And So Ends August

On New Year’s Eve, with his game-ending catch of a soft pop-up off the bat of Twins batter Willie Norwood, Tigers shortstop Mark Wagner brought SP78’s month of August to a close, exactly nine years and five months after the Cardinals and Cubs opened the month back in 2014.

Now, it’s time for several months of preparations for September, the final full month of the SP78 regular season. The first item on my long list of stat work is to finalize each team’s August and current season statistics, which I was able to get a head start on when a handful of NL teams closed out their August schedules one day early, on the 30th. The stats for those teams—the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Astros, Mets, Phillies, and Giants—are now complete (save for rankings, league leaders, and monthly awards), and can be checked out under the ‘Statistics’ heading on the main page.

Also, for the first time, I’ll be compiling season stats into an Excel spreadsheet (a July sample can be seen above), which will not only allow me to track a few new stat categories, such as plate appearances, slugging percentage, pinch-hitter batting average, and catcher caught stealing percentage, but to also post current league leaders to the blog site on a day-by-day basis, instead of week-by-week.

A few other items on my list of chores include: prepping the blank team pages for September for both my laptop and blog site, creating 25-man post-season rosters, calling up minor league players for the 40-man roster expansion on September 1st, updating lineups and pitching rotations for each team, creating a ‘Current Injuries’ box for each team’s stat page, and adding 75-100 new header photos to the top of the blog’s main page.

And what will September bring? A schedule that will see 352 games played, pennant battles involving ten teams over three divisions, more than 75 first-time SP78 player call-ups from AAA (including Ron Oester, Jim Fregosi, and former Padres legend Tito Fuentes), a record-shattering 97th stolen base from Julio Cruz, the possibility of a 500th career home run from Willie McCovey, and finally, the last game of the regular season, between the Rangers and Mariners at the Kingdome in Seattle, which will likely be played about ten years from now.

But in the meantime, over the next month or so, watch for the next edition of TWISP Notes, some new site histories (first up: a look back at a one-shot location from 1987), and the initial wave of September team reports, which will lead off with an inside look at the Atlanta Braves.

Tigers to Call Up Kimm for Pennant Run

With only two full-time catchers on their current roster, the Detroit Tigers will call up backstop Bruce Kimm from their AAA affiliate in Evansville on September 1st, when team roster limits expand to 40 players. Kimm will serve as backup to catchers Milt May and Lance Parrish, and he’ll once again be the personal catcher to Mark Fidrych, a role he filled during Fidrych’s rookie season of 1976.

During the actual 1978 campaign, Kimm spent the entire year with the Evansville Triplets of the American Association, batting .242 with eight home runs and 49 RBI in 127 games, without once being called up to the parent club. But with the SP78 Tigers now in the midst of an AL East pennant race, and the chance of a post-season appearance a serious possibility, manager Ralph Houk is looking to Kimm as an emergency backstop, in case either May or Parrish are forced from a game with injuries.

“I’m not taking any chances,” said Houk. “Bruce will get some playing time in September, especially when the Bird pitches, and if we do make the post-season, he’ll be ready to fill in whenever I might need him.”

Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Stanfield to Get Call-Up by Twins for Stretch Drive

Toledo Mud Hens hurler Kevin Stanfield, who impressed Twins management by no-hitting the parent club for six innings during an SP78 exhibition contest on August 28th, will be called up by the Twins when major league rosters expand to forty players on September 1st. Stanfield, a left-hander who began his career in the Appalachian League in 1976, started 19 games for AAA Toledo in 1978, finishing the International League season with a 7-6 won-lost mark and a 3.48 ERA.

In the shortened exhibition match-up, played at the Lucas County Rec Center in Toledo, he started and shut down the Twins for the full seven innings, allowing no runs and just one hit—a single by Roy Smalley with two out in the seventh—before departing with the score deadlocked 0-0. The Mud Hens would eventually win the game 1-0, thanks to an RBI single by future Twins manager Tom Kelly in the last of the eighth.

This will be Stanfield’s first stint in the majors, though in reality his big league debut came one year later, in 1979, when he appeared in three games for Minnesota—all in relief—after the September call-up. He pitched a total of three innings, allowing two hits and two earned runs in the third game, and never again pitched in the major leagues; arm troubles forced him to retire in 1982.

Stanfield, a PB 2-6 with a 26-37 strikeout range, will report to the Twins on September 2nd, two days before the IL season concludes. He’s slated to make his first start for Minnesota on September 6th, against the White Sox in front of what should turn out to be a spirited home crowd at Metropolitan Stadium.