Paul Molitor doesn’t quite remember the occasion as well as Mike Matheny but the respective managers of the Minnesota Twins and the Cardinals had a moment in spring training of 1992 when Molitor was in his last year with the Milwaukee Brewers and Matheny was in his first Brewers camp as a minor leaguer.
Late in an exhibition game, Matheny recalled, the Brewers were rallying from a large deficit but they were behind enough that manager Phil Garner called for low minor leaguer Matheny to come in from the bullpen and hit for Molitor.
It came down to whether Darryl “Hambone” Hamilton reached base or not.