The Twins were in Fenway Park for a Friday night game on Aug. 2, 1996. They were trailing 7-5 entering the eighth inning and were in the midst of a rally.
Paul Molitor walked on a wild pitch. He took a hard turn at first base as Boston catcher Mike Stanley retrieved the ball at the backstop screen.
"I thought the play there was to go for second and force Stanley to make that long throw," Molitor said. "If I had done that and Stanley had thrown, Rich Becker could have walked home from third. But there was only one out. If anything bad happened with me going to second, I didn't want to take us out of the inning."
Molitor's decision to stay at first proved astute, as the Twins rallied for five runs. Later, Dan Naulty coughed up the lead in the bottom of the ninth, but that's another issue.
The point is, Molitor always has been given credit for having fantastic instincts for the game — particularly running the bases. Yet, what was on display on that long-ago night in Boston was more awareness than a natural gift.
"You don't have to have good speed to be a good baserunner," Molitor said then. "The most important thing is to run through the possibilities in your mind beforehand. What's the game situation … the outs, the score, the pitcher? Is it a lefthanded-throwing center fielder or righthanded?
"You have to be aware of those things when you're deciding to be aggressive."
A year later, Molitor was in his second season with the Twins, and the team's decline had become more precipitous. That had no impact on the awareness that Molitor, closing in on his 41st birthday, brought to his game.
