedule and let you know what's what.

[shortround81]

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

And one thing I enjoy is pan fried catfish … yum!

Apparently the Red River is good for catfish fishing . . . if you can forget the fact it's probably full old meth lab parts and abandoned trucks

[Squirrel]

Just now, shortround81 said:

Apparently the Red River is good for catfish fishing . . . if you can forget the fact it's probably full old meth lab parts and abandoned trucks

yeah ... when ordering it off a menu, I'm usually looking for the adjective 'farm raised' in there somewhere  Catch them too big or too old, not as tasty 

[Squirrel]

2 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

Catfish. Now there’s an ugly fish.

How can you call that ugly? I mean ... I have never seen such a big smile on a fish before as the photo you've posted. I mean ... and only such a beautiful smile could belong to a beautiful creature. It's not ugly.

[Squirrel]

Btw ... lineups are in:

TWINS

1. Byron Buxton (R) CF
2. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B
3. Kyle Garlick (R) DH
4. Gio Urshela (R) 3B
5. Gary Sanchez (R) C
6. Gilberto Celestino (R) RF
7. Jose Miranda (R) 1B
8. Royce Lewis (R) SS
9. Nick Gordon (L) LF

A's

1. Tony Kemp (L) 2B
2. Jed Lowrie (S) DH
3. Ramon Laureano (R) RF
4. Seth Brown (L) 1B
5. Sean Murphy (R) C
6. Elvis Andrus (R) SS
7. Luis Barrera (L) LF
8. Kevin Smith (R) 3B
9. Cristian Pache (R) CF

[mk]

Was Correa eligible to come off the IL today?

[Squirrel]

10 minutes ago, mk said:

Was Correa eligible to come off the IL today?

Not sure if it was today or sometime this week. Garlick was the one activated today, and Contreras sent down, but the reports I read said sometime the week of the 16th.

[Drunk_Goose]

Solid lineup, big fan as always of Gio in the cleanup spot

[Nine of twelve]

2 hours ago, shortround81 said:

Apparently the Red River is good for catfish fishing . . . if you can forget the fact it's probably full old meth lab parts and abandoned trucks

And don't forget agricultural chemicals and other runoff.

[shortround81]

3 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

And don't forget agricultural chemicals and other runoff.

Ya mean POOP?!?

[Vanimal46]

3 hours ago, shortround81 said:

Apparently the Red River is good for catfish fishing . . . if you can forget the fact it's probably full old meth lab parts and abandoned trucks

 

Sounds like a one way ticket to Flavor Town!

[USAFChief]

I'll take "Batted 4th for the Minnesota Twins" for four hundred, Alex.

"This Slugger also played 3rd base."

"Who is Harmon Killebrew?"

 

...

 

"Gary Gaetti."

...

"Cory Koskie. Miguel Sano. ... Mike friggen Pagliarulo."

 

" I'm sorry, we were looking for Gio Urshela."

 

"THIS GAME IS RIGGED!!1!!1"

 

[wsnydes]

Catfish...a face that only a mother could love!

[wsnydes]

5 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Very cool, @Dave The Dastardly, on your book!

And one thing I enjoy is pan fried catfish … yum!

oh, and rhubarb! Rhubarb custard pie is great!

Why do these threads always make me hungry?

Mmmm, rhubarb...

[wsnydes]

3 hours ago, shortround81 said:

Apparently the Red River is good for catfish fishing . . . if you can forget the fact it's probably full old meth lab parts and abandoned trucks

The meth labs and abandoned trucks just give the fish that distinctive Red River flavor though!

[wsnydes]

Now that I've got my snarky replies out of the way (for now), I'd also like to congratulate @Dave The Dastardlyon the book!  That's pretty cool!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

6 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

 

 

Catfish. Now there’s an ugly fish. But they’re fun to catch, at least a neighbor told me that. We were whacking fresh rhubarb out of the patch that straddled our property line, sweating in the sun, throwing lies and fairy tales about so he might’ve been exaggerating a little. I’ve never done that myself.
Anyway, he claimed he once caught a thirty-pound catfish out of the Minnesota River and took most of an hour to relate the complete tale. I wasn’t sure who got the worst of it; me or the catfish. Anyway, fighting the fish so exhausted my neighbor he claimed his arms were about to fall off before he landed the brute. He’s been hooked on the catfish sport ever since. I guess you could say the experience turned him into a catfish hunter.

Speaking of which (notice the smooth transition), Charles Finley, the colorful former owner of the Kansas City Athletics, was also a catfish hunter; in his case “thee” Catfish Hunter.

“Catfish” was born just plain old James Augustus Hunter, before Finley hooked him with a baseball contract. Finley, always a showman, thought the nineteen year-old pitcher needed a flashy nickname that would help sell tickets, so he re-christened his new player “Catfish” and thus the legend began.
Catfish, though he never played for the Minnesota Twins, did have a few Minnesota connections, one rather ignominious for him; his brother shot him in the foot while the boys were hunting; a second connection ignominious for the Twins and the third a Bob Dylan song written in his honor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eql7x6AYTM4

Finley sent the injured young Hunter to Mayo Clinic here in Minnesota to get the foot-shooting damage repaired, but Hunter still lost a toe as a result of the accident. Sort of reminiscent of Hall of Fame pitcher Mordecai “Three Fingers” Brown, twice World Series Champion with the Cubs, so named because he’d lost a finger in a farm accident as a kid. Hunter, however, never became “Nine Toe” Hunter. At least he could thank Finley for that much.

