Ermer Confident Of Twins' Pennant
CHATTANOOGA, TN (UPI) - Minnesota Manager Cal Ermer is looking ahead with great enthusiasm.
His Twins begin reporting next month to Orlando, Fla. for spring training and the start of the 1968 baseball campaign, which Ermer believes will see the American League pennant moved back to Bloomington, Minn.
Ermer, married to a former Miss Tennessee from Chattanooga, Gloria Williams, has been spending the winter here mapping his 1968 pennant plans. "It will be another good race this year. There won't be a pushover in the league," the Twins' manager said. "The Red Sox have improved themselves. Chicago, Detroit, all of the ones in it last year will be improved. The Baltimore club will be back in it and Cleveland will be tough."
Ermer, 44, a lanky 6-footer with prematurely gray hair, could pass for a distinguished business executive. But opposing managers know the former Marine Drill Sergeant is a scrapper in uniform, rarely without a big cigar or a man-sized chew of tobacco in his jaw.
He took over the helm of the sixth-place Twins from Sam Mele six months ago, after the club had slipped in the American League race.
Mele had been the toast of baseball two years before, leading the Twins to the pennant. The club was a preseason favorite but floundered in 1966, and was floundering again when Ermer took over.
Like Walter Alston of the Dodgers, Ermer never made the grade as a big-league player. His managing experience consisted of 15 years at the helm of minor-league clubs. But under his hand the Twins shook their slump and fought down to the wire, losing the pennant to the Red Sox on the final day of the season.
"Barring injuries, this year we'll be in it all the way," Ermer said. "I've been quite busy, looking at young players and getting ready for spring training and, of course, made that trip to Mexico."
The Twins are counting on half a dozen young players, including Jackie Hernandez, who played most of last season at Denver, moving to Minnesota near the close of the pennant race. "We feel Hernandez is a major-league ready shortstop," Ermer said.
The trip to Mexico was for the annual baseball convention, where Ermer and Twins swung a five-man deal with Los Angeles that the Minnesota boss feels is icing on the cake.
The Twins acquired catcher John Roseboro, lefthanded reliever Ron Perranoski and righthander Bob Miller from the Dodgers for shortstop Zoilo Versalles and pitcher Jim (Mudcat) Grant. Ermer figures Hernandez can replace Versalles and the Minnesota manager never hit it off with Grant.
"Roseboro's great," Ermer said. "We feel we picked up a fine reliever in Perranoski and we look for Miller to be the big surprise of the deal. He has one of the best arms in baseball and he could really be a sleeper."
JACKIE HERNANDEZ, TWINS SHORTSTOP