Jim Lonborg and the Twins celebrate a win on the final day of the 1967 season to win the pennant
Photo / Brearley - Getty Images North America
The 1967 American League Pennant race was one of the most exciting finishes in the history of baseball.
For Boston Red Sox fans.
Two years removed from their Game 7 loss to the Dodgers in 1965, Harmon Killebrew and the Twins were looking to return to the World Series. They finished 9 games behind the eventual World Series champion Baltimore Orioles in 1966.
There were no divisions in the 1960s; just two leagues with the winner of each league facing off in the World Series.
There were a couple new faces poised to make an impact for the Twins in 1967: the Twins traded Pete Cimino, Jimmie Hall and Don Mincher to the Angels for 20-game winner Dean Chance. They also added reliever Ron Kline in exchange for Camilo Pascual and Bernie Allen.
But most notable addition to the big league roster was the unveiling of a lanky second baseman from Panama named Rod Carew.
The 1967 season got off to a rough start for the Twins. They were 5-10 at the end of April, and 20-22 at the end of May. The rough start cost manager Sam Mele his job as owner Calvin Griffith sought a fresh look to the team. He promoted longtime minor league manager Carl Ermer to the skipper of the big league club. Under Ermer's direction, the Twins won 66 of the last 112 games of the season to jump back into a four-team pennant race.
Ermer's Twins went 66-46 after taking over
the Twins in June 1967
Surprisingly, one of teams was not the 97-win Orioles from 1966. The defending champs only won 76 games in '67, opening the door for the AL Pennant to fly in a new stadium.
On September 6th, four teams were tied atop the American League standings. While Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals were running away with the NL Pennant, the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Twins were fighting for the chance to head Busch Stadium for a World Series matchup with the Cards.
The White Sox hadn't won a World Series since 1917. Boston hadn't won since 1918. Detroit hadn't been champions since 1945. And though they had appeared in the World Series in 1965, the Twins hadn't won one since they were the Washington Senators in 1924. (Between 1919 and 1966, the New York Yankees won 29 AL Pennants and 20 championships...)
The race stayed tight the entire month. After being swept in a three-game series by the White Sox in the middle of September, the Twins won six of their next seven games to take a half game lead into the final five games of the year.
But the team to shake up the standings during the last week of the season wasn't even in the race. It was the California Angels.
The Angels, who would finish 5th in the American League, took two of three games from the Twins in the second-to-last series of the year. The Twins weren't able to take advantage of Boston losing back-to-back games in Cleveland. Despite that, the Twins were still held a one game lead in the standings over both Boston and Detroit with two games left.
Detroit played back-to-back double headers with the California Angels. The Twins headed to Boston with the pennant on the line.
Only needing one win to take the AL Pennant and return to the World Series, the Twins took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a Tony Oliva RBI single that scored Zoilo Versalles. Twins starter Jim Kaat was unhittable the first two innings of the game. Kaat was 7-0 with a 1.51 ERA in September, and looked set to send Minnesota back to the Fall Classic. But, after striking out Jose Santiago to start the third inning, Kaat felt a searing pain in his pitching elbow. He had to be taken out of the game, and was replaced by Jim Perry. Perry would retire the side, then continue in Kaat's place.
Still 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Perry allowed a lead off double to Reggie Smith. He then fanned Santiago and Mike Andrews before giving up back-to-back run-scoring singles to Jerry Adair and Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski, giving Boston a 2-1 lead.
The Twins tied the game at two in the top of the sixth on a Rich Reese single. the Twins had runners on second and third with two outs before Santiago got Zoilo Versalles to pop out and end the Twins threat.
In the sixth, the Twins turned to Ron Kline, who was 7-0 in 54 relief appearances on the season. Kline made one bad pitch during his relief appearance. On a 2-2 pitch to the first batter he faced, George Scott hit a home run for a 3-2 Boston lead. Kline would settle down and retire five of the next batters he faced.
In the seventh, Kline gave up a one-out single to Mike Andrews. After Adair reached on an error by Versalles, Ermer lifted Kline in favor of starter Jim Merritt. Merrit was 13-7 with a 2.53 ERA for the Twins that season.
The first batter he faced, Yastrzemski, hit a three run home run on a full count to give the Red Sox a 6-2 lead.
The Twins mounted a small comeback in the ninth with a two-run Harmon Killebrew home run, but the Twins lost 6-4 to move into a tie for first place with Boston and a potential winner-take-all game the next night.
Meanwhile, Detroit split the first double header with California to move half a game back.
Detroit would have to sweep the second doubleheader to force a one-game playoff for the World Series berth. California took care of those dreams with a win in the first game.
That left the Twins and Red Sox for a virtual playoff game for the pennant.
The Twins sent 20 game winner Dean Chance to the mound, while Boston countered with eventual Cy Young Award winner Jim Lonborg.
Again, the Twins scored in the top of the first. They added an insurance run in the third to take a 2-0 lead. But everything fell apart in the sixth when five Boston runs crossed the plate. The Twins added another run in the eighth, but the Twins fell short of returning to the World Series by a final score of 5-3.
The Cardinals would win the World Series in seven games.
The Twins were never more than one game out of first the last month of the season, and had at least a share of first place 26 days in September.
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