During the final August weekend in 1967, the American League pennant race took two interesting twists.
After Minnesota’s early-August sweep of the first-place Chicago White Sox at the Met, the Twins had grabbed the top spot in for the first time in 1967. The White Sox had led the league for two months—and the Twins ruled the roost for a week after sweeping the Sox—but first place soon become a game of musical chairs.
Chicago jumped back in front after the Twins lost three of four in a pair of doubleheaders at Tiger Stadium on August 22 and 23, but on August 25, the Twins opened a weekend series by sweeping a twinbill in Cleveland to regain the lead. In Game 2, pitching 50 miles from his home in Wooster, Ohio, Dean Chance tossed the lone no-hitter of his major league career.
An historic performance seemed unlikely early on. Chance walked the first two batters he faced—Lee Maye and Vic Davalillo—and wild-pitched Maye home before the first inning was over. He walked five in the 2-1 victory, secured after Cleveland starter Sonny Siebert balked home the eventual winning run in the sixth inning. Chance finished strong, retiring the last 10 Cleveland batters he faced, seven on infield grounders and two via strikeouts.
Interestingly, Chance’s no-no came less than three weeks after he held Boston hitless on August 6, a rainy Monday night at the Met. The 26-year-old righthander worked five perfect innings before the game was called with the Twins in front 2-0. The teams had sat through a 25-minute rain delay in the fourth inning, but the weather won out an inning later. When the game was called with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Chance called his no-hit effort a “cheapie.”
“I had good stuff, particularly my curveball,” Chance said after the game, “but who can honestly tell whether you’ve got no-hit stuff or not? I doubt I could have thrown a no-hitter.” If anyone was a good judge of whether he had the stuff, Chance was the guy. He had thrown 18 no-hitters in high school, four of them perfect games.
Chance’s gem against Boston, however, doesn’t appear in the record books as a no-hitter. Major League Baseball ruled in 1991 that a hitless start must go at least nine innings to be recognized.
Despite the five walks he allowed in his recognized no-no, Chance, in the Twins clubhouse after the game, said: “I thought I had no-hit stuff.” Jerry Zimmerman, his catcher both nights, said Chance was wild with both his fastball and curveball in the opening frame, but otherwise flashed the no-hit stuff that the catcher said he had seen nearly every time his battery mate took the mound.
On that night, Zimmerman said Chance “was just wild enough to be effective... The ball was really moving.” Nearly 50 years later, Chance joked about the oddity of his outing: “I threw a no-hitter and gave up a run. And the damn run was earned, of all things. Hard to believe!”
The Twins were back in first place—momentarily. They fell to Cleveland the following day, and when the Red Sox roughed up White Sox ace Joe Horlen in a 6-2 victory, they claimed first place. Their lead over the Twins was a mere half-game, but it was a noteworthy day for the Boston franchise. That day, August 26, 1967, marked the first time the Red Sox sat atop the American League standings at day’s end since the final days of the 1949 season.
That fall, the Red Sox held a one-game edge over the New York Yankees when they headed to Yankee Stadium for the final two games of the season. On Saturday, Yankees left fielder Johnny Lindell, an unlikely hero, homered in the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie and secure a New York victory. With the two teams tied atop the standings on Sunday, the Yankees defeated Boston 5-3 to claim the 1949 pennant, the first of 10 in Casey Stengel’s 12 seasons at the helm.
It would be another 18 years—in 1967—before the Red Sox caught a whiff of first place late in a season. After such a long wait, sole possession of first place lasted a single day. The Red Sox and White Sox split a doubleheader on August 27 while Twins lefty Jim Merritt improved to 10-4 with a complete-game effort in Cleveland. The 72-56 Twins now led the league by percentage points over Boston.
Five weeks later, however, the Red Sox were positioned to play the role of the 1949 Yankees. They would return home for the final two games of the season trailing the visiting Twins by a single game with two to play. Those Twins, like the 1949 Red Sox, would need to win just one of the two games to claim the AL pennant.
But with five weeks to go, the 1967 pennant chase was far from over. Down the stretch all four contenders—the Twins, White Sox, Red Sox and Tigers—would hold down the top spot during one of the most dramatic finishes in AL history.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and the wild AL pennant race all summer long, culled from the upcoming and tentatively titled The Glory Years of the Minnesota Twins: Rock ‘n’ Roll, War and Peace, the Civil Rights Movement and Baseball in the 1960s. I also post on my author page on Facebook.
