The name Minnie Minoso brings back memories because of a game played on June 10, 1959. I can remember the date because it was a game in which Indian Rocky Colavito hit 4 homeruns.
Growing up in Baltimore and a big O's fan, my dad told me we were moving to Florida that fall. It didn't come as a big shock because every summer we took our vacation to Florida. We made our last trip to see an Orioles game that June 10, 1959 against the Cleveland Indians. We sat in the left field bleachers at old Memorial Stadium, the Orioles home from 1954 until Camden Yards opened in 1992.
The whole game our section razed leftfielder Minnie Minoso. He never gave anybody any notice no matter how loud the chants and crowd got. Rocky Colavito was having a career day with 4 home runs. Infielder Billy Martin of the Indians got thrown out for arguing with the home plate umpire.
With all the runs being scored by both teams, final score was Indians winners 11-8, Minnie got up late in the game and socked a homerun in our direction. The next time he took leftfield we all started razing him again, and somebody said where did you get all the power from. Minnie finally turned around to the leftfield fans, and flexed his left arm and pointed to his muscle. I never forgot that day at Memorial Stadium with my late father.
You can see the Indians had quite a lineup that day with the likes of Vic Power, Tito Francona, Rocky Colavito, Minnie Minoso and Billy Martin.
Cleveland Indians
Name Pos AB R H RBI
Woodie Held ss 5 1 1 0
Vic Power 1b 4 1 0 0
Tito Francona cf 5 2 2 1
Rocky Colavito rf 4 5 4 6
Minnie Minoso lf 5 1 3 3
Willie Jones 3b 3 0 0 0
George Stickland 3b 2 0 1 0
Dick Brown c 4 0 1 0
Billy Martin 2b 3 1 1 1
a-Ray Webster ph 1 0 0 0
Gary Bell p 3 0 0 0
Mike Garcia p 1 0 0 0
Totals 40 11 13 11
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