Jim Manning, youngest Twins pitcher to start a game, saw career end in a blink

Bert Blyleven made his first start on June 5, 1970, at the age of 19 years, 60 days, placing him second on the Twins' youngest starter list. He would have an official total of 685 big-league starts, plus six more in the postseason, in a Hall of Fame career that ended in 1992.

Jim Manning is No. 1 on the youngest list, having made a start on April 28, 1962, at the age of 18 years, 281 days. The start was Manning's fourth appearance and he would make one more major league appearance in relief.

Blyleven's big-league career ended on Oct. 4, 1992, at 41 years, 181 days. Manning's ended on May 2, 1962, at 18 years, 285 days.

Manning's pitching line in his lone big-league start at Cleveland was 2⅓ innings, seven hits, six runs, four earned. He took a 3-2 lead into the third and second baseman Jim Snyder's error assisted a four-run rally.

The Twins signed Manning out of a 1961 summer tryout camp. He was a 17-year-old from Ewen High School in Trout Creek, a hamlet of 325 on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Manning died at 76 on Jan. 1 of this year in his longtime home of Asheville, N.C., but he remains revered as among the greatest high school basketball players in Upper Peninsula history. The 6-1 Manning was renowned as both a leaper and long-range shooter. He scored 2,147 points in four seasons.

There are bios that had Manning pointed to Wisconsin to play basketball, although Minneapolis newspaper versions suggested he could have been headed to the Gophers to play two sports.

There was no baseball draft in 1961 when the Twins signed Manning. He made 12 appearances for the rookie team in Wytheville, N.C., then an impressive big-league camp with the pitching-desperate Twins and, presto, he was in Kansas City on April 10 to open the season against the Athletics.

A month later, the headline read, "Youngest player in majors optioned to Class A." Manning peaked at Class AA after that.

PLUS THREE

• Manning's teammates at Wytheville in 1961 included Tony Oliva, who made an impression by hitting .410.

• Oliva was the center fielder in Charlotte in June 1962, when Manning – "using his curveball with frequency, then switching to a fastball and mixing in a screwball'' – posted a Sally League shutout of Knoxville.

• The Minneapolis Tribune offered this "chorus'' from Gophers coaches Dick Siebert (baseball) and John Kundla (basketball): "We had good reports on Manning." Stop the presses!

Write to Patrick Reusse by e-mailing sports@startribune.com and including his name in the subject line.