After Minnesota’s early-August sweep of the first-place Chicago White Sox at the Met, the Twins had grabbed the top spot in for the first time in 1967. The White Sox had led the league for two months—and the Twins ruled the roost for a week after sweeping the Sox—but first place soon become a game of musical chairs.
Chicago jumped back in front after the Twins lost three of four in a pair of doubleheaders at Tiger Stadium on August 22 and 23, but on August 25, the Twins opened a weekend series by sweeping a twinbill in Cleveland to regain the lead. In Game 2, pitching 50 miles from his home in Wooster, Ohio, Dean Chance tossed the lone no-hitter of his major league career.
An historic performance seemed unlikely early on. Chance walked the first two batters he faced—Lee Maye and Vic Davalillo—and wild-pitched Maye home before the first inning was over. He walked five in the 2-1 victory, secured after Cleveland starter Sonny Siebert balked home the eventual winning run in the sixth inning. Chance finished strong, retiring the last 10 Cleveland batters he faced, seven on infield grounders and two via strikeouts.
Interestingly, Chance’s no-no came less than three weeks after he held Boston hitless on August 6, a rainy Monday night at the Met. The 26-year-old righthander worked five perfect innings before the game was called with the Twins in front 2-0. The teams had sat through a 25-minute rain delay in the fourth inning, but the weather won out an inning later. When the game was called with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Chance called his no-hit effort a “cheapie.”
“I had good stuff, particularly my curveball,” Chance said after the game, “but who can honestly tell whether you’ve got no-hit stuff or not? I doubt I could have thrown a no-hitter.” If anyone was a good judge of whether he had the stuff, Chance was the guy. He had thrown 18 no-hitters in high school, four of them perfect games.
Chance’s gem against Boston, however, doesn’t appear in the record books as a no-hitter. Major League Baseball ruled in 1991 that a hitless start must go at least nine innings to be recognized.
Despite the five walks he allowed in his recognized no-no, Chance, in the Twins clubhouse after the game, said: “I thought I had no-hit stuff.” Jerry Zimmerman, his catcher both nights, said Chance was wild with both his fastball and curveball in the opening frame, but otherwise flashed the no-hit stuff that the catcher said he had seen nearly every time his battery mate took the mound.
On that night, Zimmerman said Chance “was just wild enough to be effective... The ball was really moving.” Nearly 50 years later, Chance joked about the oddity of his outing: “I threw a no-hitter and gave up a run. And the damn run was earned, of all things. Hard to believe!”
The Twins were back in first place—momentarily. They fell to Cleveland the following day, and when the Red Sox roughed up White Sox ace Joe Horlen in a 6-2 victory, they claimed first place. Their lead over the Twins was a mere half-game, but it was a noteworthy day for the Boston franchise. That day, August 26, 1967, marked the first time the Red Sox sat atop the American League standings at day’s end since the final days of the 1949 season.
That fall, the Red Sox held a one-game edge over the New York Yankees when they headed to Yankee Stadium for the final two games of the season. On Saturday, Yankees left fielder Johnny Lindell, an unlikely hero, homered in the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie and secure a New York victory. With the two teams tied atop the standings on Sunday, the Yankees defeated Boston 5-3 to claim the 1949 pennant, the first of 10 in Casey Stengel’s 12 seasons at the helm.
It would be another 18 years—in 1967—before the Red Sox caught a whiff of first place late in a season. After such a long wait, sole possession of first place lasted a single day. The Red Sox and White Sox split a doubleheader on August 27 while Twins lefty Jim Merritt improved to 10-4 with a complete-game effort in Cleveland. The 72-56 Twins now led the league by percentage points over Boston.
Five weeks later, however, the Red Sox were positioned to play the role of the 1949 Yankees. They would return home for the final two games of the season trailing the visiting Twins by a single game with two to play. Those Twins, like the 1949 Red Sox, would need to win just one of the two games to claim the AL pennant.
But with five weeks to go, the 1967 pennant chase was far from over. Down the stretch all four contenders—the Twins, White Sox, Red Sox and Tigers—would hold down the top spot during one of the most dramatic finishes in AL history.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and the wild AL pennant race all summer long, culled from the upcoming and tentatively titled The Glory Years of the Minnesota Twins: Rock ‘n’ Roll, War and Peace, the Civil Rights Movement and Baseball in the 1960s. I also post on my author page on Facebook.