The Minnesota Twins were 25-25 when Cal Ermer took over as manager on June 9, 1967. They wouldn’t begin their turnaround until late in the month, but a few of the players who were critical to it began playing better soon after Ermer took over.
Jim Kaat began a remarkable stretch of pitching in Ermer’s second game as skipper. Another Twin who turned it around soon after Ermer’s arrival was Tony Oliva, who closed May at .204 and had delivered just one homer and nine RBIs in 28 games heading into June.
Oliva had been playing with an assortment of injuries, including lingering neck pain and headaches from a car accident during the 1966 season. Then he pulled a back muscle on a throw early in the spring, which forced him to miss half of Minnesota’s first 26 games. That injury also lingered, causing him to mostly struggle when he played.
That changed as the calendar shifted to June. Oliva kicked off an eight-game hitting streak on May 30 and was batting .346 with a .990 OPS and 17 RBIs in 13 June contests when the Twins arrived in Cleveland on June 16—50 years ago today.
In the series opener, the Twins’ hottest hitter suffered a scary injury in a 2-1 defeat. In the seventh inning, the right fielder ran deep into the gap in pursuit of Joe Azcue’s drive. Oliva leaped for the ball and crashed hard into the fence. His head struck the metal railing at the top of the wall and punched a hole in the cyclone fence behind the protective tarp. Briefly knocked unconscious, Oliva was carried off on a stretcher by several teammates.
Frank Quilici, who had seen his friend repeatedly play through injuries, was taken aback at seeing Oliva prone and unconscious. Later Quilici, known for giving teammates the business, could not resist giving Oliva a hard time for being carried off the field.
“We had to haul him back from center field on a stretcher and bring him down into the clubhouse,” Quilici recalled. “We had to go down these steps coming to the clubhouse and then up the stairs and into the clubhouse. I says, ‘Tony, if you ever do that again, you’re going to have to lay out in center field!’”
Oliva suffered facial cuts and abrasions, plus two slipped vertebrae, which pinched nerves and caused more neck pain. After Twins trainer George “Doc” Lentz worked the vertebrae back into place, Oliva was hospitalized for precautionary observation.
Remarkably, less than 48 hours after running into the wall—and only a few hours after being released from the hospital—Oliva was called on to pinch-hit by Ermer in the Sunday finale of the Cleveland series. He still had a stiff neck and his vision wasn’t right earlier that day. But after Lentz worked on his neck prior to the first pitch, Oliva was back on the field with the game on the line. He broke open a pitchers’ duel between Kaat and Cleveland’s Sam McDowell with a pinch-hit, bases-loaded double in the eighth off reliever Steve Bailey.
The Twins came away with a 4-2 victory, but not before Sandy Valdespino climbed Municipal Stadium’s left-field wall, reached over the top and robbed Larry Brown of a grand slam to end the eighth. Longtime Tribe general manager Gabe Paul called it the greatest catch he had ever seen at Cleveland’s old park. And it saved the Twins from being swept in Cleveland.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and the wild AL pennant race all summer long, using material from my upcoming book, which I’ve 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.
Jim Kaat began a remarkable stretch of pitching in Ermer’s second game as skipper. Another Twin who turned it around soon after Ermer’s arrival was Tony Oliva, who closed May at .204 and had delivered just one homer and nine RBIs in 28 games heading into June.
Oliva had been playing with an assortment of injuries, including lingering neck pain and headaches from a car accident during the 1966 season. Then he pulled a back muscle on a throw early in the spring, which forced him to miss half of Minnesota’s first 26 games. That injury also lingered, causing him to mostly struggle when he played.
That changed as the calendar shifted to June. Oliva kicked off an eight-game hitting streak on May 30 and was batting .346 with a .990 OPS and 17 RBIs in 13 June contests when the Twins arrived in Cleveland on June 16—50 years ago today.
In the series opener, the Twins’ hottest hitter suffered a scary injury in a 2-1 defeat. In the seventh inning, the right fielder ran deep into the gap in pursuit of Joe Azcue’s drive. Oliva leaped for the ball and crashed hard into the fence. His head struck the metal railing at the top of the wall and punched a hole in the cyclone fence behind the protective tarp. Briefly knocked unconscious, Oliva was carried off on a stretcher by several teammates.
Frank Quilici, who had seen his friend repeatedly play through injuries, was taken aback at seeing Oliva prone and unconscious. Later Quilici, known for giving teammates the business, could not resist giving Oliva a hard time for being carried off the field.
“We had to haul him back from center field on a stretcher and bring him down into the clubhouse,” Quilici recalled. “We had to go down these steps coming to the clubhouse and then up the stairs and into the clubhouse. I says, ‘Tony, if you ever do that again, you’re going to have to lay out in center field!’”
Oliva suffered facial cuts and abrasions, plus two slipped vertebrae, which pinched nerves and caused more neck pain. After Twins trainer George “Doc” Lentz worked the vertebrae back into place, Oliva was hospitalized for precautionary observation.
Remarkably, less than 48 hours after running into the wall—and only a few hours after being released from the hospital—Oliva was called on to pinch-hit by Ermer in the Sunday finale of the Cleveland series. He still had a stiff neck and his vision wasn’t right earlier that day. But after Lentz worked on his neck prior to the first pitch, Oliva was back on the field with the game on the line. He broke open a pitchers’ duel between Kaat and Cleveland’s Sam McDowell with a pinch-hit, bases-loaded double in the eighth off reliever Steve Bailey.
The Twins came away with a 4-2 victory, but not before Sandy Valdespino climbed Municipal Stadium’s left-field wall, reached over the top and robbed Larry Brown of a grand slam to end the eighth. Longtime Tribe general manager Gabe Paul called it the greatest catch he had ever seen at Cleveland’s old park. And it saved the Twins from being swept in Cleveland.
I will post about the 1967 Twins and the wild AL pennant race all summer long, using material from my upcoming book, which I’ve 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.