Signed right out of high school, Catfish never played in the minors. He won his first professional game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in 1965 and was named to the American League All Star team in both 1966 and 1967. Not a bad start for a young fella.

Finley moved the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968 and on May 8 of that same year (here it comes), ahem, against the Minnesota Twins, Hunter pitched the 9th perfect game in baseball history. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh inning when Hunter laid down a run-scoring bunt and drove in two more runs with a bases-loaded single in the eighth. Yeah, the “eighth” inning. You know, when today’s pitchers have long been tucked away and wrapped in cotton to to “protect” their arm from falling off.

There are four things I find remarkable about Hunter’s perfect game; one, of course, it was a perfect game; secondly, Hunter had three hits; third, he had three RBI’s; and fourth, he bunted, successfully, a mostly forsaken art in today’s launch angle game.

Despite Hunter’s numerous awards as a pitcher (Cy Young, multiple All Star selections, multiple 20-win seasons, multiple complete games, World Series Championships, Hall of Fame, etc) Catfish is also remembered as being the first free agent in professional baseball. After a $50,000 salary dispute with Finley, Hunter was ruled a free agent and was quickly signed by the Evil Empire for what was then the highest salary in baseball; 5 years for $3.5 million.
That first year with the Yankees Hunter led the league in wins (23) for the second year in a row, innings pitched (328) and complete games (30) but still finished second (to Jim Palmer) for the American League Cy Young Award.

Think about that and compare those numbers to today’s pitchers. You may  then ponder, as I (I’m a professional ponderer), why some of today’s managers (not mentioning any one in particular) fear letting a pitcher throw 100 pitches, or more than five innings in a particular outing, or do 200 innings in a season without breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of his “stud” pitcher throwing a complete game without needing a couple weeks off.
But that was then, this is now.

Fortunately for us, the Athletics no longer have a Catfish Hunter to skunk the Twins, but it is May and the Twins have been known to stink up the occasional stadium, especially when playing a team they should readily beat. Let’s hope instead they’ll cast their bait upon still water tonight and pull in their own Perfect Game, getting a little historical revenge against the A’s. But like most of you I'm fishing for a win of any kind. Let’s just hope it isn’t too ugly, you know, two or three more Twins headed for the IL.

Today’s Pitchers

Twins  Chris Archer   RHP  0-1  ERA 4.43   22 K

Athletics  Zack Logue   LHP  2-1  ERA 1.35  12 K

Line-ups

Not yet posted

 

And by the way, my baseball novel, the one I’ve been working on for 30 years, has finally been published as a Kindle book on Amazon. It’s free for the next five days, one of those book promotion things. You can read it on just about any device if you download the right software from Amazon and of course if you already own a Kindle. So have a go at it. It’s based on the Twins with some “fictional” characters us old-timers might recognize mixed in. Give it a shout out on Amazon if you like it.
Here’s the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Prospect-Dave-Gehrke-ebook/dp/B09YS7GG7N/ref=sr_1_1crid=YBYEF1IIM0TG&keywords=The+Prospect+Dave+Gehrke&qid=1652483919&sprefix=the+prospect+dave+gehrke%2Caps%2C562&sr=8-1

Thanks for sharing your work

[wsnydes]

4 hours ago, Drunk_Goose said:

I have a good feeling we will sweep this series and hopefully gain a bit more on those below us. Though I do hate watching us play at Oakland(Even on TV); just a crap stadium lol.

And also I did not see an introduction thread? Sorry if I missed it, but just to introduce myself. Twins fan from NC, teach psychology at a local community college,and became a fan due to going to grad school at the University of Iowa back in 2014 and being able to make several Kernels games(Roommate worked in ticket office there). Being our affiliate just made sense.

Not a big baseball fan until started going to those games, but now bask in everything lol Twins and baseball related. Also a lot of my family are Braves fans, and therefore I somewhat follow them as well but Twins are my number one, hope that won't be an issue lol?

Aside from the whole Hawkeye thing, the family Braves thing, the fact that it took you so long to get addicted to baseball thing, you seem okay.  Though, I have to imagine the psychology background does more harm than good in a sports context!

I kid, I kid!

Welcome to TD and enjoy the game thread!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

5 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Very cool, @Dave The Dastardly, on your book!

And one thing I enjoy is pan fried catfish … yum!

oh, and rhubarb! Rhubarb custard pie is great!

Why do these threads always make me hungry?

I can’t speak for you, but pretty much everything makes me hungry

[Schmoeman5]

Congratulations to Dave the Dastardly on the book. That's awesome,just getting published is difficult

[David HK]

6 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

I guess you could say the experience turned him into a catfish hunter.

Sweet. That got a chuckle out of me.  I remember having this one: 

[David HK]

6 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

We were whacking fresh rhubarb out of the patch that straddled our property line,

Brings back memories.  I was something of a rhubarb-whacker back in the day, too.

[David HK]

Just checking in before classes- Wow, Dave!  Big congrats on your book!  You actually did what so many of us only muse about doing!  I can't wait to read it! 

And also- Chris Archer starting.  To paraphrase the Great Mae West, it's gonna be something of a bumpy ride.