A little Chevrolet once told me, “They go together in the good old USA, baseball and hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.”

I often hear “as American as apple pie” even though European settlers brought apples to this country in the 17th century. Crabapples are our only native apple.

Apple or no apple, I enjoy baseball. The world slows when I watch a game. It’s simple. It’s complicated. Baseball has arcane rules in which the team without the ball scores.

The best play I’ve seen in baseball happened during a minor league game in Indianapolis. The hometown Indians were playing the visiting Toledo Mud Hens. I sat on the first base line. Not on the chalked foul line. I was in the stands, but barely. A man seated nearby was talking on his cellphone incessantly. A foul ball came our way, just out of my reach. He snagged it with his bare hand, without ever pausing his conversation. The cellphone stayed pressed against his ear as he said, “Oh, I just caught a foul ball. Now about the Wagner deal.”

The Twins were in the 1991 World Series. I’d never been to a World Series game. Four fathers bought four tickets each to the World Series. We drew names to see who’d get to go to which game. I got Game 7. There was a good chance that there would be no Game 7, but there was.

Game 7 featured two fine pitchers. It was a reprise of Game 4, Jack Morris, a native Minnesotan, pitted against Atlanta’s John Smoltz. Morris had won two games in the 1984 World Series for the Detroit Tigers while Smoltz was a Michigan high school senior who idolized Morris. The Braves won Game 4, with neither Morris nor Smoltz getting a decision.

In the eighth inning of Game 7, Atlanta’s Lonnie Smith was on first base with no outs when Terry Pendleton doubled. The Twins’ middle infielders, Greg Gagne and Chuck Knoblauch, attempted to trick Smith by faking a double play. He didn’t fall for it, but lost track of the ball in the Metrodome. We’ve all had leaks in our attics. Smith failed to score.

The Twins won in the 10th inning when pinch-hitter Gene Larkin singled to score Dan Gladden. It was so good, I ran out of adjectives.

Smoltz didn’t lose the game. He was lifted for a reliever in the eighth inning. Rewarded for his 1-0 masterpiece, Morris was named the MVP of the Fall Classic.

The MLB Network ranked it as the second greatest game of the last 50 years. Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, between Boston and Cincinnati, was judged the best. It ended with Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair as he danced down the first-base line at Fenway Park.

A friend claims that the greatest game ever played was on April 11, 1961, when the Twins played their first regular season game. It was at Yankee Stadium with a roster including Bob Allison, Earl Battey, Lenny Green, Jim Kaat, Harmon Killebrew, Jack Kralick, Jim Lemon, Billy Martin, Don Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Bill Tuttle and Zoilo Versalles. Killebrew collected the first hit (a single) in Twins history. Harmon received the princely sum of $30,000 as a salary. Twins pitcher Pedro Ramos and Whitey Ford locked in a scoreless duel until Allison hit a home run in the seventh inning, the first in Twins history. Reno Bertoia added a two-run homer off Ralph Terry in the eighth. The Twins won 6-0 behind a complete game, three-hit shutout by Ramos versus the eventual 1961 World Series champs. Ramos held Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to one hit among them. Maris set a home run record with 61 that year. Killebrew finished with 46 round trippers. The Twins had a 5-1 record before their first home game at Met Stadium. They lost that game to the Washington Senators and finished their inaugural season with a 70-90 record and in seventh place (out of 10 teams) in the America League.

The Twins have been good and bad since. I enjoy watching them. Joe Mauer is a fine player. I think he should be teaching first grade to justify his salary, but that’s true of many pro athletes. Who has a bigger impact on our lives — a teacher or a first baseman?

I don’t watch as many Twins’ games as I did, but I attend every K-12 event that I’m able to.

We all need someone to cheer for and someone to cheer for us.

 

Al Batt’s columns appear in the Tribune every Wednesday and Sunday.