The four-way tie atop the American League on September 7 lasted all of one day, though that day was the first of five straight that the Twins held a share of first place with either the Detroit Tigers or Boston Red Sox.
The Twins were in a stretch of defeating the World Series champion Orioles four times in five games in Baltimore. A year earlier, the Orioles were closing in on the AL pennant, but the Twins dropped them 16 games below .500 in a series that could have been dubbed “The Tony Oliva Show.”
Oliva delivered 15 hits in 21 at-bats, including five doubles and a triple. He also drew three walks to reach base 18 times in five games, and in one stretch collected a team-record nine consecutive hits—a mark matched by Mickey Hatcher in 1985 and Todd Walker in 1998.
"Guys like Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer, who pitched against him, still remember that and talk about that series,” Killebrew said of Oliva’s performance in a 2009 interview. “It was just a once-in-a-lifetime series.”
Tony O wasn’t the only show in town. On Saturday, September 9, after Oliva went 2-for-3 in Jim Kaat’s 3-2 complete-game victory over the O’s, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” debuted on NBC as a one-time special.
NBC had approached comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin about doing a variety show, but they resisted the standard format and finally agreed on a one-time show. When critics loved it, NBC reluctantly agreed to make it a midseason replacement for “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” in early 1968. Within a year “Laugh-In” became the top-rated show on television.
The vaudevillian romp featured a rapid-fire string of short comedy bits, punch lines and sight gags. Lily Tomlin played the squinty, sarcastic telephone operator with the nasal voice. Goldie Hawn gave us a regular dose of the dumb blonde.
When Arte Johnson wasn’t taking a purse-beating as the trenchcoat-wearing dirty old man who asked suggestive questions of spinster Ruth Buzzi, he was playing Wolfgang the smoking German soldier, still at war and spying on the goings-on on “Laugh-In” from a bush. With his German accent, he would weigh in on a just-completed segment, often concluding, “Very interesting. . . but stupid.”
“Very interesting” was among the many catchphrases popularized by the show. “Sock it to me!” was another, and in 1968, presidential candidate Richard Nixon, wanting to look hip to young voters, uttered those words to a national audience. It took six takes to get those four words right, according to “Laugh-In” producer George Schlatter, because Nixon, who wasn’t really sold on the five-second television appearance, came off irritated and angry.
That one-and-done show on September 9 made quite an impact. Meanwhile, the following day, Oliva was back at it, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs in a 4-2 win behind Baltimore native Dave Boswell. The victory pushed the 82-62 Twins to 20 games over .500 for the first time all season. It also gave them a half-game lead over the Red Sox, who defeated the New York Yankees three times in four tries that weekend.
That slight edge wouldn’t hold. In all, the Twins shared first place in eight of 10 days from September 9-15, a sign that this race wasn’t over by a longshot.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and their wild AL pennant race down to the final days of the season, culling stories 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.
The Twins were in a stretch of defeating the World Series champion Orioles four times in five games in Baltimore. A year earlier, the Orioles were closing in on the AL pennant, but the Twins dropped them 16 games below .500 in a series that could have been dubbed “The Tony Oliva Show.”
Oliva delivered 15 hits in 21 at-bats, including five doubles and a triple. He also drew three walks to reach base 18 times in five games, and in one stretch collected a team-record nine consecutive hits—a mark matched by Mickey Hatcher in 1985 and Todd Walker in 1998.
"Guys like Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer, who pitched against him, still remember that and talk about that series,” Killebrew said of Oliva’s performance in a 2009 interview. “It was just a once-in-a-lifetime series.”
Tony O wasn’t the only show in town. On Saturday, September 9, after Oliva went 2-for-3 in Jim Kaat’s 3-2 complete-game victory over the O’s, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” debuted on NBC as a one-time special.
NBC had approached comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin about doing a variety show, but they resisted the standard format and finally agreed on a one-time show. When critics loved it, NBC reluctantly agreed to make it a midseason replacement for “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” in early 1968. Within a year “Laugh-In” became the top-rated show on television.
The vaudevillian romp featured a rapid-fire string of short comedy bits, punch lines and sight gags. Lily Tomlin played the squinty, sarcastic telephone operator with the nasal voice. Goldie Hawn gave us a regular dose of the dumb blonde.
When Arte Johnson wasn’t taking a purse-beating as the trenchcoat-wearing dirty old man who asked suggestive questions of spinster Ruth Buzzi, he was playing Wolfgang the smoking German soldier, still at war and spying on the goings-on on “Laugh-In” from a bush. With his German accent, he would weigh in on a just-completed segment, often concluding, “Very interesting. . . but stupid.”
“Very interesting” was among the many catchphrases popularized by the show. “Sock it to me!” was another, and in 1968, presidential candidate Richard Nixon, wanting to look hip to young voters, uttered those words to a national audience. It took six takes to get those four words right, according to “Laugh-In” producer George Schlatter, because Nixon, who wasn’t really sold on the five-second television appearance, came off irritated and angry.
That one-and-done show on September 9 made quite an impact. Meanwhile, the following day, Oliva was back at it, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs in a 4-2 win behind Baltimore native Dave Boswell. The victory pushed the 82-62 Twins to 20 games over .500 for the first time all season. It also gave them a half-game lead over the Red Sox, who defeated the New York Yankees three times in four tries that weekend.
That slight edge wouldn’t hold. In all, the Twins shared first place in eight of 10 days from September 9-15, a sign that this race wasn’t over by a longshot.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and their wild AL pennant race down to the final days of the season, culling stories 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.