1987 revisited

Even though I was only two years old at the time, I look back on the 1987 World Series blissfully. It isn't often that your team gets to be the lucky bastards who somehow win when they aren't supposed to do so. I'm sure you've heard before that this team was the only team to ever win the World Series after scoring less runs than they allowed during the regular season, which becomes more amazing the more you think about it. Today I'm going to look back on that 1987 team and do a brief recap of what MLB looked like in the year of the Twins' first World Championship.

ultimately, the Twins went 85-77, a pedestrian record for a division winner, despite being outscored 806-786 for the year, a run differential that predicts a 79-83 record. Only Kansas City joined them above .500, led to an 83-79 record by Bret Saberhagen, Danny Tartabull, Kevin Seitzer and an aging George Brett at first base. Current Twins' pitching coach Rick Anderson pitched in 6 games for those Royals and put up a 13.85 ERA using skills that he would later pass on to Bob Wells and Joe Mays.

Judging by award voting, many people saw the Twins for the fluke that they were even at the time, with Kirby finishing 3rd in MVP voting, but nobody else finishing higher than 6th on any ballot (Viola, Cy Young). Kirby had one of his best years, leading the team in VORP with a 62.1 figure and putting up a .332/.367/.534 line with 28 homeruns, but adding a career worst 95 Rate2 in CF. The poor defense didn't stop Kirby from winning a Gold Glove, an honor also bestowed on Gary Gaetti, joined Kirby on enough MVP ballots to finish tenth in the voting. Gaetti's strong showing came in spite of just edging out Greg Gagne with a 23.6 VORP and a miserable .303 OBP. Gaetti redeemed himself in the playoffs, though, by going 6-20 with 3 XBHs and 6 RBI in the 5 game romp over heavily favored Detroit.

Kent Hrbek had an excellent season, going .285/.389/.545 with 34 HRs to lead the team, and Tom Brunansky was solid in RF, checking in with 32 HRs and a team 3rd best 30.1 VORP. But the rest of the lineup featured only one player with an OBP above .315 (DH Roy Smalley at .352), and nobody with enough power to make up for the BB totals in the 20s and 30s. Al Newman managed 349 PAs as a utilityman, but didn't deserve them considering his sub-replacement level .221/.292/.303 line. The catching situation was particularly horrible. I remember watching the Sports Illustrated commemorative video of the World Series and wondering how they won with a starting catcher who hit .191. I still don't understand, but when the other options hit .200 and .171 (Tom Nieto and Sal Butera, respectively) I guess I'd also go with the one who was closest to replacement level. Amazingly, Tim Laudner stuck with the team for 9 years despite hitting with a feather bat, and his defense was never even above average.

One would think that the Twins would need a remarkable pitching staff to make up for half of a lineup full of minor league talent, but the pitching staff was just as top heavy as the lineup. Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven led the way with VORPs of 80.1 and 49.7, and Les Straker clocked in as a solid no. 3 starter with a 26.0 VORP, but it got pretty thin from there. Mike Smithson got 20 starts, but had a 5.97 ERA and walked nearly as many as he struck out (38 and 53). The 42 year old scattered remains of Joe Niekro also showed up to 18 starts, accumulating a 6.26 ERA in 96 1/3 IP. They even tried the pitcher formerly known as Steve Carlton for 7 starts, but he was even worse than Niekro. Juan Berenguer, one of those overweight pitchers who always look scary because he's sweating from his warmup, chalked up 110 Ks in 112 IP as the functional relief ace. Keith Atherton and George Frazier also saw a handful of high leverage innings, but did little to distinguish themselves. Jeff Reardon tallied 31 saves and an 8-8 record in the early days of the one inning closer, and somehow finished 11th in the MVP balloting and 8th in the Cy Young despite a 4.46 ERA. Both Reardon and Berenguer were late offseason acquisitions who helped stabilize a shaky starting rotation by anchoring the bullpen.

Other offseason moves included trading for minor leaguers Al Newman and Ron Gardenhire in separate deals, and sending two minor leaguers who would never break through to the Giants for Dan Gladden. Sadly, all three of these men have probably contributed more to the team after retiring than they did as players. In season they traded for an aging Don Baylor from Boston who was punchless in the regular season, but provided much needed on-base skills, and a dramatic WS homer.

The ALCS was perhaps the most surprising part of the whole season, as they dominated Sparky Anderson's heavily favored Tigers 4-1 after mustering only 4 wins in 12 regular season meetings. The Twins came into game one having lost 7 of their last 9 and slated to face Doyle Alexander who had posted a 9-0 record with a 1.59 ERA in 11 starts since coming to Detroit in a midseason trade. Alan Trammell had just finished an MVP runner-up season, and the Tigers' lineup also featured big years by Matt Nokes, Lou Whittaker, Darrell Evans and Kirk Gibson. Walt Terrell, Jack Morris and Frank Tanana all won 15 or more games for the Tigers en route to a 98 win season.

But that's why they play 'em, as the Twins rattled Alexander and gave him his first Detroit loss, 8-5 behind two HRs by Gary Gaetti. The Twins won game two with Bert Blyleven on the mound before losing Les Straker's start in Detroit. But with Viola and Blyleven back for games 4 and 5, the Twins wrapped up the AL pennant before going back home, beating Alexander again in game 5. As I mentioned earlier, Gaetti won series MVP, but Tom Brunansky made an even stronger case with 6 of his 7 hits going for extra bases, 9 RBI and 4 BBs for a .412/.524/1.000 line.

In the Metrodome's first World Series, the announcers spared no effort in talking about the effects of the stadium, which shouldn't have been that large, but actually resulted in the home team winning every game, just like in 1991. Cards' manager Whitey Herzog had built a team that he liked: lots of good defense and speed, but players who played smart. Herzog had to contend with injuries in the postseason, but got his team past the Giants into a World Series against a team he didn't think belonged there. But Minnesota came out with an offensive barrage, plating 18 through the first two games before going silent with only 5 total runs in losses from games 3-5. A return to the dome saw a return of the offense, with an 11-5 victory in which they scored 9 runs in the final 4 innings. Viola got behind 2-0 in the 2nd in game 7, but they came back for a 4-2 victory closed out by Jeff Reardon for their first World Championship.

So that's how it happened. I thought today would be a good day for a story about a light hitting team with top-heavy pitching came out of nowhere to win the World Series, but, unfortunately, 85 wins probably won't get this team a shot at the playoffs.